Leading The Way

Dr. Michael Youssef: Hello, friends. You have seen the wave of extremism on college campuses in conversation with some young people in your life, even in many churches. Two radical ideologies, once enemies, now they are marching together. They shut down debate, excuse violence, and they target biblical truth.

That alliance is real and it is deliberate. In an unholy alliance, I explain what these two radical opposed forces are. Why they are working together and also give you the 1400 year backstory, many people are entirely ignorant about, that is shaping today's headlines.

Get my book, An Unholy Alliance. It's going to open your eyes and give you practical ways to make a difference for Christ.

Announcer (Female): Welcome to Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, author of more than 50 heart-changing books, including his culture-changing, An Unholy Alliance. Learn about his current special offer at LTW.org.

In this episode, join Dr. Youssef in Luke chapter 12. This is a look at how hypocrisy is overwhelming the world. You'll hear practical truth to keep you from being overtaken by this destructive trend.

Now, this is just the beginning of Dr. Youssef's thought-provoking series called Enduring Wisdom. Listen with me to this powerful Leading The Way episode.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Turn with me to Luke chapter 12, beginning at verse one.

I hope you could see from these verses, there is a dire warning. And that dire warning is to the disciples. Not to everybody out there from the masses around them, but just to the disciples. He said to them, "Be forewarned of the leaven of the Pharisees," which is hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy comes from the Greek word hypokrites. Hypokrites was used mostly to describe actors. They did not call them actors, they called them hypokritos. Why? Because actors played a role. That is not who they are. They play the character. And to this day it is the same thing. An actor is not expressing who he is or who she is, but the role of the character they're playing. They're not who they are.

Later on, the word came, turned into, be used exclusively in the negative. It wasn't that way, but it expresses the nature of deception, the nature of the deceivers themselves. Just like an actor attempts to play a convincing role on the stage, pretending to be somebody who they're not. So is the hypocrite.

Look with me, please, at the text. Verses 2 to 12, there are three non-negotiables. Three what? Non-negotiables. These are going to keep you from eternal disaster of being a hypocrite. These are going to keep you from being influenced by hypocrites. Here they are.

Honor the Father, honor the Son, honor the Holy Spirit. It is only when our focus is on the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one God. It's only when we focus on the triune God that we avoid the traps of being impacted by false teachers.

Now, why is this so important? Listen carefully. Because it is so easy to be influenced by the hypocrites. You say, "But why? Why is it easy? Why is it?" I'll tell you why, because I've been there and I know what I'm talking about. Because these hypocrites present arguments that appeals to the flesh.

It appeals to our fallen nature. They present their views to help us avoid conflict with the world. They present their views in such a way that to avoid being harassed by the evil world. Just do this, just say this, just believe this, just use this lingo, and you will be popular.

Jesus said, "Do not listen to them. Do not listen to them. Do not let their noxious, poisonous weed seep into your psyche. Do not let this bad yeast be baked into your thinking and into your life. Instead, focus on the triune God. Focus on honoring and worshiping and adoring and obeying the Word of God. Instead of quoting them, I get sick and tired of people quoting the Reverend Smel fungus. Do not quote them. Do not tell me who says what. Quote the scripture. Quote what the Word of God said.

Because these three, one God, they are interlocking chain of testimony to each other. The Father testifies to the Son and the Son reveals the Father. And the Father loves and glorifies the Son and the Holy Spirit is the spokesman of the triune God and He is to glorify the Father and the Son. Please hear me right. No one, no one, no one will ever get away with hypocrisy.

Sooner or later. Most hypocrites will succeed in pretending for a time. For a time. They will get away with it for a time. So make no mistake about it, the day will come when their hypocrisy is going to be revealed.

Listen to me. Some will be exposed in this life. And I thank God I lived long enough to see that. But all will be exposed in the future when the Son of Man comes with glory with His angels. All will be revealed.

Verse 3. What is said in the dark shall be heard in the daylight and what is whispered in inner rooms will be exposed on the rooftop. Now, I need to explain to you a Middle Eastern practice. It's very important. You see, back then the storeroom where the valuable, where the things that are really precious to them, was not in the garage because the thieves can get to it very easily. It was not in the room up front. No. They build a room inside the house, in the middle of the house. That would take a thief, I mean, has to go through many rooms to get to it. It's right there in the middle of the house. And that's where they stored all of their valuables.

Ah, but they also went into that room when they would talk secrets, when they do not want anybody to hear what they're talking about. They go inside these rooms and they will talk and they will share their secrets. These were the hiding places.

And Jesus said, "Honor the Father because you cannot hide things permanently." But why? Because God the Father one day will judge and punish the hypocrite. Beloved, let me tell you, my blunt preaching through the years, my refusal to compromise the Word of God, compromise biblical morality, compromise all issues in life that I know, even though I am a fallen man, I have clay feet, even though I am full of foibles, but nonetheless, when it comes to the Word of God and the truth of the Word of God, I refuse to compromise. And because of that, I have offended some people through the years.

Does this make me happy? No, no, it doesn't. I'm flesh and blood. But I'll tell you what my family know and how many of my friends know, that I care more about the day when I'm going to have that audience of one than make people like me in this lifetime.

Verse 4. That is why Jesus said, "Do not be afraid of the worse that humans can do to you. Do not be afraid of that. Do not be afraid of that." What's the worst they can do? Kill you? We're going to die. That's the worst they can do.

But fear Him, honor Him, adore Him, worship Him, obey Him, who has the authority to condemn you eternally. Who is that? I heard people, actually heard preachers say, "Satan." I thought first it was a joke, but they really, the guy was really serious about it.

Satan has no authority to condemn you to hell. Listen to me. He will be hell's most notorious guest, inmate. There is no command in the scripture anywhere that says, "Fear Satan." Believers are totally delivered from his clutches because He who's in us is greater than he who's in the world. Say that with me. He who's in us is greater than he who's in the world.

No, no, no, no, no. He is saying, "Fear God the Father, honor God the Father, adore God the Father, love God the Father, worship God the Father, honor God the Father." Why? Because nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing escapes His knowledge. God's omniscient knowledge is for even the most insignificant details.

Sparrows, they're so small. And they were not even the food of the poor, they were the food of the very poor. Because five are sold for the equivalent of two cents today. So think of the sparrow. That's worth less than half a cent. Back then and now. So insignificant by any standards. But they are not insignificant to God the Father.

He knows every single hair in your head. And if you don't have hair, He knows all the forks in your head too. All 100,000 of them. Beloved, let me tell you something, this truth comforts all believers. But it cause tremor to the hypocrites. And that is why they try to conceal the truth. They try to destroy the truth. They try to distort the truth. Or they try to twist the truth. They try, they try, scream loud, thinking that they can stop you from hearing and believing the truth, but they will fail. Sooner or later they will fail.

And so the first cure for hypocrisy is honor God the Father. The second cure for hypocrisy is honor God the Son. Look with me, verses 8 and 9.

And I say it to you, anyone, I'm going to explain that to you, anyone, that means anyone, who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels. But he who denies Me before men, will be denied before the angels of God. See, the word, the term, anyone, everyone, it means everyone in the world.

Question, what does confessing Jesus mean? Well, the Greek word here is Homologeo. You know what the word logos mean? Word, logos, homo, one. One means to be in total agreement with, total agreement, or the same thing, believing exactly the same thing that Jesus said about Himself.

Why do you think they are so desperately trying to change who Jesus is? I mean they play mental gymnastics with their minds. Well, did Jesus really say that He is the only way where He is a way? Do we really have the exact words that Jesus spoke or they changed those words along the way? Do we really know the? And then they just twist and twist and twist until they look like pretzels from being twisted so much.

Because they do not want to confess what Jesus says about Himself. They do not want to accept what the Bible said about who Jesus is. They do not want to obey and agree totally with what Jesus says about Himself. Why? Because that will force them to obey by believing the Word of God.

I'll never forget, I was speaking to a group of clergy. Most of them did not believe that is only one way to heaven, one way to salvation is Jesus. And they said, "Well, you know, God is so big, He's got so many ways. You can't really narrow God so much, you know, your God is too small." And I I had the temerity to say to them, "Now guys, why do you call yourselves Christians? Why don't you go and start a new religion?" New religions are springing up all the time. "Just go and start a new religion. You don't have to call yourselves Christians." Why? Why go with the trappings of Christianity and all the rituals in your churches?

I know why, but I asked anyway. They want to deceive as many people as they can. They won't be able to do that if they leave these churches. They want to deceive as many people as they can. You know what the worst part about all this? Right as I was leaving, walking out, one of them ran after me. He said, "Michael, I privately agree with everything you said, but I can't go public with it."

I reminded him of this passage. He will deny Me before men, publicly, publicly. Those who deny Me, not agree with Me, in public, before men and women, before people. Beloved, listen to me, confessing Christ in public determines our eternal destiny. Confessing Christ openly and unabashedly, unhesitatingly will set the stage for where we spend eternity.

But why before the angels? Ah, because the angels are going to be witnesses. You know, in the court of law, you get witnesses. The angels are going to be witnesses. They are objective. They don't have anything against us or against anybody. They will tell the truth. They'll be our witnesses, either for us or against us.

A worse thing in the world when you have the angel testify against you. Second Thessalonians 1:7, Paul said, "They will be with Jesus on that flaming fire." Those who fail to confess Jesus as only Lord and Savior, and only Lord and Savior for all people of the world, not just those in the church. They will hear from Jesus, these most devastating words, "I never knew you."

"But we wore clerical garb." "I never knew you." "But we preached in church pulpits." "I never knew you." "But we agreed with some things in the Bible." "I never knew you." "But we helped a lot of people." "I never knew you." "But we carried Bibles as we processed down the church aisles." "I never knew you."

Be very careful of the leaven of the hypocrites. There are many ways to God. The God of the Old Testament is not the same God as in the New Testament. The Old Testament is so irrelevant now because we live in a different time. And on and on and on. You see these views seeping in just like the leaven inside the dough, working its way, working its way.

You say, "Why do they do this?" I'll tell you why. Because it's popular. It's popular. It will make you popular. It will make you avoid lots of alienations. It's like that dear man who says, "Privately I agree with everything you said, but I can't go public with it."

Heaven belongs to those who honor the Father, honor the Son, and honor the Holy Spirit. Look at verses 10, 11 and 12. Because the question immediately say, "Why the Holy Spirit?" Why the Holy Spirit? This is very important.

The Bible said, "No one can come to the Father unless they come through the Son. And no one can come to the Son without being brought by the Holy Spirit." The Bible said very clearly, every one of us, every one of us, every one of us, born spiritually dead. I mean, dead, dead, dead, dead. Not in a coma, dead. Physically alive, spiritually dead.

Only God the Holy Spirit comes in and He raises the dead on the inside of us. Our dead spirit rises when the Holy Spirit says, "Awake and rise." And we rise up and realize that we are sinners and we're heading for hell, and we need the Savior, and then turn to Jesus. All that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

First Epistle of John, chapter 4, verses 2 and 3, makes it very clear, listen to me. Everyone who claims, that's an important word, if you have your Bible, underline it, everyone who claims to have a message from God either speaks the truth about Christ, which is from the Spirit of God, or a lie, which is the spirit of the Antichrist. Do I need to say any more?

Two options. He doesn't give us a third. He doesn't give us two and a half. There's two and two quarters. Two options. Second Peter 1:21, Second Peter 1:21, says, "The Holy Spirit is the author of the whole Bible." The whole Bible. Anyone who denies any part of the Bible does not honor the Holy Spirit. Let me repeat that. Anyone who does not honor any part of the Bible does not honor the Holy Spirit. Do not miss this. Do not miss this. Verse 10.

Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven to him. But anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. You say, "Why? Why is that? When you can blaspheme Jesus, but you get forgiven. But you blaspheme the Holy Spirit." To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to reject the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning Jesus. He testified to Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals that salvation is found in no one else other than Jesus. And so Jesus concludes this section, part one in the series we call Enduring Wisdom with a promise. Do not miss the promise. A promise for those who honor the Holy Spirit by believing the Spirit's testimony regarding the Son of God. You do not have to worry not one second, not one in a second, you have to worry about anything.

Because He will turn our trials into triumphs. He will turn our pain into gain. He will turn our troubles into blessings. He will turn, and His power, His protective power will keep us, all the believers, secure in His mighty hand until the day we go and be with Jesus. And that is why they can call us all the names they want.

They can falsely accuse us all they want. They can harass us all they want. They can even drag us into the courts and the prison. But they can never, never, never, never rob us of the treasure which we have is Jesus.

Announcer (Female): Dr. Michael Youssef, reminding you of God's comforting promise. When you honor the Holy Spirit, trials turn to triumph. We thank you for joining Dr. Youssef and listeners across six continents for Leading The Way Audio.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Our beloved friends, you know, as I get on the road and I meet so many of you and you tell me how long you have been watching or listening to Leading The Way for years. And you've wanted to give financially in support of this ministry and global impact for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But you haven't been able to focus on it or take the time to just write the check or go online and make the donation. Now, I'd like to ask you to stop and do that right now.

Our ministry together is more important now than ever before. Our greatest opportunity to make a real lasting impact and difference for the cause of Christ is now. And as you know, this is my labor of love. I have no financial consideration with Leading The Way whatsoever. I give it all of my time now, full-time, literally.

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