Luke chapter 6 verses 37 to 49.
He also told them a parable.
Can a blind man lead a blind man?
Will they not both fall into a pit?
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye.
When you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye, you hypocrite.
First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.
For each tree is known by its own fruit.
For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
The good person, out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good.
And the evil person, out of his evil treasure, produces evil.
For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you?
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like.
He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.
When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.
This is God's authoritative word.
Heavenly Father, we come to you now wanting to hear from you.
Lord, apart from the humility that Christ exemplified for us, we cannot rightly hear this message.
To peel back our self-righteousness, our pride.
To humble ourselves.
To follow you, who alone is the true teacher.
That can lead us to eternal life and salvation.
So won't you please lead us, speak to us through your word.
Humble us and help us to believe and obey.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Last week we studied the core of Jesus' ethical teaching.
And the command to love our neighbors as ourselves.
And the command even to love our enemies.
And do good even to those who hate us and who do no good to us.
And in today's passage, Jesus concludes teaching by really calling for self-examination.
That are we true followers of Christ or not?
What do true followers of Christ look like?
And the main point of this passage is that we should follow Christ,
who is the good teacher that saves us from our sins.
And we'll just go through the sections.
Forgiveness of Christ, follower of Christ, fruit of Christ,
and the foundation of Christ that Jesus talks about in turn.
And in the first section that I'm covering, verses 37 to 38,
I read it last week because it's actually really part of last week's passage that I read.
It fits better in that context.
But because the sermon was getting too long, I didn't preach that.
So I'm just going to tack this on to the last week's message if I can and go with the rest of it.
Because in the preceding passage, Jesus taught us to love our enemies and do good even to those who are evil
because we're imitating our heavenly Father.
And verse 36 ended by saying,
And so 37 and 38 are really continuing that thought, explaining what being merciful looks like.
And Jesus explains that command to be merciful by giving two further negative commands
and two positive commands that go with that.
So he says,
Judge not, and you will not be judged.
Condemn not, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and it will be given to you.
This is a favorite verse that non-Christians like to quote two Christians.
Maybe you've had this quoted to you before.
Didn't Jesus teach you not to judge?
Stop telling me that what I'm doing is sinful.
You're so judgmental.
However, the command not to judge here does not mean that we cannot form any kind of moral judgments.
If you believe in any kind of morality, you have to form moral judgments in order to function in society, right?
You have to be able to say that some things are morally right while other things are morally wrong.
That kind of judgment is fundamental to and necessary for anyone who has a conscience.
So the command to judge not does not mean that you shouldn't form any moral judgments.
If that were the case, there would be no rule of law, no courts, no church discipline,
which blatantly contradicts the teaching of Scripture from other places.
So the command to judge not is rather more helpfully explained by the parallel phrase in verse 37.
Condemn not.
There's nothing wrong with calling sin a sin,
as long as that moral judgment is shared with love
and an earnest desire that that person would repent from his or her sin
and turn to God for forgiveness.
But when we judge, not inviting them toward God's mercy,
but instead shunning them with condemnation,
we're disobeying Jesus' command.
If we're self-righteous, if instead of mourning over people's sins,
we are gloating over their sins
and eagerly pointing the finger of condemnation toward them,
then we're disobeying Jesus' command.
So in that case, we're placing ourselves in the seat of God's judgment
where only He deserves to sit.
And if we presume to sit on God's judgment seat by condemning others,
God Himself says that He will condemn us.
The assumed subject of the passive verbs in verses 37 and 38 is God.
Judge not, and you will not be judged by God.
Condemn not, and you will not be condemned by God.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven by God.
Give, and it will be given to you by God.
This is what Greek grammarians call the divine passive.
It assumes that God's the one who's acting and working in us and doing these things.
And earlier in verse 31, Jesus commanded us,
As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
And so here in verses 37 and 38, God promised that as we do to others, He will do to us.
This does not mean that we are saved by our good works.
Salvation is a gift from God.
We are saved by God.
We are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
But those who are saved do good works.
You guys see the difference?
And because those who are saved do good works,
our good works become the basis for God's judgment in the end.
We are saved by grace, but judged by our works.
This is why we are commanded in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32,
to forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you.
It's because God has already forgiven us.
We are to forgive one another.
And God's forgiveness is the basis for our forgiveness.
And for this reason, when we don't forgive one another,
God will judge us as unforgiven people.
We will not receive His forgiveness on the day of judgment.
That's the meaning of condemn not, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
And because forgiveness involves bearing the pain
and really the cost of that person's offense against you,
it's naturally connected to the idea of giving.
And verse 38 says,
Give, and it will be given to you.
In the same way that we generously offer forgiveness to those who wrong us,
we are to give generously of our finances as well.
And Jesus promises this to those who are generous.
He says,
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together,
running over will be put into your lap.
For with the measure you use,
it will be measured back to you.
This is an illustration from kind of farming and commerce of agricultural goods.
For example, when selling corn kernels in this day and age,
they would really pour a measure into a container.
And they would shake it up to make sure that it occupies all this,
there's no empty space in the container.
And they would press it down to make sure that there is no extra room.
They'll pour some more, then they shall get some more.
And then they'll literally, in order to give a full measure,
keep on top of it so that it's overflowing,
and then pour that into someone's lap
to ensure that they are not getting deprived or cheated in any way.
So that's a way a very generous seller would pour,
lavish this thing that they're getting from them.
And that's what God promises.
If you give generously, if you give to others,
I will pour back to you in good measure,
pressed down, shaken together, running over onto your lap.
And then for with the measure you use,
it will be measured back to you.
And this is consistent with the way God has taught us throughout Scripture.
In Proverbs 11, 24 to 25,
It says,
To give to those who don't do evil to us,
and to lend to those,
give to those who have no way of returning the favor in any way.
Because the reason, the basis for this is that God will reward us.
If you give to poor who cannot repay you,
God will reward you for that.
And so entrusting ourselves to God's repayment
is what enables us to give selflessly and sacrificially in this life,
without expecting anything in return.
And so then that tells us that the key to Christian generosity
is not wealth,
but faith in God's generosity.
We give not out of the abundance of wealth,
but out of the abundance of faith
that God, who is generous, will give.
That's the first point.
And the second point,
we see what it means to be the follower of Christ,
the forgiveness of Christ.
It goes with last week's passage.
And here, Jesus really is concluding
His main ethical teaching,
and starting in verse 39,
He calls His followers to self-examination,
and He exhorts them to respond to His teaching
by following Him and obeying His commands.
So He begins in verse 39.
He also told them a parable.
Can a blind man lead a blind man?
Will they not both fall into a pit?
So Jesus uses two illustrations here
to make the point that His hearers should follow Him.
First illustration is one of a blind man, right?
Following a blind man.
And of course, it's absurd for a blind man
to try to lead another blind man.
And Jesus uses this picture to warn His disciples
that they should be careful whom they follow.
Because following someone who is spiritually blind
will lead them to fall into a pit.
And as I mentioned last week,
Jesus' teaching here is directed primarily
at His disciples.
But there is a larger crowd,
those who are around Him,
that are not His disciples,
which includes probably His critics,
the Pharisees and the scribes as well.
They're part of the great multitude of the people
who are not His disciples.
And especially because Jesus' teaching
was preceded by,
His sermon on the plain
was preceded by His confrontation with the Pharisees.
It's hard to ignore the fact
that Jesus has the Pharisees in mind
in the background as He says this.
And in Matthew 15, 14,
actually Jesus explicitly calls out the Pharisees
as blind guides.
So He says,
If the blind lead the blind,
both will fall into a pit.
And Jesus makes a follow-up point in verse 40.
A disciple is not above his teacher,
but everyone, when he is fully trained,
will be like his teacher.
In the ancient world,
the teacher-disciple-student relationship
was much more personal and intimate
than it is now.
Nowadays, there's a lot more self-study, right?
Because there's an abundance of books
and other digital resources
that we can access so readily available.
But in the ancient world,
they didn't have that,
so the students follow their teachers around everywhere,
and they would watch them
and learn from their example,
and they would learn through oral instruction primarily,
if the teacher is teaching them
in what they say to them.
And so given that background,
Jesus is teaching His disciples
that the teacher sets the upper limit,
the ceiling of what the disciples can learn
and become.
And so because of that,
they should be all the more thoughtful and careful
about whom they choose to follow as their teacher.
The implication.
The implication, of course,
is that they should not follow blind guides
like the Pharisees,
but that they should follow Him
and seek to become more like Him.
So who would you say are the people in your life
that you follow?
Who are the teachers in your life?
The one you tend to rely on for guidance in life.
Maybe it's a college professor,
a pastor, or a community group leader,
an author,
a YouTube personality?
Whoever it might be,
you should make sure that your teacher
is following Christ.
Because you're going to end up where he or she is.
And if you are someone that others look up to and follow,
then you should make sure that you are not blind
and that you are faithfully following Christ.
As Robert Murray Mishane,
he's a 19th century Scottish pastor,
he once famously said this,
the greatest need of my people
is my own holiness.
Your followers will become like you.
That's a sobering thought
that should make any aspiring leader tremble.
Makes me tremble.
Continuing the theme of spiritual sight,
Jesus says in verses 41 to 42,
Why do you see the speck
that is in your brother's eye,
but do not notice the log
that is in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
Brother, let me take out the speck
that is in your eye.
When you yourself do not see the log
that is in your own eye,
you hypocrite.
First, take the log out of your own eye
and then you will see clearly
to take out the speck
that is in your brother's eye.
The word log refers to
one of the main beams of a house.
When you're building a house,
like that cross beam
that goes through the entire structure.
And speck refers to a small flake of wood,
something like sawdust maybe
that you've seen before.
And so imagine two construction workers
building a house together
and one of them has the cross beam
of the house sticking out of his eye.
Obviously, that's not even possible.
He'd be dead, right?
But just imagine the scene.
And this is supposed to be funny.
And he looks at his co-worker
who has a little sawdust in his eye
and he looks to him and says,
Hey, man, hey,
you have sawdust in your eye.
Come here.
Let me get that out for you.
It's ridiculous, right?
It's Jesus using a humorous illustration
to expose our prideful human tendency
to be hyper-aware of the shortcomings
and sins of other people
but unaware of our own shortcomings and sins.
That's a natural human sinful tendency.
Jesus calls this man with the log in his eye
a hypocrite,
which in the Greek means actor or pretender.
The man is a pretender
because if he were really serious
about dealing with sin,
he would have dealt with his own sin,
own graver sins,
before confronting his brother.
But instead, consciously or not,
he pretends to be concerned
for the holiness of his brother
when he is really primarily concerned
with elevating himself above his brother.
It's so easy to fall into this kind of hypocrisy, isn't it?
A boss at work berates an employee
for a small mistake that he made,
pointing out the fact that he has no attention to detail
and that he is incompetent
and wasting his time and pay.
But as he does this,
he fails to see that his self-righteousness,
unrighteousness, prideful judgment,
excessive anger, and harsh speech
are far bigger problems
than his employees' lack of attention to detail.
A wife seems lonely and depressed
and asks her husband to stay home one evening
to spend time with her
instead of going out to the work social.
The husband responds by trying to remove
the speck from her eye,
giving a sanctimonious lecture
on how much he sacrifices for her,
telling her callously
that she just needs to be more joyful in the Lord,
and finally accusing her of being selfish
and needy.
But as he does this,
the husband fails to see
the log in his own eye,
that because of his daily evening ritual
of sports watching and video gaming,
and because of his weekly weekend ritual
of golf outings with his buddies,
that he has hardly nourished and cherished his wife
as the Bible calls him to,
and his selfishness and neglect of his wife
are far greater faults before the eyes of God
than his wife's despondency.
He's like an ophthalmologist
trying to perform a delicate eye surgery
while he himself has a golf ball-sized cataract
in his eyes
that prevents him from seeing clearly.
Now, all this to say,
this doesn't mean that,
as Christians,
we can never bring correction
to a fellow believer.
Colossians 3.16 tells us,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another
in all wisdom.
We're commanded,
every single believer,
to admonish one another,
to speak the truth in love to one another.
The Bible commands this.
But it does mean
that we should examine ourselves
and acknowledge our own faults
and confess our own sins
before confronting someone else.
Our own shortcomings and sins
can blind us from seeing other people's
shortcomings and sins clearly.
So what are some logs in your life?
Of course, the trouble is that
for some of us,
we have had these logs
lodged in our eyes for so long,
it's hard for us to see it.
Lorraine Quig,
who was an FBI
counterintelligence operative,
an undercover agent for 25 years,
knows something about deception.
And she writes in her book
that the most difficult kind of deception
to uncover
is actually self-deception.
She says,
we've carefully,
she says here,
we tell ourselves
we want to know the truth,
but we're very selective
about the kind of truth we seek.
About others?
Yes.
And usually about world events
and situations that impact us directly.
But we are less receptive
to revelations about ourselves.
We've carefully packaged ourselves
to look and act
in a manner that ensures success
in the world.
Our ego has dressed us up
for so long
that many of us
don't even know
how to begin
to peel back
the layers of illusion,
to expose cold,
hard facts
about ourselves.
That's why we need help.
So take time this week
to ask a trusted Christian brother
or sister
to help you identify
any logs
in your life
that you're
oblivious to
but it's obvious
to others.
The existence of logs
in our eyes
necessitates
mutual admonishment
among church members.
But before admonishing
one another,
we should examine
ourselves.
That's the call.
And having spoken
of the blind,
leading the blind,
and a man whose sight
is obscured by a log
trying to help another man
with a speck in his eye,
Jesus explains
the need for self-examination
further in verses 43 to 45.
This is where he talks
about the fruit
of Christ.
We know that this passage
is a further explanation
of the preceding verses
because it begins
with the word for.
He says,
For,
no good tree
bears bad fruit,
nor again does a bad tree
bear good fruit.
For each tree
is known by its own fruit.
For figs are not gathered
from thorn bushes,
nor are grapes
picked from a bramble bush.
The good person
out of the good treasure
of his heart
produces good.
And the evil person
out of his evil treasure
produces evil.
For out of the abundance
of the heart
his mouth speaks.
Once again,
the theme
is self-examination.
This time,
Jesus begins
with the very simple
observation
that a good tree
cannot bear bad fruit,
and that a bad tree
cannot bear good fruit.
This is an impossibility.
A good tree
cannot bear bad fruit.
Likewise,
thorn bushes
don't produce figs,
nor do bramble bushes
produce grapes.
Figs are a delicious,
nutritious fruit
that grow in the Middle East,
and of course,
you wouldn't expect
to find that
among the thorn bushes.
And the bramble bush,
likewise,
has prickles and thorns,
and its leaves
are serrated.
You can get cut
by the leaves as well.
So it might make
a good alternative
for a barbed wire,
but you're not going
to find any grapes
growing on them,
and this is
the obvious observation.
But from this,
Jesus makes
the insightful
spiritual observation
that the good person
out of the good treasure
of his heart
produces good,
and the evil person
out of his evil treasure
produces evil,
for out of the abundance
of the heart
his mouth speaks.
There are several things
that are very interesting
about this,
about verse 45.
First,
Jesus doesn't use
the same absolute
formulation
that he used
in his illustrations.
Notice that Jesus
doesn't say
the good person
does not
or cannot
produce evil.
He does not say
the evil person
does not
or cannot
produce good.
Instead,
Jesus rewards it
in a general
positive formulation.
He says,
the good person
out of the good
treasure of his heart
produces good,
and the evil person
out of his evil treasure
produces evil.
This is a general truth.
It's not that
this is what
is generally true
of good people
and good evil people,
that you can tell
by their fruit
what they do
in their lives.
We saw earlier
that Jesus called
his disciples
to do good
even to their enemies.
So the same idea
here of doing good
refers to doing
something that's
morally good,
something good works,
what we might call
good works.
And so he makes
the point,
it's not that a good
person can never
do any wrong,
but that there's
a consistency there
and a pattern there
that a good person
does good things.
Because what the person
does flows out
from the treasure
of his heart.
This is an extremely
important principle
because our actions
and speech
are not caused
by our circumstances
or our environment,
but by our hearts.
it's our sinful
human tendency
to blame others.
And so we say,
well, if my roommates
weren't so lazy
and incompetent,
then I wouldn't be
so frustrated and angry.
It's tempting
to think that way,
but the sinful anger
comes from
your own heart.
If only I made
more money,
then I wouldn't be
so greedy
and stingy.
It's tempting
to think that way,
but greed
comes from
your own heart.
The circumstances
provide the context
for your behavior,
but they are not
the cost.
After a concrete floor
is laid
in a building,
on a building,
sometimes engineers
do a load test
to investigate
its structural integrity.
If there's not
enough compressive
strength in the concrete,
it will crack
under the weight.
And when concrete
fails in this way,
the cause of the failure
is not the weight,
but the concrete's
lack of structural integrity.
It was already
defective,
and the weight
merely exposed
that defect.
And that's the same
thing here.
This calls for
honest self-evaluation.
We should look
around ourselves,
look at the fruit
of our lives,
in our families,
in our church,
in our workplaces.
Am I bearing
good fruit
or bad fruit?
Because the fruit
we produce
outwardly reflects
what's inside
our hearts.
While this is true
generally of all
behaviors,
Jesus has a
particular emphasis,
focus in this passage
on our speech.
He concludes
verse 45.
This is the second
surprising thing
about this verse.
For out of the
abundance of the
heart,
his mouth speaks.
The heart is
the fountain
of the mouth.
What comes out
of the mouth
comes up
from the heart.
This focus
on speech
connects this passage
back to verses
39 to 42,
where Jesus
mentioned a teacher
who misleads
his disciple
and a man
who brings
misguided correction
to his brother.
There's a particular
warning here
to those who
aspire to teach
others,
those who speak
a lot.
For out of the
abundance,
the overflow
of the heart,
your mouth speaks.
So we are to
guard our hearts,
guard your inner
life,
guard what you
love and cherish
in your heart,
and make sure
that you examine
the fruit of any
teacher you acquire
for yourself.
who then
is the teacher
that we should
follow?
That's the main
point that Jesus
has been getting
at all this time,
and he makes it
explicit in verses
46 to 49,
when he talks
about the foundation
of Christ.
He says in verses
46 to 47,
why do you call
me Lord,
Lord,
and not do
what I tell you?
Everyone who
comes to me
and hears my
words and does
them,
I will show
you what he
is like.
What's the point
of calling Jesus
Lord,
or Master,
Teacher,
or God,
if you don't
do what he
tells you?
The repetition
of the word
Lord is emphatic,
and it kind of
almost suggests
this kind of
insincere
servility.
It's someone
who is fawning
over Jesus.
Oh, Lord,
Lord,
teach us.
Lord,
lead us.
Lord,
speak to us.
But it's all
a show.
It's a hypocrisy.
Because they
don't do
what he
says.
Earlier in
chapter,
earlier in
this chapter,
Luke 6,
verse 18,
before Jesus
began the
sermon,
we are told
that a great
multitude of
people came
to hear him.
The word
come and
word hear,
these two
words are
repeated in
verse 47,
as Jesus
brings this
sermon to a
close.
But he adds
a third word,
a new word.
He says,
everyone who
comes to
me and
hears my
words and
does them,
I will show
you what he
is like.
It's,
yes,
they've come
to hear him,
but coming
is not
enough.
Hearing is
not enough.
You must
do what
Jesus has
taught you
to do.
As
Christians,
we love to
pray for
discernment and
guidance in
our lives,
don't we?
I'm the same
way.
And it's good
and right
that we
desire to
figure out
what God's
will is for
us so we
can follow
him.
But for
every decision
where his
will is not
perfectly clear
and we need
to exercise
discernment and
wisdom and
prayer,
for every one
of those,
there are
hundreds of
decisions where
God's will
is perfectly
clear and
revealed to
us in
his word,
the
scriptures.
believers.
You might
not know what
your long-term
career is
supposed to
be,
but you do
know this
from Colossians
3.23,
that whatever
you do,
work heartily
as for the
Lord and
not for
men.
You might
not know
exactly who
you're supposed
to marry,
but you do
know this.
2 Corinthians
6.14 says,
do not be
unequally yoked
with unbelievers.
1 Thessalonians
4.3 says,
abstain from
sexual immorality.
You know
these things
which refers
to any
sexual immorality
outside of
marriage.
You want
to know
more of
God's will
in your
life.
Are you
obeying
what you
already know
about God's
will in
your life?
We always
want God
to speak to
us,
but if God
were to
speak right
now in
an audible
way,
would you
obey Him?
Because God
has spoken
to us.
through Jesus
Christ.
And God's
word has
been recorded
and preserved
for us
in this
book.
Maybe
there's a
lack of
clarity
in our
lives
regarding
God's
will
because
there's
a lack
of
obedience
in our
lives
regarding
what God
has already
revealed.
God's
need for
obedience
is the
point of
the
illustration
that Jesus
uses in
verses 48
to 49.
He is like
a man
building a
house
who dug
deep and
laid the
foundation
on the
rock
and when
a flood
arose,
the stream
broke
against the
house
and could
not shake
it
because it
had been
well built.
But the
one who
hears
and does
not do
them is
like a
man who
built a
house on
the ground
without a
foundation.
When the
stream broke
against it,
immediately it
fell and
the ruin of
that house
was great.
The person
who obeys
Jesus'
teaching is
building a
house on
the rock,
on a
foundation,
which will
withstand the
floods that
rise up
against it.
But the
person who
disobeys
Jesus'
teaching is
building a
house without
a foundation,
just on
the dirt,
which will
collapse
immediately
into great
ruin when
the judgment
of God's
flood comes.
This image
is an
allusion to
Ezekiel
13,
9-14,
where God
denounces the
false prophets
of Israel.
He says this
to the false
prophets,
My hand
will be
against the
prophets who
see false
visions and
who give
lying divinations.
They shall
not be in
the council
of my
people,
nor be
enrolled in
the register
of the
house of
Israel,
nor shall
they enter
the land
of Israel,
and you
shall know
that I
am the
Lord God,
precisely
because they
have misled
my people,
saying,
Peace,
when there
is no
peace,
and because
when the
people build
a wall,
these prophets
smear it
with whitewash,
say to those
who smear it
with whitewash,
that it shall
fall.
There will
be a
deluge of
rain,
and you,
O great
hailstones,
will fall,
and a stormy
wind break out,
and when the
wall falls,
will it not
be said to
you,
where is the
coating with
which you
smeared it?
Therefore,
thus says the
Lord God,
I will make
a stormy
wind break
out in my
wrath,
and there
shall be a
deluge of
rain in my
anger,
and great
hailstones in
wrath to make
a full end,
and I will
break down the
wall that you
have smeared
with whitewash,
and bring it
down to the
ground,
so that its
foundation will
be laid bare.
God's judgment
was at hand
against sinful
Israel,
but the false
prophets of
Israel were
giving them
false assurances,
proclaiming peace
when there is no
peace in sight,
and by doing
that,
they were
basically smearing
whitewash on a
wall that was
about to crumble.
Instead of fixing
the cracks on the
wall,
they masked it
with whitewash,
and pretended like
everything was
okay,
and God
promised to
send a flood
of rain that
will tear down
the wall and
expose their
hypocrisy.
Jesus making a
similar point.
If we hear
Jesus,
but don't obey
him,
we are whitewashing
our walls that
are crumbling
down.
We're building a
house without a
foundation.
We're pretending
that obedience
doesn't matter.
We're pretending
that our sins
are not serious,
and Jesus warns
us,
if you do that,
the house of your
life will fall
into great ruin
on that day
of judgment.
Our sins
are grave,
and they have
eternal consequences.
You must repent
and turn to Jesus
for salvation.
You must turn
to him in faith,
cling to him,
and follow him
in obedience.
This is an
urgent and
desperate
situation.
exactly a month
ago,
a mining
dam
in
Burmadino,
Brazil,
collapsed due
to structural
failure.
And the New York
Times posted a
frightening video
of the incident.
I don't know if
you guys have
seen it.
It's like a
tidal wave
of mud.
The collapse
released 11.7
million cubic
meters of
toxic mud
and buried
more than
150 people
alive.
And this
sent a
chilling fear
throughout Brazil's
mining heartland
because there
are 87 other
dams like this
one,
which is held
up by little
more than
sand and
silt.
83 of those
87 dams have
been rated by the
Brazilian government
as equally
vulnerable or
worse.
This
highlights the
mortal danger
of building a
house on dirt
without a
foundation.
And it's a
good illustration
of the
eternal danger
of refusing to
follow Christ.
The situation
for sinners
is far
more
precarious
than
that of
the
Brazilian
residents
living
right near
those
dams.
Let me
ask you,
are you a
good person?
Jesus said
earlier in
verse 45,
the good
person out of
the good
treasure of
his heart
produces
good.
Are you a
good person?
That's a
trick question.
Christian
ethicist
Louis Smedes
wrote a
brilliantly
titled book
called
A Pretty
Good
Person,
pointing out
the fact
that most
people in
this world
see themselves
as a
pretty good
person.
But this
is the
most dangerous
delusion
that the
devil has
ever duped
humanity
with.
Because
later in
Luke 18,
18-19,
a self-righteous
ruler asks
Jesus,
good teacher,
what must
I do to
inherit eternal
life?
And Jesus
replies,
why do you
call me
good?
No one
is good
except God
alone.
Jesus is not
denying that
he is good.
He is good
because he
is the
Son of God,
the second
person of
the Trinity.
But Jesus
is challenging
the rich
young rulers
shallow
understanding
of moral
goodness.
As we
see later
in that
passage,
when the
ruler
claims to
have,
he claims
to have
kept all
the Ten
Commandments,
he thought
he was a
pretty good
person.
And he
thought that
he was
being
deferential
toward
Jesus
by calling
him good.
Hey,
I'm pretty
good.
Hey,
good teacher,
let's have
a conversation.
But Jesus
exposes the
man's deficient
understanding
of goodness.
You think
you're good?
there is
no human
being that
can rightly
claim to
be good.
No one is
good except
God alone
because every
single human
being has
rebelled
against God,
has sinned
against him,
and deserves
eternal punishment.
We're not
good people.
but the
good God
sent us
a good
teacher
to instruct
us in the
way of
salvation.
So are
you following
Jesus Christ?
Following
Jesus Christ
means we
follow him
to the
cross
where Jesus
out of his
love for us
in order to
save us
out of his
love and
obedience to
the Father,
he dies
to pay
the penalty
of our
sins.
Jesus was
good,
he was
perfectly
righteous,
yet he
met the
ruin and
calamity of
the cross
that should
have fallen
on us,
that we
deserved,
so that we
might be
spared from
the wrath
of God.
That's the
good news
of Jesus
Christ.
Do you
believe it?
have you
renounced
your sins
and have
you pledged
allegiance to
Christ the
King?
That's the
most important
question.
We should
follow Christ
who is a
good teacher
that saves
us from
our sins.
Take a
moment to
reflect on
that.
You can
close your
eyes if
you
prefer.
How is
the Lord
Jesus
calling you
to follow
him today?
Amen.