Don’t Join the Self-Justifiers

Our text as usual is from the Gospel of Luke. But before turning there we need to read a few verses at the very end of Romans chapter 3. So in your Bibles would you turn with me to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. And we want to begin reading in verse 28. Romans 3:28,

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

And now we turn in the Gospel of Luke to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. And we want to begin reading at verse 14. Luke chapter 16 and verse 14,

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. And He said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.’

Dallas police officers Thomas Kekkonen and David Draper will probably never forget a very special Monday night in July of 1989. On that particular Monday night about 2 a.m. they were sent on a call to the Park Central Building which is located in the 1700 block of Merit Drive. A security officer there thought that a man was locked in an eighth-story office. When the officers got into the office suite there was a forty-year-old man there hiding under a table. And you will never guess what he was doing. He was eating a gallon of ice cream.

Now if you think that’s strange wait till you hear the rest of the story. This man was covered with plaster. There was a hole in one of the walls of the office building. The officers considered that he was a possible burglar and so they arrested him and they read him his rights. And after he had been read his rights here’s the story that he told the officers. He said that on Saturday night he had been chased by three men and that he had run into the building through an unlocked ground-floor door. He had taken a freight elevator and had gone up to the roof and hidden on the roof for a considerable amount of time. And then he had lowered himself two stories into the building through an air-conditioning shaft.

It was at this point that he realized that he was locked inside the building. And so to attract attention and help he broke eight feet of copper water pipe. The result was that hundreds of gallons of water cascaded into the building and down seven stories. Well on Sunday afternoon a maintenance man came in to repair the water leak and he did his work just a few feet from the place that this man was supposedly hiding. He heard nothing. He saw nothing. And he left.

So what did the suspected burglar do? He broke the water pipes again. Now when that did not attract any attention he decided that he would break his way out with a board that he had found in the building. Evidently that was the cause of the hole in the wall of the office building. But he said after he had broken open the wall he was tired and hungry. And so he took a gallon of ice cream out of an office refrigerator and began to eat it.

Now I don’t need to tell you do I that officers Kekkonen and Draper did not exactly warm up to the ice-cream-burglar story. They pointed out to him that seven offices had been broken into and that he had not tried to attract the attention of the plumber even though he was only a few feet away. They gave him personal transportation down to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. They booked him on a charge of burglary and he was released on a bail bond of $2,500.

And I have got to believe that the Dallas Morning News reporter who wrote this story had a twinkle in his eye when he wrote the very last words of the story. Speaking of this suspected burglar the reporter said he could not be located at the address given to police.

Now needless to say folks the headline writers of the Dallas Morning News had a field day with this. And they came up with a really impressive headline here it was: “Police Officers Called to Cool Suspect’s Story.” Hey I like it don’t you? And I think my reaction to this story can be summed up in six syllables. But obviously won’t you agree? Obviously this suspected burglar was trying to justify himself. He was trying to justify his presence in the building. He was trying to justify his actions in the building. And in the process he was telling a really tall tale.

But did you know that the tallest tales in Texas are not told by burglars? The tallest tales in Texas are told by religious people. They’re told by religious people. And would you like to hear the tallest tale of all? Here it is: I am a good person. I am a good person. Have you ever told that particular tall tale? Have you? Well if you have I have a warning for you this morning. And my warning is this: Don’t join the self-justifiers. That just happens to be the title of my message to you this morning. Don’t join the self-justifiers.

Now I need to tell any of you that the week that has just passed was not exactly the greatest week in the history of Dallas. Would you agree? I mean we have a world-champion football team. The boys are back. And we were having a great big parade downtown for them. And it went fairly well until the parade passed by and then violence broke out. And gangs of youths attacked innocent bystanders. People were arrested. People were injured and taken to the hospital. You know all about it. You saw it on the television footage that you watched this week.

Now I very much confess to you that I’m not a mind reader. Neither am I a prophet. But I think I can guess at some of the thoughts that were going through our minds as we watched the television set this week. As we watched that violence and those hoodlums. Is it possible that we thought something like this: I’m better than that. I’m not a thug. I’m not a criminal. I would never dream of assaulting somebody who was just an innocent bystander. I’m better than those guys and gals downtown.

You know I think I’ve heard that somewhere before. That kind of idea. In fact I’m sure of it. For just two chapters beyond the point where we are in the Gospel of Luke the Lord Jesus Christ tells us a story about a Pharisee and a tax collector who walked into the Jewish temple to pray. And as the Pharisee prays he prays words like this. He says, “God I thank You that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector over here. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.”

Who was that Pharisee? He was a self-justifier. He was a self-justifier. And did you note as we read our passage of Scripture just a few moments ago that that very idea occurs in this passage of the Word of God? You see Jesus has just finished giving some public teaching on the subject of money. And He has called money the mammon of unrighteousness. And very emphatically He has said you cannot serve God and money. You cannot serve God and mammon.

And there were some Pharisees in His audience that day. And they didn’t like that kind of teaching at all. You know why? They loved money. They liked money. And their hearts had greed, selfishness and materialism inside. And they began to make fun of Jesus. They derided him. They ridiculed him. And maybe they said something like that: Fine. That is absolutely ridiculous. It’s way out in left field to call money the mammon of unrighteousness. God gives money to people who serve him. Money is God’s blessing on those who do the right thing.

Whether they said that or whether they said something else it wasn’t very long before the Lord Jesus Christ unlocked a spiritual hand grenade right into the midst of it. And His words to them virtually crackle and explode. And Jesus says to these Pharisees, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”

And if I can paraphrase Jesus’ words they seem to mean something like this: Get real. Get real. You may be able to impress people. You may be able to convince them that you’re a good religious person. But God sees through the religious front. He sees through that facade of religiosity. And He sees your heart. And man may esteem you because you look religious. They may even esteem you because you have money. But what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Ouch. I mean ouch, ouch, ouch. Jesus is saying to these people you look good to men but you look ugly to God. And is it possible, is it possible that as you sat before your television screens this week not only did you feel superior to the hoodlums and thugs who were beating people up downtown but is it possible that you also felt hatred and hostility to those young criminals who were doing those awful things on the downtown streets? Is that possible?

And then when you went to work the next day you told people how you deplored what had happened so that they would consider you an upstanding, fine, law-abiding citizen. But maybe you didn’t say a word about any feelings of hatred or any feelings of hostility or any rejection of a whole race of people because the hoodlums downtown were primarily of one race. Maybe you didn’t say anything about that. But it was there. God saw it. God saw it.

You see it doesn’t matter how good we look to man. What counts is what God sees on the inside. There was a well-known actor by the name of Alfred Lunt who used to generally equate packed houses. But he would get upset if he didn’t see someone in the theater standing up because standees in a theater meant that there was standing-room-only and that his production had been sold out.

Years ago Alfred Lunt was performing on Broadway in a Theatre Guild production. The Guild’s publicity man was a man named Russell Crouse. And Russell Crouse noticed that there were some empty seats in the theater that night. And he was afraid that Alfred Lunt would be upset during his performance if he didn’t see anybody standing up. So it occurred to Crouse that there was a dummy, a prop from a previous production. So he went and got the dummy, dressed it in clothes like an ordinary person, and stood it in the back of the theater so that there would be at least one standee that Alfred Lunt would see.

But after the production Alfred Lunt came to Russell Crouse and he said, “You know there was a standee in the back of the theater tonight who was so interested that he scarcely moved during the entire performance.” Most gratified. And I have the feeling that Russell Crouse did not enlighten him to the fact that he had impressed a dummy.

And say folks if you ever convinced somebody that you were at your heart and core a good person you’ve impressed a dummy. It may be a real live human being but it’s a dummy. Because you see human beings can only see what is on the outside. A young ruler came to Jesus one time and addressed Him as “Good Master.” And Jesus replied, “Why do you call Me good? There is no one good but God.”

Of course Jesus was God. And of course Jesus was good. But hear me. Jesus Christ was the only truly good person that ever walked the face of this earth. So that’s what I mean when I say if you convince somebody that you’re a good person you’ve convinced a dummy. You see it really does not matter how we impress men. God sees through all of that. God knows our hearts.

And folks God knows that every one of us in this audience, starting with the preacher, is a sinner who deserves to go to hell. But let me give you a clue. Some of the very pushiest people on the face of the entire planet are these men and women that I have described as self-justifiers. Did you notice that when Jesus goes on to say these words He says, “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is preached and everyone is pressing.” Everyone is pushing. Everyone is trying to force their way into the kingdom of God.

Did you know that the vast majority of people are trying to force their way into God’s kingdom? I have a friend named Johnny whom I have known for fifteen years. He’s a very self-confident guy. He’s an articulate guy. He reads well. Unfortunately over the period of time that I have known him he has been imprisoned on several occasions. Last year he was released from TDC and he came back to Dallas and began to live with his wife. Unfortunately his wife is addicted to drugs. And it wasn’t very many months after his release that Johnny and his wife were in a store and his wife was passing forged checks. They were both arrested.

There’s no such thing as an accomplice in Texas. If you’re charged you’re charged with the same crime as the person that you’re with. And they were both sent to prison. Now after he got into prison toward the end of last year I noticed a change in the letters that he was writing to me. Johnny was a hard man to talk to about religion. He wasn’t interested. And besides he liked to hold the floor most of the time when you were with him.

But now he began to write me and indicated to me that he realized that he had been in a kind of a codependent relationship with his wife and that he had allowed his wife to drag him down. And he also admitted for the first time since I’ve known him that he needed God. And he started to read his Bible. The evidence was clear that he really was reading his Bible. So I said to myself now is the time to press.

So in one of my letters I said to him, “Johnny tell me how you think a man can get to heaven.” Well he wrote me back and his answer was apparently based on the story of the good Samaritan. And he told me the way you get to heaven I think is by keeping the two great commandments of the law. Number one thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and strength. Number two thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Now you know Johnny. You don’t just say to Johnny you’re all wet Johnny here’s how it is. So I decided to send him on a further journey of exploration. I said, “Johnny I don’t agree with that answer and I’d like to refer you to verses like Romans 3:20 and James 2:10. Look at them and then Johnny tell me have you ever known anybody who loved the Lord their God with all their heart soul and strength? Do you think anybody can really do that?”

Well his next letter to me avoided the subject entirely. And he just quoted James to me. He says thanks for giving me James. So I decided to push the point. And so in my next letter to him I said, “Johnny I think you kind of avoided the answer to that question. Why don’t you read Romans chapter 3 and tell me if you can revise your answer from Romans chapter 3?”

Well I got another letter early this week from Johnny. He had read Romans chapter 3. He was able to give me some of its content. And this is the answer that he now gave me. He says I feel that if a man believes in Jesus Christ and keeps the law to the best of his ability he can be sure of going to heaven through his faith.

Now that’s better than his first answer which didn’t mention faith at all. But that’s not good enough is it? Right now Johnny is where the Roman Catholics are. Salvation by faith plus works. Right now Johnny is where the lordship-salvation people are who in their own way say faith plus works. So in my answer to him I said, “Johnny you’re to be commended for getting good content out of Romans 3 but there’s still something in your answer that’s off target. Still something that you can’t find really in Romans 3. Why don’t you read Romans chapter 4 and see what you can tell me?”

And of course in Romans chapter 4 what he’s going to read among other things is this: “For him who works the wages are accounted not as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness.”

What’s wrong with my friend? Like so many other people he’s trying to push his way into the kingdom of God. He’s trying to obligate God to let him in. He’s trying to do things that he is sure will compel God to admit him into His kingdom.

And oh how many people there are who think like that. They say if I have faith in God and if I do the best I can God will have to let me into His kingdom won’t he? If I believe and if I keep the law to the very best of my ability He’ll have to let me in. He can’t reject me. Can he? Yes he can. Yes indeed he can.

Did you notice something? When Jesus said from that time the kingdom of God is preached it did not say and everyone has pressed into it. He said everyone is trying to force their way into it. He’s talking about what people are trying to do not what they have succeeded in doing. And it won’t work. You know why it won’t work? It won’t work because of the very next words that Jesus speaks. He says it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle, one little piece of the written Scriptures, to fail.

You know why I wrote to my friend Johnny look up Romans chapter 3? Well Romans chapter 3 tells us that whatsoever things the law says it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

And you know why I had him look up James 2:10? Because James says in that verse whosoever shall keep the whole law and offend in one point he is guilty. You see if God were to allow people to get into heaven by keeping His law He’d have to wink at a whole lot of His law. He’d have to ignore a whole lot of the commandments. He’d have to ignore the things you’ve done to break the law. He’d have to ignore the things that I’ve done to break the law.

And the Bible teaches that the law of God is one complete whole. You either keep all of it.