A BIBLICAL ANTIDOTE FOR HYPOCRISY

Intro: We are talking about the matter of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a painful topic. Why is talking about hypocrisy so difficult? It is difficult because we are all guilty of hypocrisy, and we know it. Yet, speaking about hypocrisy is vital to the health of the church. If hypocrisy is not exposed, like yeast it will infect the whole church. If hypocrisy is exposed, there is an opportunity for repentance.

Jesus has been addressing a vast crowd. He exposed the Jewish religious in their denial of truth. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy for everyone to see. We talked about “leaven” and how it operates. This was a picture of the hypocrisy which infected the Jewish leaders.

Having exposed their hypocrisy through A Word Of Caution, Jesus reminds us of some eternally important truths. Moving from A Word Of Caution, Jesus issues A Word Of Challenge. In verses 2–12, Jesus gave three essential, non-negotiable obligations. Obeying these obligations, will keep people from being a hypocrite. We are commanded to honor the Father, honor the Son, and honor the Spirit. By focusing on the triune God, you can avoid falling under the damning influence of false religion. Those who reject the Trinity of God cannot avoid hell, since it is impossible to honor the Father without honoring the Son, and impossible to honor the Son without honoring the Spirit. There is an interlocking chain of testimony: the Spirit testifies to the Son (John 15:26), the Son reveals the Father (Luke 10:22; John 1:18), and the Father glorifies and honors the Son (John 8:54).

Let’s continue to study this text as we consider again, A Biblical Antidote For Hypocrisy. I pray God will root out our hypocrisy, and deliver us from self-love. The lessons revealed in this text offer hope for those who are trapped in hypocrisy.

I. Hear A Word Of Caution

II. v. 2-10. HEAR A WORD OF CHALLENGE

Jesus gave three compelling reasons for honoring the Father. First, he will uncover what is hidden. The statement nothing covered up “…that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known,” expresses a frequent theme of our Lord’s teaching. It echoes the closing verse of Ecclesiastes, where Solomon warns, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil,” Ecclesiastes 12:14. The apostle Paul wrote of the “day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel,” Romans 2:16, and exhorted the Corinthians, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God,” 1 Corinthians 4:5.

While hypocrites may succeed in their deception for a time, no one gets away with hypocrisy forever. What hypocrites successfully conceal from people will eventually be uncovered. Some will be exposed in this life, as Paul told Timothy, 1 Tim. 5:24–25; all will be exposed in the future, when “the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his work,” Matthew 16:27.

The Lord’s warning, “Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops,” reinforces a painful truth: Our sins will be exposed. What hypocrites try to hide in the darkness is clearly visible to God, as the oldest book in the Bible reveals: “There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves,” Job 34:22. The inner rooms of which Jesus spoke were storerooms, built in the middle of houses away from the exterior walls, which were more easily dug through by thieves. Such inner rooms were used to store valuables, but could also serve as a location for private conversations, or prayer. The point is, hypocrisy cannot be permanently hidden.

Darrell L. Bock notes: “This figure of speech describes our most private practices. This is a classic reversal theme: the most private of acts and utterances become the most public. It is this exposure that makes hypocrisy useless in the long run and the heroic deed done in private an object of admiration eventually. The contrasts are strong: darkness versus light and private whispering versus public preaching.”

Hypocrites will one day be seen for what they really are.

A second reason to fear God is because of a harsh reality. God will punish hypocrites in hell. Hypocrites are preoccupied with what people think. But it is foolish, Jesus said, to be afraid of humans, who in the worst case scenarios can only kill the body and afterwards there is no more they can do. On the other hand, Jesus went on to warn people whom to “Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.” “Gehenna,” translated here as “hell,” refers to the valley of Hinnom. This valley located just outside of Jerusalem. Within the valley apostate Jews had built a place of worship, where they sacrificed their children to the abominable pagan god Molech by burning them in fire, Jeremiah 7:31. This pagan shrine was defiled by godly King Josiah as part of his reforms, 2 Kings 23:10, and eventually the site became Jerusalem’s city dump. Because it was a place where fires were constantly burning, “gehenna” came to be used figuratively to speak of eternal hell.

The one with the authority to cast into hell is not, as some imagine, Satan. Satan is neither the one who sends people to hell, nor is he the ruler of hell. On the contrary he himself will in a sure future day be cast into hell, Revelation 20:10, where he will be its most notorious prisoner for all eternity. Nowhere in Scripture is there a command to fear Satan. Believers have been completely delivered from him in the present. John wrote, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” 1 John 4:4. In the future Satan will have no influence on us because “… the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” Romans 16:20. So instead of fearing Satan, believers are to resist him, James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9, be wary of his schemes, Ephesians 6:11, and avoid giving him an opportunity to lure them into sin, Ephesians 4:27; 1 Peter 5:8. God, and God alone, is the one to be feared.

Here is another strong passage in our Lord’s teaching which refutes the false idea there is no hell. To insist hell is a reference to the grave only destroys the contrast here and makes nonsense out of the Lord’s statement. If there is no hell, then God would be unable to do anything to a person other than what men could do. Both could kill someone, who then would merely go out of existence. Jesus’ whole point is this, God is to be feared because he alone has the authority to both kill sinners and after death cast them into eternal torment.

A final reason to fear God is nothing escapes his knowledge. Jesus used two illustrations to demonstrate God’s omniscient knowledge of even the most insignificant details. Jesus then asked this question, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?”. Sparrows are common small birds which were often eaten by the poor. They were so inexpensive five could be bought for only two cents (a cent was one-sixteenth of a day’s pay for an average worker). Yet despite their insignificance not one of them is forgotten before God. He knows of every sparrow in the world. He also knows the number of hairs on everyone’s head—more than 100,000 on average. Such omniscience is the source of great comfort to his children, who have nothing to fear, since they are more valuable than many sparrows. But while this truth is comfort to believers, it should be a cause of terror to hypocrites, whose fraudulent self-righteousness will avail them nothing in light of God’s complete and detailed knowledge of their true unregenerate condition.

Let talk now about honoring the Son.

“8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: 9 But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.” Luke 12:8–9.

The phrase “I say unto you marks” a transition in the Lord’s flow of thought. The means to honor the Father is to honor the Son, because “He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him,” John 5:23. The term “whosoever” is all-inclusive; only the one who confesses the Son before men honors God. “Confess” translates a verb which means, “to agree,” or “to say the same thing.” To confess Christ is to affirm what is true about his person, works, and words. It is to accept the Father’s testimony, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” Matthew 3:17, and “confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,” Romans 10:9.

The essence of confessing Jesus as Lord is self-denial, submitting all aspects of one’s life to his sovereign control as a slave to his master. In Luke 9:23–24 Jesus declared, “23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

A true confession of Christ will result in the complete transformation of a sinner into a saint. This transformation occurs through regeneration and sanctification. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother,” 1 John 3:10. Those who make such a confession will inevitably manifest it openly before men both with their words and with their changed lives in willing and grateful submission to Christ.

What a person believes and confesses about Jesus will determine their eternal destiny. On the one hand, if a person confesses Jesus before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God. But on the other hand, Jesus issued a warning when he says the person who denies Jesus before men will be denied before the angels of God. Those who fail to genuinely confess Christ as Lord will one day hear him say, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity,” Matthew 7:23. The sure way to miss out on heaven is to deny Christ, as the scribes and Pharisees had done. But just as sure a way to gain hell is to make an insincere, superficial confession of Christ. Heaven belongs only to those who honor the Father by truly honoring the Son.

I. Hear A Word Of Caution

II. Hear A Word Of Challenge

III. v. 10b-12. HEAR A WORD OF COMFORT

Having discussed the one to fear, the Father, and the one to confess, the Son, the Lord introduced the one to hear, the Holy Spirit. No one comes to the Father except through the Son, and no one comes to the Son except through the Spirit. To avoid the damning judgment coming to those caught up in hypocritical false religious systems you must believe in the person and work of each member of the Trinity. The Father must be acknowledged as sovereign judge and lawgiver, the Son as sovereign Savior and Lord, and the Spirit as sovereign revealer. The Father is the one whose holy law has been violated; the Son is the one whose death paid the penalty for the violation and satisfied God’s wrath; the Spirit is the one whose revelation about the Father’s law and the Son’s death must be received. Just as Christ perfectly revealed the Father, so also does the Holy Spirit perfectly reveal Christ, both in Scripture and the work of regeneration.

The apostle John revealed how to know when a person’s message is truly from the Spirit of God and not a human or demonic source when he wrote, “2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world,” 1 John 4:2–3.

Every one claiming to have a message from God either speaks the truth about Christ from the Spirit of God, or a lie from the spirit of antichrist. Those are the only two options, and there is no middle ground. Emphasizing the significance of a true confession of Jesus Christ, John Piper observes, “Jesus is the litmus test of reality for all persons and all religions. [Jesus] said it clearly: “The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” People and religions who reject Christ reject God. Do other religions know the true God? Here is the test: Do they reject Jesus as the only Savior for sinners who was crucified and raised by God from the dead? If they do, they do not know God in a saving way.

That is what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 14:6. Or when he said, “He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him,” John 5:23. Or when he said to the Pharisees, “If God were your Father, ye would love me,” John 8:42.

It’s what the apostle John meant when he said, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also,” 1 John 2:23. Or when he said, “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son,” 2 John 9.

There’s no point in honoring and praising any religion which rejects the deity and saving work of Christ. They do not know God. And those who follow them waste their lives and go to Hell when they die.

The Holy Spirit’s testimony to Christ is the only way to know the truth about him. No one will ever be able to confess Jesus as Lord except by the work of the Holy Spirit. Saving faith comes from hearing the word concerning Christ, Romans 10:17, and the Spirit is the author of Scripture, 2 Peter 1:21. Those who confess Christ do so because they have heard and believed the truth about him revealed in Scripture. The Holy Spirit produces in the believing sinner the conviction of sin, John 16:8, and then he does his life-giving, 2 Corinthians 3:6, work of regeneration, John 3:7–8, through the gospel contained in Scripture, 1 Peter 1:23.

The Lord’s warning is given against the backdrop of honoring the Son, verse 10. If speaking a word against the Son of Man could not be forgiven then no one could be saved. Every Christian is a converted blasphemer who broke God’s law, rebelled against God’s rule, and rejected the truth about God's Son. By not being with Christ, they were against him. Jesus only offers grace and salvation to to blasphemers, Luke 5:32; 19:10.

But if a person blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to reject his testimony concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit reveals the truth of salvation in Christ, and those who speak evil of that revelation, as the Pharisees had done, Luke 11:15, reject the testimony of the Holy Spirit to Christ. Having cut themselves off from the only source of divine, saving truth, they cannot be saved.

Two passages in Hebrews illustrate the desperate plight of such people. In Hebrews 6:4–6 the writer of Hebrews warned, “4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

Those who received this warning had seen all the evidence the Holy Spirit provided. They had heard the preaching of the gospel, with its offer of grace, mercy, and forgiveness, and witnessed the miraculous signs performed by the apostles, Hebrews 2:2–4, confirming their message was from God. Since they rejected all the Holy Spirit had revealed concerning the Son and Savior, they could never be saved.

There is a similar warning against rejecting the Holy Spirit’s testimony to Christ in Hebrews 10:26-31. The passage reads, “26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. Hebrews 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” Hebrews 10:26–31.

Once again the writer addressed Jewish people who had been exposed to the truth of the gospel, but were in danger of rejecting it. For those who “go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth,” the writer warned, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,” verse 26. There is absolutely no provision for forgiveness of sins apart from the gospel of Christ. Those who reject it face “…fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries,” verse 27. Eternal punishment in hell awaits those who turn their back on the truth about Jesus Christ. They face even more severe punishment than those who rejected the law of Moses, verse 28, since they have “rodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Verse 29). They will experience God’s vengeance and punishment for rejecting the Spirit’s testimony to the Son, verses 30–31.

Jesus concluded this section with a promise for those who honor the Spirit by believing his testimony to the Son: “11 And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: 12 For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.”

Believers need not worry their severe trials will shatter their faith in Christ. The Spirit will permanently remain their comforting, strengthening teacher, and will turn their trials into blessing. The Spirit is the protecting “power of God,” who keeps the believer secure through “various trials” and causes those trials to be “the proof” of his faith—which gives him confidence he is really saved. This is a gift “more precious than gold.” 1 Peter 1:5–7 says it like this, “5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” His indwelling presence and empowerment will permanently keep their faith alive, and they will persevere no matter how severe their trials become. Even if they are brought before the synagogues (i.e., the synagogue courts) or the rulers and the authorities (whether Jewish or Gentile), they need not worry about how or what they are to speak in their defense, or what they are to say. The Holy Spirit will teach them what they ought to say. He will make certain to the end of their lives, no matter what the circumstances, what they say will confirm their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Far from shattering their faith, those trials will provide an opportunity for their greater testimony.

Conc: Despite the many religions, philosophies, worldviews, and beliefs dominating our culture, humanity may be divided into two categories: those who seek honor for themselves, and those who live to honor the triune God. The former receive their reward—honor from men—in this life, and after death will receive eternal punishment. The latter, having believed the Spirit’s testimony to the Son, will receive eternal honor from the Father in the glory of heaven. The former are lost. The latter group is saved.

Which group are you in? Are you a hypocrite? Do you pretend to be one person when in reality you are someone else altogether?

If there is the slightest sign of hypocritical activity in your life, repent today.