Authenticity Over Ritual: A Call to Genuine Faith

Then the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones, did not he who make the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have and then indeed all things are clean to you. [00:00:31]

But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs but pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. [00:00:52]

For you're like graves that are not seen and the men that walk over them are not aware of them." Then one of the lawyers answered him and said to him, "Teacher, by saying these things, you reproach us also." And he said, "Woe to you also, lawyers, for you load men with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves did not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. [00:01:22]

Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets and your fathers killed them. In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore the wisdom of God also said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles and some of them they will kill and persecute that the blood of the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. [00:01:46]

Woe to you lawyers. You have taken away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter in yourselves and those who were entering in you hindered." And as he said these things to them the scribes and Pharisees began to assail him vehemently. And they cross-examined him about many things, lying in wait for him and seeking to catch him in something he might say that they might accuse him. [00:02:19]

At no time during his earthly ministry to we hear our Lord speak with such vehemence against a particular sin as he does in this occasion. We must ask this morning that the Holy Spirit will give us ears to hear what our Lord said in this text. Please be seated. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, the last thing in the world that we want is to incur your displeasure. [00:03:52]

But we pray this morning that you will give us ears like the Pharisees didn't have. That we might hear what they refused to hear. By the power and the mercy of your Holy Spirit we ask, Amen. Over 30 years ago, my friend Archie Parrish, who at the time was leading the evangelism explosion program at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, called me up. [00:04:43]

Bottom line, the charge that the church is full of hypocrites, I believe is slander against the church. I simply don't think it's true that the church is full of hypocrites. There may be hypocrites in the church, I don't doubt that. But that the church is filled with them? I don't think so. Then I asked the question, why is it people make this charge over and over and over again? [00:06:20]

If you ask them why you think the church is full of hypocrites, they say, "Well, I know Mr. So-and-so and I know he never misses church on Sunday morning, in fact he's an elder at the church down the street but I see him during the week. I see him do A, B and C." I said, "In other words you see him sin." Now, if this man claimed that he was not a sinner and then you saw him sin he would indeed be guilty of hypocrisy. [00:06:57]

But hypocrisy is only one sin among many. In fact, for a Christian to sin does not make that person a hypocrite. Why not? Well, the only organization I know of on the planet that requires that you be a sinner to join it is the Christian church. Now if the complaint was this: the church is full of sinners, that would be an accurate evaluation. [00:07:51]

But again, hypocrisy is a particular sin. It's the sin of fraud by which a person claims to be something that he isn't. If I claim to be sinless and then sin, I'm guilty of hypocrisy. If I say I don't do X, Y, Z and in fact I do do X, Y, Z, that would be hypocrisy. Because a hypocrite is a person who lives a life that is a sham. [00:08:45]

In antiquity, the hypocrite came from the idea of the theater, where a hypocrite was a person who was a play actor. They pretended to be something that they were not. They put on a facade that on outward appearance of being something that they in fact were not. Do you remember the old western movies where the cowboy would ride into town? There'd be a general store and a saloon, and you'd see all these buildings. [00:09:28]