Let softly our heavers play low
Now on thee and on thee, fire and snow Fire and snow, yes,
fire and snow Now on thee and on thee, fire and snow All right, back to Luke chapter
12. This is a vital, vital message. Extremely important. Enlightening. It really is. You know, every
message is. Whether we realize it or not,
because that's what Well, we read that Sunday morning that
it's always a matter of life and death, the savior of life
and death. But this is a vital, vital message. This is where we left off on
our last study in Luke. I suppose I may have been avoiding
this passage. I don't know. I remember reading it some time
ago in preparation for our study of it and thinking, well, this
is tough. I'll just wait another week.
I read it again and I thought, well, maybe I'll
just wait another week. And here it's been a long time.
I read it again this week, and it is so very needful, so we're
going to look at it tonight. Now, how often have you heard
it said that scriptures are full of warnings, lest we presume? There's a world of people out
there presuming that God loves them. Let's not be one of them and
ignoring what he said. And yet it says, yet the same
says, but it's full of promises though. Scriptures are full of
promises, lest we despair. And how often have we been reminded
that this book is written to God's people? He said, my sheep will hear my
voice. He said, He that is of God, heareth God's word. He said that. Now, if someone
does not hear, and Peter, James said, if they're
not doers, Not just to hear, but to do it.
If someone does not hear and does not do what the Lord says,
it's because they are not of God. That's what John said. He that is of God, heareth God's
word. James said, well do it then.
If someone goes out from us, no matter how long they've been
with us, but if they go out from us, John said, is because they
were not all of us. For he said, if they had been
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went
out, he said, that it might be made clear that they're not all of us. And so Again, we're reminded
of what our Lord said, but what's that to you? You follow me. You be a hearer. You be a doer.
This word tonight is to you and me. We're here. Right? We're here. He said give diligence. Scripture
says give diligence to make your calling an election. Sure, not
somebody else. You're calling. So Joe Parks
needs to sit here tonight and hear this like Joe Parks, the
only person in the room. Right? I'm a preacher. Big deal. Big deal. Though I preach the
gospel, I have nothing to glory in, Paul said. There's only big
deal there and I'm a dozen are. Even here my word and do it all
right. This part of this this passage
of Scripture is full of warnings full of warnings to his. We'll
see that you know it's impossible for one of Christ's feet follow
what. It's impossible. Once in Christ,
always in Christ. It's impossible. Christ has never
lost a sheep. Yet, he writes his words to us. That him that thinketh he standeth,
take heed, lest he fall. There's no need in trying to
explain that. That's what he said, all right? I like the fact
that none of God's sheep will fall away. But Paul said in Philippians,
he said, I'm not, I haven't arrived yet. I believe I'm a sheep, I
have great reason to believe I'm a sheep, but I'm not there
yet. Okay, so we need to, I, I say
we, I say I. All right verse one of chapter
twelve it says in the meantime. In the meantime now last time
we studied this chapter eleven. Ended up like this said the scribes
and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently that means argue
and provoke him. Ask him all sorts of questions,
lay in wait for him, trying to catch something out of his mouth
that they might accuse him. All right? Scribes and Pharisees
were railing on him and arguing with him and questioning him
and trying to find fault in what he said and say, in the meantime,
or at the same time, or while this was going on. And then it
says in verse 1, they were gathered together in innumerable multitude
of people, insomuch that they trove one upon another. This
huge crowd of people, and I hear one of the, all these religious
ones were arguing, arguing, arguing, arguing, that's all they want
to do is argue, argue, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, you know. Endless questions, foolish questions,
but, but, but, but. And then there's a crowd, huge
crowd, throng of people, so much that they were just jam-packed
together, walking all over one another, you see. And it says,
look at verse 1, it says, And so he began to say unto his disciples,
private, although he's in the middle of crap. He turned to me and said, now,
I'll let you listen to me like nobody else was around. And so, you know, I think I remember this correctly,
reading this correctly. What's so much of what's the
population that you know what the population on the earth is
is is right now six million. That is I read it recently six
that is OK. I believe this is correct what
I read but in the past thirty years maybe fifty I think it's
thirty that the earth has doubled in population. Is that right,
Darnell? Something like from 3 billion
to 6 billion. And they say, they say that if
it continues, that in the next 20 years it'll double again. Says there are so many they've
trodden on one day. What I'm trying to show us is
this mass of humanity that we're in the middle of. And most are religious. These people were. That's why they were there, Nancy.
They wanted to hear this Jewish rabbi. John, they weren't drunks
down at the bar necessarily. They'd been to the bar. They
were, you know, in private. But they were religious. That's
why they were here. So many of them, but they were
walking all over one another. So that makes me marvel that
much more. Those statistics I just gave
you makes me marvel that much more at this, what our Lord said.
When the Son of Man comes, Will he find faith on the earth? Well, Lord, it's going to be
20 billion people. Think about that. That made me
marvel at that verse. When a son of man comes, will
he find faith on the earth? Well, they tried so many tried
on one another. Now, picture this. Can you picture
this scene in your mind's eye of this great huge throng of
people? I mean, so many innumerable said.
An innumerable multitude. Thousands upon thousands. Myriads. A guild said a myriad
is 10,000 people. Myriads. Maybe as many as in
the Rose Bowl, you know. 70, 80, 90, 100,000 people. Huge crowd, scribes and Pharisees,
all right down his face, still arguing with him. And he turns and speaks to his
disciples, who were always right real close to him. This is verse
12. That's what he says there, doesn't it? He says, he began
to first speak to his disciples. He that is of God is going to
hear God's Word. I'm the good shepherd, I know
my sheep. He said, I've come not to convince the world, but
to find my sheep. And so he turned and said, and
here's the point, in the midst of this religious world we live
in, and there's so many that try to know one another, he says to us, right here, these
words are to us, look at it, verse 1. He began to say unto
his disciples, first of all, Beware ye the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy." Well, don't all these religious
people need that? No, I'm not talking to them,
I'm talking to us. You see? Hypocrisy. But all this hypocrisy is talking
to me. You see how vital this is? You
see why I've been avoiding this thing? It's talking to me. Hypocrisy. Turn to Matthew 23. What is hypocrisy? Matthew 23. He called these Pharisees and
scribes, he called them hypocrites. He tells us, beware of it. The
leaven, now leaven, remember when he said a little leaven,
just a little leaven will ruin the whole lump. 11, fill up the
whole lump, just a little bit. A little bit affects everything.
Hypocrisy. What is hypocrisy? Well, it's
a Greek word that means act. That's what they used to call
an actor. That's the term we get the word
actor from, hypocrite. tending to be what you're not. That's what hypocrisy is, acting,
playing, acting out a part. He tells us to be aware of it.
And he says here, look at it, he gives some examples here in
Matthew 22 or 23, verse 2. He says, scribes and Pharisees,
they sit in Moses' seat. Verse five all their works they
do want. To be seen. Look at verse thirteen woe unto
you scribes pharisees and hypocrites. Verse fourteen says they make
a woe unto you scribes pharisees hypocrites you could buy our
widows housing for a pretense. pretense of prayer and on and
on he goes. Pretense pretense pretense but
he's talking to us right there he said woe unto you scribes
and he but he's telling us beware now. Of the 11 of the Pharisees
which is hypocrisy now. Go back to Luke 12. It is certain That we need to
beware of Pharisees. No. We need to have a sharp eye
out for Pharisees. Beware of them. They generally
take the form of preachers, you know. They fool a lot of people. Preachers. And he tells us beware
of them. Beware of it's hypocrisy. Don't let them fool you. Don't
let their piety, don't let their prayers. I remember what, well,
this has happened on more than one occasion. I've been in the
presence of someone who prayed and I thought, wow. I can't pray like that. Beware that that's where you
know where I'm going to hit the ceiling. If it did hit the ceiling,
bounce right back. Beware of them. There's some
good actors out there. There's some Academy Award winning
religious people. I mean Academy Award, if they
were giving out Academy Emmys. A lot of preachers would win
a lot of them. I don't really think he's talking
so much about them as telling us, beware, we don't have it. Both. It's bifocal. It's bifocal. Pretense. Who is pretense fooling? playing acting as we said there
are he said there Matthew twenty three they do what they do to
be seen of the. Man. As an old saying you can
fool all the people some of the time. You can fool some of the people
all the time. Now the rest of that ought to
read this way. You can't fool God anytime. Right? I really believe you can
fool all the people all the time. I really do. Judas had everybody fooling him
all the time. So, but we can't fool God anytime. He said God is not mocked. Not mocked. He said in verse
two now, he said, there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed,
neither hid that shall not be known. No doubt men's sin will
find them out. Unbelief, true faith as opposed
to pretense. A lot of people claim to believe
God. A lot of people claim to believe Christ. A lot of people
say they believe this and that and the other. You can be certain
that there's nothing spoken, he said, in darkness that won't
be revealed. The truth will come out. The truth always will come out.
Always. Nothing covered that shall not
be revealed. Nothing that is hid that shall not be
known. And we're going to see in a minute
the comfort in all of this for God's people. Verse 3. So verse
3, he says now, whatever you've spoken in darkness shall be heard
in the light. That which you've spoken in the ear in closet shall
be proclaimed upon the housetop. There are examples in the scriptures
of men who appeared to be unbelievers, wavering, make it a member of the debate. They came more than. A couple of. And I've heard so many people
you know this last minute. But you know when that the Lord.
That he came publicly before. Herod, or Pilate, which one,
I forget, or Herod, I guess it was, who begged the body, came
and publicly owned the crucified Christ as being a disciple of
him. But then you've got others, like Judas, you know. Well, it's
going to be known, he said, it's going to be known. That much
you can be sure. You can be certain of that, it
will be known. Now listen to this article by
my pastor. It's going to be in this Sunday's book. We must be
honest before God. I'm a sinner. I'm always in need
of mercy and saving grace. God's going to meet me where
the truth is, nowhere else. I may deceive men. They look
on outward flesh. God is not deceived. He looks
on my heart. If I confess my sin, he will
forgive my sin. If I judge myself, I will not
be judged. If I deal truthfully with God,
he will, in Christ, deal mercifully with me. Hypocrisy, I'm still
reading, hypocrisy in any area of life is foolish. foolish to
pretend what we're not in any area of life, but hypocrisy before
God is fatal. If we say we have no sin, we're
deceived. If we say we have not sinned,
we make God a liar. What folly to play the pious
one in the presence of omniscience. What folly play the pious one
in the presence of omniscience, who looks at the heart, the recesses
of the heart for folly. Is it not better, he says, to
stand with the publican and cry, God be merciful to me, the sinner?
Is it not better to weep with a harlot at his feet and rise
forgiven than to sit with Simon in the seat of the Pharisee and
perish? That's something that's a good
article. Well, Proverbs 28 says this. You want to turn? Be my guest. As a matter of fact, you ought
to. Proverbs 28. And again, it took a little while
to find this. Proverbs 28 verse 13 says this. You have it? Over twenty eight thirteen he
that cover of his hand shall not prosper but this will confess
it and forsake it. Well that's what I want. So I think. I think we've all
know we've all seen. He said there in our text, he
said, whatever is spoken in darkness should be heard in the light.
No doubt Christ hears everything we've ever said. Is that not right? Well, certainly. Didn't David say there's not
a thought? He's got a word in my mouth that
you don't know far off, he said. Thou knowest my thoughts, he
said, far off. He said, such knowledge? It's
too wonderful for me. Where shall I go from my present?
Where shall I flee from my present? Lord, you know everything about
me. You know it all together. Now wait a minute. Here's the
point, and here's what's so vital about this message. With all
sin comes short of the glory of God. By who gets mercy? Those who confess it. One time, keep confessing it. Come clean. Come clean. Every
day. Be honest. This is the reason
Barnard said, think about how profound this statement is about
that old hitchhiking evangelist from North Carolina. He said,
honest people don't wind up being hateful. Hypocrites. Guilty. We need to always wear,
as long as we live, we need to always wear a rope around our
neck. Because I hear the King of Israel is merciful. We're guilty! whether we know
it or not. David said, keep me from presumptuous
sins, secret sins. Sure, we've committed a lot of
sins. What about the one we don't even know about? Huh? So what
are we going to do? Come clean? You want to make
my come clean? Lift up holy hand. That's what
that means. Lift up holy hand. Show your hand. Show your hand,
reach, put your hands up. Right? You're not wearing anything,
are you? That's what that means, you've
got to come clean. Don't play the hypocrite. We've all spoken
a word against our brother, haven't we? in the closet. Does that mean that he's going
to find us out? No, that's not what that means.
He's talking about these Pharisees, these hypocrites. We've all spoken
against our brethren, but no, wait a minute, the disciples
did. Remember when Peter, remember
when Peter was bragging No, it wasn't Peter. It was when
James and John were talking to the Lord. Which one of us is
going to be the best, the greatest? Remember that? And it says the
other disciples were indignant. They were indignant. Who's that? I never did like that James anyway.
He shouldn't be one of our apostles. There he is thinking. But no, wait a minute. They loved each other. And they
were shamed of it later. Right? I tell you this one thing
the Lord does hate. You remember the first thing
the Lord hates, don't you, from Proverbs 16? Right, right. You remember what the last thing
he said he'd hate? That's right. He that soweth
discord. Somebody that's all they do is
talk about the brethren. It's not a brother. Right? There's a difference. There's a difference. We've all
fallen. Everyone has fallen. And you know, I started taking
some, taking great falls. What fall is not a great fall?
What sin is not a great sin? We've all fallen. And we'll fall
again. Somebody else has fallen, taken
a great fall. We think, well, you beware. Like we said before, you know,
Bathsheba may have not come by yet. Don't, you know, don't take a
look at that. Hey, look at yourself. Well,
we've all played the fool, haven't we? We've all played the fool. We've all played the harlot.
Everybody in here has played the harlot with our God. Republican, gone after money, Judas. But
he says, he that confesses his sins, don't
hide it. Confess it. Confess it. He's faithful and just. He's faithful because He's forgiven
every sinner that comes to Him every time. He's faithful, He's
promised. He said, Him that cometh to me,
and He doesn't even qualify that. Him, who? The chief of sinners,
that cometh to me, I will in no wise, for no reason whatsoever,
at any point, at any time, ever cast Him out. In that good news, huh? He's
faithful to his promise. He said, this is a faithful saying,
worthy of all acceptation. Christ came to save sinners. And we're talking about publicans
and harlots. When the scripture talks about
sinners, it gives about the worst people you can think of. Think
of who's the worst person? A harlot. Well, that's who Christ
came to save. Beware of hypocrisy. He's faithful
and he's just. I like that. He just doesn't
have nothing to forgive them, they're paid for. Just. Faithful and just to forgive
our sins. But don't play the hypocrite
now. Come clean. Come clean. Be like Nathaniel. We need to
all be like Nathaniel. No guile. No guile. Don't have any guile. Come clean. Before God, most
especially. But you know, Daniel tells us
to confess our faults one to another. Not sins, mind you,
but faults. Come clean. Don't play the pious
one. Not even before the brethren.
You're just a dead dog, sir. Right? Now one, now listen here, listen
to this now, hypocrisy. Someone who's not truly saved
is evidently playing the hypocrite. Because true seekers find. Why will you die? Well, all right, and now this
is twofold here, and he says this also, another gospel talks
about the apostles preaching a little more
clearly here. He says, they said in another
place that the gospel that the apostles were being persecuted
for, that they were at times meeting in secret and private.
He said, this is going to be heard everywhere. This gospel
is going to be heard everywhere. It's going to be heard everywhere. You're being persecuted for it,
but it's going to be heard on the housetops. It shall be heard around the
world. And verse 4, now here in verse 4, he says, and I say
unto you, my friends. What a word. My friends. You
remember he said, I call you friends. I have made known unto
you. I enter most secretly. I say
unto you, my friend. Now here is what he said. Be
not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have
no more that they can do. Now the disciples, the apostles,
they truly feared for their lives, didn't they? They needed to hear this. They really needed to hear this.
They were going to die. Remember that message from John
21? He told Peter, you're going to
be crucified. Boy, he needed to hear this, didn't he? Don't
be afraid of them. They'll kill the body. They're
going to kill you. Don't be afraid. They're going to think they do
God a service to them. Don't be afraid of them. Boy,
they needed to hear this, didn't they? Like I said, I've maybe been
avoiding him. But what kind of coward does
that make us? There's not a person in here whose life is ever in
one whip in danger, for the truth's sake. Never. And I don't think
there ever will be. Whew, man. Come clean, Lord,
I'm a coward. Lord, I'm a coward. Come clean. Come on. Come clean. I was reminded immediately of
Isaiah 51, where he said, Who are you to be afraid of worms?
Isaiah evidently was, you know, Timothy. There are examples of
that. Jeremiah, Moses, Abraham. God says to us all, why should
you be afraid of a worm? That's what man is. He said, like grass, he's going
to die. That fellow you're afraid of, or whoever it is in your
face, is going to die. I mean, it might be tomorrow. I called
a fellow up the other day that I've done some business with,
not too recently, and not so long ago. His wife answers the
phone. I said, can I speak to him? I
noticed her voice was strange. I said, how are you doing? She said, oh. I said, can I speak
to her husband? She said, well. I said, he passed
away. I never said anything to that
man about the gospel. Lord, I'm a coward. I'm not pretending. The problem is, I'm a coward.
I'm plain. Huh? Peter, Peter said that,
I guarantee you. He said, Lord, what do you think? After he denies, the Lord departs
from me. I'm a coward. Okay, now that
you admit it, I'm going to give you a little courage. Now that
you admit you're without strength, without courage, that you're
a nothing, a nobody from nowhere, you know nothing, you have nothing,
you're worthless, no good, I don't need you, you have no benefit
and no value to me whatsoever, now I'm going to make something
out of you. Now I just might use you. You're a great person in your
own little sphere of four people who believe just like you do. Admit that, and it might just
move your circle a little wider. Right? Come clean. Well, he says
here, verse 5, I forewarn you whom you shall fear, fear him. which after he had killed half
of that power cast in the hail yeah I say you fear him and then
he. Then he says he tells us who
he is. Who he is. And all power all
knowing that's the context here he says verse six fear him are
not five sparrow now he gives this illustration of five sparrows
sold too far five sparrows sold for about two cents per nickel. And yet he says, not one of those
worthless two-bit, but five cents, insignificant birds, that there's
a zillion of them, God is not in God's mind and
on in his direction under his providence and his his sovereign
eye. That's a big God. That's a God who is God isn't
it? And in verse seven he said, it
gets even a little finer here. So he's showing us just who God
is. In verse seven he says, even
the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Now, our Lord said he can't lie, can
he? I mean, I bet you'd be hard-pressed
to find one person in a trillion that really believe that. I mean,
that's literal. That God numbers every hair on
every head of every person on the planet. That God absolutely
numbers. In other words, has God written
it down or knows exactly every... Come on. That's literally, he said, I
and even, even, but even the very hair for emphasis here,
Stan, he said, this is how, this is how sovereign, how omniscient
God is. Come clean. You see the context
here? Come clean. All things are naked
and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Even
every hair in our head is numbed. Well, now here's the words of
comfort. Here's the words of comfort, right here. Fear not. They just told us to fear. And
I thought he said, I tell you, fear him. And then he tells us
who he is, that men don't fear. See man, you see the difference
between the God of the Bible and the God today? The God today, he no more resembles
the God of the Bible than a candle does a sun. He's helpless on
the outside, can't do anything. This God numbers everybody's
hair. And then in the bug, you have
a tree stump. That's not a part of his absolute
sovereign purpose and will, and that was ordered in all things
before the foundation was. That's a big difference between
God who is God. All right, now he says, fear
him and come clean. But fear not. Wait a minute,
he says there's nothing covered. I mean, there's nothing covered
that will not be revealed. But wait, he says now, you're
covered. Isn't it? in our our hands on the blood
covered he said there's nothing. He had a show not be known. But they say our life is here
with Christ and God. Be sure you're seeing a find
you have numbers twenty three but wait a minute he said he
will remember a little more he said Jeremiah said this and then
Israel shall be sought but not be found. Fear not. You see, warnings,
lest we presume, promises, lest we despair. Don't presume. Don't
play hypocrite. Be an out and out, open, guilty,
honest sinner before God all the time. Scripture says His
mercies are new every morning. What does that tell you? We're guilty. As soon as we wake up. Huh? See what I mean? His mercies
are new every morning. That must mean I'm going to need
them that day. Right? Something new every morning.
I eat new food, you know, every morning. I need it for that day.
His mercies are new every morning. Come clean. God's too wise to
fool, too holy to try to please, too infinite to need us. Yet
he says, fear not. Fear not. See why we need Christ? Huh? We don't know the law, we
don't know ourselves. See why we need Christ? He said,
be of good cheer. Come unto me. If I've overcome the world, you're
going to feel overcome by it. Look to me. I've overcome the
world. You a sinner? I'm a sinner. Look to me. Be ye saved. Huh? Isn't it? Come unto me, all you
that labor in heavy labor. Guilt. I'm the one who removes
it. words of comfort. God takes every
sparrow in his, is in his purpose. Every hair of every head is numbered,
and he says you're more value than many sparrows. Now listen,
in ourselves, the natural man, naturally speaking, man is of
less value than a sparrow. The natural man who receive it
not the things of God, but their foolishness unto him, neither
can he know than that natural man, that God-hater, is of less
value than a sparrow. A sparrow wakes up singing praise
to God. Right? But that God-hater wakes
up cussing God. So who's of more value? A sparrow. Of more value than many human
beings. But he says, my friends, Who are his friends? Who are
his disciples? They're not better than anybody
else. They're sinners. They're just forgiven. Come clean,
he said. Now, you're of more value, see,
because, because, you know, this world,
there's so many people in this world that trodden on one another,
aren't there? How many zeroes can I put on
this page? I don't have time. Time escapes
me. A bunch of zeroes. Try it in
all of them. What gives anybody any of them? A bunch of zeroes. Just one. Just one. God's people are a bunch of zeroes.
That's a lot. That's a lot. Lot? Let me think
about this. I'm a zero. Peter? Worthless. Abraham? Coward. Denied my wife. Jacob? That's me. Yeah, that's
me. Huh? Mary Magdalene, oh my, unworthy. Paul, Saul, unworthy, not fit. And he said, you're of more value
than any man. Why? Because of one. Because of one. Because you're
in one. Because of what Christ paid for
them. And then, you know, I've told you about old Arthur, our
cat, bad Arthur. I told you about him, didn't
I? My wife lied to me, my wife and daughter lied to me, and
brought that cat home. We didn't need it, we already had
a cat. Two. I don't have any, two extra cats.
They brought that cat home, said they found it, first they found
it. Next, I found out, he complained. Always come clean. Yeah, you
did. You said you paid ten bucks for it. See? See how hard it
is? They didn't pay ten dollars for
it, but I found out you just paid too much. Anything's too much to pay for
cats. Isn't it? When you go to the Humane Society,
they've got four zillion of them. That's all it's worth. He brought
O'Arthur home. Well, he took care of O'Arthur. Well, O'Arthur got a head injury. He took a fall or something.
And it just turned O'Arthur mean. He went crazy. I mean, he went
crazy. He attacked you. Deborah, do
you remember him? Unprovoked, just attacked you
for no reason. Mean. We had a big claw. We did everything we could to
keep him from killing us. In the meantime, he's getting
fat. We're feeding this mean, worthless, no good, fat Arthur.
He's trying to kill us. Funny, isn't it? He needs his
shots. Well, we got to, you know, have
five grown men to tie him down, and he rips us to shreds. It's funny, isn't it? We still got old Pat Arthur.
Years later, and he's getting better. But, thankfully, he's sweetening
up a little bit. Finally! Finally, we put up with
him. We put up with him. We put up
with him. I mean, I don't know how many times. Let's put him
to sleep. But like I said, it's almost
no exaggeration. One million dollars later, we
can't. We've invested too much in Arthur. He's the proverbial fat cat. Well, people, this is funny,
but this is us. We're everyone in here, fat Arthur. God paid way too much for it.
We've been made a snake, bit the hand that feeds us, by
all the time we keep getting fatter and fatter. Well, oh,
I hope by the grace of God we start sweetening up a little
bit, that the goodness of God would lead us to repentance and
sweeten up a little bit. And like I said, we hadn't gotten
rid of him yet. And the other day, Mindy finally
said, she finally said, I guess we'll just have to keep old Arthur
rolling. And we will. And that's us. That's us. Every one of us. A
bunch of nothings. But beware of the hypocrisy now.
God won't put up with it. He just won't do it. And you've
got just a minute here, these last couple of verses. He says,
verse 8 and 9, Now, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man
also confess before the angels of God. But he that denieth The four men shall be denied
before the angels of God." Now, Peter denied the Lord. Did the Lord deny him? Yes. Something else here. Peter knew
and loved the Lord. We saw that when the Lord asked
him, Peter, do you love me? After his denial, he asked him,
do you love me? Yes, you know I do. Well, and Peter believed Christ,
didn't he? Huh? Didn't he? Yes, he did.
Well, who do men say that I am? Well, some say this. Who do you
say that? Peter said, I hear the Christ. I mean, out of the
abundance of his heart, John, he said, you're the Christ. I
know you are. God bless the Lord. Simon, Margo,
the flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my Father and
your Father. Peter was a believer, but he
denied the Lord. But, now wait a minute, that
wasn't the tenor of his life, you see. His whole life was not
one continual denial of the Lord. Now, here's the point, all right? In spite of our denials of the
Lord, there's got to be a confession
of it. Right? There's got to be times,
points, a general confession of it. You understand what I'm trying
to say? In spite of our sins, listen to this, in spite of all
our sins, we sin, we sin, we sin, we sin, we sin, until we
think, how can I be a believer? And do that, and say that, and
act that way, and so forth. But in spite of our sins, there's
got to be a conformity to Christ. I'm not what I want to be, I'm
not what I ought to be, I'm not what I'm going to be, but, but,
thank God, by His grace, by His mercy, by His Spirit, I'm not
where I used to be. You understand? In spite of our
times that we look like Lot, remember Lot? Nobody believed him. In spite of times like that,
yet there's got to be times when we have the faith of Abraham. Huh? In spite of our worst thoughts, in spite of our denials, there's
got to be a time. There's got to be some time. And he says, you know where
the first confession starts? Where's the first confession?
The public confession of the Lord Jesus Christ starts. Where's
the first public. How important is that. If you can be baptized you can't
be saved without. This He that believeth and is baptized. That's the public confession
of the Lord Jesus Christ before men. That's where it starts.
And then it's the lifetime. But like I said, for our comfort,
in spite of our denials, our life is a confession of Christ. Right now, tonight, believers
hear it's a confession of Christ. Where are you going? I'm going
to worship. Why? Because I want to worship. Wednesday. He denied me before me and I've
been mad for the angel you know Peter denied him. But was never
denied. And our Lord talked about some
people who confessed him I said we did this and did that in your
name. Well, and then he says in closing these
last few verses, who serves to speak a word against the Son
of Man, to be forgiven him, but to blaspheme against the Holy
Ghost, and not be forgiven. What's that? Well, that's a complete
denial of the gospels, what that is. The Holy Spirit, you see,
takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us. And those
who finally go away, they leave the gospel. And you know, when
people leave, the only way you can justify leaving Start. People. Say. That's why
I said. This is the only way a person
can justify leaving the gospel, when they start, when they leave,
and then they have to justify leaving by saying, well, that's
not the only place the gospel is, or that's not, you know,
there's other believers, and this is true just as much as
that's true. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one confession. One confession, and the sin against
the Holy Spirit is apostasy from the faith, the faith. Come clean. Beware Levin. Beware Levin. Come clean. He's
faithful and just and forgiving. All right, let's stand. Our Lord, we need every word
you've spoken. Your word is our hammer. We need
it. We sure need it. You to break
these hard hearts and hard heads and drive that nail, the nail
of truth, drive it home. Set the nail, the hammer, the
fire. Lord, we need your word to burn
away the dross, the refuse, the rubbish, the garbage, the dung.
to burn, cause our hearts to burn within us that are cold
and dead and lifeless so much. Thank you for your word. It is
all of that. A hammer and a fire. Oh, it's
quick. It's sharp. Sharper than a two-edged
sword. And we don't need our toes stepped
on, we need our hearts operated on. So we thank you for your
word, which pierces, gets down the very recesses of our hearts
and reveals what's there and judges us. We thank you. We thank you. If you'll let us behold ourselves
in this glass, as we truly are, See our sin, and then maybe we'll
confess them. So never let us rise above being
just sinners in need of mercy and grace. Never keep us mindful
of the pit from which we are digged, we pray. We thank you
for your Word. In Christ's name, amen.