In his sermon titled 'Beware the Leaven of the Clergy!', Peter Allison explores Luke 12:1-12, emphasizing Jesus' warning about the 'leaven of the Pharisees,' which he identifies as hypocrisy. Allison argues that this hypocrisy can manifest in religious leaders who prioritize external appearances and church activities over genuine spirituality and compassion. He uses the metaphor of leaven, which, though unseen, permeates and influences entirely, to illustrate how subtle doctrinal errors and insincere practices can corrupt faith communities. He warns against 'play acting'—following religious practices out of obligation or imitation rather than sincere belief. Allison stresses the importance of fearing God over fearing man, highlighting that true followers of Christ should be willing to confess Him before others, even in the face of persecution. He differentiates between blasphemy against the Son of Man, which can be forgiven, and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which cannot, attributing the latter to a willful rejection of the Spirit's revelation. He concludes with a call to genuine faith and commitment to following Christ, encouraging believers to live out their faith with integrity and courage, trusting in God's eternal value over human approval.

Please turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 12. I'd like to read the first 12 verses. Luke chapter 12. 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. And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more power that they can do. Have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear.

Fear whom who after he has killed has power to cast into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

And I say to you, whoever confesses me before men, him, the Son of Man, will also confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven. Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.

May His precepts bring understanding that we may hate every false way. Almighty Heavenly Father, the spiritual things are not discerned by the natural man. So we ask the Lord that you would give to us your Holy Spirit to understand the spiritual things that you have spoken of here, to understand how they apply to us, grant us faith that we may lay hold of your word, receive it, believe it, and practice it. I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Jesus had been at a supper.

He was an invited guest at a Pharisee's house. And Jesus took that opportunity to pronounce a series of woes against the Pharisees. It's not what we might consider the best thing to do in polite company, to take the occasion of their hospitality to pronounce woes against them, to point out their failures. But these were not just ordinary people. These were the leaders of the church.

These were the elders. This was the clergy, if you will, of the church in Jesus' day. And they were false shepherds. Jesus was often angry at the things that they did and the things that they said and even the things that they thought in their heart. He was angry with a righteous anger.

And so, when they marveled in their own hearts that He hadn't washed before dinner. He used that occasion to pronounce these woes against them. How they focused on externals, external matters, forgetting the heart. And we saw last time when we looked at this passage, this previous chapter, we saw there are many applications of these practices that were prevalent in Jesus' day. Many applications in our day.

Churches that are more about the performance and the choreography, and less about opening the Word in preaching and in worship. The church life was more about having fun and getting together to play games, than it is about coming together to pray, to open the Word. Jesus pronounced a woe on them because they focused on things that were unimportant to the exclusion of things that were weightier. It's not wrong to do the unimportant things, but Jesus is saying that's all they did and they ignored the more important things. The example Jesus gave was that they tithe on the little herbs that they got out of their garden.

But that they forgot mercy and justice, the weightier matters of the law. And today we saw that our churches can be no different. We can spend our days in meetings and administrations and in building campaigns, and to the exclusion of prayer, teaching from house to house, and so on. They glorified, Jesus pronounced a woe on them because they glorified humans at the expense of Christ. They liked the honors that came before men.

And much of their life was consumed with getting and enjoying these honors from men. Today theology is dominated by academics and by academic scholars that write many things about the Bible for degrees and dissertations, but very little applications. They are great displays of knowledge, but lack nourishment. Academics love degrees and honors. And Jesus condemned these people.

Actually then the lawyers said, well, you're really stepping on our toes. And so Jesus said yes and went on to give three more woes against the lawyers who would be the equivalent of like the teachers, those who are what we might call seminary professors today. And He also gave woes on them, pronounced woes on them because they were hypocrites in that they placed great burdens on everybody else, but they themselves didn't do. They were saying, do as we say and not as we do. We do.

And so, again that is another very common attribute in our churches today that there are many elders falling into all sorts of immorality. And they lay low a while, and then they come back once the scandal has blown over, and continue right on teaching people to do the very things that they don't do, and teaching people not to do the very things that they do. So that has resulted in a whole generation of people that are very soured on church membership because they've been hurt by such elders. So they believe that that is an excuse to avoid the church. And so it's in this context then.

Jesus has been pronouncing these woes. He's in this social occasion at this Pharisee's house. And he's just made the Pharisees very angry at him. And they are lying in wait for Him, seeking to catch Him in something that they might accuse Him. They're assailing Him, they're trying to cross-examine Him about many things.

And so in the meantime, our text chapter 12 opens, In the meantime, while all this is going on, a crowd has gathered around Jesus. Because although the Pharisees didn't like Jesus, many of the people loved to hear him teach. Because he spoke and taught with authority, not like the scribes and the Pharisees. He explained things. People understood.

He proclaimed the gospel. He delivered the captives. He did not bring them into captivity. So this crowd had gathered and it was such a big crowd that it was trampling people. I mean, we hear about these kinds of crowds from time to time, often at sporting events, usually in other countries, where the crowds are so big that just in the process of the crowd moving from one place to another place.

People get killed. They get trampled underneath and die. And this is apparently what's happening. It doesn't say anybody died, but they are trampling one another. And he began to say then to his disciples, these are the, whether it's the 12 or the 70, these are the people who followed Christ.

He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. He didn't say, beware of the Pharisees, but beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware that this leaven in the Pharisees doesn't infect you as well. There's a danger here.

That's the word, beware. It says there's a danger. Something can harm you. And it isn't the Pharisees that can harm you, although they might, but it is the leaven of the Pharisees. It's something else about them that you can adopt that's going to harm you.

And what is leaven? Well, anybody that bakes knows what leaven is. It's what makes bread or flour products, cakes and things. It's what makes them light and fluffy. Without leaven, a loaf of bread would be like a rock.

And once it dried a little, a day or two, you would have a hard time eating it. Leaven is what makes that bread have air in it. Leaven is an effect that permeates throughout all of the dough. But while the effect is obvious, the leaven itself is not. You really can't tell one moment to the next before you put the leaven in and after you put the yeast in your bread and you mix it in.

There's no immediate difference. But there's a huge effect. Over time, there's a huge effect on the bread. And the leaven permeates in ways you can't see. It permeates throughout that whole bread, And it brings an influence there.

An influence. It works in an unseen way, but it has a very visible influence. Scripture uses leaven to describe this, and it occurs in several different places. It's used to describe the kingdom of heaven. Kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until all was leavened.

This is the way the kingdom grows. It's not some visible thing that's some king that's sitting in Washington DC who's passing these laws and creating this perfect sinless society. That's not how the Kingdom of Heaven goes. It's like the leaven that's hid, and it has an influence that permeates. And through that, it affects everything.

Through that leavening effect the Roman Empire was toppled. It went from persecuting the Christians to itself being a Christian nation, kingdom. Meaning the king acknowledged Christ. It was the king, by the way, that king that called and paid for, and even in some ways, followed that first ecumenical council in Nicaea. Well evil can infect the church in a similar subtle way.

We need to be aware of that. Because it's easily missed until the effect is completed. In Matthew, Jesus said to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And remember the disciples thought that Jesus was talking about bread. And he thought that he was criticizing them or rebuking them for failure to bring food.

And Jesus had to say, no, that's not what we're talking about. Beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees. The doctrine. The teaching. And here Jesus identifies the leaven of the Pharisees as hypocrisy.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Now we normally think of hypocrisy as practicing differently from what we are teaching. If someone is practicing one thing, they say it's wrong to drink alcohol, but then when no one is looking in private they drink alcohol, then we would say that's hypocritical. A hypocrite. That's how we normally use the word.

But I think what Jesus primarily has in mind in this case is something which is empty and useless in the sight of God. Something that's empty and useless. Something that isn't what it looks to be. And to see that we need to remember where this Greek word came from. It's the word for an actor.

In Greek, an actor was a hypocrite, what we call a hypocrite, is where that word comes from. It's someone who throws themselves into a part where they are really living the part so much that they actually live the part that they are playing. One famous modern actor said, when I am playing a character, I am being them in those moments. It is definitely the closest thing to a real spiritual experience that I can describe. It's like I connect to the emotional state of another being that's other than my own and that is very freeing." He's describing being an actor and putting on something that isn't real, but it looks real.

And in order to make it look real, he's got to actually be that person. In order to play the role of a holocaust victim who played the piano, one actor not only learned to play Chopin, but he also lost 30 pounds from his already lean figure frame in just six weeks, and he gave up all his luxuries like his cell phone and his Porsche, and he even abandoned his long-time girlfriend in order to be able to know and to live a life of somebody who is deprived of food, deprived of things that he normally had. But you see, even if they go that far, to make it look like they are someone they are not, to make it look real, It's not. They aren't the person they are playing. They're just, it's just a pretend.

It's just an act. And so we call them an actor. See, there's a discrepancy between what is objectively true and what is subjectively true in their experience. That one actor, he said, I feel like that person. I am that person.

That's how he felt. And in order to play the part and make it real, that's what he needed to do. But it wasn't objectively true. He wasn't that person that he was playing. He was just looking, just pretending.

You see, this play acting is just as common in the church today as it is in Hollywood. It was true of the church in Jesus' day. Clergy who play the role as shepherds of Christ's flock and people who play the role of disciples of Christ. But you see, such role playing is empty and meaningless. It's vain, it's futile in God's sight.

How do we know that someone is following a role or playing the part of another person? Well, if they're following a person and not Christ, if they're following a person and not Christ, then when that person that they're following stumbles, falls into sin, then they give up everything that they were doing to follow that person. The doctrines they taught, they quit believing them. They may even quit going to church. They may even give up the faith altogether.

Because you see, in their mind, these things that they were doing were connected to the person that they were trying to be like. And they were not connected to Christ. And so when that person stumbles, then their faith is gone. And the things that they were doing, They no longer do. A great sermon that may have been preached now becomes a bad sermon even though nothing in the sermon changed.

See, Paul could rejoice that Christ was being preached even if he was being preached from wrong motives. If the truth was being proclaimed, Paul could rejoice that Christ was being proclaimed even if the person doing it was doing it in order to increase Paul's trouble. Even if he was doing it from wrong motives, from selfishness or ambition, Paul rejoiced that Christ was being preached. One example that I see a lot today is one example of play acting that I see a lot today is modest dress. It's commanded in the scriptures, commanded to dress modestly, men and women.

The Bible talks about someone who has the attire of a prostitute, a harlot. So there's obviously dress that the Bible condemns, whatever that attire is. That might be a separate discussion. There is some standard of modesty in the Bible. So we are to dress modestly.

But for many, their dress is apparently not based on their desire to follow Christ, and to know His Word, and to walk in obedience to Him, but it's out of a desire to follow a person. That they're in a certain congregation, or they're following a certain teacher. And that's the way they do it there. So in following them, that's what they do. And then when that person stumbles, or when they realize that person isn't perfect, then they wholesale abandon their way of dress.

And so I've known families, and you probably know too, that they dress one way at one period of time, and then several years later you run into them again and they look totally different. What happened? They weren't. They were play acting. They were play acting.

They were following someone other than Christ. What they were doing wasn't born out of their love for Christ and their understanding of His Word and what it calls us to do. See, when that's the case, then we follow that as all the days of our life. There is no change, because Christ doesn't change. Sometimes our understanding of the Word changes.

But then we are able to articulate that. And yes, we do change our practice, as the Lord shows us more of His Word. But oftentimes, always when I speak with these people, there's no change in their theology. There wasn't a change in their theology at all. They were play-acting.

No, they maybe didn't realize that. But that's what the Bible says they were doing. Another area where you see this play acting is in courtship. Joshua Harris wrote a book on courtship when he was about 21 years of age called, My Kiss Dating Goodbye. And it was very, very popular 20 to 25 years ago.

Lots of groups were reading it and trying to adopt it. I never read it myself. But a lot of people apparently followed these methods thinking that they would bring them happiness. Thinking that their marriage would be better just because they did these things. Well, That's play acting.

When they encountered the realities of life and difficulties, when they encountered sin in themselves and others, and things didn't work out the way they imagined they would, the way they thought they were supposed to, then they became dissolutioned. And they blamed the book that they were trying to follow. That's play acting. That's play acting. That's hypocrisy.

When we're following Christ and we encounter difficulties, we count them in joy knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience and when patience has its perfect work, it makes us perfect and complete. We know that difficulties come because the Lord loves us and He's chastening us. And so we don't despise that chastening and we don't grow weary in it. We recognize that the Lord loves us and is teaching us and we grow from it. But when people are play-acting, they become hardened by it.

And they become bitter about it. And they resent it. Play acting can involve following the commandments of men. Paul said about that, therefore if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why is the living in the world do you subject yourself to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men.

These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. They are of no value. They are useless. And that's what Jesus is talking about with something that's hypocritical. It's of no value.

It's not reality. They are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. If then you are raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, and not on things on the earth. Another error that is the leaven of the Pharisees is then to go the other way and to completely ignore biblical wisdom and say well it doesn't matter how we go about getting married it doesn't matter how we dress it doesn't matter about drinking not drinking alcohol or going to movies.

So those are some of the commands that people come up with. Don't drink alcohol, don't go to movies, don't dance, don't smoke or drink or go with those who do. And so one error, the other error is to entirely throw all godly wisdom out and say, well, it doesn't matter how you dress, it doesn't matter what you drink, it doesn't matter what you watch, it doesn't matter who you're with and that's just as just as futile. The Bible says don't be deceived. Bad company, evil company corrupts good habits.

The things that we watch do affect us. They do corrupt our thinking. We have to be careful what we watch and the friends that we spend time with and the way we dress. It is important. And how we go about seeking a wife for a husband.

Those things are important. The Bible does speak to them. You see, both of these errors are really the same thing. It's people that are not following Christ. It's hypocrisy.

It's pretending. It's play acting. When we are following Christ, then these things that we do flow out of that living relationship that we have with Him. They flow out of the Holy Spirit leading us. They flow out of our love for Christ and our desire to be like Him, to be conformed to His image, to put off the futile way of thinking of this world.

You see, then it doesn't matter really what happens to the people around us. When they stumble and hurt us, we can forgive them. It doesn't stop us from following Christ. And the second thing that Jesus gives as this answer, antidote, to the leaven of the Pharisees is He teaches us who to fear and who not to fear. If we are following somebody, if we are play acting in a role, then we are going to be very concerned with what whoever we are following says to us, or what they are going to do or not do.

But if we're following Christ, Jesus said, we don't have to fear anyone else. We fear the Lord. My friends, He said, do not be afraid of those who kill the body. And after that, have no more that they can do, but I will show you whom you should fear. Fear Him, who after He has killed, has power to cast you into hell.

Yes, I say to you, fear Him." Jesus connected this leaven of the leaven with not only the leaven of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, as its doctrine, but he also talked about the leaven of Herod. Now Herod was a king. He was the ruler at that time, and he was a wicked ruler. And the people would have had a tendency to fear him, if he could take their life. He beheaded John the Baptist.

Jesus says, don't be afraid of those who kill the body. This is the first death. The scriptures speak of death in two primary ways. A first death and a second death. And this first death, it doesn't, the Bible doesn't actually talk about first death.

It talks about a second death, which implies there has to be a first death. It speaks of a first and a second resurrection. But This first death is the separation of the body and the spirit. The body returns to the dust and the spirit returns to God who gave it. And in this condition of death, the biological functions of the body cease, but the person, the conscious existence of the person doesn't cease.

The Bible calls this death an exodus, a departure, going away. Peter spoke of his death as a departure in 2 Peter 1. And that word departure is the word we get Exodus from. Exit. By our doors.

Going away. And if you go away, you're not there just to find. Christ spoke of this when He talked about going away, where they would not be able to see Him. We can't converse with people that have departed, that aren't found in the house. They aren't found anywhere on the earth because they've departed, but they haven't ceased their conscious existence.

The body continues to exist, turning to dust in the earth, but will be resurrected at the last day. So Both elect and non-elect are said to be in Sheol or Hades in the New Testament following the first death. This is only a temporary situation lasting until the resurrection. The elect have the promise that their bodies will be delivered from Sheol. But in the last day, the Hades and all who are in it are said to be cast into the lake of fire.

And that's where the reprobate are cast into the lake of fire. And so that's what Jesus says, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. They can cause this separation of body and soul. They can cause our body to cease its biological function. They can take that life away from us, but they cannot take our conscious existence away from us.

They cannot separate us from the love of God. He says, I will show you whom you should fear. Fear Him, who after He has killed, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell. Now that hell there is the word Gehenna. It's the lake of fire.

It's the burning dump outside of Jerusalem. It's the place where Hades and death are said to be cast into this lake of fire, with Satan that was prepared for Satan and his angels, and into which all of the reprobate are cast." And the Bible says this is the second death. Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Jesus says we are not to fear a man that can separate our body and soul, but We are to fear Him who can cast us into the lake of fire, into hell. Into hell.

The Bible describes this second death as being eternally cut off from the presence of God and from the glory of His power. And in that separation, you see, begins the moment that we sin. Adam and Eve, God said in the day that you ate this tree, you would die. And they did. Even though their body continued to function biologically, they were cut off from the presence of God and so the Bible says that they were dead.

But But that's what Jesus came to bring life. Colossians 2 and Ephesians 2 both speak of us being made alive in regeneration. Made alive. Even though our bodies are biologically functioning, we are said to be dead in our trespasses and sins. Cut off from fellowship with God.

Jesus proves this fact of life and death in Matthew 22 when improving the resurrection. Despite the bodies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob having turned to dust, the Bible says that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God is not a God of the living, or God is not a God of the dead, but of the living. Got that exactly backwards. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Their bodies have turned to dust in the grave, but Jesus says that God is their God, And God is not a God of the dead, but of the living. Therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still living. Have you not read, he told the Sadducees, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not a God of the dead, but of the living. God says He is, present tense, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So This is the one that we are to fear. And when we fear the Lord, we don't have to fear any man, anyone. Because there's no one that can harm us in any lasting way. No one. And Jesus gives us a reason here that there are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins, in other words, two pennies.

Things that you would give to your kids to play with, something of no significant value. And not one of them is forgotten by God. Not one of them. Not one of these birds. But the hairs of our head are numbered, therefore do not fear, for you are of more value than the sparrows." You can remember that, you are of more value than the sparrows in God's sight.

God takes delight in His people and He beautifies the humble with salvation. And so that brings Jesus us to our last point here, and that when we don't fear men, but fear God, then we are not afraid to confess Jesus Christ before kings of the earth, before the mighty, before the people that have power over our lives, power of life and death of us. We're not afraid. Whoever confesses Me before men, Him, the Son of Man, will also confess before the angels of God. But he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

Fear of man is one reason people or we do not confess God before men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven him, but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven. To speak a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven. To speak a word against the Son of Man can be forgiven.

That's a blasphemy. Paul said that he was a blasphemer, but he found forgiveness. What is this difference between a blasphemy of the Son of Man, which can be forgiven, and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will not be forgiven. One is what we call the unpardonable sin. I think Paul gives us the answer.

It's not that the Holy Spirit is somehow, sinning against the Holy Spirit is somehow a greater sin than sinning against. It's not like the Spirit is more important than the Son, and that sinning against the Holy Spirit is a greater sin because there's a difference. No, we know that all of the persons of the Godhead are the same in substance, in equal, in power and authority. And So the difference here is really speaking about what is done in ignorance versus what is not done in ignorance. See the Holy Spirit is the one, is the Spirit of revelation.

It's the Spirit who teaches us. It's the Spirit who gives us light so that we can understand the Scriptures. And Paul said when he was a blasphemer that He found forgiveness because he did it in ignorance. You might say, what? Paul was one of the most educated people of his day.

He studied at the feet of Gamaliel. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was schooled in all of the doctrine. He knew the scriptures, but he did it in ignorance. He didn't have the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in his understanding.

It was all in the flesh. It was great learning. Paul was a learned man. In a sense, he was like the Moses of the Old Testament. He had all the best learning of his day.

But he was ignorant. Because the Holy Spirit had not given to Him that light. And so all that He did, He did in ignorance. All His blasphemy, all His attack upon the church, His murder of Christians was done in ignorance, without the light of the Holy Spirit. But when people have the light of the Holy Spirit and then speak these words against Christ, when they do that, having been enlightened by the Spirit, then they are sinning not in ignorance.

Not in ignorance. And that sin will never be forgiven. Because they crucify the Lord of glory and put Him to open shame. Somebody who has committed this unpardonable sin is not somebody who is concerned, and the least that they have committed this sin. They would not even consider it a sin.

They're beyond that. And so this is not a sin that you need to worry about. It should say if you have any concern that you might have done it, it's probably one good sign that it's not a sin you have committed. When they bring you to synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.

There have been many, many, many saints who have been in this position. And as they feared the Lord and not men, they were able to stand up against the threats that were made to them to destroy their body. Bishop Hooper was one such minister of the gospel who was burned at the stake under Queen Mary, sometimes called Bloody Mary for her many martyrs that she made. And as he was brought out to the stake to be burned, he asked the people to pray for him, which they did. And he said right before he suffered this martyrdom, he said, true it is that life is sweet and death is bitter, but eternal life is more bitter and eternal life is more sweet.

And that's exactly what Jesus was saying. Don't fear what men can do to you. Martin Luther was in a very similar situation. He lived in a day when heretics were readily burned at the stake. That was what was done.

People that blasphemed the Lord were burned or were executed. They should have been not burned but simply executed. And he was called to the Diet of Vermis to give an account for what he had written. He was charged with heresy. And if he was convicted, he could have easily been executed, tortured even in that day.

And he was asked whether he owned all of the things that he had written. And he did. He was asked about recanting, he asked for time to think. These words are easy to read. But when we actually are in that place.

These are some of the most difficult battles that we are ever called to face. And so having had time to think and to pray over the evening, He came into that court the next day, a court that was hostile, stacked against him. Every one of his enemies would have loved to see him executed, would have been there. And this is what he said, since your most serene majesty and your high mightiness require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one. And it is this, I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Council, because it is clear as noonday that they have fallen into error, and even into glaring inconsistency with themselves.

If then I am not convinced by proof from the Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons." You notice that he's not play acting. When he believed He wasn't following somebody, a popular teacher. He believed these things because he was convinced by the Holy Spirit that this is what the Word of God taught. If then I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this brought into subjection to God's Word, I neither can nor will retract anything. For it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience here I stand I can not do otherwise God help me amen otherwise.

God help me. Amen. May the Lord give us that kind of fear of Him that we fear no man ever. Almighty Heavenly Father we thank you for the truth of your Word that we can stake our very lives upon every word that proceeds out of your mouth. That we can go to the stake to be burned, as some of your people have done.

That we can be sawn in two, knowing that we are in you. And that eternal life in you is sweet and that no man can do anything more to our body. Father, we thank you that we belong to you in life and in death. Our faithful Lord and Savior. We do dedicate and give to you our lives.

We yield to your Holy Spirit, Lord, our fortune, our wealth, our homes, our families, all of the things that you have given to us, our vocations, Lord, these are all from you and Even our very bodies are your gift, you have given to us. And it is yours to give or to take away. We yield it to you, we want to be, use these things as your steward. To be led by your Spirit in them. Lord, we ask that you would forgive us where we have feared man.

That you would Forgive us where we have not feared you. Lord, we do renew our commitment to be yours, to be faithful witnesses to you, to this watching world. To always be ready to give a reason of the hope that lies within us, with meekness and fear, to anyone who asks, to everyone who asks. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.