WEBVTT 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:10.560 As we continue our time of worship, I encourage you to turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 20. 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:14.480 I will be reading verses 41 through 47. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:21.600 And if you happen to have uh forgotten your Bible this morning, there should be one located there in front of you. 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:28.399 And you can find it on page 880 in the Bible there on the shelf right in front of you. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:36.799 If you happen to not own a Bible, I want to encourage you at the end of the service to take that Bible home with you as our gift. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:44.240 We have the great privilege of being able to give away dozens and dozens of Bibles, and we would love for you to have that. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:51.439 And so at the end of the service, if you don't own a Bible or have ready access, please take that home as our gift to you. 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.079 Luke chapter 20, beginning in verse 41. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:02.799 But he said to them, How can they say that the Christ is David's son? 00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:12.799 For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:17.680 David thus called him Lord, so how is he his son? 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:37.519 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, and the best seats in the synagogues, and the place of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:41.120 They will receive the greater condemnation. 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:43.439 This is God's word. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:02:01.840 I bought these flexible titanium virtually indestructible glasses, and they broke this week. 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:10.319 And I I wish I had a cool story, but honestly, I was putting them on my face and I pulled them apart and they snapped in half. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:13.840 And I thought, boy, I have a fat head. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:19.280 And the problem is, is I can't see very well. 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:27.520 And uh I have my contacts in, but I but I still I can't see up close very well, so if I if I start rambling, it's probably not in my notes. 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:32.080 I but it but everything when I without contacts, everything is blurry. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:34.560 Uh I can't see at a distance at all. 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:37.759 Uh uh I don't recognize others at a distance. 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:41.199 I they just uh the further out you are, the better you look. 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:41.759 No. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:47.120 Um I I mean I can't even see myself in a mirror very well without my glasses on. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:49.680 I'm I'm leaning in forward to try to see. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:59.759 And uh I went to the ophthalmologist, um, have been going for years now, but just in recent years, uh he told me that eventually I will go blind. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:05.759 It'll uh he says it's gonna take about 50 years from now uh before it happens. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.639 Um but I'll be completely blind. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:16.479 I won't be able to read, I won't be able to recognize others, I won't even be able to see myself. 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:22.400 But you see, the same thing is true when we have spiritual blindness. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:26.319 It's very similar in a lot of ways. 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:43.439 The religious leaders of Jesus' day were spiritually blind, they couldn't see Scripture, they couldn't read and understand Scripture, they couldn't see who Jesus was, they couldn't even see themselves. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:47.680 And that's the nature of spiritual blindness. 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:52.800 In pride and hardness of heart, they're attacking Jesus. 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:56.080 We've seen this over and over again throughout the gospel. 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:01.520 They want to trap him, they want to discredit him, and ultimately they want to kill him. 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:12.000 Jesus answered them in a parallel account to this in Matthew's gospel, he tells them that they don't know Scripture or the power of God. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:18.160 They don't know God's word, they don't recognize Jesus, they don't see themselves. 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:22.000 They were blind, but they thought they could see. 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:25.839 In fact, John's gospel records this interchange in John chapter 9. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:35.120 Jesus says to them, they say, We're not blind, and Jesus says, if you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now that you say we see, your guilt remains. 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:41.680 They were so blind that they couldn't see, that they couldn't see. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:46.800 They couldn't recognize the reality of their own sin. 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:54.000 They couldn't see their own lostness, they couldn't recognize the problem at the very core of their heart. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:56.160 They couldn't see Jesus. 00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:58.560 They were blind. 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:02.959 Pride underlies spiritual blindness. 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:07.279 Pride causes us to see what we want to see when we come to God's word. 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:12.319 In pride, we put ourselves above God's word as its judge. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:24.399 And we decide what we want to believe and not believe, what we want to accept and not accept, what we want to put into practice and not put into practice, and pride causes spiritual blindness we can't see Scripture. 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:30.079 Pride blinds us to the reality of Jesus, of seeing who He is. 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:33.600 We're unwilling to admit we need a Savior. 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:45.279 We're unwilling to admit that we're lost and that we need rescuing because pride causes us not to see our own sin, our own shortcomings. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:50.879 Pride causes us to not acknowledge how messed up and desperate we really are. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:55.199 Pride underlies spiritual blindness. 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:59.600 We'll see this with the Pharisees, with the Sadducees, with the scribes. 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:02.000 Perhaps we'll see it in ourselves. 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:08.800 The cure for pride is humility, teachability, and surrender. 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:17.199 It's easy to see spiritual pride and blindness in other people, but it's very difficult for us to see it in ourselves. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:24.800 What we'll learn this morning is that it takes a God-given, humble, teachable heart to see spiritual reality. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:33.519 The religious leaders have been asking Jesus question after question, trying to trap him, trying to trip him up. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:36.240 And finally they were silenced. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:41.839 They couldn't answer, they couldn't think of another question, they couldn't answer what he had said. 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:47.519 And so now Jesus turns the table and he asks them a question. 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:56.720 He asked them a question and it reveals their own spiritual blindness. 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:05.199 There are three realities we see here in spiritual blindness in this passage from 41 to 47. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:07.680 We're going to examine them this morning. 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:12.319 First of all, spiritual blindness affects our ability to see Scripture. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:17.600 Secondly, spiritual blindness affects our ability to see Jesus. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:22.480 And finally, spiritual blindness affects our ability to see ourselves. 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:30.959 Let's look at the text and see what uh what is there that God would open our eyes to see. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:35.839 First of all, spiritual blindness affects our ability to see Scripture. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:41.199 These were the religious leaders of Jesus' day that had been coming to attack him. 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:46.399 They were the scribes, they were the Pharisees, they were the Sadducees. 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:48.240 We've talked about these different groups. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:53.040 The scribes, think about it this way: they were the lawyers, the legalists, and the liberals. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.000 Those were the groups that were coming to Jesus. 00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:58.800 The lawyers, the legalists, and the liberals. 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:01.600 The scribes were the lawyers, they were the keepers of the law. 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:09.360 They were the ones that studied the minutiae of God's word to tell you in all the details of all the nuances of what was in there. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:12.240 The Pharisees were the legalists. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:22.560 They were the ones that added rule upon rule and precept and put parameters and guides and said you could do this and not this. 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:24.879 They were the legalists of the day. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:31.199 They were scrupulous to the minutiae of their religious practice. 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:34.320 And then you had the Sadducees, and we saw them last week. 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:36.320 They didn't believe much of anything. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:45.279 They believed in a God, but God who created and walked away, they didn't believe in miracles or heaven or hell or salvation or life after death or the soul. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:48.639 They didn't believe much of anything. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:54.000 Matthew records Jesus warning the people about the Pharisees. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:55.039 This is what Jesus said. 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:59.120 He says, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:04.960 So do and observe what they tell you, but not the works that they do. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:07.919 For they preach, but they do not practice. 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:15.840 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:19.360 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:28.559 He said, They taught God's word, and so what they said that comes from Scripture, you need to listen to, but don't follow their practice because they don't practice what they preach. 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:30.639 They're hypocrites. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:35.360 They say one thing and they tell you one thing, but they do something else. 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:40.080 Jesus throws a softball question here at them. 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:46.960 The question that Jesus asked was a softball question, but they were completely stumped. 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:50.639 They were befuddled in knowing how to answer. 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:55.600 It sounds at first blush like a riddle. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:10:06.080 He says to them, How can they say that the Christ, the Messiah, the word Christ is Greek for the Hebrew Messiah, and both of them mean the anointed one? 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:09.679 How can they say that the Christ is David's son? 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:17.759 For David himself says in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make you and make your enemies your footstool. 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.519 David thus calls him Lord. 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:21.360 How can he be his son? 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:26.480 The scribes were the experts of the law. 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:32.480 They were the ones that spent their days in leisure studying the minutiae of Scripture. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:37.279 They were the ones that gave detailed explanations of what were there. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:41.919 Why were they so blind? 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:48.480 Why were they so incapable of understanding Scripture? 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:53.600 They were self-reliant and spiritually dead. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:11:00.720 In order to understand God's word, the Holy Spirit needs to give you life. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:04.960 The technical term for this is a term that's worth knowing. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:06.720 It's called regeneration. 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:12.720 Regeneration means being made spiritually alive, being born again. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:19.759 Before you came to Christ, the Bible says that you were spiritually dead, you were insensitive to the things of God. 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:32.000 Paul says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:35.039 He says that in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:42.559 He says that the natural man, apart from a relationship with Christ, we are spiritually insensitive to the things of God. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:44.879 We are spiritually dead. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:55.679 And so, unless a person has come into a living and vital relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ, he is separated from God. 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:57.360 He is spiritually insensitive. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:05.519 He is still in his own sins, and he cannot properly understand, interpret, and apply God's word. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:13.840 And we have scores of churches today that are led by pastors who don't know Jesus. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:19.600 They've never been converted, they've never been regenerated. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:24.879 They don't have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit with them. 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:43.120 People ask me pretty often, Pastor, I don't understand how a pastor can deny the Bible, can believe in abortion and be pro-gay marriage and believe that all roads lead to heaven. 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:46.559 I don't understand how a pastor can be like that. 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:51.679 Well, quite simply, it's because they're devoid of the Spirit of God. 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:53.120 They've never been born again. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:55.200 They've never been regenerated. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:58.399 They don't know Jesus. 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:12.559 In addition to being regenerated, made alive by the Spirit of God, in order to understand the Bible, we also need the Holy Spirit's illumination. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:25.120 The Holy Spirit gives us life, and then the Holy Spirit shines the light so that we can understand what God's Word says and get the true intent of it and the weight of it. 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:28.720 We can understand it through the working of the Holy Spirit. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:34.000 The Holy Spirit opens our eyes and then shines the light onto God's word. 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:43.360 Illumination means the Holy Spirit shining the light to teach us what the Bible really says and understands its true intent. 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:49.360 There is, I'll call it a weight to Scripture. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:51.519 Think about it in these terms. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:53.600 There is a weight to scripture. 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:59.759 Have you ever had somebody where you're talking to them about something and it just seems like they're Teflon coded? 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.519 Like nothing sticks? 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:04.879 No matter what you throw at them, nothing sticks. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:07.519 They seem totally oblivious to what you're talking about. 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:09.120 Maybe you even notice that in your own heart. 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:13.360 You're reading the Bible, but it just feels like, wow, everything's just falling off. 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:14.559 Nothing's really sticking. 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:15.440 What's going on? 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:20.879 Well, what it is, is the Holy Spirit needs to impress that upon our hearts. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:43.360 The Holy Spirit illuminates, takes, and opens our eyes to see, shines a light on God's word, and impresses the true intent and weight of Scripture on our hearts and minds so that we're convicted of it, so that we're impressed by it, so that we are changed by it and transformed by it. 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:56.240 It is the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives through his regenerating us and through illumination, through his making us alive and shining the light so that it truly transforms us. 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:00.639 And the Bible talks about this. 00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:03.039 Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:09.600 He says, What no eye has seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:15.679 These things God has revealed to us through his Spirit. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:24.000 We cannot come to God's word apart from a humble dependence and reliance upon the Holy Spirit to enable us to see. 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:41.279 And so we ought to pray, God, help us to see what you say, help us to understand it, to put the pieces together, but more than just for cognitive information, so that our hearts might be transformed, that we will be more like you, we will live more like you, we will love more like you. 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:55.519 A little later in that same chapter of 1 Corinthians 2, he says, And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:04.639 And then his final assessment is this and wraps up everything we find here, what's going on in the hearts of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees. 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:07.600 In verse 14, he gives this assessment. 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:17.919 He says, the natural person, the person who does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:23.200 And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:34.879 So Jesus asked them what ought to have been a very straightforward question to the ones who had spent their entire lives studying the Bible and they're befuddled by it. 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:40.000 They can't see Scripture because they're spiritually blind. 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:47.519 But the question that Jesus asked reveals not only can they not see Scripture, but secondly, they can't see Jesus. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:51.360 One inescapably leads to the other. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:56.799 Spiritual blindness affects our ability to see Jesus. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:02.879 The whole Bible, from beginning to end, is about Jesus. 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:07.519 Every page of the Bible points to the person and work of Jesus Christ. 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:15.680 From the opening pages of Genesis to the last page of Revelation, everything is moving towards Jesus in the Old Testament. 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:23.119 Every symbol, every sign is pointing to the outworking of God's plan in the person of Jesus. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:32.160 We have the Gospels where Jesus is here, and then everything else points back to Jesus of what God has done and how that's going to work out in human history. 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:34.319 It's all about Jesus. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:52.880 In fact, you may remember after the resurrection, Jesus is walking, uh, two men are walking on the road to Emmaus, and Jesus meets them, and they're they're uh hindered from recognizing who Jesus is, and they begin to talk and they're grieved because Jesus had died and they don't understand what's going on. 00:17:52.960 --> 00:18:05.200 And then Jesus, it says this, and beginning with Moses and all of the prophets throughout all of the Old Testament, he interpreted to them in all of the scripture the things concerning himself. 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:17.680 Jesus confronting the scribes and the Pharisees in John chapter 5, he says, This, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:21.920 And it is they that bear witness about me. 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:26.160 Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:38.880 These were the men that studied God's word day and night, week in and week out, and they they couldn't recognize the time of Christ's visitation. 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:43.519 Because they were spiritually blind, they were befuddled by Jesus' question. 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:47.279 It really isn't that difficult to think through. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:49.119 Let's just walk through it. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:52.720 It really only takes a few seconds to explain. 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:56.640 The Christ or the Messiah, the anointed one, is the son of David. 00:18:56.720 --> 00:18:59.279 And all of the Jews of Jesus' day would agree with that. 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:05.359 The Messiah will be the son of David, will come from the line, the lineage of David. 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:14.960 But then Jesus points out that in a patriarchal society, a son is not greater than his father or equal to his father. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:16.400 The father is greater. 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:20.640 So the son, by definition, would be subordinate. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:27.839 And yet David calls his son his Lord, his master. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.759 And so Jesus says, How do you reconcile this? 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:36.079 How can David call his son his Lord? 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:42.799 And then he quotes from Psalm 110 The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:46.799 And so what he says is, explain this to me. 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:51.279 David is the greatest king in the history of Israel. 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:54.319 He is going to have a son who will be the Messiah. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:57.039 This Messiah will be greater than him. 00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:58.880 He will be David's Lord. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:02.799 And David says, he will rule and reign forever. 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:04.319 How can that be? 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:12.960 And what Jesus was pointing out was the reality of who he was. 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:17.200 That he was the son of David, but the son of David was more than a mere man. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:20.640 He was greater than David because he was over David. 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:24.000 He is actually the Lord God Himself. 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:27.519 He is God in man in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:36.000 It can only be true that he will be a greater high priest, that he will reign forever, that he is over David if he is more than a man. 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:40.640 But they were spiritually blind, they couldn't see it. 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:48.160 It's only a riddle because they couldn't connect the dots, they couldn't see the dots to even make the connections. 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:52.240 Who is Jesus? 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:57.920 That's the question that he's asking them at the end of his ministry, at the end of his life. 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:00.640 I love what C.S. 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:04.559 Lewis said years ago that really challenges us to ask that same question. 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:07.279 And Lewis said this who is Jesus? 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:13.119 He says, I'm trying to prevent here anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. 00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:19.200 I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:21.759 Isn't that what we hear so often today? 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:25.599 That is the one thing we must not say. 00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:31.359 A man who merely was a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. 00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:37.759 He would either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:39.599 You must make your choice. 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:44.160 Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse. 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:51.680 You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:57.599 But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. 00:21:57.839 --> 00:21:59.440 He has not left that open to us. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:01.680 He did not intend to. 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:07.200 Their blindness was complete. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:15.920 They could not see Scripture, they could not see Jesus, but they couldn't see themselves either. 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:20.799 And this is where it really hits home. 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:25.359 Spiritual blindness affects our ability to see ourselves. 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:31.119 John Kelvin centuries ago made this observation. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:41.440 He said, you cannot see yourselves unless you see God for who he really is, and you can't see God for who he really is unless you see yourself. 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:44.400 You have to keep both of those in view. 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:46.960 And he gives an explanation for why. 00:22:47.119 --> 00:23:02.400 He says this he says, For such is our innate pride, we always see, we always seem to ourselves just and upright and wise and holy until we're convinced by clear evidence of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:05.200 He says, left to ourselves, we think we're pretty good. 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:27.039 Left to ourselves, we may have a few uh foibles and maybe commit some picadillos and some small errors of judgment or character, but we don't see ourselves for who we really are at the core of our hearts until he says we're convinced by clear evidence. 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:36.000 But then he adds this, he says, convinced, however, we are not, if we look to ourselves only and not to the Lord also. 00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:40.480 If we judge ourselves by ourselves, we're going to come out looking pretty good. 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:46.880 If we judge ourselves based on looking at other people, we'll find people a lot worse than us. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:53.279 And so what he says is, he says, we we can't only look at ourselves, we need to look at the Lord also. 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:59.119 He being the only standard by the application of which this conviction can be produced. 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:19.119 He says, only when we look at God in his holiness and righteousness and purity that he is of pure eyes to look upon sin only when we gaze upon the beauty and splendor of his holiness and then begin to look at our own heart as the true reality of the depths of our sin really sink in. 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:23.519 Well, where were the scribes' self-assessment? 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:33.440 They thought they were holy, righteous, pious, devout, godly, honorable, worthy of emulating. 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:47.200 The spiritual leaders had had several responsibilities, three of which Malachi records, he says they need to know God's word, they need to point people to God, and they need to be an example of humble godliness by serving others. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:55.920 The scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees were completely oblivious, completely unaware of the depths of sin in their own hearts. 00:24:57.519 --> 00:25:02.480 Look at what Jesus says to him at the end of this chapter, beginning in verse 45. 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:11.359 He turns to the disciples in front of the crowd, in front of the scribes, in the hearing of all the people, and he warns them. 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:12.880 He says, Beware. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:18.240 And then he begins to assess the scribes. 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:21.519 He says this, they love to wear long robes. 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:28.640 FF Bruce, the commentator, says this long robes mark the wearer as a gentleman of leisure. 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:32.160 What it showed is they loved the good life. 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:38.720 They wore long, white, glowing robes to show that they never got their hands dirty. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:45.200 That they were above the fray, that they were, that they were a cut above, that they were gentlemen of leisure. 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:46.880 They had arrived. 00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:54.480 I watched 10 minutes of a TV show I don't recommend you watching. 00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:57.119 Um it's called Preachers of LA. 00:25:57.200 --> 00:25:58.799 It's been out for a couple seasons now. 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:02.400 I I recorded one of them, and then we never stopped the DVR recordings. 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:18.559 And uh I've only watched uh it a couple times, but it happened to be on when we were trying to uh change the stations, and there was a segment of one of these prosperity gospel preachers in Los Angeles, and they're following them around. 00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:20.000 It's a reality show. 00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:27.599 And one of the guys is one of the pastors is taking a bunch of kids to buy new clothes so that they can go to church. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:32.079 And they interview them and ask him, well, why are you spending all of this money buying them expensive clothes? 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:34.000 And this is an exact quote of what he said. 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:39.119 He said, Looking good on the outside makes you look real good on the inside. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:42.319 Sometimes you have to dress to impress. 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:58.160 They loved to wear long robes, they loved recognition, they loved greetings in the marketplace, they loved to be noticed by others, they relished in privilege, they loved the best seats in the synagogue. 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:03.440 They exalted in honor, they loved a place of honor at feasts. 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:08.640 They were viciously greedy, who devoured widows' houses. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:11.680 An image was everything. 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:14.799 It says, for pretense they made long prayers. 00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:20.640 Now we can read this and sit here and think, boy, I'm glad I'm not like them. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:24.000 But notice what Jesus warns us. 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:32.799 He warns us to say, be careful to not be like them. 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:34.640 Beware. 00:27:34.960 --> 00:27:36.640 Why do we need to beware? 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:40.000 The reality is, is because we can be just like them. 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:46.240 It's very possible for us to fall into the exact same kinds of sins as them. 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:49.200 We're not immune to it if we don't guard our hearts. 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:56.319 There's a temptation, and I'll just talk personally. 00:27:56.400 --> 00:27:59.200 I mean, I think about times when I'm in a prayer meeting. 00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:06.079 And as the pastor, I begin, as I'm sitting there listening to other people pray, my mind begins to formulate a prayer. 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:10.480 And I begin to do this because I think, well, I need to sound good. 00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:19.920 I need to make sure I say the right words and have the right phrases and the right cadence, and what are people going to think if I if I stumble? 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:25.440 And so I begin to think, what's going on in my heart though? 00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:34.799 I'm beginning to become more concerned about what the people listening to me are thinking about my prayer than my actual prayer in my heart before God. 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:43.279 Or maybe we drop hints and we we say things to uh let people know that we did something, you know. 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:47.359 Well, you know, last week after I was at the mall evangelizing, I did this and so. 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:49.920 And we really want people to know, hey, look at what I just did. 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:53.279 Or we talk about giving money or doing other things. 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:59.200 It's very easy for us to fall into these traps in very subtle ways. 00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:03.599 And we don't even recognize that we're doing it. 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:12.640 How easy it is to want the praise of men while acting humble, hoping that you'll load on more praise. 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:24.319 It's very difficult for us to evaluate our own hearts because of how blind we are to the reality of it. 00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:27.759 It's much easier for us to evaluate other people's hearts. 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:34.319 It's much easier for us to see the sins in others than to see the sins in ourselves. 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:42.319 Notice that that Jesus here says that uh that do you not know? 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:50.079 He says, You will receive the greater condemnation, that that as leaders they'll be judged with the stricter judgment, Jesus concludes. 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:54.000 But there's a message here for all of us. 00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:08.160 The ophthalmologist, um, when I was talking to him, I mentioned it at the beginning, he said, uh he told me that what I have, I have uh cornocronis, my thinning of the eyes, eventually I'm gonna go blind. 00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:11.519 And and he and he says to me, this is this is what he actually said. 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:18.559 He said, um, he said, but but you don't have to worry about it because it just started and it's gonna take about 50 years, you'll be dead before then. 00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:22.400 He has a great sense of humor. 00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:30.079 Um but every six months I go in and I and I have to take all of these tests, the field of vision test. 00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:39.599 I I have to take they they do an exam, a CAT scan of my eye, of my retina to evaluate, to see if there's any thinning of what's going on. 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:55.440 And and every six months I have to go in because the blindness can happen so slowly and subtly that on a day-to-day basis I'll never know what happens until it's too late to do anything about it. 00:30:56.160 --> 00:31:06.079 And it can be so subtle that eventually I could be blind before I even really recognized the depths of my problem. 00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:12.720 Spiritual blindness can slowly creep into our own hearts. 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:20.640 We don't realize our hearts are becoming hardened, we're becoming callous, we're becoming insensitive to God's word, we have no passion for Jesus. 00:31:20.799 --> 00:31:27.519 We stop evaluating the depths of our own heart to see and own and confess our own sin. 00:31:29.279 --> 00:31:38.559 It can happen so slowly you don't realize it until it's too late and you're in a place that you never thought you would be and you never wanted to go, but there you are. 00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:50.400 Pride and hardness of heart and self-sufficiency can blind us to God's word and can blind us to seeing Jesus and can blind us from seeing our own sin. 00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:55.359 So, what do we do? 00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:01.920 Well, first of all, we we cry out to Jesus with whatever we do see. 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:11.599 Whatever measure of sight that we have, whatever sin that we see, we cry out to Jesus and ask him to give us eyes to see the reality of our own hearts. 00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:17.279 We can't change our own hearts, but we can go to the one who can and does. 00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:20.720 Ask for humility in a teachable spirit. 00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:29.440 Humble yourself before God, yield to him in complete surrender, repent of any known sin that God brings to mind. 00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:36.720 Ask others to give an honest assessment to help you see what you can't see and to pray with you and for you. 00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:44.160 You know, a lot of times Christians are accused of being hypocrites. 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:49.200 And really it's a false, it's a false accusation. 00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:53.759 I've admitted to you I'm a messed up sinner. 00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:55.359 You all know that. 00:32:55.599 --> 00:32:58.079 If you don't, I'm a messed up sinner. 00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:01.519 Um I've shared with you different aspects. 00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:08.160 I mean, we could spend all day talking about all of my sins and we'd we'd run out of time and run out of recording. 00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:11.039 All of us are sinners. 00:33:11.279 --> 00:33:19.440 All of us, if we stop to look at the core of our hearts, would see how much sin we have if we see it in light of God and his word. 00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:24.880 And you're not a hypocrite for being a sinner as a Christian. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:30.960 You're only a hypocrite for being a for being a sinner as a Christian if you're not willing to admit you're a sinner. 00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:40.400 And a lot of people are turned off with Christianity, not because we're sinners, because we can't admit we're sinners and everyone else knows we are. 00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:46.240 And so we need to come before God in humility. 00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:57.359 We need to come before others in humility to see and own and confess, to embrace repentance, to repent and to rejoice in the salvation that we have. 00:33:59.680 --> 00:34:01.519 We can't do it ourselves. 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:17.039 But if we come in humility, if we come with the teachable spirit, if we cry out to Jesus, he'll change our heart, he'll change our heart and he'll help us to see what only He can help us to see. 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:20.079 And that's Himself, His Word, and our own hearts. 00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:20.800 Let's pray. 00:34:21.760 --> 00:34:23.920 Father, we cry out to you now. 00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:26.480 Lord, we are a mess. 00:34:26.639 --> 00:34:27.360 We are sinners. 00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:36.400 When we look at you at you, when we look at your holiness and your purity, we realize how how poor and blind and wretched we are, that we need grace. 00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:40.079 We need grace today, we need the gospel today. 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:52.000 And Father, I pray for us that we'll humble ourselves before you under your mighty hand and cry out to you to open our eyes that we might see spiritual reality. 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.519 And Father, help us to assess ourselves in our hearts. 00:34:55.679 --> 00:35:05.199 It's so easy for blindness to creep in so slowly and subtly, we don't even realize it's happened until we're so far down. 00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:18.719 And so, God, we pray now for the convicting work of your Holy Spirit and press the truth of your word on our hearts and our minds so that we went we we might turn away from sin and turn to you. 00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:24.880 We cry out to you as sinners saved by grace and grace alone. 00:35:25.039 --> 00:35:26.719 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:27.679 Amen.