and open to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. To start out, we're actually going to talk about something that is impossible. Have you ever heard the phrase, you can't have your cake and eat it too? You ever hear that? Actually, that really doesn't make sense, does it? It doesn't it doesn't make sense and they actually but we still say it I say it that way sometimes and then I try to correct it and it loses the effect But but actually it's supposed to be you can't eat your cake and have it too. You know that you can't eat your cake and have it It's actually that phrase. I'll throw out a little teaser. You can google it later But it's actually that phrase I think is one of the things that helped catch the Unabomber anyway, that's a whole different story, but But, well, he wrote that in his manifestos. He wrote it correctly, where everybody uses it improperly, and he wrote it correctly, and they did this linguistic analysis and figured out who did it. Anyway, so you can't do that. You can't, we use that phrase, right? You can't eat your cake and have it. I mean, once you eat it, it's gone. It's impossible. Well, of course, we just saying about something that is possible or that is impossible, but yet God did it. God does things that are impossible. But Jesus is teaching us in Luke 16 something that is impossible. He tells us. At the end of verse 13 that you cannot serve God and money. You can't do both of those things. It's impossible. Because where our heart is, that leads us to be devoted to one person or one thing. You can't serve God and money. And so with that, Jesus is teaching. He had been teaching about money all the way through here in Luke 16, where he talked about the shrewdness of the man who shrewdly figured out a way to prepare for his future. And he says that the sons of light should be doing the same thing. They should be taking the opportunities that they have in investing for the future, which is with him, with Christ. And yet we don't take advantage of that. He was instructing his disciples there, but now he speaks to the Pharisees. Look at verse 14 of Luke chapter 16. It says the Pharisees who were lovers of money. See, they loved money. They didn't want to give up their money to follow Christ. They didn't want anything to do with that, and so they desired that they would keep their money and keep everything that they were doing the way that they were doing it. And they loved money, and when they heard Jesus speaking of such things like you cannot serve God in money, they ridiculed him. And so then he says to them, to the Pharisees, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of the Lord. We come this morning and we want to learn something. We want to repeat the theme that Jesus really has through this section, which goes up through 18. And it is that believers must be aware the love of money is an abomination to the Lord. This is the the love of money to love God more than loving or to love money more than you love. God is an abomination to him. Truly, it's an abomination to love anything more than God. And so last week we looked and we saw that the love of money leads to self justification. They love money instead of God. They mocked and ridiculed Christ in his teaching instead of delighting in God's law. Instead of hearing what God had to say and delighting in it, they mocked him. They justified themselves instead of seeking the justification that comes from God, which is by faith alone. And the pride they exhibited in loving money, being greedy, being boastful, is an abomination before the Lord. Well, the second thing we're going to see here, verses 16 through 18, is we're going to see that the love of money leads to lawlessness. First of all, it leads to self justification and second of all, it leads to lawlessness and the overall theme that you're going to see that is played out is that people when they love something other than God, they will do whatever they have to whatever theological gymnastics they need to to justify their own positions. Because ultimately their desire is not to love God. Their desire is to love themselves by loving whatever they really want to love. And so what we have to understand is that it leads to lawlessness. that could be legalism, that could be antinomianism, that could be all sorts of things. But when you love something greater than God, you're willing to take what God has said and twisted and make it how and just slightly veer off any way that you want so that it is. What do you want? Not what God wants. So let's look at this first of all in verse 16. Jesus is still speaking to the Pharisees. You have to remember that. Throughout this section, you have to remember. You have to remember he's talking to the Pharisees when he tells them that they love money. You have to remember he's talking to the Pharisees when he talks about the law and the prophets and when he talks about easier for heaven and earth to pass away. And you have to remember he's talking to the Pharisees when he talks about divorce, which is actually he's talking about adultery in verse 18. So notice that he tells them something about the law and the prophets. I'm going to kind of combine part of this with the second point, but one aspect with the first. And here's what it says. It says, the law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it. You see that phrase everyone forces his way into it. What in the world does that mean? Well, we'll talk about that in a minute, but here he he talks about the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets were until John. Here, the Law and the Prophets stand for the whole Old Testament. So the entire Old Testament referred to the Law and the Prophets. The Law and the Prophets. The Old Testament divided up into a couple different groups. The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, sometimes it's described as. But here, just the Law and the Prophets. Sometimes it's just the Law. But here, the Law and the Prophets. And so, John kind of was a unique individual. John the Baptist. Or as the Presbyterians call him, John the Baptizer, because they don't like saying he was a Baptist. But anyway, just just a little joke. But anyway, here, John had one foot in the Old Testament and kind of one foot in the New Testament. He kind of was this bridge. He was still in the Old Testament. You realize that Jesus, when Jesus was on earth, He was teaching during the time of the Old Testament. He was teaching there under the law. Because he had not yet died, but yet he comes into this system. There were still sacrifices going on, and so John is is preaching. As a matter of fact, John in Matthew 3. He is the one who goes out and says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah when he said the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. In other words, prepare. Don't we sing that? Prepare him room, right? That's what they're saying. Prepare the way of the king. And so Jesus was the one who the prophets spoke of. You have to understand that the Old Testament is there to tell us about Jesus. The Old Testament is there to prepare us for this one who is going to come. And he is going to be the one who fulfills everything. And so, what you see is in Matthew 3, John the Baptist is on the scene, and by Matthew 4, John is arrested and Jesus then starts taking over. And Jesus, it says in Matthew 4.17, from that time, Jesus began to preach saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So Jesus comes on the scene. The kingdom is there. The kingdom of God is preached. Jesus is proclaimed. He is the King. And so He is proclaiming this. And the way to enter Is what John had said in the way that to enter is the way that Jesus said, and that was to repent and to believe the good news of Christ that he indeed was the Messiah that he is your only hope. Your hope is not found in you keeping the law. You can't do it. Your hope, my hope is found in the one who did hold on to the law. And that's why the good news is preached to the rich man. And that's why it is preached to the sinners and to those religious hypocrites as well. To all people. To everyone it is proclaimed. There is no one who is outside of God's grace. Now I want to come back to that in a moment, but the kingdom is being preached and so notice what Jesus says. He says to them. Everyone forces his way into it. Now that is a very controversial passage, okay? It could be translated a couple different ways. And we could spend an hour talking about the various meanings of it and all of that, but let me try to break it down for you very quickly. Here, the original word means to inflict violence or to constrain or to really, as it says here, to force something upon it to to go in violently. You know, I kind of think of, you know, when if you hear the police knock and they raid, they they'll, you know, smash the door open with maybe some bomb, you know, the things that blow open the doors or they're pound with the battering ram rush through, you know, it's it's not like a polite, you know, where they knock and then they step far back away. Hello, sir. How are you today? You know, no, boom, the door goes blasting open in there in that that's kind of the picture. Okay. And so what is it? What is he talking about here? There's a comparable passage in Matthew 11 that you can look at later, but I think that. John or rather Luke is writing here in a very specific way. And so the meaning here is is very specific. This word is actually in the original text. And there's a reason why I have to tell you this. It's either in the middle or in the passive verse voice, which means that it can be translated two different ways. Either they're forcing themselves into it or it is being forced upon them. Do you see the difference? But because of the way the word looks, you can't tell without the context. For us, it would be maybe kind of like the word you. What do I mean by you? Does that mean singular or does that mean plural? You can't tell. Because you, now am I talking to one person or many people? Well, you know that I'm talking that's plural because of the context. But if I'm alone with you, that's singular because there's only one you. Most of the time, right? There's only one you. Depends on who you're talking to. And so the idea here is what is it? Is he saying you do it yourself? You force yourselves in or it is being forced upon you, that they take it by force. Here, I think that the idea is that it is almost kind of both. And sometimes scripture does that. But the idea is that they are forcing themselves, but ultimately the context says that Jesus is telling everyone is being forced or urged heartily, not violently, but is with the greatest urgency being told that you must enter the kingdom and to do it is very hard. Doing this is a very hard thing. That's why he says you have to do it violently. That's why he says you have to force your way into it. You have to really try hard. It's kind of like when you're trying to unscrew something, there's a bolt that's on, and you're trying to get it off, and it's been on there for a long time, and it's not one of those things where you can just screw it off with your fingers, You have to get something that's very long, so you have a lot of leverage, and you might have to spray some stuff on there to loosen it up and get it all right. And you may have to just violently cut it off. You know, you just, fine, forget it. I'm going to get the saw and just saw the thing off and bust the whole thing off. But the point is that it's hard. And so that's what this is talking about. So first of all, how is it hard? First, it takes divine sovereignty to do this. John 644 says no one can come to me unless the father who sends me sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. So he's not saying he's drawing everybody because he says he's going to be raised up on the last day. So if God. Draws everybody in this sense, then everyone is going to be raised up and we know that that's not true. Only believers will be raised to the resurrection, but here he says you have to be drawn. So this is something that God is working on. But second of all, it takes striving on our part, and I think this is what Jesus is talking about. And so if you're taking notes, this would be the first point on your outline that we need to strive to enter the kingdom of God. Now that might sound like you're talking about works, but actually I'm taking that point directly from what Jesus himself said earlier. In Luke. Chapter 13 verse 23 to 24. They said in someone said to him Lord will those who are saved be few and he said to them strive to enter through the narrow door. For many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able. He tells him to strive. Jesus tells them to strive, to strive, to put forth energy, to put forth effort into it. Why? Because it is hard. And here's where you have to look at the context carefully. Remember, who is Jesus speaking to? He's speaking to the Pharisees, right? And what did the Pharisees love? The Pharisees loved money, right? So Jesus is trying to tell these Pharisees, you need to love me more than you love money. The kingdom to come is greater than the kingdom you're going to build here on earth. That is very hard to believe, isn't it? You tell people that, especially where we live, you tell people that you need to love God more than your car, more than your new car, more than your position in life, more than whatever it is, and that is really hard to get past. It really is. Because we like comforts, don't we? I like comforts. I like comfort. Is there anybody that says, you know, I just, I like being uncomfortable. Right? I just love it. I love wearing a shirt that has a scratchy collar. I mean, it makes me feel good. Which then, I guess, makes it your comfort, right? In a weird way, I love just sitting around freezing. I mean, it just when my feet are so cold, I can't feel them anymore. It's just very comfortable. You know, I love sleeping on a hard bed, just sleep on the floor. You know, it's very uncomfortable. I toss and turn all night. I wake up horrible. I mean, it's just I love that. I mean, we love our comforts. And Jesus says, ultimately, seriously, he says, you need to be willing to give up your life to follow me. And that takes faith. It takes faith. Let me put it in a different context for you. How many of you adults, not talking to kids here, How many adults would say, you know what? Now that I'm adult, thinking back on it, learning to play a musical instrument is a great and wonderful thing. How many would say that? OK? For this to work, everybody needs to raise their hand. You know what I'm saying? OK. And say, does learning to play piano come easily? Does it? No, it doesn't. Learning, does it come quickly? No. I wonder how many of you quit and now you wish you hadn't quit. Right. Anybody in here like that? Yeah. Right. And and we wish. But why did we quit? Well, because there was a time when it was hard. It was hard and instead of playing those scales over and over, what did we want to do? Well, I'll tell you what I wanted to do. I wanted to go out there and play street hockey. I wanted to play football. I wanted to play basketball. I wanted to play golf. I wanted to do anything other than do that because I couldn't see later on the benefit of being able to play. I thought playing those things at that time was worth giving up that talent. And kids rarely see the lifelong value of sitting down and playing scales for hours while their friends are playing outside. It's difficult for people to see that. And it is equally, if not far more difficult for people to see, give up my life now to follow Jesus for something that is greater They don't see it. It's hard. That's why you have to strive. So that's why it takes God striving in you, and that's why you have to strive. A great example of this is Moses. Don't have time to go into it a whole lot, but it does speak of Moses in Hebrews 11, 23-28. Let me just read one verse. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. And so he considered the reproach of Christ, get this, greater wealth. The reproach of Christ was his wealth. The reproach of Christ was his wealth. He considered that greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. See, Moses could have had the treasures of Egypt. But he said, I see the treasures of Christ greater. And that's hard to get through. We see the treasures here. And we don't see the treasures there. That's why it's hard. That's why you have to violently go through. That's why you have to say no, no. And that's why you have to continue that even when you come through that. It's not like, oh, I've become a Christian. Those things don't tempt me anymore. And so second of all, we have to encourage not only non-believers to strive, that knowing Christ is greater than what you have now. Second, we have to encourage ourselves to persevere. Hebrews 4.11 says, let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. We're not talking about losing your salvation, but what we are saying is that if you do fall away, it shows that that faith isn't genuine. And so the very warning is the means by which God uses to keep us striving. So I know the temptations out there. I know that that's so I know I need to keep striving. No, no, you're being tempted. Put it away. Follow Christ. Couple references. Not going to read him, but Colossians 1 22 to 23 and Philippians 1 6 also speak of this. We need to strive. The Pharisees needed to strive. And yet they wouldn't. Second of all, we see that they think that the law is diminished. Look at v. 16 and 17. Remember, the law and the prophets were until John. So he's speaking of the law and the prophets. And then he says in v. 17, But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. What's he saying here? He says that what they don't understand is that the law is permanent. It's fulfilled in Christ. The law prophesied concerning Christ coming. Isn't that what we are doing this upcoming Sunday? That the law prophesied that Christ would come. And He did. It was fulfilled. See, there were people who were watching and they were waiting for the kingdom to come. They were waiting for Christ to come. Simeon, Anna, read about it in the beginning of Luke, Luke chapter 1. They were waiting. for Christ to come. And He did. He fulfilled that prophecy. We see that the disciples knew this. In John 1.45, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found Him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Remember after Jesus is death. Remember he's he was crucified. He was raised and he met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and they were like, don't you know what's going on? And he called him foolish being foolish. And then it says beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. You see, the law and the prophets spoke of the coming of Jesus. And he said, the law isn't going to be diminished. The law is actually going to be fulfilled. And Jesus says that, doesn't he? He says, I didn't come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. He fulfilled it by, one, keeping it. He kept all the laws. I mean, we talk about this all the time. We can't even keep our own laws, the own laws that we make for ourselves. Right? January 1st, you're going to exercise and you're going to die. By January 2nd, you've broken those. Okay? You'll break those resolutions. But the point is that Jesus didn't break any of the law. And Jesus, second of all, fulfilled the law by being the very substance of the shadow that it showed. He is the great great priest. We don't need the priest anymore because he is our great high priest. He is the great prophet. We don't need the prophets anymore because he is the great prophet. We don't need the kings anymore because he is our great King and we can go on and on. He fulfilled the law. He was the perfect sacrifice and we can go on. Jesus fulfilled the law and so therefore it is easier, it says. For heaven and Earth to to be destroyed for them to pass away, then for one dot of the law to become void. You just think about the vastness of this world and think about it just exploding. Think about it coming to nothing and he says it's easier for God's creation to pass away than for one dot of the law to not be fulfilled. Now that word dot is a very interesting word. The word dot there is a word it actually means little horn. And he's referring to the different Hebrew letters. In Hebrew, you have all these letters, of course, and letters are differentiated by just a tad little different thing, like Daleth and Resh or He and Chet. There's just one little thing. It would be akin to us having, imagine in your mind, right? The difference between the letter P. Everybody see the letter P in your in your mind and the letter R. What's the difference? Just that one line. What's the difference between the letter O and the letter Q? Just one little line. He says it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one little horn of the Hebrew Old Testament to not be fulfilled. And remember, what's the Hebrew Old Testament being fulfilled? It's Jesus. Jesus is the one who's going to fulfill it. We find all of our yes. Paul speaks of of fulfilling all of our yeses found in him. So we look to him. God's creation is what He has done. However, this is where I think it's interesting. God's Word is a reflection of what He is, of who He is. His Word is true because God cannot lie. His Word does not return void because His Word is powerful. God is eternal, and thus His Word is eternal. So God, His Word, will come true. As a matter of fact, every letter of the law will be fulfilled. And that brings us to the second point, that we should expect God to fulfill all of His Word. Whatever God has said, we should expect God to fulfill His word. You know, one of the fascinating things about the way God works. OK, and I'm not saying I like this all the time, but one of the fascinating ways that God works is he puts us in hard situations. so that His glory could shine forth. I like to illustrate it like this. He set the Israelites free, right? You remember that story in Exodus? He sets them free, and He doesn't say, go and take the land. Well, He does tell them to do that, but before He does that, He says, oh yeah, I'm going to put you up to the Red Sea. So you've got the Red Sea in front of them, and you've got the Egyptian army behind them. And what do they start doing? Lord, what would you put us in this situation for? And then he keeps doing that, right? And he delivers them, and he delivers them miraculously. Sends them across on dry ground. Miraculous. Gives them water out of a rock. Gives them manna come down from heaven. Which, by the way, who is the bread of heaven? That that that gives us daily life and sustenance. Jesus. All the law, all the old. The Old Testament isn't about, you know, a bunch of laws and rules to follow. The Old Testament is meant to show us the person of Christ. And so the thing is, God puts us in those situations that are difficult. And I want you to think about this. When Simeon and when Anna were looking for the coming kingdom, when they were looking for the Christ to come. You have to remember that God had been silent. For 400 years. From the time of Malachi till the time of John. God had been silent. There was no new revelation. God had been silent. That's a long time. That's two times longer than how long our country has even existed. Just try to put it into perspective. It had been that long, okay? So it's kind of like I can't remember something since Luther. Just give me a couple of hundred years or so. You know, I understand what I mean. It's been a long time. And so here they're they're waiting and they're waiting and they're waiting. And then Christ comes. God fulfills his purpose for God. A couple hundred years is nothing. It's part of a second. It's nothing to Him. And so we have to understand, expect God to fulfill His Word. Expect Him to return. Expect justice to reign. Expect all things to be made new. Expect the resurrection of the just to eternal life and the resurrection of the unjust to eternal damnation. We need to evaluate ourselves and say, how do we handle God's Word? Do we truly expect these things to happen? Or do we get discouraged? God puts us in these situations, I think, to drive us to Him. Allow this time to say in your heart, God does fulfill His promises. And He will fulfill all the promises that He has given us. He will. Even when it looks like He doesn't. Even when it looks like He's silent. Even when I'm up against the Red Sea. He will fulfill His promises. Thirdly, we look in verse 18. This kind of looks like it's out of place. Jesus is talking about an unjust servant or, you know, the shrewd servant. Then Jesus is talking to the Pharisees about loving money. And then Jesus, down in verse 19, talks about the rich man and Lazarus. And right in the middle, he gives like a whole verse about divorce. I mean, does that even make sense? It kind of seems like it's out of place, but there is a point to it. It's kind of like Rocky, okay? Rocky II. You remember in Rocky II where? Rocky decides he's going to fight Apollo Creed again. And his trainer says, I'll train you. And he takes him in the back alley, and he throws out a chicken. And he says, chase the chicken. And he goes, what? And he's like. Why would I chase the chicken? And he starts chasing this chicken. And he's like, this is how we did it in the old days. He chases the chicken. He's chasing the chicken all around. And he can't catch the chicken. And Rocky says, no, I feel like a Kentucky Fried Idiot. And he can't catch the chicken. And you're like, why in the world is this trainer getting this guy who's training for the heavyweight championship trying to get him to chase a chicken? It seems way out of place. But there was a purpose there. It got him to move and to react in ways he never thought about. And I think this is what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is throwing this thing here. Remember, let me take you back to the beginning. Who is this directed to directed to the Pharisees? OK, and one of the things the Pharisees did was they justified themselves. So I don't think I'm going to tell you this and you might be a little. I don't think that he's talking about divorce like I mean, I don't think that Jesus is main purposes. Hey, I want to teach you something about divorce here. Jesus is actually going to teach the Pharisees. That they were worse sinners than what they had thought that they had played fast and loose with the law. They thought the law was gone. They thought that they could play with the law however in the world they wanted so they could justify themselves because they loved money and Jesus was going to show them. That they were wrong. Notice what Jesus says here. He says, everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. He's speaking to the Pharisees here. And when he does this. He is trying to shoot down their self-righteousness and showing that they treat the Word of God as if it was null and void. This is an example of them loving money more than anything else. The condemnation that he gives is that of them committing adultery, right? Who? Says adultery is wrong. Virtually everybody. virtually, even still to this day, most people say adultery is wrong. Now, recently it was in the news. There were these two newscasters and they had an affair with each other. The only reason I know this, I mean, it was like head, and they got on, they got on like the program and they like boasted about this and then they were fired. See, I think they were testing the waters there. Hey, I mean, come on. Adultery is a normal thing. Everybody does that. Who cares? And so they tested the waters and even the secular media said, well, that's a little too far. See, everybody understands adultery is wrong. And the Pharisees would stand there and they would say, we've never committed adultery in our lives. And Jesus says, you want to bet? You used divorce as a means to commit adultery. The way that you used divorce, it was adulterous. You see what they did. The only passage in the entire Old Testament which speaks about divorce is found in Deuteronomy 24. We don't have time to look at it, but you read about it and in this passage it was actually meant to prevent divorce and it was meant to protect a woman from being taken advantage of via the first husband acquiring a second dowry of her. In other words, that he would get a lot more money by divorcing her, marrying someone else, then divorcing her, then marrying his first wife again, thus gaining more funds, getting a second dowry from her. And so the Pharisees used this teaching about divorce in Deuteronomy 24 as a loophole to pursue adultery. You get that? Their heart wanted to commit adultery, but they couldn't stand up there and say we were doing it. So they said, well, we will use the law to divorce our wives and commit adultery. And so therefore. Jesus was showing them that they were wrong, that they were adulterers. There was there were a lot of rabbinical teachings on the teaching of divorce. Originally, God had permitted divorce only because of the hardness of their hearts. And Jesus does say that it is permissible due to adultery and deserting by an unbelieving spouse. But they took it to an extreme, two different groups there, right? And they took it to an extreme that men could divorce their wives for any reason really that they wanted. They took Deuteronomy 24 and they ran wild with it. If they found anything wrong in their wife, they could give her a bill of divorcement. So it's very popular. You come home, you want a chicken. And she made pork chops. I guess in Jewish times they wouldn't have had pork chops. Bad illustration. But you come home, you want a chicken. And there was, I don't know, there was chicken pot pie, lamb. Yeah, I don't know. There was something different. And it wasn't cooked the way you liked it. She was gone. You had you had grounds for divorce. Right, she was at that point unclean and you could divorce her, but I mean, I don't even like to mention some of the things like it was it was like if she if you didn't like the way she looked anymore, if she did for whatever reason, they could say, well, you have become abomination to me and I'm going to divorce you and then you would marry someone else. and they clothed their adultery and their love of money in utilizing what the law never intended or never allowed. So it was actually meant to protect the women and they took it as an abuse. They took it as something to use against people. And Jesus said, you think you're so self righteous? You are nothing but a bunch of adulterers. And by the way, doesn't Jesus call him that in other places? He calls the whole generation an adulterous generation. And so what is it when you are supposed to be faithful to one person and you're not? It's an adulterer. What happens when you are supposed to be faithful to God and instead of being faithful to God, you love something else? What is that? Spiritual adultery, isn't it? Jesus is saying here, listen, You can clothe it however you want, but you better be careful. You better be careful, and you better not let your heart be divided. And so that brings us to point number three. We need to beware of treating God's Word casually. I use that gently for us. But they were taking the Word of God and they were running wild. We sometimes are a little casual with the Word of God. Well, I know it says this, but... And then we are casual with it. We can't be like that. God says we need to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, strength, everything. We must not neglect it. We must not ignore it. We must not take liberty with it. And we certainly must not use it to fulfill our own lusts or to excuse them. Let us be careful. So. There's a lot more to say about divorce and all that, but our time is gone. But in conclusion, we see what Jesus wanted them to realize was very simple. You should love God with all of your heart. You should want to know His law and follow His law. You should not excuse or twist His law to fit your law. You should know that you may twist and skirt around the law, but eventually you will be found out. God sees and knows all things. Christian, are you here on this earth trying to be wise with the resources that you have, the money, the possessions, making an eternal deposit in heaven like the shrewd steward above? Or and are you seeking to influence people for the sake of the gospel? Or are you able to twist the Word of God to your own devices? Jesus is very clear. You cannot serve God and man. You cannot serve God in money. You cannot serve God in anything else. So you need to be like the man who sells all that he has to go and buy the pearl of great price. He sells it all to have the pearl of great price. Jim Elliott said it. Very well, and it's hard to even live up to this, but he after he was before he was murdered, but he gave his life along with the others. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. You cannot lose the kingdom. Don't try to keep this which you are going to lose. Seek the kingdom. Go violently through to take hold of it because Christ is worth it all. Let's pray. God and Father, I pray that you will take these words, your word, and apply them to our hearts. Lord, help us just simply to love you above all things. And Lord, I know that we all fail in all of these areas, but God, I pray that our hope would be found in Jesus. He was obedient to you. He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And so Father, we place our hope, all of our hope. So on him. Lord, for those who are here, I pray that you will give them the strength, the power, the desire to lay it all down for Christ. And Lord, if there's someone here, they don't know Christ. Help them to see the beauty of who he is, the beauty of the kingdom, the beauty of the gospel that they will turn from their unbelief and they will believe on Jesus, who is the true and only Son of God. Who lived the perfect life and died in our place and he was victorious and was raised on the third day. And whoever calls upon Him, if they will believe on Him, trust Him, they will be saved. Help them to know that, Lord. Now we pray, Lord, that you will dismiss us with your blessing. We pray this in Christ's name. And now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory and majesty and dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. May the Lord richly bless you. today.