Fear Son of God

Luke 12:8-9

Fear Son of God!

Luke 12:8-9.

It cannot bring someone to God and to His kingdom. False religion does not provide forgiveness, redemption, it does not empower people to do what is right to please God. False religion is deception. It is all lies and hypocrisy.

Jesus, only spoke truth, because He was the truth incarnate, and He made it crystal clear how hypocritical the false religion of Judaism was.

Jesus came preaching the kingdom, preaching the good news of forgiveness, salvation, giving people the hope of heaven if they trusted in Him. Calling people to repentance and faith and acknowledging Him as Lord, Messiah and Saviour. He confirmed the truthfulness of that message in a massive, extensive display of supernatural miracles to make it very clear that He was indeed God in human flesh speaking the truth.

Luke 11:15, But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”

The ultimate blasphemy, the opposite to the truth! They called Jesus satanic, when in fact He was divine. They said He did what He did by the power of Satan, when what He did, He did by the power of the Spirit. They have rejected their Messiah.

This is one discourse that took place at one time, and it runs from Luke 12:1 to 13:9. It is a long discourse punctuated by a couple of interruptions. The background here of all that our Lord says is judgment.

V 5, But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! You have got to avoid the hypocrisy that is all around you.

How do you do that?

How does one avoid being a hypocrite?

Luke 12:2-12, the Lord's give you three things. 1. Honour God,

2. Honour Christ, and

3. Honour the Spirit. 1. Fear/Honour God. Escaping hell starts with honouring God. V 5, "Fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell."

Why should you fear God?

• a) God will uncover what is hidden.
• b) God will punish hypocrites in hell.
• c) Nothing escapes God’s knowledge.

2. Honour Christ/Son of God.

How do I truly fear God? Honour the Son. V 8-9, “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. 9 But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

It all comes down to Christ. If you do not honour Christ, you cannot honour God.

John 5:23, that all should honour the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him. You cannot honour God without honouring His Son.

John 8:41-42, You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. You cannot love God and not love Me. You cannot honour God and not honour Me.

Then He spun around and said to them that they are the children of the devil.

John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

John 14:6, Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. You can only know God as God is.

Who is God?

Ephesians 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, He is to be known as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is one with Christ.

2 Corinthians 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

1 Peter 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us

again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Colossians 1:3, We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

2 Corinthians 11:31, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

Romans 15:6, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 John 1:3, Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

God is always known as the God who is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the God who is one in essence and nature with Christ. God is only known through Christ and God is only honoured when Christ is honoured.

V 8, "Everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man shall confess Him also before the angels of God." This is an all-inclusive demand, everyone! There is no way to God but by Me, as John 14 indicates.

Everyone who confesses Me before men will be confessed by My Father before the angels and by Me as well. It is a sober warning to the religious people. The same thing is stated by our Lord on another occasion.

Matthew 10:32, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

What it means to confess Me before men? What it does not mean when Jesus says, "As the Son of Man He will confess us before the angels of God."? The word "confess"needs to be understood because when we hear confess, we think of somebody who confessed to a crime.

When somebody confesses — is this not true? They are saying and owning up to what is true. When you say you confess, you are really owning up to what is true. If I confess to doing something, if your child confesses that they did something wrong, if you confess your sin, you are owning up to what is true.

“to confess,” homolegēsē. Legō is the verb “to say.” Homo, homogeneous, homogenized means the same. Homo —as opposed to heteros, which means different.

What does that mean? The word actually means “to say what is true,” to state about something what is true, says one Greek lexicon. So, when you are confessing Me, you are saying what is true about Jesus’ person, work, and words.

Jesus says, "This confession is before men." It cannot not be because if you make that confession in your heart, there will be a regeneration and a new birth and a conversion and a sanctification that will result in a manifest transformation.

So, we are not talking about merely saying. We are not talking about people who just had it on their lips.

James 1:22, But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Israel people used to do this with God.

Isaiah 29:13, Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honour Me with their lips,

But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

Ezekiel 33:31, So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. People who honoured Jesus with their lips.

We are not talking about those people in the Sermon on the Mount who were the sayer, but the doers. We are talking about those who manifest their confession before men, not just with their lips but with their life. Now there are many people who give the lip service.

Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Whatever you say you are workers of iniquity. That is what characterizes you and that's evidence that has never been a transformation. That is not a confession. We are talking about the kind of confession that is manifest publicly, that is to say what is true about Jesus Christ, both with your lip and with your life.

Jesus quotes Isaiah to the people.

Matthew 15:7-9, Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honour Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” How do we kind of get to the core of that? True salvation comes only to those who honour Christ. To honour Christ is to acknowledge all that is true about Him.

It is to acknowledge all that is true about Him, about His person, about His work, about His words.

Matthew 17:5, While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” Of course, the Pharisees and the scribes and the Jews that followed them, they were trying to honour God while they were cursing His Son. You cannot not say what is true about Christ and honour God. You dishonour God by rejecting or denying Christ because God Himself has said, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to Him."

1 John 4:15, Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,

God abides in him, and he in God. Whoever says the truth that Jesus is God, fully deity, fully God, God abides in him and He in God. You cannot know God apart from affirming the deity of Jesus Christ.

2 John 1:7, For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. So, you must confess that Jesus is God, and you must confess that Jesus is Man. That Jesus is God, fully God, fully Man. Romans ¹⁰ is a hallmark passage the very core of the gospel.

Romans 10:8-10, But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

You must confess Jesus as God, you must confess Him as man, and you must confess Him as Lord.

• “God” has to do with His deity.
• “Man” has to do with His humanity.
• “Lord” has to do with His sovereignty.

Of course, that basically is born out of verse 9, the fact that you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Salvation and righteousness being the same, being parallel.

• Righteousness means you are perfect before God.
• Salvation means you have been delivered from sin, death, judgment, and hell.

You must confess that Jesus is Lord. What does this say to confess Jesus as Lord? Jesus defines it in very clear terms. In the book of Acts where you get the chronicle of apostolic preaching.

• Jesus is called Saviour twice in the whole book of Acts.
• Jesus is called Lord ninety-two times.

In the New Testament,

• Jesus is called Saviour less than ten times,
• Jesus is called Lord more than 700 times.

Do you understand what is involved in that?

Luke 9:23-25, Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?

This is a total takeover of one's life. It is the end of you. You are not adding Jesus to your life, but you just lost your life. You are not having Jesus come along and fix up your dreams and fulfil your ambitions, you just said no to your dreams and your ambitions and yes to His sovereignty.

What does it mean to deny yourself? The word “deny,” means to refuse to associate with.

Do you want to follow Jesus? The first requirement is you refuse to associate with the person you are any longer. You just died. Paul says, "For me to live (is what?) is Christ,” is Christ.

• I am crucified with Christ.

• I died with Him there.
• I do not have a life of my own.
• I do not have a will of my own.
• I do not have a plan of my own.
• I do not have an ambition of my own.

My ambition is to be pleasing to Him. It is the end of you. So, what we are talking about here in confessing Jesus as Lord is absolute and complete self-denial. It is a kind of personal suicide. "Take up your cross daily."

That is not some mystical idea. It means get ready, you might need to die. Very, very practical, it might cost you your life. They were used to crosses. They were everywhere. By the thousands, the Romans had stuck them up on the highways in Israel to put fear in the hearts of the people, corpses hanging on them all the time, being eaten by birds. They knew what it was to lose your life for a cause.

Jesus said it might cost you your life. Then He said, "Then follow Me." So, it is self-denial, self-sacrifice, and self-submission.

V 24, For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. This is how you save your life. This is how you save your soul. If you hold onto your life, you will lose it. If you lose it, you will have it abundantly.

The summation of denying yourself, taking up your cross daily and following Me is losing your life. The only way you will ever save your life is to completely abandon it. When you confess Jesus as Lord, you are saying, “I am a slave. You are the master. I will do whatever You ask.”

Why would somebody say that? Because they want forgiveness of sin and heaven so desperately. It is only the desperate who repent and confess. So, what you are doing when you confess Jesus as Lord is you are confessing the truth that He is in fact the absolute and utter sovereign of the universe and has every right to be the sovereign over your life, and particularly because you are so desperately hopeless in running it yourself.

“Lord” means sovereign ruler.

Jesus says, "Everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man shall confess him also before the angels of God." If you deny yourself and accept Me, then I will affirm you in the glory of heaven before the angels of God.

A judgment scene.

Matthew 25:31, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. Here comes, Son of Man, same title that He uses there of Himself in the 12th chapter of Luke, and that was the most common way He referred to Himself.

It was a messianic title taken out of Daniel 7:13-14.

Matthew 25:32-34, All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the

foundation of the world

The day is coming when He sets up His throne and all the angels of God are there, and everybody is separated and the

sheep who are on His right go into the kingdom. The goats on His left are cast out of His presence forever.

Matthew 25:46, And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This happens before the watching angels of God. What Jesus is saying here is about judgment. Judgment is coming. When it comes to that judgment, just as you have denied yourself and accepted Me, I will affirm you in the glory to come.

V 9, "He who denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God." You are going to wind up with the goats. This is how to stay out of heaven. Just deny Christ. Arneomai in the Greek, it means to disown, to reject.

Exactly that is what the Pharisees and scribes had done.

Jesus is saying to these people who are still the mathētēs, the learners, they are still on the fence and yet to make up their mind. Jesus telling them if you will acknowledge what is true about Me, My person, My work, My words, someday I will acknowledge you before the angels of God at the judgment.

But if you deny Me like these others have, I will deny you before the angels of God. He will say, "Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I do not know you.” (Matthew 7:23) It is straightforward, clear-cut, inescapable. Heaven will belong to those who honour God by honouring the Son. You cannot honour the Father without honouring the Son. It is impossible.

Nowhere in the Bible do we ever read the phrase "accept Jesus,” “ask Jesus into your heart,” “invite Jesus into your life,” or “make a decision for Christ." What you will read is: If you want to come after Me, deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Me, repent, believe, confess Me as God, confess Me as man, and confess Me as Lord.

The church in its dullness and theological ignorance continues to perpetuate a cheap and shallow gospel even today.

Nowadays it is not theology that drives the church. It is pragmatism, and theology is not an issue. You preach on pragmatism, and you will draw the interest of the church. You preach on doctrine, and they are not sure why you are wasting your time.

How do you awaken a church in theological error when theological error does not matter? The gospel invitation has always been a call to self-denial. It has always been a call to submission. It has always been a call to sacrifice.

It has always been a call to repentance. Jesus never eased up. You must confess Him. You must deny yourself or deny Him. Take your choice.

• Jesus says you can deny Me and I will deny you. or
• Jesus says you can confess Me and I will confess you.

But confessing Me means denying yourself. That is what the gospel offers. It is an invitation to give up your life. It is an invitation to say I will lose my life to find it.

Jesus did not come to fulfil your dreams, ambitions, to lift your level on the satisfaction scale. That is not why He came. Jesus came to take over and in return for that you receive the forgiveness of sin, eternal life, and the peace and joy and power of the Spirit of God.

When you lose your life, gain it. True conversion is never evidenced by remembrance of an event, or remembrance of a prayer, or remembrance of a feeling. True conversion is evidenced by a confession of Christ with lip and life.

A verbal confirmation of one's submission to the lordship of Christ that is supported by an obedient life. John said it as clearly as it could be said.

1 John 3:10, "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who doesn't practice righteousness is not of God.” Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God. So, you look at the pattern of their life. This is not just confessing with your mouth, but this is a full life confession. If you acknowledge before the watching world that you believe all that is true about Christ, including His deity, His humanity,

His saving work, and His lordship, and it is evident in your life, then He will acknowledge you before the angels of God. But if no matter what you might say your life is a denial of Christ, then He will deny you at the judgment before the angels of God.

Jesus said then you want to miss hell, you want to escape hypocritical false religion, only one way. You must honour the true and living God, the God who will uncover all hypocrisy, the God who has the authority and the power to send souls to eternal hell and the God who knows everything, nothing escapes Him, and the only way you can honour that God is to honour His Son.

Whoever honours the Son, honours the Father and honouring the Son means that you confess that it is true, all that Jesus is and said and did. Summing up this rich trinitarian core of the gospel is the fact that you cannot honour the Father until you honour the Son, you cannot honour the Son until you honour the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:3, "No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit." You cannot know the Father until you know the Son.

You cannot know the Son except through the work of the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4:2-3, By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. How do you know the Spirit?

The Spirit is always at work in the people who make the true confession of Christ. You cannot know Christ without the work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that shows us Christ. It is Christ that shows us the Father. The way to Christ is through the work of the Spirit.

The way to the Father is through the work of the Son. What our Lord is saying here is like a summation of all the whole trinitarian power and purpose in redemption.