MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(The Powerpoints used with this message are available at no charge. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #156.)
ILL. When was the last time you overheard a conversation like this? “Madge, how come you never shop at Walmart?” And Madge answers, “Well, I used to. But the last time I was there the place was just full of hypocrites. So I’ll never go back there again.”
You’ve never heard such a conversation about Walmart, have you? We don’t hear that kind of excuse in regard to grocery stores, schools, or the country club. But sometimes we hear it used in regard to the church.
ILL. 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.”
A. Turn with me to Matthew 13:24-30. In this passage Jesus is talking about the presence of good & evil in this world. Please listen as I read it to you.
“Jesus told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came & sowed weeds among the wheat, & went away.
‘When the wheat sprouted & formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him & said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
‘The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go & pull them up?’ ’No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.
‘Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds & tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat & bring it into my barn.’”
In this parable Jesus says that as wheat & weeds grow side by side they look a lot alike. And if we try to pull up the weeds we would likely uproot the wheat as well. So we’re told to let them grow until the harvest. Then it will be easy to see which is which, & to treat them accordingly.
PROP. Jesus told this parable nearly 2,000 years ago. But the lessons He was teaching are just as pertinent today. So let’s consider some of them this morning.
I. THE PRESENCE OF HYPOCRISY
A. The first one is the presence of hypocrisy. Jesus says that there will be both good & evil people in this world, & they’ll be living side by side. Even the church will not be immune to this mixture.
On the one hand, it seems unfair to say that the church is full of hypocrites, because I know a lot of people who have been faithful & true & authentic in their Christian lives, & they’re wonderful Christian people.
But even those of us who have been Christians for many years have experienced times when our guard was down & Satan shot his fiery darts, & sin was the result.
B. Now there is a difference between a Christian struggling with sin & a hypocrite. A Christian struggling with a sin comes to God saying, “God, this is a weakness in my life & I really need the help of the Holy Spirit to deal with it.” God welcomes that prayer & He promises to help.
But the hypocrite doesn’t really struggle to overcome his sin. He just tries to hide it. He thinks, “When I’m in church I’ll behave like a Christian. I’ll say the prayers. I’ll sing the songs. I’ll obey the rules. But when I’m out in the world I’ll act differently & behave exactly the way those around me behave.”
You see, the word “hypocrite” originally came from a word used in Greek drama that meant “one who is play-acting, wearing a mask.” The symbol of Greek drama, as some of you may know, is a two-faced mask.
That’s why a hypocrite is often called “two-faced,” someone who is trying to deceive, pretending to be different than he or she really is.
ILL. 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 theatre where “My Fair Lady” was playing. To their dismay, they found that the play was completely 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 theatre & 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 some of us have never really made Jesus the Lord of our lives.”
C. It’s exhausting to live a two-faced life, pretending to be what you aren’t, acting one way around Christians & just the opposite around others. To have to pretend constantly that you are someone you aren’t just drains you of your energy.
That’s why many social events are so exhausting. You go to a party & you try to pretend that you’re having a good time. When, in reality, you would rather be home watching TV. But there you are - pretending. And you go home exhausted.
That’s why coming to church can sometimes be an exhausting experience. If you’re play-acting you’ll leave here wrung out, because you have spent more than an hour of your life pretending to be something that you aren’t.
C. It’s not only exhausting, it’s also damaging.
ILL. One of the questions that arose in recent years as the lives of some politicians came under scrutiny was, “Can someone be one thing in his private life, & another in his public life?” Now that’s a legitimate question. And Nathaniel Hawthorne answered it a long time ago.
He said, “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself & another to the multitudes without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.” You can get so confused that you’re not sure who you are anymore.
Jesus condemned hypocrisy. Listen to His words in Matthew 23:27-28.
“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.”
ILL. The story is told about a little boy who found a rat in his back yard. He jumped on it. He stomped on it. And he killed it. He was so proud of himself, & he ran to show it to his mother.
But he didn’t realize that the preacher had come to call. So the excited boy ran into the house, carrying the rat by the tail, hollering to his mom, “Mom, look what I found. I found this rat. I jumped on it, I stomped on it, &...” Just then he noticed the preacher & he finished by saying, “And then the Lord called him home.”
SUM. It’s terrible to have to remember to change your behavior depending upon the people you’re with. And that’s hypocrisy.
II. OUR RESPONSIBILITY
A. Now there’s another lesson Jesus gives that we must learn – & it has to do with judging. As Christians it is not our responsibility to judge & uproot hypocrites.
In His parable, when the servants saw the weeds they came & asked, “‘Do you want us to go & pull them up?’ ’No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.
“Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds & tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.” (Matthew 13:29-30)
In other words, Jesus is saying, “Your job is not to judge hypocrites. I’ve never commissioned you to do that. So don’t go into the church & start uprooting hypocrites.”
1. That means, first of all, that we’re not to judge a person’s salvation. That’s
not our job. God never put us on the judgment throne to say this person is lost & this one is saved. M y responsibility is to do my best to present the truth that’s in God’s Word, & to leave the rest in God’s hands.
2. Secondly, we’re not to judge another person’s motives. We don’t know the
circumstances & why they do what they do. We don’t know their background, their emotions, & what’s going on inside of them. God knows, so leave that in God’s hands!
B. There are things, however, that we should judge.
1. First of all, the Bible clearly teaches that we are to recognize & judge false teachings. Jesus says in Matthew 7:15-16, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them.”
Do you see the parallels between these words & the parable we’ve been reading? Jesus says that false teachers may look like sheep, & sound like sheep, & act like sheep.
So how will we recognize them? Jesus says, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” If they’re sowing seeds of discord & bitterness; if they’re causing people to become disobedient, then they’re false teachers. So we are to judge false teaching.
2. Secondly, we’re to judge sinful actions. If someone in the church is doing a sinful thing & it is common knowledge among the brethren, then the church needs to act.
Paul uses an example in 1 Corinthians 5 of a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife, & the church knew about it. So Paul condemned the church because it didn’t take any action. Now what should the church have done?
Paul said, “You should have gone to him to seek a reconciliation that would cause him to repent of his sin & change his ways.” And if the man refused to repent, then they should expel him from among them, in the hope that he would come to his senses & repent.
But if someone who isn’t a Christian comes to the church seeking Christ, they can come regardless of their sin. That’s what the church is for. No matter what your past has been, if you are here genuinely seeking a relationship with the Lord, you are welcome here.
But once you become a Christian. Once you have been forgiven, that changes the standards. Then if you slip back into sin, reconciliation & repentance need to take place.
Paul said, “I preached that they should repent & turn to God & prove their repentance by their deeds.” (Acts 26:20)
III. REASONS FOR INTEGRITY
Now finally, “Why should we be genuine & faithful & true?” Why should we want to be an authentic person & not a hypocrite?
Because that kind of life is a witness for God & will be respected. Of course there will always be those who mock & demean a Christian life, but Matthew 13:43 says, “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.”
ILL. Back in the early 1950’s there were 3 young men who were rising to the top as evangelists in the evangelical circles of Christendom. All 3 were doing well, but 2 of them were especially outstanding. And those who knew them anticipated that these 2 would be the greatest evangelists, perhaps, that our country had ever seen.
But both of them soon dropped by the wayside. One became addicted to drugs & alcohol, & the other one took his own life.
But the third one, the one who seemed the least promising at the time, remained steadfast & true. And God used him in a great way. Some critics tried their best to find anything that would show him to be less than genuine in his commitment to Christ. But they failed.
Such is the respect that he has earned, that in N.C. there is even a Freeway that the state has named after him.
And today, Billy Graham’s witness for Christ & the respect he has earned is greater than ever, all because he was genuine, steadfast, & true.
ILL. Edgar A. Guest wrote, “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day,
I’d rather one would walk with me than merely tell the way;
The eye’s a better pupil & more willing than the ear.
Fine counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear. …
I may not understand the high advice you give,
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act & how you live.
Folks, a long time ago the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place & gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
“…in heaven & on earth & under the earth, & every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” [Philippians 2:9-11].
CONCL. I am told that one of the things that a wheat farmer learns early on is that when harvest time comes the real wheat is so heavy with grain that the whole plant begins to bow. In contrast, weeds never bow.
But one of these days every knee will bow & every tongue will confess. So you can bow now, or you can bow later. But sooner or later you will bow.
This morning, if you are not a Christian we extend God’s invitation & pray that you will respond. If you have a decision on your heart we invite you to come as we stand & as we sing.
