Well we've been looking in Luke's
gospel and been in the eleventh chapter and over the last two
weeks we've seen some very simple but very powerful lessons from
our Lord Jesus Christ that blessing and the world of religion is
full of its own ideas as to what constitutes blessing but Jesus
tells them this is blessing hearing the word of God and keeping it. That's blessing. Knowing that
your names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's blessing. Not the things that you might
do that might seem impressive. but that your names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, that you've heard the Word of God,
that you've kept the Word of God by believing it, you've believed
it, you've treasured it, you're weak in the flesh but you've
treasured that Word of God. And then last week we saw that
there's only one sign, only one, only one sign, not all sorts
of signs, one sign alone, The religious world is full of its
different signs leading to its supposed blessing. There's one
sign. It's the gospel. It's the proclamation. It's the sign of the prophet
Jonah. And that was a sign of the gospel.
Because in what happened to Jonah was pictured all that happened
to the Lord Jesus Christ in accomplishing the salvation of his people.
And that's what we declare. We don't perform miracles to
support it because we have. the perfect Word of God. We have
the finished Word of God. We have no need of these other
things, but we just proclaim to this generation, how shall
a man be just with God? In the doing and dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ for his people, where he's paid their sin debt
and made full satisfaction. That's the only sign that there
is. And if people will not believe
it, The Queen of Sheba will rise up. The men and women of Nineveh,
that wicked Assyrian city, the largest city in the world at
its time, those, you know, there's not many believe, are there?
That's the entire city of Nineveh is going to be there in the judgment,
judging this generation that rejects the gospel of grace.
Oh, I'm not sure whether I believe that. Blessed are they that hear
the word of God and keep it, believe it. How do you believe
it? By faith. Where do you get that
from? Not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Oh Lord, give
me that gift, of faith. To believe your word, to hear
it, to act upon it. Not to make it subject to my
opinion, or the current fashion of what's acceptable to preach,
but to submit to what you say. But all around us, all around
us, despite these simple, clear, powerful messages, there is the
leaven of the Pharisees. There was eleven of the Pharisees
all around them as Jesus ministered to his disciples. They were there
constantly trying to find fault with him, trying to find reason
to put him to death, to accuse him, to denigrate him, to undermine
his ministry. All the time was what they were
doing. And you say, well, the Pharisees were just a phenomenon
of Jewish religion in those days. Oh, they're here today. They're
all around us. They're not far from us. Within
a 10-mile radius of us, there are plenty of Pharisees at this
very time. Pharisees. Custodians, they were,
of orthodox, gold-standard religion in their day. They were the ones
who held the true, irrespective of all of these pagans with their
false religion, the Pharisees, as Paul would say, Paul himself,
Saul of Tarsus, was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, of the tribe
of Benjamin. All those things that he counted
so precious to him, because he felt that he was the custodian
of orthodox service of God, gold standard belief of what he regarded
as the truth. And he came to count it all as
dung, a pile of manure, worth nothing. I mean, I'm a gardener,
and I think it's actually worth something. But his meaning was,
it was worthless. It counted for nothing in terms
of eternity. And we're told, beware. Look,
it's in chapter 12, and verse 1 is our text. All of these, he's being very
blunt. You know how I said, was it last
week, I said, you know the way the politicians are always trying
to flatter everybody by telling everybody that they're a hard-working
family and they're for hard-working families and none of them ever
tell the truth they don't tell the truth because people wouldn't
vote for them and our Lord Jesus Christ comes and he tells the
truth to the crowd he tells them what they're like they're an
evil and corrupt generation an adulterous generation he tells
the Pharisees and the scribes what they're really like. He
doesn't say, oh, everything's going to be all nice with you
if you just do that. He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Woe to you, lawyers. Woe to you! This is what the Lord of Glory
pronounced on these people, and he says then to his disciples
in the meantime, when there's this big multitude gathered together,
so they're crushing into one another, but he says first to
his disciples, beware ye. of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
the sin of the Pharisees, the corrupting, spreading sin of
the Pharisees. You know, in the Scriptures,
I mean, leaven's great for making bread rise. But when we have
communion we have unleavened bread because it's a picture
of sinlessness, it's speaking of the sinless body of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I know it's only a symbol but
it's a symbol that matters so we have unleavened bread because
leaven Yeast is a symbol of that which corrupts and spreads its
influence. It's like sin. And he says, beware
of the sin of the Pharisees. And what is the sin of the Pharisees?
It's hypocrisy. It's self-righteousness. It's
religious arrogance. That's what it is. Beware of
it. This is the lesson to us that we learn today. Beware of
the sin, of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
I already said in the study that we were looking last week in
the study at Romans 16 and verses 17 and 18 where Paul beseeches
the people, he's closing words, he's commending all of the people
in that chapter 16 but he puts in there these two words of warning
which the true shepherd must do The true shepherd must warn
his sheep about wolves, about those that bring false doctrine.
He says, I beseech you, brethren, mark them, mark them which cause
divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have
learned, and avoid them. Don't get into arguments with
them, avoid them. For they are such that serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. They're in it
for themselves. And by good words and fair speeches
deceive the hearts of the simple. Satan comes as an angel of light. He comes very impressively. Satan
comes as an angel of light. Very deceiving. Very subtle. He would deceive even the elect,
says the scripture, if that were possible. But it isn't. Because
God's elect cannot be deceived by these things. He will keep
us. None will pluck his people out of his Father's hand. My
Father is greater than all. I will never leave you nor forsake
you, he says. Anyway, there are Pharisees,
there are lawyers today, they deny gospel liberty, they deny
effectual atonement, they proclaim things which are contrary to
Paul's doctrine. What are we to do? Avoid them,
and avoid their teaching. Now listen, at all cost. Oh, we'll be very isolated. At
all cost. Oh, well, they'll say bad things
about us and they'll say that we're not really a true church.
At all costs, avoid them. The leaven of the Pharisees and
the lawyers. Look at some of these things
that he says in Luke chapter 11. Go back to verse 38. Well,
in verse 37, a Pharisee had got Jesus to go and dine
with him. And he went in and sat down to
meet. Now, of course, the Pharisee
was out to trick him. And when the Pharisee saw it,
verse 38, he marveled, he was amazed that he had not first
washed before dinner. Now, you know, the hygiene of
your hands is a good thing. It's a good idea to wash your
hands before you eat so that you don't ingest germs. That's
a very good idea. The Pharisees had taken it to
an altogether different level. They'd taken it to the level
of washing, bathing all over before you ate. And it became
a ritualistic, traditional thing. And he was amazed that Jesus
just came in and sat down and ate. And the Lord said to him,
verse 39, Now do ye Pharisees may clean the outside of the
cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening
and wickedness. It looks nice and clean on the
outside, but inside it's filthy dirty. He talks in other places
that they're like whited sepulchres, they're like graves that look
so nice and shining in the sunshine, whitewashed on the outside, but
inside they're full of stench and dead men's bones. He says
that's what you're like, you Pharisees. Your tradition, your
traditions that you've made up, man-made traditions, have overtaken
the Word of God in your reckoning. You regard things on the outside
as much more important than things on the inside. It's not that
you've been and had a shower before you sit down to meet.
It's what's your heart like? What's the state of your heart
like before God? external washing, so that others
will see it. It's hypocrisy. And hypocrisy
is to please others. Hypocrisy is play-acting. There are some very good actors
who are able to do their trade very well in portraying characters. But what this is meaning is that
we live a life which is a lie. We live a life which appears
one thing on the outside and it's a completely different thing
on the inside. He says, you Pharisees, you're
exactly like that. You're hypocrites. You're play
actors. Now, I said we're surrounded
by the leaven of Pharisees and lawyers. I hardly need to tell
you that there are those in our day who put their traditions
and their practices above the Word of God all around. In the
name of Christianity, in the name of the truth, I barely have
to tell you about Anglicans with all of their liturgy, and all
of their robes, and all of their stained glass windows, and all
of these other things, and their icons, and all the rest of it.
I hardly need to tell you that that is so obvious, that that
sort of thing is placed above the Word of God. For the Word
of God doesn't say anything about those sorts of practices, yet
they put their traditions above it. I barely need to tell you
about Presbyterians with their infant baptism. and with their
going after pre-millennial doctrines all the time. I hardly need to
tell you, avoid it, because it's tradition, compared with what
the Word of God clearly teaches. You know, it isn't, people pussyfoot
around and tiptoe around these things, and, oh, you shouldn't
say that, because they're perfectly sincere in holding these things.
No, they're holding traditions, as opposed to the Word of God.
That's what they're doing. There are so many that are what
Amos chapter 6 verse 1 says is those that are at ease in Zion. Those that are at ease in Zion. They're nice and comfortable
in their cozy position. Their ease is based on a false
presumption of favor with God. Their ease is based on a view
of themselves as righteous before God. Self-righteousness. Our
Lord Jesus Christ despises it. Look around. Mark those and avoid
them at all cost. Whatever it might be. If it might
be the most extreme loneliness, avoid it. Because what would
you gain if you compromised with them and joined with them? No,
he says, beware of the leaven of the scribes and of the Pharisees.
Look at verse 42. He goes on with another woe.
You know, again, imagine public speaking. to a crowd. Is this
going to get the crowd on your side? Woe to you Pharisees. Woe
to you. He's putting the finger right
on the problem. For ye tithe mint and rue and
all manner of herbs and pass over judgment and the love of
God. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone.
The Pharisees were so picky with their details about the law and
what they had to do. They had the law of tithing,
and the purpose of the law of tithing was to support the Levitical
priesthood. That's why it was instituted,
so that they could be supported. And so the other tribes had to
give a tenth so that that one tribe that was due to minister
could have an income, a standard of living which was similar to
theirs. Tithe, tenth, give a tenth so that there'd be an evenness
but they'd taken it to an extreme and they would get their herbs
from the garden and they would tithe, they'd chop them in top
and that tenth of it is for the temple and a tenth of the rue
and the cumin and all these things that's for the temple and they'd
be meticulous and they'd do it so that they were seen and they
didn't want to be seen skimping on their giving of their tenth
of their mint and their rue and their cumin and their other herbs
and meanwhile they're picking this tiny little speck out of
one another's eyes and there's a whopping great big plank a
huge great log in their own eye which is this judgment the love
of God, the spirit of God within. These ought you have done. Oh
yes, the law is meticulous, the law requires that we continue
in all things written in the book of the law to do them. But
these were hair splitting There are those like that today. You
know, they make a big issue about whether we should sing psalms,
metrical psalms alone, or whether we should sing hymns. They make
a huge issue, and they split off from one another. And they
go calling one another names about it. And they go bringing
down the judgment of God on one another, because of simple little
things like that. They talk about legal tithing,
but inside them, it's actually a grudging duty. They all line
up to be seen, that they're giving to their gift days and all this
sort of thing. When the truth of the gospel and the constraint
of God's love, of Christ's love, is completely overlooked in practice.
Look at verse 43, Woe to you Pharisees! This is the leaven,
this is the hypocritical sin of the Pharisees. Verse 43, Woe
to you Pharisees! For, oh, how you love praise! How you love
to be seen! You love the uppermost seats
in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye has graves which appear
not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. They
don't realize how bad they are. They don't realize where they're
standing. They love the praise and respect of men. They love
outward respectability. And it's hypocrisy, says our
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when you get the question
asked, on the grounds of truth, ah, but what will other men think
of us? That's hypocrisy. That's being
seen of men. Is it not vital that we say,
what does God think? What saith the Lord? What does
his word say? Look at verse 46. Now he's getting
on to the lawyers. These are the scripture lawyers. I'm not talking about barristers
and solicitors in our day. He's talking about those that
were the custodians of the way that the law of God was interpreted.
And one of them had said, oh, you've given the Pharisees a
hard time, but in the process, do you know, I think you're having
a go at us too. Are you having a go at us too? And what would
a modern politician say? Well, no, when I said it like
that, no, I think they misinterpret what I... No, he says, yes, I
am saying that. Woe to you lawyers, too. Woe
to you. Why? Look at verse 46. For you laid
men with burdens grievous to be borne. You load burdens on
men's backs that are heavy, painful, grievous burdens. And you yourself
touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you,
for you build the sepulchres of the prophets and your fathers
killed them. Woe to you lawyers, you're in exactly the same boat.
We're told to beware of it. These, in our day, are the ones
who make the Mosaic law the believers' rule of life. And they laid burdens,
they load burdens on believers' backs that are grievous to be
born. And they don't hear what the
scripture says. 1 Timothy 1 verses 5 to 10. I'll just shorten it
for the sake of time. Now the end, the purpose of the
commandment, is charity, love, out of a pure heart, and of a
good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. But some have swerved
and turned aside from it, and desiring to be teachers of the
law, is that not what they do? Of course they do, that's it.
It's the leaven of the Pharisees, desiring to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm,
they stand there, they have their conferences. There's that one
every year where they all get together and they have a series
of preachers over three or four days, and their objective is
to enforce the law as the believers' rule of life, and it's done in
the name of the gospel of sovereign grace. Beware of the leaven of
the Pharisees. We know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully. Knowing this, that the law, that
law that they seek to enforce, is not made for the righteous
man. Who's the righteous man? the man who's made righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not made for him, but for
the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners.
The law, as Paul says to the Galatians, was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. It's not for lawyers to load
burdens on his people's backs. It was for the unholy and profane
and anything contrary to sound doctrine. External, man-made
rules for personal, what they call, sanctification. We were
seeing that in Corinthians. It's God who sanctifies his people,
who makes believers to be saints. Not other people imposing burdens
that are heavy to be borne. Don't they hear the law? You,
says Paul to the Galatians, you who desire to be under the law,
do you not hear the law? You know what they do? They make
up their own version of the law. They make up their own version
of Sabbath law so that they can keep it and think that they're
doing well and earning righteousness with God. They're not hearing
the true law. The true law of God is that which
we mustn't leave the other undone. It requires everything to be
done. For the message of Deuteronomy is this, cursed. Galatians quotes
it Galatians 3 10 cursed is everyone who does not continue That means
always in all things which are written in the book of the law
to do them these Sabbath rules External things that what Colossians
calls touch not taste not handle not because Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law He's redeemed his people from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us And therefore
the message of the epistles and of the scripture is to stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, free
from these external rules, this hypocritical religion of the
Pharisees of our day, a yoke of bondage which comes about
as a fear of punishment or a fear of losing some reward that's
laid up, rather than the glorious liberty of the children of God.
You see, those that would so constrain believers Those that
were so constrained believers to their view of the law, they
neither know the law nor the gospel. What I mean by that is
this. They don't know the depth of
human depravity. They think all the time that
they're working up some good in themselves. But do you know,
in me, said Paul, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good
thing. What did Paul say about his progression
in sanctification? He said he wasn't worthy to be
called one of the saints. He was the least of all the apostles.
He said he was the chief of sinners. In the last epistle he wrote
he said he was the chief of sinners. This is what he said. Not I'm
getting more and more holy the longer I live. No, they don't
understand the depth of depravity of the human heart, of the flesh.
That's what it is. nor do they understand the uttermost
to which Christ has saved his people. It's not the law that
constrains believers' actions, but it's the love of Christ,
the love of Christ, the redeeming love of Christ that caused him
to lay aside his glory, the sacrificial love of Christ, the self-denying
love of Christ that caused him to put himself in that place,
to lay down his life for his friends, for his people. to give
a new heart within, to give an indwelling spirit of love within,
to give a flesh-subduing love of Christ within. If I don't
have that love, says Paul to the Corinthians later on in chapter
13 of 1 Corinthians, without that, it doesn't matter what
else I do or what else I say or claim to, if I don't have
that love, I am nothing. Then verse 52, move on. Verse
52. Woe unto you lawyers, for ye
have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye entered not in yourselves,
and them that were entering in ye hindered. They hide the true
gospel. That's what these modern day
Pharisees and lawyers do. They hide the true gospel. It's
tragic, but it's true, absolutely true. The Bible colleges and
seminaries have taken away the key of knowledge. And what's
the key of knowledge? Colossians 2, verse 3. In Christ
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It's Christ-centered
gospel ministry, true gospel ministry that they've taken away.
They despise it. They despise it. They teach their
people to have nothing to do with it. You know, I'll tell
you, I get very, very pointed with this, so that nobody can
misunderstand me, but those that preach, whose messages are put
on free grace radio, on the internet, these that I'm talking about
will tell their people, positively, to avoid those preachers, to
have nothing to do with them. They hide that, is this not what
Christ said to these lawyers? He said, you've taken away the
key of knowledge. You entered not in yourself into
the true gospel, and you're hindering them who want to enter in. This
is what they do. They've stamped on the truth
of God. They've ignored the instruction
of scripture to preachers. Isaiah 40 verse 1, what does
God say to his prophets, to his preachers? Comfort my people. Comfort, says the Lord your God. Comfort them. Tell them that
their sins are pardoned, are forgiven. That Christ has dealt
with their sins. No, they stand on that. They
hide it. They prevent others from seeing
it. No, instead of doing that, they've laden men with burdens
grievous to be born. These parachurch organizations
that are more concerned with their own business success than
God's glory. I remember some years ago talking
about something that was supposed to have gone into evangelical
times. This is a few years ago. And I remember the committee
of men saying they would not allow it to go in there. Why?
Because it would offend the Scottish Presbyterians, and if it offended
the Scottish Presbyterians the Evangelical Times paper would
be non-viable. They'd lose circulation as a
result of it. No, that's wrong, absolutely
wrong. It's suppressing the truth. It's
knowing nothing of Christ's liberty in their self-righteous selves.
No, determined to make sure that the people under their influence
are prevented from knowing it as well. But then, that's very
negative, I know, but let's move on. Chapter 12, a message for
Christ's friends. He says, beware of that leaven
of the Pharisees in our day. He says in 2 Corinthians 11 verses
2 and 3, I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. I've espoused
you to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." That word
means singleness. That word means not mixed with
anything else. The straightforward, simple gospel
of God's grace. Again, what did Paul keep saying? He said he was determined to
know nothing other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
the message that we have to preach, irrespective of what these others
say. Don't let mere human interaction deflect your attention from gospel
truth. In verse 4, look what he says.
Look what he says, I say unto you my friends, my friends. Do you hear that? Are you a child
of God this morning? Have you believed the gospel
of his grace? How do you know you're a child of God? How do
you know you're amongst the elect of God? Paul knew the Thessalonians
were beloved of God because God had from the beginning chosen
them. chosen them to salvation. How did he know that? Through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. They
believed the gospel of grace. They were the friends of the
Lord Jesus Christ. God, who dwells in unapproachable light, who
no man can approach and no man has seen Christ, has made him
known. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. He
has made him known. And our Lord Jesus Christ, who
is God incarnate, who is God in glory, who has accomplished
salvation, says to us, says to you and me, if we're his people
this morning, my friends. My friends. We sung that hymn.
Jesus my friend when he hung on the tree. Moses was called
the friend of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
in John 15 verses 14 and 15 to his people, you are my friends
if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not
servants For the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but
I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard
of my Father, I have made known unto you. You don't need these
other pharisaical religious teachers. Our Lord Jesus Christ calls you,
if you're his, his friend. And just as a company, keeps
secrets from its employees. It has to. They have this culture
of, you know, we're all on the same side and everybody knows
what's going on, but I guarantee you there are secrets that go
on in the boardroom. There must be. You know, they
can't let their secrets be known so that the competition gets
to know it and it gives them a disadvantage. They don't tell
their servants what's really going on. But you know what's
the mark of a friend? You share secrets, don't you?
You share information, you share secrets. I mean, I always think
about, you know, we men are not very good at talking, mostly,
but we know that women talk with their friends, you know, they
exchange information and close, intimate details. Jesus says
this, you are my friends. You are my friends. All things
that I've heard of my father, I have made known unto you. What's
he made known unto you if you're the friend of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Gospel secrets. That which has been hidden from
generations has been made known to his saints. He's let his saints
know these things because they're his friends, his gospel secrets. He's told us the secrets of that
living water which wells up unto eternal life. He said, I'll give
you that living water which is the Spirit's presence within.
witnessing with your spirit that you're the children of God. He's
given you that comfort that comes from knowing that satisfaction
has been made for your sins. That satisfaction has been made
to make you right with God, to purchase peace with God, to cause
your sins to be forgiven, that you might know justification.
He's done all of those things. These are his gospel secrets.
He's told you when he did it in Romans chapter 8 verse 29.
He's told you that it was from before the beginning of time
when he foreknew you, when he called you, predestined you to
be conformed to the image of his Son. He's told you about
the heavenly companionship he gives you as you walk through
this life. Jesus says here, you are my friends, Proverbs 18,
24. He is indeed, there is a friend. All friends are good, but there
is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. A friend that
sticketh closer than a brother. He is the friend of his people. Don't be distracted by these
pharisaical, hypocritical teachings. Don't be distracted by them.
Whatever it might cost you in terms of loneliness, you walk
through this life with Jehovah Shammah with you, our Lord Jesus
Christ, the one who is present, who said, I will never leave
you, nor forsake you. Whatever mere men may do to you,
whatever they may do to you. He said later on in this passage,
Verse 11, when they bring you into the synagogues and into
the magistrates and powers, don't worry about that, as they did
to martyrs in days gone by in the 1500s and 1600s. The terrible
things that they did, whatever men may do, no, take no thought
for that. Christ will never leave his people.
He's the friend of his people. Our flesh is prone to the same
weakness as the Pharisees. That's why he says to his people,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, actively. You know like he says
in gospel precepts, he says, walk in the spirit and not according
to the flesh. And he says, put off the old
man with his behavior and his thinking and his actions and
put on the new man which is renewed in holiness in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well in the same way he says beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees, guard against it, avoid it, don't be seduced
by it, don't think for one minute that you'll be in a better place
spiritually if you join up with those that peddle pharisaical
doctrine. No. Avoid all fleshly external
pretense. Don't go along with them. Don't
try and conform to what they want you to do. Because look
in verses two and three. There's nothing covered that
shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known.
Don't think you can hide anything. God sees all things. 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 on the housetops. No, all things will be revealed. All things, so don't trust in
the flesh. Verse four, you are my friends,
be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have
no more they can do, but I forewarn you whom to be afraid of, fear
him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell.
Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Don't fear men. Isn't so much
of this false doctrine, this pharisaical, hypocritical doctrine
that Christ so condemns, that's just as rampant in our day, is
it not coming from a fear of men? Is it not coming from a
fear of what will happen to us, what will happen to our reputation?
ruined, caused by the ecclesiastical fear of men. You know, what will
the worthies of such and such a parachurch organization do
to us if we stand for this? No, fear God, not men. Fear God. He's the one to be
feared. And if you're the children of
God, fear him with that reverential, childlike fear and love for Abba,
Father, our Heavenly Father. Knowing that as believers, as
the elect of God, in truth, we have nothing to fear. Nothing
at all. Verse seven. Verse six, he says,
are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? In other words,
In other words, they're pretty worthless things, the sparrows.
Five of them sold for two farthings, but yet every one of them is
known to your God. Every one of them. Even the very
hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore. You're of
more value than many sparrows. I say unto you, don't fear men. Don't fear men. Fear God. You're
of much more value than many sparrows. He's elect. is his
delight. They're called in the scriptures
the apple of his eye, you know, the sensitive middle part of
the eye, precious to God, redeemed from all cause of fear, who have
peace in Christ's shed blood. Don't fear, don't fear. Fear
him with that reverential fear, but don't fear men. And above
all else, what are we to do? Above all else, seek to live
for God's glory. Isn't that what we learned in
that prayer which is wrongly called the Lord's Prayer a few
weeks ago? Hallowed be thy name, to live
for God's glory, for his kingdom to come, for the gospel to be
witnessed. This is what it's saying in verses
8 to 12. Above all else, seek to live for God's glory in the
witness of his gospel, a sovereign particular grace. The Holy Spirit,
he says, verse 12, shall teach you in the same hour what you
ought to say. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Jesus is the friend of his people. Jesus is the friend of his people
who shows us the truth of the gospel of his grace. Let's follow
him. Amen.