Sermons

Good morning, Saints of Trinity Bible Church. It's a joy and a privilege to be back here with you this morning. You could turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 12. We'll be in verses one to seven. Mark left off…I did end up getting signed up to teach the children's Sunday school somewhere in between. I don't know how that's gonna fit in with the other things. So that was the deal sealer for him, was one extra. But no, it really is a joy to get to be here. Again, I was here It was a little over a month ago, I think, and I did have to clarify to my congregation when I got back that I wasn't candidating here. I mean, they were just jumping to conclusions and wanting to know where I was, why I was in Dallas. And so I diverted it when I got to the pulpit by actually emphasizing that I did my research and that the rumor that I said was spreading last time I was here, that there is a Whataburger of all places on planet Earth landing in our fair town of Hickory. We're like 50,000 people counting the animals. Why do we deserve such a glorious offering such as Whataburger? And so they caught on to my cynicism. And one dear woman, and I think I shared this with you last time, when you get the “bless your heart pastor”, you know you're in trouble. So she said, “bless your heart pastor,” you just don't know how to order right. And I was like, it's a burger joint, like what can you mess up? But I, yeah, so I said just disciple me when I get back.

But now it is good. I looked at your bulletin. I rejoice with you that Andrew Curry is coming to here and I praise God for that. That way I can bring the bulletin back and put it on our screen and prove to them that I am not candidating here. The Lord has found your pastor and I know Andrew from time out at Master's Seminary, just a wonderful man of God, a brother in Christ. I'm excited for him to get the joy to shepherd you, and I'm excited for you to be shepherded by him and to care for him as well. All of it is God's grace, and so we are thankful for that.

It's the week after Easter, and if you're like our church and most churches, you see that jump in attendance, and it's exciting. You know, as the crowd builds, you might think, okay, we know people come out for Christmas and Easter and maybe some other special occasions. But in the midst of capturing the excitement and fervor of a crowd, sometimes it could cross the pastor's mind where to go next that week after. You know, some people may have checked out church for the first time in a way that whatever that's how the Lord works in people's lives is that it puts it on their heart. I should, of all times of the year, go back to church on Easter. And so it could be in the mind of a pastor to say, if I had my druthers, if I could pick anywhere in the Bible to go, what would be the next week that I could really capture the momentum? And if we were to poll church growth experts, I think today's text would be the last place you would go the week after Easter. But providence is always on our side. And in God's timing, we are here in Luke 12:1-7. And it is a sermon that Jesus delivers in the midst of a massive crowd. It's going into His last year of ministry. And maybe those earlier crowds that really were excited by the work of Christ, by seeing the miracles and building a crowd and the healings and all of it, it's turning the corner in a different direction this last year of His life because the Pharisees have seen what He can do. And they know, especially what you saw last week in chapter 11, that He is out to what? He is out to expose them for who they are.

And so this crowd that we're gonna talk about today, is a mixed crowd of people. We can't necessarily say that this massive crowd that He is going to start a sermon in chapter 12 and actually for whoever will be coming in the next few weeks to preach, it really is seen as one discourse that goes all the way to chapter 13 verse 9. It's the same moment and you get interspersions of people in the crowd speaking up, whether it's somebody just yelling out or even Peter asking a question. But that's where you're going to be for the next few weeks in Luke 12 and into chapter 13. When Jesus has the opportunity to ride the momentum of a big crowd, does He ride it or does He just crash it? With what you know about our Savior, what do you think He would do? Do you think He would just be satisfied with superficial followers? From what you've seen in Luke so far, is that what He's after? He just wants numbers? Or is He gonna take this opportunity in Luke chapter 12 to send a message loud and clear about the danger of being a false disciple, of wearing the mask? That's the tone of the text as we start today. It is confrontational to the religious person's sensibilities. And as I mentioned, it wouldn't be something that a church would necessarily pick in the height of attendance right after Easter, but yet in God's timing, here we are. And then on top of it, that this is a day where we are going to take the Lord's Supper. And Paul's clear call in 1 Corinthians 11:28 is “let each person examine himself.” The marriage of this text here and what we're going to do at the end couldn't be more perfect in God's timing to us. And it may afflict the comfortable today. But I think those who are afflicted and sometimes weighed down and wondering where they stand can also comfort those afflicted. That's what the power of the word of God can do simultaneously, not by my words, but by what His Word does.

So let's read it together, Luke 12:1-7. As we see His call to His disciples to take heed of religious hypocrisy.

“In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, He began to say to His disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows”.

[Prayer] Father, it was your Son who said, He who has ears to hear, listen up. So I pray that Christ, your voice, that your sheep know would call out today in a way that those ears would hear. Do that by the power of your spirit through the preaching of your word. Amen. [End]

So as we re-enter the scene, it's sometime after, we don't know exactly how long after the first phrase there, “in the meantime.” “In the meantime,” as in Luke is recording this and trying to say, let me let the last chapter, especially versus the 37 to 52, the dinner party that went south in a way, where this Pharisee asked Him to come and then Jesus goes, scorched earth on the Pharisees and scribes. That's what Luke wants to say is the connection point. In the meantime, in the aftermath of that, That is still lingering in the air and the scene that ended in 53 to 54 is the scribes and Pharisees began to press Him hard, to provoke Him to speak about many things. They are trying to set a trap for Him. They know truly now how He feels about them and their false religion, their apostate Judaism. So the only card they have left to play is to try to turn the crowds against Him. As convincing as He is, they're gonna try to lie and wait for Him to catch Him in something He might say.

So now we turn the corner. In the meantime, people are coming in droves. Many thousands upon thousands are coming. It says, stepping all over each other. For what reason? We don't know the motivation of why suddenly whatever just happened in chapter 11 has led to more people. Maybe it is an admixture of those who normally would want to come and hear Jesus preach with Pharisees riling people up saying, oh no, you better go listen to this guy because He is a false teacher. In fact, He is possessed by a demon. So there's mixed interests. R.C. Sproul was commenting on the opening of this passage. He's one of my favorites for a number of reasons, if none other than a selfish. He did grow up across the river from where I did in Pittsburgh. So, you know, we want to borrow credibility, as if R.C., growing up on the mighty Monongahela River of southeastern Pittsburgh, has anything to do with me. But it gives a Pittsburgh preacher hope. That's why one of the basic reasons I love R.C. but it's his ministry and preaching that has made such an impact. But he said this about this scene offhand. He said, you know, “I've never had people flock to my preaching like this.” Which made me wonder, has he ever been at a Shepherd's Conference and seen what those men do opening session? If any of you have been out there, I know some of your elders have, Shepherds Conference has 3,000, 4,000 pastors. And the opening session, it's usually when John MacArthur's gonna speak Wednesday morning, is a scene like this in the crawling over top of each other to get to it. They open the doors, the pastors have arrived, they've stuffed their faces with a dozen hard-boiled eggs, four doughnuts, three coffees, they're charged up, and the scene is a frenzy, and the doors open to Grace Church's auditorium, and they want the front seat, and they run over top of each other to get there. Now note, I didn't incriminate your elders. I am not saying they have done it, but I'm saying they have witnessed a scene like this, a crowded frenzy of people trampling over each other, but yet, here's the key line, “He began to say to His disciples first.”

That brings us to the main point today. Though there are crowds for Him to speak to and to speak in such a way that they could discriminate for themselves where they stand, He looks at His disciples in that moment. And He has a warning for His disciples, what does it say? First. I mean, that's why I'm saying we have to come to this text today with ears to hear, particularly in a crowd, what Christ has to warn us, His disciples, with. And the big picture, the big idea, the main focus is this. Take heed, disciple, of the potential of religious hypocrisy in you. Because the nature of religious hypocrisy is though it's an external problem, it spreads like leaven inside of you. That's where your problem lies. Your problem is not outside of you, your problem is inside of you. It's a warning passage to all true followers of Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry wrote of this passage, “Christ said this to the disciples in the hearing of the great multitude, rather than privately, when He could have had them by Himself, to add the greater weight to the caution. And to let the world know that He would not countenance hypocrisy, no, not even in His own disciples.” That's pretty amazing to think. That He delivers this in a moment to the crowds so that the disciple would feel the greater weight, you know, maybe in a time where they would be expecting Him to extol their virtue. Hey, you guys are the real thing. I just lit up those Pharisees back at that house party. Aren't you guys the best? No, no. He says, in light of what I just witnessed at that party, in light of the warning I gave them and the caution, let me now caution you, my disciples. So it doesn't just, it adds weight to it, but it also puts the crowd on notice. I'm not looking for any spiritual phonies. And you could see where the wisdom of Jesus in doing that would help them to see whatever the Pharisees were saying about, this guy's the fraud, He's trying to build a crowd, He's out to win over the masses. They would, in Jesus' perfect wisdom and brilliance, He removes that doubt right away, doesn't He? Because they would be showing up thinking, oh, what's He going to say to try to win us and woo us? And He actually says, I want to warn you that if you're a follower of Me, one of the dangers in your own heart is to be a religious fraud if you think it's just about the externals.

No one, and this is just a starting big thought in our minds, no one has ever fooled God. Men for ages have fooled themselves and fooled other people. And yet, when we understand the omniscience and omnisapience of God, He is all-knowing, He is all-wise, why would we even think to play the game with God? No one has ever fooled Him. No one has ever duped God. Nobody has ever conned God. When it even looks like God might be losing, He's always winning. I'm teaching that to my congregation right now. We're teaching through 1 Samuel. If you want to look at a picture from the outside and only see externals, you read the first few chapters of Samuel and think, Yahweh is losing. He's got fraudulent leaders. The Word of God is not found. Samuel's raised up, but they're thinking the glory of God is in a box, and the Philistines take it away. And it would look like to the average follower of God, He's lost. But the key to that book is what? Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. Because God doesn't lose. He's not faked out by anyone. He's not misled for a second. And that's, I think, one of the most powerful motivations right now for the Lord's table today in examining ourselves on how to listen to this sermon. A sermon on religious hypocrisy is first, one that must be preached to the people here in the pews, not to the public. Because we have to start with the house of God, 1 Peter 4 says. This is a painfully perfect sermon for self-examination.

C.H. Spurgeon said this about this verse, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. He who is true will sometimes suspect himself of falsehood.” So again, when I said some of you might come in here afflicted, some true believer, burdened down by the sorrows of life, and sometimes even where assurance comes to mind. Spurgeon would say, “he who is true will sometimes suspect himself of falsehood,” because you actually know to a certain degree the lawlessness in your own heart still. “But he who is false will wrap himself up in a constant confidence of his own sincerity.” Do you see the difference Spurgeon is trying to draw out here that Jesus is drawing out here? “He who is true will sometimes suspect himself of falsehood, while he who is false will wrap himself up in a constant confidence of his own sincerity.” So, Jesus is giving a strong warning to His disciples to take heed of religious hypocrisy, and yet out of that warning, He will give three ways to ensure that we wouldn't let it happen to us. So, there's one disease today, religious hypocrisy, with three cures. Those three cures, as you heard me read, one is that know that it will all be revealed. God alone will expose all that is concealed. That's cure number one. Everything will be revealed. Cure number two, know that it will all be judged. God alone will judge all hypocrites in hell. That's their end game. And number three, know that it will all be accounted for. God alone cannot make one oversight. It's impossible for Him to get it wrong. All will be revealed, all will be judged, and all will be accounted for. That's the cure.

Let's understand a little more of the disease. So, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Beware is a strong word of warning to be in a continuous state of readiness to learn of any future danger. That's what that “beware” means. It's even coupled with a personal pronoun in the Greek that says, “to have a dialogue with oneself and one's heart.” So, you bring those two things together, be aware of something that is a threat to your life, but then He uses it in a way to say, in that greatest threat, you need to look within. He marries those ideas to take heed to yourself on the danger of hypocrisy. When we think of the word hypocrisy, you might think of terms like what? Insincerity, duplicity, double-mindedness, artificiality, and I mean, it's a repugnant word in society, but it's double that when it comes to religion. Because to be considered a hypocrite in society might mean that, okay, this person tried to pass themselves off as this one thing, If they fool me, nothing was at stake eternally on that. I mean, there's fraud’s all around us. Yesterday, I went on a run around Park Central Drive. Anybody ever run there? It's a nice place to run. And on the outside, I look the part of a runner. There's a nice guy in my church. He's my same size. He's like a, I forget what they call him, a shoe head. He loves athletic shoes. And he wears them a little bit and then, because I think he has hopes for me to stay in shape for a long time and have a long run, healthy in the ministry, he gives me, hand me down nice workout clothes. So, I'm wearing this guy's nice workout stuff. It's all, you know, SpaceX material, you know, like it's futuristic. It's not, I have the same junky gym clothes from when I played college football 25 years ago, but this guy gives me nice stuff. So, I go over to Park Central Drive to run, and I look like a runner until I run. And so, I wouldn't be exaggerating or accused of exaggeration this morning. I looked at my watch, I started a two-mile run at 11:30. Somebody already laughed. They know where this is going. I finished said two-mile run at noon. That is a buffalo's pace because I looked it up. Buffalo's walk, four miles an hour. I googled. I googled it. I googled about buffaloes. But I googled. I don't do good math. I didn't figure out pretty quickly. It doesn't take a mathematician to know how slow I was going. So I googled it. And this was AI's response. “Running two miles in 30 minutes is considered slow, especially for an adult.” Thanks, Google. So, I was a fraudulent runner being passed along Central Park Drive. But nobody was stopping and being like, fake! Even you this morning, I don't think you're gonna be personally offended of how I might dress like a runner, that I'm not a runner. But hypocrisy in a religious context, like we have here, is much more offensive. Because it's lying about you and it's lying about God. You're making a claim to something you don't really know about. And not only that, for a religious hypocrite to lead other people is to lead them to a God they don't really know. That's what's so awful about false teachers and religious hypocrisy. It claims to know something, even to be an expert in something, it is the farthest thing away from. It claims to love a God it does not know. It claims to serve a God it does not know. It claims to worship a God it does not know. And that is what is so, well, on one level of hypocrisy, repugnant to other people about it when you're exposed, but it's damning personally. That's the worst part of it all. If you stay under the mask of false religion, of spiritual hypocrisy, you die in your sins thinking you know a God that you do not know.

Back to the running course. I was coming back to where I started and often as I was chugging my way to the finish line, I see that where I started, there were two older women there with the Jehovah's Witness setup that says on the top, “want to read the Bible or something?” So, I knew this is why I was on this run today, with this text in mind. So, I get up to them, looking like a runner, and the Lord actually gave me the ultimate in to, you know, because sometimes you want to like, oh, how am I going to get into this gospel conversation? The lady looks at me and goes, wow, you are a runner. And I said, “no, I'm a fraud. I got all this stuff on” and I told her how slow I was and then she got a chuckle actually. And I said, “but I got a question for you. How would a religious person know if they're a fraud?” And we launched into a two-hour conversation, me and these two Jehovah's Witnesses. And I said, “I want you to help me understand Luke 12, one to seven. What's a person to do if they think they have the truth and they think on the outside they're keeping all the rules? How do you cure that?” And you would imagine how that conversation might have went. There was a lot that they wanted to try to agree with. Because the nature of false religion, false teachers, who are in error, is that they will be willing to concede things to the truth, just not all of it. But the flip side is the truth will never concede what? One inch to error. And that's where that conversation ended with them, where they wanted to say, “I guess we can agree to disagree. Young man, we admire your convictions.” And I said, “but that's not the same with me to you. I don't admire your convictions. I have to warn you that we both can't be right. It's the most ridiculous thing if we're talking about eternal matters. To say we can agree to disagree, right? You can say that on a lot of things. We can agree to disagree over Whataburger. Nothing's at stake. Maybe.” But what I was trying, because they wanted to end the conversation with basically a truce. And I couldn't. And I kept pushing to say “there is no truce between truth and error.” And to try to expose the false hypocrisy that they were under. The only way that I had any sense of maybe something got through was by the end, in trying to explain, “you must believe that Jesus is God, equal to the Father. I and the Father are one, which they do not believe.” Is to finally, as we got into the matters of the Trinity, the lady, as they were now trying to get away from me packing their stuff up, I had recovered from my two-mile marathon. The energy had returned. But she said, “you know what has been enlightening today?” It was the first concession she made. “I think I now know what you Trinitarians believe.” And I said, “well, if you want to know more, that word Trinity that you don't believe in, there's a church called Trinity Bible Church. And if you want to hear the truth about God, go there.” And they weren't repulsed by that. So, we need to pray for Jackie and Barbara. Because that was the only glimmer of hope I had at the end, that to expose the false religion that they're under. And they were maintaining, they're good people, they believe that Jesus died on a cross, but they were wrong about Christ, and they were wrong about what His work accomplished for them forever, because they had doubts whether they would make it to heaven. That's not the gospel. That's not good news. If you have doubts, if you think, I still have to make sure I do my part.

I use that to illustrate the danger of false religion, because it lies. They sat there yesterday, and why I was under such compulsion to talk to them is, as I'm thinking this, they're sitting there thinking they've got the corner on the market. They think they're good people. They're religious people. They're not like the rest of the world. And that's what's the most damning and dangerous about spiritual or religious hypocrisy. So that's the warning. And it's all about externalism. Maybe a couple verses to just kind of round out. If you're saying, Adam, what's, you know, so what is a good definition of religious hypocrisy? I don't think you can do better than Matthew 23:28. Just listen to it. You don't have to turn there. We're still talking about the warning to this, and we want to understand it if we're going to cure it. Matthew 23:28. “So you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” So there's a good working definition. If you want to say, hey, I want to think biblically about this. I want to understand in my mind in order to fight against this. Matthew 23:28, we get a very clear definition. It's externalism. The nature of religious hypocrisy has an appearance of outward righteousness, but inward has a heart of lawlessness.

It's all an act, and that's what the word hypocrite or hypocrisy meant in Jesus' time. It was borrowed from secular language, the language of the Greek rhetoricians, the actors too. Plato in 450 referred with this word to actors who take written words of poets and interpret them through performance to expound upon. Or Epitectus, a Stoic philosopher in the time of Paul said this, “the art of the actor is that from the moment he dons the mask, his whole conduct on stage keeps with his allotted role.” And that line, though from a secularist, gave me the image for a religious hypocrite. “He who dons the mask.” Now again, we're not offended by actors, are we? Well, I take that back. We can be offended by actors’ personal lives. But we pay money to be fooled by them. I'm a failed actor. It's what I went to LA for in 2004. Became apparent to me rather quickly after a year of rejection. I was terrible at it, and it hit me why. I couldn't fake myself out, let alone you. I would have to read a script. I would have to go up and audition. And I'm in my head saying, like, I can't pretend to, that's not going to be believable to you, the audience. You don't want to pay to see that. Yet on the flip side, when we think of a preacher, the last thing you want is somebody who doesn't believe what they're saying and is putting on a show. The most convincing is the person you listen to preach with conviction. And you say, “I don't know much about that guy, but from watching what he's saying, he believes every word of what he's saying.” Now, does his life match up? That's a whole other issue. But at the very root of hypocrisy is in the time of Jesus, a hypocrite was one who donned the mask, wore it well, kept up the act, fooled the audience, captivated the crowd. They were believable. It was so much so in the times of these Greek speakers that they would even, the best of them, would actually be given a proposition, an argument to make that was built on a lie and they were to see who was the best at fooling the audience just by their homiletics, just by their performance. The highest rated speakers in the time of Paul would be those who could argue a lie so well just by the way they presented it. That's hypocrisy.

But it's the kind of leaven that the Pharisees in Jesus' day would do. It's externalism. Its worst enemy is the real thing. Matthew 12:15, when the Pharisees and the Herodians teamed up against Jesus in Mark 12:15, to catch Him in a lie, to say, “should we pay or should we not pay what Caesar asks? And it says, Jesus, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, why are you testing me?” You know, hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy, we learn from that occasion in Mark 12:15, masquerades even as having a passion for the truth. It's not just religious externalism on the outside, it will even try to say that for the sake of truth, in the name of truth. I mean, that's how these Pharisees and Herodians tried to set Jesus up. They came to Him. They said, “teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion.” They're buttering Him up. “You're not swayed by appearances. No one can fool you, but so truly teach us the way of God.” They're phonies, they're frauds. They're trying to set a trap. And isn't that what religious hypocrisy can do? It's not only caught up in the externals, but when it comes to a matter of the truth, it will use truth to serve its own fraudulent ends. It'll hide behind it, it'll twist it, it'll turn it, and if that person's good enough at it, they'll even convince an unsuspecting follower that they're saying the real thing, and they have you flipped and turned around by how convincing they are, that they can even quote scripture, that they'll even commend these Pharisees and Herodians, commended Jesus as a teacher, and it was all an act. It's a masquerade. Religious hypocrites will do and say anything in a judgmental effort to prop themselves up and discredit the real speaker of the truth because they fear being exposed by what? The darkness hates the light. It runs from it, it hides from it.

So those are some features of religious hypocrisy. One last place it's used in the New Testament, 1 Timothy 4:1-2. If it works its externalism and judgmentalism into this person's heart, what it produces is an insensitivity. 1 Timothy 4:1-2. “The Spirit says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, and here it is, by means of hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.” That's a third feature of religious hypocrisy. It's externalism. It's judgmentalism. It'll take and twist the truth to its own ends. And where does it lead somebody that's caught in its cycle? To become insensitive. Seared in their own conscience. What is it saying? That religious hypocrisy calluses as it cultivates and spreads. As the outer person becomes the soul focus, everything's on the outside. What happens to the inner man? The inner man dies. It hardens you on the inside. As it spreads, it's masquerading leaven throughout your soul. You become insensitive to the truth. Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, actually, notice, it says, “the Spirit says, the Holy Spirit says.” The Holy Spirit speaking through Paul that those who have been, notice in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, some are falling away from the faith because they're listening to those who have already become religious hypocrites, seared in their own conscience. Do you see that? That's why the warning, take heed to yourselves, beware of the leaven of religious hypocrisy. Why it's so dangerous is because it's not satisfied to just be deceived on your own. It wants to do what? It wants to pull other people in with you. I mean, that's even what was the confrontation between Paul and Peter back in Galatians 2. When it says in verse 13, “the rest of the Jews joined Peter in his hypocrisy with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by hypocrisy.” So, do you see that leavening effect? Jesus isn't exaggerating the warning here when He's saying to disciples, “beware of it.” It has this dangerous effect that it can spread even throughout disciples and lead some to fall away from the faith.

So, the warnings in scripture are clear to a crowd of Christians. Beware of the influence of externalism, which is fed by judgmentalism, which can be promoted and tragically ended in an insensitivity to the real thing, the real gospel, real spiritual living, and lead some to fall away from the faith. That's the danger here. And when you think about the proof that Jesus wasn't exaggerating, the leaven of false religion and hypocrisy. Have you done a search lately on false religions in the world? How much has false religion spread and in how many different forms? 2 billion Muslims in the world, 1 billion Hindus, 500 million Buddhists, 17 million Mormons, 16 million Jews, 9 million Jehovah's Witnesses. I mean, you just total that up alone out of 8 billion people on the planet, you're halfway there, and that's not even getting into false forms of Christianity. So, when Jesus says, “beware the leaven,” He picked the perfect word, didn't He? When you just see how far and wide false religion has spread with a focus on externalism over the heart. Have you watched the funeral for the Pope this past week? The whole thing is marked by externals. Everything, from the pageantry of it, that alone, I mean, St. Peter's Basilica alone, talk about externalism. that people are caught up in the beauty. It's estimated St. Peter's Basilica is worth $5 billion. $5 billion is what it took to raise to build that. If you took the money throughout history that they've converted and said, what would it take today to build that place? $5 billion to build something what? Externalism. All of it. Beautiful on the outside, just like Jesus warned. Cleaning the cup on the outside. All the rituals, I tuned into it this week because I want to see it in its grossest form. All the beauty and pageantry on the outside, all of it. Yet at the end of the day, the father, the leader of their movement, has to be still prayed into heaven. False religion. Not anything about the heart. But all about how good the Pope was. He was the people's Pope, they've been calling him, because he was so focused on what? The poor, and everybody else, and the outsider, and nothing about the gospel there. In fact, the only record I could find when I was doing research on him this week and thinking about it was a statement, he said that essentially was sometime in the last few years, you know, as long as you believe in a God, from the Pope. I mean, even Catholics were up in arms over it.

That's why Jesus had so much to say in His day to denounce all forms of religious hypocrisy. From John MacArthur on why Jesus' emphasis outweighed denouncing specific sins versus how much he emphasized the dangers of hypocrisy. This is what MacArthur said, “Jesus said more about false religion than He did about specific iniquities because false religion provides a damning deception that sin does not provide.” I'll read that again, because I want you to work that out in your own mind and in our own hearts. “Jesus said more about false religion than He did about specific iniquities because false religion provides a damning deception that sin does not provide.” In a sense, if you reduce that down, what he's saying is hypocrisy is more dangerous than carnality. Because carnality you can see. There's no externalism. My sin, you see it. You can call me on it. You know it's there. But when I'm a hypocrite, when I'm cleaning the outside of the dish, I keep you in the dark. I fool you about who I really am. That's what MacArthur was saying with that quote. Made me think about David and his sin with Bathsheba. The carnality of his adultery. And then his murder, very evident and understood. And if you read Psalm 51, I think you get his confession of the sinfulness of the sin. But if you compare it to the opening of Psalm 32, I think you get a confession of the sinfulness of his hypocrisy in the months of the cover-up. Listen to this, it sounds similar to Psalm 51, except on this one point. “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit, there is no deceit.” See, he moves from Psalm 51, talking about the external, talking about, I know I've sinned against you, I'm admitting to what I did. But what he says in Psalm 32:2 is, “Blessed is the man against the Lord. He could count no iniquity even when the Lord looks at the spirit inside.” He's not deceiving anyone. You're not deceiving anyone because you've confessed it to God. David covered it up. What does he say next in Psalm 32? “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night your hand was heavy on me. I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity.” You see the nature of the sinfulness of hypocrisy, not just the sinfulness of sin? It's that doubly damning effect. It's the deception, because it provides a cover that open, outright, known sin doesn't provide.

All right, so now we have a thorough, I think, understanding of the disease. Let's see the cure, because the cure is pretty straightforward, and I don't think you need higher learning to see the simplicity of it. The first way that you are cured or you can take heed of religious hypocrisy is to know that God will reveal it all. Verse two, “nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light. What you have heard whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.” Sin that we cover up, sin that we hide on the inside, Jesus speaks circumspectly about it. Whether it's actions on the outside, you try to cover up. Attitudes on the inside, you try to conceal. Things you say, it's a word of totality. Inside or outside, action or attitude, anything and everything about our lives is known by God and one day will be revealed. Hebrews 4:13, “there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Wow, that hits you, doesn't it? “All things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” He sees it all, He hears it all. No hidden actions, no hidden words. So, the first cure for the curse of religious hypocrisy is that God knows what's under all of our actions and attitudes, words and works. He knows our hearts. There's nothing you or I do externally that would fool Him. Nothing would fool Him. If you know that you're not right with the Lord this morning, no note taking, no singing, none of it fools God. And that's a grace gift to us, isn't it? To know that He knows us. He sees why. Not just that we're singing, why we're singing, He sees that. Not just that we're paying attention to a sermon. He sees why we would want to pay attention to the sermon. He sees it all, and that's a word of warning to the hypocrite, but it actually is comforting when you say, “Lord, I'm glad you know that about me.” Cure number one, know that it will all be revealed.

Cure number two, God will judge it all. The next way Jesus helps a disciple take heed of religious hypocrisy is to know that God will judge it all. That's the simplicity yet profundity of this cure. When you ask the question in verse 4, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear Him who, after He is killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him.” The question of what's the worst an externalism and judgmentalism of a hypocrite can do to me if I try to break free from its grip. What can man do to me? They can kill me. That is true. That's a real threat. Jesus understood that about His own life. That's why He was killed. Made Himself out to be equal with God, and that infuriated the religious hypocrites of His day, because they thought they had the corner on the market of knowing God, and He exposed them as frauds. What can that not do? Man cannot damn you eternally. Men can be your jury, but he can't be your what? Can't be your judge. A whole world of men could look at your life, and if you don't adhere to the standards that they create, could convict you as guilty. But none of them could be your judge. As the Scottish reformer John Knox was being buried, someone at the graveside remarked to his friend, “here lies one who feared God so much that he never feared the face of man.” Knox got it right. Only God can judge our eternal destiny. But notice what He prefaced this verse with. He said, “I tell you, my friends.” So, do you see the touch of comfort even in a moment of confrontation? He doesn't, hey, I'm saying to you, my enemies. This whole time, though He's been confronting the Pharisee that could be within all of us, He says, my friends, I care about you. And if you're worried about, especially if you put yourself in the sandals of these disciples, crowds around them who are starting to be swayed by the Pharisee's view of Jesus, they might start to fear what's gonna happen to us. And He says, what's the worst they can do to you? They can kill you, but they can't cast you into hell. Only God can do that. That's the second warning.

The last one, in verses six to seven, the last cure is this. How do we take heed of religious hypocrisy? We know God accounts for it all. Because He cares. This last cure has the most caring tone to it in what He says. “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?” Worthless birds. Matthew 10:29, Jesus uses the same analogy, but says these birds could be bought in the marketplace and they're sold two for a penny. So, all right, dealers out there, if you get five of them for two, you got a buy four, get one free deal. So that fifth one, as cheap as the two for one is, to get the fifth one thrown in in the marketplace, immediately the disciples would be thinking, that is the most worthless creature on the planet. As I was on that run on Central Park Drive, again thinking through this, there's, I don't know if you call it a river here because its concrete, water seems to run through it. There's plants growing out of it. And underneath some of those parts, there were just birds jumping around in the grossness of the mud and the muck. And I just wondered, you know, if I captured five of those things, I don't even know if somebody would give me a penny for them. Honestly, today, they would say, why would I want those? They're worthless. Jesus says, “the thing you think is most worthless is not forgotten by God. So, fear not, you're of more value than sparrows.” You matter to God. He's watching your life right now every moment, and it all matters to Him. For a religious hypocrite, this adds more weight to their duplicity. Because God can reveal their facade, judge all of it, not the smallest detail of their life will go unnoticed. But for the true disciple, this last point is good news because God cares for our lives and takes account of the smallest details, all of them. And so that's why He could end by saying “fear not,” and it's not a contradiction to Him saying “fear.” Don't get Jesus wrong here. Though this message is sobering, it is a call to disciples in evaluating their heart to know that despite the influence and impact of the religious hypocrisy around them, God knows them. And they would at this moment be standing before Jesus saying, and I know Him. Because He's examined my heart. It's been opened up. I've evaluated. He knows it all. He'll judge it all. He'll take an account for it all. And there's no faking it out. That's the mercy of God.

Matthew Henry wrote in closing, “when men's religion prevails not to conquer and cure the wickedness of their hearts, that religion will not always serve for a cloak.” He wrote, “the day is coming when religious hypocrisy will be stripped of their fig leaves.” And I want to think about that image. And you know where that immediately takes you. It takes you back to the garden, doesn't it? And as I think we close this out and think of sin being uncovered so that it can be covered, isn't fig leaves a fitting picture? That back there in the garden, the first religious hypocrites in the Bible were who? Adam and Eve. Why? They tried to hide. They tried to make their own coverings. And what did a merciful and gracious God do at that moment? He spoke to them and He exposed them for the sinners that they are. He stripped them down, but then what did He do? He made a covering for them. And how did He make that covering? He took a sacrifice. He took an animal and provided garments for them, provided by the death of another, and they did not refuse it. They received the grace and forgiveness of God by grace, not by coverings of their own making.

So, friends, as we come to the Lord's table today, what are we doing other than saying, you know, after however many weeks it's been since I've taken the Lord's table. This is an uncovering of my heart before Him today. This is me taking whatever fig leaves of false externalism I sow for myself on a daily basis, trying to keep the act up. And when we take the Lord's table, we are reminded our sin could be uncovered in its fullness. Why? Because when Jesus said it is finished, His body broken and blood poured out, our sin was completely and entirely covered. One of the saddest parts of that conversation with those ladies was when after an hour and a half of going back and forth, one finally admitted, she doesn't actually know if she'll make it. She didn't actually believe that her sin was covered. And I said, “friend, that's because you don't know the gospel. Because the gospel is the promise of the free grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ that He paid it all, you don't pay anything.” If you're not in Christ today, Hebrews 3:7-8 says, “if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart today.” If you've heard the words of Christ, the call today to flee from religious hypocrisy and receive Christ by faith. He calls you to drop the mask today. See yourself as you really are standing before Him, knows everything about you, sees everything about you, will judge everything about you, but has provided His Son in your place for you to receive Him by faith today.

As we come to the Lord's table in light of that time of self-evaluation, I'll ask you to pray with me, and then we will take it together. I'll read from 1 Corinthians 11. Let's pray.

[Prayer] Father, as we come this morning to remember your Son Jesus, His body and His blood, we pray that the call in 1 Corinthians to examine ourselves, Lord, was done by the power of your word this morning to see the leaven of hypocrisy that could spread in our own hearts, of a form of judgmentalism, of taking the truth and twisting it to our own ends to defend ourselves, of externalism, to just be putting on the mask and performing outwardly. But we want to expose all that so that we will never become callous and insensitive to the gospel that we go back to right now, that we remember right now, that we're called to remember. Not to remember our sins today as much as to remember Christ. Yes, we can try to take an account for our sin today in this time of communion. We would leave things out. We couldn't remember it all. But you know it all. And when we come to Christ this morning, we remember that He died for us. We know that it's all covered and we rejoice in that. Amen. [End]

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