Luke 6

Luke 6:1-5

Chapter 30 “The Second Sabbath After The First”There is a phrase used in the opening verse of this sixth chapter of Luke that is found nowhere else in the Bible. It is a phrase which has been the subject of much debate for hundreds of years. The phrase is “The second sabbath after the first.” Some of the great theologians of the past tell us that this phrase refers to the sabbath following the cutting of the first sheaf of harvest during the Jews’ passover week. Others say the phrase refers to the three great sabbaths kept by the Jews every year (The Feast of Passover, The Feast of Pentecost, The Feast of Tabernacles), and that this sabbath was the sabbath kept during the Feast of Pentecost. Certainly, this phrase refers to a sabbath day commonly known to the Jews living at the time as “the second sabbath after the first”, or (more literally) “the second first sabbath.” But who cares which one it was? What is more important is this: why did God the Holy Spirit inspire and direct Luke to these particular words here? That I am interested in knowing; and the answer is very simple. The Lord of the sabbath had come to fulfil and forever abolish the first, carnal, ceremonial sabbath of the law, that he might establish that blessed, second sabbath of the gospel, that he might forever be the Sabbath Rest of his people. Christ is our Sabbath. A Deadly Sin First, the Spirit of God here sets before us a glaring example of a deadly sin. We are told that on a certain sabbath day our Lord Jesus and his disciples walked through the corn fields. As they did, the disciples, being hungry, picked some ears of the grain, rubbed it in their hands, and had a snack. Immediately, the Pharisees charged the Lord’s disciples with what they thought was a very serious crime. These men had broken the fourth commandment of the law. They had done work on the sabbath day! However, the deadly sin revealed here is not seen in the action of the disciples, but in the action of the Pharisees. The most deadly sin of all is the sin of self-righteousness. Our Lord warns us in many ways and repeatedly to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. That leaven which corrupts and destroys everything it touches is self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Self-righteousness and hypocrisy attach great importance to outward things in religion, things other people see, applaud and reward; but it neglects inward, spiritual heart worship. These Pharisees were sticklers for sabbath keeping, but notorious for covetousness (Luke 16:14). They strained the tiniest gnat from their ceremonial religious cup regarding some things, and swallowed the camel in other matters. They were quick to censor, criticize, and condemn others. God hates the spirit of the Pharisee! God Almighty hates self-righteousness. Nothing is more abhorrent to him than the stench of self-righteousness (Isaiah 65:1-5; Luke 18:9-14; Micah 6:6-8; Matthew 23:23). And nothing is more likely to keep a sinner from Christ than self-righteousness (Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:4). Religion without Christ is the most damning thing in this world. Every act, practice, profession and pretence of religion without Christ is eating and drinking damnation to your soul, not discerning the Lord’s body, not understanding the gospel. A Defending Saviour Second, the Lord Jesus Christ is set before us in this passage as a defending Saviour. No sooner did the Pharisees accuse the disciples of evil than the Lord Jesus took up their cause and defended them against their accusers. He answered the cavils of their enemies. He did not leave his followers to answer for and defend themselves. He answered for them and defended them. What a blessed, encouraging, delightful picture this is of our Saviour’s unceasing work on our behalf! We read in the Book of God of one who is called “the accuser of the brethren, who accuses them day and night” (Revelation 12:10). He is Satan, the prince of darkness. How often we accommodate our accuser, giving him many grounds for his accusations! How many charges he might justly lay against us! But he, who is our Saviour, ever pleads our cause, both in heaven and on earth, and defends us. Christ is our Rock, our Salvation, our Refuge, our Defence and our Defender (1 John 2:1-2; Romans 8:28-35). When my adversary, the devil, accuses me of some evil by the lips of a man on earth, I respond, “Let Christ answer for me.” When the fiend of hell accuses me of horrid evils in my own mind and conscience, as he often does, I respond, “Let Christ answer for me.” In the day of judgment should that wicked one be allowed to appear, point his accusing finger, and attempt to have my crimes charged against me, I will yet respond, “Let Christ answer for me.” A Delightful Sabbath Third, the Spirit of God points us to a delightful sabbath. I read one commentator’s explanation of this passage, and could hardly believe what he put on paper. I knew he was inclined toward legality; but I was still surprised by what he wrote. As he attempted to protect sabbath observance, he said, “We must not interpret the Lord’s words in this passage as an indication that the fourth commandment is no longer to bind Christians.” The Lord Jesus Christ did not come here to bind his people with the rigours of legal bondage. He came here to set his people free. He who is our Saviour is both the Lord of the sabbath and our Sabbath (Luke 6:5). The Word of God speaks clearly. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans 10:4). “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17). Christ, as the Lord of the sabbath, is the one who established it. He is the one for whom it was established. He is the one to whom it pointed, the one typified by it. Christ is the one who fulfilled it. Having fulfilled it, he abolished it forever (Romans 10:4; Colossians 2:16-17). We rejoice to keep the gospel sabbath of faith; but the pretentious practice of observing a carnal, legal sabbath day is specifically prohibited in Colossians 2:16. We keep that which is here called, “the second Sabbath after the first”, the blessed sabbath of rest in Christ. Coming to him, we cease from our own works and rest in him (Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 4:9-11). The penalty of not keeping this sabbath is death, eternal death. That is the penalty God places upon all the works men do for salvation (John 3:36). I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one lay down, Thy head upon my breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad; I found in him a resting place, And he has made me glad! Horatius Bonar

Luke 6:6-11

Chapter 31 “On Another Sabbath” Why did the Lord Jesus do so many of his miraculous works of healing on the sabbath day? Why did he so often go out of his way to say and do things he knew would be most offensive to the Pharisees? How does the Son of God meet rebel sinners? What was the nature and purpose of the sabbath? Who is Jesus Christ? Was he just a man, as many blasphemously assert; or is he both God and man in one glorious, inseparable person? Does it really matter what we think about who Christ is? What is involved in the Lord’s call? How does God call sinners to life and faith in Christ? What affect does the gospel of Christ and the power of his grace have upon men? These are all questions which are clearly and decisively answered by the Holy Spirit in Luke 6:6-11. Here, Luke gives us a very brief, but very instructive narrative of the healing of a man with a withered arm on the sabbath day. Like all of our Lord’s miracles, this miraculous healing is a picture of the saving operations of his grace in and upon chosen sinners. The miracle was performed specifically to give us an instructive picture of God’s salvation. A Deliberate Confrontation The first thing we see in this passage is our Lord’s deliberate confrontation of the Pharisees (Luke 6:6-7; Luke 6:9). “And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him … Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” The preaching of the gospel is always confrontational. God’s servants are sent to his enemies and sent to confront them, not to coddle them, pamper them and bargain with them, but, as the ambassadors of God himself, to confront them with the claims of the sovereign Lord. There is no such thing as faith in Christ apart from surrender to Christ as Lord (Luke 14:25-33) We see this confrontation clearly exemplified by our Saviour in this passage. Our Lord Jesus Christ deliberately confronted the Pharisees, both by his words and his works. He always does. The Son of God always confronts sinners at their point of rebellion and demands that they surrender to him as their Lord. That is the way he dealt with both the rich young ruler (Luke 18) and the Samaritan woman (John 4). This is exactly what we see in this passage, too. Here is just one of many examples of our Lord confronting these self-righteous, religious hypocrites on the sabbath. Did you ever notice how often our Saviour performed his miraculous works on the sabbath day? Did you ever wonder why he chose the sabbath for so many of these displays of his omnipotent mercy? It was on the sabbath day that he healed this man’s withered arm. It was on the sabbath day that he cured the demoniac in the synagogue (Mark 1:21-28). The woman who was afflicted with an infirmity for eighteen years was cured by his mercy on the sabbath day (Luke 13:10-18). It was the sabbath day when our Lord Jesus healed the man with the dropsy (Luke 14:1-6). It was on the sabbath day that he healed the lame man by the pool of Bethesda (John 5:16). And it was on the sabbath day that he healed the man born blind (John 9:1-12). These things were not done on the sabbath day accidentally. They were performed on the sabbath day for the calculated purpose of our Lord to assert his claim of dominion over all things as Lord, even of the sabbath (Luke 6:5). It was Christ himself who kept the first sabbath. It was Christ himself who gave the law of the sabbath. As a man, he became subject to the law in all things. Yet, he is Lord of the law. As such, because he is God as well as man, he cannot be put under the yoke and bondage of the law. The law does not rule the King. The King rules the law. And Christ is the King. The Lord Jesus chose to perform his work of mercy upon this poor, needy soul on the sabbath day in order to expose and condemn the hypocrisy and mean-spirited traditions of religious legalists. As it was in our Lord’s day, so it is in ours. There is no point at which religious legalists are more hypocritical, more bound by the religious customs and traditions of men, and more mean-spirited than in their efforts to impose and enforce sabbath laws upon men. The Pharisees could not answer our Lord’s question about whether it was right to do good on the Sabbath because they would not answer it, lest they expose themselves. Their intention was to accuse the Master. If he refused to heal this man, they wanted to accuse him, either of weakness and inability to heal him, or of cruelty for not healing him. Any answer they might give would have exposed them. These religious hypocrites would have preferred the man be left with an impotent arm, rather than see him healed. They were far more interested in maintaining the rigours of the law (or at least their interpretation of the law), than in relieving the needs of men. And they excused their meanness in the name of honouring God! Our Lord Jesus chose to perform this miracle of mercy on the sabbath to show us plainly what the true nature and purpose of the sabbath was. The sabbath day, like all other ordinances of the legal, Mosaic age, was designed and instituted to portray the gospel of Christ. It was never intended merely to be a day of religious bondage, but a day portraying the rest of faith in Christ. The sabbath was designed to show sinners how God does men good, eternal good, who deserve evil, by causing sinners to rest in Christ (Matthew 11:28-30). The sabbath was ordained to show us how God has purposed from eternity to save life by the obedience of Christ. It was a picture of Christ’s finished work and of our resting in him, ceasing from our works by faith in him. The Son of God chose to perform this miracle on the sabbath to display the fact that he had come to fulfil and forever put an end to the law of the sabbath (Luke 6:9). Yes, Christ is the end of the law (Romans 10:4). He finished it, fulfilled it, and put an end to it. “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17). A Divine Attribute The second thing we see in this narrative is the display of a divine attribute. “But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth” (Luke 6:8). The Lord Jesus “knew their thoughts”. This is another of those many, many almost casual, nonchalant references given in the New Testament, by which the Holy Spirit declares the fact of our Saviour’s eternal Godhead. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, is a man; but he is more than a man. This man is the omniscient, all-knowing God (Hebrews 4:13). He who is our Saviour is and must be God in human flesh. It cannot be stated too emphatically or too often that Christ is, indeed, “over all God blessed forever”. Every attempt of men to compromise his absolute, eternal deity is both a denial of the gospel and blasphemy. Those who tell us that Christ is not God, absolutely God, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, immutable, eternal, just and holy, are not Christians, but pagans masquerading as Christians. Only one who is himself God knows, sees, and hears the thoughts of men. Nothing is more humbling and, at the same time, comforting and encouraging to believing hearts than our blessed Saviour’s omniscience. To the religious hypocrite, this is a terrifying thing. To the believer, it is delightful. Let us be humbled by the fact that our dear Saviour knows us inside out. Nothing is hidden from him. Yet, we ought to rejoice in this, too, our blessed Saviour knows what we really are. This was the thing that gave Peter consolation after his horrible sin. He said to the Lord Jesus, “Thou knowest that I love thee.” Our great Redeemer’s name is Jehovah-Jireh, “The Lord will see.” “The Lord will provide.” “The Lord will be seen.” An Effectual Command The third thing we see in this passage is an effectual command. The Lord Jesus, we read, “said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth … And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other” (Luke 6:8; Luke 6:10). Unlike the pretended miracles of Papists and Pentecostals, our Lord’s miraculous works were performed in broad daylight, performed upon people everyone present knew were impotent, and performed in the most public manner possible. He was not a pretend healer. He is the Healer. But the message of our text is not about the healing of a man’s withered hand. The healing of this man’s withered hand was a miracle performed by our Lord to portray the far greater miracle of grace he performs upon chosen sinners, when he saves us by his omnipotent mercy! The healing of this man is a most instructive picture of the almighty, effectual call and irresistible grace of God, by which we are brought from death to life in Christ. Look at it … “He said to the man with the withered hand”. Here is a particular, personal call. It is written, “He calleth his own sheep by name.” This was also a discriminating, distinguishing call. We have no idea how many others were present, or with what needs they had come. But Luke tells us plainly that on this occasion the Master called none but this man alone. How we ought to thank God for his special, discriminating grace (Psalms 65:4; Matthew 22:14; 1 Corinthians 4:7). Josiah Conder said it well, ’Tis not that I did choose Thee, For Lord that could not be. This heart would still refuse Thee, Hadst Thou not chosen me! Next, the Lord Jesus called this man to do what he had absolutely no ability to do. The Master issued an impossible command. He said to the man with a dried up, withered, paralyzed arm, “Stretch forth thy hand.” If he could stretch forth his hand, he would not have been there. I stress this point, because men often tell us, “If the sinner has no ability to repent and believe the gospel, he cannot be called to do so.” Such attempts to deny the gospel of Christ simply will not hold water. The Lord Jesus commanded this man to stretch forth his withered hand. “And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.” How can this be? Find out the answer and you will find out how spiritually dead sinners arise from the dead and flee to Christ. This man did not stretch forth his hand by the mere exercise of his will. He did not just decide to stretch forth his hand. He did not just muster the power from within himself to stretch forth his hand. But he did stretch forth his hand. How? The answer is found in Luke 18:26-27. God who issued the command gave power to obey the command; and he stretched forth his hand. By preaching the gospel, spiritually dead sinners are called to arise from the dead, to stretch forth their withered hands, and lay hold of Christ by faith. Any sinner who obeys the gospel, any sinner who believes on Christ, any sinner who rises from his spiritual grave and comes to Christ is immediately made whole and has eternal life. But there is a problem. No sinner can do it. Remember, the sinner is dead! He has no ability to stretch forth his hand. He has no ability to come to Christ. However, when the Lord God Almighty, by the life-giving power of his omnipotent, irresistible grace, calls the dead sinner, the sinner rises from death, stretches forth his withered hand, lays hold of Christ and is made whole. There is no power in preachers. When all a person hears is the voice of a preacher, he remains dead. There is no power in the preacher’s voice. But when God speaks by the gospel, there is power, life-giving, resurrection power in the call that God issues (John 5:25; 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5; Revelation 20:6). We should also note the fact that this man was not made whole until he stretched forth his hand. When the Lord’s command came, this poor man, believing Christ, stretched forth his hand. He did not raise questions. He did not quibble about whether or not he could do it, whether or not the Lord had ordained it, or whether or not he would be made whole by doing it. He simply stretched forth his hand. When he did, his hand was made whole. A Dividing Saviour “And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus” (Luke 6:11). The gospel of Christ and the wonders of his grace always divide people. Our Lord said, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” And whenever the gospel is preached, whenever God does his work of grace, a division is made because of Christ. The gospel separates men, families, churches and communities. It divides light from darkness. It separates the wheat from the chaff. It divides sheep from goats. It is a savour of life unto life to some, and a savour of death unto death to others (2 Corinthians 2:14-17). On this occasion the Pharisees were enraged, the man with the withered hand was made whole and the Lord’s disciples were edified, instructed and encouraged.

Luke 6:12-19

Chapter 32 Prayer, Preaching, PowerIn the paragraph before us we have the Holy Spirit’s description of our Lord’s calling and ordination of his twelve apostles. Though the apostolic office ceased with the apostolic age, the calling of these men is still very instructive. This passage teaches us much concerning the blessed work of the gospel ministry. First Ordination Service These twelve men were the first men set apart by Christ in this gospel age and sent forth to proclaim the glad tidings of God’s free grace in him. This was the beginning of what is often called “the Christian ministry”. Without question, all the prophets of the Old Testament preached the same gospel these men preached. John the Baptist preached the same message, too. And God’s servants today preach that same glorious gospel of the grace of God. The singular message of God’s servants is Jesus Christ and him crucified. As Pastor Scott Richardson once said, “Any sermon that does not have Christ for its beginning, middle and end is a mistake in its conception and a crime in its execution.” This was the first ordination service of the New Testament era. Let it be observed that the ordination of a man to the work of the gospel is the work of the Lord God himself. If a man is called and sent of God to preach the gospel that is his ordination. Our public ordination services are only the public recognition of a man’s gifts by the local church. We have no ability to make men preachers. All we do in ordaining a man to the ministry is publicly acknowledge our recognition of his gifts and publicly identify ourselves with him, commending him to men as God’s messenger. How far we have degenerated from the pattern of the New Testament in all things! This degeneration is seen most clearly in this first ordination of gospel preachers. What is called “ordination” today is similar only in name. When our Lord ordained twelve, the whole affair was simple and solemn. As in all things relating to the Church and kingdom of God, everything concerning the work of the gospel ministry depends upon and is determined by Christ alone. Prayer When the Lord Jesus ordained these first twelve preachers, he did so after much prayer. “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles” (Luke 6:12-13). This fact is here recorded to teach us the great place and importance of prayer in all aspects of divine service. It is particularly designed to show us that God’s servants ought always to be the objects of his people’s fervent prayers. The most important thing for a congregation to do when seeking a pastor is pray. Pray for God to send a pastor after his own heart (Jeremiah 3:15). The most important thing for a man to do, before he takes up the work of the gospel ministry, is pray. Pray, like Moses did in Exodus 33:13-15, that God will direct him and show him plainly what his purpose is. “Show me now thy way … If thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence.” I will not attempt to say who is or who is not called of God to preach the gospel. That is God’s work alone. But this I know: if God calls a man to this work he will be a man chosen of God for the work. “Of them he chose twelve.” The Lord will give him the gifts sufficient for the work and a burden for the work. God’s people will want to hear him; and God will put him in the work. If the Lord God puts a man into the ministry, he will give that man a love for the work; and he will give him success in the work. An ego trip is not a call of God. Let no man run who has not been called and sent of God with the message of grace burning in his soul. Preachers who are not sent of God are a hindrance, not a help in the work of the gospel. If you would help the cause of Christ, pray for his servants. “Brethren, pray for us.” “And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13). “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith” (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2). If your pastor is to be useful in the hands of God, he needs your prayers. He must be faithful in prayer, in study, in the Word, in doctrine, and in behaviour. But you must be faithful in prayer for him. The work is heavy. He carries the burden of the Word of the Lord. The responsibilities are enormous. Your pastor, if he is a faithful man, carries the weight of speaking in God’s name the message of life or of condemnation to eternity bound sinners! Yet, those men who preach the gospel know themselves to be insignificant, weak and sinful, nothing but worthless worms. The work of preaching the gospel requires wisdom, “knowledge and understanding;” but we are ignorant. Preaching “Who is sufficient for these things?” Gospel preaching is a work for which God alone can make a man sufficient. “Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor” (Luke 6:14-16). Look at these twelve men. Four of them were fishermen. One of them was a publican. They were, for the most part at least, Galileans. Not one of them was wealthy, politically connected, powerful, or influential. They were, obviously, in the world’s esteem, “unlearned and ignorant men” (Acts 4:13). What are we to learn from these facts? Why were these things written? The church and kingdom of God is entirely independent of the world. God’s church is not built by might, nor by power, but by his Spirit (Zechariah 4:6; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31). The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Romans 1:15-17). I must not fail to call your attention to the fact that one of the first twelve preachers was Judas Iscariot, a devil and a betrayer. I have often wondered why the Lord Jesus put Judas among the twelve. Have you? The Master knew that Judas was a graceless man, that he was a deceiver and a hypocrite from the beginning. Yet, he put him among the apostles, preached with him and sat with him at the Lord’s Table. Why? There are some things about this which ought to be obvious. Our Lord would teach all preachers of the gospel the necessity of constant, personal self-examination. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall.” God’s servants must not be idolized. Esteem them highly. Pray for them faithfully. Follow their faith, their doctrine and their example. But do not make an idol out of any man. “Let no man glory in men.” No faithful man desires either adulation or blind allegiance (1 Corinthians 3:5-9; 2 Corinthians 4:1-7). Yet, in the church of God, so long as we are in this world, we must expect to find the bad mixed with the good, tares among wheat, goats among sheep and unbelievers among faithful men. God will, in his time, separate the precious from the vile. We have no ability to do so. If a man’s message is a false gospel, he clearly identifies himself as a false prophet. But we dare not assume that we can read the motives of a man’s heart. So long as he preaches the gospel and lives uprightly, we must not attempt to judge whether he is or is not God’s messenger. Power The great secret to the power and efficacy of gospel preaching is the presence of Christ. “And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all” (Luke 6:17-19). The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down. “He came down with them and stood in the company of his disciples.” The people who came to hear the gospel came with great needs. They came to hear him. They came with great need desiring to be healed. And they sought to touch him. When they did, “Virtue went out of him and healed them all.” May God the Holy Spirit ever show us and make us to know our great need of Christ. May he enable us, every time we gather with his saints to worship our God, to seek to hear our Saviour and seek to touch him and be touched by him, that virtue may come out of him to our souls!

Luke 6:20-26

Chapter 33 Four Great Contrasts The things revealed in these few verses of Inspiration are the meat of the Word, upon which only the strong can feed. By comparison, the glorious gospel doctrines of divine sovereignty, eternal predestination, free election, particular, effectual redemption, irresistible grace and the everlasting security of God’s elect in Christ are baby milk and baby food. Many who love to nurse upon the breasts of election and predestination choke on the things revealed in our Lord’s doctrine here. Here our Master proclaims some of the most important things taught in holy scripture. These are spiritual truths that are galling to our flesh. May God the Holy Spirit give us eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to heed the things he inspired Luke to record in this place. Obvious Differences While the sermon which begins here and runs through the end of this chapter, in many ways resembles our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount (recorded in Matthew 5-7), it must not be confused with it. I am aware that the vast majority of good commentators say they are the same; but a careful reading of the two makes it obvious that they are not. Though there are similarities, the differences are obvious. For one thing, the sermon recorded by Matthew is properly called “The Sermon on the Mount”, because it was a sermon delivered upon a mountain side. The sermon here was delivered in the plain (Luke 6:17). The Sermon on the Mount was delivered before our Lord had named his twelve apostles. This sermon was delivered immediately after he named them. It is obvious that the two sermons are tremendously different in length. It might be thought that Luke was inspired to give a much more brief summary of the same message than Matthew was inspired to record, but there are some things found in this sermon which are not mentioned in the far more lengthy Sermon on the Mount. If this was just a shorter version of the same sermon, we would expect some things to be left out; but we would not expect things to be included here that were omitted from the more lengthy version. In the passage before us the Master is speaking specifically to his disciples, to those who were truly his disciples and to those who were his disciples in name only. In these seven, short verses he lays the axe to the root of the tree and distinguishes clearly between true believers and mere lip service professors. He does so by making four great, glaring contrasts between true believers and false professors. First, he gives us four beatitudes, which characterize the true believer. Then he gives us four woes, which characterize the false professor. Four Beatitudes In Luke 6:20-23 our Saviour gives four words of blessing, four beatitudes, four conditions of true blessedness and happiness, by which all true believers are characterized. Who are those men and women whom the Son of God pronounces blessed? The list is both remarkable and shocking. It is totally contrary to the opinion of the world. Here, our Lord singles out those who are poor, hungry, sorrowful and hated, and calls them blessed. How can this be? Let us look at each beatitude and see what the Master here teaches us. “Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:21). He does not say, blessed are the poor, but blessed are you poor. In the Sermon on the Mount he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:1). Those who are poor in spirit are those men and women who have been taught of God the utter depravity, corruption and sinfulness of their hearts. They are men and women who are convinced of sin, righteousness and judgment by God the Holy Spirit. The poor in spirit confess their sins and find forgiveness in Christ, being washed in his blood and robed in his righteousness. All who are blessed of God with grace, salvation and eternal life in Christ are poor in Spirit. But, here our Saviour speaks of something else. Here, the Master says, “Blessed are ye poor”. We must not imagine that the Lord is here making physical poverty a spiritual blessing and giving men a claim to heavenly glory upon the basis of earthly poverty. Here, our Lord is talking about physical, earthly, material poverty; but it is poverty accompanied by grace. The Lord Jesus chose twelve apostles and sent them out to evangelize the world. He sent them out without any means visible of earthly support into a hostile world. When he did, he commanded them plainly not to provide for themselves and not to go begging for help from the world, and told them plainly that they would be hated, persecuted and driven out from the company of men. Is it possible to conduct any kind of ministry in this way? Is it possible to evangelize the world this way? Not only is it possible, there is no other way! This is the only way God’s servants and God’s church can perform the work the Lord God has trusted to our hands. Poverty itself is not virtuous and is not a blessing. In fact, poverty is often the result of divine judgment. In our text the Lord Jesus is talking about a willing, deliberate, self-imposed poverty. This is not the self-imposed poverty of hermits and monks, but the poverty men and women knowingly bring upon themselves by following Christ, obeying the will of God and serving the interests of his kingdom. This is not the poverty which comes as the result of laziness, because a man pretends to be too spiritual to work. This is that poverty which comes when a man or woman counts the costs and forsakes all to follow Christ. In the early days of Christianity those who followed Christ literally gave up everything, often even life itself, because of their faith in and love for him. Though our circumstances are somewhat different today, it is still true that those who follow Christ forsake all to follow him and love not their lives, even unto death. All true believers do exactly what our Lord required the rich young ruler to do. They sell all they have and follow him. “Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled” (Luke 6:21). In Matthew 5:6, in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” There our Lord declares that all who are born of God, hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God in Christ. They long to stand before God in the perfect righteousness of Christ, and long to be perfectly conformed to Christ in righteousness and true holiness (Philippians 3:7-15). All who do truly hunger and thirst after this righteousness shall have it. They shall be filled. Here, our Lord is declaring that those who hunger for the gospel’s sake shall be filled. Believers are people who willingly deprive themselves of that which they might otherwise lawfully enjoy for the gospel’s sake. They are willing to get along on less, so that they can give more. They do not have to have the finer things. They do not have to lavish themselves in luxury, but rather prefer to do without so that they may have to give for the furtherance of the gospel. Believers know that things craved by the flesh are only temporal and can never satisfy. So they do not mind giving them up. We look for satisfaction, we look to be filled in another world. These are matters which apply to and are seen in all true believers; and they are matters which must and do characterize gospel preachers. God’s servants are men separated unto the gospel. They do not seek to enrich themselves by the gospel, but rather sacrifice the comforts and luxuries of life for the gospel. God’s servants do not seek the possessions of men, but their souls. “Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh” (Luke 6:21). Sorrow is not itself beneficial or sanctifying. Our Lord is here talking about those who weep for his sake. Believers, as long as we live in this world of woe, have countless nights of weeping and tears. Like all other people, we experience the sorrows of sickness, pain, bereavement, broken homes, wayward children and earthly trouble. In addition to the sorrows of the world, those who know, trust, love and follow Christ carry other burdens which cause them to weep. We carry the heavy load of our corrupt nature and constant sin. We carry the load of care for the souls of men. And we carry the heavy load of care for the church, the kingdom and the glory of our God in this world. Yet, those who sow in tears will reap in joy. “Ye shall laugh”! “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” The time of laughter shall soon come. We shall, at last, be filled with consolation. We shall soon possess unending, uninterruptible, everlasting joy! The joy of perfect righteousness, perfect peace, perfect understanding and perfect satisfaction! “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets” (Luke 6:22-23). Our Lord is here talking about religious persecution, persecution brought upon us because of the gospel we preach. The words used here are used specifically with regard to ecclesiastical censure and discipline. Our Lord could not have used stronger words to picture the heaping of man’s wrath upon his people for the gospel’s sake. Hatred, persecution, slander and reproach are the devices of Satan, not the tools of God’s church and people. We ought not to allow Satan’s rage, displayed in the wrath of men, to cause us too much pain. The tables will soon be turned. Four Woes “But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:24-26). Stronger, more cutting, condemning statements than these cannot be found in the New Testament. But what do these words mean? We must not imagine that the mere possession of wealth is a curse. Job’s great wealth was the token of God’s favour toward him. We must not think that the mere display of laughter and joy is a sign of God’s wrath. David was a man who often spoke of laughter and displayed it both in song and dance; and he was a man after God’s own heart. We certainly must not imagine that the possession of a good name is an indication of a foul heart. Timothy was a man whose name was well spoken of by those outside the church as well as within it. Who, then, are these men and women of whom the Master speaks, when he says, “Woe unto you”? They are those people who prefer the world to Christ, who prefer the riches of the world to the riches of his grace, who prefer the laughter of lusts to the happiness of holiness, who delight more in gain than in godliness, who love the praise of men more than the praise of God. Our Lord knew, from the beginning, that there would be many in the professed church, many who claim to be his disciples in every age who, though convinced of the truth of the gospel and professing to love it, would yet live for the world in the lusts of their flesh. To all such men and women, the Son of God says, “Woe unto you”! This is what our Lord declares. Let men think and say what they may. This is the doctrine of this passage. Those who are poor because they choose to follow Christ and serve him, rather than enrich themselves, are possessors of the kingdom of God. Those who choose and seek and get riches will perish with their moth eaten treasures. They have all here they will ever have, the consolation of thick clay.

Those who prefer to be hungry in doing the will of God, to fullness in rebelling, shall be filled forever. Those who live to fill their bellies and their lusts shall be hungry forever in hell. Those who choose a path of sorrow for the glory of God, carrying the weight of weighty matters upon their hearts, shall be filled with the laughter of complete satisfaction in heaven. Those who live here for pleasure shall find nothing but sorrow forever in hell. Those who prefer the favour and praise of God to the favour and praise of men shall be numbered among the sons of God forever, in everlasting praise. Those who prefer the favour and praise of men to the favour and praise of God shall be the objects of everlasting contempt, from both God and men in hell forever!

Luke 6:27-38

Chapter 34 How Can I Live Among Men For The Glory Of God? How can I live among men for the glory of God? If you are a believer, I am sure that is a question you often ponder in the various situations you face day by day. How can I glorify God in this situation? How can I live among men for the honour of God my Saviour and the gospel of his grace? What would the Lord have me to do here? What is God’s will in this place and at this time? If we would live among men for the glory of God, we must love them. Love is always right. It is the will of God for us to love one another, to love our neighbours as ourselves; and our neighbours include family, friends, brethren in Christ, and even our most implacable enemies. That is our Saviour’s doctrine in this passage. May he graciously apply his doctrine to our hearts by his Spirit. The Lord Jesus here declares, that to all who profess to be his disciples, that those who follow him love people, not just that they love to be around people, but that they love people. Love is the great, identifying mark of true Christianity. Love is the sweet bond of peace. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is that without which we are nothing before God. Love is that sweet grace identified first as the fruit of the Spirit. It will profit us greatly and may even make us profitable to others to carefully study and diligently practice that which is taught in these verses. The Basis Of Appeal I am calling for all who read these lines, professing to be followers of Christ, to live among the people of this world in exemplary love, to love your brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God and your neighbours for the glory of God. But before we can exemplify the love of Christ, we must know the love of Christ. You cannot gather grapes among thorns, or figs among thistles. You cannot expect flowers where there are no roots, or fruit without trees. It is not possible to have the fruit of the Spirit unless you are united to Christ by faith, born of his Spirit and sanctified by his grace. Until you are born of God, it is not possible for you to exemplify the love of Christ. So the basis of my appeal is this: if you have experienced the mercy, grace and love of God in Christ, show that same mercy, grace and love to others. “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 4:32 to Ephesians 5:2). It is not possible for anyone to possess the fruit of the Spirit who does not know the doctrine of the Spirit, the doctrine of Christ. There are hoards of people today who go to great pains to show other people how loving, self-denying and sacrificial they are, who utterly despise the gospel of Christ; but theirs is only the hypocritical pretence of love demonstrated by the Pharisees in John 8:1-2 and in John 9. “Once for all”, wrote J. C. Ryle, “let us understand, that real, genuine, self-denying love, will never grow from any roots but faith in Christ’s atonement, and a heart renewed by the Holy Ghost. We shall never make men love one another, unless we teach as Paul taught, ‘Walk in love as Christ hath loved us.’ Teaching love on any other principle is … labour in vain.” Those who do not know the doctrine of Christ, who do not know the gospel of the grace of God, do not and cannot know the love of God. Those who do not have the love of God dwelling in them cannot walk in the love of Christ and exercise that love toward others. Do you know the love of God? Have you experienced his grace? Are you born of his Spirit? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you robed in the righteousness of God’s dear Son? Are you a saved, justified, forgiven, heaven born soul? If you are, the basis of my appeal is the mercy, love and grace you have experienced. I am calling for saved sinners to act like their Saviour. Those who have experienced grace ought to be, and are, gracious. Those who have experienced mercy ought to be, and are, merciful. Those who have been forgiven ought to be, and are, forgiving. Those who know the love of God in Christ ought to love others for Christ’s sake, and do. Love’s Character Our Lord Jesus plainly shows us the character of true love. The nature and character of true love is the nature and character of his love. How often have you said, or heard someone say, “They love in their own way.”? Phooey on their way. If we love, we love God’s way. There is no other way to love. Who are we to love? The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to love our neighbours. Religious Pharisees and hypocrites ask, “Who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29). Our Lord tells us exactly who we are to love. “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28). Our love toward others is to be like our Redeemer’s love toward us: unselfish, impartial, expecting no return of love from those we love. Our Lord Jesus loves us freely. So let us love others freely. He expects no return for his love, except wrath, unless he himself creates love for himself in the sinners he loves. So let us love, expecting nothing from the objects of our love. The Master says, “Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return” (Luke 6:35). How are we to love those who despise us? We would be wise to hear what the Son of God says about this, and ignore the psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage counsellors and social workers of this God-hating, self-loving society. How are we to love people? Read Luke 6:29-30, and you will see. “And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.” Our Lord is not here demanding utter passivity. He is not requiring that we allow those who would rob us, take our homes, or murder us to do as they wish. He is talking here about insignificant things. Oh, how I pray that God will give me grace to treat insignificant things as insignificant things! Loves gives in. Love gives up much. Loves endures much. Love is kind. Love strives to avoid strife. Love sacrifices personal rights and desires for its object, and even submits to wrong for the sake of peace. Love, like the great Lover of our souls, is meek and lowly of heart, longsuffering, gentle and kind. This is what our Master teaches us concerning the character of love (Romans 12:9-21; Romans 14:19; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13). May he give us grace to exemplify it to one another in the house of God, in our homes, and to the world around us. Essential To Godliness Is your heart ruled, governed, and motivated by the love of Christ? Do you have within you the kind of love that Christ produces in his people! Do I? Love is absolutely essential to true godliness. Paul tells us that if we have all other things, and have not love, they shall profit us nothing. The absence of love is fatal. As you read such passages as I have cited in this study, do not think to yourself, “Love is a very great virtue, most commendable and useful; it would be a great thing if I could obtain it.” Oh, no! We must have it! It is essential. God the Holy Spirit tells us that this love is something which characterizes all who are born of God. We must have it, or else we are not born of God. If I do not have this love, no matter what else I may have, no matter what else I may do, if I do not have the love of Christ in my heart, I am a lost man; and the same is true of you. This love is not a condition to be met in order to get salvation; but it is one sure result of God’s saving grace in Christ. Christian love is greater than all other spiritual gifts and graces. Without love, all other gifts and graces are meaningless and useless (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). This one thing, love, is the fulfilling of the law of God (Matthew 22:36-40; Romans 13:8-10). And love is the one sure mark and evidence of a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). Where this love is absent, grace is absent. No man is born of God who does not have the love of Christ implanted in his heart as a ruling principle of life (1 John 2:9-11; 1 John 3:14; 1 John 3:23; 1 John 4:7-8; 1 John 4:16; 1 John 4:20; 1 John 5:1). The love of Christ, or the absence of it, is a thing easily identifiable. This is not some profound, mysterious point of theology. It is not some sweet-sounding, but useless, emotion. The love of Christ is a gift of divine grace, that is clearly demonstrated in the lives of God’s elect (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). This love causes a person to be kind, patient, content, gentle, even tempered, humble, self-denying, generous, honest, truthful, forbearing and forgiving toward others, both in the church and out of it. Love is preferable to all other gifts and greater than all other graces, because love is the only thing that will last forever (1 Corinthians 13:8-13). All other gifts will come to an end. All other graces will cease. But love will go on in heaven. Faith will be no more, when we see him whom we have believed. Hope will be no more, when we have that for which we have hoped. But love will continue and come to perfection, when we enter heaven. Love is the only thing we have in this world that we can carry with us into the world to come. Heaven is a world of love; perfect, unceasing, glorious, Christ-like love. No one will enter that city of peace and world of love, except those who have the love of Christ in their hearts. Blessed Rule Our dear Saviour, the Lord Jesus, gives us a very simple and blessed rule by which to live, the rule of love. “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31). “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). Our Lord knew that in this world the line between right and wrong, in dealing with neighbours and friends, family and foe, would often be very hazy. Personal feelings and private interests often dim our view of things and cloud our judgment. So the Lord Jesus gave us this guide. He tells us to treat others as we would have them treat us. To do to others as they do to us, to return evil for evil, bite for bite, injury for injury, is beastly. To return good for evil is to walk in the steps of our Master. Let us always endeavour to put the best construction on the actions and words of others, judging them and their deeds as charitably as possible. Be very slow to condemn another and swift to forgive. Let all error in dealing with other people be on the side of leniency, not on the side of severity. We do not have to form an opinion about everything, much less express an opinion about everything, everyone, or everyone’s actions. Believers live by principles the world simply cannot understand. We live by the rule of Christ and walk by the the example of his love (John 13:15; 2 Corinthians 5:14). “For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:32-35). As our heavenly Father is “kind to the unthankful and to the evil”, so let us be. As he forgives, let us forgive. As his loving-kindness is unwearied, let ours be. As his mercy is unlimited, let ours be unlimited. As his compassions fail not, so let our compassion be unaltered by thanklessness, ingratitude and abuse from those upon whom compassion is bestowed. Love’s Reward In Luke 6:35-38 learn, if you have not yet learned, that love is its own reward. “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” Our Lord Jesus does not here contradict the whole Bible. He is not here telling us that our love to other people earns God’s grace, or earns us a place in heaven. Not at all! He is simply declaring that those who are born of God walk in love, and that those who walk in love are born of God. Those who do not are not. Walk in love, “hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great.” The God of all grace has gracious children. The God of all mercy has merciful sons and daughters. The God whose glory it is to forgive sin has a forgiving family. If you are lenient with men, men will be lenient with you. As you forgive men, you shall be forgiven of men. As you give, men will give to you. It is easy to be lenient with lenient people. It is very difficult to be unforgiving toward one who is ever forgiving others. And people are always quickest to give to those who are generous. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” (1 John 4:7-11).

Luke 6:39-45

Chapter 35 Three Great Dangers In these seven verses our Lord Jesus Christ gives a very sobering, instructive parable, a parable by which he warns all who have ears to hear of three great dangers. Here are three great, spiritual dangers which we must strive to avoid, lest we perish forever. The danger of following false prophets. The danger of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. The danger of a deceived heart. By these three great snares, Satan has carried many to hell. Let us not be numbered among them. Following False Prophets First, the Son of God warns us of the great danger of following false prophets (Luke 6:39-40). “And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:39-40). These two verses are to be understood together. They cannot be separated. Our Lord is telling us plainly that those who follow false prophets shall perish with them in hell. If you follow a blind man, you cannot be walking in the light, and both of you will fall into hell. If you follow Christ, if he who is perfect is your Master, you shall at last be made perfect with him. While he walked on the earth, our Lord warned us of the great danger of false prophets and false religion more frequently than anything else. The greatest dangers we face, the greatest dangers our children and grandchildren face in this world are not pimps, pushers and pornography (horrible as those things are). Oh, no. Our greatest dangers are false prophets and false religion. If the vices of the world have slain thousands, the pretended virtues of false religion have slain tens of thousands. This is what our Lord teaches us in these two verses. If we hear and follow false prophets, we will go to hell with them. If your teacher is in error, you will be in error. If the man who leads you is blind, you are blind. If you follow your blind guide, when he falls into the ditch, so will you. We constantly endeavour to avoid obvious facts. Pretending to be more kind, gracious and loving than God, we try to convince ourselves that men and women may worship at the altar of free will and still believe free grace, that they may follow blind guides, though they themselves see, that they may be involved in the practice of false religion and yet know the true God; but those things simply cannot be. Children of the Light walk in the light. Christ’s sheep will not follow the voice of a stranger (Matthew 7:13-15; 2 Corinthians 11:2-3; 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22; 1 John 4:1-3). Christ is the Door. Every other door is the door to destruction. Christ is the Way. Every other way is the way to hell. Christ is the Truth. Everything else is Satan’s lie. Christ is the Life. Everything else is death. Christ is the Altar. Every other altar is idolatry. Christ is the Atonement. Every other attempt to make up with God is a denial of his atonement. Christ is Salvation (Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption). Every thing added to him is damnation. Beware of false prophets who would take you away from the simplicity that is in Christ. If you care for your soul, if you care for the souls of your sons and daughters, beware of following false prophets. If you do, you will follow them to hell (Revelation 18:4). Self-Righteousness And Hypocrisy Second, in Luke 6:41-42 our Master warns us of the great danger of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” Self-righteousness and hypocrisy always go together. It is impossible to have one without the other. Nothing is more natural to man or more obnoxious to God than self-righteousness and hypocrisy (Isaiah 65:3-5). I would rather stand before God Almighty in the day of judgment charged with any crime than the crime of self-righteousness. Self-righteous people justify themselves and condemn others. Those who are made righteous in Christ condemn themselves and justify others. The self-righteous find splinters in the eyes of others and ignore the two-by-fours in their own eyes. Those who acknowledge and confess their sins before God struggle constantly with the two-by-fours in their own eyes and are not able to see the splinters in the eyes of others. Self-righteous hypocrites boast of their attainments.

Believing sinners grieve over their failures. Self-righteous hypocrites think themselves strong and superior to others. God’s saints know themselves weak and inferior to their brethren. Self-righteous people, hypocrites go about to establish righteousness. Believers look to Christ for righteousness (Romans 10:1-4). A Deceived Heart In Luke 6:43-45 our Lord Jesus warns us of the great danger of a deceived heart. “For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” It does not matter how good your religion looks on the outside, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” It does not matter how much you impress men, or yourself for that matter, with what you say and do, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” It does not matter how sound your doctrine is, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” It does not matter how precisely you keep the ordinances, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” It does not matter how much money you give, how many chapters you read, how much scripture you memorize, how much you pray, or how often you attend church, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” God wants our hearts. God demands our hearts. The root of the matter is the heart. He says, “My son, give me thine heart.” If the heart is right, the fruit is good, no matter how bad it looks to men. If the heart is evil, the fruit is evil, no matter how good it looks to men. Perhaps the best way for us to understand the meaning of our Lord’s words here is to hear another parable. “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14). Beware of following false prophets. Beware of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Beware of a deceived heart. May the God of all grace save us from these three great dangers.

Luke 6:46-49

Chapter 36 What Is Your Foundation? God saves sinners by free grace alone. We are not saved by what we will, or by what we do. Election is by grace. Redemption is the work of God’s grace. Regeneration is the work of free grace alone. We are kept and preserved in grace by grace alone. The doctrine of holy scripture is crystal clear. From start to finish, “Salvation is of the Lord”! A spiritually dead sinner has no more to do with the work of the new birth than Lazarus did with his resurrection from the dead. But that does not mean that sinners are passive in the experience of grace. God does not knock a man in the head and drag him to heaven, whether he wants to go or not. That is not the doctrine of Scripture. God makes his people willing in the day of his power, and graciously causes his chosen to come to Christ willingly (Psalms 65:4; Psalms 110:3). In the passage now before us our Lord Jesus describes two groups of hearers, two kinds of religious people: Those who are saved and those who think they are saved, though they are lost. True believers, those who have been made wise by grace, are people who do some things, people who, being quickened by his grace, called by his Spirit and drawn with the cords of love, have been made to want Christ and seek him with all their hearts. Therefore, they hear his Word gladly and do his bidding diligently. Digging deep, they have discovered the Foundation. They build upon the Foundation. And having built upon the Foundation, they stand. The Lord Jesus also describes religious fools in this passage. The religious fool (Matthew 7:26) is one who does not take the things of God seriously. He hears the gospel, just like the wise man does; but everything with him is froth and folly. His religion is all on the surface, superficial and fake. With him, there is no digging, no building and no standing. The religious fool is one who has made lies his refuge (Isaiah 28:14). They have a house of refuge; but it is a house with no solid foundation, a refuge of lies built upon the shifting sands of human effort, religious works and personal goodness. What is your foundation? Is your soul built upon a foundation of earth and sand, or are you built upon the Rock, Christ Jesus? Saved sinners are built upon and build upon the Foundation God has laid in Zion, Christ Jesus (Isaiah 28:16). Christless Religion Religion without Christ is a very common thing. The visible church has always been a mixed multitude. Tares grow wherever wheat is sown. Goats graze in the same field with sheep. Wherever you find gold, you are sure to find fool’s gold. While he walked and preached in this world, the Son of God himself had many followers who were his disciples in word only, many who pretended to honour him by calling him Lord, but were yet rebels and refused to obey him. This is the evil which our Lord exposes in Luke 6:46. “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” It has always been a painful fact, throughout the history of the church, that multitudes profess faith in Christ who do not know him. Multitudes wear his name and use it who do not follow him (Isaiah 29:13; Ezekiel 33:31; Matthew 15:8-9; James 1:22). Nothing is more soul numbing, nothing is more dangerous to your soul, nothing is more damning than religion without Christ. Nothing is more likely to keep you from Christ than deluding yourself into thinking you have him when you do not. Nothing in all the world is more treacherous to your soul than a mere form of godliness. Nothing is more likely to keep you from seeking refuge than a refuge of lies (Isaiah 28:14-20). True Faith True faith is an earnest heart pursuit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are born of God know their need of Christ and seek him with all their hearts (Jeremiah 29:12-13; Philippians 3:7-14). When a sinner knows his need of Christ, when he is fleeing from the wrath of God, when the gaping jaws of hell are before him, when God fixes it so that he is at his wits end and must either have Christ or die forever, he is in dead earnestness. There is nothing half-hearted, indifferent, or careless about him. “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like” (Luke 6:47). Believers are sinners who come to Christ as their Priest, their Saviour, trusting him alone for acceptance with God. They are people who hear Christ’s words as their Prophet, as their Teacher. And believers are people who obey Christ as their King, as their Lord and Master. The Lord Jesus describes the believer as a wise man, who builds his house upon the rock. “He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock” (Luke 6:48). He believes on the Rock. He digs deep, sparing nothing, refusing to build upon any foundation other than that foundation which God has laid, Christ Jesus (Isaiah 28:16; Romans 9:33; Romans 10:11; 1 Peter 2:6). My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. Edward Mote The house that is built upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, is stable and secure. Floods of heresies, streams of adversity, winds of troubles, temptations and trials beat vehemently upon the house, but cannot shake it! It stands firmly fixed upon the Rock, Christ Jesus. “He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah” (Psalms 62:6-8). “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings” (Psalms 40:2). False Faith False faith is shallow, superficial and unstable. “But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:49). John Gill wrote … “Such builders, and such a building cannot stand against the violent rain of Satan’s temptations, the floods of the world’s persecutions, the stream and rapid torrent of their own heart’s lusts, nor the blowing winds of heresy and false doctrine, and much less the storms of divine wrath and vengeance. They are in a most dangerous condition; they cannot support themselves; they must fall, and great will be their fall; their destruction is inevitable, their ruin is irrecoverable.” The Lord Jesus here describes the religion of the one who merely professes, but does not have faith in him. His religion is a house built upon the shifting sands of the earth. His hope is built upon his poor emotions, his excited experience, his religious learning and knowledge, church tradition, his freewill decision, his self-righteous works or sentiments. The false refuge house is a house quickly built. It may look very impressive, but when floods of heresies, streams of adversity and winds of troubles, trials and temptations beat upon the house, it falls. It falls because it has no foundation. Thus John Trapp could say: “The unprofitable hearer is not cemented to Christ by faith, but laid loose, as it were, upon a sandy foundation, and so slips beside the ground work in foul weather. He is not set into the stock as a scion, but only stuck into the ground as a stake, and is therefore easily pulled up. Whereas the true Christian is knit fast to Christ the Rock by the ligament of a lively faith; and as a lively stone, is built up in a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5), growing up in the mystical body with so much sweetness and evenness, as if the whole temple (like that of Solomon) were but one entire stone. ‘He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit’ (1 Corinthians 6:17).” Christ is the Foundation God has laid. Will you stumble over him, or build upon him? God help you to build on him. May God the Holy Spirit join you to him and build you upon him (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).