Joey Sampaga Sermon: A Certain Cure for Hypocrisy, Luke 12:1-12

Good morning. Good morning. How are you all doing? All right. All right. All right. Before we get started, just wanted to mention a few things. I wanted to welcome Sister Ivy back. Nice to see you. It’s been a while. Brother Dennis is now feeling better. I hope so. He’s good. And Diane did like us for some reason. I don’t know if it’s John or if it’s me, or all of us. And then I wanted to welcome our guests, Kuya Ron and the family. Easter service, or just service in general. And if you can do me a favor, write at least one person’s name down that you’re gonna invite this week. I’ll hold on, let me know when you’re done. You guys done? No pen? Well, you can write it on your phones. Okay, so yeah, invite people to the Easter Sunday And it is potluck style, so make sure to bring some food with you.

And deacons, we had a meeting yesterday, and we were talking about just getting more involved in the community. So Brother Alex B. Alex is going to create a calendar for that, and we’re going to get that posted up so that we can serve our community. And just a reminder, we do have our leadership meeting on the 21st. Is it April 21st? 26th. 26th. That was close. April 26th. And if you’re not part of the Facebook church, So that’s where a lot of our announcements also go. So let Kathy Lange know and she will add you on there. Okay, so make sure to do that. And I’m going to speak with those who are going to be getting baptized. So, Sister Ivy, and then I’ll give you a call. So we won’t have to do the formal class unless there are others that are gonna do the bathroom. All right, any other announcements that we forgot to mention?

Okay, so we are, last week, we’re gonna continue our series in Luke. And we are almost halfway there, so after Maybe three more weeks or four more weeks, we’ll be halfway there. So I’m enjoying the book of Luke, and I would encourage you, if you don’t bring your Bibles to church, to bring them every single week. That way you can confirm that we’re reading the Scriptures and that I’m preaching out of the Bible. And also, if you’re looking for something to read, or where do I start, Pastor Joey, I would encourage you to read Luke every single day, one chapter a day. That’s 24 days that you will read it. And when you get to the end, start over again. And if you want to do even better than that, read two chapters a day. It doesn’t take long. And then just keep reading it over and over again. That way you get to know what we’re preaching on. And that’s the way to learn the Bible as well. And as I’m preaching, then you’ll start to understand it even more.

Alright, so last week we finished looking at the devastating encounter that Jesus had at a dinner hosted by a Pharisee. And we learned that false religion is entirely hypocritical. So you have a lot of false teachers out there. They’re being hypocrites. They’re teaching certain things, but they’re doing one thing. Or they’re teaching something that’s very hypocritical. And it does not know God, these false teachers. God truly is. And it does not provide any forgiveness with what they’re teaching. And it certainly does not lead to heaven. If you’re learning a false gospel, if you’re learning from false teachers, all they’re doing is leading you to hell. That’s why it’s important for us to understand God’s word. Because then you can approach the pastor who’s preaching something incorrect and And then you can sit down together and if the pastor is correct, he’s going to sit you down and he’s going to take you to God’s Word or vice versa. This is where you get to fact check what you say.

And I always say that you never take my word for it. Because I’m a man, I’m a sinner, and I could lie to you. And I don’t want to say that I do lie to you, but maybe I do. Who knows? Now, if you’re following, if you’re going off of the standards of God’s word, then you will know if I’m lying or not. All right? So, a false religion is a descent into satanic deception. All right? These false religions and false teachers, again, they’re going to lead you into hell if you don’t know God’s word. Now, Jesus, if you recall, he pronounced six words. The Pharisees as well as the lawyers. Remember, the lawyers back then were considered like seminary professors. He exposed them for what they really were. And the Pharisees and the scribes were the architects of works-based religion. And that’s all they wanted. Are you doing this to get to God? Are you doing that? Are you fasting? Are you tithing? Are you doing all of these rituals?

They taught people that they could earn favor with God through ceremonies and self-righteous works. But their religion was a fraud. Now today we’re going to transition into Luke chapter 12, so make sure you get to Luke chapter 12. And Jesus is about to tell us exactly how to avoid the eternal disasters of being caught up in the hypocrisy of false religion. Because we need to not get caught up with that. Just because a person at the pulpit can speak very well and entice you and tickle your ears and make it sound very motivational and inspiring, if it’s not God’s word, then it doesn’t matter. All right, so let’s talk about the context and background of our passage today. So the scene has shifted from a private dinner to a massive public gathering. In fact, the crowd is so large, it’s almost beyond counting. Luke uses a Greek word, which literally means 10,000, because it’s the Because it’s in the plural, we’re talking about tens of thousands of people who were gathered to hear Jesus speak and to teach.

And this crowd is so massive and out of control that people are literally stepping on one another. Because back then they didn’t have these microphones and these speakers. So they had to try and come closer to hear God. Now could it be that maybe when Jesus was speaking, because he is God that other people heard, could be. Or it could be that his apostles were at certain intervals so that when Jesus would speak, then this person would speak and repeat what he said and repeat what they said. Or, like in the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus was preaching from the boat, they were in a cove with acoustics where he spoke and it bounced off the wall and people heard him. So we don’t know how people heard, but in this case, I’m going to just think that people were just trying to get as close as they could was saying. So they didn’t, again, they didn’t have any sound systems in the ancient world. So everyone was pushing and shoving just to get close enough to Jesus to hear him speak.

And now the tension here is, it’s a fever pitch. I mean, it’s getting hot. And most of the massive crowd is actually becoming hostile toward Jesus. Because remember, they were learning from the Pharisees. And I’m sure that when they’re hearing what Jesus is saying and it’s contradicting what the Pharisees are saying, they’re probably, you know, if they’re religious people, they’re going to say, oh, Jesus, you’re not teaching the right thing because this is what, you know, this Pharisee taught us. So they’re probably getting upset. So they brought into their mindset or the spin of things created by the Pharisees adopting these blasphemous lies that Jesus performs his miracles by the power of Satan. Remember a couple weeks ago when Jesus was performing these miracles or casting out demons, what was the Pharisees accusing him of? that he was using the power of Satan to cast out demons, which doesn’t make sense. But right in the middle of this hostile mob, there’s a group of people who are identified as disciples. And the Greek word is mathetes, which simply means a learner or a student.

And these are people who have not completely made up their minds yet. So they’re still trying to listen. They’re still trying to discern what’s right and what’s wrong. And they’re listening. And Jesus, he directs his message to them first. And he wants to show them how to escape the damning influence of these false teachers and these false religions. So let’s read God’s word together. Luke chapter 12, verses 1 to 12. It says, in the meantime, when so many thousands of people had gathered together and they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the house walls. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.

But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he is killed, has authority to cast him to hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. So fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows. And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man, also will acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. This is the word of the Lord. Let’s pray.

Our Father, Lord God, we thank you for the clarity of your word. We pray that you would open our eyes to the deadly danger of hypocrisy. Father, keep us from pretending to be something we’re not. Show us the true path of salvation which is found only by honoring you, your Son, and your Holy Spirit. that you open their eyes and remove the scales from their eyes and their ears, open their spiritual ears to hear the message today and reveal to them what you want taught. Father, as always, remove me from this sermon, hide me behind the cross, allowing your spirit to speak through me, and not my own words, but your word. Father, we thank you, we love you, we praise you. In Jesus’ name, amen. All right, so Jesus, he begins with a severe warning here. He says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. So leaven, if you don’t know, is yeast. Any bakers here? Atenana. Now, Atenana, you probably know of yeast, right? So you put yeast in the dough and it rises.

which you put fermented dough into a new batch of dough, and it expands and it permeates everything. So Jesus is saying that false religion is just like yeast. It ferments and it corrupts everything that it touches. So these false teachings that these Pharisees are teaching, or any false teacher, it’s going to ferment. And if you continue to listen to that type of teaching, it’s going to ferment in you and your false faith. And that faith is going to be what you think is faith that brings you to salvation, but it’s going to be short of salvation. And instead of going into heaven to be with our Heavenly Father, you’re going to be damned to hell along with those false teachings. So how do we avoid these disasters? Jesus lays out three essential duties here. He says you must honor God, God the Father. You must honor Christ, God the Son. And you must honor the Holy Spirit. So you cannot avoid hell if you are not a Trinitarian. Meaning that if you don’t believe in the Trinity… God being three persons in one, then you were worshiping a false god. You were worshiping an idol.

The Trinity is the true God. It doesn’t mean that we’re worshiping three gods. We’re only worshiping one God in three persons. So the first point I wanted to bring to you is we need to honor God. This is in verses 1-7. So hypocrites live their lives trying to please men. They fast, they pray, and they give money just to be seen by other people. They try and serve, and they do it to appease men, but also to get attention so they get the glory instead of giving it to God. And the cure for hypocrisy is to stop fearing men and start fearing God. We need to fear God and not men. Jesus gives three reasons why we must fear God. The first is God will uncover what is hidden. Jesus says in verse 2 and 3 that whatever is covered up will be revealed. And in the ancient world, houses were built out of dirt and mud, and people would build an inner room away from the outer walls to keep their valuables safe.

And it’s also the place where you went to whisper when you didn’t want to be heard. So they built these so that there’s maybe a space there, and then they build it along here and along here, so that you can’t hear what they’re saying. So Jesus says that the secrets whispered in the inner rooms, or just in general, will be shouted from the flat housetops, which are the places where public announcements were made. So you can’t keep anything from God. You can’t keep it secret. Because eventually it will be exposed, whether in this lifetime or the next. And God will eventually tear off the mask of every single hypocrite, including you and I. Secondly, God will punish hypocrites in hell. If you continue to be a hypocrite and that’s your lifestyle. I can not proudly or ashamedly admit that sometimes I act like a hypocrite myself. Even being a pastor. I repent from that as much as I can and I ask God for his forgiveness. Look at verse 4.

Jesus says not to be afraid of those who can only kill the body. Remember, God will punish the hypocrites. All people can do, if you think about it, the dictator or those who like to punish people can only kill the body. Yes, it hurts. They may keep you alive for as long as they can, but they’ll eventually only be able to kill you. And once you’re done, you’re done now. They can’t harm you any longer. All people can do is kill your physical body. And for a believer, that’s just a promotion into the presence of Christ. Right, it said, now look at verse five, it tells us to fear the one who has the authority to cast you into hell. So some people say that the word for hell here just means the grave, but that’s nonsense, right? If there is no eternal hell, then God cannot do anything to you that an ordinary murderer cannot do. Think about that for a second. Right? If hell, if you just die here, well, there’s nothing else God can do.

But because our souls and our spirits continue to live, well, God can still punish you for his wrath on your soul and your So the word Jesus uses for hell is the Greek word for Gehenna. And this comes from the valley of Hinnom, located southwest of Jerusalem. Now in the Old Testament, wicked kings actually set up idols there and sacrificed their own children in a massive fire pit. Now King Josiah, he eventually stopped those abominations and he turned the valley into a city dump. The fires kept burning constantly to consume the garbage of the city. I remember in the Philippines when we were there for 15 months, we could always smell burning trash, or something burning. Just imagine that. So the fires, they kept burning constantly to consume the garbage of the city. And because it was a place of burning, smoke, and slaughter, the Jews used the name Gehenna to describe eternal hell. And Jesus, he warns us to fear the God who can send the soul to that place of eternal torment. Only God can put us in that eternal torment. No one else but God.

Now thirdly, the fear, we are to fear God because nothing escapes his knowledge. He knows everything. You can’t hide anything from him. Nothing. Verse six asks if five sparrows are not sold for two pennies. Sparrows were the cheapest food available for the poor. You can buy two of them for a single copper coin, and if you spent two coins, they threw in a fifth bird for free. You had to buy two, get two for free. So nobody cared about the sparrows, really, yet Jesus says not one of them is forgotten by God. God knows his creation, every single one. Every animal, every feathers, every hair on an animal’s fur. God even numbers the hairs on your head and my head. Most of us anyway. You may have one or two. It’s okay. It’s less to count. He doesn’t have to acquire this information or study it, right? Because He knows you. He created you. If something exists, God simply knows it. Because He’s the Creator.

If He knows every detail about a cheap bird, and I don’t mean to call a sparrow a cheap bird, but it was in that time, He knows the absolute truth that’s in your hearts. You know, you can speak and look good on the outside, but God, he doesn’t care about your outside. He cares about the heart. And that’s what he looks like. But notice the beautiful comfort in verse 7. He says, Fear not. You are of more value than many sparrows. All right? And if you already fear God in a posture of reverence and faith, you don’t need to be afraid of his judgments. And when I say when you fear God, you don’t fear him like you’re scared of him, right? The type of fear that we’re talking about is reverence, respect, knowing that God is God and he’s a creator and that he can do anything he pleases. And understanding that God is good and anything he does is good, even though on the outside or from our vantage point, it doesn’t always look good. But in the end, God makes it good.

right so the lord he protects those who are his he may discipline you if you’re doing something bad as one of his children a loving father a loving parent would discipline their child that they love them and they would do it according to what you’ve done right if your child lies to you or lies or cheats on their Well, you want to discipline them. And however you decide to discipline them, it’s up to you. Just make sure that it matches the crime. Right? So I got spanked with a belt. Today is, I don’t know. I don’t know what today is. I don’t have any children, so I don’t know. And I don’t know if it’s time out or if it’s I’m going to take your phone away or what it is. Honor Jesus. We move from honoring the Father to honoring the Son. Verse 8 says, And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man, also will acknowledge me before the angels of God.

So you can’t honor God if you don’t honor Jesus. Jesus stated plainly in the Gospel of John that no one comes to the Father except through whom? Through Him. So the word translated as acknowledges or confesses is the Greek word homologeo. So the root words are homo, which means the same, and lego, meaning to say. So it literally means to say the same thing or to say what is true, basically the truth. So when you confess Christ, you’re publicly owning up to the truth about his person, his work, and his words. So this requires more than just lip service. In Matthew chapter 7, and this is what brought me to pastoral ministry, Jesus warned that many will call him Lord, but he will turn them away because they were workers of iniquity. A true confession is proven by a transformed life. If you say you’re a Christian, but your life looks exactly the same as it did when you said you were a Christian before that, then you really haven’t been changed, have you? You never were truly transformed.

And I mention this whenever, that’s why I don’t, if I ever did an altar call and someone accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in their hearts, I won’t be the one to say, well, welcome to the family of God. Because we don’t know if they’re going to actually, truly receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior until time passes and we discern their works. Now it’s not to judge them, it’s to discern there’s a difference. You know, as a pastor or ministry leaders or someone you’re discipling, you notice if they say they’re a Christian but they don’t demonstrate Christian values, not to say that they’re gonna change immediately, because they don’t change immediately, there’s a process to sanctification. Some will be sanctified or be more like Christ, a little bit slower or faster than others. But as long as you see changes, and you’ll see them change, they’ll be more like Christ, they’re going to be more obedient to God, so you’ll see this trend. You’ll see ups and downs, right, ebbs and flows, but as long as it’s ebb and flowing towards God. That’s how you tell when something’s

So, we have So the Apostle Paul, or true confession, is proven by the transformed life. So the Apostle Paul, he wrote this in Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10. It says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God is raising from the dead, what will happen? You will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. You confess that you truly and genuinely mean. Now notice that you must confess Him as Lord. Is He the Lord in your life? Do you give your life 100% to Him? Now when you’re first saved, as a baby Christian, maybe you won’t do that right away. I know I didn’t. I still had some questions. I still have doubts. Even today I have doubts. I want you to hear this. Not that I doubt God exists and God is good and God is there. I’m not doubting so much about that.

I’m doubting, oh, why are these bad things happening to me? And so there’s a little tinge of doubt. But then I start to understand. I start to know I have to trust the Lord. I have to pray. And when I pray and when I walk in the Spirit, then He allows me to have even more faith. If you don’t believe me, like I’m just me, and if we go to Psalms 23, we know Lord, we know that that’s a great psalm, but if you go to Psalm 22 right before that, David is like, Lord, why is this happening to me? He’s asking God, why is this happening to me? Did he have doubts? Yeah, I would say he did. John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin. He was in jail, and he baptized Jesus. He saw, he heard God. And he was given revelation by the Holy Spirit, but what did John tell his disciples to do? He said, go ask Jesus if he’s the one. But Jesus, he affirmed this. He said, come on. Jesus says, you know, there’s a lot of prophets here, but this guy, John, he didn’t say this part. He didn’t say, well, he’s

Now notice that you must confess him as Lord, and this implies absolute surrender. Jesus said earlier in Luke 9.23, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and what? Take up his cross daily and follow me. What is your cross? We all have different crosses. Some of us have heavier ones. Some of us have a little bit lighter ones. But do you carry that on a daily basis? It is a sacrifice to Christian living. But I promise you, according to God’s word, God promises you, don’t take my word, God promises you, when you’re done from this world, you will no longer have to sacrifice anything. You’re going to be in heaven and everything’s perfect. No need for prayer. No need to repent from your sins. No need to pray for someone to feel better or for travel mercies or anything like that. Because everything’s perfect. Everybody can be healthy. We’re all going to have our new bodies. Now the Greek word for deny is arneomai, which means to reject or disown.

Denying yourself means refusing to associate with the person you used to be. When you go back to yourself, your old self, you need to deny that person. You need to push them away because God has created a new nature in you. Does our old one still exist? Well, kind of. Because we tend to want to do what we used to do. Especially when you’re going to some of your friends before you were saved that you used to hang out with. I know that sometimes I’ll start to speak like I used to speak when I’m with my old friend. And you ought to say that because you ought to be saying, well, wait a minute. I shouldn’t be talking like that. I’m a Christian. I belong to God. You give up your own ambitions and your own will to God’s will. Taking up your cross means you’re willing to face persecution even, and even death for the sake of Christ. Do you think you’d be able to do that? I mean, it’s easy to say that. I don’t do that.

But when you’re there, and I’m gonna be a little graphic here, remember that, when ISIS was big, and then you had that image, that picture that was taken of these men lined up on the shore of the beach in orange, and then you had the ISIS people who were probably gonna grab their head and just tap their heads on. Would you be able to just say, Lord, please help me? Or would you be like, we can’t. Jesus is not Lord. Right? Would you be able to do that? And right now, I can say yes. But I don’t know how I would react as their, you know, however I’m going to die as someone persecutes me. I don’t know. i’d like to think that i won’t and that’s my initial thought but as i started to study this and i’m gonna get to it you’re gonna be like you know what i don’t think i will i’m not gonna be careful because you’re gonna see what the bible says here right So when you publicly confess Jesus as Lord and submit life to him, Jesus promises that on the day of judgment, he will confess your name before the angels of God and he will separate the sheep from the goats and welcome you into eternal life.

But if you do deny him, he will deny you. Okay, so here’s where I’m going to get where we honor the Holy Spirit. This is the third point in verses 10 and 12. We’re to honor God and the Holy Spirit. We have seen that you must honor the Father and honor the Son. Finally, you must honor the Holy Spirit. So look at verse 10. It says, And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit What does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? It has nothing to do with denying someone’s supposed mystical vision or their ecstatic experience. It’s to understand this, that we must realize that everyone who is saved was once a blasphemer before you were converted. We all blaspheme the Holy Spirit. We rejected Christ and we broke God’s law. And that’s blasphemy. And it can be forgiven. You hear that last part? It can be forgiven.

However, the Holy Spirit is the supreme revealer of truth here. And the Holy Spirit, the author of the scriptures… And you cannot know the truth about Jesus Christ unless you believe the revelation is given by the Holy Spirit. So when the Holy Spirit is revealing God to you, whether it’s through, well, through creation, number one, when you look out there, you can’t say anything, but yes, there has to be a God out there. And then when the Holy Spirit is revealing to you who God truly is and who Christ truly is, not by speaking to you, But it could be by speaking to you, it’s by someone sharing the gospel and God’s word, right? The Holy Spirit has written this or inspired this. God the Father inspired this and the Holy Spirit put it upon men or authors, over 40 of them, to write this. And if you blaspheme that or you don’t believe it, oh, you’re blaspheming the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean that if you’re saved, truly and genuinely saved, that you can blaspheme the Holy Spirit and then you lose your salvation. It does not mean that.

Because once you have your salvation and you truly are genuinely saved, You are in God’s hands, and he will never, ever allow you to be taken out of his hands. So your salvation is guaranteed once you’re saved. It doesn’t mean that if, let’s say I’m saved, and I’m blaspheming the Holy Spirit somehow, that I lose my salvation. It does not mean that. God is revealed in Christ, and Christ is revealed by the Holy Spirit. So the Pharisees had seen the miracles of Jesus. They heard his teaching. It was obvious that the Holy Spirit was working through him, working through Jesus. Yet they deliberately attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to whom? To Satan. And if you reject the testimony of the Holy Spirit regarding Jesus, Jesus Christ, you have completely cut yourself off from the only source of truth. And if you don’t believe the Spirit’s testimony, there’s no other way to be saved. That makes it an unforgivable sin. Because once the Holy Spirit starts to reveal Dead. Dead.

If you work in the hospital, when you see a dead person, and they’ve been dead, let’s say they have the code blue where they’re trying to resuscitate them, doing compressions or whatever it is for 45 minutes and they were dead and then the doctor, you know, he pronounces or he gives a time and he says at 3.05 p.m. this person died. Can they somehow come alive after that? Can they? Can they come alive after that? I mean, their physical body. Once they’re dead, they’re dead. There’s nothing anyone can do. The person who’s dead cannot do anything to come alive. And so when the Bible says that the spirit, our spirit, we’re spiritually dead, there’s nothing we can do to come alive, to bring us that only takes, the only one who can bring us alive, our spirits alive, is whom? God. Only God can do that. So it’s God’s work that brings us to himself. Only God. Nothing we did, only God. And how can one be saved? How can one God? Does God use us? How does he use us, like you, right now? How does he use you to bring spirits alive?

To bring individual spirits alive? It’s the Holy Spirit, but what else? What has a power What has the power to save? The gospel. Romans 1.16, right? It’s only by the gospel. If they don’t hear the gospel, they’re not going to be saved. If there’s no one to preach the gospel or to share the gospel, no one will be saved. One must share it, preach it, speak it, to the person, and then the Holy Spirit, if they’re going to, if God decides, remember, and I know this sounds unfair, but if God decides that you’re a part of the chosen, now if you’re a Christian, you’re the chosen one, you’re one of the chosen, if you’re a chosen, he’s going to remove those scales from your eyes, and your ears, and then you’re going to hear the gospel, and you’re going to respond to it. Those who don’t respond are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is not a sin that a truly saved person can commit to lose their salvation because the Spirit takes up permanent residence and secures a true believer’s faith to the very end.

When God starts a work in you, what’s going to happen? He’s going to what? Rather, okay, so the Spirit takes a permanent residence and secures a true believer’s faith to the very end. Rather, it is an unforgivable and final rejection of the Holy Spirit’s clear testimony about Jesus Christ, which permanently cuts an unbeliever off from the only path to saving truth. It’s only through Christ. It’s only through good news that we see this. It’s only through the Gospels. Let’s look at a beautiful promise given to those who do honor the Spirit. In verses 11 and 12, it says that when you’re dragged before synagogues and rulers, or those who are gonna persecute you, the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. And this also goes to when you’re defending. Defending the gospel, that is. So the early believers, they faced severe persecution Every local synagogue had a court of about 23 judges who handled violations of religious law. And if you were found guilty of preaching Christ, they would sentence you to 39 lashes.

One judge would recite the scripture as you were being whipped. The other would count the blows to make sure there were 39. And the third would issue the whip. The commands So the Apostle Paul himself used to participate in this cruel practice before he was saved. Did you know that? He wasn’t known as Paul, then he was Saul. Jesus is telling his followers that persecution is inevitable. But when it happens, they do not need to panic because the Holy Spirit takes a permanent resonance with Stephen in the book of Acts. He was dragged before the most hostile religious court in Israel. And he didn’t have a script prepared. He didn’t take the way of the masters or memorize the Roman roads. He didn’t go to, what is it, evangelism explosion. He didn’t attend any of those classes. He was absent. But the Holy Spirit filled him, and he delivered one of the most powerful sermons in all of history. Even as the religious leaders gnashed their teeth and they were hurling stones at Stephen, what was Stephen doing?

They were hurling stones to crush the life out of his body, and the Holy Spirit sustained him. The Spirit gave him the words to confidently commit his spirit to the Lord and to ask God to forgive his murderers. You guys remember that? If you haven’t, go read Acts. I can’t remember what chapter that is. Anyone know? Is it 7? I think it’s 7. Where Paul is actually kind of introducing it. Or Saul. Stephen, he didn’t waver. And I want you to note this. It was the apostle Paul, known as Saul at the time, who authorized the stoning of Stephen. Paul, or Saul, was a murderer of Christians. And he ended up being, and after God transformed him and changed him, well, he blinded him first, and he learned directly from Jesus, and he became one of the greatest, if not the greatest evangelist or missionary, Look at the apostles. You’ve got Peter, who once cowered in the fear of a servant girl, asking, hey, aren’t you with Jesus? He cowered in fear of that.

And then later was filled with the Holy Spirit. He stood boldly before the very men who crucified Jesus, and he declared that there is salvation in no other name. He also preached evangelism. During Pentecost. Pentecost, yes, during Pentecost. So history, it tells us that almost all the disciples faced brutal executions. And they were crucified, run through with spears, and beheaded or beheaded. Imagine being run through with a spear. That sounds painful. It’s like shish kabobing the human body. can’t the Holy Spirit had sustained their confession of Christ to their final breath and this is a promise that is said here because the Holy Spirit lives in us so me doubting whether I would sustain or not recant if I were to be tortured and to recant my faith and they would stop well now I have more confidence knowing that I probably won’t or I won’t because the Holy Spirit lives in me take on that type of pain. Probably not feel it because when Stephen was being stoned, he wasn’t sitting there going, ow, ow, ow, whatever it is.

He was still praying and he even asked God to forgive him, right? And he saw Jesus while he was being stoned. So he probably, I would guess he wasn’t feeling pain. Not to say that we won’t hear pain, I don’t know. And I know with us living in the United States, at least in our lifetime, although it’s getting there, we won’t be persecuted like that would. We’d be persecuted with name calling. You Bible thumper. You Jesus freak. You radical. Probably the worst we’ll get. At least for now. So this is not just a promise for ancient apostles. I want to share this piece of history, church history, with you. Five martyrs were waiting to die in Lyon, France. They had been imprisoned by the Catholic Church for their association with John Calvin. They graduated from Calvin Seminary, and knowing that they were about to face execution, human fear began to set in. They wrote a letter to… So it’s Calvin asking him to tell them what to say when they face the guillotine.

My heart would be thumping, and I would be thinking like them. Lord, my head would be thumping off at that guillotine. And Calvin, he wrote back and essentially said that he didn’t need to tell them what to say. Now, he wasn’t saying this to be insensitive. He wrote back that the Holy Spirit would be their resonant teacher. and would give them the exact words that they needed in their final hour. He reminded them that they didn’t need to fear denying Christ, because the resident true teacher, the Holy Spirit, lived inside them, and the Holy Spirit of God caused them to burst forth in bold affirmation and confession of Jesus as Lord. Even as they stared death in the face, That’s exactly what happened when they got him. They were bold. They didn’t recant. Just like those men on the beach when their heads were being sawed off their bodies. Just like Stephen when he was being stoned to death. So if you truly believe the revelation of the Holy Spirit, he will sustain your faith to the very end. And you will not

So this entire message that you’ve heard today, the entire message of the gospel is wrapped up in this Trinitarian reality that we were talking about. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I would honor them. We all have sinned against God the Father, breaking his holy law. Left to ourselves, we face the terrifying prospect of his judgment in hell. But God the Son stepped into history He lived the perfect life that we failed to live, and He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, and He rose from the grave, conquering death. Now, how do we know this is true? Well, we know it because God the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us in the pages of Scripture and throughout our lives. The Holy Spirit opens our blind eyes regenerates our dead hearts, and empowers us to confess Jesus as Lord. So you cannot approach a God of your own making here. You can’t create an idol and say, oh, my God doesn’t send people to hell. My God is all about love, not wrath.

We need to worship the God in the Bible That’s the true God. Not the one you make up in your own head. Not the God that culture out there makes up. It’s the God in the Bible. You must come to one truth, that God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible. God reveals Himself to us through His Word. So how do we apply this? First, you need Are you living for the approval of men, or do you truly fear God? Now remember that time and truth go hand in hand. God sees into your inner rooms, into your heart. He knows your motives. Don’t play the part of a religious actor. Confess your sins and rely entirely on the grace of Christ, on Jesus. And secondly, embrace the lordship of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not just a matter of adding Jesus to your life to fix your problem. It’s about dying to yourself. Submit your ambitions and your plans to the sovereign ruler of the universe. This final one is going to wake you up. Finally, you’re going to wake up.

Rest in the power of the Holy Spirit’s We live in a culture that is increasingly hostile to biblical truth. So you may face opposition from family, from friends, from co-workers, from people who are walking the streets of downtown Gilbert. Do not be anxious, the Bible says. The same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures lives inside you. Every single one of us who were born again. And He will sustain your faith the words to say when you were called to defend the gospel should we learn should we take you know classes on how to share the gospel absolutely should we know our testimonies absolutely but eventually when you are there sometimes You just don’t know what to say because you’re put into so much pressure. But guess what? The Holy Spirit can give you the word. Whether it’s from the training, whether it’s from God’s word, whether it’s how he wants to have you say it. But believe it and know it. Amen? Amen.

Lord God, our God, how staggering it is. your infinite glory. Father, we thank you. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for engaging in this unimaginable work of redemption. Thank you for reducing this profound truth to a simplicity that we can understand. Even a child can understand it. And Lord, we ask that the Holy Spirit would grant repentance to anyone here today who is trapped in false religion or a God that they’ve created or concocted in their own minds. Lord, may they confess Jesus That if they aren’t saved, Lord, I don’t know their hearts, only you do. That you save them to make a big, a big hope. To bring them to your knees. Bring them to their knees. And have them confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And Father, that they ask, what must I do to be saved? And Lord, that you’ll reveal to them that they must repent from their sin. turn to you, confess their sins to you, ask for forgiveness, and have faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Father, may our confession that Jesus is Lord be to the glory of your holy name. Father, we love you and we praise you. In Jesus’ name we pray.