Why are there so Many Hypocrites in the Church?
Galatians 2: 11-16
11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? 15 "We who are Jews by birth and not ’Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
This week the news has brought us another example of Christians not living like Jesus. Another example the world can hold up as evidence that all Christians are no better than them. Another sad story of a Pastor and his wife not living as Christians should live. It is the story of Richard and Linsey Roberts.
Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts asked for and was granted a leave of absence Wednesday amid accusations of lavish spending at donors’ expense and illegal involvement in a political campaign.
An Oct. 2 lawsuit filed by three former ORU professors says they were wrongfully dismissed and accuses Roberts of misspending at donors’ expense, including numerous home remodels and a senior trip to the Bahamas for one daughter on the ministry’s dime.
It also accuses Roberts of illegal involvement in a local political campaign, which would jeopardize the university’s nonprofit status.
The amended complaint also included an internal ministry report, titled "Scandal Vulnerability Assessment," documenting allegations of misconduct by the university and the Roberts family. Only a partial report was included in the Oct. 2 lawsuit.
The more detailed account alleges Richard Roberts’ wife, Lindsay, spent the night in the ORU guest house with an underage male "on nine separate occasions," and was photographed 29 times with an underage male in her sports car, among other allegations.
Ted Haggard said “I am a liar and a deceiver” after being found out meeting with a homosexual prostitute and buying cocaine.
The pastors wife (Mary Winkler) in Virginia who shot her husband Matthew Winkler, and on the witness stand told stories of Porn and abuse.
Zig Ziglar said that he invited a friend to go to church with him. The man answered, “Well, I’d like to go. But the church is so full of hypocrites.” Ziglar replied, “That’s okay. There’s always room for one more.”
My favorite response to “I don’t go to church because there are too many hypocrites in the church”, is you can go to church with a few hypocrites or go to hell with all of them.
Definition:
Greek Play acting, pretense, wearing a mask, One who wears a false face. A pretender, A Phony.
“A hypocrite is a person who attempts to live two lives simultaneously: the public persona is an act or pretense. The real persona is lived out in private. In many cases, though, such people are often ‘caught out’ when they are seen in private behaving contrary to their public persona or when their true persona ‘peeks out’ in public.” (Quotes & Things, D. Collins).
Robert Redford
Robert Redford was walking one day through a hotel lobby. A woman saw him and followed him to the elevator. “Are you the real Robert Redford?” she asked him with great excitement. As the doors of the elevator closed, he replied, “Only when I am alone!”
Jesus reserved his harshest words, not for thieves, or prostitutes but to a segment among the religious folks who he identified as hypocrites. Jesus is committed to exposing these people who claim to represent God and his ways, while not living out what they claim to be.
I The Question comes out of a misunderstanding of the Church
The Media (TV and Movies) made by godless Hollywood for the most part almost always portrays people of faith in their story lines as being hypocritical. The World sees that plus the few Christians they know who don’t live right, and conclude all Christians are hypocrites.
A. It is not a closed Club for members only. Open Door anyone can walk in.
B. Not everyone who comes even claims to be following Jesus. (No matter how long they have come)
C. The Pre Christian do not act like Christians, and shouldn’t be expected to.
D. All Christians are in Process (Becoming new creatures)
1. We all have faults and weaknesses if you look close enough (pure heart doesn’t mean
Perfect performance)
2. We are different from what we were.
3. We are not yet who we should be - but we are on our way.
4. Some are further along than others in their walk with Christ towards maturity
5. Some came to Christ with more baggage - More wounds, Abusive Home, Alcoholic,
No father, mother, instruction
Children allowed to run free do what they want will have difficulty disciplining themselves after becoming a believer.
Addictions, Disorders prior to conversion will affect people after salvation.
E. Three Kinds of People in the Church
1. The natural man - Unsaved but attending
2. The Carnal man - Saved but still controlled by varying degrees of the sinful nature
-Don’t read the bible, pray, don’t grow,
(Carnal Correl - Keith Drury)
IWU professor Keith Drury says to keep your sanity you need to put unruly church people in the carnal correl in your mind. You can’t explain their actions and you can’t change them. Only they can get out if they want to, and God will help them. But outside of a intervention of God people will not change.
3. The Spiritual man - Is a Saved and sanctified person, filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit
A, But you can backslide into any of these, they aren’t positions for life
B. It depends on how we deal with the Light of the Holy Spirit in our life
F. The Natural person and the carnal person can often be seen as hypocritical in that they don’t live up to the expectations those around them have for the church.
G. The Spiritual War
1. The world, the sinful nature, and the devil are trying to get Christians to fail and backslide.
2. It is not just Christians not doing what the Bible says to do. There is a powerful spiritual enemy - the devil.
E. Only Jesus was Perfect in Motive and performance
Keep your eyes on Jesus Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
II The Question comes out of the reality of hypocrisy in the church
As long as there are benefits (praise, political, financial, etc) for being seen as a Christian there will be hypocrites in the church. Only persecution and suffering seems to root them out.
One hot day when they had guests for dinner, a mother asked her four-year-old boy named Johnny to say the blessing for the meal. Johnny didn’t really want to and complained, “Mom, I don’t know what to say!” The mother sweetly replied, in front of her guests, “Oh, just say what you hear me say.” Obediently, Johnny bowed his head and mumbled, “Oh Lord, why did I invite these people over on such a hot day?”
Levels of Hypocrisy
1. Mature Christians who have done hypocritical things but have repented - Peter Gal. 2
2. Carnal Christian who does hypocritical things on a regular basis- Corinthian believers -Quarreling
3. The Full Blown - Their whole life is Hypocritical - The Pharisees Jesus identified as hypocrites by name.
III The Question should make us search the Scriptures for the Marks of Hypocrisy.
A. More Concerned with what People think of them than what God thinks.
-Giving -Prayer - Fasting Matthew 6
Matthew 6:2: “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by men…”
Matthew 6:5: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men…”
Matthew 6:16: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting...”
-More concerned about the act then the motivation.
-It desires the applause of man more than the applause of God
The story is told of a man who was on his way to attend a costume ball one Sunday evening. He was wearing a red suit with a tail and a skintight mask with horns. He looked like Satan, or rather the false but widely accepted picture of the devil. As he hurried along, he was caught in a sudden rainstorm, so he sought shelter is a church where the service was just ending. When he ran into the building, he shocked the members, who thought he was the real thing. A flash of lightning and a clap of thunder added to the illusion. The congregation panicked and rushed for the rear exits. The intruder thought the church had been struck with lightning and was on fire, so he raced after them. Everyone got out except one elderly lady. Turning in fear, she stretched out her hands and pleaded for mercy, “Oh devil, please don’t hurt me. I know I’ve been a member of this church for 30 years, but I’ve really been on your side all the time!”
B. More Concerned about Outer Righteousness than inner righteousness.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law & Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones & everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy & wickedness.”Matthew 23:17-
In the Sermon on the mount Jesus shows the difference between outward and inner righteousness.
You heard it said "Thou shall not commit murder, but I say if you hate your brother without a cause you have already committed in your heart.
They thought -Murder wrong - Hate ok ,
You heard it said "Thou shall not commit adultry, but I say if you look at a woman to lust after her in your heart your have already committed adultry. They thought - Adultery wrong -Lust ok,
Hypocrisy can be illusrated by the way we clean house when company is coming - We shove our junk in the closet, stuff it under the bed, etc. where it can’t be seen. Out of sight it doesn’t exist at least to our guests. That is not a horrible way to clean house, but it is terrible way to deal with the spiritual junk in our lives. There is no value to hide our junk from people if God sees it. He is the one we are to please.
C. Like to correct others faults, while over looking there own faults
-Trying to get a speck out of our brothers eye, while ignoring the beam in your own eye
Matthew 7:5: “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
D. Worship is more about doing the right things for God than having the right heart motivation.
Matthew 15:7-8: “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”
-Performance rather than heart prompted expression to God
E. Majoring on minors
Matthew 23: 23-24: ?“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”
IV The Question should make us Examine our lives for Hypocrisy
It is not enough merely to understand and accept the gospel, as Peter did, or even defend it, as he did in Jerusalem. A Christian must also practice the gospel consistently, allowing it to regulate all areas of his conduct.
A. Realize we are the only Jesus they see. (Your life is bringing people closer to Jesus or driving them away)
“A man sat through a church service and on the way home he fussed about the sermon, he fussed about the traffic, he fussed about the heat and he fussed about the lateness of his meal being served. The he bowed his head and prayed. His son was watching him all the way through this post-church experience. Just as they were beginning to pass the food he said, ‘Daddy, did God hear you when you left church and started fussin’ about the sermon and about the traffic and about the heat?’ The father sort of blushed and said, ‘Well, yes, son, He heard me.’ ‘Well, Daddy, did God hear you when you just prayed for this food right now?’ And he said, ‘Well, yes, son, He … He….He heard me.’ ‘So, well Daddy, which one did God believe?’” [Spiros Zodhiates. Behavior of Belief. As quoted by Charles Swindoll. The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart. ( Nashville: Word, 1998) p. 285]
Hypocrisy is contagious - Peter did - New Convert Jews did -even Barnabas.
Ask an unsaved friend if you dare
B. Don’t Excuse or cover your sin - Confess and forsake it
Bank Robbers
Some mistakenly think that they are free to sin, just so long as they aren’t hypocrites about it; that the worst form of sin is hypocrisy. Often one hears it said, “I know I’m not perfect, but at least I’m not hypocritical about it.”
A few years ago in Texas there were two men who robbed a bank. One wore a ski mask and the other did not. They both were captured and ultimately appeared before the judge for sentencing. The one without the mask could have stated, “Look, I know that robbing the bank was the wrong thing to do, but at least I was not hypocritical about it. I didn’t try to cover up who I was. I was open and honest. That should be worth something as far as leniency is concerned.” The judge sentenced both men to the same time in prison. - Haddon Robinson
Source unknown
C. Make every effort to live like Jesus. Souls depend on it.
. A preacher in the Midwest tells about a young couple in his church who boasted to all their friends & neighbors that they were flying to New York City. They were only going to be able to spend one day there, but the highlight of their trip would be to go & see the Broadway play, “My Fair Lady.” They were so proud of this, & everyone was really impressed because no one else in that small town had ever been to a play on Broadway.
The day came, & when they arrived in New York they took a taxi to the theater where “My Fair Lady” was playing. To their dismay, they found that the play was sold out for the night.
They thought, “What do we do now? Everybody knows that we came to see ‘My Fair Lady.’ We don’t dare tell them that we didn’t.” So they found a couple of ticket stubs on the sidewalk & picked them up. They bought a program that described the various acts of the play. They went home singing “I Could Have Danced all Night.” And they told everybody that they had gone to see “My Fair Lady.”
The preacher said, “That’s right. They had the ticket stubs. They had the program. They had been to the theater. They knew the music. But the trouble is, they didn’t see the performance.”
Then he added, “A lot of Christians are like that. We come to church. We have the bulletin. We know the songs. We know what to say & what to do. The problem is that many of us have never really made Jesus the Lord of our lives.”
Pet Food
My brother adopted a snake named Slinky, whose most disagreeable trait was eating live mice. Once I was pressed into going to the pet store to buy Slinky’s dinner. The worst part of this wasn’t choosing the juiciest-looking creatures or turning down the clerk who wanted to sell me vitamins to ensure their longevity. The hardest part was carrying the poor things out in a box bearing the words “Thank you for giving me a home.”
Joanne Mitchell, in February, 1990 Reader’s Digest
Conclusion: Lets bow our heads and do business with God. Ask God to examine your hearts for areas of hypocrisy.
