What Is Man’s Greatest Issue? – A

Luke 10:25-37
Religion will not save us. Being good, and attending church faithfully is not a guarantee of Heaven. It’s putting Jesus above all else, and serving those around us who are in need that will matter in the end.

What is man’s greatest issue. All of us have issues.
We kind of laugh about that. Well, what’s your issue? Boy, he’s got issues. She’s got issues.
We say that a lot. But listen, let’s be honest, everyone’s got issues.
Unfortunately, our culture has spun it in such a way that it’s a negative thing. Well, it could be.
But have you ever thought about issues being a positive thing?
An issue is something that is, uh it’s, it’s the focal point of your life. It’s driving your life.
It has a sense of governing your life now. Yes. In the negative. That could be a bad thing.
But in the positive, it could be a great thing. What is it?
What is the issues of our lives?
The Bible tells us that out of our heart, spring forth the issues of life.
Now that is true. If you’re a believer or not, it is true.
Whatever comes out of your heart forms the very meaning and purpose of who you are.
And so as we look today to this study, Jesus really um digs deep into a man’s heart and I gotta tell you, I’m gonna warn you right.
Now, uh, the Holy Spirit is gonna dig deep into our hearts. We’re not gonna like it.
Surgery is never comfortable. Uh, and, and it, it doesn’t feel good, but it’s necessary even though we’re 2000 years removed from the events that we’re gonna be reading about.
The truth is what Jesus speaks to this man, uh, is just as real today as it was back then because it’s something native in the human heart, you know.
Um I, I guess just from the get go, I just ought to offend everybody from the start.
Uh The Bible makes it very clear that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God says the scripture.
The Bible says that there is none of us who are righteous know not one.
And to make it worse than that, the Bible says that even when we try to do things that look right or look good, it says that our righteous acts, our deeds are as filthy rags and I’m not going to define to you this morning.
What that means? It is bad.
So you say, well, Jack, what’s the point to what we’re even around here for?
You mean doing good doesn’t matter. Oh, no, no, doing good does matter. And it’s a wonderful thing.
Being moral is a great thing, being religious, wonderful, great, coming to church, all of that, doing good deeds, fantastic.
But Jesus is going to dig even deeper than those things that we observe on the surface and he begins to teach us and show us this in chapter 10, beginning now at verse 25 where we left off last time, I’ll read it and then we’ll dissect it together.
Luke 10 25 and behold, look open your eyes to see a certain lawyer stood up and tested him saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And he said to him, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it?
So he answered Jesus and said, you shall love the Lord with all of the Lord, your God, with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength and with all of your mind and your neighbor as yourself.
And he said to him, you have rightly said or answered do this and you will live.
But he, this is the man, the lawyer wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus who is my neighbor.
Then Jesus answered and said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance, a certain priest came down that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Likewise, a Levite came and when he arrived at the place looked and passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.
So he went to him and bandaged his wounds and poured on oil and wine and he set them on his own animal and brought him to the inn and took care of him.
Verse 35. On the next day when he departed, he took out two Dari gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, take care of them and whatever you more you need or spend when I come again, I will repay you.
So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among these?
And he said that as the lawyer said to Jesus, he who showed mercy to him, then Jesus said to him, go and do likewise.
Wow, what is man’s greatest issue? The question challenges all of us.
And this morning it is in the context of, do you really know God or not? How do we know?
You know, there’s all kinds of things that we have to put the acid test to?
Now, we don’t do this in our, in our world anymore, but certainly just north of here, about five hours or four hours it began and up through the foothills and mountains of California, the great gold rush changed the course of human history and I don’t know if you’ve ever read about the gold rush of 18 49 but in an American specifically California was awesome and it actually changed the course in the economy of the world, people were coming from all over the world.
And when you found something that you thought was gold, when you found something that looks shiny enough, you would take it to the nearby for he would have a post there, the assayer’s office and you would take that metal or that rock that you have and you would take it in there.
And before you actually invested in staking your claim and buying that portion of land to work on, you would take it to the assayer and he would take what you think is gold and he would pour acid on it.
And if the acid revealed that it was in fact gold, then it passed the what acid test and that’s how we came about with that saying that it passed the acid test.
So much of central California was producing gold.
By the way that when the miners and the uh uh adventurers came, the gold was so prolific on the in the dirt of early California did you know this and this has nothing to do with the study.
I’m just throwing this in. It’s free today.
It’s free that they actually took molasses and put molasses on their body.
And when they ran out of, well, not on their body, on their clothes and they would roll in the dirt.
And when they would run out of molasses, they found out that they would take dough that was very, very watered down and sticky.
And they would put dough all over their clothes and they would roll in the dirt and get up, take the clothes off, put it into a kettle hove, hot water.
The dough would rise to the top and the gold that would stick to the dough would fall to the bottom.
Literally, the gold dust was laying on the ground in California, Khalifi, the place of gold.
That’s why it’s called, by the way, rolling in the dough. That’s where that came from.
I’m not kidding.
Anyway, what was I talking about?
It was important to where we were going testing the acid test, you say, well, that, that, that has to do with gold.
But what about us? Oh yes. The Bible is the acid that test our lives.
No man frankly is able and fit and qualified to judge any of us, but the word of God does.
You’re listening to real life with Pastor Jack Hibbs, you know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching once again, here’s pastor Jack.
And so the Bible is that acid wash it?
Is that acid test to the element and to the statement of our faith, this man comes to Jesus and you’re going to be let inside this man’s personality and what he thinks this lawyer So look with me in our first point and that is what is a man’s greatest issue.
Number one, it’s not what he knows when you jot that down. It’s not what he knows, that’s for sure.
We place so much value on that, but it’s not the answer that God is looking for.
Verses 25 to 29 29. It is not what He knows.
And listen, it is, this, it begins with this education is not it. The man’s greatest issue is not.
If he’s educated enough, then he’s going to be fine.
We have people today more educated than ever before, but the world is not getting any better.
This man’s life that we shall see did not get any better with his education education.
Isn’t it as beautiful as that is verse 25 and 26?
It says that a certain lawyer, you have to circle the word certain, you’re going to hear that a lot.
Now from Luke chapter 10 all the way through to the end.
A certain lawyer stood up and tested him saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit? Eternal life?
And Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it?
So first thing he’s a lawyer and you might say, I don’t like attorneys.
That’s not that kind of a lawyer we’re talking about here.
This is a lawyer in the sense that he is a man who has so studied the word of God.
He is a master teacher in the word of God.
This man is very religious and he knows I’ll tell you what today an equivalent today would be a man who has a doctorate in divinity.
That’s the kind of level of education this man has.
He is a master in the first five books of the Bible. And he’s a master in the prophet.
It, and in the Psalms, this guy is it.
If you want to know in a seminary course, what the word of God said, you would have gone to this guy.
This guy was consulted. He’s at the top of the food chain when it comes to the knowledge and the knowing of what God is all about.
But education isn’t it? Because we see a man coming who is testing Jesus. This is a bad word.
He’s testing Jesus. The word in Greek means that he’s trying to trip Jesus up.
He desired to trip him up. What a weird guy who is this guy?
Has he not heard of Jesus? No doubt he has. Has he not heard about jesus’?
Amazing works, no doubt that he has.
But this man is educated to the point where he’s thinking, I am gonna question Jesus.
I am gonna question God and he comes and he’s got this attitude.
He’s got this presentation uh as he comes to Christ and it’s, it’s quite defiant and uh it’s not the thing to do.
So, he says to Jesus teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Two things that we need to be aware of is number one, this guy, he thinks he knows enough.
That’s always dangerous. You ever met somebody who thinks they know enough scary.
They’re a legend in their own mind. They think they know enough.
And number two, he says, what shall I do to inherit the kingdom of God? That’s another strike against him.
You can’t inherit the kingdom of God. He’s been missing the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ.
In fact even missed the Old Testament. He knew so much.
He should have been knowing what caused him to be thinking this thought.
Well, he was being brought up and being taught the wrong way, frankly, not biblically.
He said, well, Jack, they didn’t have the New Testament back in those days.
They didn’t have to have the New Testament back in those days. The Old Testament made it very clear.
Didn’t the scripture says that the just shall live by faith says the scriptures, that was there very clear.
But he thinks he knows enough. And number two, he thinks that he can hear it, hear it, eternal life.
I’ve got to tell you and I may upset some people in saying this, but it’s true nonetheless.
And it is this. I was speaking at a school a long time ago, a packed audience uh high school and I gave a me message out of John chapter three about Jesus declaring to Nicodemus that you must be born again.
Now, that’s important to where we’re going regarding this man.
Because this man says, what must I do to inherit? What must be done?
I mean, I got all this education. What else do I need? Remember? He’s not sincere.
He’s testing Jesus. He’s trying to trip him up.
Well, I said that Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again.
Church was Nicodemus a gentile or a Jew. He is a Jew. Jesus said to the Jew.
Nicodemus, you must be born again.
If Nicodemus must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven and then you and I are to preach the gospel all over this world saying John chapter three verse three, that you must be born again.
I must be born again. That word means to be born from above born a second time.
This time from a spiritual birth, not an earthly birth.
Then there’s the Bible is clear, there’s no other way for us to get into heaven.
But by being born again, it was, it was true for Nicodemus.
You know, people asked today, how is a Jew, how is a Jew born again or how is the Jew saved?
He’s gonna be born again just like you and I do.
And so I had announced to these kids, it doesn’t matter if, if your friend next to you is born again and going to heaven.
You can’t take him with you, you can’t drag him into heaven.
It doesn’t matter if your parents are born again and going to heaven, they can’t take you with them.
You’ve got to be born again.
And I said this because Charles Spurgeon said this because an ancient Puritan said this and because it’s true.
And this is what I said, God has no grandchildren.
Did you know that you are either a child of God or you’re not? Yeah.
But my, my dad’s a Christian. Uh Well, your dad will be in heaven. What about you?
Well, I’m gonna go to heaven on his coattails. Oh no, you’re not.
You’re not gonna stand before the Pearly gates with Peter there and say, where is my dad?
That ain’t gonna happen? And when I said that in that school, they unplugged the microphone and they walked me off the campus and when I got out to the parking lot, I, I knock the dust off my feet.
Why you, you cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven?
That’s not the way that it is and it’s not done by works and all that kind of stuff of another.
Oh no, no. This man says and makes the announcement that he knows this amount.
So thus he knows and he’s going to be asking Jesus this question, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
So it’s not by education that’s not going to do it.
The second thing is correctness, isn’t going to do it. Correctness. Look at verse 27.
So the lawyer answered and said to Jesus, you shall love the Lord your God.
Watch number one with all of your heart. He said to Jesus with all of your soul.
Number three with all of your strength, number four with all of your mind. And fifthly is a connecting statement.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Those are great answers. That is the answer very quickly.
The heart, the word card in the Greek means the very, very uh feelings and the innermost person.
The core of who we are.
This, this wise educated guy says that the main thing is number one, that my heart, the core of my life is honoring God is loving God.
That’s true. Number two, the soul.
The word su means the very rationale of an individual, the very soul process of who you are.
Some translators, put it the vitality of your person.
Your thinking, the part, listen, the part that will live forever, love God with a part of yourself that will live forever.
Every one of us in this room is gonna live forever.
Everyone listening in right now is going to be living forever but read the Bible carefully.
John chapter five begin into verse 28 Daniel chapter 12 read it carefully.
Everyone will be resurrected in the last day says the Bible, some to everlasting life says the scripture and some because of their choosing, everlasting death, not good.
And then also thirdly though he used the word strength, this word in the Greek means usefulness that we are to love God.
With all of our usefulness being available, using every bit of energy for the glory of God and everything that we do.
It’s the very basis to that statement and all that you do due to the what glory of God, it’s using your energy to live your life for God’s glory.
And there is really no other life worthy of your attention.
Uh But living for God, it’s, it’s the best and then the mind, you shall love the Lord with all your mind.
And this word is the word, your deepest meditations or to muse or to wonder your imagination.
The word also means your deep understanding what a great thing.
When I saw that the word you love God with your imagination, we could shut down this study right now and go over to the three and four and five year olds and learn something about how to love God that way with their imagination.
And so this man knew the answers. He gave perfect textbook seminary answers.
But there’s something missing this morning.
You could be sitting here today and you could be saying, um boy, I could preach a better message than that and I would have done this and, and how come nobody asked me that?
And I would have built the church that way. And I would say, listen, that’s fantastic.
If God wants that to happen, he’s going to have that happen in your life.
Trust him and, and just let him do it.
But until he, until he’s done that, just keep learning because we’re all learning.
But just because you know the answer doesn’t mean that your heart’s right. We can ace the test.
You guys. I have a, a photographic memory enough when I was going through school, I graduated stupid.
You know how I graduated stupid. I got all the answers, right? Say what?
I got all the answers, right?
But I graduated stupid because I just copied the pic the answer in my head and you retain it just long enough.
If it has to be for a few weeks, you can retain that.
Call it up, it’s there, there’s the answer and you get the grade.
I couldn’t apply any of that stuff I learned. I prayed to God. I wouldn’t have to do math.
After I, after I graduated, I might have to remember something you can answer the the test.
This guy is perfect at doing that. It’s not the correctness either and it’s not the ambition.
Look at verses 28 29. It’s not what he knows in the sense of ambition.
This guy is a learned degreed man this we know for sure.
Jesus said to him, you have rightly said good answer.
Do this and you will live Oh, you got to mark that good answer.
That man would have been satisfied just with Jesus’s statement right there. Stop.
If Jesus would have said great answer at that moment.
Hypothetically, the man is about ready to pat himself on the back again.
Then Jesus said something that you would hope would pierce him through to the hearts.
Jesus tells the man do this and you will live and there are now, you can almost hear the train disconnecting from the caboose.
You know, con clunk what you mean? Do it. Yes.
What you know, do it O E V.
Excuse my French, I was born Irish. All this stuff comes out.
What are you talking about?
See, church, God is not interested in how much, you know, it’s what you’re doing with what you do know and God is so good that we can even do something that we don’t know.
And he winds up getting the glory. That’s probably the best.
It’s best for us not to know when we’re doing the right thing for God because we might just wind up being tempted to pat ourselves on the back.
Ambition is not going to do it. We will not be judged by our creed.
We’re going to be judged by our deeds, said one ancient writer.
But this man says at the end of verse 29 who is my neighbor?
And you say, well, what’s that all about?
Well, look in verse 29 he says, wanting to justify himself, you had to mark that word justified.
This is tragic. This guy is not getting it. You know what he’s doing.
The word here to justify himself means to self promote or to put himself forward.
It means to declare his own righteousness.
This guy is talking to Jesus Christ in the sandals and he says to justify himself based upon what Jesus just said, what did Jesus just say now that you know it or, or it’s obviously you do know it, go and live it inside emotions.
I don’t like that challenge, seeking to justify himself to put forth his own self, righteousness.
He counters trying to stumble. Jesus. He counters and says, who’s my neighbor? He’s challenging Jesus.
Well, who is my neighbor? Dr H A Ironside says to this, the answer for the Christian to the question, who is your neighbor?
Answer? Everyone who is in need becomes our neighbor. Do you not love that? I love that.
If they’re in need, they’re our neighbor. What does that mean? That means today? Listen, watch out.
You don’t want to leave the seminary, leave the building, drive somewhere, drive around someone who’s in an accident or injured and be on your way home from church rather get involved.
Why should I, why Jack? What’s the thing? Because God engineered that person’s need before you pulled up.
You’re the Christian. I’m the Christian, aren’t we? Yes, that situation was engineered by God.
Very important pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called, what is man’s greatest issue?
Thanks for being with us today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke A series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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