#101 Lu. 11:45-46  WOE TO THOSE WHO REQUIRE THE KEEPING OF THE LAW
FOR SALVATION

Introduction:
    In all fairness to the lawyers of our day, they were not
included in this woe.  No doubt, some of them deserve to have woe
pronounced upon them, but for different reasons than those
involved in this text.
    In this text Jesus continues with the series of woes that He
had begun back in verse 42.  This time He pronounces woe for the
killing of God's prophets.

I.  The reaction of one lawyer to Jesus

    V. 45, "Then answered one of the lawyers..."  At first glance,
it would appear that an entirely different group of people is
involved than those in the earlier woes.  In verses 42 and 43 He
pronounces woe on the Pharisees.  In verse 44 He pronounced woe on
both the scribes and the Pharisees.  Now in our text today He
pronounces woe on the lawyers.  That makes it sound like there are
three different groups involved:  the Pharisees, the scribes and
the lawyers.  However, such is not the case.  The terms, scribe
and lawyer, refer the same group.  In our text Luke calls this man
a lawyer.  In his account of this event, Matthew calls the same
man a scribe.  Luke was right.  He was a lawyer.  Matthew also was
right.  He was a scribe.  He was a scribe and a lawyer because a
scribe and a lawyer in the New Testament are one and the same.
    It might be good, while we are at it, to try to clarify the
connection between the terms  "Pharisee, scribe and lawyer."
"Pharisee" is the name of a particular religious group in Israel
in that day.  The Pharisees were, in fact, the largest religious
group in Israel at that time.
    The word, scribe, was not the name of a religious group or
denomination.  Rather it was the name of an occupation.  It
identifies the kind of work that a man did.  A scribe was an
expert in the law of Moses.  He is also an expert in the numerous
traditions which the Jewish fathers had added to the law of Moses.
The word, scribe, literally means "one who writes" and refers to
one whose occupation was to make hand written copies of the law of
Moses and copies of the numerous traditions and interpretations
which the fathers had added to the law.  Because the scribes spent
so much time copying the law they became experts on what the law
said.  They also became experts in the accepted interpretations of
the law.  Therefore the scribe was frequently used as a teacher of
the law in the synagogues throughout the land.
    In addition to this, the scribes were frequently called upon
to go before the legal councils and courts when questions about
the law of Moses were involved.  They would speak as experts on
the law of Moses and the traditions of the fathers.  Therefore,
one might be called a "scribe" in one Scripture and a "lawyer" in
another.  There was no difference.  Therefore the terms, scribe
and lawyer are synonymous.  They mean the same thing.
    The terms do not, however,  tell us whether a man is a
Pharisee, a Publican or a Herodian.  The Pharisees were the
largest religious group in Israel.  The Sadducees were smaller in
number, but they were the richest and most powerful group.  The
Herodians were the smallest and least popular group.  The terms,
scribe or lawyer, had nothing to do with one's religious
preference.  It only identifies the work that he did.
    However, in the passages both in Matthew and in Luke which
deal with the woes, it appears that all are Pharisees.  We know
that those called "Pharisees" were certainly Pharisees.  It also
appears that those who here are called scribes or lawyers are also
Pharisees.  Not all of the Pharisees were scribes or lawyers, but
all of the scribes and lawyers at least in these passages are
Pharisees.  They were Pharisees by religion, but they were scribes
or lawyers by trade.
    In verse 45 Luke says that one of the lawyers addressed Jesus,
"...and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us
also."  Let me paraphrase.  He said, "Now listen here!  You are
talking about us!"  Jesus was talking about the scribes and
Pharisees and he said, "You are making accusations against us."
They were downright insulted.  They did not like what He said one
little bit.  They were insulted.  They did not like Him even
before He said what He did about them.  They liked Him even less
now.
    Technically the lawyer and those with him did not deny that
what Jesus said is true.  But they seemed to expect that when
Jesus found out that He had offended such an exalted people as
themselves that He would offer some kind of retraction.  Not so.
Jesus did not offer a retraction.

II.  The response of Jesus to the lawyer

    Instead of a retraction, Jesus presented new charges against
them and pronounced another woe against them.  V. 46, "And he
said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers!  for ye lade men with burdens
grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with
one of your fingers."  The scribes and Pharisees, the lawyers, the
experts in the Jewish law did not hesitate to lay all manner of
rules and regulations on the people of the land.  Jesus spoke of
them as laying heavy burdens on the people which were grievous to
be borne.
    Even the ceremonial laws of which Moses gave were grievous to
be born.  It was like loading down a pack mule or an ox with a
heavy, heavy burden.  They required a considerable expense on
their part and a considerable amount of time and effort on their
part.  The tradition of the fathers were grievous to bear.  The
ceremonial washing of the hand before meals is an example.  The
moral aspect of the law of Moses was most certainly a heavy load
to bear.  The law demanded absolute perfection on their part and
showed no leniency for anything less.  Nobody but Jesus ever kept
those laws perfectly.  Nobody but Jesus could keep them.  Nobody
but Jesus would ever keep them.
    What is worse, the scribes--or lawyers as they were sometimes
called--along with other Pharisees did not even attempt to keep
them.  They did not hesitate to declare publicly that the keeping
of the laws plus the keeping of all the traditions of the fathers
was absolutely essential.  But in their own lives they did not
keep them.  They did not even try to keep them.  Now publicly they
made every effort to make it appear that they kept the laws.  They
really put on a good appearance in public because they were very
anxious to have the praises of men.  But in their personal and
private lives they did not even attempt to keep the laws because
those laws went against their own flesh nature.  They went against
grain.  The laws went against their own fleshly motivated desires.
Jesus said that they readily demanded that other people keep the
laws, but that they themselves would not lift one finger to keep
them.  Jesus called them hypocrites...and they were.

III.  The same kind of men today

    The same thing is true today.  A lot of people preach and
teach that you have got to keep the law of Moses and they will
tell you so from the pulpit and over the airwaves.  They say that
at least you have got to keep the ten commandments.  I personally
heard one fellow make such a statement.  He said, "Some folks will
tell you that if you repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ
as your Savior that you will escape hell and go to heaven." He
said, "There is not an ounce of truth in that statement." He said,
"You that you have got to keep the ten commandments or you will
never make it to heaven." Yet that same man later was expelled
from his church by his own father on the grounds of adultery.  He
ran all over the country committing adultery.  He knew that the
ten commandments say, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."  He knew
this and He preached that you have to keep the law, but he would
not lift one finger to keep that law.
    Let me say to you that I am one of those men who tell you that
if you will repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ as your
Savior that you will stay out of hell and you will go to heaven.
The Apostle Paul is also one of those men who said that if you
will repent of your sin and trust in Jesus that you will be saved.
In Acts 20:21 the Apostle Paul testified both to the Jews and also
to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ.  In Ephesians 2:8-9 the Apostle Paul said that salvation
is not by works but by faith.  In Galatians 3:11 Paul said, "But
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is
evident:  for, the just shall life by faith." In Titus 3:5 Paul
declares that it was not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to the mercy of God that Jesus saved us.  In
Acts 16:31 Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailor, "Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
    The Apostle Peter is also one of those who preached that
salvation is not by the keeping of the law but by the grace of God
through faith in Christ Jesus.  In Acts 2:21 on the day of
Pentecost the Apostle Peter said, "And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." In I
Peter 1:5 Peter says, "Who are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Peter
said that salvation is not by the keeping of the law but by grace
through faith in Jesus Christ.
    The fact is that all of the Apostles preached the same
message.  They all preached that salvation is not by the keeping
of the law, but was by the grace of God through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ.  In Acts chapter thirteen a dissension, argument,
arose in the church at Antioch which sent Paul out as a
missionary.  The dissension was on the very question of whether or
not the keeping of the law was necessary for salvation.  Paul
said, "No."  He said that circumcision and other acts of obedience
to the law were not necessary for salvation.  Some who had come
from Jerusalem said that circumcision and the keeping of all the
law was necessary in order to be saved.  A group of men from the
church at Antioch went to the city of Jerusalem to consult with
the apostles and elders of the Jerusalem church.  When they got
there they found out that every one of the apostles agreed that
what Paul was preaching was right.  It is not necessary to keep
the law in order to be saved.  What is necessary is that one
should repent of his sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as his
Savior.
    Jesus pronounced woe on the lawyers who would require men to
keep the law in order to be saved.  They are hypocrites.  They
preach that you must keep the law in order to be saved, but they
not keep the law themselves.  Many of them are like the lawyers in
our text.  In their own private and personal lives they do not
even attempt to keep the law.  They quite actively engage in the
practice of adultery.  They also break the law of covetousness.
They covet all those millions of dollars that they can envision
out there in the land and they promise all manner of things in
order to get those millions to come in.  They most certainly know
that the law of Moses forbids the act of adultery, but they commit
adultery anyway.
    But their greatest crime is not that they lie and covet and
commit adultery, even though those things are sin.  Their greatest
crime is that they mislead a lot of people who are honestly
seeking the way to heaven and they tell them a falsehood about how
to go to heaven.  They point the wrong way to heaven.  They give
people a plan of salvation that will not work.  It cannot work
because no man but Jesus has ever kept the law.  The way that
these men preach has never worked for anybody.  It did not work
for their fathers before them and it did not work for them.  They,
themselves, do not keep the law.  They lead a lot of people to
think that they can be saved by keeping the law, but it will never
work.  It never has and it never will.  They lead a lot of people
to hell by giving them a false way of salvation.  There is no
way of knowing how many people they have led into the fires of
hell and they did it because of their greed for money.

IV.  The Bible plan of salvation

    The Bible most positively calls upon men to repent of their
sin and to trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  In Luke 13:3,
5 Jesus Himself said, "I tell you, Nay:  but , except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish."  In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said, "Come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest."  In John 5:24 Jesus said, "Verily, verily I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is
passed from death unto life."  In John 6:37 Jesus said, "...him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

Conclusion:

    I am going to call upon every one of you who are lost in sin
and who want to be saved to come to Jesus Christ and be saved.
Come and put your faith in Jesus.  Trust in Him to cleanse you
from every sin and to keep you out of hell.  Come and trust in
Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God to take you to heaven when
you die.  Come and trust in Jesus and Jesus will saved your soul.
    I want to tell you that it is foolish to go on into the
everlasting fires of hell when God  gives you a chance to be
saved.  God is offering you a chance right now to be saved, but
you do not have forever to make up your mind.  If you want to be
saved, you have got to come to Jesus and trust in Him while there
is time.  Once you go out of this world unprepared it will be too
late.  The question is:  Do you want to be saved.  If you want to
be saved, then come to Jesus and put your faith in Him to save
your soul.  Come today.  Come now.  Come on.