THE COMING DISCLOSURE

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 9, 2020 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: December 9, 2020 from Luke 12:1-3

Theme: Because all hidden things will one day be made known, we must beware now of religious hypocrisy.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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This morning, we come to Luke 12—and to a long discourse from our Lord to a large crowd. It takes up all of Chapter 12, and extends even to the beginning of Chapter 13.

And it starts off with a bang! Our Lord had been invited to a dinner in the home of a Pharisee. And He had just finished issuing a scathing rebuke to upon the religious hypocrisy of both the Pharisees and the Scribes. And now, in Luke 12:1-3, we read;

In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops (Luke 12:1-3).

Here, we find a truly sobering warning from our Lord—a warning not only for us, but for all people. There will be no secrets kept from God. All things will one day become fully exposed and brought out into the open—and this includes all forms of religious hypocrisy.

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There was a similar thing that our Lord said to the Pharisees that’s recorded for us in Matthew 12. It was related to Matthew’s telling of the incident that we studied not long ago in Luke 11. Jesus had performed a miracle of casting out a demon from a man. The Pharisees saw it, and they accused Him of performing this miracle in the power of the devil. Their accusation, though, was just a hypocritical cover for their unbelief. And in Matthew 12:33-37, Jesus said;

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:33-37).

What horrifying words! And what particularly stands out in them is what He says in verse 36; that “for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it on the day of judgment.” That almost makes us want to ‘super-glue’ our lips shut; doesn’t it? Realizing how much idle talk we already deserve to give an account for should make us genuinely grateful for God’s atoning grace through Jesus!

Now; when our Lord spoke those words in Matthew 12, He was speaking them to the Pharisees. But in the passage before us, He was speaking past the Scribes and Pharisees, and out into the hearing of the crowds that had gathered. We’re told that, apparently because of this dinner-time conversation, a very large crowd had gathered. The words that are used in the original language suggest that there may have been thousands of people present. It was an “innumerable multitude”—so great that they were trampling over one another. And since there were no PA systems or ‘bull-horns’ available, the only way that a large crowd could hear Jesus was by pressing in tightly.

But even then, Jesus wasn’t speaking directly to the large crowd. He was specifically speaking—as we’re told in verse 1—“to His disciples first of all”. In verse 4, He called them, “My friends”. So; the words of this passage were meant for those who are His followers. And what’s interesting about this is that, in speaking to His followers in this way about this subject, He was demonstrating the truth of it all to them. He didn’t take the Pharisees aside and rebuke them privately about their religious hypocrisy; but rather, He broadcast their sin to everyone. He brought their hypocrisy out into the open.

He wanted to make clear to us that everything will be made known. And why does He particularly want us to know this? It’s because He doesn’t want us, as His followers, to fall under the spell of religious hypocrisy. He wants for you and me to be real in our relationship with Him; so that on the day when all things will be revealed and made known, we’ll have no cause to be ashamed.

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So; looking at this passage, let’s first notice …

1. THE WARNING (v. 1).

We’re told, “In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.’” This is a warning to ‘beware’ of something called hypocrisy—the act of trying to put ourselves forth as something that we’re not. Specifically, it’s called “the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

Now; the best way to understand the kind of hypocrisy that our Lord is talking about is to go back to what we found in the previous chapter. In Chapter 11, Jesus had been invited to a dinner at the home of a Pharisee. And during the dinner, the host was surprised that Jesus did not first wash His hands in the ceremonial, ritualistic way that had been passed down from the tradition of the elders. Jesus, in other words, did not submit to a man-made pseudo-spiritual ritual that people performed in order to appear spiritually ‘clean’ on the outside—something that allowed someone to become like a cup that was clean on the outside but still dirty on the inside.

And notice that He warned His followers to beware of the “leaven” of this kind of hypocrisy. Why does He call it ‘leaven’? It’s because leaven is a substance that, when kneaded into a lump of dough, ends up permeating the dough and bringing its fermenting influence upon the whole lump. It is a picture of something that—once it gets in just a little bit into someone’s inner being—ends up contaminating the person’s whole life. Such a person progressively becomes a spiritual phony through and through.

This symbol of ‘leaven’ is one that our Lord used elsewhere in Scripture. In Matthew 16:6, He told His disciples, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees”; and later, Matthew explained that He meant “the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (v. 12). The false doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees was something that could slip in and spread its destructive influence throughout someone’s life. And here—on another occasion—He warned of watching out for the contaminating influence of their spiritual and religious hypocrisy. We must never let ourselves pretend—even a little bit—to have a spirituality that we don’t truly possess; because such hypocrisy spreads. We must be on guard against trusting outward ‘showy’ displays of piety to make ourselves look like something that we’re not. It’s dangerous, because it allows us to appear to be righteous on the outside while—in reality—we are hiding all kinds of sin and wickedness within. We must not let religious hypocrisy slip into our lives—even a little. Because, if we do, it soon permeates our whole lives.

Now; behind this warning is an important spiritual principle. Knowing it and believing it will help us to heed the warning. So; next Jesus gave His followers …

2. THE PRINCIPLE (v. 2).

He said, “For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.” Our heavenly Father is a God of absolute and complete truth. Nothing will be hidden to Him. This is true of people who claim religious faith; and it is also true of those who claim no religious faith at all. It’s true of those who practice religious hypocrisy; and it’s also true of those who point an accusing finger at the religious hypocrisy of others as a means of hiding their own unbelief and sin. No one is exempt. All things of all people will one day be made fully known.

The Bible teaches us this principle in many places. For example, in Psalm 139:12, we’re told this about God:

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You (Psalm 139:12).

And because nothing can be hidden from Him, He is able to bring all things that are hidden out into the open for judgment. King Solomon, at the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes, wrote;

For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,Whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14).

This, of course, includes the truth about those who are truly sincere and genuinely righteous in His sight. Jesus warned us that the unbelieving of this world would speak evil and falsehood about us—just as it did about Him. And He said;

“Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known” (Matthew 10:26).

The apostle Paul taught that this ‘full disclosure’ in the sight of God will happen to all people—with respect to all their motives and all their actions;

… in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel (Romans 2:16).

He wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:13 that

… each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is (1 Corinthians 3:13);

and that, because of this, we should refrain from judging one another unjustly; saying,

Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God (1 Corinthians 4:5).

Now; this will even be true of those who do not obey our Lord or trust Him. It may be that some are able to fool people because of outward religious acts of hypocrisy. But the truth will come out in the end. With respect to the final ‘great white throne judgment’—a judgment that is meant for those who do not believe and which they will be raised from the dead in order to face—Revelation 20:12 says;

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books (Revelation 20:12).

Jesus said earlier in the Gospel of Luke—in Luke 8:17;

“For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17);

We can count on our Lord’s word on this matter as being absolutely true. It is a principle that cannot be avoided.

And that, then, leads us to …

3. THE RESULT (v. 3).

He said, “Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.” Things uttered by us in the secret places—in ways that we think no one hears—are indeed heard by God. Darkness cannot hide anything from Him. Things discussed in private rooms are not kept from Him. They will be exposed to the light of day; and they will be declared from the tops of the houses.

And perhaps this is being told to us as a way in which true spirituality before God is tested and confirmed. If what we say in secret to one another is consistent with our public profession of faith—if what we are in the most private of moments is true to what we claim to be before others—if knowing the fact that all hidden things will one day be revealed causes us to confess our sins before God and to put away all pretense—then we are being the real thing. The leaven of the Pharisees—which is hypocrisy—will not have taken root in us.

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Now; we’re all guilty. We’ve all pretended at one time or another. We’ve all said things that we wish we’d never said—especially knowing that all things will be revealed. But I remind you, dear brothers and sisters, that we have a Savior. The apostle John wrote;

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (1 John 1:8-2:2).

If we confess the things that we have sought to hide, the blood of Jesus covers them; and we don’t need to be afraid on the day of judgment. The ongoing practice of confession of our sins to God, and of trusting in the shed blood of Jesus, is the great cure for religious hypocrisy.

And so, while we can today, let’s begin from this day forward to put away all forms of the ‘leaven’ religious hypocrisy. Let’s make sure we have nothing to regret on the day of disclosure.

EA