Luke 12:1-12, Do You Know What Not to Do?

Luke 12:1-12 and the Call to Know What Not to Do

Luke chapter 12, beginning verses 1 to 12. Hear the word of the Lord. In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that 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 housetops.

I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body. And after that, have nothing more they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into 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. 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. When you bring, and when they bring before you, excuse me, 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. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, billionaire investor, Charlie Munger, said a, quote, a lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid.

Early death, a bad marriage, et cetera. Once you know what you don't want, know what not to do. Harvard Business School professor, Michael Porter, says the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.

In business, it's not good enough to know just what you want to do. You know, sell Amish goods or country stuff or Chinese food, construction, preparing hardwood floors, sell photographs, whatever it is.

You'll need to know what not to do to start. They say, don't allow your dreams to make you overlook the business plan. Don't listen to customers instead of the bottom line. Don't borrow with your family members' retirement plans, your funds, let's just say.

Don't rush into partnerships. Don't overlook the small cost, like gas, nails, signs. If you can avoid all the things you shouldn't do, you might be a success. A couple of weeks ago, someone asked me how to get started running.

I gave him some don'ts. Don't start out too fast. Don't forget to stretch. Don't be tied to a treadmill or a track. I could add, you know, don't stop immediately either. You know, when you're running, go stop, go sit down.

Don't run with non-running shoes. Don't just run longer and longer distances. Some people think running is something very simple, but there are some things you need to know what not to do. Some things, you'll be tempted.

Most people are tempted to do. Knowing what not to do is how you show good manners, after all. You think most of the ways we teach good manners is teach you what, don't do this, don't do that, don't do that.

Lucille Ball said, knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, it's good taste. Don't talk with your mouth full. Don't check devices while eating out with others.

I've broken that one. I've broken that one a lot. One exception, I think, if everyone else is speaking another language, then they, I think, I made that excuse just for myself. Don't ask for seconds before others have had first.

Don't overload your fork or plate. Don't talk about yourself all the time. Don't interrupt others. Don't walk loudly if someone is sleeping nearby. Don't use all the hot water if someone's gonna take a shower soon.

Don't go to someone else's party and ask them to turn up or down the music. If someone asks you where you wanna go eat, don't insist. If you ask someone else, don't ignore their suggestion. As Confucius said, we could go on and on like that.

Confucius said, don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. Good behavior is usually about knowing what not to do. And that's true really about almost everything, success in business, athletics, social life.

Don't do the don'ts. And see, and so here in three major parts, Jesus teaches about discipleship, telling us what not to do. First, don't cover up. Second, don't fear. Third, don't deny. So don't cover up, fear, and deny.

Hypocrisy as the Leaven That Spreads Through the Church

First, don't cover up. The Lord Jesus has proclaimed, you remember just before this, woes on the Pharisees and the scribes for loving money and prestige, for putting up this image that they would never have rejected the prophets like their fathers did, that they're Bible scholars, while in fact they make the word of God harder to understand than it really is, and even harder to follow.

And the Pharisees and scribes then hated him for that. You notice at the end of chapter 11 there. And so now they're trying constantly to catch him in saying something controversial, something they could condemn him for.

And so while that is going on, notice chapter 12 begins with, in the meantime, while these Pharisees and scribes are doing that, Jesus's popularity among the common people is skyrocketing. Notice that crowds are flocking to him, and so much so, they sometimes have a problem with crowd control in his meetings.

People would trample each other just to get to hear him. So he's at the peak of his celebrity status on earth. And now at this point, it's now common. You would think in Israel to be, call yourself a follower of Jesus, at least say you are, because there's just so many flocking to him.

And whenever it's popular to be a Christian, a lot of people will say they are Christians, just kind of be with the crowd. It's the thing everyone's doing. There's no reason not to. There's advantages to it.

And so there will be a lot of hypocrites. There'll be a lot of people acting like Christians, like they're followers of Jesus, claiming the name, putting up the front, because they want what comes with it, where everyone else is going.

Just like the Pharisees were acting like they believe the word of God, like they love the Lord, like they were devout. When they really love the perks, they love the recognition, the rewards that came with being seen as the holy ones.

Just like we have people here, and among us in this area, who want to be seen as a strong Christian, going to church, Bible believer, because it comes with rewards, they think. It's all plus, it's all advantage.

And they will say then, they love preaching from the word. Preach the word, brother. How they never would have driven out Bible preachers like those other hypocrites down the road did. How important it is reaching the lost to them.

Oh, it's so important to them, they say. So they'll video and post their outreaches. And then if the word they say they love being preached, if it begins exposing their sin, you know, those weirdos down the road, it can expose their sin, but not my sin.

They'll harass or even try to fire the preacher too. Just like the people, the hypocrites, they said they weren't like. Their ministry will be publicized, then quickly quit when there's no more advantage to it.

Both then, here, and now, among us, there is a culture that promotes hypocrisy. Now, hypocrisy is acting. Acting like something you aren't. Now, just the week before last, Mary and I saw a Broadway play.

That was kind of fun. And the actors were acting like people they weren't. And that's okay on the stage. Fine if you're, you know, on stage or film. But it's not what we're to be doing in life. Yet it's common.

It's very common. It's frequent. It's common because it's infectious. Notice what Jesus compares it to here. He compares it to leaven. So once a little bit of hypocrisy gets introduced into the body, it spreads like bacteria or yeast, which is a fungus.

If you think what yeast does, it just, once it's introduced, it just begins to grow all by itself. Doesn't have to be encouraged anymore. You don't have to fertilize it. You don't have to do anything to keep it spreading.

It just goes now. It starts to infect the whole body. And here the Lord Jesus warns us against the leaven of the Pharisees. That is the yeast, the infection that makes them hypocritical. That impulse that they had that made them want to fake it.

Beware of that. Don't cover up who you really are in order to look like someone you aren't. Hypocrisy is like yeast. So once it's introduced, once there's one person, you know, one person here, another there, starts acting, starts covering up, you know.

Who doesn't really read the Bible that much? Is it really that interested in God's word? Does it really want, goes to church, but really just isn't that interested in God's word? Does it really want to give to the work of the Lord or the poor?

Does it really care about evangelism? Maybe actually active doing stuff for the church, but does it really care about evangelism? So it would rather spend church money maybe on something like, maybe something like stained glass that does really nothing for evangelism, looks nice, rather than maybe basketball goals that could be useful for evangelism.

Once one person starts covering up all that by acting like he really does care about the Bible, like he really does care about evangelism, like he puts up a good front. Once one does it, then it spreads.

Once one church person carries a big Bible that he doesn't read and spouts about how important it is to have a preacher who preaches the word, but then when the word bites him, tries to undermine that preacher, someone who spouts how much they want the church to grow and to prosper, but then their checkbook shows, hmm, they give big to their own vacations and to their new cars and to every new gadget they've got to have, but they give peanuts to the church.

Once one does it, it spreads until it contaminates the whole lump, the church. It's a contagious disease. It's a fungus, like yeast. You know how you kill a fungus? What kills yeast? Light. Expose it.

But it's contagious. Hypocrisy is. And that disease is common here. It's pandemic in our area, in this area, just like it was in Jesus's time. So we have a lot in common with this passage here. It's pandemic.

It's everywhere. And we've all been exposed, okay? So beware, beware, because you've been exposed to that disease. You've caught it. That is making you want to cover up. It's making you now want to pretend like you're something you're not.

For example, here's a few tests. Like if you go to a doctor, see if you have a disease, they put you through some tests. Well, here's some tests to see if you have this disease. Is it a shock to you? If you encounter someone, particularly in the church, a brother or sister in the Lord, who honestly admits his or her weaknesses, that's just, whoa, we just don't do that here.

You know, not to small talk about basketball games after church, but really begins to, you know, reveal, yeah, he has a problems. She has problems. Maybe admits he's had problems with looking at pornography.

Or he doesn't really read the Bible as consistently as he should. Is it praying regularly like, you know, she wants to? Is that kind of honesty startling? We don't say that kind of stuff. Maybe if it's even embarrassing.

It's embarrassing because, you know, I'm kind of like that too, and I just don't want to say it. You saying it makes me feel like I should say it, even though it's true about me, but I don't want to say it.

Does it stand out? Does it seem odd? You don't do that. Does it? That on the one hand. On the other hand, do you even notice the guy who says he wants a biblical church, but then takes advantage of every opportunity to skip church?

Do you think there's something wrong with a person who emotionally declares many times how he or she would never leave their biblical church, but then eventually does that very thing over some trivial matter?

Or do you notice that? Do you even enable it by accepting the excuses? Are you shocked when you hear about a former pastor who stops going to church when he's no longer paid to? Or when one who used to teach that you can't be a member of your church, you don't attend, does that very thing?

I mean, you realize that's hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is saying one thing, doing another. You say you're a member, you attend there. But here, there's like no comprehension of that. That's disease. Another test.

If we did our giving now like they did it then, you know, they kind of did it out in public. Everyone would see how much you're putting in the big pot, whatever they did it into. If everyone saw how much we gave, would that make you give more?

I mean, would you feel like you had to give more publicly just to keep up your reputation? If so, you've been infected. What are you to do? Really, it's what you're to stop doing, stop covering up. Admit your failings, what you're really like.

Now, part of me as a pastor, part of me is glad. I gotta say this the right way, don't misunderstand me. Part of me is glad when someone confesses to me. I mean, I struggle with looking at pornography.

I haven't been reading my Bible regularly. I'm undisciplined. I'm not glad because some of that is sometimes off sin. I'm not glad of that. But I'm glad, hey, you know, you're not a fake. You aren't infected with this contagious disease of hypocrisy.

In fact, not only you're not a fake, you're humbling yourself. You're exposing your true self, your weaknesses. And you know what the Lord says about those who humble themselves? He says it gives them grace.

And that's what you need to overcome the disease. But if you're infected, you're trying to cover it up. You wanna look like you have it all under control. And so, but understand, if you're trying to cover it up, in verse two, understand, Jesus says, nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.

You know, the one covering up, he can get away with this forever. But eventually, hypocrites will be found out. Now in that day, for example, go back to the giving thing, their public giving encouraged hypocrisy.

People give large sums just to show off, you know, give their donations while they didn't really, they had in their hearts, they didn't really care about the work of the Lord or all they were trying to do was buy the esteem of other people.

Now, our private giving, which I think we should keep our private giving, don't misunderstand me, but our private giving can be a cover for hypocrisy because hardly anyone knows for now. And if you're tempted, you think forever, no one will ever know how little is being given.

So the hypocrite can be tempted to think, I can keep faking it. I got to put a little something in that basket. You know, people don't know how little it is, but eventually it will be known. What you said quietly in the dark, Jesus says will be heard underneath the lights for everyone to see.

What you whispered privately will be shouted from the housetops. There won't be any more secrets. What you've written secretly in checkbooks will be published for all to see. Understand that. Understand that.

Fear of Man, Fear of God, and the Value of Sparrows

If you've been covering up who you really are. And don't do it. Second, don't fear. At least don't fear what people think of you, what they can do to you. Don't fear being called a bigot, a hater, intolerant, ignorant, not cool, behind the times, stupid, whatever the newest insult is.

Don't be afraid of that. Much of the momentum these days, over the last, probably most of my lifetime, really, of the social change has had nothing to do with ideas triumphing over others because of a reasoned debate and the best arguments winning.

You know, that's the way some people put it. Social change is because this is progress. The good ideas are triumphing over the bad ideas. No, it's not what's been happening. There still is no reasonable argument for the legitimization, making legitimate, of homosexuality.

There's no argument for that. The real driving force behind the acceptance of change these days is the fear that many have of being categorized as one of those narrow-minded bigots who still doesn't understand whatever it is that they now insist you are supposed to understand if you want to be in, you want to be one of the smart people.

It's social pressure. And it's succeeded to the point that now evil is celebrated as good and good is insulted as hateful. So we have the weird situation in our culture now where the self-righteous people, like the Pharisees were self-righteous, the self-righteous people in our culture are also some of the most immoral people.

It's just weird. In their day, they had immoral people, they called sinners, and self-righteous people, they called Pharisees. Now, they say we're two different kinds of people. In our day, we have, they've combined.

We managed to combine the worst of all possible worlds. All right, anyway. But here, Jesus says, don't fear them. What's the worst they can do? Now, oh, in that day, they say, well, the worst they can do is kill you.

What are you talking about? The worst they can do, they can kill me. And that's pretty bad, we think. In that day, you know, maybe here in America now, they can't, well, they're probably not gonna do that.

But we're afraid of disapproval. We're afraid of insults. In some places, even in this country, we're afraid of being fined, of losing your business if you don't go along with their approval of sin. And that could be a very scary thing if that's how you support your family.

I mean, you're looking at how am I gonna pay my bills and put my kids through school? It's because I'm a Christian. But here, here in this passage, in Jesus's time, remember, he's popular, people are flocking to hear him.

And he's saying this, and the time is coming for these people he's talking to here. He says first to his disciples, it's coming for you, when you will be killed for following me. Jesus is speaking to them.

Now, it's still that way in many places around the world today. Just last month, January, a Christian in India was killed for his faith. A 50-year-old man and his wife, both converts to Christ, were made to stand in neck deep in freezing water for over 17 hours by the people of their village because they wouldn't renounce Christ.

And the man, I don't know how to say his name right, but it looks like Bhartu Irwan, he eventually died of his injuries. Now, that's a torturous death. You think you're frozen to death. But look at this in verse four.

You know, what's the worst they can do you? Jesus is saying, that's it. That's the worst. That's all. It's all they have. Do not fear those who kill the body. Yeah, and after that, there's nothing more they can do.

That almost sounds absurd to people today, doesn't it? You think their bodily life is all they have? Well, that's what Jesus is saying. Don't fear that because that's hardly anything compared to what God can do.

Jesus says, fear him who after he has killed, God can kill too, you know, has authority to cast into hell. The cure for fear of man is fear of God. Now, we fear losing the approval of people. We should fear losing God's approval more.

You know, they feared losing their lives. And here Jesus tells them they should more fear losing their souls to hell. Now, today, people don't like this talk of fearing God. They don't like, they don't wanna hear it.

This idea of being terrified of his ability to throw people into hell for eternity. That's just primitive. You're not supposed to talk like that anymore. And they'd say, you know, maybe they'll take a psychological approach.

We can't serve out of fear. But what Jesus does is put all the things we can fear into context, into perspective. You know, to a small child, losing his toy may seem like a horrible loss. Got two or three year old, that's just like the worst thing.

And they will, he or she will cry and wail if they lose it. But as he or she grows up, you know, that loss gets put into perspective. He learns that there are a lot worse things they can lose. Can lose their health, can lose their parents, can lose their loved ones.

And so after that, it's not as though the losing the toy is nothing, but it's just really doesn't seem to matter much anymore compared to what you can lose. Here, Jesus is saying, don't fear people because God is so great.

He's so awesome. He's so ultimate. Losing his approval is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. Far worse than losing the approval of your friends. And citing his anger against you is far worse, you know, than making the neighbors angry, than making the government angry.

Have such an all-encompassing vision of who God is that once you see him, that regard for him overshadows all the concerns you might have about how people think of you, what they could do to you. So fear of God is the recognition of God's greatness, his righteousness on the one hand, and of our own proneness to sin, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it.

If you don't feel it, you should. Our own proneness to offend his righteousness and so justly deserve his awesome anger. On the other, you see those two things, God's awesomeness, his righteousness, that he's right, our own sinfulness.

You see that, you understand why Jesus says in verse five, yes, I tell you, fear him. He repeats it for emphasis, fear him. When we recognize who God is and who we are, we will be afraid, very afraid, and so not fear people.

John Knox in 16th century Scotland was an eyewitness as a young man to the burning to death of the Reformation preacher, George Wisehart, sometimes written Wishart. George Wishart was burned to death at the stake, executed in that way as a way of, it was supposed to frighten anyone who would even consider believing the gospel that he preached, the gospel that we preach, the gospel the Bible declares.

Certainly, you know, from following his footsteps and declaring the same gospel, but that fires of that martyrdom that he saw instead set a fire in the heart of the young John Knox, and he set out to espouse the same doctrine, espouse the Reformation, believing the Bible, that God's grace was what saved and God's word was to be followed.

And Knox was exiled, he was made a galley slave, you know, rowing the boat in a ship, but he would not compromise. He eventually made it back to Scotland where he preached for the Reformation against the threats of Mary, Queen of Scots, the queen was out to get him, but never did.

When he eventually died in his old age, natural causes, whatever it was, he survived them all. Having turned Scotland to biblical doctrine, being the one who reformed the whole country, they said at his graveside, here lies one who feared God so much that he never feared the face of man.

There's another reason not to fear people, which might seem the opposite. It's like an odd transition, at least to our eyes. It might seem the opposite of what he just said, don't fear people because God is more fearful.

Sounds like what he's saying. In verses six and seven, the next thing though, Jesus says, don't fear people because five sparrows are sold for two pennies. You know, sparrows are two pennies. No, let's just say, no, they're two sparrows for one penny.

You know, one penny buys you two sparrows. Buy two, wait, no, buy four, I should say. Get one free. They're cheap. People don't care about them, right? Hardly anything. But Jesus says that not one of them, not one of the sparrows is forgotten by God.

He's remembering every little sparrow. The Lord values the sparrows, even if we don't. And he shows that value by remembering them, recalling them. And he values, but he says he values his people far more.

You are of more value to God than many sparrows. He loves his people so much, he says, he numbers the hair, every hair of your head. He puts a number on every one. He notes when hair number 78 ,439 falls to the ground.

There it goes. So meticulous, so engrossing is his love for us. But didn't Jesus just say that we're to fear God because he's so fearful and terrifying? That's what some would think. No, that's really not what he said before.

He said that we should fear God because of who he is. He is the ultimate judge. He's the one who has all power. The one whose approval means more than that of all the worlds. Now that doesn't mean that he's like easily angered.

He has kind of a hair trigger temper and that we can set off if we just, you know, even think the wrong thought, you better straighten up, you better live right. And you know, we should, but it doesn't work like that.

That he's waiting for an excuse just to pounce on us, get rid of us. We do one little thing wrong. He is here instead, close, caring, attentive to every detail of our lives. You know, he knows the hair, that's a lot of details.

He, and so if he cares so much, he numbers the hairs of our head, then we can be sure he cares if the world is conspiring to cut that head off or to deprive us of our place to lay down our head. So, you know, in case we're worried, you know, things could turn out badly with the world, with our, they can make life hard for me in court, wherever, people could hurt us.

We could lose our money, we could lose our family, maybe our lives. If we're afraid of what people can do, fear not. After all, he's our friend. And he's encouraging us here. You get a little, we get a little, maybe obsessed with that little part about fear of God because he can throw you into hell.

And we kind of miss what's going on in the whole passage. This is encouraging us, not threatening us. And you can tell by what he calls us in verse four, how he begins this passage, how he introduced it.

Acknowledging Christ, the Unforgivable Sin, and the Spirit’s Help Under Pressure

Friends, don't fear. Friends, don't fear people. Friends, because, you know, God can kill you and throw you into hell, so don't fear them. But the point is not to fear. Finally, third thing, don't deny.

Now, if you don't really fear God, don't really reverence him, you don't understand his all-encompassing, engrossing love for you, if you don't do that enough, you'll be tempted to deny him when the world turns on the screws on you, puts the pressure on you, when it tries to make you choose between its approval and God's approval.

When it says, you know, hey, if you believe that, if you're going to say that, well, then you're a hateful bigot. And when following Jesus means maybe making less money, because you're in church rather than running a business, when there is a price to be paid, when there's a price to be paid, you know, out in the world, when you leave here, they make you pay a price for being a Christian.

Then we'll know who you fear, what you love, and how much you love. If being approved of by Jesus is what matters to you, then you will acknowledge him, even if the cost is high. His approval mattered most to John Knox, and so he risked his life.

It mattered the most to Bartu Erwin, just last month, dying a martyr for refusing to deny Jesus. Now, Jesus here says in verse 8 that he, the Son of Man, that he's the one from heaven who brings in the kingdom of God, that he then will acknowledge him, maybe you, before the angels of God.

He's announcing to his angels, here, angels, is one of mine, John Knox, Bartu Erwin, maybe you. But in verse 9, the one who denies me before men, that is the one who, you know, looks at God, looks at the world, counts what he or she can lose here, the reputation, the money, the vacations, the nicer house, the life, counts all that is more worth it than what Jesus can give.

That one will be denied before the angels of God. This one isn't mine. He cared more for his career, for being respectable, for his life. But what are the chances of that happening here? You may think, okay, that's nice and abstract, but, you know, maybe we think one day, hopefully after I'm dead, maybe the children don't have to go through it, but I'll be gone by then.

One day, maybe. But we still think we can get along fine, pretty much, in this culture here, acknowledging Jesus as Lord and not really suffering for it. Probably won't suffer a whole lot, maybe a little bit of rudeness here and there, but nothing big.

But there is more than one way to deny Jesus. We can say we believe in him, think I'm acknowledging him, while denying his authority. That is, you know, if we can deny what he or his apostles who were sent for him, what they really taught.

We should just say we believe in Jesus, but then just don't live his way. We can create a Jesus in our own image who very conveniently doesn't believe in any of the things that offend people today. Well, that's nice, isn't it?

We think we're acknowledging him, but, you know, he's not really making us pay a price. So when people ask, though, whether we're one of those, you one of those hateful, Bible-thumping bigots who use Jesus for your intolerance, we can say, no, not me.

I believe in the new Jesus, the cool one, you know? The one who is made to fit whatever you want to be approved of. In the early church, you know, we saw in Galatians just a few months ago, they had the problem of false teachers who made Jesus into a Jewish legalist who was a Messiah for the Jews who came to help them keep the law.

A Jesus who took away the offense of the cross. You know, Paul said, Paul warned the Corinthians of those who preach what he called another Christ. They make up one who fits in nicely whatever culture they're in.

For over 100 years in the South, we had a Jesus-being priest who somehow could get along very fine with racism and segregation. Well, the real Jesus still says, don't neglect justice. Today, we have people who make a Jesus compatible with whatever they believe now.

On the radio, I heard the story of a reporter, an NPR reporter, National Public Radio reporter, sent to report on an evangelical church. Now, she was very impressed. You kind of expected her first to be put off, but she was very impressed with them.

She liked them. She saw that they were genuine people. She heard the gospel through them presented in a very winsome, attractive way. And so soon she was, wasn't just reporting, but she began to be drawn to Jesus, to the gospel that she heard.

And she felt a strong desire to believe as though she was right on the precipice of being converted. But this church was teaching rightly that homosexuality was a sin. Now, in our day, it's emphasized in some places that homosexuality is the one thing you cannot criticize.

You can disagree with them about their drunkenness. You can call intoxication a sin, their promiscuity, their adultery. You can call that a sin, their cursing, call that a sin, whatever else. And they will tolerate it.

They might not agree with you. You might not convince them, but they'll understand. But if you say homosexual acts are sinful, they will not tolerate that. Saying that is in their minds, the same as saying some kind of racist slur.

Okay, they will categorize you as if you were part of the KKK. That's the way they think. And so if to acknowledge Jesus is to say what the law and the Bible that Jesus said would be fulfilled, or it is to say what the apostles that Jesus sent, if it's to say what they say about homosexuality, if you have to agree with that to acknowledge Jesus, well, then they won't do it.

And neither would that reporter. That's what kept her from being converted. So what some people do now, because they're infected with hypocrisy, because they fear people, is to make a Jesus who won't require them to agree with that.

The law he affirmed, the apostles he sent. So we have so-called gay affirming churches, so-called churches. You got to put churches, church in quotation marks when it comes to them. They're really a gimmick.

That's what they are. They're a gimmick. To say you're acknowledging Jesus, you're a believer in Jesus, without having to acknowledge the real one. Now here the Lord Jesus says, don't deny him, the real him, even in a time of danger, in a village in India, where they will force you into a frigid pond if you acknowledge Jesus, or before people today who will think you're a hateful bigot if you follow the real Jesus, or when it might cost you money, when you decide following Jesus is more important than making a few extra dollars on a Sunday morning.

Don't deny Jesus. But what happens if you do? What would happen to Bartu Erwan if in order to get out of being frozen to death, to several hours in that frigid pond, he decided to say what they wanted him to say so he could save his life?

You know, be around to help support his family. What would happen to him? What happened to the true story of a Christian young man in Syria who was captured by ISIS and under pressure to convert to Islam or die, eventually lies and says he's now a Muslim, says the Muslim confession called the Shahada, even though he's still hiding a cross under his shirt and still believes in his heart.

Is he doomed? Does he now go to hell? Because once he didn't acknowledge Jesus? Well, Jesus explains that next beginning in verse 10, which we often also miss. Here, in this passage, we often get distracted by these flamboyant phrases and we miss sometimes the big idea.

We often miss because we're so obsessed with the idea of the unforgivable sin. That catches our eye and we miss the context here. We fail to see in context what's the main point here, what Jesus is talking about.

If you've denied Jesus before people, he will deny you before angels, but understand, even if you speak a word against the son of man, against Jesus, the king of the kingdom of God, you deny him under pressure, you blaspheme him when the ISIS terrorists are torturing you and make you do it, to get out of that frozen pond, that can be forgiven.

That's what Jesus says, right? That sin can be forgiven. That's the main point here. That's his main point. It's not to frighten us in this verse with this talk about the unforgivable sin, but it's to assure us, his friends, remember?