Chapter 12. Let's go ahead and
read these first 12 verses. Luke 12, 1-12. 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 leaven 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. And 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
ye shall fear. Fear Him, God. The chapter He hath killed hath
power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear Him. 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. Also I say unto you, whosoever
shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also
confess before the angels of God. But he that denieth me before
men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever
shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven
him, but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall
not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto
the synagogues and unto magistrates and powers, take ye no thought
how or what thing you shall answer or what you shall say, for the
Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought
to say. It began this way that there
were so many gathered together, an innumerable multitude of people,
that they trod upon one another. And that's more true now than
ever. There are how many billions of people, eight, ten billion
people on earth right now? The population keeps growing.
Isaiah said the inhabitants of the earth are like grasshoppers.
He said you put them all together. Less than nothing. Very few people give God any
thought. They're creators. They're benefactors. And this is a dog-eat-dog world.
It says they trod one upon another. That describes mankind, doesn't
it? Walk all over you. Now, He said
it now to His disciples first. He's speaking to His disciples
first. And the Lord had given them ears
to hear. He said, blessed are your ears,
they hear. So many times it says having
ears, they don't hear, but yet they don't hear. The Lord, the
seeing eye and the hearing ear are both of the Lord. He began
to say to His disciples, once again, they were chosen by Him.
They were called by Him. My sheep hear my voice. They
were blessed by Him. He revealed Himself to them.
The truth to them. They were given ears to hear,
eyes to see His glory. They were born again by the Spirit
of God through the Gospel of Christ. Now the first thing He
says to His disciples is, Beware. See that? Beware. Beware. A good shepherd is always watchful
and wary. Be aware. That's what beware
means. Be aware. A good shepherd. Our
Lord is the good, great chief shepherd, isn't He? Beware. And a true shepherd warns. He watches and he warns. There's a wolf. There's danger.
There's a pit. Right? My father, I've quoted
him so many times on him, he says, Scriptures are full of
warnings. It's 50-50 at least. Warnings,
lest people presume. But it's full of promises, lest
we despair. God in His mercy warns us, and
Christ warned His disciples, be aware, be watchful, be wary. When He sent them out, when He
first called them, He says, Beware of men. Because human beings aren't sweet,
nice people. And the greatest proof of that
is when the holy and righteous and altogether lovely and good
Son of God came here. They killed Him. That's what
man is. That's the greatest proof of
it. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Pharisee. Beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees. Go to Matthew 6 with me, Matthew
chapter 6. Leaven, you ladies have baked
things and put leaven in the dough and it's a hidden thing,
isn't it? And it just takes a little bit
and it will permeate, it will completely fill up that whole
lump. Because the whole lump is leavened.
But our Lord says, beware of this leaven of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were religious.
The Pharisees were devout. The Pharisees seemed to be pious
or devoted or holy people. So they appeared. But it was
all an appearance. And our Lord kept saying, they
do what they do to be seen. Look at Matthew 6, take heed
that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Boy,
if that doesn't describe the vast majority of religion. You have no reward of your Father.
Verse 2, when you do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before
thee as the hypocrites. Look what we're doing. Here we
are. We've come to... in the streets, that they have
glory of men. That's their reward, verse 3.
When thou doest alms, he's speaking to his people, let not thy left
hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be
in secret. Thy Father which seeth in secret
himself shall reward thee openly. When thou prayest, God's people
pray. They do pray. If someone doesn't
pray, they're not born, they're not alive. They pray. Don't be,
verse 5, Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, but they
love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners
of the streets, that they may be seen of men. That's what they're
after. They want the praise and the
approval to be acknowledged of men. When you pray, when you
pray, enter into your closet. Shut your door. We were driving
along yesterday and there was a woman in a car in front of
us and her license plate read this, We Pray. We Pray. Oh really? That's a Pharisee. I want everybody
to know that I pray. Who we want to hear us praying
is God. It's hypocrisy. It's playing
a part to be seen. That's what the word actor comes
from. Hypocrite. They're playing a part. They're
acting. It's acting. It's not real. It's not what they are. They're
playing a part of something that they're not. Our Lord says, beware
of that. Don't play a part. Be totally
honest. Barnard used to say, honest people
don't wind up in hell. Honest before God. Honest with
themselves. That is, taking a true and honest
look at themselves. We're going to look at that in
the next hour. Paul was a Pharisee. And when God sent the truth to
him, he saw himself for the first time, didn't he? And he said,
there's no good in me anywhere. Anywhere. Beware of this. Beware
of this. Beware of this. In Matthew 23,
he keeps pronouncing woe on these hypocrites. He said, they do
what they do to be seen. Don't do that. Don't. The phylacteries
that the Pharisees wore were Scripture verses. Well, if that
isn't relevant, people sure like to display scriptures, not to
glorify God, but that you might know they're religious. Right? Absolute godsend. God knows. Pretty obvious to us, even. All
right, verse 2 in our text, he said, there's nothing covered
that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Everything's going to be exposed. Exposed. John chapter 3, most
people know one verse in John chapter 3 and they take it totally
out of context. But here's what our Lord said
to Nicodemus. He was talking to a religious
Pharisee who came at night time. Why? He didn't believe Christ. He
was ashamed. He didn't want anybody to see
him with Christ. He's a Pharisee. He's saved. No, he's not. He's lost. But God's saving him. This is grace before grace. He's bringing him to Christ who's
going to expose him. The Lord is going to expose him,
the darkness that he's in. The thing the Lord kept telling
Nicodemus is, you must be born again. He was a master in Israel, a
teacher, a religious leader, and our Lord said, you're a master
in Israel, you don't know these things. No, you're a hypocrite. Here's what John 3 says. This is condemnation, verse 19. Light is coming into the world,
but men love darkness. They cover themselves. Their
deeds are evil, verse 20. Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light. What's the light do? Exposes. Light uncovers. Light reveals
what's in the darkness. Neither cometh to the light,
they don't come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth, what's
that? Hath his belief on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the truth. Cometh to the
light, come to Christ. Why? That his deeds might be
made manifest. This is what Psalm 139 says.
Search me, O God. Send the light of Thy Word. O
Lord Jesus Christ, search me. That is, these might be made
manifest that they're wrought in God. I don't want to play
a part. I want real salvation. Lord, I want you to do a work
in me, please. And we come to Christ, the light.
Come to the Word, Lord. Take Thy Word and do a work in
me. Alright, back to our text, Luke
chapter 12. So, Pharisees, beware of them. Nothing's covered that won't
be exposed. Everything's going to be revealed.
The day shall declare it. All right, now look at verse
3. Therefore, whatsoever ye have
spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which
you've spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed upon
the housetop. This is, you can see this in
several ways, at least two or three anyway. that all hypocrisy
will be exposed, that the Lord has no secret disciples. There's
no such thing as a secret disciple. Right? It's like being married. Why would you want to keep a
secret? Huh? If you love that person? No. If you don't want it to be known,
you're shamed. There are people all over. Southern
Baptists start going back to what they call the Founders Movement.
If you go back to Southern Baptists, their original, J.P. Boyce, founder of the Southern
Baptist Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, he wrote a book, Systematic
Theology, and we looked at it in the preacher's class. It was
a great book. And it's the truth. It's the truth. But the Southern
Baptists start going back looking at their old statements of faith
and it's all Calvinism. But they left that so long ago.
It doesn't even resemble it. They started playing with that
doctrine again. They started seeing. This is
in our old church bylaws and our old statements of faith and
Philadelphia Confession of Faith and the London Confession of
Faith. It's there. It's there. They can't deny it.
It's there. It's in the Bible. So they say,
well, we believe that. But it's family doctrine. That's what they call it. It's
a family doctrine. We kind of keep that to ourselves. And you
don't believe. You don't believe God. God didn't
save you by sovereign mercy and grace or else you'd preach it
from the housetop. You're not ashamed of it. It's salvations of the Lord.
If the Lord saved you, boy, you're going to tell everybody who saved
you. You cannot believe free will
and be saved. You can't do it. You can't do
it. You cannot be saved and believe
a lie. And you can't be saved if you're
ashamed of the truth. Alright, now our Lord in Matthew's
Gospel, He says it this way. He said, what I tell you in private,
speak it in public. That's what he said. He said,
what I tell you in private, you get on the rooftops. They're
going to hate you and they're going to kill you for it. But
he says, possess your soul. Now, not one hair will fall to
you, fall to the ground unless, until I say so. But you declare
it. Declare it. And the house stopped
speaking. Verses 8 and 9, He said, Whosoever
shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of Man confess
before the angels of God. Christ is going to stand and
confess His people. Behold, I am the children which
Thou hast given Me. Those that are with Me are called,
chosen, and faithful. Faithful to My glory. Faithful
to My truth. Faithful to My cause. Like David,
they're saying, is there not a cause yet? The cause of God
and truth. The cause of God's glory. The
cause of Christ's glory. That's the cause, and that's
what we stand for. Did you read Spurgeon's quote?
He said, the truth has been burned in me, and I'm going to believe
it if I know what it is. That's Martin Lutheran. That's
Paul. He said, no man stood with me. But boy, he stood. For the
truth, then, why? Because he's been born again. Christ is in him. The truth is
in him. No hypocrite, not playing a part.
Christ is his life. Christ gave him life. He's going
to tell everybody who gave him life. So, verse 9, he says, He that
denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. All right, go back to verse 4.
He says, Now I say unto you, friends, friends, my friend of God, be not afraid
of them that kill the body. And after that, they have no
more that they can do. My brothers and sisters, let's
just camp here just a minute, okay? He was sending his disciples
out into a hostile world. And Matthew 10 and Luke, it talks
about what all they're going to face. We don't face anything even close
to that now, not even close. We have so many lesser fears
that are really needless fears. Needless. Completely needless.
It dishonors our Lord to be so fearful. It's dishonoring to
our Lord. Now look at what he says. All
of these words are for comfort, comfort, comfort, reassurance,
comfort. Telling them and us whose hands
they are in. every hair on your head. That's an insignificant thing,
hair. Isn't it? It really is. If you've
got a lot of it, I'm here to tell you, it's insignificant.
And if you're proud of it, it's going to fall out. Eventually. Barbara Ross, one time, told
me I had pretty eyes. She said, your eyes are so pretty.
She said, that's why the Lord made you bald. So you would be
proud. I said, well, thank you, Barbara.
I think she meant it well. Rebuke is fine. Barbara said whatever she felt
like saying. This is the truth. And I'm still
proud. Anyway, where am I? The hairs of your head are on
number. He sent them out and he said, verse 4, He said, Be
not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, there's
no more that they can do. They. What's they? Who are they? It's enemies. These things. Whatever
we're afraid of. They. We're afraid of so many
things, aren't we? Did you hear what they said? We're afraid of sin. Listen to
this. If we die, brothers and sisters,
we ought to welcome death because then all our troubles are over.
I don't understand. I really don't understand except
understanding something of our frame, this flesh that gets into
what? Scripture says, Ecclesiastes
7, the day of one's death is better than birth. When you're
born into this world, okay, what do you got ahead of you? A life
full of sin, and misery, and pain, and sorrow, and grief,
and toil, and labor. That's psalm 90 in it. You live
70 years, you live 80 years, you have this strong labor and
sorrow, and then what? You die. And you lose everything. That's what we've got to look
forward to when we're born into this world. But when you die,
that's all over! Who says so? Jesus Christ! Well, somebody just come back
from the dead and hit the dead! There's nothing more that they
can do. Brother Bruce and I were talking
about this over the phone. We were just rejoicing. Who are
they? Whoever they are, they can't touch you anymore. Sin
can't touch you anymore. Satan can't tempt you anymore.
The world can't bother you. No matter what anybody says,
it will never bother you again. Pain, suffering, sorrow, grief,
fear, worry. Never again. joy unspeakable, full of glory,
peace, righteousness, tranquility, paradise. You don't want that? What's it going to take? Lord
just take a break. It's over. Fall asleep. He called it sleep. None of us
fear going to sleep. Every one of us look forward
to it. That is, the older you are, the older you are. When
you're real young, you don't ever want to go to sleep. Then
when you go to sleep, it's hard to wake them up. But the older
you get, the harder it is to sleep. The thing you look forward
to more than anything, brothers and sisters, He giveth His beloved
sleep. And after that, there's no more
anybody or anyone or anything can ever do to you again. My soul, what's wrong with this?
Welcome, sweet death. Huh? Brother David Edmondson
and I were talking about, either Scott said it or my dad said
it, one of the two said it, and they're both gone. Right now. with Joe, standing looking at
the Lord Jesus Christ, just full of joy, unspeakable. But one
of them said, we spend too much time trying to live on the wrong
side of life, trying to live to keep these bodies alive, rather
than looking forward to eternity. We spend too much time on the
wrong side of living. I said it years ago, and I'm
not trying to teach people so much how to live as how to die. In Genesis, all those people
that lived 700, 800, 900 years, 969 years, you know what it says
about every one of them? And he died. Didn't matter how
long in it, he died. Here's wisdom. Oh, that they
were wise, that they would consider this, their latter end. It's
all going to end. And those of you that are getting
older, it's over. But really, it's just about to
begin. I can't convince anybody of that.
I can't convince myself of it. But our Lord does. Now, here's
verse 5. Well, that's a message in itself.
There's no more they can do. No more can be done. Verse 5,
I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear Him which after
He hath killed. Oh, who kills? They don't kill. Diseases don't
kill. Bullets don't kill. God kills. Is that right? There's such peace
there. Such peace. Hear Him. Which after He hath killed, hath
power to cast into hell. Hell. Do you ever hear the word
anymore except somebody's cussing? Fifty-four times in the Scripture. Thirteen times wrote down here.
15 times in the gospel and every
time the Lord said it. The Lord Jesus Christ said it.
It's real. He created it. He went through it. He has the
keys to it. He's the one that puts people
there. Freedom. He said, now fear Him. has the keys of hell and death
inside. That's Christ, isn't it? Not gentle Jesus, but the
Lord Jesus, Lord of hosts. Fear Him. Now He gives His disciples
great comfort. Are not five sparrows sold for
too far then? Not one of them is forgotten
before God. Do you love the sparrows? Old people like to feed birds.
They just do. They like to sit on the porch
and watch the birds. And we do. We love the sparrows, especially. They're worthless, aren't they?
They're worthless. Well, I wouldn't kill a one of them. I remember
when I was a little young boy, I got a BB gun, got a daisy,
like the rifleman's gun, cocked. And I was out, you know what
I did, like old people. I shot a bird. It fell down to
my feet, Steven. Why did I do that? Oh, I felt
so bad. But I don't want to shoot them
now. Do you? They glorify God. They give me enjoyment, don't
they? They sing. There's a real lesson
in disparity. They're worthless. How many are
there? Zillions. He said, not one of them. Not one insignificant, worthless
little sparrow will die unless God kills them. It's forgotten of God. It's not
even forgotten of God. He feedeth. His eye is on... Jeanette sings that song. His
eye is on the sparrow. So I know he watches me. Are you not worth more than many
sparrows? More value? The very hairs of
your head are number, he said. The very hairs of your head.
That's the most insignificant thing on our body, I guess, is
hair. I told you, I gave you the illustration
of, you know, when your child is born, every part of that little
fellow, the girl that is just precious to you, every part of
her, look at her little ears, look at her little toes. You
remember their little feet? Their toes are just... I just
loved Hannah's feet when she was born. They were just so tiny.
I could just eat them. Everything about them. Every
hair on her head. He says the hairs of your head
are precious and numbered to him. And they're numbered. They're ordered. Everything. And so, fear not. Fear not. Fear not. You're more valued. Now there's no value in us. We're
unworthy. But if Christ died for us, that's
what gives us value. Right? If Christ paid the infinite
price for us, God's not going to lose one of us. He's not going
to lose one of us. Great value. Precious blood of
the Lamb. Now, who confesses Me before
men? What is it to confess Christ? Well, it's to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized. Our Lord said that. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't
you? It's like marriage, you know,
baptism. I liken baptism to two things,
a funeral and a wedding at the same time. A funeral and a wedding. What you're saying when you're
baptized is, when Christ died, I died. I was crucified with
Christ. I was buried. I deserved to die.
I should have died. I'm the guilty one, but God made
Him to be sinned for that. I believe that. And when Christ
was buried, I deserve to be buried and put out of sight and out
of mind. I don't deserve to live and die. When Christ was buried,
I believe He took my sins with Him. But Christ arose. And we
arise hoping, quickened together with Christ to walk in newness
of life. It's a funeral. My death. Look forward to it. When I lay this body of death
down in the grave, it's going to be the most wonderful thing
to ever happen to the next two. Well, on the same par as being
born again. Secondly, it's a marriage. What
you're saying before people publicly is, I believe Christ. He's my husband. He's my life. He's my righteousness. He's my
salvation. He's my all and in all Christ.
I believe Him. I'm looking to Him. He's everything
to me. I want to be His disciple. I
want to be His bride. I want to live with Him forever. I want everybody to know. Now,
if you really love somebody, you'll marry them one day. Don't be ashamed of it. You won't
be ashamed of it at all. And that's what our Lord said.
Whoever denies me, and I've said this so many times, if you confessed
that other Jesus, that weak Jesus that you let into your heart,
you haven't confessed crime. You need to confess the true
crime. Alright, verse 10. Now these are, I may be off to
save this for Nick, I'm out of time. I think
it's too important.