Walk Before God, Not Before People

Summary

Preaching from Luke 12, the pastor observes that when thousands pressed around Jesus, his first words to the disciples were a warning against the leaven of the Pharisees - hypocrisy. Rather than try to impress the crowd, Jesus exposed the danger of a religion that teaches God's will but refuses to live it. What matters is not how people judge us, but how the God of truth sees us.

Nothing hidden will stay hidden; everything whispered in secret will one day be proclaimed openly. God weighs not only our deeds but the inner motives behind them. Because judgment is not carried out at once, people grow careless in sin and weary in doing good - yet a person reaps what he sows. Like the widow's two mites and Enoch who walked with God, our lives are measured by faithfulness with what we were given, not by appearances.

We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, where good done for God's glory is rewarded openly and the hidden is brought to light. The one way of escape is repentance: when we judge ourselves and call on the blood of Christ, God forgives and remembers our sin no more. So walk before God, not before people, and do not grow weary in doing good.

Key Points

• Jesus' first warning to his disciples was against hypocrisy - the leaven of the Pharisees who teach God's will but will not live it.
• Live for the verdict of the God who sees the heart, not for the opinions of people.
• God judges both our actions and the sincerity of the motives behind them.
• Knowing God's will brings greater responsibility to obey it: first your knowing, then your doing.
• Like the widow's mites, God measures faithfulness with what you were given, not the size of the gift.
• Judgment delayed is not judgment denied - do not grow weary in doing good, for the harvest will surely come.
• Repentance is the way out: when we judge ourselves and call on Christ's blood, our sin is blotted out and God remembers it no more.