Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: Jesus said we either do one of two things: we either fear God, confess Jesus, and experience the help of the Holy Spirit, or we fear man, we deny Jesus, and we blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Read the Red. Let's listen in as JP gives us part two of Luke 12:1-12.

JP Jones: What Jesus essentially is saying is to be on guard against Pharisaism, legalism, and hypocrisy. Jesus says in chapter 12, verses one and two, that the essence of the teaching of the Pharisees was hypocrisy. Be on guard against any kind of hypocrisy.

If there is one sin at the top of the list of sins that is rebuked with the strongest language in the Bible, it's not pornography, gossip, murder, adultery, or homosexuality. It's religious hypocrisy. Jesus says to be on guard against this because it takes what is an authentic relationship with God and makes it synthetic. It takes what is a real relationship with God and makes it phony.

It takes what can transform a person's life for today, tomorrow, and all eternity into something that just keeps people in bondage. So Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, he rebukes the experts in the law, and he says to be on guard against every kind of hypocrisy in your own life. The problem is that the Pharisees majored on the minors.

Rather than dealing with the things that really mattered in terms of forgiveness of sins, salvation, love, a transformed life, and the certainty of heaven, they dealt with peripheral issues. Have you ever met somebody in church that just majors on minors? They just want to talk about stupid things that don't amount to a hill of beans, and that was the stuff that really got them worked up and energized. I get those emails all the time, by the way.

Another thing with the Pharisees is they focused on external righteousness rather than internal transformation. It was all about looking good to everybody else rather than having a heart that's transformed by Christ. Another thing that Jesus rebukes about the Pharisees is they put burdens on other people in terms of the religious expectations, the religious standard that they were communicating to other people that other people had to live up to to be spiritual.

It was so burdensome, they themselves couldn't even keep it, but that's what they projected out to other people. Jesus nails them with the fact that they had no love for people. They just put this religious expectation and could care less whether people could actually live it out or not. They didn't have a real love for their neighbor.

Then he gives the final nail to the coffin: they shut out the key to knowledge. They basically hindered people from coming to God rather than helped people come to God. When they do surveys—the Barna Group and some other groups do these religious surveys—on what the trends are in terms of people's spiritual thinking and decision making, the number one reason why people who are rejecting the faith reject it, at least in the United States, is because of the hypocrisy of Christians.

They look at other Christians and go, "It's just a bunch of hypocrites. Why would I want to be around those folks?" In surveying people who have come to faith, people who have become Christ-followers, the number one reason why people become Christ-followers is because of the authentic lives of Christians.

You've got one group of people saying the number one reason I don't want to become a Christian is because of Christians, and then you've got other people saying the number one reason I am becoming a Christian is because of Christians. That doesn't make any sense. Yes, it does, because we could bring it down to right here in this room. There are some of us who are authentic followers of Jesus Christ and some of us who are synthetic.

It was the same in Jesus's day, and he warns his followers to be on guard against the yeast, the teaching, the essence of Pharisaism and legalism, which he says is hypocrisy. Every one of us better pay attention to that. I need to pay attention to that. If religious people are open to becoming Pharisees—the Pharisees were the leaders of the religious people, right?—you're looking at a potential Pharisee right here. I get paid for being good; you're just good for nothing.

This is stuff that Jesus wants us to take to heart, to do a gut check, a heart check, a mind check, a life check. Are we falling into this trap of religious legalism and hypocrisy? You know Jeff Foxworthy, the comedian on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. He became popular with the "You may be a redneck if..." jokes.

You may be a redneck if you think the stock market has a fence around it. You may be a redneck if your stereo speakers used to belong to a drive-in theater. You may be a redneck if your wife has to say, "Could you move the transmission so I can take a bath?" You may be a redneck if your school fight song was "Dueling Banjos" from Deliverance. You may be a redneck if your mother has ammo on her Christmas list. You may be a redneck if you're asked to show an ID and you show them your belt buckle.

That's Jeff Foxworthy. Now, let's do a "You may be a legalist if..." You may be a legalist if you try to act more spiritual at church than you do at home. You may be a legalist if your Christian life is more about keeping religious rules than knowing Jesus Christ. You may be a legalist if you want to argue about theological issues rather than seek unity around the Gospel.

If you'd rather get in an argument about your particular theological bent rather than being unified around the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you may be a legalist. You may be a legalist if you are more motivated to learn deeper biblical truths than to apply essential Gospel truths. If you're just on a quest for more Bible knowledge rather than just applying the basic truths of the Gospel, you may be a legalist.

You may be a legalist if you become easily offended by the sins of other Christians but don't do anything to help them or encourage them in their walk with the Lord. You may be a legalist if you're angered by the sins of our culture but not filled with compassion to share the Gospel with lost people. If you sit around and get all angry about what you hear on the news but you don't do anything out of compassion to help people who are lost find Christ, you may be a legalist.

Jesus is warning us about the danger of hypocrisy, about being synthetic rather than authentic in our relationship with God. Jesus says in verse four of chapter 12, "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do nothing more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after killing the body, has the power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him."

"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When you are brought before the synagogue, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

The big idea of what Jesus is saying is fear God and trust in the help of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus says it's almost counter-cultural or counter-intuitive. He says to fear God but don't be afraid. Fear of something is a part of all of us. We're either driven by the fear of man or the fear of God. We either want men's approval or we want God's approval.

We either want men to speak well of us or we want God to speak well of us. So he says here, "Don't be afraid of man. Don't be afraid of what other people think. Don't be afraid of other people's approval. Don't be driven by what other people think. Be afraid of God in the positive, healthy sense of the fear of the Lord." The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

The Bible says in the book of Acts that the early church grew and people's lives were dynamically changed in the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is this healthy, reverential awe of God's awesome greatness, of his truth, that he's a promise keeper, that he's the good shepherd, that he's the judge, and that he's the ultimate authority in the universe. We're to have a fear of God.

What is taught here, and it needs to be understood, is a fear of God so that we're not afraid. How can you have a fear of God so that you're not afraid? Because the biblical sense of the fear of God is coupled with this sense that you are awesomely loved, accepted, cared for, shepherded, and held in the palm of his hand, so that you fear him and that gives you great security because you know you're loved by him.

We either live in that awareness or we live with the fear of man, insecurely and desperately trying to find the approval of other people. Jesus says to fear God, but don't be afraid; the very hairs of your head are numbered. Now, for some of us, that doesn't take much numbering, but for others of us, there's a lot of hair to number.

The point is, I don't know how many hairs I have on my head, but God does. God knows everything about me and he still loves me. I am convinced that if some of you knew everything about me, you wouldn't love me anymore. I don't even love myself sometimes because I know some things about me.

But God knows everything about me and loves me, and we are to live out of that absolute security of knowing that God loves us and we fear him in his awesome greatness. Jesus ties together three things. It's almost like you could take a piece of paper and draw them down the line: these three things line up over here, and these three things line up over here.

On one side, it's the fear of God; on the other side, it's the fear of man. On this side, under the fear of God, it's confessing Jesus before men as Lord. He says if you confess me before men as Lord, I'm going to confess you before my Father in heaven. So, fearing God and confessing Jesus as Lord. Over here, fearing man, he says but if you don't confess me before men, I'm not going to confess you before my Father in heaven.

So you've got fearing man and not confessing Jesus as Lord. Over here: fear God, confess Jesus as Lord, and experience the leading of the Holy Spirit, the prompting of the Holy Spirit—the reality that when you get in a situation and you don't know what to do, the Holy Spirit's going to help you in that situation and he's going to lead you in what to do and what to say.

On this side, you've got fearing God, confessing Jesus as Lord, and experiencing the leading help and prompting of the Holy Spirit. On this other side, you've got fearing man, not confessing Jesus as Lord, and blaspheming the Holy Spirit. A lot of times, I get people asking questions about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit because Jesus says here that every other sin that a man commits will be forgiven him, but he who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven him.

People think, "Oh my God, I've committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit; will I be forgiven?" When you just look at Scripture in its context—read the verse before, read the verse after—you get an understanding of what it means. Jesus explains what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is: it's not confessing Jesus before men. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is rejecting Jesus.

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is denying Jesus. If you deny Jesus, what is Jesus going to do to you? Deny you. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is when you have the opportunity, you hear the Gospel, and you have the opportunity to give your life to Christ, and you say no. Later on, you have the opportunity to give your life to Christ, you say no.

Later on, you have the opportunity to give your life to Christ, you say no, and you die in a state of denying Christ. That's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. You are rejecting what he's trying to lead you to do. What is he trying to lead you to do? To be born again, to come into a personal relationship with Christ. But if you reject him, you are blaspheming him. You're denying Christ.

You're not going to be forgiven. You're going to face God and he's going to deny you because you've denied him. They line up. Jesus says to fear God or fear man, confess me before men or deny me before men, experience the leading and prompting and help of the Holy Spirit or blaspheme the Holy Spirit. We get to choose.

What are you choosing? Today, you may be here at Crossline for this very reason: that God is trying to grab hold of your life and the Holy Spirit is wooing you one more time to come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and new life. Not to deny him, but to confess him and to say, "Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.

Thank you for rising from the dead for me. I call on you to save me, to forgive me, to come into my life. I confess you as the Lord of my life." It's the greatest decision you'll ever make. You can fear God, confess Jesus, and experience the help of the Holy Spirit, or you can fear man, deny Jesus, and blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

These teachings confirm what I've said to you the last couple of weeks. When you come across somebody—and maybe you've been one of these people—and you say, "I don't believe Jesus is the Son of God and the only Savior. Great teacher, though; the greatest teacher who ever lived." When I come across people who say that, they've never read the teaching of Jesus.

They've never considered the teaching of Jesus, because when you look at the teaching of Jesus, you either humble yourself before him, invite him into your life as your Lord and Savior, or you basically say, "Man, I don't want to listen to this guy. He just keeps slapping me upside the head with truth." But you don't go, "He's the greatest teacher who ever lived."

Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge and an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.

He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of goods laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."'"

"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you, and then you will get what you've prepared for yourself.' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." So here's the big idea: be on your guard against all kinds of greed by being rich toward God.

Notice in this teaching of Jesus he twice says "be on your guard." Be on your guard against the teaching of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, and be on your guard against all forms of greed. In other words, it's like golf: you can hook it or slice it. You can get off down the middle by going right or going left.

You can try to become real religious, and then the danger is it's all external—it's Pharisaism, it's legalism, it's hypocrisy. Or you can love the world and its materialism and greed and selfishness. Neither is a kingdom focus. Neither is the way of Christ. Both might seem right to us, but the way of Christ is counter-cultural and counter-intuitive.

You might think that the way of religion is all about externals, but Jesus says no, it's about the internal. It's a heart relationship with God. You might think then life is about being successful and getting more degrees and earning more money and getting more stuff and living in a better house and making your body better surgically as best as I can and trying to keep up with this youthful lifestyle and be the Orange County person. No.

Both of those are all about me: me being more religious or me being more successful. Life is to be about God and others. Remember Jesus said to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the problem. The rebuke that Jesus gives to this guy isn't that he had stuff; it was that he was trying to be rich for himself and not rich for God.

He was driven by greed, not out of service. You could have a lot of stuff and be commended by God for being a faithful steward, a faithful manager of what God's given you. Or you could have a lot of stuff and love your stuff more than you love God. So the issue isn't the stuff; the issue is your heart.

That's what Jesus says. Be on your guard. Just like the issue isn't whether you are deeply involved in church or not—you could be deeply involved in church and be a legalist or deeply involved in church and be a servant of Jesus Christ—you could have a lot of stuff and be selfish or you could have a lot of stuff and be a steward.

The issue is your heart. Is your heart surrendered over to Jesus Christ? I've got to take care of the guy in the mirror. I've got to make sure every day my heart is surrendered over to Jesus Christ, because that's authentic Christianity—having a heart transformed by Jesus.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP Jones provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653.

Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. For your gift of 25 dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9 or 11 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series called Read the Red. We're looking at the teachings of Jesus. What did Jesus teach about following God and discipleship? In Luke chapters 11, 12, and 13, Jesus gives us what might even be considered stand-alone messages on following Christ and on living as a disciple.

Jesus says in Luke chapter 12 that following Christ is all about an authentic relationship with God, energized and produced by the Holy Spirit. He says to kingdom disciples to be on guard against the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The whole idea of religious hypocrisy is when we put our focus on ourselves, when we follow man-made rules, and when we think our relationship with God is all about what we bring to the table and our capacity to follow rules and regulations and traditions—human traditions.

When what Jesus says is that because of sin, all of us fall short of God's glory, we're unable to meet God's standard, and what we need to do is to radically surrender our lives to Christ. We need to radically put our faith in Christ. We need to radically receive a new nature from Christ, being born again spiritually. When we are born again spiritually, the Holy Spirit comes to live in our lives and we have new life that comes from God himself. It's Holy Spirit-imparted life.

Authentic Christianity is experiencing a transformed heart by Jesus living inside of us through the person of the Holy Spirit. Real authentic Christianity is living in step with that new life by living every day in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is only the Holy Spirit who can produce real Christianity in our lives.

We're unable to produce it on our own or to live it on our own or to experience it on our own. When we try, we become religious hypocrites. Rather than trying, we need to surrender to Christ, put our faith in Christ, abide in Christ, and receive the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to live an authentic life in Christ.

That's God's will for us. That's God's will for you right now: to surrender your life to Christ and to ask for the Holy Spirit and his help to fill you up with the very life of Jesus Christ. Would you do that? Let's talk to God right now in prayer. Father, thank you for the offer of real life, life produced by the Holy Spirit, produced by Jesus.

So we repent of selfishness, we repent of legalism, we repent of trying to live on our own, and we humbly receive forgiveness in Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We pray that you would live your resurrection life in us and through us. We thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.