But God ... But God has a better idea, but God intervenes, but God knows better. But God knows our hearts.
One of the marks of our modern culture is the belief if one will just follow their own heart they will be alright. Award winning Christian author Steven James comments in an interview with World Magazine makes the following comments:
“Some movies and books say life is just terrible now: Slit your wrists. Disney on the other hand is: Follow your dreams and everything will be wonderful in the end. This whole idea of follow your heart—that’s not Christian either. Rapists follow their hearts. Pedophiles are true to themselves. Nazis pursued their dreams. The Bible says that the heart's deceitful above all things. Why would you want to follow something deceitful? We believe you should follow something greater than your heart, that you need Someone else to inform your dreams. We turn to God.” [1]
That’s a hard pill to swallow, our hearts are deceitful and wicked. I didn’t say that, the word of God says that:
Jeremiah 17:9–10 (NKJV) 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
God knows us better that we know ourselves. But God knows our hearts. He know knows our every thought, and that’s scary. But most people don’t every think about that. They fool and deceive the world around them and why not God too? Today's passage deals with the Pharisees of Jesus'day, thinging they have fooled everyone, including God.
Focal Passage: Luke 16:14–15
A few years ago according to CBS News, Alisdair Allen and Peter Warden made a shocking discovery about their iPhone. It seems that it has been gathering data and tracking their whereabouts wherever they go. The phone actually records various data points that are stored and used to trace the exact path a person takes whenever they are in possession of the phone. The data could reveal all the activities a person engages in during the course of a day. Security experts fear that uncovering the whereabouts of unsuspecting spouses may cause a number of divorces, among other fears of violation of privacy.
Forget about Apple knowing about where you go, God not only knows where you are, but He knows what you are doing. He even knows the intent of your heart.[2]
Hebrews 4:13 (NKJV) And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
God know it all. So why do we live our lives as if He does not? Putting our focal passage into context, Jesus, from the beginning of Luke 16, was instructing about the use of money. He told the parable of the unjust steward and how the steward used his master accounts to his advantage. And finishing out the parable Jesus makes this statement:
Luke 16:13 (NKJV) “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Mammon is another word for wealth and/or money. As Christians, we only have one Lord and Master, and that is Jesus. But the problem is that other things get in the way. For the Pharisees, who overheard these teachings of Jesus, money was clearly their master.
Luke 16:14 (NKJV) Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.
The pharisees knew all about money. They were hypocritical and they were proud. They chose religion as a lucrative profession. There was no vow of poverty here. (I know a few so-called televangelists like that). They were about bringing glory to themselves and not to God.
Matthew 23:5-7 (NKJV) But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.
They were all about what others saw in them. They believed in their own righteousness in that God has blessed them with their wealth. More wealth and more money meant, at least in their minds, they were more right before God. We read about them last week in Psalm 49:
Psalm 49:18 (NKJV) Though while he lives he blesses himself (For men will praise you when you do well for yourself)
And the scriptures said of the Pharisees “and they derided Him.” Other translations say they sneered at Jesus. In the Greek is the word means “to turn their noses up” at Him. It was quite the sign of disrespect. "A poor teacher teaching his poor followers about money? What does He know?"
To forgo wealth on earth and to lay up treasures in heaven was a foreign concept to the pharisees. To them, money was more real than the promises of God. To this Jesus responded:
Luke 16:15 (NKJV) And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
There are two significant things Jesus says here: (1) God knows your hearts, and (2) What is highly esteemed/valued/admired by men is an abomination/detestable/revolting in the eyes of God.
“You are those who justify yourselves before men” Too often people put on a show, just for other people to see. We have a word for that and so does Jesus. He calls them “hypocrites.” “Hypocrite” in the Greek means an actor, one who puts on a mask and pretends to be someone else. The fact is, God sees through the mask, and sees just who we are underneath it all.
Matthew 23:27–28 (NKJV) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
It is not what is on the outside that matters to God, it is clearly what is on the inside. If the inside is clean and pure, the outside will reflect that, not the other way around.
Mark 7:20–23 (NKJV) And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
People are quite talented at putting on show for others. But what is in the heart that really matters. What is in your heart? What is in my heart? Why does that matter? Because Jesus said: “but God knows your hearts.” This is a theme we find throughout scripture. It is about the condition of the heart.
When Samuel went to anoint the next king of Israel from the sons of Jesse, God told him:
1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV) But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
David, when he was giving final instruction to Solomon before he became the king:
1 Chronicles 28:9 (NKJV) “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.
If the heart is right, the actions will be right, otherwise it is all a show. We must internalize the values and teaching of Scripture. To love God is to love His word. We do not get to pick and choose which word we like. We must accept the whole word or reject it all. It is not what is right in our eyes that matter, it is what is right and just in the eyes of God.
“For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” It is not our sense of right and wrong that matters. What matters is right and wrong in the sight of God. But the world around us had been turning that upside down. What has been called good is now bad and what is bad is now good. So much of the what world admires and values is clearly an abomination before God. The prophet Isaiah nailed it 2,700 years ago when he prophesied:
Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV) Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
There are so-called religious experts and authorities that will twist the Bible, and even denounce the teachings of Scripture to justify abortion, immorality, homosexuality, transgenderism, and just about any evil you want to imagine. They are slick speakers and without the Holy Spirit helping us discern all these evils, we would be sucked up into them. Jesus spoke of the so-called religious people who pay Him lip service:
Mark 7:6–7 (NKJV) He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Such false worship is an abomination before God. And it is an abomination to teach as things of God those things that are clearly taught against in the God’s Holy Word.
So where is our hearts? On the things of this world? or on the things of God? So how do we know? What must we do?
Romans 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The more we transform our minds our hearts will become more inline to God’s way of thinking and not of our own. We are not to measure things the way the world measures, but by the way God measures.
According to R.C Sproul:
“What God is looking for from his people is not success, but fidelity. He doesn’t measure us by our bank balance or the degree of our authority. Maybe your task seems insignificant, but God has given it to you and wants to see that you are faithful in it, before he will promote you in his kingdom.” [3]
God calls for us to be faithful in all things.
Luke 16:10 (NKJV) He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
So where do we stand? This morning our deacon of the week read from Psalm 139. That last few verses is a most dangerous prayer:
Psalm 139:23–24 (NKJV) 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
If our hearts are not right before God, we must ask him to show us where the evil lies and ask Him to clean our hearts. It won’t easy and it may be a painful process, but we cannot clean our own hearts by ourselves. We do not make ourselves presentable before God, we come and ask that Jesus repair our hearts by His shed blood for us and make our hearts right with God.
We may go through all the motions, and may look pious and righteous to our friends and family and the world around us, but God knows our hearts. Where is our heart. Who is our true master? God knows our hearts and our inner most thoughts. Are our hearts right before Him?
[1] World, December 14, 2013, p. 33 found at world.wng.org/2013/11/truth_teller - Illustrated by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell at www.freshministry.net/illustrations/data/HEART.htm#END
[2] www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/21/eveningnews/main20056267.shtml -- Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Miguel Martinez at www.freshministry.net/illustrations/data/HEART.htm#END
[3] R. C. Sproul, A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), 313.
