Turn with me this morning to
Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. I titled the lesson this morning, Well Chosen Words of Comfort. Luke 12, verses 1 through 7.
Let's read these together. In the meantime, that is after
those things we've been studying for the past several weeks, where
he's talking to the scribes and the Pharisees. 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 you have spoken in darkness shall be heard
in the light. And that which you 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 the taking death. But I will forewarn you whom
you shall fear. Fear him which after he hath
killed, have 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. Our Lord had been addressing
these self-righteous men, men of high station and low character,
men who came for no other reason than to catch something to use
against Him. They wanted to hear Him say something
that they could use against Him, something to expose and disprove
His claims, expose Him as an imposter. But ignorance is no
match for perfect wisdom. This is the thing that men did
not understand then and do not understand now. We're dealing
with God. We're not dealing with men. They
tried to deal with a man. He was an exceptional man. They
owned up to that. Never a man spoke like this man.
He was wise above all their scholars. He was a notable man, but we're dealing with God, and they
were dealing with God. Ignorance is no match for wisdom,
and weakness is not even a challenge for omnipotence. They were going
to lay hands on him, you remember, and throw him off that cliff.
And he passed through their midst. They couldn't do anything about
it. They asked him what his name is, and he said, I am, and they
fell backward on the ground. They're dealing with deity. This
is God come into the flesh. And weakness is no challenge
for omnipotence. And what this world of unbelieving
men and women can never get straight in their mind is that they're
dealing with God. You're not dealing with me. You're
not dealing with this church. You're dealing with God. We stand before God. The things
that I'm talking about this morning has bearing on our standing before
God, not me. I might approve of your righteousness
and it be filthy vague. We're dealing with God. The things
that I'm telling you this morning has to do with our standing before
God. The question is what's God going
to do with me, not what I'm going to do with my God. But what's
the living God going to do with me? Absolute, eternal, sovereign,
unchangeable God. Men talk about God changing His
mind. God's not going to change His
mind. He's not changeable. He never changes. I'm the Lord. I change not. Can words be any
clearer than that? And Jesus Christ is God come
into the flesh. He said, I and my Father are
one. He didn't say there would be
one or there was one back in eternity. He said we are one. And it doesn't matter what the
world thinks or accepts or promotes. It doesn't matter. Well, you
know, the Catholics say this. Who cares what the Catholics
say? Who cares what the Baptists say? I want to know what God
says. It doesn't matter what the world thinks or what the
world accepts or what the world promotes. It doesn't matter how
you compare yourself to others. And it doesn't matter how you
measure up the standards laid down by satanic ministers who
were transformed into ministers of righteousness, self-righteousness,
satanic preachers. In Acts 17 verse 31, He said, because God hath appointed
a day in which He'll judge this world. Now don't miss this. This
is the heart of this lesson this morning. He will judge this world
in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained. He's not
leaving us up to our imagination to try to figure out what righteousness
is. Is this righteous or is this
evil or what percentage of it and all this stuff that men debate
about? No, he doesn't leave anything
to our imagination. He tells us how he's going to
judge us. That righteousness manifested
in that man whom he hath ordained. One man in all the history of
men who come into this world and lived a perfect life, a spotless,
unblemished life, a life of loving servitude and obedience unto
death, even the death of the cross. You want to know what
righteousness is? Study Christ. He is righteous. This is my righteous servant,
God said. He loved righteousness and hated
iniquity, therefore God has exalted him, raised him up. Or what kind
of righteousness do I have to have to be saved? I have to have
His. His. Because that's how I'm going
to be judged. This man was and is God come
into the flesh. He is the embodiment of all that
God is. When we talk about sovereignty,
here's the embodiment of it. This is sovereignty come into
the flesh. This is omnipotence come into
the flesh. He said, if I ask my father right
now, he'd send legions, thousands upon thousands of servants and
soldiers to defend me. He's the embodiment of all that
God is. He is the image, the scripture
says, of the invisible God. He is the brightness, he says
in Hebrews 1, the brightness of the Father's glory and the
express image of his person. And my friend, we're dealing
with God, not religion and not the world. And he called them
fools. Fools. What's a fool? The fool has said in his heart
there is no God. And actually, if you want that
rightly interpreted, it says, not that God for me. Not who
God proclaims himself to be. Not that God for me. That's the
fool. In Ecclesiastes chapter 5, I
love these verses. This is verses 1 and 2. He said,
keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God. Now there's
a lot of houses in this world. Most of them are houses of fools.
Most of them are houses filled with antichrist. But God has
a house. And when you enter into the house
of God, he says keep your foot. Watch what you do. Watch what
you say. Watch how you act. Keep thy foot
when thou goest into the house of God and be more ready to hear. than to offer your opinion, which
he calls the sacrifice of fools. Be ready to hear. God may speak. If he don't, you're on your way
to hell. How are you going to call on him of whom you have
not heard, and how are you going to hear without a preacher? When
you come into the house of God, come ready to hear. I have to
hear. I prayed all during this conference,
God give me ears to hear. I want to hear what these men
are saying. I don't want to go in one ear
and out the other. I don't want to be thinking about
things in the kitchen and things outside and things to come. I
want to hear what they're saying. God may speak. If he does, that's
where he's going to speak. So why don't we come ready to
hear? Be more ready to hear than to
offer the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. They're just offering their opinion. Verse 2, be not rash with thy
mouth. You got a sore spot? Wait till
another time to scratch it. This ain't the place for it.
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty
to utter anything before God. You see what I'm saying? We don't
realize we're dealing with God. I open my mouth in God's house,
I'm not opening my mouth to some preacher. I'm not opening my
mouth to some guy. I'm opening my mouth before God. Be not hasty to utter anything
before God, for God's in heaven. You're on earth. You're in the
cursed place. You're in darkness. You're in
this present evil world, he calls it. God's in heaven. Therefore
let thy words be few. And then all the while, I love
this phrase, in the meantime. That was a common phrase when
I was a kid. In the meantime. You know, until you go do this,
in the meantime, be doing this. And here it says, in the meantime.
And all the while he was addressing his enemies, a multitude was
gathering. They'd never heard a man say
these things to these men. These men held the highest station
there was. You could be stoned to death
if you get a bad attitude toward them. They never heard anybody
resist them. They never heard anybody who
had wisdom to overpower them and overshadow them and expose
them and say things like he was saying. And they gathered to
hear. They wanted to hear. And a great
multitude, it says here, innumerable. A vast multitude. So many gathered
around him that they were stepping on one another's feet. And our Lord turned His face
from His enemies, and He says to those who were following Him,
look at that in verse 4, I say unto you, My friends, O my soul. If God speaks to me, I want Him
to speak to me as His friend. I don't want to stand before
Him an enemy. I want to stand before Him. Any kind of anti-Christ attitude,
I want Him to look at me, the sinner, and say, hear me, my
friend. He had a message to His enemies,
and now a message to His friends. And these were well-chosen words.
Our Lord didn't say things to fill in time. He had a message. He had something to say. And
you all remember that. If I ever ask you to stand up
here and preach for me, you have a message. Don't get up here
without a message. Have a message. And have one
that honors God. Even if you have to read it,
have it. And these were well-chosen words,
words to be heard and trusted, words of life, words of revelation
and love, words that unlock mysteries hidden from all time and all
people. Do you realize that what you've
been hearing now for years, and especially during these conferences,
are mysteries understood by just a handful in comparison to this
world? college graduates, men who've
been preaching the gospel for 50 years. Well, I'm using that
word gospel pretty liberally. I'm just talking about preachers who don't understand these mysteries,
never entered into these mysteries. Oh, they were words of revelation
and they were words of love. And it begins with a warning.
He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. What is leaven? Well, it's something you put
in bread to make it swell up. That's what it is. It could be
yeast. It could be some sourdough solution. I don't know what all.
But here's the purpose. You put it in bread dough and
it swells up. What makes it swells up? It fills
it full of warm air. Full of air bubbles. That's what
makes bread so good. It's full of air bubbles. It's
light. If it didn't have them air bubbles
in it, it'd be hard as rock. But you put this in there and
it fills it full of hot air. That's what it does. Swells it
up. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. So what is this leaven of the
Pharisees? What is it that makes them swell up and get all full
of hot air? Hypocrisy. Last three words of verse one.
Which is hypocrisy. What is hypocrisy? It's pretending
to be something you're not. That's hypocrisy. Playing a part. Movie actors play a part. Superman, leaping over tall buildings,
flying around, lifting, pretending to be something they ain't. That's
an actor. Taking on ten men in a fist fight,
throwing men around like they're a piece of candy. That's hypocrisy. And this hypocrisy, now listen
to me, it can be known. You can know that you're a hypocrite.
Or it can be unknown. Some men knowingly pretend to
know God and be called of God. and make merchandise of men's
souls. They're in it for the money,
for the influence, and for the name. That's why they're there. While others are deceived and
actually believe they are what they claim to be. Paul did. He believed that he was what
he claimed to be. But whether real or pretended,
they were hypocrites. And Matthew joins this word.
When he gives his account of this, and Christ is talking about
their hypocrisy, he joins this word with it, blind. Ye hypocrites
and blind. And Matthew also gives us this
definition that our Lord gave. They say and do not. They talk about love. but they
don't show any. They talk about mercy, but they
don't extend any. They talk about grace, but they're
not gracious. They talk about worship, but
they never worship. They sing, they sway to the music,
they clap their hands, they do all kinds of stuff, but they
don't worship. Only believers can worship, because only believers
know God. They say and do not, they swell
up on the applause of men. And he said, beware of it. Beware
of it. Well, how is that a word of comfort? Well, I'm going to tell you something.
It's comforting to know that there's a bridge out on a dark
road at night, isn't it? Big sign, flashing lights, bridge
out. I'll tell you, that's comforting
to know that. It's comforting to know that
there's a great big pothole in the middle of the road and you
can't see it until you hit it. It's comforting to know any kind
of danger that we can avoid. And you and I would be no different
than them had not our Lord intervened, had not He warned us of these
things. It's a gracious intervention
of God to show us true hypocrisy. Show it to us. Many are totally
blind to it. It goes on all around them and
they never see it. Some people practice it and don't
know what it is. It's a gracious intervention
of God to show us true hypocrisy. And the Lord begins His words
to His friends with a severe public denunciation of the one
accepted long-standing religion associated with God by this world. He denounces them. Totally denounces
them. Boy, I tell you, there's one
rule in this world. You don't say anything against
religion. I don't care if you're in a bar.
Say something against the Baptists and watch what happens. Them
drunks will come after you. These people that have divorced
their wife and walked out on their family and everything else,
they'll chew you up because you said something bad about religion. He begins his words to his friends,
and here's what he says. You imagine going to that big
rally and after all these hired singers and all these churches
have been out rallying folks to the meeting and Billy Graham's
about to get up and speak and you get up and you say, hey,
they're all hypocrites. You imagine? Our Lord said this
to an innumerable crowd. These men that you're shivering
in your boots about, they're hypocrites. They're hypocrites. And then secondly, it gives us
a fact hidden from worldly religion and most professors of faith. There is nothing covered. Oh, I wish we'd get that through
our heads. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither
hid. that shall not be known." David went down to get the Ark
of the Covenant. He made a mistake in his zeal
to get the Covenant up. They were given instructions
under the law how to move that Ark of the Covenant. They were
to carry it on poles, specially designed poles. And the priest
would carry that ark from place to place. Well, David, in his
zeal, thought, well, it'd be quicker if we just put it on
a wagon. So he loaded up on the wagon. Wagon hit a hole. The
ark jostled. Uzzah reached up to steady the
ark. God killed him. Now, there's Uzzah lying dead
on the ground. Because we ignored God, ignored
his instructions. concerning that ark. And so finally David does go
down. He does get the ark. And now
he's coming back into Jerusalem and he has the ark. And he's
dancing and he's got nothing on but an ephod. That's a sleeveless
linen shirt. See-through. Now, the priest put all kinds
of things on it so that he was covered, but David don't have
all of them, he ain't a priest. He's the king. And he's dancing
before the ox, singing, dancing, nothing on but an apron. And
Micah, Saul's daughter, whom David married, she sees him out
there dancing naked before the ox, and when he comes in, boy,
she starts dressing him down. Why? You got there naked before
the handmaids. Don't you think you're something?
He said, I was before the Lord. I was dancing before the Lord.
How do we come before the Lord? We come naked, don't we? We come
naked. You might as well. There's nothing
covered. There's nothing hidden. We have
all these little secrets I want to keep from men, and rightly
so. You need to keep them to yourself. You don't need to be,
don't come to me confessing your sins. I don't want to hear it.
You go to him. And we don't want anybody else
to know about it. Nobody else needs to know about it. We just
need to confess. But we come before him naked.
And I tell you, if you ever learn the truth of that, you'll come
dancing. Yes, you will. You'll come dancing before you
gladly come before him naked. There's nothing covered before
God. God sees everything. He understands
our thought, David said, far off, way before you had anything
to do with it. The preparations of the heart
answer the tongues of the Lord. And this is the thing. Religion
don't know this. Men don't know this. There's
nothing covered. Nothing. There's nothing here.
There's nothing unknown to God. He knows it all. And my friend,
it's the true and living God with whom we have to do. And
you can't hide from God. Religion is not something you
can hide from God in. Perfections of faith is not something
you can hide from God in. There's only one place to hide
from God, and that's in Christ. And we're not hidden from God
in Him. We're justified in Him. We're justified in Him. Scripture said, neither is there
any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things
are naked and open under the eyes of Him with whom we have
to do. Man looks on the outward countenance, but God looks on
the heart. So how can a preacher who can
only see the outward countenance deal with these things? How can
I even talk about these things if I can't see them? Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 4 and I'll show you. Hebrews chapter 4. We're talking about standing
before God. Coming to God. Approaching God. Hebrews 4 verse
12. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. What is? The Word of God. David said,
I have not known lust, but for the Word of God. The Word of God. His Word leaves
us without excuse. His Word leaves us no room for
argument. It's perfectly clear in its description
of man. It paints him exactly as he is. And I don't care if you're a
prophet or writer of scripture or who you are. The Word of God
strips David down and tells you exactly what he is. And sometimes he'll take a man
like David and tell you all the things that he did. It paints him exactly how he
is. So how is this a comfort to us?
Because in knowing this, we see that God deals with sinners exactly
as they are. We don't have to put on a pretense. I'm a sinner. God came to save
sinners. He sent His Son to save sinners
of whom I am cheap. And salvation is designed to
save sinners. Provision has been made to save
sinners. Means have been ordained to save
sinners. It is of faith that it might
be by grace. You see what I'm saying? The
whole need, not a physician. Who does? The sick. The sick. Old Hans Christian Anderson wrote
a fairy tale one time. And it was called The Emperor's
New Clothes. And he loved new fashion. Boy, he'd wear these
gowns. He'd order them from all over
the world. And he'd get a new gown. And he'd prance around
town. word come to him that there was these guys that wove, they
had a special thread, and when this thread was woven into a
cloth, unless you were stupid and incompetent, you could see
it. But if you were stupid and incompetent,
you couldn't see it. And so he gets these guys in
there to weave him a set of clothes and they come in and they set
up the thing and like a couple of mimes, they're doing all this,
you know, and threading this and weaving this cloth and finally
the day comes and he's got his new robe and all these things
on and he puts them on and then they set the crown on his head
and he calls for a big march there in the city, declares a
holiday, and here comes the emperor. showing off his new clothes.
And he's marching just naked as a gay boy right down Main
Street. And everybody's just oohing and aahing, and nobody
wants to be stupid and incompetent. So they all say, oh, man, look
at that. Look how beautiful this is. Finally,
this little old kid, about three years old, he looks up and says,
Mama, King ain't got no clothes on. And all of a sudden, everybody
realizes What's going on? And the king ran and the servants
covered him with their robes and stuff and he went and hid
himself. You can't hide from God. You
can't hide from Him. He sees as you are. As you are. But this is the way of the hypocrite.
He's only covering his deceit and pretense and there's nothing
covered. that should not be revealed.
That's what he's telling them. All right, thirdly, and I'll
hurry. He tells us not to be intimidated by them. He said,
the very most, the worst that they could possibly do is kill
your body. I love what the preacher said
here during the conference. I'm not going to die. The worst
you can do is bury this body. That's the worst you can do. But it ain't the worst God can
do. He said, don't fear them. Don't fear them. All they can
do, if you're a believer, all this world can do is usher you
into glory. That's all they can do. And that's
where you're headed. That's where you're headed. And you're immortal here until
God takes you out. And then, lastly, he tells them
about his concern for them. And he said, are not five sparrows
sold for two farthings? That's a half a cent. A half
a cent. And not one of them is forgotten
before God? God knows every sparrow that
falls to the ground. Not a sparrow can fall to the
ground without your Father. That's what he said. He said, even the very hairs
of your head are numbered. A number that changes all the
time, but they're numbered with God. Fear not therefore, ye are of
more value than many sparrows. And our value is not determined
by what this world says or recognizes as value. Our worth has to do
with God's affection for us and His eternal purpose of grace
in us. All God's people are trophies
of His grace. He spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all. And what God has vested in the
suffering and death of his son sets the value of the redeemed
soul. If God didn't spare the death
of his son, how much are you worth to God? Huh? That's what sets the value on
the sinner, what God's vested in him. what he vested in him. Had not the potter power over
the clay? He can take that clay and he
can just make an old junky flower pot. Or he can take that clay
and he can make some of the finest bowls and plates that you ever
laid your eyes on. And that's what he tells us.
He has. They are aforeprepared unto glory. The potter has made them that
way. It's what he's vested in us that
sets the value of the center, not the center and not the world. It's what he's given us, he's
given us his son. I don't even have words to express
what value God has put upon his elect. I don't have any words
for it. All right, thank you.