"And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God, but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him. Now when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship today in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us today, whether it's your first time or you are a faithful member of our family in Christ, we're glad you are here. If you have recently received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please contact and let us know so that we can pray for you.
In an era saturated online and televised ministries, there is certainly no shortage of false teachers who twist Scripture to acquire financial gain. Religious leaders who
profess to possess the ability to cure the incurable or promise prosperity for the impoverished for some vulnerable believer who is desperate and willingly to fork over their last cent to some fraudulent religious leader who stages healings to extract wealth from the afflicted. Phony faith healers like Peter Popoff, whose "miracles" were exposed as fraud when investigators revealed his wife fed him details via a hidden earpiece about audience members' ailments. By the way, Popoff resurfaced decades later, peddling debt-relief scams to the same desperate demographic. Then, there's the Nigerian televangelist, TB Joshua, whose Synagogue Church of All Nations drew millions with broadcasts of apparent resurrections and tumor vanishings, was posthumously unmasked in a BBC investigation. Former insiders confessed to faking medical certificates, planting "demon-possessed" actors, and suppressing deaths during "exorcisms" to sustain the illusion—all while amassing a fortune estimated in the tens of millions. And, let's not forget Jim Bakker, who pioneered the Prosperity Gospel in the 1980's with his PTL Club ministry, which later crumbled due to a public sex scandal after Jessica Hahn, the 21-year-old church secretary, disclosed that Bakker had paid for her silence from church funds in response to an allegation against him for drugging and raping her, along with another preacher, John Wesley Fletcher. After being released from prison, Bakker later faced several lawsuits from Missouri and Arkansas Attorney General's for peddling a fraudulent silver solution elixir, said to be a cure for Covid-19, claiming it could "kill viruses" through divine endorsement, despite no scientific evidence supporting its efficacy, reportedly earning him thousands of dollars before regulators intervened.
We've all likely crossed paths with those religious folks who are not who they profess to be, and do not do what they claim to do, that profess to uphold a higher standard of moral integrity and principles while engaging in behaviors that drastically contradict their claims. Quite frankly, even to speak the words "hypocrite" or "hypocrisy" leaves a very bad taste in our mouths, particularly when referring to religious hypocrites who claim to value honesty and forgiveness, yet lie when the truth fits better and harbor grudges like buried treasures. However, this dissonance cuts much deeper when these religious frauds who profess to know God, pretend to represent God, or to speak for God, while their lives publicly unravel in contradiction, exposing them as nothing more than religious frauds, tarnish the collective witness of Christianity.
Its no secret, that throughout the history of the church, it has been plagued with hypocrisy, and no era holds a monopoly on this devastating plague. In stark contrast, Tertullian, born to a Roman centurion in Carthage, North Africa in AD 145, known in church history as the "father of Latin theology," stated that he could not imagine a truly Christian life without a conscious breach, a radical act of conversion. He publicly criticized the hypocrisy of those who claimed Christian identity, while living licentiously, compromising with surrounding paganism, pointing out that such behavior was inconsistent with the true faith. He particularly criticized those who attended church services for social status rather than true faith,
Today, American Christianity has become a little more than a "clanging cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1) as we suffer the devastating effects of pastors who have been involved in some sort of sexual abuse scandal, almost daily. Scripture spares no mercy for such insidious religious deception, those masquerading as men of God, branding them as the most dangerous and damnable of all, calling them "ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing" whose downfall drags multitudes to Hell with them. In Matthew 23, Jesus likens them to whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside but rotting on the inside. As I have stated numerous times, it's not how much Scripture we profess to know, but how much Scripture we actually live that matters. What a person believes will inevitably be revealed in the way they live their life. Time and Truth go hand in hand. If you have truly been born-again, you can no longer afford to claim to be "born this way." The old sinful you has been crucified with Christ, raised to New Life, made a new creation in Christ, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God.
In our text today, on the heals of hypocrisy's warning and the fear of man in the previous verses, Jesus challenges His followers to embrace fearless authenticity, the eternal promise of our faithful confession in the face of adversity, as well as understanding the consequences of publicly denying Him. First, let's pray.
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word, and this precious time together. Lord, help me to be what You want me to be, that I might continually give my attention to living godly, and model the same standard of commitment to holiness and purity that You have commanded me to call every believer to. We in leadership must set the standard that others may follow to become more like the Savior. Lord, help us to give no place to that which corrupts our witness, or brings reproach upon Your great name. Help us to be people of the Truth, who live humbly in submission to Your Word, may we be diligent to proclaim Your Word boldly for the sake of those around us whom the Holy Spirit reveals, may we not be intimidated by worldly philosophy or intellectualism, the supposed wisdom of the world, when we know the only True wisdom comes from You. We trust that by the power of Your Spirit that lives in us, You will will be done, for our good and Your glory. We ask these things in the most precious name of Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
Today's Message: Unashamed Confession in the Face of Persecution
Let's take out our Bibles and open them to the Gospel of Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, verses eight through twelve. I trust that you to follow along with me as I read to get the text set within our minds, to help us to get a grasp on this very compelling portion of Scripture on the importance of bold faith and fearless confession. Luke 12:8-12.
"And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God, but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him. Now when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
Let's begin by looking at verse 8, "And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God." Beloved, this is about the promise of divine recognition from the Divine Authority, Christ, Who will publicly acknowledge those who know God, those who have their sins forgiven and those who will receive eternal life. As we mentioned in our last message, you might hide your hypocrisy from men, but you cannot hide it from God. Do not be deceived by Satan's superficial gospel presentation: You cannot claim to belong to Christ while habitually living in unrepentant sin. That's the sin of hypocrisy! When we think of the word confess, we think of somebody who is making a confession, owning up to something that is true. Like when someone confesses guilt to a crime they're being accused of. To say the same thing, to agree with another. And that's exactly what the Greek verb "homologeo" means.
Homoú means the same. Légō means to say, to speak to a conclusion. You're publicly agreeing with God's verdict on Christ, Jesus is Lord. He's not talking about you that confession you make in your heart in Romans 10:9, which says "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." If you will publicly name Him as yours before men, He will publicly name you as His before the angels of God. This soul is belongs to Me. It's been redeemed. What can a mere man do to silence such affirmation? Nothing!
The caveat is, your confession must be before men. What does that mean? It means you don't just confess Him with your lips, and go on with your life as it was, business as usual. We all know those "Christians" who are professor's, but not possessor's, they are the first to say, "Oh yeah, I'm a Christian." But when you look at their lives, there's not a single shred of evidence of salvation. There are some people who draw near to God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. It's nothing more than empty words coming from empty hearts. While counterfeit Christianity can outwardly appear to be genuine, it lacks the true motivation of glorifying God, but instead stems from a desire for personal recognition or self-exaltation. There's never been an authentic transformation of the heart.
In verse 9, Jesus provides us with the contrast, the stark eternal consequences of publicly rejecting Christ, "But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God." In a world where we've turned genuine confession into bumper stickers and coffee mugs, Jesus demands a unashamed, real, raw public confession. We're not talking about the post-modern evangelistic confess, "Just add Jesus to your life," we're talking about a complete and total take over. You're giving up your life to live for Him. Remember what He said Matthew 16:25? "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." It means taking up your cross, dying to self. In Luke 9:23, Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Revelation 3:5, "He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." Proverbs 18:21 reminds us that, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." People are watching and listening, family, friends and foes. Always being ready to make a defense. Will you stand firm or will you shrink back? Paul exhorts us in 2 Timothy 1:7-8, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of either the witness about our Lord or me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God." Our words alone won't pierce the heart, it's our transformed lives that tell the story. Frankly, I find it painful to watch the way some Christians are conducting themselves. Pray, ask the Lord search you and reveal the areas to you where you fall short. Then, start proclaiming Christ. Start small, sharing your testimony with those closest to you; friends, family, co-workers. Ask Him to reveal to you the hears He has prepared, before you know it, you'll be talking about Christ everywhere you go. Remember, "Iron sharpens iron," so be sure you find an accountability partner who will ask you, "How many people did you confess Christ this week?" Sharing the truth is an essential part of loving others. Consistency builds momentum.
Verse 10, "And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him." Right in the middle of Jesus' white-hot manifesto against fear, He clearly affirms the existence of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, offering a divine warning wrapped in sovereign grace for those who still listening to Him and open to the Truth, highlighting that salvation belongs only to those who have a trinitarian faith, and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven, in this age or in the age to come. Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? Because it isn't just a minor slip of the tongue; it is a deliberate, willful act of rebellion, stemming from a hardened heart that refuses to acknowledge God's own voice, the Holy Spirit. Why is this so important? Listen carefully, it represents a permanent state of unrepentance, an irreversible rejection of salvation. No one comes to the Father except through the Son and no one comes to the Son except by the Spirit. In order to avoid the damning judgment this going to come upon the world of unrepentant sinners, those caught up in false religion, those who are self-righteous religious hypocrites, one must acknowledge the Trinitarian God of the Bible; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus Christ as the Son of God, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ points us to God the Father. The world is full of false teachers, they are literally everywhere. Just because somebody claims to speak for God, doesn't mean they actually represent Him. When somebody claims to have a message from God, it is either true or it is a lie. The Truth comes from the Spirit of God and lies from the spirit of Antichrist. It's black and white, there is no grey area, no middle ground. That's why John in 1 John 4 tells us to test the Spirits to find out from where they come. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world hears them. We are from God. The one who knows God hears us; the one who is not from God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Notice how you tell the difference, Scripture comes from God and always reveals Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. All false religion comes Satan, it contradicts Scripture and will deny the reality of Jesus' humanity and divinity.
Matthew 16:15-17, "But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." Satan cannot replicate the work of the Holy Spirit. You cannot claim to know God and reject Christ as being equal to God, because Jesus Himself said in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one." The Spirit of God will always be consistent with Scripture. Leviticus 24:15-16,, tells us "And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin. Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of Yahweh shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death." Blasphemy is the Greek word "blasphemeo,"— which is not just dishonoring God or merely speaking profanity against God; it's slander against His holiness, it is a deliberate and malicious defamation of His character. Once you've heard the Gospel, once you tasted of salvation. Meaning you heard the offer of God's grace and mercy and His forgiveness of sin and rejected the offer for eternal life, turning and walking away, it's impossible to be renewed unto repentance. If you reject the testimony of the Holy Spirit, there's no way to be saved, there is no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, there's nothing left but "a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries." By the way, for the record, blaspheming the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with denying somebody's "anointing" or ability to speak in tongues, or somebody's claim to have received a "prophetic word" from the Lord.
That brings us to verses eleven and twelve, "Now when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." In a world that mocks the Messiah, Jesus takes to arming His followers for persecution, because some may be tempted to stumble before the ruler and authorities. This is a call to fearless faith. Worry has a way of robbing us of the assurance of God's provision, often leading us to imagine worst-case scenarios possible, so Jesus, instructs us not to be concerned about what we will say, for those of us who do honor the Spirit, we have a wonderful promise! The Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Remember Peter? The "rock" upon whom Jesus said He would build His church on his confession, that on the night of Judas Iscariot's betrayal crumbled into sand because he failed to stay awake and pray as Jesus instructed, leaving him unprepared for the trial ahead. Fast-forward fifty days, once filled with the Holy Spirit, he went from coward gripped with fear, denying Jesus 3 times by the fire to confrontational street preacher on the Day of Pentecost. Acts 4:10, "Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health." And, there were three thousand souls saved that day!
Every synagogue had a court, and typically there were about twenty-three judges that presided over the violations of the Jewish religious law in the synagogue court. It was very embarrassing to be brought before the synagogue court. If it was decreed that you violated the Jewish religious law, you were to be beaten with thirty-nine lashes. According to Deuteronomy 25:1-3, "If there is a dispute between men and they go to court for judgment, and the judges judge their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be struck, the judge shall then make him lie down and be struck in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. He may strike him forty times but no more, lest he strike him with many more stripes than these and your brother be dishonored in your eyes."
Just to ensure they didn't exceed giving a person more than forty lashes, they would have one of the judges counting every strike, to make sure they stopped at thirty-nine, while another judge issued all the commands. This was pretty standard in every local synagogue. Talk about your church discipline. In Acts 22:19-20, the apostle Paul himself said, "‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and guarding the garments of those who were slaying him.’"
This isn't isolated promise look at Mark 13:11, where Jesus amplifies it saying: "Do not worry beforehand about what to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit." God's equipping the lips of reluctant men with words to speak isn't a coincidence, in fact, it's His pattern. Remember Moses, the stuttering Old Testament shepherd before Pharaoh's throne back in Exodus 4:12? "Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say." He is still empowering our voices today, even though our hearts may be pounding like the maidens beating on the tambourines in Psalm 68.
Prepare without presuming. Study the Scripture. Start witnessing to others, sharing God's today and unleash the power of the Holy Spirit!
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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