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. 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 reformed 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 to that effect, many times what's passed off as a disease is actually, many times is a heart problem. And it's a sin in the spirit that is not being addressed. 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 we're living in a world now where we just pump people full of, you know, drugs and all of these things. And I don't think that's the pharmaceutical. 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, sins of the spirit. The spirit is more like there's something that, it's not really a sin if you're angry. You know, we need to get rid of that stigma of calling it a sin. And I thought, you know, that is 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 will 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, 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, 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 so it's in Matthew chapter six, verse number one. Matthew six, one says, take heed that you do not your alms before men. To be seen of them. Otherwise ye 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 eyes. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. And when thou enter into 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, literally, as I've 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, hypokrites. 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. It's incompatible with Christian living. Hypocrisy, in fact, when the Lord spoke about appointing one's portion with the hypocrites in judgment, he was talking about in condemnation, in hellfire. Hypocrites will have their place in hell. Hypocrites will… Hypocrites can… Hypocrites can not 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. And 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.

And 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 in 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 by the house of the interpreter. They didn't come the right way. Their names were formalistic. 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 appreciation. 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 these sins of the Spirit growing inside of us, we need to have our hearts. We need to have our hearts right with God, don't we? We need to have clean hearts, pure hearts toward the Lord. So that these things will not grow. It's kind of like, you know, even the idea of thorny ground. We want to have good ground, right? So that good things can grow and fruit can be born in our lives to the glory of God.

And I was even reading what Sister Jeanette Joyner shared recently. I dwell just in her. Her update today, she was saying that 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 thinking on things above and the more we think on heaven, the more we love God. 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, 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 say, look over there. Those, those Pharisees, you see, you see how they live. You see how they think. You see what? Controls them. The praise of men is what motivates them. Do you see those Pharisees over there? You see those hypocrites? Do you see what, 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. Everybody look what I'm giving. Uh, when I pray, I want to lift up my voice like a trumpet to make sure everyone hears. That's not to say when you pray publicly, pray really softly so nobody can hear you. No, it's the, it's the, the motivation of, of being seen, heard, and people taking note of me. Everybody look at me. Everybody look at me. That's the, that's the attitude. That's the, the spirit of the Pharisees. See, 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 be misled. Don't mislead people for your own advantage like the Pharisees do. Hypocrites are concerned what man sees. They're, 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 in Matthew 23, Matthew 23, verse 37. It says, Here in verse 37, Matthew 23, verse 37. We're going to read a couple of different places in this passage. In verse 37, we notice here, I'm sorry, I meant to say verse 27. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye 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, let's read there as well. Verse 25 says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye 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 statement. Listen to this command he gives. He says, Cleanse first that which is within the cup. And the, and 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, my spirit before I ever say a word for, before I ever go out on a Monday morning and I perform any deeds I need to. I need to ask is, is my heart right? Is my spirit right with the Lord? All those well-worn verses, you know, but the words of my mouth. 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. Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. And we need to, we need the Lord to search us and try us, see if there'd be any wicked way in us. And hypocrisy is certainly a wicked way. It is a wicked way. We must hate. Hypocrisy.

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 and you know, televangelists or, you know, whatever the case may be, Lord, more than that, even I hate any and all hypocrisy in my own life. And when the, when the Holy spirit deals with us about it, when our conscience rises up, as you're being hypocritical in this thing, may we, may we like, uh, you know, Barney Fife said, nip it in the bud, Lord, deal with this in my life. May it be serious to us. May it be like, uh, may it be an urgent matter to us like that hymn that we sing. I want a principle within a watchful, godly fear, 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 Christensen. He says this, fill all my vision, savior. I pray, let me see Jesus or only Jesus today. Uh, that through the valley, thou leadest, when through the valley, thou leadest me, thy fadeless glory encompasseth me. I think that's a little different than the words in our hymnal, but this, the idea is there. I, I just copied these words from the internet, um, 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 flooding my pathway with light from above. Fill all my vision. Let not 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, those are the words of a, 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 trumpet, the notes, the trumpet plays are not the reality of their inward heart. They are content. They are content. 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 is the giving of alms would be to those who are in need. Those who don't have those that are, that are without be content to be anonymous in that be content to not even dwell on how great I am or, 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 in the, 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, the wit, the, the intelligence or the, or the skill to do something for him, do it as unto the Lord. Don't do it so that people can say, well, 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 as that. That's what that becomes sin. I mean, it's not a sin. If someone praises you, it's a sin. If you do it for the praise, if you do it for the attention,

we also notice here, Jesus said in verse two, go back to the text in Matthew six in verse two, he says, verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. The latter part of this first two after they say sound the trumpet, they have their reward. They've already received their payment in full. They've already gotten 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 that 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 who loving their wives and wives, you know, submitting to their husbands and children obeying their parents and servants, you know, 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, 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, the hypocrites such as the Pharisees could not know. And that reward is, well, the peace of heart that comes when we know that and the rest, the easy conscience that comes when we know that we have done, we have done something to the glory of God and we just leave it with the Lord. We do what we do. 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 but knowing in your spirit that there's not that 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 three, please. James chapter, three. This is once again, as Christians, we are not any longer hypocrites in the proper sense of the word, but we must pray the Lord would deliver us from any and all hypocrisy. James three, verse 13. Let's pick up there in verse number 13. It says there, the question is asked, who is a wise man? And in, dude 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 in 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 partiality, without hypocrisy.

Earlier in this epistle that James penned, he said that if any man, 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. Ask 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 doubt. 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 a moment ago, thy 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 give because what will happen if we do not seek his wisdom and seek purity of motives before the Lord and before, as we, as we walk before others, then we will have this, we'll have this bitter ending and strife in our hearts. We will have this wisdom that descended not from above it's earthly sensual devilish. That's, that's the kind of wisdom that comes easy to us, right? That's the kind of wisdom that 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, not even true wisdom at all, but he, he definitely in 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 in our hearts asking for this, this wisdom.

In James one, 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 with out 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, that pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this. What does it look 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, 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, they're just going through a very difficult time, a very lonely time, a very, a very emotional, perhaps time a very uncertain time in their lives. Well, to visit them in their affliction, their affliction is pure religion is what this passage tells us. That's true charity, true compassion to visit them.

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, the, 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's heart relationship with God. And that is the basis. If our heart clean, if you clean the inside of the cup first, then the actions flowing out of it will be right because the heart's right because the heart knows God, the hearts in fellowship with God, you know, the proud, he knows the far 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? It's 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, a, a vehicle, well, that's a clean looking car over there. Well, the question is, is it run? You know, does it, does it actually work? Is it reliable? Uh, it, this religion that the Lord's talking about here is, is, is also characterized by, uh, in verse 27 to keep himself unspotted from the world, to, 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 it's very thinking not like the world. Uh, he doesn't love the world. He doesn't want to be like the world. Uh, his, his motives are unadulterated by selfish fleshly worldly motives. We might say, and, and, and so this, this true religion or pure religion will manifest itself, not in hypocrisy, but in true charity and, and true purity in so many words in, in, in a, in a, 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 this. 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, depart from me. I never knew you. You that work iniquity. Yeah, we, we might, I don't believe they're in that context. The Lord said hypocrites, but he might as well have said hypocrites. You've, you've done all these things. You've had this appearance, this form of Godliness, but you never do 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, but isn't it, isn't it a wonderful thing when you, maybe you give alms, maybe when you pray in your closet and you know, my heart is right with God. Yeah. 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, but you, buddy, 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, as his son and him as my father. He walks with me, we might say, and talks with me. I, I, when I read his word, I sense that the Holy Spirit is speaking to me. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I can see what Jesus 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 just know, I have that blessed assurance that Jesus is mine.

There's no, 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 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. It 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 and our actions 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 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. And we thank you that your word is alive. It's quick. It's alive. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It meets our heart's 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. 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. It's not that we would we would get any praise that praise or attention or whatever out of the deal out of our obedience. But may we just do it for thy 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 it will be found to praise and honor and glory at your appearing. We pray and ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.