Luke 12

Sin is a part of this life, and we long for the day when it will be completely gone. Until that point, the Lord wants us to be aware enough of sin that we see it for what it is, and flee from it. There will come a day when there will be no opportunity for hypocrisy, when ever hidden thing is revealed, and the secrets of our hearts are laid bare. Today we need to beware of hypocrisy. If we are not it can seep into our lives as a habit and settle into our hearts as a lifestyle. The way to attack it is through the cross. The hypocrite wants to appear that he is holier than he is. The man who embraces the message of Christ, the cross, and the resurrection, knows that he has sin, and knows that there is an answer for sin, and that a secure life beyond sin is coming soon.

We need to live our lives with honesty and integrity before God and man. We need to remind ourselves that our standing before God is more important than anything else, and that the God who sent His Son to die for us has provided for us all that we need, both in this life and the next. It is such a great privilege to have the forgiveness that comes from Him. We should acknowledge Him as our greatest treasure in the depths of our hearts in our worship and in our lives, trusting that by His Spirit He will show us what to do and say in the most difficult times.

Not only can our hearts now be plagued by hypocrisy, but they can also be poisoned by covetousness and worry. Again, a day is coming when all sin will be far from us, but until then we need wisdom and power from Jesus to take appropriate steps for our spiritual protection. We think that we have a just claim against our brother, but could it be that we have a deeper enemy within who will not be satisfied with God’s good provision? This enemy will do us more damage than the ones on the outside who want to take away our possessions. There can be more danger in having the things that we think are rightfully ours, things that we have been grasping for in our hearts, than in living with less with a right understanding of God’s kingdom. Bigger barns are not always the answer for us. A good awareness of kingdom treasures will be far better for us than great wealth. If we treasure God and His kingdom, our heart will be there with Him. The best way to fight against these kinds of sins is to remember that the judgment of God can come at any time, and it would be best for us to be found following Christ and serving Him with a heart that is delighting in God and His kingdom. Covetousness and anxiety about possessions can be resisted by a perspective on our lives that includes eternal judgment as a prominent reality.

Our Lord will return at a time when He is not expected. Particularly those who have been charged with the feeding of the Lord’s flock should be busy with that task when He comes. It is ours to provide portions for hungry souls. It is for the hungry to eat. We do not force feed. But what if there is no food being served? That is our fault. How are people to grow in eternal things without the Word? Where no food is being served, there is also too much time for ministers to give themselves over to mischief. We have been given much, and much is required of us.

So many people imagine that the way to healthy soul life is through an exclusive diet of pleasantness. The cross is not entirely pleasant. In it are stored the facts of spiritual life. It insists that we have a serious deficiency that cannot be covered over by anything less than the death of the Son of God. It demands that we recognize the truth about eternal judgment, and eternal life through a Substitute. Jesus lived every moment not in hypocrisy, covetousness, anxiety, and envy, but in an awareness of God and His kingdom, and an eager longing for the fulfillment of the purposes of His own incarnation. The baptism that He was eager for was one that would cost Him His life.

He was keenly aware of the controversy that would come from His greatest act of righteousness and love. This cross which is our only salvation would divide households. Some would be for it, and others would be against it. If something like that should come in any of our lives, we need His grace that we might stay with Him on the right side of the divide.

The Pharisaic message yielded a life of pretense. The follower had to ignore the deepest promptings of conscience until they could be barely felt. His mantra was an insistent internal message demanding to be believed, saying over and over again to his guilty soul, “I am a Law-keeper. I am a Law-Keeper.” Such efforts were so distracting to the eyes of his soul, that he could not see the obvious happening before him. The Old Covenant of the Law was coming to a close. The Messiah had come with the promised New Covenant of the Spirit. A Day of Judgment was coming by this same Messiah. Our only hope is in a perfect Law-Keeper who takes away our hell by taking it for us.

Self-deception in religion is very dangerous. The message we need to insist on is the one that has been shown to be true, especially through the resurrection of Jesus. “Christ is my Law-Keeper. The kingdom is His gift to me. Heaven is my destiny.” This confession of faith, when sincerely believed, will help greatly in our present battle against sin.