Sermon Tone Analysis

Luke 12:1-12

A BIBLICAL ANTIDOTE FOR HYPOCRISY

Part 2

Intro: We are talking about the matter of hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is a painful topic.

Why is talking about hypocrisy so difficult?

It is difficult because we are all guilty of hypocrisy, and we know it.

Yet, speaking about hypocrisy is vital to the health of the church.

If hypocrisy is not exposed, like yeast it will infect the whole church.

If hypocrisy is exposed, there is an opportunity for repentance.

Jesus has been addressing a vast crowd.

He exposed the Jewish religious in their denial of truth.

Jesus exposed their hypocrisy for everyone to see.

We talked about “leaven” and how it operates.

This was a picture of the hypocrisy which infected the Jewish leaders.

Having exposed their hypocrisy through A Word Of Caution, Jesus reminds us of some eternally important truths.

Moving from A Word Of Caution, Jesus issues A Word Of Challenge.

In verses 2–12, Jesus gave three essential, non-negotiable obligations.

Obeying these obligations, will keep people from being a hypocrite.

We are commanded to honor the Father, honor the Son, and honor the Spirit.

By focusing on the triune God, you can avoid falling under the damning influence of false religion.

Those who reject the Trinity of God cannot avoid hell, since it is impossible to honor the Father without honoring the Son, and impossible to honor the Son without honoring the Spirit.

There is an interlocking chain of testimony: the Spirit testifies to the Son (John 15:26), the Son reveals the Father (Luke 10:22; John 1:18), and the Father glorifies and honors the Son (John 8:54).

Let’s continue to study this text as we consider again, A Biblical Antidote For Hypocrisy.

I pray God will root out our hypocrisy, and deliver us from self-love.

The lessons revealed in this text offer hope for those who are trapped in hypocrisy.

I. Hear A Word Of Caution

II.

v. 2-10.

HEAR A WORD OF CHALLENGE

Jesus gave three compelling reasons for honoring the Father.

First, he will uncover what is hidden.

The statement nothing covered up “…that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known,” expresses a frequent theme of our Lord’s teaching.

It echoes the closing verse of Ecclesiastes, where Solomon warns, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil,” Ecclesiastes 12:14.

The apostle Paul wrote of the “day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel,” Romans 2:16, and exhorted the Corinthians, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God,” 1 Corinthians 4:5.

While hypocrites may succeed in their deception for a time, no one gets away with hypocrisy forever.

What hypocrites successfully conceal from people will eventually be uncovered.

Some will be exposed in this life, as Paul told Timothy, 1 Tim.

5:24–25; all will be exposed in the future, when “the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his work,” Matthew 16:27.

The Lord’s warning, “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,” reinforces a painful truth: Our sins will be exposed.

What hypocrites try to hide in the darkness is clearly visible to God, as the oldest book in the Bible reveals: “There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves,” Job 34:22.

The inner rooms of which Jesus spoke were storerooms, built in the middle of houses away from the exterior walls, which were more easily dug through by thieves.

Such inner rooms were used to store valuables, but could also serve as a location for private conversations, or prayer.

The point is, hypocrisy cannot be permanently hidden.

Darrell L. Bock notes: “This figure of speech describes our most private practices.

This is a classic reversal theme: the most private of acts and utterances become the most public.

It is this exposure that makes hypocrisy useless in the long run and the heroic deed done in private an object of admiration eventually.

The contrasts are strong: darkness versus light and private whispering versus public preaching.”

Hypocrites will one day be seen for what they really are.

A second reason to fear God is because of a harsh reality.

God will punish hypocrites in hell.

Hypocrites are preoccupied with what people think.

But it is foolish, Jesus said, to be afraid of humans, who in the worst case scenarios can only kill the body and afterwards there is no more they can do.

On the other hand, Jesus went on to warn people whom to “Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

“Gehenna,” translated here as “hell,” refers to the valley of Hinnom.

This valley located just outside of Jerusalem.

Within the valley apostate Jews had built a place of worship, where they sacrificed their children to the abominable pagan god Molech by burning them in fire, Jeremiah 7:31.

This pagan shrine was defiled by godly King Josiah as part of his reforms, 2 Kings 23:10, and eventually the site became Jerusalem’s city dump.

Because it was a place where fires were constantly burning, “gehenna” came to be used figuratively to speak of eternal hell.

The one with the authority to cast into hell is not, as some imagine, Satan.

Satan is neither the one who sends people to hell, nor is he the ruler of hell.

On the contrary he himself will in a sure future day be cast into hell, Revelation 20:10, where he will be its most notorious prisoner for all eternity.

Nowhere in Scripture is there a command to fear Satan.

Believers have been completely delivered from him in the present.

John wrote, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” 1 John 4:4.

In the future Satan will have no influence on us because “… the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” Romans 16:20.

So instead of fearing Satan, believers are to resist him, James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9, be wary of his schemes, Ephesians 6:11, and avoid giving him an opportunity to lure them into sin, Ephesians 4:27; 1 Peter 5:8.

God, and God alone, is the one to be feared.

Here is another strong passage in our Lord’s teaching which refutes the false idea there is no hell.

To insist hell is a reference to the grave only destroys the contrast here and makes nonsense out of the Lord’s statement.

If there is no hell, then God would be unable to do anything to a person other than what men could do.

Both could kill someone, who then would merely go out of existence.

Jesus’ whole point is this, God is to be feared because he alone has the authority to both kill sinners and after death cast them into eternal torment.

A final reason to fear God is nothing escapes his knowledge.

Jesus used two illustrations to demonstrate God’s omniscient knowledge of even the most insignificant details.

Jesus then asked this question, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?”.

Sparrows are common small birds which were often eaten by the poor.

They were so inexpensive five could be bought for only two cents (a cent was one-sixteenth of a day’s pay for an average worker).

Yet despite their insignificance not one of them is forgotten before God.

He knows of every sparrow in the world.

He also knows the number of hairs on everyone’s head—more than 100,000 on average.

Such omniscience is the source of great comfort to his children, who have nothing to fear, since they are more valuable than many sparrows.

But while this truth is comfort to believers, it should be a cause of terror to hypocrites, whose fraudulent self-righteousness will avail them nothing in light of God’s complete and detailed knowledge of their true unregenerate condition.

Let talk now about honoring the Son.

“8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: 9 But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.” Luke 12:8–9.

The phrase “I say unto you marks” a transition in the Lord’s flow of thought.

The means to honor the Father is to honor the Son, because “He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him,” John 5:23.

The term “whosoever” is all-inclusive; only the one who confesses the Son before men honors God.

“Confess” translates a verb which means, “to agree,” or “to say the same thing.”

To confess Christ is to affirm what is true about his person, works, and words.

It is to accept the Father’s testimony, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” Matthew 3:17, and “confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,” Romans 10:9.

The essence of confessing Jesus as Lord is self-denial, submitting all aspects of one’s life to his sovereign control as a slave to his master.

In Luke 9:23–24 Jesus declared, “23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

A true confession of Christ will result in the complete transformation of a sinner into a saint.

This transformation occurs through regeneration and sanctification.

“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother,” 1 John 3:10.

Those who make such a confession will inevitably manifest it openly before men both with their words and with their changed lives in willing and grateful submission to Christ.

What a person believes and confesses about Jesus will determine their eternal destiny.

On the one hand, if a person confesses Jesus before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God.