Luke chapter 12, and I want to
begin reading in verse 1 and read 12 verses. Luke chapter
12 and begin reading in verse 1. In the meantime, when there were
gathered together in an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch
that they They trod one upon another. He began to say unto
his disciples, first of all, Beware you 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 whatsoever 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 which kill
the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But
I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him which after
he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto
you, fear him. are not five spirals sold for
two farlings, 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 spirals. 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
him. And when they bring you unto
the synagogues and to the magistrates and the powers, take 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 ye ought to
say. In the meantime, there was gathered
together an innumerable multitude of people, and he began to say
unto his disciples, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy." Now it's very interesting where the Lord
made this statement. I want you to look back here
in chapter 11 in verse 37. It's very interesting because
he made this statement in the Pharisees' house. He was going
to correct these Pharisees right in their presence in one of them's
house. I don't know why this Pharisee
did this, but he had asked the Lord Jesus Christ to come to
dinner, him and a host of others. Look in verse 37 of chapter 11.
And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him,
and he went in and sat down to meet. And when the Pharisee saw
it, he marveled that he had not first washed his hands." One
of the reasons the Pharisee marveled was, there was a pan of water
set in there by the door, and Christ walked right on by.
What made him marvel was everybody else was washing, but Christ
passed by the water and didn't wash. He marveled that he on
purpose, therefore, did not wash before he had ate his meal. And why not? Why would the Lord
Jesus Christ purposely avoid their tradition of washing their
dirty hands before they eat. Well, these Pharisees were self-righteous
men. They were legalist men. And they
had laid aside the Word of God and they hung on to their traditions. They loved their traditions and
they reverenced their traditions while they disregarded the Word
of God. The Lord Jesus was going to correct
this attitude, and He was going to do it right before their face.
He made an issue out of this. He didn't wash on purpose. Look here what He says in verse
39. I don't know if this Pharisee
said something about it, not washing. I don't know if the
Lord saw it in his face that he was displeased. But here the
Lord Jesus answered him. How do you Pharisees make clean
the outside of the cup and platter, but your inward part is full
of ravening and wickedness? He said you look so pretty outside,
but you're not concerned about the inside. You are pretty indeed
to men outside, but your inside is full of ugliness. Their hearts
were filthy with sin, And they were more concerned about having
dirty hands. Ain't that amazing? They were naked before God, and
yet they were more concerned about clothing their flesh with
a religious garb. They were concerned about the
praise and honor of men, and they thought nothing about God's
opinion of them. And the Lord knew it. And that's
what He was getting ready for. to correct. They sought to pay
their tithes of mint and rue and herbs, and they knew nothing
of God's judgment and the love of God. They were so busy establishing
and learning the religious rules and traditions, they had no time
to study Christ. Look what he says here in verse
40. We'll write you in this Pharisee's house, he lured the boom on them.
And look what he says here in verse 40 through verse 44. You
fools? Isn't that amazing? Can you imagine
this? I mean, you talk about being
called unkind and narrow-minded in our day for doing something
like this. But he says you fools. Did not He that made that which
is without make that which is within also? But rather give
alms of such things as you have, and behold, all things are clean
unto you. But warn to you, Pharisees, you
tie mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and you pass over the
judgment and love of God. These things you ought to have
done, and not to have left the other undone. But warn to you,
Pharisees, For ye love the uttermost rooms, and feasts, and the synagogues,
and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, scribes, and Pharisees,
and hypocrites! For ye are as graves which appear
not." Men don't see them. And the men that walk over them
are not aware of them. He said right face to face. He confronted this pharisee and
called him a fool and called him a hypocrite. And says, you're
more concerned about what men think of you than what God's
opinion of you. You're more concerned about the
outside of what you wear than your heart. And you know, he
just didn't say this in private. He said this in public. The Lord
never changed His message to accommodate sinful man. What
He was willing to say in public, He was willing to say in private.
I was watching some things the other day that somebody posted
concerning Billy Graham and his ministry. And they said Billy
Graham has always preached that Jesus Christ is the only way
back to God. And if you don't have the Son
of God, you don't have life. And they gave all of his preaching
while he was up before these big auditoriums preaching to
them. But something they forgot to show when he was in private. what he said when Larry King
interviewed. There's when he said those in the tribal situations
that never heard of Jesus Christ, that never believed in Jesus
Christ, yet they were saved because they believed in a higher power
and did the best they could. Which is true? What he said in
public or what he told them in private? The Lord Jesus never
did this. What he preached in public, he
preached when he looked at you in the eye. He never accommodated
the opinion and desires of sinful man. He was an honest man, wasn't
he? He was a man of truth. And he
said, because I tell you the truth, you hate me. You hate
me. And boy, they did too. They hated
him, didn't they? They hated him. Look back over
here in the last portion of chapter 11. Look in verse 53. Here's what they finally did
to him. Look in chapter 11, verse 53. And as he said these things
unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently to provoke him to
speak of many things, lay in wait for him, and seek him to
catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him. Well, he confronted these guys.
He didn't mess around, did he? He didn't mess around. Do you
think he'd be accepted in our day? No, he wouldn't be accepted,
would he? They'd hate him just like they
did then. They'd plot to put him in jail or kill him just
like they did then. I tell you, you better watch
it when you invite Jesus Christ to your house. You better watch
it. And then he goes here to our
tax and he begins to warn others. of the Pharisees. And I imagine,
I assume, that they're still present. He'd been talking to
them, looking at them right in the eye, and now he turns his
face from them and begins to warn others of these Pharisees. And he says here in verse 1,
this is amazing, he speaks to his disciples first of all. While the multitude was standing
there and trodden one upon another, He began to say unto His disciples,
First of all." Now why does the Holy Spirit say that? He first
addresses the twelve, His disciples. Why does He do that? Well, I'll
tell you one reason. He had a hypocrite among His
disciples, didn't He? He had a Judas. You know Judas
pretended to love the Lord Jesus. He put on such a show of love
before him, nobody realized that he hated him. He pretended to
love him, but he betrayed him. He was a hypocrite, wasn't he?
He pretended to be an honest man, but the Bible calls him
a thief that carried the bag. He pretended to be a saint, but
the Bible calls him a devil. He pretended to be a friend of
these disciples, but he went out from among them and betrayed
the Son of God. No wonder the Lord Jesus spoke
to them first. He's speaking to this Judas,
the hypocrite. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy. But he wasn't just speaking to
Judas. He was speaking to all his disciples. Bruce, was he speaking to James
and John and Peter and Matthew? You know he was, wasn't he? But
these were good men. Weren't these good men? Sure,
they were good men. But you know something, brothers
and sisters, every last one of us has to be careful of hypocrisy.
Don't we? Boy, a little leaven. Leavening
up the whole lump. Get just a little bit of hypocrisy
in your heart, and man, it can spread all through
you. Just like yeast being put in a little lump of dough, and
it permeates, it spreads through the whole of that dough and puffs
it up. That's what yeast does. It puffs
up. You taught a lesson on this, didn't you? About yeast puffing
up. How hypocrisy puffs us up in pride, and it sours everything
we do. And buddy, you and I see it in
ourselves sometimes, don't we? I mean, it comes to the surface.
That's why we see it. That's why we confess it before
the throne of grace, to be cleansed of it, because we know it's just
like yeast. It spreads. It spreads. and poisons and sours everything
we do. All of us need to beware of this
leaven of hypocrisy. And He helps us. Our Master helps
us. Here in verse 2 and verse 3,
He gives us a remedy to help us be cheerful and beware of
hypocritical deeds. In verse 2, He deals first with
hypocritical deeds. Look what He says in verse 2.
For there is nothing covered, nothing that a man does, that
is covered, that shall not be revealed, neither hid, that shall
not be known." Well, these Pharisees were covering up their wicked
deeds, weren't they? And you know how they were covering
them up? By religious activities. by the clothes that they were
wearing, by their appearance. They prayed long prayers to cover
up the wickedness of their heart. They paid tithes to cover up
their evil thoughts and their ungodly motives. And they thought
they had them all covered up. But the Lord said there is coming
a day when the very secrets shall be revealed. Every deed that
men have done that they think they have covered up is going
to be exposed. It's going to be revealed. And look at something else in
verse 3. Look at the words. He dealt with religious deeds
that men do. And brothers and sisters, hasn't
the Lord brought some of these deeds out of wicked men in our
day? Famous men. There have been a
lot of famous men in our day. Famous preachers. that what they
thought they had done in secret, and they had it covered up, God
has exposed it. He's brought it out to open and
expose. Can you imagine on the Day of Judgment, the things that
this world thought they had covered up, things that they had done
and hid, and nobody knew anything about it. It never was exposed
in this life, but the Lord Jesus said you better beware of it.
You better beware of these hypocritical deeds because the day is coming,
I'm going to reveal them. They're going to be revealed.
Deeds. And then He comes to words in verse 3. Therefore whatsoever
you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light. And that
which you have spoken in the ear in clauses shall be proclaimed
upon the housetops." Can you imagine these Pharisees? Remember
what they used to do. They used to plot to take the
Lord Jesus. They'd get in their little chambers,
their side chambers there in the temple, where the common
people couldn't hear them. And they'd plot how they was
going to take Him. How they was going to capture
Him and kill Him. And they thought they had all
of these words covered up. Nobody could hear them. They
were saying these things in secret and in the dark. Remember when
Judas went to them that night to betray the Lord? It was night.
And there they sat in their little chambers with a flickering of
the candles. And they thought, nobody hears
this. Nobody hears what we're plotting
against the Son of God. But here the Son of God says,
you know something? What you said in your secret chamber,
there's coming a day when somebody's going to stand on the housetop
and proclaim what you said. It's going to be revealed. It's
going to be exposed. Listen to what the wise man said.
Curse not the king, no, not in your thought. Neither curse the
rich man in your bedchamber, for a bird of the air shall carry
the voice. And that which has wings shall
tell the matter." Boy, when you and I say things that's unbecoming
a Christian, and when we do things that's unbecoming our faith and
love for the Lord Jesus Christ, let this be a warning to us.
Let it be a check to us. How would you feel if somebody
was standing on your house and saying to everybody who went
by, let me tell you what Bruce Crabtree was talking about in
his bedchamber last night. Let me tell you what Larry Baker
was telling Sue last night. You want to hear this? Oh, man,
that's something, isn't it? Don't that put a check on you
when you're in secret? I think the Lord was telling
these disciples something else here, too, though. I think it
has a positive aspect of it, and I think it's this. Don't
be afraid to speak what I have taught you in secret. Don't you be afraid to preach
what I have taught you when you've been on your knees praying, or
when you've been reading and meditating my Word, and I've
taught you from it. Don't you be afraid to speak
it. I think he's telling them that. These Pharisees and these
scribes were going to persecute these poor disciples. They hated
them. They started out with warning
them. If we hear you speak in His name anymore, we're going
to deal with you. Ain't that the way it started?
And then they whipped them. And then they stoned them. And
then they cut James' head off. And then they started going out
in different cities and bringing them to town and trying to put
them in prison and in jail. He tells them that there in verse
11. They're going to bring you to the synagogues. They're going
to persecute you. And when they do, don't you be
afraid. Don't be afraid to tell what
I have told you in secret. I can stand up here before you
this morning and boy, I can be very bold. I can just lay it
right on the line because I'm not afraid. Because you love
it. You love it. You come here and I can tell
you how sorry and low down you are, and you'll say amen to it.
I'm not afraid to preach to you, but what if my life was on the
line? What if I was threatened? If
you preach that, we're going to hurt you, bud, or worse. How would I do then? Dear old
Martin Luther, he posted those 95 theses, what he believed. on the wall of the church. And
boy, they called him to Germany and put him before the council.
There were princes there. Not only those religious rulers
from the Catholic church, but there were men who ruled over
the providence of Germany. And they said, Luther, will you
recant? Are you going to deny these books that you've written,
these religious books? Are you going to deny here before
us that men are justified by faith in Christ alone? Are you
going to deny these books? Are you going to recant? And
you know what he said? Give me a knife to think about
it. What's going on with that? What
do you mean you want to think about it? Why do you need to
think about it? Because if I don't recant, they're
probably going to kill me. That's what I want to think about.
If I don't recant, they're going to take me down in a dungeon
and strangle me to death. Or they're going to put a sword
through my heart. That's what I want to think about. The Lord
was telling these dear disciples, listen, I'm going to tell you
things and teach you things, and I don't want you to be afraid
to tell what I've taught you. Luther spent the whole night
in prayer. And one of the prayers he kept
praying was this, what David wrote, I am Thine, Lord save
me. I am Thine, Lord save me. And
the next day he went and stood before that council, and he said,
there's some of these books I realize I've been too hard. I've been
too harsh. But he said, I will not recant.
Here I stand. God help me. God help me. That's what Christ was talking
about. He said these men are going to hate you. Don't be afraid
of them. Don't be afraid to tell them
the truth. Was it Tyndale they dug his bones up and burned them,
Larry? Right, Cliff? They hated him so bad. They dug
his bones up and burned his bones. Could one man hate another man?
To that extent, they sure have. They sure have. And I'm telling
you, when push comes to shove, we can say, it ain't going to
bother me. Boy, we'll have to be there in experiences to see,
don't we? The Lord tells them something
here in verse 4. Look at this. He tells them this
to encourage them. The enemies of God and the enemies
of truth are limited. as to what they can do. Look
what he tells them in verse 4. I say unto you, my friends, be
not afraid. Don't be afraid. Aren't we afraid
sometimes? We're even afraid. We're so intimidated,
we can't even talk to our neighbors, our children, our parents, our
family. Here they were going to face
men who held their life in their hands. And he says, don't be
afraid. Why? Well, these men can kill
your body, but that's all they can do. They are so limited in
what they can do. But Bruce, killing the body?
That could hurt. Yeah, but you know something?
They can't touch the soul. Which is most vital to us? The soul or the body? The soul,
isn't it? And they may kill the body, but
that's all they can do. They can't touch. They can't
harm the soul. And when they kill the body,
what happens to the soul? Something wonderful. Something
good. The soul takes its flight to
glory. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. Paul said, I've got a desire
to depart and be with Christ. Shamanism is far better. Far,
far better. Don't be afraid of man. Don't
be afraid of man. Man can do many things to the
body, even kill it, but he cannot touch the soul. Be not afraid. Don't be afraid. Wouldn't that
help us a lot if we got this into our hearts? We'd be more
bold and feel more liberty to speak to people about spiritual
things if we could get this in our hearts. Don't be afraid. What are you afraid of? A man
whose breath is in his nostrils? Be not afraid. And then in verse
6 and verse 7, he tells them the enemies of God and the enemies
of truth are limited by God's providential care of His people. They can't do anything to you
unless God permits them. God's providential care is over
all, especially His people. Look in verse 6 and 7. Are not
five squirrels sold for two firelands? Now, I don't know what two firelands
is, but they tell us that it's a very, very small amount of
money. Sparrows are just not worth very
much, weren't then. You could buy five of them for
two little fire limbs. But he said not one of them is
forgotten before God. God don't forget one of them.
When they fall out of the air, He knows it. He sees it. When
they lose a feather, He sees it. When they're hungry, He feeds
them. Are you not much better than an unlimited number of sparrows? Even the very hair of your head
is numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are
of more value than many sparrows." Not a one of them is forgotten
before God. Ain't that part of our trouble? We're afraid the
Lord's going to forget us. When everything's going well,
there's not much of an issue. But boy, let trouble come. And
what's the first thing we think? Has he forgotten me? Has he forgotten
me? Hold Luke's gospel and look over
in Isaiah chapter 49. This has always been a complaint
of the church. That's why the Lord's always
dealing with it. These sparrows are not forgotten.
Don't get it in your head that you're going to be forgotten.
Look in Isaiah chapter 49. Look in verse 13. Isaiah 49 and
verse 13. Saying, O heavens, be joyful,
O earth. Break forth into singing, O mountains,
for the Lord hath comforted his people. He will have mercy upon
his afflicted. But Zion, the church, said, the
Lord hath forgotten me. The Lord hath forsaken me. My
Lord hath forgotten me. She isn't happy to say it that way.
I tell you what, if that's true, then that's something to be afraid
of. But who did the Lord ever forget?
He don't even forget the sparrows. You have more value than the
sparrows. They ran Elijah out of town into the wilderness.
Did the Lord forgive him? He sent ravens to feed him. Had
a wither prepared to feed him. Look what happened to poor Job.
Look what Satan was allowed to do to him. Did the Lord forgive
him? No, He upheld him during his
affliction. And look at the latter end, how
God blessed that man. The Lord didn't forget him. And
here the church is in her awful unbelief, because she's suffering
affliction, my God has forgotten me. And here he says in verse
15, can a woman, can a mother forget a suckling child? That she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, but I will
not forget you. I have graven you upon the palms
of my hands, and your walls are continually before me. Fear not, therefore. Fear not,
therefore. Don't fear your enemies. They're
limited. Don't fear them. God can provide for you even
when they're afflicting you. They may take your house. They
may take your property, but God will feed you. They may take
your clothes, but He'll clothe you. He'll supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory. Look back at my text again. Now
look in verse 5. Luke chapter 12 and verse 5.
Look what He says here. We have to be very careful how
we read this. Luke chapter 12 and verse 5.
I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him which after
he hath killed hath power to cast unto hell." Jehennah, the
fire. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Be careful now when we read this.
The Lord's not saying, I want you to fear that God is going
to cast you into hell. That would be an awful bondage
for a believer to live under, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that be
an awful mistrust? The fear that your father, whom
the Lord said loved you and would provide for you, fear that he's
going to cast you into hell? That's an awful way to interpret
that scripture, but that's the way Catholicism interprets it,
because they want to keep man in fear and in bondage. And Paul
says, you've not received the spirit of bondage again, but
fear. You've received the spirit of adoption whereby you cry,
Abba, Father. This is not for the believer
to fear that God's going to cast him into hell. It's not talking
about fear in hell. It's talking about fear in God.
That's what it's talking about. Men may fear hell and never fear
God. This is talking about fear in
God who is just. Fear God who is a God of judgment. He will deal with sin and sinners
because of it. Do you fear the God of judgment?
Do you fear just God? Do you reverence Him? Well, the
Lord came to Moses one day. God came to him and He said,
Moses, or He said, Noah, you build you an ark. I'm going to
save you and I'm going to save your family. You build an ark.
I'm going to bring a flood of waters upon the world and I'm
going to destroy all flesh that I have made. And you build an
ark for the saving of your house. I'm going to destroy man. I'm
going to destroy this world. And you know what Moses said?
Now wait a minute. I must be hearing the wrong voice.
God is the God of love. God is a merciful God. He would
never do such a thing. And what he said was, you know
what he did? The Bible said, Noah moved with
fear. He moved with fear. He feared
God. He didn't fear that God was going
to destroy him. But He knew that the God who
made Him and made the world was a God of judgment, and He is
getting ready to bring judgment upon this world. And if we don't
fear that God, then we don't know Him. We don't know Him. I forewarn you, my disciples,
whom you are to fear. Fear Him. Yea, I say unto you,
fear Him. He's not only a God of judgment,
but boy, He can execute that judgment. He hath power to cast
unto hell. He has the authority to judge
and condemn and execute the judgment upon those who He condemns because
of sin. He has power to cast unto hell,
and the prophet said He is of one mind Who can turn Him? That's the thing we fear about
God. We don't have Him wrapped around our finger. Well, I'll
tell you what, He's not to be bound by man and his hands tied. He's of one mind who can turn
Him. If I whip my glittering sword,
He said, and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance
to my enemies and a recompense to them that hate me. And who
can stop Him? Who can hinder Him? That's why
we fear Him, isn't it? We move with fear. The God of
many religious folks today can be manipulated. His hands can
be tied. He can be frustrated. But not
the God of the Bible who is irresistible in His judgments. I tell you,
I fear God like that. And you do too, don't you? The Lord spoke to 2,000 devils
one day that was in this man. And you know what those devils
did? They trembled. They began to plead with him
to be merciful and don't cast us into the deep. They trembled. Devils believe and tremble. Devils have more faith than many
religious folks today. They tremble before the presence
of God. I'll forewarn you whom you shall
fear. Notice some things about the
fear of God. It's a sanctifying fear. It's
a good fear. If it wasn't a sanctifying fear,
our Master would have never said, I'll forewarn you whom you to
fear. This is a good fear. The fear
of God is a good fear. And the first thing about it
is this. Let me give you four or five of them. First of all,
it keeps us from leaving God. If you fear God, you're not going
to leave Him. Look over here with me in Jeremiah
chapter 32. Right quickly, in Jeremiah chapter
32. And look in verse 32. Jeremiah
chapter 32 and verse 37. Jeremiah chapter 32 and look in verse
37. Boy, how many people of UNIC,
we've seen them make a profession, and they stayed around for a
while, and they didn't leave us and go to another place to
hear the gospel. But they went back to their sin.
And we know the cause, don't we? Because this Word tells us
the cause. Look here at what He says in
Jeremiah chapter 32, and look in verse 37. Behold, I will gather them out
of all countries where I have driven them in mine anger, and
in my fury, and in my great wrath. And I will bring them again unto
this place, I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall
be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one
heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever." for the
good of them and of their children after them, and I will make an
everlasting covenant with them. I will not turn away from them
to do them good, but I will put My fear in their hearts that
they shall not depart from Me." There are many things that keep
us from believing Christ. Our love for Him. Our love for
His truth. That will do it. But I tell you,
the fear of God. the fear of God. I fear what God's going to do
to my children. I fear what God's going to do to my neighbors and
our families and our friends. I fear what God's going to do
to them. Listen to how Moses prayed in
Deuteronomy 9. He said, I fell down before the
Lord. These people had sinned in their idolatry. And he said,
I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights. I didn't
eat bread or drink water because of your sins that you had sinned
and done wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to
anger. For I was afraid of the anger
and hot displeasure wherewith the Lord was wrought with you
to destroy you. May my wife live in apprehension, to say the least,
that we're going to get a phone call that one of our children
has been killed. One of our children has died.
One of our children has come under the awful judgment of God. But when you fear God, That lets
you be earnest in prayer. Oh, Lord, save them or you're
going to destroy them. If you don't save them by your
grace, you'll punish them for everlasting. Oh, that puts some
option in our prayers, doesn't it? Because we fear God. He's able to cast their souls
and bodies into hell. Thirdly, this fear produces a
produces a fear of sinning against God. This is what David said
in Psalms 19, 12. Who can understand his errors,
cleanse me from secret faults, keep back my servant also from
presumptuous sin. That word presumptions means
arrogant, proud sin. You remember what David done?
Boy, I wonder if Psalms 19 wasn't written after Psalms 51. I wonder if David didn't write
this after he had presumptuously sinned against God. Remember
what he did? Remember how he sinned and took
Bathsheba and lay with her? And how he had her husband killed? And you know one of the reasons
he thought he could get by with that? I pretty much do with people
what I please. Yeah, but David, look at the
shame this is going to bring. I'm going to do it anyway. Look at the occasion this is
going to give the enemy to blaspheme the Lord and His ways. I just don't care. I'm going
to do it anyway. Arrogance. Pride. Boy, then he comes and he writes
that psalms, O Lord, keep me from these presumptuous sins. Be thou in the fear of the Lord
all the day long, because that alone will keep us from being
so proud that we're going to get the last word if it kills
us. I'm going to have my way. I don't care who suffers. I don't
care how much shame it brings. I'm going to do this. I just
don't care. That's arrogance, isn't it? That's
pride. And only one thing will cure
that. I fear God. Oh, I fear God. I forewarn you
whom you shall fear. Fourthly, think about this. This fear is a holy reverence
of the Lord's presence. This is amazing. I can't quite
understand this, but I know it. I've experienced it. It's a reverence for His presence. It's a reverence for His goodness. They shall fear the Lord and
His goodness in the last days. I tell you one of the things
I want when I come here, and what you want when we come here,
and I tell you, it's the presence of the Lord. Is it not? But when
He's here, what else is here? A fear of His presence. A fear
of offending Him. A fear of being out of order.
Wanting to do and say everything that would honor Him and glorify
Him. Why? Because we're afraid. We fear
Him. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. The Lord called Moses up to that
burning bush and He said, Moses, take your shoes off. You are
on holy ground. And you know what Moses did?
He trembled. He trembled. The Lord put Moses
in that rock and showed him His glory. And what did Moses do? He made haste and bowed his head
and worshipped where God is. There is reverence for Him. There
is forgiveness within that you may be feared. I'll forewarn
you whom you shall fear. And fifthly and lastly is this,
it produces a heart contentment. It produces a heart contentment. Those who fear the Lord are satisfied
with His provision. Fear the Lord, ye His saints,
for there is no want to them that fear Him." He just takes
away from a lot of the wants and the anxieties that we have.
Godliness with contentment is great gain. If you fear God,
you trust Him to provide for you, and you content with what
He provides. Look in verse 8 and verse 9 in
my text. Look in Luke chapter 12 and look
in verse 8 and verse 9. Here's four sinful fears. Here's
some sinful fears. Right quickly, look at this.
Look in verse 8. Also I say unto you, whosoever shall confess
me before men, him shall the Son of Man confess before the
angels of God, But he that denieth me before men shall be denied
before the angels of God." Here's a sinful fear. It's sinful for
a believer to fear to make a bold and open profession before this
world of their faith in Christ. It's a sinful fear. To be afraid
to boldly and openly profess Jesus Christ. Confess that you
know Him. Confess that He saved you. If
the Lord has did a work in your heart, if He has saved you, you
know the very first thing you should do, you should say, Pastor,
I'm going to confess Christ next Sunday in water baptism. That's
the first thing you should do. Then you should go tell your
mom and your dad or your brothers and sisters or whoever you come
up to, the Lord Jesus Christ has saved me. If we confess with
our mouth, and then on your job, where you go, you'll walk in
this world to live honestly and glorify Him. That's the way we
profess Christ before this world. And it's sinful, brothers and
sisters. to be afraid to confess Christ
and do it openly and boldly. It's sinful for a believer, a
preacher, a teacher, or anyone else to fear to set forth the
truth of the gospel, the cause he's afraid of man. If we deny Christ, we deny the
truth, don't we? If we deny the truth, We deny
Christ. We can't deny the truth without
denying Christ. That's impossible. Martin Luther
said this, he said, if there's a truth of Christ that's under
attack in our day. And we don't proclaim that truth,
he said, we've denied Christ. See, there's some truths of the
Bible that's not under attack in our day. But there are some
truths of the Bible that is. There are some issues in our
day. I'm going to deal with one of
them in the evening sermon. There are some issues in our
day. And if you and I are ashamed of those issues, and we won't
lift our voice against it, we're no different than Joel Holstein,
Holstein fellow, that said, well, I don't get involved in the Deity
of Christ. He's going to get involved in
the Deity of Christ? No, there's other things. That's not my ministry. I leave that to other people.
You know why he won't profess Christ? He's afraid. He's ashamed. Thirdly, it's sinful. It's a sinful fear to deny Christ
because we fear the circumstances. Verse 11. They shall bring you
into the synagogues and the magistrates and the powers. They're going
to persecute you. And to deny Christ for fear that
we're going to be persecuted is a sinful fear. And it's sinful,
lastly, to deny Christ because of a fear of death. Don't deny Christ because you
fear death. Fear not them which kill the
body. That fear of anyone or anything
that keeps us from openly confessing Christ and His truth is a sinful
fear. Lord, give us grace. Give us
grace. And that's the only thing that's
going to keep us. Give us grace. We can't do this in our own strength.
We can't depend upon our own wisdom, our own power. It will fail us. These are two
great issues. It will fail us. We're too weak.
We need His grace. Lord, give us grace to fear You
and not to fear man. Let's pray.