The Gospel of Luke 16:10-18 Wisdom under the Law of Moses
Luke 16:10-18 · Vern Peterman · Feb 21, 2016
Gospel of Luke, No. 61
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492652942397

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We have a fairly brief passage here this morning, and there are some reasons for that. This is Luke 16, 14 through 18. And so we'll continue investigating Jesus here as we go through this passage. Luke 16, 14 begins like this. Now it's continuing on with the Pharisees. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at him.

So the people looked up and the Pharisees looked down is kind of the way we introduce it here. The people of Israel in general looked up to the Pharisees. They thought of them as the heroes. The Pharisees were fine with that arrangement since they looked down on everybody else.

And about the only ones in their small groups or rather reclusive groups were the Sadducees, who were kind of off to the side, tended to be a smaller group and they concentrated themselves around the temple. And then you had the Essenes, who absolutely hated the Sadducees and the Pharisees and so they stayed away and that was fine with everybody else.

So the Pharisees here, they had all 613 individual statutes of the Law of Moses all worked out to thousands more laws. Lots and lots more laws and special considerations and special loopholes. Just for the Sabbath, they had 39 different considerations as to what was work. Thirty-nine, plus a list of exceptions.

And Jesus kept going after that because miracles were not on the list of exceptions. So they also thanked God that they were men and not totally untrustworthy women. There were no women Pharisees, essentially, because of that. So in fact, and this may come as a surprise, the areas where Jesus agreed with the Pharisees, or vice versa, of the various groups around Israel, with the exception, I would say, of John the Baptist and those who followed him, The Pharisees were the group most in agreement with the doctrines Jesus taught. Isn't that interesting? You usually think of them being in constant conflict. We've got more dealing with the Pharisees to go ahead of this chapter. But what we see is lots of conflict, and Jesus will speak out against the Pharisees.

But in fact, they were the group in greatest agreement with Jesus. They agreed that, yes, there was a resurrection. Yes, indeed, there was a Messiah. Yes, indeed, there was a coming kingdom on earth where the Messiah would reign in Israel from Jerusalem.

The Apostle Paul even claimed to be a Pharisee publicly, right? He was trained under Gamaliel, who's quoted once in the Book of Acts and referenced later on. And Paul the Pharisee, many years later, became a believer in Christ. So here's the Pharisees.

The Pharisees actually wrote quite a bit. A lot of it was written down somewhat later while it was well known that the Sadducees love money. Everybody knew the Sadducees love money. The Pharisees own writings point out to them that the Pharisees are often fond of money as well. They really love the stuff. The words lovers of money that you see in this passage here. in the New American Standard Translation, is from one Greek word that means to have an affectionate attachment to silver, in love with their silver.

Now, Jesus had told three parables to correct the Pharisees. One of those was about the sheep that is lost and found. One of them is about the coin that is lost and found. And the third one is about the son that is lost and found. And it's that third one that included the older son who was representing the Pharisees. So Jesus first told those parables.

So after three parables were designed to send the Pharisees a message and to correct their misunderstandings, did they understand yet? Did they get it? Well, not yet. Jesus also told a parable about an unjust steward having to do with how money is spent. And he conveyed after that other principles of stewardship. And we could ask the question, did that turn on their light bulbs? Not so much.

So Luke 16.15 indicates it's scoffing. Pharisees are scoffing at him. Through Him, everything was made that was made. Here is Christ, the Creator of everything.

Colossians 1.16.

Standing right in front of them, soon He would tell them, this is out of John 8.24, unless you believe that I am He, you're going to die in your sins. Positionally in those sins. Unless you believe that I am He, That's how you're going to die. You're going to die positionally in the sins. Very soon, He would die on the cross for their sins.

He loved them that much. Isn't that amazing? We think of the Pharisees, and Jesus spoke against them a number of times. But you know, He loved them enough to die for them. That's really rather amazing. One day, He'll return to the land of Israel to rescue the Israelites. then rule and reign over the land and people of Israel as their king, and rule and reign as king of kings and lord of lords over the Gentile nations? But they scoffed at him nonetheless. He said to them, You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

He uses this word justify. We need to talk about that a little bit. In Romans, to justify is God doing the justifying. God is the one who declares someone righteous or not, right? So that's how it's used in Romans, and that's how Paul uses it. In James, the book of James, he wrote that works are what justify a person before people.

It's that second use in James that the Pharisees grabbed onto. Only thing is, that's all they cared about. Do I look righteous before other people? That's what they focused on. So that's what they sought to do, to justify themselves, to appear righteous so that other people would declare them righteous. They didn't care. if God declared them righteous.

And one of the things that Jesus talks about here is the Lord knows your hearts. This is a truth taught from the Old Testament into the New. 1 Chronicles 28 9, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts. Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. The Lord sees into and evaluates the hearts.

Here's Acts 1.24. And they prayed and said, You, Lord, know the hearts of all men. This is when the disciples are selecting a replacement for Judas, who had taken his own life.

Romans 8.27. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is. That is, Christ searches the hearts.

And Revelation 2.23, all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. The Lord knows hearts.

Are there any exceptions to that? No. There isn't any way that we can get away from the Lord. There is no place to do that. And there isn't any way that we can hide our hearts from the Lord. There's no way to do that. So God knows your hearts. And actually, the Pharisees would have agreed with that, based on the Old Testament references we just looked at. So the Pharisees would have agreed with that statement, and yet, there were things they didn't understand. What the Pharisees didn't get, what they didn't understand, was that the God who knows hearts was standing right there in front of them. They didn't recognize that.

He who searches the hearts is Christ Himself. He who searches the minds and hearts. Jesus said, God knows your hearts, and He could well have said, and I do too. Right? I know your hearts. This God who knows their hearts, who is standing right there, right in front of them, will one day be sitting in judgment while they stand before Him. Isn't that something? to be judged for their works, their works that only were designed to impress others. The book of works will record all the things that they have done and not.

Here's Luke 16, 16. The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. And since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is forcing his way into it. Now, forcing his way into it, we'll want to take a look at that, won't we? So first let's look at the Law and the Prophets.

This was a way of summarizing the Old Testament. It began with the Law of Moses in the first five books of the Bible, sometimes called the Pentateuch or the Torah. And then all the way to the end of the Old Testament, which consists of larger and smaller books called the Prophets, ending with Malachi. So in between there were the historical and wisdom and poetic books.

They're also part of what we call the Old Testament. By the way, the Jews don't call it the Old Testament, right? Because they don't call the New Testament the New Testament either, right? So the Law and the Prophets was kind of a way of saying things like the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and the end, or we actually say in the English, A to Z. Right?

And everything in between is included. Right? Let me say that. So, the Law and the Prophets was another way of listing the first part and listing the last part and including everything in between. It's a way of calling the Old Testament, which they would call the Tenach. So, the Gospel of the Kingdom was preached. John preached the Gospel of the Kingdom when he cried out, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Right?

And in fact, Jesus said those very same words in Matthew 4.17.

And it says specifically in Matthew 4.23 and 9.35 that Jesus went about preaching the gospel of the kingdom using those specific words and terms. So the gospel of the kingdom was preached. That was different from the gospel of substitution. That is the gospel that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again. So that was a different gospel. This is the gospel of the kingdom having to do with there is a coming kingdom, and you need to understand that the Messiah is presenting himself now.

Do you embrace that? So what about the words, everyone is forcing his way into it? John the Baptist and Jesus both said repent. Now, let's talk about repent. Repent is changing one's mind. That's all it is. Changing one's mind in the biblical context so as to end up in belief. That's what repent is. Change one's mind so as to end up in belief.

So, they both said repent as the starting point. The Pharisees, however, insisted on getting into the kingdom their own way. We don't want to repent. As a matter of fact, when the Sadducees and the Pharisees came down to see John the Baptist, and he was preaching, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, what did he say?

You brood of vipers! And other such kind and gentle words. You brood of vipers, right? Because why? They weren't really wanting to repent. They wanted to go through the motions. Hey, come do this baptism thing. Get us wet too. Right? And he says, you guys aren't repenting. You're not changing your mind so as to believe.

So here's Luke 16, 17. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail. Here's in Matthew 5, 17 through 19, some similar words, and especially verse 18. Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Verse 18 is the one most like what we just read here in Luke.

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. And then verse 19, whoever annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

So here's the Hebrew alphabet, and we won't try to memorize it here this morning, OK? But what we will take a look at is this letter Yod. And so what they used to do, this yod was just one stroke. And they would typically put a little hook, or it's called a thorn, along the top. And so here's this small letter. It's the smallest Hebrew letter, it's yod. And they'd put a little tiny hook on it. And so that was what he was referring to here in terms of one jot, that's the yod, or tittle, that little hook, that thorn, off to the side.

So all 613 laws of the Law of Moses would be written down, and the scribes would write all these laws down, get all of them down just right. But the Law of Moses was applicable to the Jews in the land of Israel. Now, what's the problem with the Law of Moses? It was inaugurated under Moses, and it applied to the Jews there as they were going into the land of Israel. The problem is there's no empowerment. There's no empowerment to live it out. It's like the song goes, Do this and live the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. The law has no empowerment with it. That's the problem.

So God solved that problem in different ways with the church and with Israel. Grace, completely apart from the law, is the way God intends to do things. And He does by empowering and enabling and energizing the believer, providing the resources to live out righteousness, Christ's very life. The New Covenant, however, for the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom, they will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit Unlike us, who are to live life apart from the law, they will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to know the law, every single one, all 613, and to live it out. And therefore, they will be blessed in that coming kingdom.

For us, in Romans 6.14, it says, for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace, not under One, not under 10, not under 613, not under law at all, but under grace. Romans 7, 4-6, Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body. to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not the oldness of the letter."

And we can find similar messages in Galatians 2.19, where we've died to the law, and Ephesians 2.14 and 15, where the law has been put out of the way as a dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, and other passages as well.

So here's Luke 6.18. This is the last one Randy read. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery. Now people will read that and not think of cultural context for why would Jesus say this with the Pharisees right here. So let's take a look at that.

The Jewish two-court system. The Jews established two different court systems in the first century B.C. And a Jew could choose to conduct legal matters under one system or the other, including divorce. As a matter of fact, remember, Joseph, before he knew, Joseph, the would-be father of Jesus, right?

Before he knew that Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, he was planning on putting Mary away quietly. What did that mean? He was planning on choosing the court system where they didn't ask any questions about why you want a divorce. Because in those days, you had Rabbi Hillel said a man could divorce a woman for any reason. Therefore, Joseph was going to go to that court where they didn't ask any questions about why you want a divorce. He was engaged in those days, the engagement also required a divorce.

You couldn't just break it off informally. Whereas Rabbi Shammai said that the divorce was permitted only for unfaithfulness. Four reasons. Unfaithfulness, abandonment, lack of support or denial of affections. Four reasons that were allowed under the course of Shammai. But they asked the question, Why do you want a divorce? And it better be one of those four, or the court of Shammai would not grant you the divorce.

The vast majority of people went to the court of Hillel, right? No questions asked. I don't want to talk about this, right? It's tough enough as it is. So that was the Jewish two-court system. Hillel and Shammai had very different standards. And by the way, both of them were Pharisees, right? Both of them were Pharisees. Jesus agreed with the court of Shammai. It's apparent from passages like Matthew 19.

But each court accepted the other court's decisions. So it really didn't matter. So you go to the court of Shammai and you get a divorce, and then I go to the court of Hillel and that divorce is accepted and I can get remarried. So that's the way it works. But what Jesus was saying is, because you guys cross-contaminate these courts, It doesn't matter. All of your divorces are invalid, right? All of your divorces are invalid. So marriages and divorces were really invalid in both courts.

That meant that Jews en masse were violating the law of Moses, right? And the children of many of the invalid marriages were then illegitimate children. not eligible for the inheritance that they were getting. And people were going into the temple who were not qualified to go into the temple.

It should have been death penalty for them to go in, including a great many of the priests. So you can imagine when Jesus said these words, which in the cultural context, when Jesus said these words, these guys were stunned. These guys were stunned because all of them were guilty. And they were going into the temple defiled. And they were handing off inheritances that were illegitimate.

Breaking the law again and again and again. So that really would have shook them up. So rather, however, rather than simply reading this verse and think, oh, heavens, divorce and remarriage is some terrible, awful thing. What I'd like to do is to switch to what did the Apostle Paul, a Pharisee, say about marriage? And by the way, it isn't sidestepping the issue at all, as we'll point out in a minute.

Husbands, love your wives, in Ephesians 5.25, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

This is sacrificial love, where Christ loved the church and gave himself up for the church. He paid the bride price in his own blood. So this is sacrificial love. It's motivated by love and joy. One of the things you see right in that verse there, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

And the same message is carried in Ephesians 5, 2 and Galatians 2, 20. He loved and he gave. He loved and he gave. He loved and he gave. Joy as well because of Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Love brought him to the cross. Joy had Him looking beyond the cross, right? So here's sacrificial love, the first of the four kinds of love that a husband, according to Paul's instructions here, a husband is to love his wife with. Next, we have sanctifying love.

This is spiritual care, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. And by the way, this word, Word, is not the written word. It's the spoken word. He talks to her about spiritual things. That's what the husband is to do.

That he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. And that holy and blameless phrase is not showing up here for the first time. Ephesians 1, verse 4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless.

So this is a sanctifying love. This is spiritual intimacy. This is spiritual intimacy, that second kind of love. Now, the next two we're going to talk about here, and the reason I'm making a connection, is caring love, this is caring for physical and emotional needs, and bonded love, this is physical intimacy.

Failure in those two, either one, qualified for a divorce. It didn't mean divorce had to happen. It allowed it. It allowed it. Failure in those last two, qualified for divorce. But do you notice something in here? Paul never mentions it. Why? Because his aim is not to find a reason for divorce. His aim is that we might know positively how God intends that we love. Right? Isn't that neat? So he's not saying, and these things will allow you to get a divorce. He's saying, no, positively, this is the way love ought to be shown. Right? Let's not talk about the divorce thing.

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body.

So this is a caring for physical and emotional needs. This is emotional intimacy. So you see that this has a particular sequence. One of the things we had a single seminar yesterday and we said that really these first three kinds of love are loves that can be expressed and ought to be expressed among us as believers, right? Sacrificial love, one for another. Spiritual care, sanctifying love. A caring for physical and emotional needs.

These are things that can be expressed and ought to be expressed actually among believers. within the body of Christ. And this fourth one, then, is the one that's uniquely for marriage. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. And this mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

This is a quote from Genesis 2.24, and when it says in verse 32, this mystery is great, that does not mean it's really, really mysterious. It means it's something that previously was unknown, but now is revealed and made clear. That's something that we covered in the elective class that I've been holding in the office here in the last few weeks. And so this word mystery, something previously unrevealed, now revealed and made clear.

So he says, I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church, that Christ and the church, are the example for husband and wife is a new revelation. That's a new revelation. And it's only really found in any great degree right here. So this is physical intimacy. So what we see here is the first thing is sacrificial love motivated by love and joy.

And then we see spiritual intimacy, emotional intimacy, and then physical intimacy is the last and final one. And as we mentioned here, these last two failures in those are reasons for allowing divorce. It doesn't mean that divorce must take place. Jesus' point in bringing up the divorce with the Pharisees standing right there is actually just to stun them that they might realize you're breaking the law all the time. And all those priests are too. And everybody going in and out is breaking the law constantly because your marriages and your divorces are all polluted. They were stunned. They were shocked.

But thankfully, the Lord has revealed here What does God intend positively rather than just simply making some statement about divorce? What does God have in mind? This reveals it very well and very clearly. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you've revealed truth because you love us and care for us. We thank you as we go through this. We see Jesus having tensions with the Pharisees, but in the end, you want us to have relationships with one another that are based on relationship and fellowship with you. And we thank you for that. What a gift. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.