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Our gracious, loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for this beautiful morning. And now we thank Thee for this opportunity that we can open our Bibles and look into Thy precious word. And we just pray that that would give us a portion this morning. We pray for open ears that we would receive Thy word. We pray for the liberty of Thy Holy Spirit that Thou is guide in what is said, that it would be her blessing and for encouragement.
And for instruction.
We thank Thee for this opportunity, we thank Thee most of all, our God and our Father, for thy beloved Son and the perfect work that he accomplished for us on Calvary's cross. And we pray that we would do all to His honor and glory and His worthy precious name. We praise. Amen. Amen.
It would be profitable to take up uh, Luke chapter 12.
And I'm mainly thinking of the.
First, umm.
40 versus umm, the Lord is talking to his disciples and he is giving them some warnings. You know, the Lord soon after this was gonna leave them and he gives them some warnings about things that they're gonna encounter in the pathway. And, uh, he gives them instruction on, on what to do, warnings for trap they might fall into and also encouragement. I think it would be very profitable because we deal with those same things on a day-to-day basis.
So that's something that commends itself. I think there's a lot in there that we could bring out.
Thank you so much.
That they trod upon one another, He began to say unto His disciples, First of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body.
And after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you of whom you shall fear. Fear Him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yeah, I say unto you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God.
But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him. But him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring unto you, and when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say. For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. And one of the companies said unto him, Master.
Speak to my brother, that he divided the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who shall make me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto him, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This I will do. I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, Thou hast much goods laid up for many years, Take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, when those shall.
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Then those shall those things be which thou hast provided.
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, What shall you eat? Neither for the body, what shall you put on? The life is more than meat, the body more than raiment. Consider the Ravens, for they neither sow nor reap.
Which neither have storehouse nor barn, And God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature? 1 Cubit. If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. Yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If God so clothed the grass, which is one day in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye doubtful mind.
For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things, or seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is for your. For it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, so that ye have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
For wearing your treasure is there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you.
That he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch and find them, so, blessed are those servants, and this know, that if the good men of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would not he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Be therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not.
You see that the Lord there exposes especially the religious leaders of the people, the Pharisees and the lawyers and so on. We read that and we often think, yeah, that's right, they needed that. They needed to hear that because there was a lot of things wrong there. But it's good to to keep in mind too, that the word of God often stirs the Searchlight upon ourselves too. And there's a lot of things there that need to be brought out too. And so.
You read in the first verse that there's a big multitude, but he's speaking to his disciples.
You know, as I said, the Lord pretty soon was gonna leave his disciples, and He knew that they were gonna be in difficult circumstances. And he gives them several warnings here, and maybe I'll enumerate some just to kind of have an overview of the chapters might help us. Umm, He warns them against hypocrisy, against trying to be something or look like something that we're not. And he warns them against the fear of the world. There was gonna be persecution. And he warns them that they couldn't just be fearful of the world because they have the Lord. They have the Lord with him.
And then he warns them to have covetousness. And I think that's one that's especially important for us to to think about because we live in a society that's driven by covetousness, by wanting to have more.
And then he warns them too, not to be overcome with the daily cares of the world. And umm, you know, we can look around us and, and we can often look in our own lives and, and all of a sudden realize that so much of our time is taken up with little cares, daily cares, worries about tomorrow. And we really should be trusting the Lord. And then maybe the last thing from verse 31 would be a little bit the opposite of that, that we need to be careful not to be careless.
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And the things of the Lord. And so it tells us in the last verse that we read that we need to be ready. And so it shows us we need, can be overcome with too much cares in the world, but at the same time, we cannot be careless when it comes to the Lord's things. And so there's maybe five or six things, you know, maybe there's more to, but if we would, uh, think upon those things, it would really help us in our practical daily walk for the Lord.
And so in that sense, all are addressed, but I think the Spirit of God goes out of his way to to say that the Lord, even though there's a great multitude of people, so much that there isn't even room, they're stumbling over each other. The Lord has a target audience and he's speaking to those who have faith, who are his followers, disciples.
I think that anything that comes out in these meetings and that that we speak about from the Word of God, it's profitable to all who will hear.
With the ear of faith.
If there is no intent to take in the word of God and to do it.
Then, then it will fall on years and it will fall into unprofitable ground. So it's important for each of us to, uh, be attentive to what is said, to what we have, what we have read, most especially the word of God itself. But then the exhortations that are brought out, they're good to you if you receive them by faith.
And it's important to note that, you know, God, as Psalm 51 Says, desires truth in the inward parts, right? And So what is received, we trust will get down into our hearts and into our feet. And, uh, you know, it's important that we live out what we learn from the Word of God and not as the Pharisees here who had an exterior about them who, uh, put on a religious front.
But inside they were totally fake. And you know, and I think, you know, whether we're a young child or, or an older person here, it's important to note that, uh, God looks down, sees what's in our heart and, uh, and, and he wants us to lay hold of these things by faith. He wants us to live out our Christianity in a very real way before him. And, and what the Lord really.
Pleases him is, is, is a, can I say, a fakeness about us? Uh, you know, there's, there's in the Pharisees, uh, characterized that whole movement today of, uh, and right from the very beginning of putting on a religious exterior, uh, a, a profession of, of being, uh, either godly or very pious or what have you. But yet inwardly there is nothing there. It was empty space.
And, you know, the Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees quite heavily, very, very, uh, sharply because he did not appreciate their, umm, uh, their false exterior that really was not reflective of what was, what was going on in their hearts. And so I just say that, uh, it's important that we are real with God, that we don't live before our brethren or somebody else, a fake life, uh, uh, and, and go about just.
Seeming to be something that we are not. That is what hypocrisy really is. And there's a there's a Pharisee that's in every one of us. Let's get that straight. We were all born into this world as Pharisees and it's of the flesh. And it's important that we get we that we live a real life first before God. And then if we can do that, then that'll, that'll come out in our what's in our heart will come out and, and in reality in our life. And that's what the Lord values doesn't mean.
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Here of the leaven of Pharisees. I think that's also a good thing that we think about. Levin is one of those things that is not apparent on the outside. It's something that's hidden. It's it's internal. But the other key element of Levin is that it rapidly spreads.
You take a little bit of yeast and you put it into a lump of dough and it does not take very long at all, and that entire lump of dough has yeast in it.
It spreads. And so this spirit of hypocrisy that is in each one of us, if allowed to go unchecked, it spreads very rapidly.
Umm, and we need to be aware of that. It may not be outwardly apparent that it is in our hearts, but it is there and it spreads very rapidly. The thing that stops the action of Levin is the application of fire, of heat.
And so we need to come, as it were, before God, umm, so that this action of hypocrisy is exposed for what it is and it is stopped. We can't deal with it ourselves. We can't stop it ourselves. It's something that has to be stopped by God and being in in the presence of God himself.
There's a contrast to this description in the Gospel of John chapter one and uh.
Is this is it in John chapter one? So Lord, uh, calls Philip and Philip brings Nathaniel and uh, I'm just struck by the Lord's description of Nathaniel in verse 47 of John chapter one. It says Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.
But I believe it's the opposite of what we're talking about here. Nathaniel was characterized by sincerity, by reality, and the Lord recognized that in him and commended him for that.
And, uh, you know, I think like Mark brought out, there's a a lot in this chapter that really is relevant to our day. And I'd like to touch on one very specific thing especially, and that has to do with social media.
There is a prevalence of of so social media in our society, and I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, but it can lead to what we're talking about here because we can put.
Out there on Instagram and things like that, all of these things that give a perception that's different than the reality and that is harmful. It's harmful for us spiritually and it's harmful for those that see that perception.
And it, uh, and they're taken in that fiction. It is important for us, as Josh pointed out, that we need to walk in reality, both with God and with each other. There needs to be sincerity. There needs to be a lack of guile. And, uh, it's so important to us because.
Umm, it's so permeated in our society that, and, and it's not just us, but it's others that are tripped up by it. If we are constantly in this mode of trying to present ourselves on social media in a way that's not in fact real, it causes others to try and keep up with that and it's just creates a domino effect. It's very, very harmful.
So over the fire speak of the self judgment we need to. If we're judging ourselves, then, umm, this.
And it's really the flesh in our lives that would cause us to to walk in a hypocritical way is looking at Matthew chapter 6, verse five. And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to stand pray standing in the synagogues and in the corner of the streets. And what does it say next that they may be seen of men and to me that just really.
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Uh, you know, it's, uh, it's in every one of our hearts that has been mentioned. But really when that happens, the Lord loses glory, who deserves it first, and the Saints of God are robbed. And a time that could be for blessing. Umm, you know, in Corinth, it says that they didn't come together for the better, but for the worse. And so that's what the flesh does. And so, you know, in public, our prayer should be short.
And it says in verse 4, Matthew 6, there thy Father, which seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly. And so it is if we have a a walk with the Lord, a communion with the Lord, enjoyment of his company in our life, that it will manifest itself. It's when that it's when this is missing and we seek to go on in an outward way.
Then the hypocrisy can come in.
The other part of Levin that I didn't mention is that it's self inflating.
Right. But it it, there's no substance to it. So in a lump of dough.
Leaven cause but it causes bubbles, but they're just air. There's no substance to it and and you're right, we need to be in the presence of God in self judgment. Umm and then we.
Will be preserved.
The question we need to ask ourselves is.
What do we live for? You know, we belong as Christians, we belong to the Lord. But down here, we still have the choice. Do we live for the Lord or do we live for ourselves, for this world? And when it comes to presenting yourself in a way that you're not hypocrites like the Pharisees were, if you live for this world, there's benefit to that. The the Pharisees got out of it what they wanted because people were looking up to that. They held them in a place of honor, but then the Lord exposes it for what it really is.
So there's a lot of people that do that, present themselves much better than they are and it benefits them, but not in the eyes of God. It benefits them through this world. So we need to be honest with ourselves and say we belong to the Lord. Do we, are we willing to live for him? And if we're willing to live for him, then we need to realize, fully realize now God sees me nothing of that we can get by the Lord. Everything is open to the eyes of the Lord.
And so if we wanna make that decision to live for the Lord, not live for down here, but live for what's?
Your future for those things that have eternal value and hypocrisy really has no place because it it it hinders us. You know, it's not only we make other people believe that we're better, but it we start believing it ourselves. And so that's a real hindrance. And if we can't be honest, if we can't be real with ourselves, then it can't be really growth in the things of the Lord.
It might be good to revisit that definition of hypocrisy, the pretense to to being something that I am not.
It might be said, it has been said and I thought hopefully so that dial is the pretense of not being what I am or not recognizing those things about myself that I I wouldn't want others to think of me. The the reality is as born into Adam's race, we all have a nature that is is totally bad, no good thing to be found in the flesh. And so the the believer that realizes these two things.
Is going to be real before the Lord?
If he walks in what he knows.
It might be that you have, umm, a believer who, uh.
Whose lifestyle is not always commensurate with faith.
That aren't according to the word of God. If you see that believer in a corner reading his Bible, that's not hypocrisy. He's doing what a Christian ought to do and you would encourage him in that. And uh, but hypocrisy is pretending to be something that I am not. If such a believer would start to, umm, try to counsel some other believer.
You might be somewhat leery of that advice until there's something in his life that that shows that there's growth in reality there. But just to say that sometimes what we look what that on the outside of the book, what might look like hypocrisy that might be faith showing through in the life of a believer. And we want to encourage that. The apostle Paul, he says, I will. I will therefore that first of all prayers be made and Speaking of public prayer, and he gives a list of things that we ought to pray for.
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And, uh, and it's good, it's good to be found, uh, those whose responsibility it is, because we have admitted and we know it to be true, that always there will be something of the flesh in what we do. As long as the flesh is in us, then what we do, there will be something of the flesh evident in it. Most of the time, if not always, those are things that we leave to the Lord to judge. He can discern those things when we don't know our own heart.
But let us let us encourage one another in the right, in the right direction, always.
Thinking about what others are thinking of us, the fear of man being afraid of others. If our eyes are on the Lord. These things.
That's the answer, I believe. Covetousness, looking at the things around us and wanting them.
Cares being worried about things, Peter got his eyes off the Lord and, uh, carelessness has been sidetracked, not having the, the right priority. And so all, all of these things that, uh, we have before us are all getting our eyes off the Lord. And I also here we have the leaven of the Pharisees. That's one thing, isn't it? But there's eleven of the Sadducees, Matthew 11 and 12.
11 of the Pharisees would be ritualism. 11 of the Sadducees would be rationalism, reasoning away scripture. Then there's the, umm, moral leaven in First Corinthians 5, uh, immorality. Then uh, in, uh, doctrine, 11 in Matthew 13. Then the 11 of Herod, which was really worldliness. And so, umm, if it's not one thing, it's another. We, we need to be exercised and in self judgment.
Here we have hypocrisy, but this leaven, like it's been said, is something that spreads. It's, umm, it's a cancer and it's just going to hurt us and those around us. I think we all desire to be a health and encouragement 1 to another. We want to live for the Lord, But if there isn't that self judgment in our lives and being in the presence of the Lord on our own, not just reading our Bible when we come to meeting, but uh, it's been such an encouragement to see younger ones reading their Bible without being asked. That's.
That's proper. We should learn to do that at a young age.
You don't have to be very old to know how to read. But the Lord spoke to Samuel, didn't he? And there came a time when Samuel heard him. And for those that are younger in the room, it may be difficult to read your Bible and understand everything that's being said. But start early reading your Bible and pray 1St and ask the Lord to speak to you. And so I just mentioned this. There's different, different kinds of leaven in the Bible and.
And if it's not one kind, we may be susceptible to another, but we we all have the flesh and we all need self judgment and to be exercised about these things.
I think the important thing to note too, is that if there is, uh, a measure of, of, uh, this hypocrisy, uh, within us, that, umm, uh, I think we need to realize that God will expose that within us at some point in time. Umm, the Lord will put his finger on it and, uh, and he may bring that out and, uh, if, if.
Has been mentioned here. Self judgment isn't an exercise in my life. God may turn the heat up a little bit and, uh, allow that hypocrisy to be exposed and he might have to force me to judge it. And so it's important. And I was just thinking of that in connection with verse 2. But there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. Uh, 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 urine closets.
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Shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. So again, God desires truth in the inward parts if we are going to serve Christ acceptably in this life.
He wants us to be real first. That's where it all begins. He doesn't want us to, to fake our way through. He doesn't want us to be something that we're not. And I hope we're not belaboring this point, but I think it's very important to just be ourselves, be yourself and, uh, and, and, and walk with the Lord in communion and, uh, and let's not be something that we're not.
Each one of us that know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior will one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ in which the Lord will go through our life and there will be a a fire that burns away the wood, hay and the stubble. And what is left is what we will be rewarded for. And that judgment seat of Christ, the goal, the focus is on reward. It's not a negative thing, but.
All of these things that we're talking about here, these things that don't have any substance, they will be burned away. There won't be any reward for those things. And so it's so important that there's reality in what we do and that there's substance to what we do, because that's what will be rewarded if that judgment seat of Christ.
Whatever we sell, we're going to reap. And so if I go around and I want to look good and I'm not good inside, I'm sewing to the flesh and I'm going to heat it sows to his flesh of the flesh, reap corruption. So I go around and I want to look good. It's in my in this life, I'm going to be the loser. I'm going to lose.
But someone who just wants has been so beautifully brought out. They just wanna serve the Lord. They just want to be here for the Lord's glory. They're gonna reap that in this life. It may not be exactly. I'm not saying.
I'm not saying anything else about that, like it's gonna be a certain thing, but that's a promise from God. That's a principle, just like moral. There's gravity. If you throw a rock up in the air, it's gonna fall back to the ground. If we sow God's things, we're gonna reap a blessing in that. So if we live humbly before the Lord, there is a blessing in that for us.
Maybe there's a couple of verses in Galatians, Matt that would kind of speak of.
What you were saying, and you know, they might not be exactly on topic, but I think they're related Galatians 6.
Verse three, it says sort of a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. So that would connect to what we've been talking about. But then the next versus but let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone? And I think the rejoicing there in himself alone is not he's happy with himself, but it's that knowledge that you walk honestly before the Lord.
And there's rejoicing in that. It's not an outward reward that it speaks of here, but just a simple, honest work with walk with the Lord. There's rejoicing in that. There's a reward from the Lord in that he can put a stamp of approval on that and doesn't speak here of anything that you'll receive praise from anybody else. But you don't need that. If you're real with the Lord, you're not looking for man's praise. You're just looking for his approval and a steady, quiet walk with him. I think there's a lot of.
Umm, you know, rewarding that, if you wanna call it that, encourages to move on. Because if we walk honestly with the Lord, he will plentifully reward us. And again, it might not be in an outward way at all, but it will be in such a way that we don't wanna be a hypocrite. We, we don't wanna look for man's approval. We just want his approval, and that's plenty.
It says that they that compare themselves among themselves is not wise. And so, brethren, our our our measuring stick is not one another, it's Christ. And so if we're seeking to meet the standards in our own mind of what that brother or that sister has set forth in their life, and I want to be like them again, our focus is wrong. Christ ought to be our focus, our focus.
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And that will enable us to live in reality before this world and before our brethren. Otherwise it becomes a vicious circle of comparing ourselves among ourselves. And, and brethren, we're, we're imperfect people. And we start using ourselves as that measuring stick. Uh, we're gonna find awfully quick that we're gonna fall short or we're gonna get discouraged or what have you. Uh, so again, we need to lift our eyes off of one another, off of things around us that that's already been brought out. And we need to lift them up above this scene and look to Christ.
Mm-hmm.
First Timothy, Chapter One.
In verse five it says now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfair and like Mark was saying.
Josh here that.
The important thing is that we be real first of all for our own benefit, because when it speaks of good conscience, when it talks about God with answers to a good conscience, if we are not being real with ourselves, we.
Are the first ones that are going to recognize that the lie that we're living and it's going to hinder us in our life because we cannot answer to a good conscience and so there cannot be growth. There cannot be.
Through in our life and we cannot answer to a good conscience and we do as it says here be found umm, in a wok that has to do with a group contention of faith, I'm saying.
22 since we all were youthful less but follow righteousness, space, charity and peace within the column. The Lord out of the pure heart. Those are also things we need to, umm, speak after. But I was just thinking the last part. The company we keep can be a tremendous preservation of those. We're going to keep the company. Let's have a good context. We can be a real blessing to us and we can be a help to them.
So in verses one to three, we have the Lord exhorting his disciples to be, uh, free from hypocrisy.
Verses 4:00 to 12:00, We have the Lord now exhorting his disciples to be free from the fear of man. Uh, this again has been pointed out as being something that, that will hinder us in, uh, our Lord's absence from this world, from uh, performing the service that he has for each one of us is if we are taken up with the fear of man that can stunt our service, hinder our service for Christ and something that we are.
We need to be free from, don't we?
And I think that there is an order. Mark was talking earlier about how important it is to just walk quietly with the Lord when you it's like building a building. If you don't have a good foundation, you look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, you build this big, old, tall building and it can't hold itself up. You look at the pyramids in Egypt and they have a tremendous foundation that holds that big, old, huge building. They haven't shifted. You can't put a piece of paper in between those blocks. And those things have been there for thousands of years. It's amazing.
In our lives we have to have, like Mark was saying, we have to have that quiet walk with the Lord. That's real. If we don't have confidence in ourselves and in the Lord, not in US, I guess confidence in the Lord in our lives.
00:40:10
It's really hard to stand against the pressure that's around us.
There's been studies, umm, where there's a row of people and they ask all the people that are in the study except for one person to vote the wrong way. So they have two lines.
One lines like this line, there's no way that people are mistaken that they're the same one lines like that line and the other lines like that long so one's really, you know, they're obviously.
They're not the same. There's no question. And they ask, there's this line of 10 people and they ask the people to vote for which line was the longest. And one person was the person being studied in this, in this test. And they would have all the people vote the wrong way. They told them before we want you to vote the wrong way. So everybody raise your hand when the small line is the longest. And everybody would raise their hand except for the one person. And he looked down the row one way and he looked down the road the other way. And he ended up raising his hand even though he knew.
It was wrong. That's the fear of man. But when we walk quietly before the Lord, we have confidence in him and then we can stand these things. We can be the, the only person that that's, that's different. We were reading the other day about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And if you can imagine kids, uh, field full of people like we're out there playing baseball or something and it's full of people and every single person vows down except for you.
Do you think you would feel like you stood out a little bit?
But they had confidence in the Lord that even though they were the only ones standing.
They were going to honor the Lord, them that honor me, them I will honor, and they were willing to stand there. And that confidence in the Lord, and in that quietness we have with the Lord the genuineness. It gives us strength to withstand this fear of man.
Before we leave verse three, I'd just like to say real quick, verse two, we have things that we might do.
Say, and you know, we can be hypocritical by the things that we say in private to others. The the Pharisees despise the Lord Jesus and the disciples they hated him and.
We can tear down with our mouths in private and really what is that? It's the flesh and it's pride within that would speak down of another and think so well of myself.
And so I think it's good to see that in that verse, it's not only what we're doing, but it's what we're saying, umm, behind closed doors because, umm, what you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light. And the Lord has this way of rebuilding things that we, as James Three says, can tear down. Umm, and, uh, there could be a lot of destruction. The, the tongue is a world of evil. So I think it's a good thing for us to be exercised about what we're saying behind closed doors and.
Umm, judging ourselves as to what we are and not despising others and and tearing them down. The Lord sees and hears all of that.
The verses that the Lord those things will be saying private about others that might not be pleasant. The Lord can reveal that there's a verse about the days.
Sharing that out. So that's why we need to speak kind of our brother and genuine.
You know, sometimes in our life we.
We're not necessarily subject to, uh, persecution to the degree of being killed through our faith, but that isn't the only thing that we're talking about here. That's specifically what it's talking about before what it talks about. Those that have the capacity to kill the body, but that's the limit. They don't have any ability to impact anything beyond that.
And the reality of of Christianity, though, is that even in our life here in this country where we don't necessarily need to worry about being martyred for the name of Christ, there is still such a thing as the fear of man. I will confess, having experienced that myself in my workplace, there are there was a man that I used to work with named Eric.
00:45:10
Who was not a very nice person. And he desperately needed the gospel. And I knew that my heart that this man needed the gospel. And I was afraid of them. And I did not give him the gospel. And at 40 years of age, he died in the line of duty. And to this day I still feel a pang of responsibility because I never presented this man with the gospel because I was afraid of him.
And so.
We can apply the principles of this chapter even though we're not talking necessarily from the standpoint of, umm, being afraid of men, from the standpoint of being thrown into a fiery furnace like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We can apply these same principles in our interactions with people at school and at work, where there is a tendency to be afraid of their reaction and their response to it. We can go for it with boldness, knowing that it isn't a lot.
The Lord will go with us.
And, uh, you know, and it talks about, I think it's in, uh, first Corinthians, it talks about those that preach the gospel. It was that Paul a planet and Apollo's water, but it was the Lord that gave the increase. And so we can be afraid from the standpoint of what they're, what their response will be to us, what they'll think of us. But the power of God is very real and it can have an effect on even the most difficult and, uh.
Contentious person. And uh, we can.
Reap the rewards of having had an opportunity to present the gospel to someone that really needed it.
Dale, there is a.
But I thought of that really links what you're talking about with the, the idle words spoken, that the, the hypocritical words spoken in secret with this group. What we have in verse 4 on this, the, uh, the fear of the Lord setting us free from the fear of man. And I'm thinking of Matthew 1236. It says, I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
So when we have verse four, it speaks about.
In our chapter, it speaks about who we should fear. That's the fear of God. Those those things that we say in in quiet. The time is coming at the judgment seat of Christ when if we have not judged them here, we'll have to judge them there. We can do it in His presence here, or we can do it in His presence then when He has to bring it forward and we suffer loss because of it.
So it may be it probably is that you, like I are guilty. Any one of us here, they're saying things that we we regret having said. Let's judge it before the Lord. Let's let's judge it now and and make it right. And if there's a brother or sister that we've offended, let's bring it to them and apologize to them.
Give them the opportunity to forgive us so that there can be healing from it and and get it right.
Because if we won't do it here, it will come up at the judgment seat of Christ and will suffer loss for it. Instead, we can gain one another and we can grow in our relationships with each other if we'll be real with each other and with the Lord, to bring into remembrance those things that are hidden in our lives, whether it's hypocrisy or guile, or, as we're speaking about now, the fear of man.
Can somebody, umm, maybe help us on how we as Christians are to fear God? And there's a lot of kids here and who might, uh, be questioning that. How are we as Christians, are we to fear God? What? And if so, what are we to fear? Can somebody help us out with that?
Let's read verses 4:00 and 5:00.
I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body. Later on, the Lord is going to say in revelation, be faithful and to death. Be willing to give your life for my sake. There's something greater.
Rest of verse four. And after that have no more that they can do, but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear.
Remember, he's speaking to his disciples, but his disciples aren't the only ones there. There may be there some, uh, who don't have faith.
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I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell, into Gehenna, into the Lake of fire. Yeah, I say unto you, fear him.
There is that sense in which man should fear God.
Because everything that passes through our in our life, all that we allow, all that we think, all that we say, and so on.
That will come under review and the Lord will bring into judgment those things that need to be judged. And if I'm an unbeliever, that will be my person if I'm a believer.
What we sow in this life we reap. That's been mentioned. But then too we can suffer loss at the judgment seat of Christ.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's the starting point.
There you get some 67 care that the Lord has for us. And so the fear is not being afraid of God, but it's more having a respect for who He is and a realization of his love for us. But that respect would be that, you know, I've been thinking of Jonah lately. Jonah was one who the Lord had something in mind for him to do.
And Jonah went the other way, and the Lord had to come in and deal with Jonah and, umm, allow sorrow in his life. And I think if we all had a healthy fear of the Lord in this way, realizing that He loves us too much to let us go our own way and that He's faithful.
Ever faithful with us, if we had that kind of respect and understanding and realization, umm, it would help us in our in our walk.
With the Lord.
We bring this out like Steve did. There's two audiences we might say here, there's those that you might say are are people of faith and there are those that may not be and umm, the fear of the Lord from the standpoint of verse 5 is a very real thing. It says knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men it is a real thing that the the potential of one accent into the last eternity and going through.
But we know from the word of God that lies before them is a very real thing. It's a very, very serious thing. And there should be an abject tear of that from an unbeliever. But for the believer like has been brought out, there is a real luck. And so we we no longer have that fear that that tears of judgment. The Lord bore that penalty for us at Calvary.
And so now we have been brought into a relationship. Well, let's let's you characterize the relationship between a father and a child. It should be reverence, it should be respect. And it it doesn't bring us into a place of familiarity where we we just act like.
Like they're our best friend and not our father they should always our relationship with.
God the Father should always be characterized by a reverential fear.
And, umm, but it's a totally different thing than what we're talking about for an unbeliever, which is the terror of the Lord having to do with, uh, eternal judgment, damnation.
Unfortunately, our time has gone, brethren.
I wanted to share one more thing, you know.
I just understand the fear of God is this way. Think of your dad. You all know you have dads that love you. Think of say something. He says there's a jar of cookies, simple illustration. He says don't take them. So you don't take the cookies, not because you're gonna spank and if you do, but you take it. You don't take them because your dad asked him to not take him because he loves you. And so you're not afraid the punishment, but you don't do it because you he asked you and you love him and you know your dad loves you.
And that's also a thing he asked you to do. You just obediently obey. You don't have to argue. It's the same thing. You know he loves you. I don't know.
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I think it stands in contrast. You know, there's a slogan in this world. Some of us may even be wearing a merchandise from that company. But that slogan is No Fear. And that is not a A.
That's not an incorrect thought. We we do have.
Uh, reason to have a godly reverential umm. We read in the word of God that God is greatly to be feared and held in reverence of all them that are about him. We serve an awesome God. We serve a God who made everything by the word of his power.
We have been brought into a relationship with Him through the work of His beloved Son, but we still need to recognize, brethren, that He is the Lord of all.
And so I I'd like to put it this way.
Umm, if we were brought into even the presence of, uh, the governor of the state of Washington, there is a certain deportment, a certain way of addressing the governor of the state of Washington, let alone the president of the United States or some other dignitary. That is becoming and, and we need to recognize that.
In my line of work, I work for a, uh, Lieutenant Colonel in the Army. And when I addressed him, I addressed him as Sir, uh, because that is the correct term of respect for the position that he occupies. And we need to be re. We need to recognize that this world that we live in has cast off the concept of respect and authority and, and that should not characterize us.
As Christians we need to be aware of that. We we have been brought into a wonderful relationship umm of of nearness. We cannot be nearer to God.
Because we've been brought into relationship through the work of His beloved Son. But we still need to speak in terms of reverence when we speak of the Lord Jesus and God the Father.
Often you'll hear.
Brother and pray to our God and Father and that acknowledges Him and His position of deity and our position of relationship. It is a, it is a, umm, a way of acknowledging our reverence and respect and our relationship and both of those are important. Familiarity has not become a saying of God.
To your point, brother Matt, the young man was once asked by a friend, If you do this, what are you afraid of? You're afraid that your dad will hurt you? His answer? I'm afraid that I'll hurt my dad.
Our God and our loving Father, we do thank Thee so much that thou hast given to us to know who thou art, that thou hast bestowed such love upon us that we should be called children of God, Children of God.
Help us to have that fear of displeasing the.
And of bringing upon the name of Thy beloved Son any form of dishonor. Help us to be real with Thee, and true to who Thou hast made us. The honour and dignity that belongs to those who are sons of God, that we might walk according to the vocation wherewith we are called. That we might seek to honor our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we would just look to the end, and let ourselves to Thee for the remainder of this day.
We thank thee again for this time in Thy word and fellowship that we can enjoy together. We commit it to thee in Jesus worthy name, Amen.