In Luke 12, 6 we'll begin our
study, but I want to read verses 4 and 5 again. In verse 4, our Lord said unto his
disciples, I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them
that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can
do. But I will forewarn you whom
you shall fear. Fear him. which after he hath
killed hath power to cast him to hell. Yea, I say unto you,
fear him. And then our Lord asked a question. Are not five sparrows sold for
two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten
before God? But even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Fear not therefore. Ye are of
more value than many sparrows. The title of last week's lesson
was Fear Him and this one is called Fear Not. Fear Him and have no other fear. are not five sparrows sold for
two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God,
but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not,
therefore. Again, we have need to refer
back to the words of verse one, where it says, he began to say
unto his disciples first of all. If our Lord says unto you, fear
not, If he says to you, you have no reason to be afraid, then
you're one of his. You're one of his. Now, he says
here words that could only be spoken
to those that he loves, to those whom he has chosen, to those
for whom he has shed his precious blood. And religion would Habit
that the Lord went around saying Kind and benevolent words like
this to everybody he came across, but that's not accurate Compare
the words that we just read the tender Comforting words where
our Lord said I've got all you hairs numbered of your head Even
a sparrow doesn't fall to the ground without me much less you
and you're worth so much more to me than them Compare those
words to these in Matthew 11, 23, thou Capernaum, an entire
city which are exalted unto heaven shall be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But
I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land
of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you, for you. Matthew 23, 14, woe unto you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you devour widows' houses
and for a pretense make long prayer, therefore you shall receive
the greater damnation." There's not any fear in that, is there? But here he speaks to his disciples
first of all. Now later in the chapter, He
speaks to others. There was an innumerable crowd
there of people. And later in the chapter in verses
16 through 20 he tells a parable. Do you remember why he told his
disciples that he spoke to them in parables? His disciples asked
him that. Why do you speak to them in parables?
We don't understand what you're teaching and they don't understand
what you're teaching listen to what he said about that in Luke
8 10 he said to them unto you it is given to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of God but to others in parables I know something
distracting is going on but this is very important to others in
parables to others in parables he spake to his disciples first
of all and then he told the parables And he said, I speak to others
in parables because unto you it's given to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of God. But I speak to them in parables
that they seeing might not see and hearing they might not understand. We see in the scripture how that
the Lord would tell a parable and then the disciples would
come to him and say, Lord, what were you saying? What did you
mean by that? And he would explain it to them in private. But here he's speaking to his
disciples first of all. If you are one of his disciples,
a true follower of Christ, then this is for you. This is for you. Look again at
verse six with that in mind, who he's speaking to. Are not
five sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten
before God? What an amazing question. We see birds most of the time
without even seeing them. It's so common. We see so many
of them to see them flying around. We just don't even really see
them anymore. And even in the kingdom of birds,
among the kingdom of birds, the sparrow is perhaps the most unnoticeable
of all of them. It doesn't have anything to get
our attention. They're not beautiful in any
way. They don't have beautiful colors. They're not majestic,
really. Whenever we spot a hawk, we're
riding down the road and there's a big hawk flying or sitting
on the line, we'll say, look at that hawk, man, that thing,
look at that thing. It's impressive. I like to see turkeys. Turkeys
get a bad rap. I think they're cool. They're
not goofy. And they taste good. On top of
that. They're not sparrows. Sparrows,
they're not comparatively beautiful. Now listen though, if that's
the only kind of bird there was, you'd say, look at that beautiful
sparrow. What an interesting little creature that is, wouldn't
you? They're beautiful. But not compared to every other
bird. They don't have any bright colors.
They don't have any remarkable features and you can't eat them.
Yet the Lord said not one of them. He didn't just say I know
about the sparrows, not one of them, not one sparrow is forgotten
before God. There's just something precious
about that. We forget them. But he don't. We forget people. We forget each other. But not
our Savior. Not our Savior. We're so wrapped
up in ourselves most of the time that we forget those that we
never should. But not our God. Listen to Matthew's account of
this. In Matthew 10, 29, he said, Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing, and not one of them shall fall to the ground without
your father. Not one sparrow falls to the
ground. And he didn't say without your
father knowing about it. He said without your father.
He's the one that brought it down. He's the one that gave
it wings to begin with and taught it to fly. And he's the one that
brought it down. He causes them to fall when they
do, and he does not forget about any of them. It's kind of heartbreaking
when you see a nest that falls out of a tree or a little baby
that falls out on the ground, and I think about it sometimes,
but I don't have so many other stupid things on my mind that
I'm not thinking about God at all, which is most of the time.
I think my Lord knows about that. He knows about that. He's the
one that did that. He's taking care of that little
bird. And then our Lord argues here
from the lesser to the greater. And this is a common way of teaching
for him. Let's let Bob come on back in. I don't know what happened out
there. Somebody walked by. Was it just some stranger? What were they doing? Is it like
a homeless guy or something? Yeah, that happens every once
in a while. That's all right, we can get
it. Look, I've been distracted worse
than that. I've preached in Mexico with
babies crying and dogs running around in the building and people
getting up and going out and coming in and it's all right.
The Lord is gracious. You know, He has to take our
minds off of this world all the time, doesn't He? He knows how
to do that. He knows how to do that. But
you see how here that our Lord argues from the lesser to the
greater. This is common for Him. If the lesser thing is true,
then much more this greater thing is true. Listen to some examples
of that from the Scripture. In Matthew 7, 11, He said, If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children. What an argument. What a beautiful statement this
is. If you're evil and you know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven
give good things to them that ask him? And you notice he equates
your children, children, to those that ask. Those that ask him. That's who his children are,
those that ask him. We don't come to God making deals
and making demands. We come to him for mercy. Lord,
if you will, you can help me. You can give me what I need,
and I'm not going to get it any other way. That's how you ask. In Luke 12, 24, he did the same
thing. Listen to this. He said, consider
the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap. We have birds again. He mentions the birds again.
They don't have a storehouse or a barn, and God feeds them.
How much more are you better than the fowls? In Luke 12, 28,
if God then so clothed the grass, which is today in the field and
tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe
you, O ye of little faith? Well here's my favorite one though,
Hebrews 9-11. Listen to this. Turn there with
me, Hebrews 9-11. I want you to see how our Lord
teaches and enter into the way He taught in our text by how
He taught so often. Our Lord's manner, don't you
think we ought to learn something from the manner in which our
Lord taught? And of course, most important
is the substance of what He taught that way. That he taught it that
way is interesting, but what he taught that way, that we should
trust him, that we should depend on him, that we should ask him,
that we should come to him, we should rely on him. Hebrews 9-11,
but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle. He's arguing from
the lesser to the greater here, the lesser being the old covenant,
the old tabernacle, the old priesthood, and the greater being the greater
than Solomon, the greater than Moses, the greater than all,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, verse 12. Neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Whoever us is, is saved. Whoever
us is, has no sin. Whoever us is, is redeemed forever. It's done. There's no contingencies. There's no if. There's no buts. There's no he did all he could
do. He did all. Just stop it. Period. Put a period.
He did all. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God purge your conscience those old testament
saints they could offer the sacrifice according to the way God ordained
it which is the beautiful and clear and powerful picture of
the lamb of God which takes away sin the blood of bulls and goats
can't take away sin but there is a lamb that does that did
And those pictured that, but those Old Testament priests,
they could offer that, and if God accepted the sacrifice, they
could walk away and say, all is well. It is well with my soul. But how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? How much more when you see the
Lamb of God slain for sinners like you, can you walk away saying,
bless God, I'm saved. I'm redeemed. The Lord shed his
precious blood for me. My dead works are gone. God doesn't even see them. They're
purged away. God doesn't even consider anything
I've ever done. And so my conscience is clear
before God because of that blood. Your dead works will never do
that. And I'm going to serve him by
his grace, I'm going to serve him. You see that in our text,
though, how that he doesn't he doesn't even forget sparrows.
So how is he going to forget one that he died to redeem? How
is he going to forget one of his chosen? How's he going to
forget one of his precious children? How's he going to forget one
that comes to him asking, Lord, if you will, you can make me
whole. You can have mercy on a sinner
like me. How's he going to forget that?
When he came for that reason, he came to shed his precious
blood for a wretch like me. How's he going to forget that
wretch? And this is not figurative language
in our text. He literally actually knows how
many hairs there are on your head. You don't, but he does. Now think about all of the ramifications
of this now. God doesn't miss anything. He's
not unaware of anything. Not a sparrow falls to the ground
without Him. He caused it. Now does that fit
with our context? Where he said, fear him who hath
power to kill you and then cast you body and soul into hell. There's a theme developing here
and it is that Christ is sovereign. Christ is, he reigns and rules
on the throne of the universe. And nobody goes to hell without
him. And not a sparrow falls to the ground without him. There's
nothing big or small that happens without him. Not a paradise is
rolled, but he is the disposer thereof. He's the one that decides
what comes up. And he turns the hearts of kings
in his hand as the rivers of water, whithersoever he will. This is the one who says to you,
don't be afraid. Now, it may or may not be comforting. I've had people say that. Don't
be afraid, you know. And sometimes it actually means
something, you know. If it's somebody that cares about
me, they're wishing the best for me. They don't want me to
be afraid. But what are they really going to do about it?
Sometimes in God's providence, as the means that God uses, we're
able to help one another and to calm one another's fears.
I thank God for that. Other times, somebody in this
world may say, oh, don't be afraid. It's going to be all right. And
it doesn't mean anything. If you don't at least know the
God who can say that with power, it's just empty words. But this is the God who has all
power saying to you, don't be afraid. But nothing is insignificant.
How many things do we think are unimportant and insignificant?
But they're not. A sparrow, how many sparrows
did I see on the way to this service this morning? I don't
know. Probably saw one or two. I don't know. I saw some birds,
I'm sure. I don't even know if I did or not. But God saw them. How many things
are like that? Listen to this. Matthew 12, 36. He said, I say unto you that
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment. What all did you say yesterday?
Did you say anything stupid? Think I probably did I'm pretty
sure not a day goes by God heard it God knows about it Every idle word When you do something
evil, you think nobody knows about it The scripture says in
Proverbs 15 3 the eyes of the Lord are in every place Beholding
the evil and the good Remember the woman at the well? When the Lord said to her, go
get your husband. She said, I don't have a husband.
And he said, yeah, I know you've had quite a few, and the one
you're living with right now ain't one of them. Wow. What she did wasn't completely
hidden. And yet I suspect it was quite
a shock to her to have the Son of God tell her about it to her
face. Don't you imagine? She said later,
come see a man that told me all things ever I did. He didn't
mention everything she ever did, but he could have. He could have. He knew all things ever she did.
When you do something for the Lord, that nobody else knows
about. Think about that. There needs to be a lot more
of that, by the way, doesn't there? By me and by you. When we do something for the
Lord, we should give gratitude now and honor where it's due
when we do know about something. But listen to this. Matthew 6,
1. Take heed that you do not your
alms before men. to be seen of them. The word
alms there means mercy. It came to mean the giving of
alms, the giving of an offering, because that was a common way
to show mercy, to give somebody a little something to help them
out. But it means mercy, all of your good deeds, anything
you do to help anybody. Don't do it before men to be
seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which
is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine
alms, When you show mercy or kindness to somebody, don't sound
a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily
I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms,
let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. that thine
alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret
himself shall reward thee openly. Do you want reward from this
world, the praise and adoration of this world, or from God? And we don't do it for that reason.
We don't do it to be seen of men or to to get something back. That's not giving otherwise,
that's an investment. That's not mercy. But when you
do something that's kind or merciful, something that's a work of faith, Something for the Lord because
he said if you've done it to the least of one of these my
brethren you've done it to me You do something for him and
nobody else knows about it That's that's the way to do things if
we can and if we possibly can I could tell you some stories
about that But the teaching of our text
is that God having redeemed us and Now this is going to be easy
just to miss, but please don't. May I not miss it. The teaching
of our text simply is this. Since God has redeemed us, since
we're one of his, we're one of his disciples, he called us friends
in the context. Since we are one of his redeemed,
chosen, loved, saved sheep. You have absolutely nothing to
be afraid of. No reason to fear. He knows everything. Think about
this now. The one who said, not a sparrow
falls without me said, don't be afraid. So you reckon if there
was anything in this whole universe that you should be afraid about,
he'd know about it. He knows about all the little
sparrows and every ant. Every molecule floating in the
air. He knows about everything, everywhere, all the time. And
he says, you've got nothing to be afraid of. Does that count
for anything? He doesn't ever leave us. There
is no chance or fate or karma. People love to talk about karma
these days. And the context they do is when
they see something bad happen to somebody, they love to rub
it in. Karma, what goes around, aren't you glad that what goes
around don't come around? We'd all be in deep trouble. I'm so glad there's no such thing
as that. We fear him because of who he
is, verse 5. It says fear him. It doesn't
say fear hell. It says fear him. But we do not
fear anything or anybody else because the one who has that
power, that authority, that ability to cast body and soul into hell
has redeemed our souls from hell. So what is there left to fear?
If we fear him, what else is there to fear? Listen now, he
had the right to put you in hell if he wanted to. He had the authority. That's what he said. I've got
the authority now to do that. And I've got the ability to do
that. But what he did instead is lay down his life for you.
What he did instead of that. He had the authority to put you
in hell. And you know, it's interesting
he used the same word. He said, I have power to lay
down my life. and to take it up again. He had
the authority to put you in hell. He had the authority to die in
your place. And you know which one he did?
Do you believe on him? Do you know him? Do you trust
him? Have you bowed to him? Is he your all? Has he made a
difference in your heart? He exercised his right to redeem
you with his precious blood. rather than his right to damn
you forever. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? If he did that, then what in
the world are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? Turn
with me to Romans chapter five, please. Romans chapter five. Verse six. Romans five, six, for when we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. Now he's expanding upon that
last thought in verse six. He died for the ungodly. He died
for the ungodly. And here's what we need to think
about when we consider that. Somebody might die for a good
man. Anybody might do that. But scarcely. God would have
to give you some grace to do that, wouldn't he? But God, verse
8, commended his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners. And this verse would mean a whole
lot more to us if we had any idea what a sinner is. If you want to know what a sinner
is, look at us at Calvary. But while we were yet sinners,
Christ prayed, Father, forgive them. And he died for us. Much more than. If he did that when you were
in the condition you were in, much more than now being justified
by his blood, we shall be saved. Is he going to do that for you
and then give up on you? Is he going to do that for you
when there was no hope for you, when you were wretched and vile
in every way? And we still are in ourselves.
But now that he's redeemed you with his precious blood, is he
going to give up on you now? Is he going to cast you off now?
Much more than being now justified by his blood. We shall be saved. He's still saving us, isn't he?
If he ever saved you, you're sure enough fixing to be saved.
If he justified you with his precious blood, We shall be ultimately
saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only
so, but we also joy in God. We don't walk through this life
afraid, we joy in him. through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom we have now received the atonement. Now if the one, listen, verse
five again, he said, I've got the power now to put you in hell.
I'll kill you and put you in hell if I want to. That's who
I am. If the one who has the keys of hell and of death says
to you, you have nothing to be afraid of. Then you have nothing
to be afraid of. He is absolutely sovereign. He
doeth according to his will, and the armies of heaven are
among the inhabitants of this earth, and none can stay his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He throws people in hell
every day, and he takes his sheep home to glory every day. He does
as He pleases, when He pleases, with whom He pleases. And He
says to those that ask Him, fear not. Those that come to Him asking
for mercy, asking for forgiveness, asking for cleansing from sin. He says to them, fear not. He
knows everything you ever did. and he knows everything you're
ever going to do and yet he still says fear not. Don't be afraid.
You're not going to suffer any consequences for it. Think about that for a second
or two. The one who knows everything you've ever done and everything
you're ever going to do says don't worry about it. Don't worry
about it. His eyes are in every place beholding
the evil and the good and he hath not beheld iniquity in his
people. Because of the precious blood
of his son we have nothing to fear. Now let's consider these
last words just for a minute before we close today. You are
of more value than many Sparrows I think with
me here The words ye are of more value It's one word in the original
Ye are of more value And it means this to distinguish to make to
differ to approve of to consider of more importance Now you remember
what the word Pharisee means? The Pharisee distinguished themselves
from others. They considered themselves to
be of more value and of more importance than others. Thank
you God I'm not like him. Thank you God I'm better than
him. And our Lord said to them, woe
unto you. But our Lord distinguished between
his disciples and others. And he said to them, fear not.
Let that sink in. Those who distinguish themselves
before God and men, he says, woe unto you. But if you come
to him by his grace, through God-given faith, and tell it
exactly like it is, God have mercy on this wretched sinner,
who's not only like everybody else, I'm worse. I'm the chief
of sinners. He has distinguished between
those and everybody else. He has made a difference. Before you ever begged, He made
a difference. Before you ever came, He came. Before you ever loved, He loved. Before you ever chose, He chose. He made a difference and he says
to those who he has distinguished. He has made a distinction between
them and everybody else. He said the Lord does put a difference
between me and the Egyptians, this world. He says to those
ones, you have nothing to be afraid of. What a difference. You are of
more value. Think about that now. The Son
of God says to those, his disciples, his friends, the contact, they're
identified, aren't they? He spoke to his disciples, first
of all. He said to them, my friends, don't be afraid of them that
can kill you. He's speaking to his sheep, first of all, here,
and he says, you are of more value. To who? to this world? Are you worth anything to this
world? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4.13, being defamed, we entreat,
even though everybody saying everything bad they can think
of to say about us, we're still begging sinners to come to Christ.
We're still beseeching, not begging, we're beseeching. Sinner, we
entreat. We are made as the filth of the
world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day. That's what the world thinks
of God's sheep. His chosen ones are not of more value to this
world. The off-scouring, that's what you wash off when you wash
your hands. That's the dirt that you can't
stand to be on you because it's disgusting. That's what we are
to this world. Are we just intrinsically of
more value than many sparrows? He did say you're of more value
than many sparrows. Does that just mean men are worth
more than sparrows? Well, there's a sense in which
that's true. Is that what he's saying? Is everybody worth more
than sparrows to the Son of God? Listen to this. John 15, 6. If
a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is
withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire,
and they are burned. Now listen to the difference.
If you abide not in the Son of God, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you're not his, if you're not vitally united to him by
grace through faith given by God, you are dead, withered,
and not worth anything but burning. If you abide in me, and my words
abide in you, You shall ask what you will and it shall be done
unto you. What a difference. That's the
difference he made. You are of more value to who?
To who? Listen to what he said in the
next verse. Herein is my father glorified that you bear much
fruit. So shall you be my disciples.
Remember his disciples first of all, so he spoke to. So shall
you be my disciples if you bear much fruit. And that happens
by abiding in him. And then he said this in verse
9 of that passage. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. We are
of more value to him. And he's the only one that counts.
I'm glad that I'm worth something to you. But does it really matter
to you if you're the offscouring of this world? If this world
considers you nothing but grime and dirt? The Lord gives you two reasons
here not to fear. Two reasons not to fear. If you are his, if you belong
to the one who rules all things, decides all things, upholds all
things, brings to pass all things, has the keys in his hand, he says to you, fear not if you're
his. You are valuable to him. That's the second reason. Not
to fear. You're valuable to Him. He says
you are worth more than many sparrows. I don't know how much a sparrow's
worth to God. Do you? Probably more than they're worth
to us. He's the one that made them. He delights in them. I
don't know what his creatures, what his animals mean to him. So that's not very specific,
is it? You're worth more than many sparrows. That's not very
specific. How much are we worth then? Here's something that is
specific. In Acts 20, 28, Paul was speaking
to the elders of the church at Ephesus. And he said, take heed
therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over to which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church
of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." That puts it in more perspective,
doesn't it? I don't know how much many sparrows are worth.
I don't know how much his precious blood is worth, but I know it's
a lot. I know it's infinite. Infinite is pretty specific,
isn't it? Infinite. I can't understand it. I can't
grasp it. If I could, I'd never be afraid
of anything ever again. I know that. And to the extent which I can
grasp it and understand it, I won't fear. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without
blemish and without spot. The precious blood of Christ.
You are of more value. I suspect if we had any concept
whatsoever, really, of how precious we are to Him, We'd never worry about anything
ever again. We'd never be afraid. And that's
what he's teaching us here. You are of so much more value.
Fear not. Fear me, and then fear not. May God give us grace. Amen. Let's pray.