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I'd like to suggest we read the 12Th chapter of Luke's Gospel.
The hymn that we had in the prayer meeting, 250.
And to him we've just had before us now in 160.
Suggest a chapter like this that's been on my heart for a little while.
Wonder if we could read the 1St 40 verses of Luke 12.
12.
First one.
In the meantime, when they were gathered together innumerable multitude of people, in so much that they trolled one upon another, He began to say unto his disciples, First of all, be ye Beware of the leaven by 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 the darkness shall be heard in the light, and that's what ye have spoken in the ear. In the closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill, 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. ASA unto you, fear Him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And are not one of them is not forgotten? Sorry, is forgotten before God. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore hear 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 nigheth 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 the blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues and unto the magistrates and powers, taking 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 you ought to say. And one of the companies said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
He said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he speak 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 wherewith to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I 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 has much good 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.
Than those sorry, Then those shall those things. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So he himself that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, and what you shall eat neither for the body what you shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the Ravens, for they neither S 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 he then be not able to do that thing which is the least, why take he thought for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow, they toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass which is today 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, and neither be doubtful of mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that you have need of these things.
But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
00:05:00
Sell ye sorry, sell that ye have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that fail not or no thief reproaches neither moth corrupt us. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It's your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will 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 have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be therefore ready also for the summer man cometh at an hour when you think not.
In this chapter we have what should characterize the disciples in the time of the Lord's absence.
You'll have noticed in what was read to us that the Spirit of God has put together.
In Luke's Gospel, particularly, a moral order.
And certain events are brought together in a different way than in the other gospels. And in this chapter you see a collection of 19.
It talks about speaking in darkness. In verse three we have the rich farmer businessmen that.
His at night, his soul was required of him.
We also have the disciples in the second and third and watch waiting for their their Lord to come, which again is another night scene and it depicts really that period of time in which the Lord's people would be here on earth and he would be absent.
And So what we have in the chapter is really what should characterize the Lord's disciples in the night of his absence, which is today.
And there are five particular things that we see in this first 40 verses that.
I think we should look at in detail in these meetings because they're good for our consciences and for our hearts as well.
I'll point them out in a minute, but just to give you sort of a run up to the chapter that we're looking at here.
In the 8th chapter the Lord goes forth and sows this good seed of the word of God.
Seeking fruit for the Kingdom that he was about to set up if he would be only received by.
The people as their Messiah. And then in the 9th chapter he appoints his 12 disciples and they go forth to spread the news to even a broader field than he administered. And then in the 10th chapter we have the Lord appointing Stephanie Moore disciples and they go forth even in a more Broadway to announce the coming of the Kingdom and the Messiah that was present.
But sad to report, in the 11Th chapter we find him rejected.
And not only that.
They, uh, they attribute his works to the work of the devil.
And they formally reject him.
And then in the latter part of the chapter he turns, and he rejects the nation in these six woes that are given in the latter part of Chapter 11.
And being rejected, He now turns to his disciples from this chapter forward and would seek to prepare them for the time of his absence.
And I think this is what we need more than anything else, this late day in which we live, a right attitude in the time of the Lord's absence. And so on this 12Th chapter, he seeks to set them free from certain things that would only spoil their testimony in this world.
First of all, he would set them free from hypocrisy. That's the 1St 3 verses.
Then he would seek to set them free from the fear of man.
That's verses 4 through 12.
Then he would have them free of hip, uh, covetousness. That's versus 12 or 13 on to.
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Verse 21.
Then you would seek to set them free of worry or care. That's versus 22 to 32 or 34.
And then lastly, he would seek to set them free from carelessness and settling down in this world that they would be watching and waiting as we heard in one of our prayers yesterday.
And so if I could just summarize those, we could say he would have them to not try to be something that they're not.
And don't be afraid to speak the truth.
And don't get occupied with material possessions, don't worry about the future, and don't let go of the eminence of the Lord's coming. If these things would characterize the disciples, they would be in a right state to really.
Be a witness for him in the night of his absence. So, brother, I just think that we should take this up and look at this for our hearts, for our consciences. It's intensely practical. It's not much doctrine here at all. And we need some things that would touch our hearts and our consciences.
So may we uh, look at this chapter for?
The application of these things to our own souls.
As you say, it's a night scene and, and as the darkness becomes more of a reality, uh, for his disciples, he really is turning the light of heaven on the, that which is accepted as normal in the eyes of the world. And as we read through these things that you've enumerated, these things to be careful of and so on are things that are very normal and acceptable in this world in which we live.
Umm. And many of them are promoted as, uh, a good way to live.
And so here in this chapter, the light of heaven is now turned on these things in the midst of the darkness and we see them for what they are. And I think it's, it's a great thing for us to appreciate how the word of God sets things in their, in their proper, uh, light and exposes them for us. However, in this chapter, uh, they are exposed as within us and the evil is within and.
This may be a difficult chapter for us to go through if we're not gonna go through it as Pharisees.
A as the first, uh, verse springs before us, there is a particular evil that heads the list and it is the, the leaven of the Pharisees. And may I say that you're looking at a Pharisee? I have that principle within me, as do you. And as we go through these very practical things, it's very easy for us to think of someone that represents.
What we may have before us, someone other than ourselves that we would like to, umm, have the light of these scriptures expose. And it's good to see that other person exposed there and we walk away, uh, just a little higher than what we came in. May the Lord help us to see that he's talking to us. He's talking to his disciples. And these are things that we get hung up on. And as those that are gathered for the Lord's name, we are very particularly.
Umm, guilty of these things that are here, Uh, at least I can say that I am. So may the Lord help us then to be solemn and, uh, weigh these things as the Lord speaking to us individually. May, uh, this be a prophetic time where the Lord is giving us something for the present moment, for our own present condition.
Verse 41. We could have read it perhaps, but verse 41.
Peter speaks up and says, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all? Just like you say, it's for us. Never mind, there are others, it's for us.
These Macintosh title in this chapter as living, living time and respect of eternity. We live in this day, but we live for another day because that's the nowaday. Everybody says live for today, but we live in this day, but we don't live for this day. And that's really what this is gonna try to show us. It's gonna give us a different hope, a different look. Looking, living now, but looking forward.
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Somebody has said that there is, uh, there's three.
Things that characterize our life, there's our public life. That's what you will see of us as we're together in these next few days.
There's the private life, that's what your wife and your children see. There's a secret life, and that's what God sees. And so I believe that this is what we're talking about here. It's what I think in my mind and.
My communion with the Lord or my fantasies, whatever they are, they can. The Lord sees those things. He judges according to, uh, I was, I was thinking there's a verse, uh, uh, in Romans 3 where he, he speaks of judging according, uh.
To the if I can find it here, uh, at the bottom of the seat.
He says the 16th verse of the second chapter in the in the day when God shall judge the secrets.
Of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gods. But that's very if we're gonna go on with the Lord, it's very important that that secret life.
That we face up to it, the exposed, you know, when things come into our mind that are not commensurate with Christianity, that we own to the Lord. That's me and turn away from that and turn back to the Lord and that's no way who knows the spirit of man save the spirit that's in there.
So I'm the only one that knows about that. Not even my wife knows everything about me. Do they? She doesn't but and I and I and I don't know everything about my wife, but God knows. And those are that's very important that we live that secret life in his presence.
There's something else that's not, umm, mentioned here, and that's really the heart. And that's because hypocrisy doesn't involve the heart. The heart is gone for the one that is mentioned here, that's the Lord himself. He lays the background as Brother Bruce has already laid out in Chapter 11, and he was rejected. And so in the new translation, it says in those first few verses few words of chapter 12 in those times.
In the times of his rejection.
What was it that was going to characterize the Christian profession? Was hypocrisy really just not the heart for Christ, just the going on with an outward form. And that's the danger that we have. Our hearts need to be engaged with that blessed man who loved us and gave himself for us. And there sometimes, you know, we go on with an outward show. And that was the leaven sin. Levin is always a picture of sin in the Scriptures. Never ever spoken of in a positive way in any way.
And so the Lord says, beware, be very, very careful.
And aware of that snare of the enemy, it's a sin in the sight of the Lord to go on.
In a secret way with sin, but it's also a sin to go on in an outward form without the heart being engaged.
Why is it that at the breaking of bread there are so few that stand up and give thanks to the Lord?
Why is it that there are so few that stand up and read a portion of scripture?
Why is it that there are so few? It's because perhaps I suggest that our hearts aren't engaged with Christ himself during the week. And then, you know, we've gone on as those outwardly perhaps as Christians during the week. But then when it comes to the Lord's Day, you're coming right into the presence of the Lord. No one's fooled there, and he's not fooled either. And so there isn't that that we could give out. He longs to have the heart engage with himself.
The Lord is emphasizing the importance of being real. This heads the list. As Wayne said says, first of all, beware of a certain evil that marked the Pharisees. He was concerned that it may come in amongst his own disciples and he gives this very clear warning. And so he's giving us the importance of being real.
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It says in Psalm 51 Thou requires truth on the inward parts.
There is a side of our flesh, the religious side of our flesh, that would like to be something outwardly that we are not inwardly.
And it is very dangerous. And the Lord is saying this has got to get out if you're going to be suitable witnesses for me in the time of my absence. We need to be real with God and real before our fellow men. Thou requires truth on the inward parts. So that's the emphasis of what's here. There is that side of our fallen nature that wants to appear before our fellow man as something that we're really not.
Perhaps it's in the sphere of divine things among our brethren is to appear more devoted than we really are. That was the sin of the Pharisees. They wanted to look pseudo spiritual in front of their fellow men, but inwardly the Lord said they were like ravening wolves.
And they were the ones who, uh, turned the nation away from the Lord and LED the nation to reject Him.
And that sin.
It's it's possible for that sin to be among the Christian company and the very first time that you read about it is in Acts chapter 5. It came in very quickly. The story in Acts chapter 5, as you know, is the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
They lied to the Holy Ghost and kept back a certain of the portion of the money that they had acquired through the sale of a piece of land. You say. How do you figure that that is?
Hypocrisy. But let me explain. In the end of the fourth chapter there was a great display of grace upon the disciples, and there was a great devotion of heart. People were taking that which they owned, converting it into cash and bringing it to the apostles that they could use it for the furthering of the testimony of the Lord. I don't say it was altogether intelligent, but there was great devotion there. And it mentions one man in particular. His name is Barnabas, who had a piece of land and he sold it and brought it and laid it at the apostles feet.
And Ananias and Sapphira said, well, we have a piece of land, too.
And if we sold it, we could lay some of the money at their feet. We would appear as devoted as Barnabas. That would be a good idea to look as good as Barnabas. And so they came, but they held back some of the money, and they gave a part of it to the apostles. But the Spirit of God was working. And Peter said, Why hast thou lied to the Holy Ghost?
And, you know, this is in all of us. It crept in in the very first chapters of the church's history in Acts there. And it could be, and I believe it is in our hearts, too, that is to try to appear more devoted than we really are. Let's cut out the facade, brethren, and get down to reality. God wants us to be real. There's a type about this in the Old Testament with the priests. You know, it says they were to wear linen garments.
They were to have uh, linen bonnets on their head. They were to have linen coat, they were to have linen, uh, uh, outer garments. And then it says they were to have linen breeches or breeches. Those are like their inner trousers that no one saw.
You say, why would they have to have that? No one would ever see it. But it's just a little picture of God wanting us to be pure on the inside. Because Lennon speaks to purity, pure on the inside as well as appearing pure on the outside as well. And that kind of consistency is so needed.
The matter of 11 needs to be, uh, uh, discussed 11 of the Pharisees. Uh, I would suggest that this brings before us that it's something that will spread and it's a culture in more than one way. You know, 11 is a kind of a culture. It will affect the mass, but it's a culture in another way too, uh, that they had to be aware of it. Is it possible that the Christian company can become a pharisaical culture that, uh, has power over your conscience more?
Than the word of God or the Lord himself has power over your conscience. And I can say, yes, that has happened and I've been exposed to that. I've fallen under that. That is, uh, we can, uh, wish to control the Saints with a culture of Pharisaical culture. And if you want to be part of this inner company, the remnant within the remnant, here's what you need to do. And we will subliminally lay out that which is required by criticizing those who don't fit the mold and so on.
And produce a mold. There's another word that has two meanings, uh, mold. It's a culture and it produces a culture. And so there they are to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. So let's be careful that as we get on in years and younger ones look to us that we do not, uh, produce a culture that we, that is control and that they come under our influence and our control and we control our consciences.
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What we wanna do is hand them over to the Lords so that the Lord is controlling that. If we control that, we are introducing a culture amongst God's people that is Pharisaical in nature and it will spread, it will become a movement and it will result in a sect.
Let us be very, very careful. We we ought not to want to control the conscience of any of our brothers or sisters in Christ. And the Lord is saying that that's going to be exposed the the very elements of that will be exposed in verse two in the coming day. Well as we think of this coming day.
Uh, as, uh, Brother Dave reminded us is that it is, uh, time in the light of eternity. And it really helps us to not wait for the judgment seat in many ways, but to live as if it were going on right now. And by the way, this chapter is a little bit of a judgment seat. Here we, here we are before the Lord and the Lord is examining our hearts. And as Brother Vern had mentioned, it's those private thoughts that we have.
That are really coming under, uh, the light here this morning. And so as he says, there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither head that shall not be known. That is going to happen. And we need to in some senses fear that. But the, if we expose ourselves to that light today, we'll have no problem with that coming day.
There are three levels that the Lord.
Warned his disciples of and as we said already, 11 is always a figure of evil. There were three main sects among the, uh, the the children of Israel, the Jews at that time. There was the Pharisees and there was the Sadducees, and there were the Herodians.
Are not mentioned as much. They are found in chapter Matthew 22 and also in Mark 8.
The 11 of the Pharisees, he tells you right here is hypocrisy. The level of the Sadducees is rationalism and and rank infidelity. They were the sect among the Jews that uh, frankly just denied scripture. The Lord exposed that when he says, uh, ye do air not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God and it says at that time that they denied the resurrection and.
A number of other things they were in infidels I in their approach to the things of God. The Herodians were another sect of Jews. They were not Gentiles, they were Jews, but they were Jews that basically had this this doctrine or belief that they should just give up to the Roman authorities that had come in and sidle up to them and make life as easy as possible. If you go along with the Romans and basically sell out all of their principles that they had grown up with and had been given to them.
Through, uh, their fathers in tradition, namely to keep SEC, uh, keep separate from the gentiles basically to give up kosher if you want to use it in modern terms. And these were the, the tax gatherers of Republicans and so on and those people that just went along with the.
Herod and His Roman authority in the land, and it would speak to itself. The leaven of Herod. There's eleven of the Pharisees, there's eleven of Sadducees and you get that. Matthew 1611 and Sadducees. And then in Mark chapter 8 you get the 11 of.
Of Herod or the Herodians. And that is, uh, the evil of materialism. They went for material things.
And gave up all of their Jews religion that they had been brought up with. They sold the ranch to get things a little better for themselves in the present condition. And there are three times that the Lord warns the disciples of that they needed to be aware of that. And we need to be aware of it too. But the subject here is the hypocrisy. I mean, rather the leaven of the Pharisees particularly. And that is, as we said, trying to be outwardly something that we're not inwardly, you know, Robert mentioned.
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Or ask the question, why is it that there's such weakness when we come together in the presence of the Lord? And there's weakness, as he mentioned, because there isn't the inward life of communion. But you know, this is exactly, uh, the other way around here. He's rebuking that idea of trying to carry on outwardly in the presence of the Lord or in the presence of your brethren when there isn't that inward impetus to do it and the communion that should be there. That's what we really ought to fear, and we have seen it.
We've seen it in our souls. We've seen it among our brethren. Sometimes, you know, I can remember one particular situation of your brother, and I won't mention the names of years ago, that you would never take part in our meetings week after week after week after week after month after year, never take part. But he would when there was an all day meeting, when some of you brother would come to join, then he was on his feet doing this and he was doing that. And we often wondered, now what's all this about?
What's all this about? Of course, your brother didn't know anything about that because, uh, and you just thought that that was the normal order of life for that brother. He was active in, in public ministry and so on.
But that was being something outwardly that he was an immigrant. I've seen younger brother in a conference. One brother wants to take part for whatever reason. I'm not going to judge motives here. And as soon as he sees his friends see that, they say, oh, this is 1 upmanship. I know how to play that game. So he's going to take part, too. And after about 8 or 10 follows, get into the fray of things, you begin to wonder, what's this all about?
And then when it comes time for the prayer for the Gospel, meaning when a few 4050 men may get together and pray for the Gospel, where you'd think young men would like to be and to give forth their prayers and so on, there wasn't one of them, except there was but one of those men. And some of the brother noticed that and pointed that out. Now how is this, that when they were before all their brethren in the room, when there was 800 people or whatever there was there at the conference, they were very glad to stand up and read verses and say some things and and pray and so on. But when it came time to be in the backroom, when nobody would see you but a few men.
They didn't even bother to be there.
President, I'm putting my finger on these illustrations so we get the point.
The point is trying to be outwardly something among our brethren that we're not inwardly. Now, it's good to take part. I'm not saying that you shouldn't, but let's make sure that there's the inward life to back up the outward so that there's consistency. If we're gonna have power before our fellow man, which is the next series of verses, it may, it's gonna have to begin with having, uh, being real before gone. See, there's a moral order here. Luke puts things in a moral order, as you know.
And we need to be real before God if we're gonna have power before our fellow men.
Hebrews in chapter 4 verse 13 was a bit of a help. It says neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do and Speaking of the Lord Jesus, if that scripture is deep in your soul, it doesn't matter whether it's your public, private or secret life. You are fully aware that the Lord Jesus Christ knows 100% of everything that you think do or an Vern mentioned The Secret Life.
So that he said it should be exposed. Well, not to me, not to your brother and that is to be exposed before the Lord. You go back to John one when Philip finds umm and Andrew are walking, they find Nathaniel and they go up to him and says we have found him. I'm sorry, that's one verse 45 Philip finance Nathaniel and saith on them. We have found him who who Moses in the law and the prophets did right Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph Nathaniel uh and Nathaniel said.
I'm Jim. Can there any can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Phil says come and see. Well, Nathaniel didn't try to hide anything so he didn't jump up and say, oh great, let's go take a look. He was honest. He was completely honest. Can anything good come out of Nazareth or was Jesus indictment of him? Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile. He wasn't trying to be somebody that he wasn't. He was walking forward and he says.
Prove it to me. And when he was proven, he wholly accepted the Lord Jesus.
And I think that's the whole point is don't live what you're not except who you are, except who you are, because they're not accepting who you are in front of your brethren. You're accepting who you are as the Lord Jesus made you. And if there's changes that come, Hallelujah, because there are changes through communion with him. We hope in the word of God.
00:35:03
OK, I think that we we know now we have a problem.
How do we fix this?
Well, what's the, well, what's the instruction here? We could go on for quite a while here and there'd be a lot of blood leading here and maybe have to be some confessions too. Uh, because as we identify these things, we're really probably from our own experience, you know, and I could give you plenty. Umm, but what is the, what's the remedy?
My brother once stated that, uh, all these things are true with every one of us, But if we judge the little things that nobody sees, if we judge them before the Lord, I will never fail. But if we don't judge them, I sooner or later we're just about all going to fail. But it's encouraging that the when we see these things in ourselves, we can confess them to the Lord.
And, uh, sleep could be, uh, delivered and to go on with him. And it's a constant thing.
And, uh, I enjoyed the brother, Hey ho, Harry Hayhoe's statements on these things. We judged the little things. We won't have to judge the victims.
I want to suggest too, that it doesn't all happen at once. And you say, what's the, umm, remedy? Well, some of these situations develop in our course of life, and it's very subtle. The enemy in his.
Tenacity with us and his.
Persistence is subtle, and so I've noticed in Mark's Gospel Chapter 7 that there's a progression when it comes to.
That course of things with the Pharisees and it had to do with the word of God. They set aside the word of God, but they didn't do it all at once. It says in Chapter 7 of Mark and verse three that uh, right at the end, holding the tradition of the elders. And then in verse five it says.
Walk. Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed and hands.
Then verse eight he says laying aside the commandment of God.
Ye hold a tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things. And then in verse nine goes even further full well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition and then in verse 13, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition which you have delivered and many such like things you do well. The word of God is that which needs to govern our hearts, needs to govern the conscience.
And if it's something other than the word of God, if it's just the way the brethren do things and the, we need to be very careful. It needs to be the word of God. We know that, umm, we ought not to, uh, umm, what is it, uh, despise the ancient landmarks or seek to move them and so on. We need to respect that which godly brethren have gone on with. We start our hymns with the, we start our meetings with him and there's prayer and so on. And there's godly order, but, umm.
When it comes to our personal lives, these things creep in and it's the word of God that needs to have power in my life, has has to have an effect and I ought to be afraid to displease the Lord. And I have to know what will displease the Lord and what is it that will tell me? It's the word of God. I need to read the word of God. And So what we find in the day that we live in, I believe, brethren, I speak for myself. We get so busy. The enemy is so subtle. We're so busy. We barely have time to read in the morning. We barely have time to read in the evening.
And, umm, sometimes we're just speed reading and we're not even meditating on what we're really reading. And, uh, the word of God doesn't have that effect with us. Well, then we're liable to allow some of these things to creep in and we go on in a spiritual way, outward form. But there isn't the heart engaged with Christ. All you want is the heart, my son, Give me thine heart. And so we need to read the word of God to find Christ in it. And Christianity is Christ as a person.
And the Pharisees wanted the outward religion, but they didn't want Christ. They didn't want any part of that blessed One in whom the Father found all of his delight. So I suggest that, you know, it's progressive. We need to be careful. It doesn't creep. It just creeps in one little bit at a time. And we need to judge it. We need grace to judge those things that we might be delivered from them.
00:40:18
Well, let's move on to the, uh, the next point.
Or the umm, the next thing that the Lord seeks to set.
The disciples free of.
And that is, uh, to be free of the fear of man.
That's in verses 4 through 12.
And as I said already, there is a moral progression. I believe in these two things, and that is that we need to be real before God if we're gonna have power before our fellow man.
And the Lord speaks here about the need for confessing Christ and not being afraid of what men, uh, might do to them. So he was preparing his disciples to be bright and shining testimony and witnesses in the time of his absence.
And that they would confess him before their fellow men. But Luke is laying down principles here. Let's not leave this only in the in the form as that he lays it down here as confessing Christ in the gospel. It really involves the the, the courage to speak the truth, not just the gospel, but all the truth of God. We need to have that kind of courage.
To speak the truth of God.
And that is so necessary in this day, in the time of Christ's absence. There's a proverb that comes before me. It says, uh, the fear of man bringeth a snare. See if I can find that. It's in the latter chapters. 2925. Thank you.
The fear of man bringeth a snare.
And so when we allow, uh, ourselves to be affected of what men might think or what men might do, we will get ourselves doing things that our consciences.
Would tell us that we shouldn't be doing and it's an old tactic of the enemy to shut us up.
But as we've had already, and one of the prayer meetings.
Let's not be afraid to speak the truth. And if there's ever a day when this world needs the truth.
Is now. And so, brethren, let's learn from this, not let's take from this not just the the courage to confess Christ as the God in the gospel, but also all the truth that has been committed to us that we would be courageous enough to live for, to stand for it and to to speak the truth.
We have in these verses.
Some wonderful assets, or perhaps we could call them resources found in the Trinity in this time. So the Lord points to the fact that he would be away. They would be here in the night of his absence, but the power of that the of all three persons in the Godhead would be there with them. First of all, you get in verse 4 where he says, I say unto you, my friends, not isn't that nice?
We will have the friendship of Jesus.
By this.
And then it says in verse six and seven, are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and are not one of them has forgotten before God, but Eve? So being forgotten before God, isn't that beautiful?
There we have the, uh, the care of God, our Father.
And then down in verse 12, he says, For the Holy Ghost shall teach you what in that teach you in the same hour what you ought to say. So here we have the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
The friendship of Jesus, the care of God our Father.
And the teaching of the Holy Spirit, even though the Lord would be away personally, physically, He would be with them in Spirit. And all three persons of the Godhead would be here to aid and help us to confess Christ in a way that would be pleasing to God.
He gave me a ride to the cottage that he had for the young married men. And as we rode up from Ottawa to the cottage, why we picked up a hitchhiker and he was a college student who had just graduated from college. And, uh, Gordon was driving and I spoke to this young fellow and, uh.
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Gave him and the feeble way the gospel.
And he had a comment for everything I said, and with as much speaking and as eloquent control of the English language, while he had me just bowled over, he exposed everything. But then, after we got done, my Gordon Hayhoe went one by one. He chopped all the the.
Things that this college boy said just chopped him right out from under him and, uh, which the fellow couldn't take it. He says I'm getting out of the next crossroad, but I've, uh, thought since why, uh.
That's, uh, it's been a difficulty with me to, uh, mention the, uh, the gospel and the truth of God to, uh, various ones. Because I know that they're just gonna, you know, with their quick thinking and, uh, the command of the English language, they're just gonna bowl me right over. So that, that is the influenced me and not seeking to, uh, uh, speak boldly for the Lord, but I just bring that out to, uh, now I don't have a Gordon Hayhoe to.
Backed me up so.
You're on your own and it is a tendency for us to hesitate to bring the Word of God before others, that we we can rely on the Holy Spirit who is greater than we are.
This fear of being a faithful testimony has the same thread that we picked up in the first part of this chapter and it's not rightly seeing the Lord. And so, uh, in the first portion with the regards to the, the hypocrisy that the Pharisees were so good at, they had really lost sense of the Lord seeing everything that they were going through and doing and so on. And they had a private life that they really didn't care, it seems, whether the Lord saw or not.
Uh, they were ignorant of that. Now in this portion, we have, uh, faithful believers who are seeking to be a testimony, but the fear of man looms up before them and shuts them down. As we've been saying, we all know what that's about. I don't think there's anyone who, uh, doesn't fear this fear, but it is to be compared to, as we've just mentioned, we have the whole Trinity on our side here and we are involved in to go forward.
And to think about this God who really wants us to be a testimony for him. And so here's this little person down here on the earth, and he sows a seed, as our brother has said, trying to witness to someone and they come off with all of their ideas. And we get disheartened about it. And well, we should because this is a real living soul that's gonna live forever in eternity in one of two places. And we need to feel that. And we should still go forward.
But the Lord encourages us by saying, you know, you're not the only one who's laboring here. There's others. And so you go ahead and plant your seed and you leave it with me. Just leave it with me. And if there's gonna be reproach, don't fear. Uh, these puny, uh, men and women, they want us to stand before their tribunal. We've already had the sense that there's a judgment seat. Let's keep that in mind. That's the only tribunal that we're gonna stand before.
The worldly man puts us, even if it's on the street corner and they put us before their tribunal and all of their brilliant, uh, uh, arguments against the truth of God. It matters nothing to us when our hearts are occupied with the Lord and with his approval, this sort of stuff begins to fade in its power over us. And so as we said, the remedy is more seeking the approval from our God as we take up the word of God and read it in the morning and the evening and in the middle of the day and whenever we do.
We need to be looking to the Lord to speak to us through His precious Word and to develop in our souls a fear of Him. This is not dread or I'm afraid of God, but this is a healthy, godly respect for this awesome God, and He ought to just fill up our our view more and more as we do spend time in His Word. Now of course, the Pharisees did know the Scriptures, and they must have read them.
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But they didn't read them to get to know the Lord. And so here He is wanting us to get to know, and He's reminding us of His care over us. He's reminding us of the teaching that's available to us. And as was mentioned as we get there, that special word in verse four, my friends, I have that circle in my Bible that's precious to me that the Lord wants to be my friend. And He looks down and He sees me on this earth trying to make my way and trying to be a testimony in some simple way.
And he says, there's one of my friends there and here's the resources that I give him. So we need to have our eyes open and don't we? That's the remedy. Get our eyes open and see really the big picture of what's going on. He didn't instruct them as to, uh, when it comes to, uh, confession of him before the world. He didn't instruct them to meet their intellectual arguments with clever, uh, sophistry.
And so on, not a word about that, but to rely solely upon these three persons in the Godhead. They'll help us through and to confess for Christ. Sometimes we think we need to be articulate in all that to confess Christ and I confess that that has has been my thought and it's not right. It's what comes from the heart that will go to the heart. It's the power of the Spirit of God working and what bringing this the word of God before ones that will do an awful lot more than all my intellectual arguments, even though I may try to argue for the truth.
I never learned that so clearly as years ago, Wang, when we used to pass our tracks in the downtown of Vancouver and there was one person that came along.
Uh, well, for he was a young brother and knew in the faith.
And he was walking in communion with the Lord. He was nearly restored. Actually, he had known the Lord for some years but got away.
Anyway, he was bright in his soul and he was there helping us pass our tracks. And along comes this person, just as our brother had mentioned, wants to argue about these various aspects and quite articulate too. And so I tried to meet all those those arguments with all my intellect. There was these two intellects going back and forth. And this young, this brother was watching carefully and he waited for an opening in the conversation. And I was getting nowhere. I'll tell you right now.
He said, oh, all you have to do is believe. It's so simple. All you have to do is believe. That had more power of that person than all my many words. And I never forgot that to this day that it was coming from his heart to this person. And he turned and he went away. That was the end of the conversation.
So, brethren, let's remember to prepare, to be prepared to confess Christ before this world is not to meet them on the level of the flesh that they have, but to come from the presence of God from within. Our hearts rely upon the Spirit of God to make it good in their souls. Would you agree with that, brother Robert? Yes. There's something else is that the Lord desires that we would have fellowship with Him.
In his rejection in this world. And so he brings this before them that they're to confess him before men. I'd like to sometimes leave off some of the verses, some of the words just surrounding some of these little statements that the Lord Jesus makes and he says in verse 8, confess me before men.
Just confess me before, ma'am. Don't confess the church, don't confess even the assembly or anything like that. Just confess me. Confess me before men. And then he says in Luke's Gospel chapter 22, it's a very touching scene. He's just about to go to the cross. And he says in Luke 22 and verse 28, ye are they which have continued with me.
In my temptations. And he valued that, he said. You know, there's something that meant a lot to me in this world that you continued with me. Now we know that they all forsook him and fled. But there was fellowship with him in his rejection.
And you know, there were those that Peter tried to argue, perhaps, and he tried to, uh, he used a sword to try to defend the Lord and all those things, but it wasn't anything but the word of God that was going to bear any fruit for the Lord. And so he brings us before them. Confess me the four men. The Apostle Paul did too, you know, he, he went to Athens and there on Mars Hill, the Areopagus.
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What did he speak of? He spoke of Christ.
He confessed Christ and he spoke of Christ as that one that was raised up from among the dead. Then they didn't wanna hear him anymore. But you know, we need to preach a re resurrected Christ, a crucified Christ who bore the judgment for our sins and shed his precious blood to cleanse us from all sin. And that he raised up on high in the glory and that God has appointed him a judge. He's going to judge this world. But now he's presented as.
A deliverer.
He turned over to Matthew chapter 10. You have the same account given from Matthew's standpoint, it's not contradictory, but there's something I'd like to point out. Matthew 10 verse 28 For not them which kill the body, which are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him that is able to destroy both the soul and the body in hell. It's Ghana, the eternal place of damnation for the lost. Verse 29 is the verse I'm thinking of. Are not two sparrows sold for a Farthing and not not one of them? Or fall to the ground without your father?
And so it tells us here that two sparrows are sold for Farthing. But in our chapter it says 5 sparrows are sold for two farthings.
Is not a contradiction. Just like we have a Baker's dozen today.
Uh, sparrows were so, uh, worthless that when a person was to buy them, why, if he was to take, uh, uh, two, it would be for one Farthing. But if he was to take five, they could get one thrown in for free. If you spent too far things that's just brought in to indicate how small and insignificant and worthless a Sparrow is. And yet he says even that creature, uh, uh, God is watching and is caring for. How much more will he care for you in these times when you are pressured from the, uh, the people of this world who reject Christ?
And there may be suffering, there may be persecution, there may be reproach. Someone said that God attends every funeral of asparagus.
Is there any significance in the fact that here he called God, He said God. Now one of them has forgotten before God. But when you read that in Matthew it says, uh, are not two sparrows sole for a Farthing, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father?
Is, is there a little touch there where he could have said God? But it's, it's more personal, isn't it?
You, you, I, I suppose what you're saying here is you can't expect. If you're a believer and want to enjoy a hard, you can't expect to be popular. You just can't, you know, it goes with the territory. You're not going to be popular. And we all, you know, one can speak for others. We all want to be popular. We want to be accepted by people around us, but you can't expect to be popular.
And confess the Lord. It's not that they don't like you.
They may like you, you may have a nice personality when you don't like the Lord and you mentioned the Lords and they don't like you.
And that may result in a little change in your lifestyle.
Isn't there a little thought of that here? Here you are. You're going to, uh, be a testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. You're gonna identify his with him. You're gonna use the name of Jesus rather than talk about God.
It's, we all know what that means, don't we? Well, it may affect your lifestyle. It's, uh, it may be harder to get along in this world. And he said, look, you don't count the hairs of your head, but I do. I know everything about you. I know your needs.
And so as we step out from under the eye of man into the full sunshine of God's love and care, I want you to really know I'm gonna be looking after you. It may be difficult, but I'm gonna be looking after you. When you take a, a position like that of vulnerability to speak for, uh, to use the name of Jesus as your friend and you're confident this world is, is not gonna, uh, treat that well.
But I'm going to treat you well. I am going to take care of you. And that's a comfort to us, isn't it? Because we feel the reproach and we count the cost and they go, oh, not this time, Laura. I'm just, I just not now, not with these people.
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The hairs of your head are counted. I know all about you and the Lord knows our fears too. And that's why we have these intimate expressions here letting us know that he really, really cares about us and and he values this in verse eight, he said I will you you confess me down in this wretched world and I'm gonna confess your name in the highest court there is.
And I'm going to allot your name and so.
It it. Yeah. That's verse 8 is really a wonderful thing. And as our brother Robert has reminded us.
It's confessing me that's a precious thought, just to talk about Jesus.
When we mentioned the fear of man bringeth a snare. There is a other side of this too. The Lord would seek to bring us out of our closets that we would no longer be closet Christians. That is a secret Christian and not let anybody know about it.
But if we don't, there's a danger of falling into the ways of the world and being pressured by the unbelievers into a path that, uh, would dishonor the Lord. And the example of that is Peter himself.
There was a moment in Peter's life when he was following the Lord afar off, you remember. And then there was that certain girl whom he gone before, and she asked him, are you not one of his followers? And he couldn't confess his Lord before her, and it led to his fall.
Remember what I that if we do not confess Christ, it could lead us to being pressured through the Like I said, the fear of man bringeth a snare. It could be a snare to our feet that we get pressured to go on a path that we know is not right and we talk about peer pressure. Boy, Peter felt it right there and then.
And there's, there just seems to be, there's certain persons that we have in our contact with our life and business and school, whatever.
That it's more difficult to confess Christ before him, and the enemy knows who those people are. But you know, if we don't confess Christ and identify ourselves with him, it could lead to a fall in our lives.
This matter of friends is a really sensitive one, isn't it? And as we look at our children, we see them struggling, really wanting to have friends. And maybe for whatever reason, uh, we're in a small assembly or whatever it is, it's just not that companionship for our, our young people. Uh, one of the things that was a great help to me, uh, and I don't know whether somebody told me or the Lord impresses upon my heart is take this blessed book everywhere you go.
Take it to work, try and read it in the lunch room. Then you know what fear is all about. Uh, you know, and it's, it's kind of hard to talk about the Lord, the people who don't wanna hear about it, but just take this book everywhere. Black ones are good and, uh, it is pretty obvious gold letters on a black book. There's no question what this is. And umm, you don't really have to make a decision too much on who your friends are gonna be.
And that's a great thing.
Uh, when, when, uh, they come here. Come with us.
Let us lay wait for this and that and the other thing. I don't know if we really want you around if you've got this.
This is a powerful book and so, umm, I have to confess I don't take it with me as much, uh, if I go down to the save on to go grocery shopping.
But, umm, maybe I need to go back to that. In my early days, I took it everywhere, never went anywhere without this book always in my hand, developed special muscles here actually, for it was great. And you know, but it's, it's true, uh, that, uh, the word of God will decide who our friends are without you even opening your mouth. And so that's a great thing. What a deliverance that is. And, uh, so.
We have this wonderful statement, my friends.
A man fears God. He doesn't.
I don't fear anything else in the.
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Broke it down, uh, it was five things that the Lord would deliver us from and that would, those would be, those would present negatives, things that we need to look out for and that we've looked at two of them. But I believe that in looking at what is the antidote, how we would be delivered from them is really what would give to us what should characterize us in this day. We look at the first two and the first one being hypocrisy. And if we could put it in a word, the antidote that should characterize the, the waiting Christian self judgment. If there's hypocrisy, the way that it will be dealt with is by way of self judgment.
And then the second one.
Fear of math If we are going to be able to meet the opposition of the enemy and it it will be, uh, by way of communion, we can't do it by our own strength or wisdom. It will be only as we are. Our hearts are engaged with Christ and we we meet man not on his own ground, but as having been with the Lord Jesus.
Stop.
#13 in the back.