Sins of the Spirit: Part 10 (Hypocrisy)

Sins of the Spirit: Part 10 (Hypocrisy)

All right, we have, I believe this is message number 10 in the series on sins of the spirit. We've looked at quite a number of those sins and these are particularly sins that are in our spirits. They, yes, they are manifested in some form oftentimes in our actions or in our words. But once again, the heart of this series we've been going through is to see that God really prioritizes the need of dealing with sins in our spirits and not just reforming our behavior.

The Pharisees reform their behavior. This is why we believe things like while there may be some temporary good done by alcoholics anonymous and things such as that, it's mere reformation of behavior and not a true heart change. Psychology can address behavior. They can give you, you know, there can be drugs prescribed to help you with behavior, but if there's truly, unless there's truly some chemical imbalance or something of that effect, many times what's passed off as a disease is actually many times a heart problem and it's a sin in the spirit that is not being addressed in our lives.

I was listening to something this past week. We've benefited from, we try to be very careful with this because there's a lot of, I guess you know what I mean when I say woo woo, in the herbal medicine type world. There's a lot of, you can get into some strangeness. And I think that we're living in a world now where we just pump people full of drugs and all of these things and I don't think that's, that the pharmaceutical world can be full of woo woo too, you know, but I was listening to this, because I was interested to listen to this particular podcast. I started listening to it. I got about 20 minutes in and everything the person was saying in there, it was supposed to be about something with herbs, but it got more into psychology really. And they were talking about everything they were saying in that podcast was something to the effect of like, we're not really responsible for our, what we're calling tonight's sins of the spirit. It's more like there's, there's something that it's, it's not really a sin if you're angry, you know, we need to get rid of that stigma of having a, be calling it a sin. I thought, you know, that's just, I listened to it long enough. And I thought, you know, she just contradicted everything that I've been saying on Sunday nights about sins of the spirit.

And that's what psychology does. It does not put any blame on you. Like I said this morning, we know as Christians when we have sinned, it is our fault. We are responsible for our emotions. No, we cannot overcome these sins of the spirit in our own strength. But by God's grace, we can be more and we ought to be more than conquerors over these various sins, whether it be anger, bitterness, whether it be fear, whether it be impatience, whether it be as we'll see tonight, hypocrisy. There, we must be strong in the Lord and the power of his might because we're fighting a spiritual battle. We're not fighting a mental illness battle. We're not fighting a battle that is, you know, well, you just need to eat more of this thing or that thing. No, if you're responsible for your own thoughts and actions, we're living in a world that says otherwise. But God's word is true.

So tonight I'd like to look in Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter six. This is the word of God and it is by this word that we judge, that we try, that we test, the spirits. We test all things. We test our own spirits, right? We must check our own spirits with this word. And it's so it's in Matthew chapter six, verse number one. Matthew six, one says, take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. That they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets. That they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Father, we pray that you'd bless these words from your word to our hearts. Tonight may we truly discern if there is any hypocrisy in our own lives and in our spirits that you would deliver us from any and all hypocrisy in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Adam Clark, the commentator, said, without pretending to be what it is not, acting always in its own character, never working under a mask. That's what he said was without hypocrisy. But hypocrisy is just the opposite. Hypocrisy, it literally as I said, I'm sure numerous times before in Sunday school hour or in the worship services in the sermons I've preached, I've mentioned that word in the Greek, Hippocrates. It speaks of a stage actor, one who is impersonating someone else, one who's wearing a mask, one who's presenting themselves in a way that is not the reality of who they actually are. And so we see that hypocrisy is incompatible with Christian living.

Hypocrisy in fact, when the Lord spoke about appointing one's portion with the hypocrites in judgment, that he was talking about in condemnation, in hellfire. Hypocrites will have their place in hell. Hypocrites will, hypocrites cannot be true Bible-believing Christians. But there is the possibility as Christians that we may have, while we may not be liars and we may not be hypocrites, we may have hypocrisy in our spirit. In some form or some fashion that we must be discerning about that and asking the Lord to put it all away from us. Purge out that dross if there be any in us.

When we went through that study on Pilgrim's Progress in Sunday school, we looked at a lot of false professors that Christian met along the way. And a couple of those, and one of those lessons that we went through that kind of tumbled over the wall. They didn't come in by the gate. They didn't go through the house of the interpreter. They didn't come the right way. Their names were Formalist and Hypocrisy, Formalist and Hypocrisy. One thing we saw about those individuals was they desired to make a great show of religion. And they thrived on admiration and praise of men. Kind of like we saw this morning, right? They loved the praise of men. We ought to love as Christians the praise of God, the approval of God.

That's just as you want to have clean drinking water so you don't have all kinds of bacteria and fungi and viruses and things growing in that water. So it is, if we're not to have the sins of the spirit growing inside of us, we need to have our hearts right with God. We don't, we need to have clean hearts, pure hearts toward the Lord. So these things will not grow. It's kind of like the idea of thorny ground. We want to have good ground, right? So good things can grow and fruit can be born in our lives for the glory of God.

And I was even reading what Sister Jeanette Joyner shared recently. She, well, just in her update today, she was saying something to the effect of we need to actively think on heaven. We need to think about the Lord. We need to think about things above. I think she was sharing this from a message that she had heard either from her home church pastor or there over in Uganda. One, I wasn't sure which one she was referring to, but she was saying that thinking on things above. And the more we think on heaven, the more we long to be with Jesus, the more we will want to be with the Lord.

Well, here we have the, you know, here we have this understanding that we don't want hypocrisy in our lives, right? The Lord doesn't want it in our lives. He speaks against it in us. He says, what is he doing here in this passage? He's talking to his disciples. He's talking to his followers and says, look over there, those Pharisees. You see how they live? You see how they think? You see what controls them? The praise of man is what motivates them. Do you see those Pharisees over there? You see those hypocrites? Do you see what is in their spirits? It is, they don't care what's on the inside. It can be filthy just as long as the outside looks good. That's where their focus is. They are doing it all. They're giving the alms that they give. So people will say, look, let's ring a little bell over here. Look what I'm giving, when I pray, I want to lift up my voice, I could trumpet to make sure everyone hears. That's not to say when you pray publicly, pray really softly so no one can hear you. No, it's the motivation of being seen, heard, and people taking note of me. Everybody look at me. That's the attitude. That's the spirit of the Pharisee.

But while their words may sound lofty, while their deeds may look noble, it's a facade. It's not truly the reality of their hearts toward God. So Jesus speaking to them, the Lord uses bad examples to teach his people, doesn't he? He says, don't mislead people for your own advantage, like the Pharisees do. Hypocrites are concerned with what man sees. They're more satisfied with a form of godliness than actual godliness. They're content that people think they are good people rather than actually being good and clean. And they're good at pretending, aren't they? Hypocrites are good at pretending.

Look at Matthew 23, Matthew 23 verse 27. It says here in verse 27, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Go back to verse 25, let's read there as well. Verse 25 says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, listen to this command he gives. He says, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter. This is always God's emphasis to us. Cleanse, your heart needs to be clean first. Your spirit needs to be right first. Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter. That the outside of them may be clean also.

So this is continually what we've been saying in this series on the sins of the spirit. We need I and my spirit before I ever say a word, before I ever go out on a Monday morning and I perform any deeds. I need to ask, is my heart right, is my spirit right with the Lord? All those well-worn verses, you know, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. That is a good, necessary daily prayer of our hearts. Let the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. And we need the Lord to search us and try us, see if there be any wicked way in us. And hypocrisy is certainly a wicked way. It is a wicked way. We must hate hypocrisy. I must hate hypocrisy more in my own life than anyone else's life. I must say, Lord, while I hate hypocrisy in Washington, while I hate hypocrisy in televangelists or whatever the case may be, Lord, more than that even, I hate any and all hypocrisy in my own life. And when the Holy Spirit deals with us about it, when our conscience rises up and says you're being hypocritical in this thing, may we, like Barney Fife said, nip it in the bud. Lord, deal with this in my life. May it be serious to us, may it be an urgent matter to us, like that hymn that we sing. I want a principle within, a watch for godly fear, of a sensibility to sin, a pain to feel it near. Lord, help me the first approach to feel of pride or wrong desire, to quench the wandering of my will or to catch the wandering of my will and quench the kindling fire.

There is a hymn that we sing sometimes by Avis Christiansen and he says this, fill all my vision, Savior I pray. Let me see Jesus, only Jesus today. Through the valley, valley this went, through the valley, valley this me, thy faithless glory and compass it to me. I think it's a little different than the words in our hymnal, but the idea's there. I just copied these words from the internet as I looked up this hymn, but it says here, fill all my vision, Savior divine. Till with thy glory my spirit shall shine, fill all my vision that all may see thy holy image reflected in me. He goes on, verse two says, fill all my vision, every desire keep for thy glory, my soul inspire with thy perfection, thy holy love, let me be lighting my pathway with light from above, fill all my vision, let naught of sin shadow the brightness shining within. Let me see only thy blessed face, feasting my soul on thy infinite grace. Those are words of a man with pure religion before God, those are the words of a Christian that desires for their meditations, their heart to be right with the Lord.

On the other hand, the Pharisees, the Pharisees are content to sound the trumpet even though they know the things, the notes the trumpet plays are not the reality of their inward heart. They are content to gain the attention and approval of men, whether it be in the giving of alms. And we know the giving of alms would be to those who are in need, those who don't have, those that are without. Be content to be anonymous in that, be content to not even dwell on how great I am or look what I did, even in your own heart and mind. The Lord allowed me, the Lord enabled me to do this. We said this morning, Joseph of Arimathea had it in his ability that God had given him, he obviously, he and Nicodemus had the riches to be able to do what they did. If God has permitted you to have the wealth or the intelligence or the skill to do something for him, do it as unto the Lord. Don't do it so that people can say you're a mighty fine fellow, you know, it may be that other men's lips will praise thee, but don't do it for that reason, don't do it for the attention. That's what becomes sin. I mean, it's not a sin if someone praises you, it's a sin if you do it for the praise, you do it for the attention.

We also notice here, Jesus said in verse 2, go back to the text in Matthew 6 in verse 2, God and whatever benefit they're going to get because the Lord is not going to reward hypocrisy. The Lord, the Lord is not going to reward it. It's a very, in light of eternity, it's a very cheap reward that they've gotten. Would it not be better to have the praise of God in the form of a well done, thou good and faithful servant, than to even have things in our Christian lives burned up because we did them in hypocrisy? We did them in hypocrisy and we got the pat on the back and all of that, but we did it for the wrong reason. Even when it talks about husbands loving their wives and wives submitting to their husbands and children obeying their parents and servants doing what their master tells them to do, it's all in those Pauline epistles. We see so many times where it says do it as unto the Lord or doing it as to the Lord and not unto men. This is the idea that the Lord is communicating, whatever your role is, whatever your opportunities are, do it to the Lord, do it to the glory of God.

There's a reward that even in this life we know when we walk with God that the hypocrites such as the Pharisees could not know, and that reward is, well, the peace of heart that comes from the Lord. That's when we know that, and the rest, the easy conscience that comes when we know that we have done something to the glory of God and we just leave it with the Lord. We do what we do for his glory. And yet, have you ever experienced, I'm sure you have, I have, doing something with the hope that it will gain the attention of men, but knowing in your spirit that it is, there's not that clean conscience of having done it for all for the glory of God.

Well, let's look over in James chapter 3 please, James chapter 3. This is once again, as Christians, we are not any longer hypocrites in the proper sense of the word, but let's pray the world would deliver us from any and all hypocrisy. James 3 verse 13, let's pick up there in verse number 13. It says there, the question is asked, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. Once again, the focus is on the heart, but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom, this selfish sort of wisdom, not godly wisdom, descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy.

Earlier in this epistle that James penned, he said that if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him, asking in faith, nothing wavering. But to ask for wisdom and God will give it, and so when we have this wisdom from God, there's no place to boast, there's no room for hypocrisy. We're asking, we just said a moment ago, the prayer we should ask as we pray, Lord, help me to think the right thoughts, help me to say the right words. Isn't that asking for wisdom? Lord, make me wise in my thinking, make me wise in my words. That's really a daily prayer we should pray for. That requires humility and faith, not wavering and doubting, but trusting the Lord to provide. Trusting the Lord to fill all our vision that all may see, as we just read in that hymn a moment ago, that holy image reflected in me. And so we are to ever be coming to the throne of grace and with confidence asking and trusting that God will, God will give. Because what will happen if we do not seek his wisdom and seek purity of motives before the Lord and before, as we walk before others, then we will have, this will have this bitter envying and strife in our hearts. We will have this wisdom that descendeth not from above. It's earthly, sensual, devilish. That's the kind of wisdom that comes easy to us, right? That's the kind of wisdom that is just common to man, and the devil empowers that kind of wisdom. He empowers that kind of fleshly wisdom, selfish sort of wisdom, not even true wisdom at all, but he definitely emboldens people in that sort of thinking in that way.

But we are to draw nigh to the Lord, not only with our mouths, but we're to draw nigh to the Lord with our hearts, asking for this wisdom. In James 1, let's look back over there for just a moment. As we've read about this wisdom we need from God, this wisdom that is without hypocrisy, this true wisdom that is from God, we also read here about this true or pure religion in James 1:27. It says here in verse 27, what is it like, what does this pure religion look like? Well, it's to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

What is it that would motivate us to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction? Well, if you truly are visiting the fatherless and widows, they don't probably have anything monetary to offer you, do they? They're in need themselves, they can't give you anything, so to speak, although God will greatly bless you in your heart for having done that. But there's nothing they really have to offer in their affliction. They're just going through a very difficult time, a very lonely time, a very emotional perhaps time, a very uncertain time in their lives. Well, to visit them in their affliction, it's pure religion, is what this passage tells us. That's true charity, true compassion to visit them. So in fact, the idea of religion, the word religion itself, it speaks of action or conduct indicating a belief in divine power and a reverence for and desire to please that divine power. The word religion in our English came from the idea of the word to bind fast. Well, it's religion, true pure religion that binds us in our hearts to God. It is true religion by which we may relate to God. It's not by our religion, is not one of externalism, it's one of internal heart knowledge of God, heart relationship with God. And that is the basis, if our heart's clean, if you clean the inside of the cup first, then the action flowing out of it will be right because the heart's right, because the heart knows God, the heart's in fellowship with God. You know, the proud he knows afar off, right? But he draws nigh to the humble, he draws nigh to the humble, but he resists the proud. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due time.

Well, this pure religion is religion that's not merely clean on the outside, right? Is not merely clean, everybody will say, I just want to clean up the outside so everybody will say, look at that. You know, when you go looking for a vehicle, that's a clean-looking car over there. Well, the question is, does it run, does it actually work, is it reliable? This religion that the Lord's talking about here is also characterized by, in verse 27, to keep himself unspotted from the world. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, but to keep himself unspotted from the world. That's true purity, right? Pure heart, pure thoughts, pure motives, not like the world, to keep himself unspotted from the world and his very thinking, not like the world. He doesn't love the world, he doesn't want to be like the world, his motives are unadulterated by selfish, fleshly, worldly motives, we might say. And so this true religion, our pure religion, will manifest itself not in hypocrisy but in true charity and true purity.

In so many words, in a manner of speaking, we might say that hypocrisy is really about, it's really idolatry, isn't it? It's really about bringing the attention to me, look at me, look what I can do, look what I've done, look what I've accomplished for God. There will be many that will say, Lord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful works in thy name, have we not accomplished so much for you, Lord? Well, apart from me, I never knew you, you that work iniquity. Yeah, we might, I don't believe there in that context the Lord said hypocrites, but he might as well have said hypocrites. You've done all these things, you've had this appearance, this form of godliness, but you never knew the reality of it.

Thank God that we can try our own hearts by his word. We can pray, Lord, search me and try me. Do you know, have you, and if you're a Christian, you do know this, but isn't it a wonderful thing when you, maybe you give alms, you pray in your closet, and you know my heart is right with God. I am in fellowship with the Lord. I don't need anybody else to come and pat me on the back and say, look at you, you did a great job today, you did wonderful. No, I thank God for inviting me into this wonderful relationship I have with him as his son and him as my Father. He walks with me, we might say, and talks with me. When I read his word, I sense that the Holy Spirit is speaking to me through the word, and I can pray to him and know that he hears me. If I ask anything according to his will, I just, I just know. I have that blessed assurance that Jesus is mine. There's no greater joy than to know that we are walking in truth, even as John would say, I have no greater joy than to see that my children walk in truth.

But may we strive that above all, our relationship with the Lord, even this week, would and our walk before others would be genuine. It would be free, the Lord would help us, give us the wisdom in our thinking, in our speaking, that it would be free of hypocrisy. It would be genuine, it would be true, that others would see Jesus Christ in us. If we don't have his wisdom, it will be us, right? It will be our own wisdom, will be our own. We will be hypocritical in and of ourselves, but thank the Lord we have a living and vital relationship with him, and through that fellowship, that blessed relationship we have with him, we can be genuine, and we ought to be genuine in our words, interactions before others, starting with our family, starting with those that we're closest to, and then working out into the community.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity we have to know what your word says, to think on what your word tells us to, to apply the truth of your word to our lives right where we are at the present age and place we are in our walk with you. We thank you that your word is alive, is quick, is sharper than any two-edged sword, it meets our hearts' needs right where we are. We pray, Lord, that you would impart to us your wisdom, that we would manifest in our lives, we would demonstrate by our living that we truly do desire this, to have this pure religion and undefiled that we read of here in James tonight. We pray, Lord, that others would see Christ in us, but that we would simply live that you would be glorified and others would be edified through you working in our lives, not that we would get any praise or attention or whatever out of the deal, out of our obedience, but may we just do it for the glory. We know that all these things will be tried at the judgment seat one day. We pray, Lord, that there will be that which will pass through the fire, and it will be found to praise and honor and glory at your appearing. We pray to ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.