The Only Way

That’s the problem with Pharisees, and they are sternly judged for it.

Now this is funny. Just as Jesus finishes rebuking the Pharisee, a scribe speaks up in Verse 45. He says, “Teacher, when you say these things you insult us too.” Jesus responds, “Woe also to you experts in the law!” (v. 46). Jesus turns to the scribes and pronounces three woes against them, too!

You burden the people with the law without helping them (v. 46). Jesus does his work by the finger of God, but these people will not lift a finger to relieve others.

You bury the prophets like your ancestors did without seeing the condemnation (vv. 47-51). The Lord tells them the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. They are just like their fathers before them.

You block the path to salvation without entering it (v. 52). What a devastating condemnation of these religious leaders. Perhaps the hottest parts of hell are reserved for such religious leaders, who knowing the gospel will not preach it, who knowing the entrance to heaven will not point it out, who will not enter that blessed kingdom themselves and forbid others also.

The Lord tells them that their guilt remains on their hands. They are not saved and keep others from being saved. These are not the kind of preachers you want for your soul. The agony of their condemnation will be terrible.

“But give from what is within to the poor, and then everything is clean for you” (emphasis added). The Lord offers this gospel to those who know that their lives are messed up because of sin and that they need a Savior. They know their need for repentance, and they delight to turn to the Lord from sin for his salvation. Those sinners who turn and trust are cleansed by Christ. If you would offer your entire self to Christ, to be his servant, to follow him, he will cleanse you, make you new, wash you. Feel dirty? Feel soiled and unclean? Come to the one who washes souls. Feel broken and torn apart? Come to the one who will heal and mend you, who will take the pieces of your life and make you whole. Come to Christ.

Preachers, be sure your souls are secure in the salvation of Christ. The Puritan pastor Richard Baxter offers sober words for preachers of God’s Word:

Take heed to yourselves lest you should be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim the necessity of a Saviour to the world, your hearts should neglect him, and you should miss of an interest in him and his saving benefits. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish while you call upon others to take heed of perishing, and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare their food. . . . Many men have warned others that they come not to the place of torment, which yet they hasted to themselves; many a preacher is now in hell, that hath an hundred times called upon his hearers to use the utmost care and diligence to escape it. (Reformed Pastor, 53)

Church, be careful how you hear the Word of God. We know what we prefer by whether we accept the hard truth gladly or become enemies of the truth teller. When a hard truth hits a hard heart, you get sparks and resistance. But you can’t soften the truth or it ceases to be the truth. A hard heart must be broken. Jeremiah 23:28-29 says,

“The prophet who has only a dream should recount the dream, but the one who has my word should speak my word truthfully, for what is straw compared to grain?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Is not my word like fire”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and like a hammer that pulverizes rock?”

God expects his word to fall like a hammer and break up the rocky heart.

A good preacher never shades or softens the truth. He never preaches the truth unlovingly, but he does preach it unflinchingly. That’s how our Lord preached in this passage.

It’s the hearer’s responsibility to keep a soft heart. A soft heart is like a fluffy pillow. When the word falls into a soft heart it rests gently and comfortably in that heart. That’s the hearer’s responsibility.

How do you keep a soft heart toward God and his word?

Luke 12:1-12

Chapter 12 begins the third sermon. In this scene “a crowd of many thousands came together.” Most Christian leaders and Christian churches would say, “That’s success!” We love to measure ministry effectiveness by numbers. The fear of man often expresses itself in love of crowds.

But Jesus is not impressed with numbers. We know this because the Lord never preaches to please crowds, and he often leaves the crowds to be with his small group of disciples. That’s what Jesus does here. His third sermon—for his disciples—might be titled, “Fear God Always.” It’s a sermon on how to cultivate the fear of the Lord. He has four points:

The main problem with the Pharisees was their hypocrisy. It’s also the main problem of too many professing Christians today. Hypocrisy is saying one thing but doing another. It’s living a double life. Hypocrisy is moral inconsistency. It’s when people praise God with their lips, but their hearts are far from him.

The problem with hypocrisy is that it spreads. Jesus says it’s like yeast. Yeast is that leavening ingredient in bread that spreads throughout the entire loaf. In the Bible it’s often used as a symbol for sin. The Bible says, “A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough” (1 Cor 5:6). That’s why our Lord tells his disciples to beware, or “Be on your guard against the leaven of . . . hypocrisy” (v. 1). For not only does it spread, it also condemns. It will be exposed in the judgment of God (vv. 2-3).

One day our lives will be shown on the big screen of God’s judgment. It will be a split screen. On one side will be the life we showed the world. On the other side will be the life we tried to hide. If they’re the same, then we have integrity. We are true disciples—true to God, true to self, and true to others. But if the two screens show different pictures, then we will be condemned as hypocrites. It will be shouted from the rooftop of heaven.

So we have to ask ourselves—every one of us who claims to be a disciple: Am I a hypocrite? Do I fear God’s judgment? Fearing the searching, all-seeing judgment of God is the first step in cultivating the fear of the Lord.

We have to embrace and respect two aspects of God’s character—his terrifying power on the one hand and his trustworthy love on the other.

Jesus speaks of God’s terrifying power to destroy the soul in hell:

“I say to you, my friends, don’t fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will show you the one to fear: Fear him who has authority to throw people into hell after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the one to fear!” (vv. 4-5)

When we think of what other human beings can do to us rather than of what God can do to us, we are guilty of the fear of man rather than the fear of God.

Jesus seems to have in mind the reality of his disciples being persecuted. He pictures men killing his disciples. He says, don’t fear them; fear God instead. Jesus pushes us to see beyond the body to the soul. That’s why twice he tells us to fear God. Tremble in God’s presence. Tremble at his judgment. For God deals with body and soul. Hell is far more serious a problem than physical death! Our bodies cease to exist, but our souls don’t. Physical pain may be great, but it’s temporary. The agony of souls in hell is eternal! We had better fear God’s judgment much more than man’s.

There’s another side to learning to fear God’s very person: We must learn to love and appreciate God’s goodness. The life of sparrows isn’t worth much in the eyes of men; in Jesus’s day you could buy five for two pennies. But the sparrow’s life is precious in God’s sight; he does not forget one of them. If God cares that way for sparrows, how much does he care for his people? God’s care for Christ’s disciples is so particular it includes the number of hairs on our heads! Because of this, Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid” (v. 7) of God.

Do you see the tension? We are to fear God’s judgment (v. 5). But we are not to be afraid of God in his love (v. 7). That’s what holy reverence or the fear of the Lord consists of: trembling before his holiness and rejoicing in his love.

My daughter has a classmate in school. I’ve seen him a couple times at her performances and school events. He’s got a pretty nice voice for singing and the like. My daughter told him that I said he has a nice voice. The young man said, “Your dad seems like he’s real cool, but I am still afraid of him sometimes.” Yeah. That’s how I want them—trembling to shake my hand and smiling with the hopes I’ll be kind! Something like that is the Christian’s fear of the Lord. We tremble at the thought of him lifting his hand in judgment, but we run to his hand for his love.

We must cultivate fear for God’s coming judgment. We must cultivate fear of God’s very person.

Here’s where we see Jesus’s thoughts about himself most clearly. Here is where he clearly tells us that he is the only way to God. Jesus says to his disciples and says to us,

And I say to you, anyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God, but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.

This is a stunning sentence. Jesus presents himself as standing between man and God. The key factor in whether we have Jesus’s approval before the court of heaven is whether we remained loyal to Jesus before the courts of earth. If we continue to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and God, then we have an advocate before the angels of God. But if we disown Jesus before men, he will disown us before the angels.

This means following Jesus is not a matter of our convenience, popularity, or man’s approval. We’re to follow Jesus no matter the cost and trust that he will reward us when men reject us.

We had a wonderful example of this a couple of years ago. Perhaps you followed the story of Meriem Ibrahim. She was the pregnant Sudanese woman imprisoned for professing faith in Christ. She was nine months pregnant and had her twenty-two-month-old son imprisoned with her. The penalty was to be one hundred lashes and death if she did not disown Jesus to the Muslim authorities. This pregnant, frail woman, whose husband is wheelchair bound with muscular dystrophy, never disowned Jesus. She feared the Son of God more than she feared men.

I think her reward in the kingdom of heaven will be great. I believe Jesus said to all the heavenly hosts, “Do you see my daughter? She belongs to me. She will be honored in all of heaven for all of time, for she did not reject me and I will never reject her!”

So it should be with everyone who follows Jesus as Lord. Let us fear the Son, lest we perish. Let us acknowledge him at all times before all men so that he will never be ashamed of us.

Jesus warns that we can be forgiven of blaspheming, or slandering, him. There’s pardon for slandering the Son, but there can be no forgiveness or pardon for blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

These words take us back to where we began. Do you remember those who said Jesus cast out demons by Beelzebul? They were slandering the work of God. They were slandering the Holy Spirit. They were hardening their hearts in unbelief. That slander and hardening, ultimately, is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

But those who truly believe trust the Holy Spirit. Even in times of persecution, they rely on the Spirit’s power. Verses 11-12 tell us that the Spirit will speak through the apostles and for us on the day of our earthly trial. We do not worry about defending ourselves. The Lord the Spirit will argue our case. So rather than blaspheme the Spirit of God, we trust him.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.”

In all of this, Jesus teaches us what it means to fear God. It is to

Do you fear God? The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge, and eternal life. That fear points out to us the one way to heaven itself. We only need one way. Truth be told, if there were many ways we would take none in our confusion. God has been merciful in giving us one way, marking it clearly, and calling us to it. Seek the Lord Jesus Christ while he may be found. Seek him and live.