Luke chapter 12 and verse 54. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking, and he said also to the people, when ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, there cometh a shower, and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, there will be heat, and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last mite. Amen.

May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word. We can't always be certain to whom the Lord is addressing himself when he speaks. But here, having finished off speaking to his disciples about the dividing and polarising effect of the Gospel, the effect that it would have amongst families when they started preaching and when they started their ministry, that there would be this division in society, in communities, in households, in families. The Lord had been speaking about that. Now he turns himself again back to the people. That's what this opening verse would suggest to us. And perhaps we might not be too wrong to think that he was particularly addressing the scribes and the Pharisees among the people. and it was to them that he was specifically delivering these words.

His purpose is to rebuke these hypocrites. Hypocrites was a name that he often used to describe the scribes and the Pharisees. His purpose was to rebuke their scheming and their evasion. and to expose their contrary spirit against him and against his gospel. These men, these hypocrites that he is speaking to, they were the opportunists of their day. When it came to the Lord's ministry, they were fence sitters. They knew very well that the Lord was special. Nicodemus said as much right at the beginning of John's Gospel. He told the Lord in that night time meeting, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Nicodemus was a senior Pharisee and we may well imagine that he was speaking not simply for himself as he spoke these words to the Lord.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of these men would not commit to the Lord. They held their cards close to their chest to see what was in their best interest. To make use of the Lord's metaphor here, we might say that they were always waiting to see which way the wind was blowing, never coming to a settled conclusion about who the Lord was and what he was doing. Paul says of them in 2 Timothy 3, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And these men were guilty of dissembling. We don't use that word very often, but I think we all know what it means. They were slippery characters. They were deceitful. You would never quite know where you stood with them. They could be very pleasant to your face, but underneath you would never be sure but that they were getting ready to stab you in the back. You couldn't get a straight answer from them. They followed the Lord, they listened to his words, they watched his actions, but they never committed to his cause. They wouldn't be drawn on their true feelings. And they concealed their opposition under some pretense or another, not being sure who Jesus was, needing more time to decide, struggling to decide. not sufficiently informed to be able to have an opinion. We can hear these sayings from people right down to the present day, but these were the politicians, this was the politics of the time of Jesus.

The Lord had spoken about men and women being ready and equipped, prepared for his coming. And here he was. He was the Messiah come as had been promised throughout the Old Testament scriptures. Revealing God to men, honouring the prophet's witness, fulfilling their prophecies, working miracles that no ordinary man could ever have performed. But these religious leaders just shook their heads and said, we're not quite sure yet. And it was that hypocrisy that provoked the Lord.

As I say, hypocrites was a name he often used when referring to them. And he says to them here, when you see a cloud rise out of the west, you say, oh, there's going to be rain. When you feel the south wind blowing, oh, you say, it's going to be warm, it's going to be hot. You're smart enough to interpret the signs in the sky and to discern the weather. But despite all the undeniable irrefutable evidence that I set before you, you can't discern this age of Messiah and you will not believe the truth.

And here the Lord was showing his disciples, I think, and teaching his church that salvation and commitment and respect for the Lord isn't a matter of people searching for the truth. or genuinely weighing evidence with an objective mind. The truth, the reality is that the truth is before the eyes of men and women. God has worked. Christ has come. The great transaction has been accomplished. The gospel has been declared. The scriptures are amongst us. The truth is before the eyes of men and women. but they will not accept, they will not believe. They can be wise, they can be astute, they can be discerning about many things in this world, but they refuse to acknowledge Christ because they are innately opposed, because they are dead in sin and they are blind to the truth.

Like these Pharisees. hypocrites. They might put on an outward veneer of curiosity and interest and accommodation, but the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked.

The fact of this has implication for us It is only by grace, and we should continue to realise this, it is only by grace that we are any different from these dissembling Pharisee weather forecasters. This is an example of the Lord preaching sovereign grace to his church. Only because the Lord looked on us with love in our time of need and distress have we been blessed with a knowledge of the truth. That's the message of the gospel. The Lord enables when men are unable. The Lord wills when men will not.

In the words of the prophet, The Lord says in Ezekiel 16,

Now when I passed by thee, I looked upon thee. Behold, thy time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.

The Lord had spoken to his disciples, as we saw last week, the Lord had spoken to his disciples of division, the division the gospel would expose in their community when it was preached, the separation between men, the division created by Christ as he didn't come to bring peace, but a sword and his gospel. the breach between the father divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, of which Christ has been speaking. This is a division, not of God's making, but of man's choice. And it was exemplified in these hypocrites.

The truth is there. but it is sin, it is man's natural enmity against God and his saviour Jesus Christ that creates the division. And I want us to hold this thought for a moment because I think that all of us wonder sometimes why those in our family whom we would love to see united with us in faith and joining with us in worship, are divided from us and opposed to us. It is because they will not. And I think we wonder if we could make matters clearer for them. And we wonder, perhaps even, if in some way we are to blame, whether we were guilty of pushing them too much, whether we're responsible in any way for the antipathy that they harbour against the Gospel and the testimony that we bear.

Well, I am sure that we all no doubt wish we could have done things differently and done things better and witnessed better and been more consistent in our example before them. But the truth is this. It's not the fault of the preacher. It's not the fault of the witness. It's not the fault of the Gospel or the Lord that men reject the truth. It is man himself who will not hear and who will not come.

In the final few verses in this chapter, and it's been a long chapter, we've been in it for many weeks, but in the final few verses, the Lord applies this lesson. And I think again, the truth is clear to be seen. Of themselves, men and women will not do what is right. The Lord's example that he gives them here is of a debtor being taken to court for debts outstanding. And as this case unfolds, as justice runs its course, the court will surely rule against the man who defaults on his loans and refuses or cannot pay his debt. And such a one can only expect to be judged and condemned and sent to prison and held there until the debt is paid.

Now spiritualising this, we see that all men and women are debtors, debtors to God, and all will be condemned for their debt of sin and their transgressions against the law. It would be wise, would it not? It would be the sensible thing for every debtor while being led to court to be arraigned before a judge quickly to settle terms with his creditor and pay his debt before he's condemned and put in prison. That's just natural wisdom in earthly things. Would it not also be wise then for those who are debtors to God to act accordingly? Would it not be sensible for all who are guilty before God to seek terms with Him, to sue for terms and try to placate God and be reconciled to Him? Certainly it would. Even worldly wisdom would suggest that such a course of action was the right thing, the wise thing to do.

But man is not wise in these matters. Man's heart is so opposed that they will not. Christ says, I would, ye would not, ye will not come. A debtor thrown into prison in times past would not be allowed to leave until they had paid the last mite, the last pound or dollar of their debt. and hell will be an everlasting captivity, an eternal prison. The prospect ought to be so alarming that one might imagine a natural man would be shaken into seeking deliverance at such a prospect, such a notion. Oh, that it be so. Oh, that men and women would be anxious for their souls. There is in this Gospel a message that divides families but reconciles sinners to a holy God. It delivers debtors from eternal judgment and oh that men would be given grace to see it.

What a wonderful message the Gospel is. What good news. that a debtor's debt is paid, that the captive is set free, that the ransom has been delivered, that the time of love has come and a covenant has been settled in the eternal councils of heaven by which we are the property and possession of Jesus Christ.

What liberty there is in the freedom from sin and death and hell and everlasting condemnation, granted to one who never could have redeemed himself or paid his dues, but who is free in Christ and that forevermore.

Hebrews 9 verse 12 tells us, by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Paul says in Ephesians chapter one, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

Man's wisdom makes him wise in earthly things, telling the weather. It is grace that makes a man wise unto salvation. We have much to thank God for. that when we were dead in sins, when we were wise in our own conceit, when we were hypocrites and dissemblers against the truth, Christ found us, saved us, and made us his own.

He is of God, made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, to the eternal glory of his name. Amen.