RUINED MASTERPIECES

(Luke 16:14-18)
May 22, 2016
Read Lu 16:14-18 Our granddaughter was 2 when we took her to the
pumpkin patch where they had little horses to ride in a circle. I put her on one
and she grabbed the reins. When they were about to start, I put my arm around
her waist to hold her on. Still looking straight ahead she said, Dont touch
me, Grandpa. Dont touch me! The desire to be self-sufficient runs deep!
We love to do-it-yourself. Remodel your home yourself. Lowes can help. A
few years ago Patty and I reroofed our house. You can do your taxes and file
for divorce on-line these days. By yourself. No wonder billions of people will
try unsuccessfully to self-justify before God. It comes so naturally. But its a
doomed strategy Jesus was always warning the self-justifying Pharisees here
with 3 hard-hitting points.
I.

The Bankruptcy of Self-Justification

The Pharisees were poster boys for the thing that sends more people to hell
than any other self-justification human goodness is good enough. Jesus
constantly reminds, it is not. Here the Pharisees mock His comment: v. 13:
You cannot serve God and money. They didnt believe that. They thought
God and money got equal billing that money was a sign of Gods blessing.
Jesus responds with a scathing review of their self-justification. V. 15, And
he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God
knows your hearts. Jesus point is, I know you guys. You bend the rules to
suit your purposes and then say, What a good boy am I. But Gods not
fooled. Your loophole traditions are an abomination to Him. This verse
illustrates the bankruptcy of self-justification. They were playing to the
wrong audience, using the wrong standard which resulted in the wrong
focus leading them to trust the wrong savior. And four wrongs do not make a
right!
A. Wrong Audience
They claimed to be pleasing God. But Jesus knows better. You are those who
justify yourselves before men. They wanted peoples acclaim. They were a
lot more concerned to be thought righteous than to actually be righteous.
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The relished peoples opinion. But they had the wrong audience. Friends
willing to cut us some slack, or acquaintances who have us on a pedestal will
not be the judge on judgment day. It will not even be God the Father. Who will
it be? Turn to John 5.
Jn 5:22: The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
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that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not
honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. [To v. 27] 27 And he
[Father] has given him [Jesus] authority to execute judgment, because he is
the Son of Man. The sinless Savior. Hes the judge. Not lenient friends.
So one day, the Jesus they mocked will be their judge. And because they are
self-justifying, they will have no other advocate. They must represent
themselves. All their actions will be on full display all their motives and
thoughts and hidden words. All there. And they will fall short of the glory of
God way short. Others may have thought them the finest person who ever
lived! But that will mean nothing then. They played to the wrong audience.
Jesus humorously pictures seeking mens approval in Mt 6:2, Thus, when
you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in
the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. They
didnt really play trumpets as they brought their offering. But they used every
other means at their disposal to make sure everyone saw their giving. They
subscribed to theres a modern author named Og Mandino who writes stuff
like University of Success and The Greatest Salesman in the World. He says,
Let me define success. Success is getting other people to believe youre
successful. Perception may be reality here but not there! Better worry
what God sees, not what others think. Theyre the wrong audience.
B. Wrong Standard
If you play to the wrong audience, youll be using the wrong standard. V. 15,
For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Their standard was mens opinion. They claimed to keep the law of God, but
what they really followed was the abomination of their own traditions aimed
at diluting the Law. It was a moving target. Human standards always change.
Danny Thomas once said, When I was a kid, a film was considered obscene
if the horse wasnt wearing a saddle. Moving standards are no standard!

Jane went to visit her sister, Sally. Their folks were expected next day. So next
morning, Jane woke up to the sound of the vacuum cleaner and emerged to
find Sally hard at work sweeping and cleaning. She shoved a dust rag into
Janes hand and said, Get busy. Jane said, But Sally, you just cleaned
before I came. Everythings clean! Sally replied, Yes, the house is sister
clean. But by noon its got to be mother clean. Can you relate? When Pattys
been gone, I have a major job the night before she comes home. Her clean is
different from my clean, and I must tell you that Gods clean is different from
our clean. Our problem is deeper than we think. God clean is perfection.
Whod want heaven to be less? But thats a standard we cant do!
C. Wrong Focus
It was outward, not inward. Thats our default setting but its wrong. V. 15:
You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your
hearts. They think theyre in because of outward compliance? They
forgot. God knows hearts. What He sees there condemns us all. They
thought if they didnt kill anyone they were okay. Jesus said . Everyone who
is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment (Mt 5:22). They thought
bringing offerings covered every indiscretion. Jesus said, First be reconciled
to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Mt 5:24). They thought
if they loved their friends they could hate their enemy. Jesus said, Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of
your Father who is in heaven (Mt 5:44-45). Outward perfection, even if
possible, wouldnt cover a rebellious heart. Their focus was all wrong.
On Nov 26, 1922 Howard Carter entered King Tutankhamens treasure filled
tomb. They opened a casket and found another inside. They opened the goldleafed 2nd and found a 3rd. Inside that one was another of pure gold where they
finally found King Tut. His body was wrapped in gold cloth and his face
covered with a gold mask. But when the body was unwrapped, it was leathery
and shriveled. No life. A masterpiece outside rotten to the core inside. Just
like the hearts of those outside Christ. No amount of external compliance or
goodness can cover for the lack of life within. All self-justifiers have the focus
in the wrong place. Which means they have the
D. Wrong Savior
Who is their savior? V. 15: You are those who justify yourselves.
Themselves their goodness, their righteousness. Theyve no other hope. Is
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that you, this morning? Are you sure you want to stand before the judge with
every idle deed word and thought exposed and argue your own case? Really?
You cant win, you know. Jesus offers a way out but be warned, its costly.
II.

The Brutality of Selfless-Justification

What is selfless justification? It is taking all the goodness I think I have to

offer for my eternal salvation, throwing it in the trash and trusting only in the
shed blood of Jesus Christ to give me peace with God. But throwing away my
efforts is tough! Thats what Jesus is saying in v. 16: 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. Jesus is saying, The OT
established a standard of perfection you cant meet. It wasnt meant to save
you; it was meant to show you need saving. Now Ive come to meet that
standard for you. And the gospel, the good news, is Repent not do better,
but repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Its here. Im it! What you
cant do, I CAN. And Ill forgive you and give you my righteousness. But
you have to violently rip away your ego-driven efforts and trust only in Me.
The kingdom is for everyone who forces [presses] his way into it. Death to
self is a brutal, bloody business for everyone involved.

. Brutal on the Savior Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem to suffer and die.
Why? To pay the penalty for the sins of all who will believe. The physical
pain will be shocking, but it will be nothing compared to the separation from
the Father that Jesus is about to suffer for us. Would the Father have allowed
that if it were not necessary? Never. That is the surest sign that we cant
justify ourselves. He was brutally crushed for our iniquity, and it is only by
His stripes that we are healed not our goodness (Isa 53:5).
Henry Emerson Fosdick of Riverside Church, NYC, didnt buy that. He
insisted that believing Jesus died for sin was "pre-civilized barbarity." He said
that to assume that by one single high priestly act of self-sacrifice Christ
saved the world was a theological disgrace. But that denies the whole
message of the Bible. Rom 6:10: For the death he died he died to sin, once
for all. Heb 10:10, We have been sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all. Providing redemption was a brutal,
bloody business because sin is a brutal, bloody business. Just watch the
news. Take the brutality out of the cross and there is no payment for sin, no
redemption, no salvation and no hope. Salvation emerged from the most
brutal of actions.
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B. Brutal on the Saved

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The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the
kingdom of God is preached, and everyone [who enters] forces his way into
it. Both John and Jesus both preached, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. Thats the gospel good news, not good works. Simply repent. But
repentance is anything but simple. Many confuse repentance and remorse.
Remorse means to feel bad. You may feel bad about something for a lot of
reasons including that you got caught. When I was a little boy we had a
revival meeting in our town. My dad and a friend helped take the offering and
count the money. One night a teenage boy who was helping usher was caught
helping himself. When confronted, he cried his eyes out. Great remorse. A
show of repentance. But, when he had to empty his pockets, several more $10
bills were discovered. I can still hear Dad saying he had cried crocodile tears
remorse, but not repentance. Sorry for getting caught, not for doing it.
To repent is to be sorry AND turn away! The word literally means to change
ones mind or, better, ones heart. Thats where the brutality comes in. True
repentance is a shock to the system. Its devastatingly hard to accept that
Im unacceptable. But Jesus says in Lu 9:23, If anyone would come after
me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Thats
not the easy believism many of us were taught as the way to salvation. Thats
a life-changing commitment that many who know the facts simply wont
make. True repentance is hard. Lu 13:24, 24 Strive to enter through the
narrow door. [Change direction from broad way to narrow!] For many, I tell
you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Why will they not be able?
During Billy Grahams crusade in Australia 1959 one man wrote this letter
that appeared in a Melbourne newspaper: After hearing Dr. Billy Graham
on the air, I am heartily sick of the type of religion that insists my soul (and
everyone else's) needs saving. I have never felt that I was lost. Nor do I feel
that I daily wallow in the mire of sin, although repetitive preaching insists
that I do. Give me a practical religion that teaches gentleness and tolerance,
that acknowledges no barriers of color or creed, that remembers the aged
and teaches children of goodness and not sin. If in order to save my soul I
must [repent], I prefer to remain forever damned. How sad. He understood
the stark choices, but like millions of others, was unwilling to endure the
brutality of true repentance.
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III.

The Basis for Self-Condemnation

Now, as Jesus ends, He comes back to the Law and then throws in what seems
to be a totally isolated comment about divorce. 17 But it is easier for heaven
and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.
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Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and
he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. What
is His point? He is saying, Salvation comes in forcing your way in thru
repentance. But if you keep trying to buy your way in by Law-keeping, you
must keep it every jot and tittle. The Law was never intended to save you; it
was intended to drive you to seek mercy from me. Refuse that, and the Law
will kill you. You only think you can make it because you bend the rules. But
you cant bend the rules. If you refuse grace, the Law remains operative for
you every dot of it. And you are condemned as you stand. Let me give you
one example adultery. You do it all the time. You justify yourself by your
illegitimate interpretation of divorce. But on judgment day it will be Gods
rules, not yours. Jesus isnt specifically teaching on divorce here. He is using
it as an example of their moral failure.
Quick background. God allowed a man to divorce in Deut 24:2 because he
has found some indecency in her. Indecency or uncleanness isnt
specifically defined, but Genesis 2 clearly presents marriage as a covenant
commitment as does Mal 2:14-16. Divorce was a concession to mans
fallenness clearly intended to be a rare exception for hard hearts (Mt 19).
By this time in Jewish history, Rabbi Shammai and his few followers held that
sexual unfaithfulness was the only legitimate reason for divorce. Jesus agreed
Mt 19:9, And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual
immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. But the vast majority of
people followed Rabbi Hillel who saw indecency as a hole big enough to
drive a semi thru! He taught a husband could divorce his wife if she spoiled
a dish of food; if she spun in the street; if she talked to a strange man; if she
was guilty of speaking disrespectfully of her husbands relations in his
hearing; if she was a brawling woman. Rabbi Akiba allowed that if he found
a woman he thought prettier, he could divorce his wife.
So the Pharisees, who abhorred outright adultery, justified divorce and
remarriage for any flimsy reason thinking they were fine, but actually being in
violation of Gods rules. Jesus calls them on it. Hes saying, Your traditions
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notwithstanding, Gods Law stands. By His Law you are adulterers one of
a million ways you violate His character by your misinterpretations.
Conc Jesus intention is to destroy self in these men and bring them to
Himself. We must see ourselves as sinners before salvation is possible
whether thru adultery by divorce, adultery by thought, murder outwardly or
murder of the heart. The masterpiece of our own making must go. Sir James
Thornhill painted the cupola of St. Pauls in London. He was stepping back on
his scaffolding one day to scan his work from a distance not realizing he was
dangerously close to the edge. A helper, seeing the danger, quickly grabbed a
brush and dabbed at the painting. Sir James sprang forward in a rage
demanding an explanation. The man replied, Sir, you were about to step off.
I feared that if I hollered you would look behind you and fall. I could only
save the painter by spoiling the painting. And thats just what Jesus is doing
with the Pharisees ruining the masterpiece of their own creation so He can
make them His masterpiece. Lets pray.