The Abominable Show-Man

Our scripture reading this morning is in the Gospel of Luke chapter 16.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

I will be reading verses 14 through 18.

Luke chapter 16, verses 14 through 18.

Luke 16:14–18

And if you're here this morning and happen not to have a Bible with you, there should be a Bible located there in front of you.

And I encourage you to turn to the passage.

You can find it on page 875.

And if you're here this morning, you happen not to have a Bible of your own, I want to encourage you to take that pew Bible that you have and take it home with you as our gift to you.

We want you to have it, to read it and study it, and then bring it back each week, and we'll continue to study God's word together.

Luke chapter 16, beginning in verse 14.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

So as the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.

And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.

For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

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

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

Thus ends the reading of God's Word.

Self-centered religion.

It justifies itself while rejecting transforming grace.

That's what we're going to learn this morning as we study this passage.

As we look at the Pharisees, we look at their reaction to what Jesus has just said, and we're going to see in coming weeks of what he is going to say in regards to money, in regards to wealth and material possessions.

If you remember about five weeks ago when we were back in Luke, we had looked at this first section here in chapter 16, and we looked at what Jesus said about the shrewd manager, and we're going to see in a couple weeks what he says about Lazarus and the rich man.

If you remember what we studied a few weeks ago, and let me just remind you, it's been a few weeks, about five weeks since we were last in Luke 16.

Jesus gave five challenges regarding money.

And let me remind you of what those five challenges were.

He gave this parable about a shrewd manager, and then he gave some application, and he reminded us that we ought to shrewdly use earthly wealth in eternal pursuits.

That all that God gives us, we should use to glorify him, to magnify his name.

So we should use what we have, not just for temporal things, not just for temporary things, but for permanent things, for eternal pursuits.

Secondly, we learn that we should use unrighteous wealth to make eternal friends.

And not all money is evil.

The love of money is, and most people pursue money for the wrong reasons.

And so here Jesus generally talks about wealth, and he recognizes that typically it's pursuit for the wrong reasons, but he says we should use wealth to make eternal friends.

In other words, we should see what we have is to be used for the gospel, is to be used to see people come into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The thirdly, we saw that true faithfulness is revealed in the small things.

The one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much.

And so if we are not faithful in the small things, we shouldn't be surprised that we're not entrusted with larger things, and we shouldn't be surprised if that unfaithfulness carries its way through in our whole lives.

We also saw fourthly that why stewardship leads to eternal ownership.

That the things we have in this life are temporary, but that used rightly, God promises to reward us with eternal blessings that go on and on.

And so we can use what is temporary that leads to eternal ownership.

And then finally, we saw, as Jesus ended in verse 13, that it's impossible to serve God in worldly wealth.

And let me expand on this point by way of entrance into this next passage.

Jesus drives home this last point.

Look at verse 13 in Luke 16.

He says, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

And Jesus' final point is this: you cannot serve God and money supremely.

You cannot have two objects in your life that have the center of your attention and your affection.

But there is only one central place in your heart that should capture your affections.

In fact, we saw this earlier in Luke in chapter 14, verse 26, that Jesus says that by comparison, all other loves should seem like hate compared to the one object of your supreme love.

And remember what he says.

He says, if anyone comes after me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

And so what Jesus is saying there is that you there is only one place in your heart for supreme affection, and that place is reserved for God.

And by comparison, everything else will seem, uh, will pale in comparison, will seem like hate to the supreme love that you have for God.

Now, can you love your wife?

Yes.

Can you love your children?

Yes.

Can you love your parents?

Yes.

Can you love your friends?

Yes.

But you cannot love them supremely because that is the place that God ought to occupy in your lives.

Only God is worthy of your love and affection supremely and centrally in your lives.

God is supreme.

This is what Jesus is reminding us.

God is supreme.

Supreme love recognizes that which is of ultimate value.

God is of ultimate value in all things.

There is nothing greater, there is no one greater than God.

God is of supreme value.

Everything is of no worth in comparison to God.

To love anything in place of God, to love anything in place of God, or to love anything more than God is idolatry.

If there is anything in your heart, anything in your life that takes center stage, is central in your affections, the Bible says that is idolatry.

Your heart has only one place in it for supreme love.

Jesus says here, having two masters is like having two bosses.

I've never been in a situation of have two bosses.

I've talked to people who have, and it ends up that you're frustrated and confused.

It's not to be that way.

Jesus says, you cannot serve two masters.

You cannot serve God and money.

To worship anything else, uh to have anything else central in your lives is to have a false God and ultimately to have a false religion.

It is to have a self-centered religion of your own making.

And this morning I want us, and Jesus here in verses 14 to 18 gives us four failures of self-centered religion.

There are four failures here that we're going to see in verses 14 to 18.

And let me list them for you.

Self-centered religion gratifies itself.

That's the first thing we're going to see.

Secondly, we're going to see self-centered religion justifies itself before men.

Thirdly, we'll see self-centered religion comforts itself.

And finally, self-centered religion excuses itself.

And so Jesus here reveals the four failures of self-centered religion.

And let's unpack them one at a time.

First of all, the first failure, self-centered religion gratifies itself instead of pleasing God.

Gratifies itself instead of pleasing God.

What's your reaction when somebody hits a sore spot in your life?

What's your reaction when somebody confronts you about a sin, a flaw, a failure, a shortcoming in your life?

How do you respond to that?

A few weeks ago, I was I was talking to a friend of mine, and we were talking about parenting, and I began to wax eloquent about parenting.

And began to talk about what parents should do and not do and how they should discipline their kids.

And I was and I began to go off on this on this diatribe on parenting, and I said, you know what really bothers me is when parents say they're going to discipline their kids and they warn their kids over and over and over again and they don't do it.

And this friend of mine cheapishly said, you know, Dave, I've seen you do that.

So how do you react when somebody confronts you about your own sins?

I know what I do.

I find new friends.

No.

Seriously, though, what do you do?

You really only have two choices.

Either you you recognize the truth of what is being said and you repent, or else you reject the message.

Ultimately, the bottom line, when we're confronted about reality, about spiritual truth, we we either recognize it for what it is and we see our own lives and we see our sin and we repent of it, or else we reject it.

There's an old saying, if you don't like the message, shoot the messenger.

And how do we reject the message?

Really, there's two ways we reject a message.

Either we withdraw or we attack.

These are the strategies in life: flight or fight.

Either we withdraw physically, emotionally, we move away from the people, we we withdraw from people, or else we attack.

And these are the improper ways that we deal with a message that we reject, whether it's in marriage, whether it's with friends, whether it's parents and children.

If we don't like the message and we're not going to accept it, either we withdraw or we attack.

Sometimes our attacks are violent and direct, and sometimes they're just mocking and derision.

And that's what the Pharisees do here.

Look at verse 14.

This is what Luke writes.

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things and they ridiculed him.

They ridiculed him.

Why did they ridicule Jesus?

Because of the reality of their hearts.

They were lovers of money.

Really, what they were trying to do is exactly what Jesus says you can't do in verse 13.

They were trying to have two masters.

They were trying to have God and money.

God and material wealth.

What they were doing was living a divided life.

What they were saying is this I want to have my God part of my life, my God box, and I'll put in all of my religious activity, going to synagogue, worshiping God, prayer, fellowship.

This is my God box.

This is my God religion over here, my God box.

And over here is my personal life.

And I'm going to keep them separate.

I'm going to have two areas of my life, and they're not going to touch one another.

I have my religion over here, and in this category, I worship God, and over here, I'm going to have my personal, private life apart from God, and I'm going to pursue pleasure.

I'm going to live for myself.

And the reality of it was they rejected Jesus because Jesus was confronting their sin.

They were lovers of money.

They were trying to have it both ways.

They were, they, if put it in our terms, they were trying to have one foot in the church and one foot in the world, and they were trying to straddle both of those, and Jesus says it's impossible.

The 19th century pastor J.C.

Rowell puts it this way.

He says, thousands on every side are continually trying to do the thing that Christ pronounces impossible.

They're endeavoring to be friends of the world and friends of God at the same time.

Their consciences are so far enlightened that they feel they must have some religion.

You know, some religion is a good thing, and so they must have some religion, but he says their affections are so chained down to earthly things that they never come up to the mark of being true Christians.

And hence they live in a state of constant discomfort.

They have too much religion to be happy in the world, and they have too much of the world in their hearts to be happy in their religion.

Jesus says it is impossible to serve God and money.

And so the Pharisees, because they reject the message of Jesus, see, self-centered religion wants to gratify itself.

Ultimately, it wants to gratify itself instead of pleasing God.

Jesus says you can't worship both.

They make their choice, they love money, they don't honor God, and they end up not even gratifying themselves.

They fail miserably.

Self-centered religion fails at gratifying itself and fails at pleasing God.

Well, let's look at a second failure that Jesus talks about here in the next verse.

The second failure is this self-centered religion justifies itself before men instead of being justified by Christ.

Again, look at the passage what Jesus says.

In verse 15, he says to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men.

But God knows your heart.

What does it mean to justify yourself?

What does it mean to be justified?

To be justified means to be made righteous.

And these guys wanted to be made righteous in the eyes of others.

They wanted to be made righteous, they wanted to look good, they wanted other people to think that they were righteous and holy and good, and so they were justifying themselves before men.

And fundamentally, this is the error of religion.

Religion focuses on appearances and behavior.

Religion focuses on how you look and your behavior.

It's not concerned with matters of the heart.

It doesn't matter what's going on in the interior of your life.

The only thing that you need to be concerned about is looking good and acting good.

And we have an amazing ability to fake it and look good before others.

And Jesus tells us why they do this.

Look at what he says here.

He says, for what is exalted among men.

This is why they act this way.

This is why they behave this way.

They want to do what is exalted before men.

In other words, whatever the world values, whatever their friends value, whatever the people around them value, whatever the people in their lives or the culture values, they want to look like that's what's in their lives.

They're so concerned about appearing good, appearing, looking like they're upright people in the eyes of others, that they try to gauge what is important and popular in the eyes of others, and that's what they try to incorporate in their own lives.

They want to be, uh they want to do the things that the world values.

They want to do what's exalted among men.

And this was their hard attitude.

This is why they did it.

Well, what's the problem with that?

What's the problem in our own lives when we live for others?

When we're concerned in our Christian life about how we look and merely about what we do, we're only concerned about the exterior of our lives.

It doesn't matter what's going on in our hearts.

It doesn't matter what what really we're struggling with in the interior of our lives, as long as we look good, as long as we make appearances, as long as we uh put on the right mask at the right time and say the right words and carry ourselves the right way and wear the right clothes, then everything's okay.

But what's the problem with that?

Well, Jesus answers this.

Look at what he says in verse 15.

God knows your hearts.

God knows your hearts.

If you remember the story in the Old Testament in 1 Samuel 16, uh Samuel is sent, Saul has been rejected as king, and and God sends Samuel to find a new king.

And and he goes to the house of Jesse, and they begin to parade all of the sons out there.

And and and uh Samuel is looking at these at these men.

He's looking at the first son who's who in his mind fits the bill for what a king should be.

He he fits the the stereotype of what a king should be.

And so so Samuel is getting excited that maybe this is the guy, maybe this is the one that God's going to choose.

He looks right, he fits the part.

If there was a casting call and they were looking for somebody who looked kingly, here's the guy.

But in 1 Samuel 16, 7, God says this to Samuel, and he says this to us today.

He says, Do not look at his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as man sees, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Worldly way of looking is just to look at the outside.

We we're we're we are so good at image management.

We're so adept at carrying ourselves a certain way, acting a certain way, behaving a certain way.

We we know in church the right things to say, how to say them with the right inflection and the right tone.

We know when we're called on to pray, to pray a certain way, to use certain words.

We are experts at image management.

We we know how to live the part, we know what's expected of us, and we fulfill those requirements.

And there's a danger in our lives of really living uh completely disengaged from our hearts and living inauthentic lives where there's a total disconnect between who we are and how we live, and we think that we're only concerned about how we live, and if we look good, we are good, that everything's okay before God.

As long as we can keep up appearances, everything is fine.

And you see, this was the Pharisees.

They were concerned about looking good.

They were concerned about impressing others, about impressing their friends, about knowing the context they were in, knowing the circumstances they were in, and acting the way that people expected them to act in that circumstance.

You can do it in school.

You you can do it among your friends, you can do it among your teammates, you can do it in college, you can do it with your coworkers.

And in every different context, you have a different persona, a different uh way of carrying yourself.

Maybe you use different language.

Maybe you talk about different topics, perhaps your attitude is different.

Because somewhere in the interior of your heart, you think that what is important is how you look.

You think what is valuable is how you come across to everyone else.

And what Jesus reminds us here is that God doesn't look at the externals of our lives, He looks at what's in our heart.

He looks at what's going on in our affections, our thoughts, our attitudes, the entire Of our lives that we can't hide from God.

And look at the Pharisees here.

They're justifying themselves before men.

It says, God knows your hearts.

God knows what's going on in your life.

He knows what you struggle with.

He knows those those secret things that nobody else might know, and you put on appearances.

You act as if everything's fine when you know in your heart of hearts it's not, but you don't know what to do and where to go.

And so you think if I just fake it, I can fake it till I make it.

And that's what you tell yourself.

And all you do is focus on the external of your life and never focus on what's really going on in the interior of your lives.

But God knows your hearts.

And what's God's assessment of living like that?

What's God's assessment of living like that?

Look at what it says at the end of verse 15.

For what is exalted among men, what people of this world find valuable and important and necessary, indispensable in your lives, what the world finds valuable is an abomination in the sight of God.

We live our lives to please others, to impress others, and this is God's assessment of it.

The Bible says it's an abomination in the sight of God.

It is disgusting in God's sight.

It makes God sick.

If I could use that terminology, it is it is an abomination.

God detests it, He hates it.

And so this the attitude of the Pharisees of trying to serve two masters, of trying to have two lords in your life, of trying to live with one foot in the church and one foot in the world, and only being concerned about how you look on the outside and ignoring what's happening on the inside.

God gives his assessment of the heart and he says it's an abomination in his sight.

Well, how are we justified before God?

The Pharisees here were trying to be, they were, they were concerned about being justified before men.

That was their concern.

They wanted to look good before men.

How are we justified before God?

How are we made righteous before God?

It isn't by moral reform, it isn't by fixing yourself up, it isn't by looking good.

The message of the gospel is we are justified, we are made righteous because of Jesus Christ.

It really goes back to the gospel that we are justified, we are made righteous when we place our trust in Jesus Christ and believe in his death on the cross as a payment for sin and his resurrection for our justification.

Jesus took upon himself the full penalty for our sins.

He died on the cross to pay the penalty that we deserve, so that we might be forgiven.

And more than that, Jesus lived a perfect life.

He lived a perfect life without sinning once.

And when he died on the cross and rose again, not only does he take the penalty for our sin upon himself, but he gives us his righteousness.

We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

When you turn from yourself and you turn from trying to earn your way to heaven, when you turn from trying to justify yourself, and you say, I have no hope, I have no way that I will ever be pleasing before God by working harder or doing more.

And I renounce that and I give it up.

And you turn to Christ and say, Jesus, I know that you died in the cross.

You died for my sins.

Please forgive me and come into my life.

The Bible says that you are forgiven and that you are declared righteous before God.

That you are in right standing before Him.

It's an external righteousness, it is an alien righteousness.

It is not yours by your good works, it is all of Christ and his perfect life and his sacrificial death for you.

And the Bible says that everyone who comes to Christ and asks for forgiveness receives forgiveness and is justified, is declared righteous before God.

Self-centered religion gratifies itself instead of pleasing God.

We saw that first of all.

Self-centered religion justifies itself before men instead of being justified by Christ.

Self-centered religion fails in both of these areas.

Fails in even gratifying itself, fails in justifying itself.

But there's a third failure that we see here.

And the third failure is this self-centered religion comforts itself rather than striving to enter the kingdom.

This may be a little bit more difficult to understand, but track with me.

In verse 16.

In verse 16, Jesus says this the law and the prophets were until John, and since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.

John the Baptist was the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets.

This is what Jesus says.

John was this transitional figure.

He was the close of the Old Testament, and he was the one who was to prepare the way of the Lord.

And in some sense, he inaugurated this new period.

He inaugurated, in a sense, with the coming of John and the declaration preparing the way of the Lord, he was the beginning of this new era.

And his purpose was to come in the Spirit and the power of Elijah and prepare the way for Christ.

This is what the Bible tells us.

But we, this side of Christ's coming, this side of the cross, are in a far more privileged position than John was.

In fact, Jesus himself says this in Matthew.

He says, Truly I say to you, those uh Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there is arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.

John the Baptist was greater than Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, greater than Moses, greater than David and Solomon and the kingdom.

John the Baptist was the greatest born among women up until that time.

He says, No one greater than was has been arisen that was greater than John the Baptist.

But then he says this at the end of Matthew 11, 11.

He says, Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Well, how can that be?

Why is that?

Well, John the Baptist, like all the rest of the Old Testament prophets, they were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah and believing and trusting in the promises of God, but they only saw in part.

With the coming of Christ, with the first advent of Christ, and with the written word after his resurrection, we have what they we have in full what they only had in part.

And so what with the with the advent of Christ and the inauguration of the kingdom of God, the good news of Christ is preached.

Jesus is the prophet, priest, and king, and he's come to die for the sins of his people.

And Jesus came preaching grace, and he would soon provide that grace through the cross.

So Jesus here says 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.

Well, what was the reaction of the Pharisees?

What was the reaction of the Pharisees to the message of Jesus?

Their reaction was indifference.

They were indifferent to the message of Jesus.

Jesus came, he preached, they saw the miracles, and they were indifferent to the things of God.

They were apathetic and indifferent to what was right there before them and the message of Christ.

Well, what should have been their reaction?

How should they have responded to the message of grace, to the kingdom, to the to the good news of the kingdom that Jesus is preaching?

How should they have responded?

He says at the end of verse 16.

He says, Everyone forces his way into it.

Their reaction should have been like those who heard and understood and believed.

Jesus elsewhere in Matthew 21, 31 and 32, he's confronting the religious leaders, the Pharisees, and he says this to them He says, Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him.

And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe in him.

And now with Christ coming and preaching the good news of the kingdom, he's coming preaching grace and letting them know what is happening and what he is going to do, and they're indifferent to the message and to the ministry of Christ.

Have any of you ever stayed up all night on Black Friday for all of the specials?

Anybody here?

Okay, there's a couple.

We have a counseling center that's available if you're up.

No, I I'm amazed that if you ever if you ever YouTube this, uh if you go on YouTube and you type like Walmart Black Friday videos or things like that, you've probably seen them in the news.

Uh it's nuts.

It is absolutely crazy.

They're all just packed in there at the door for like a$300 TV or something.

And they're all just packed in there at the door.

And and as soon as the doors are open, they're they're they're crawling over each other to try to get in.

I'm sure you've seen those on the news.

Every, if you watch the news on the Friday after Thanksgiving, they are striving and straining to get in for a TV, for a television.

And what Jesus says here is that's the attitude of those people.

That's the attitude that they ought to have, and that's the attitude that those who hear the message and understand it have.

There is a longing and a desire, and it's almost as if Jesus says here that they use force to enter it.

There is such a hunger in their hearts for the things of God.

And the Pharisees and all of their religion were indifferent, they were unmoved, they were unmotivated, they were unchanged.

And they ought to have been like the prostitutes and the tax collectors, who, when they heard the message, they saw as God was working in their hearts, they understood their emptiness and their bankruptcy, and they saw the gospel.

And as they responded to the work of God in their lives, but they were indifferent.

Self-centered religion fails because it gratifies itself, it fails because it justifies itself, it fails because it comforts itself.

They were more concerned about being comfortable than exerting any amount of effort.

They weren't unwilling to give up anything.

They weren't unwilling to do anything.

They were unwilling to repent, to see their sin, to see their need.

They were blind to the reality of what was before them.

And so they were unmoved.

And so they remained in their comfort.

Well, there's a fourth reason while why self-centered religion fails, and that's this.

Self-centered religion excuses itself rather than trusting in transforming grace.

Look at verses 17 and 18.

He says in verse 17, it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void.

And then in verse 18, he talks about marriage and divorce.

And I'm going to talk about that in greater detail in the coming weeks, and so I'll just explain it in the context here, and then we'll delve into it more directly coming up.

But he points out marriage and divorce as an example of God's standards.

True grace transforms a person's life.

When somebody comes to genuine faith in Jesus Christ, when they bow their head in their heart before the living God, there's a transformation that begins in that person's life.

Well, why does Jesus bring up the law here?

It seems kind of out of place when you're thinking about what we've just talked about.

It's all about money from the beginning of the chapter to the end of the chapter, and here, seemingly, there's this interruption, and he points to the law.

Well, we have a lot of confusion about what the law is and how the law is in the New Testament.

But we really need to distinguish two different aspects of the law or two different types of law in the Bible.

In the New Testament, uh differentiates these.

There's uh the first type of law, which is the ceremonial law.

This was the law of rules and regulations under Moses that were an illustration for what was to come.

And Jesus said he came to fulfill this law.

The ceremonial law through types and symbols, through sacrifice and ritual, was pointing forward to the coming of Christ.

And of this aspect of the law, Jesus says in Matthew 5, 17, do not think I have come to abolish the law on the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

And when when the reality came, that which was a shadow was done away with.

And the ceremonial law was a shadow pointing to the reality of who Christ was.

But there's another aspect of the law that is still in effect and still binding, and that is the moral law.

And the moral law is a reflection of the character of God.

It points us to who God is, and God does not change.

And so the moral law never changes, nor is it ever set aside.

But why does Jesus bring it up now?

Well, he does because the Pharisees were legalists.

They thought they could be justified by their behavior, and they thought they could keep the law.

They didn't understand the weight of the moral law, and it was impossible for them to keep.

Here's the problem with the legalist.

A legalist tells himself, I'm going to be right before God by how I live my life, by how I by the things that I do.

And the problem is, is inevitably we realize that we fall short of that standard that God has set.

And so what do we do?

We want to justify ourselves so we lower the bar.

So we change what is expected.

We change our definition of sin.

We change our definition of what's right and wrong in order to justify ourselves before God by trying to obey the law.

But the fact is that we fall short of glorifying God the way we should.

Now, the Pharisees, when they looked at marriage, they they began to lower the bar.

They began to lower the standard.

In fact, some of them went so far as to say that you could get divorced if you found somebody who was better looking or if your wife burnt your breakfast.

So they were lowering the standard in order to justify themselves.

But what Jesus is reminding us here is that God's moral standard does not change.

And that if a person were trying to get to heaven by being a good person, by being moral, they would have to live a perfect life and never sin once.

And that's impossible.

And that's why we need grace.

That's why the gospel is good news.

Because what we can't do, Jesus Christ did by dying on the cross.

And when we transfer our trust from ourselves and our own righteousness and place our trust in Christ, his death and resurrection, then we're forgiven.

And what's amazing is that when we do that, God enables us to do what we can't do.

In fact, the Bible tells us that when we come to Christ, God writes his law on our hearts.

And so there's an internal desire to do what we can't do on our own, and there's a power available that we don't have by ourselves.

Self-centered religion fails.

It fails in every regard.

The remedy is to come to Christ.

And we need to look at ourselves as Christians, and we need to understand that we can slip into the same trap in different ways and in the same ways that the Pharisees did.

Self-centered religion is doomed to failure.

If you're tired, if you're weary, you probably slipped into self-centered religion.

Forgiveness in life comes in Christ.

Let me close us in prayer.

Father, it's so easy for us to fall into the trap of performance, of trying to look good, of trying to be righteous in our own strength and in our own eyes.

And we get so tired and we fail.

Father, I pray for those who are here that may not know you.

Maybe that's all they know is religion.

And they've never placed their trust in Christ.

I pray, Father, for you to do a work in their lives that they will cry out to you for forgiveness and for new life.

And I pray for each one of us, Lord, that we might not forget the gospel.

That we don't fall into this trap that is so easy to do.

And so, Lord, do your work in our hearts, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen.