We're in Luke's Gospel chapter 12. And we're just going to read the first few verses actually. Luke chapter 12 and verse 1. In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples, first of all, beware ye of the leaving of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. Amen.

May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word.

Let me go right to the heart of the message that I wish to leave with you today. When the Lord Jesus tells his disciples and his church by them to beware hypocrisy, and specifically the leaving or hypocrisy of the Pharisees, He is telling them to beware of self-righteousness and to beware of the doctrine that men can, by their own free will, choose to be obedient to God or not, choose to please God or not, and choose by his work or by his will, to gain for himself eternal salvation.

The Pharisees were Christ's greatest enemies throughout his ministry. Not because they were personally hostile and implacable. Many of them, of course, were. but some, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, were believers. The Pharisees were Christ's greatest enemies because their doctrine and teaching was diametrically contrary to free grace. The Saviour made friends with tax collectors and harlots, Yet more than those who were openly wicked or immoral, the Lord Jesus directed his censure, his denunciation, against this category of self-righteous religionists. The Lord was pleased to identify with sinners, open sinners, but he would not tolerate the Pharisees.

Phariseeism was the outward expression of free will religion and works righteousness among the Jews at the time of Christ. But the error has many offspring, like the devil has many cloaks, Christ told his disciples, beware ye of the leaving of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Now the Pharisees were a religious sect. They arose sometime during what's called the intertestamental period. So that's the centuries, probably about four or five centuries between the end of Malachi the end of the prophets and the beginning of the Gospels, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometime in those four or 500 years, the Pharisees arose as a sect. They did not survive beyond the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. And yet the words and the warnings of the Lord Jesus Christ are still relevant today because the leaving of the Pharisees lives on. It lives on in every doctrine that claims that fallen flesh and blood can manufacture eternal blessings or that natural power can create spiritual life.

The only flesh and blood ever to secure an eternal blessing was the sinless flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If any action of fallen flesh can obtain or ever could have gained spiritual and eternal blessing, then the need for Christ's coming is removed and Christ's suffering and death is redundant. In short, if flesh and blood can produce spiritual life, then man can save himself. And yet the scriptures are clear. You must be born again. And you must be born again from above. And the new birth or the spiritual life which that represents must be imparted as a divine gift from heaven. It must be bestowed entirely at God's own choice.

And this is the lesson the Lord preached to the Pharisees. when he spoke to Nicodemus during his nighttime visit in John chapter three. Remember, when Nicodemus came to the Lord, he said, we know that you're a teacher sent from God. He was speaking in the plural. This had been the understanding of the Pharisees. So when the Lord spoke to him, he was conveying not simply to Nicodemus the man, but to the Pharisees. And he says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's exactly what we've been saying. Flesh begets flesh, and it cannot beget spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.

And then the Lord, having said that to Nicodemus, immediately adds, not only must spiritual life be spiritually imparted from heaven, which is what we call sovereign grace, it must by necessity also be free sovereign grace because nothing of fallen flesh and blood can contribute or merit God's favour or in any way predispose God toward one sinner above another. Nothing in us, nothing in flesh and blood can increase our eligibility to receive the new birth. Christ told Nicodemus, the wind bloweth where it listeth, it blows where it wants to, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Grace is a free and sovereign work and the scriptures are clear. You must be born again from above and the new birth or spiritual life is a divine gift bestowed entirely at God's own initiative, by God's own choice and at his instigation.

Now the religion of the Pharisees took the highest standard of perfection known to man. They took God's law given to Moses and they made it the standard of obedience which they tried to live up to. They were certainly ambitious but of course they couldn't do it. But that didn't stop them claiming to have done it. And hence the Lord's description of their religion as hypocrisy.

But theirs is not the only hypocritical religion. And we continue today to be surrounded by hypocritical religion. All man-made religion. rejects the principle that spiritual life requires spiritual birth from God. All man-made religion says that there is something I can do in myself to earn, merit, obtain, or predispose God towards me and thereby earn his favour. and that is exactly what free will religion is. It isn't called Phariseeism anymore, usually, but it is exactly the same principle. It says, free will religion says, my flesh, my efforts, an act of my will can predispose God to do me good and thereby gain salvation for me. It was hypocrisy at the time of Christ and it is hypocrisy now.

The Pharisees set themselves up in opposition to the full and finished salvation of Jesus Christ. It was the pride of the Pharisees that they could, by their own human effort, their own natural ability, please God. and by so much they lessened the importance and the necessity of Christ's blood and his redemptive work. The hypocrisy of self-righteousness and the hypocrisy of free will religion is one and the same thing. Both are abhorrent to God because both diminish the need and value of Christ's incarnation and his sacrifice.

If a natural man can do anything, either an act of his hand or an act of his mind and will, to please God, then Christ is dead in vain. and all free will religion and all natural work of the old man is an abomination to God. It's Cain's offering, the labour of his hand, and it will not be accepted. Only the blood of a perfect substitute will do. And Paul tells the Galatians, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. It's as stark as that.

So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And perhaps you think taking such a position on free will, Arminian religion, is too harsh, too exclusive. Well, I think it's interesting. I note how Luke begins this section by telling us, there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch as they trod one upon another. Now we wish that there was such an appetite today for the true Gospel. And yet, for all this innumerable multitude, we do not hear about these multitudes, or thousands, because that's what the Word appears to suggest. We do not hear about these thousands of people pressing in upon the Lord, staying with the Saviour. or standing with Him when all men forsook Him. What does that tell us? It surely says that there are multitudes, if in that age then in every age, who get excited about the idea of Jesus. Many who rally to see and to hear and to partake of the benefits of faith who nevertheless never truly become united to Christ or renewed by Him. And these multitudes stepped on one another. They pushed and they pulled and they contended to better one another for proximity and closeness to the Lord but they never received the new life that distinguishes one of the Lord's little ones from the men and women of this world.

And I think that's precisely the religion of our day. The religions, the denominations, the congregations, the churches, they push and they pull, they endeavour to better one another, to grow and outstrip one another as far as their membership is concerned, as far as their activities are concerned, as far as their usefulness is concerned. It's all to do with activity, activity and aggrandizement. they're simply stepping on one another in order to get closer to Christ when the true flock of the Lord Jesus Christ is his regenerated people, his remnant people, his little ones, that little flock.

We saw last Lord's Day that the measure of true faith is knowledge of Jesus Christ from above and the important element of that is from above. That is what makes a man blessed of God. Flesh and blood does not reveal the Lord. Flesh and blood cannot possess the Lord. Only the spiritual new man can know Christ and possess Christ. Only the spiritual new man is redeemed and reconciled. Only the spiritual new man is holy and unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight.

Call me exclusive if you will, but here I stand. Jesus told his disciples, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Nothing that is, except that which has been washed away in the blood of Christ. Every other sin shall be known. Every hidden sin that exposes the true condition of the natural man will be known. Every transgression that justifies the condemnation of the natural man will be known. Every secret word, thought and deed that substantiates the everlasting damnation of the natural man will be exposed to the light notwithstanding every attempt to hide it from the face of God.

Brothers and sisters, our only hope is in Christ. Our only ground of assurance is the efficacy of His blood. Our only covering is that righteousness imputed by God's free and sovereign grace. He promises to be faithful and never to rescind the gifts that he has given. And this faith alone is the faith that God gives, and without it, it is impossible to please him. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.