THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION
Bob Marcaurelle
freesermons@homeorchurchbiblestudy.com
Website: Yahoo search homeorchurchbiblestudy.com bob marcaurelle
Copyright 2005 by Bob Marcaurelle
2014 Revision by Bob Marcaurelle
MESSAGE 7
THE BEST ARGUMENT AGAINST SALVATION - HYPOCRITES
“You hypocrites-you shut to door to the Kingdom of Heaven in other people’s faces and you yourselves don’t go in.” (Jesus
( Matt. 23:13-14)
“You teach others-why don’t you teach yourself. You preach, Do not steal, but do you steal? / “You do the very thing for which you pass judgment on others. / The name of God is blasphemed by Gentiles (outsiders) because of you.” (Paul, in Rom. 2:21f; 1; 24)
THE MEANING
“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, ‘These people, says God, honor me with their lips but their heart is really far away from Me.’”
(Mark 7:6 / Isa. 29:13 Septuagint)
From the minute Jesus began His public ministry he had conflicts with the legalistic group who reduced the OT to 612 rules and lived by them (Pharisees- Separated Ones). About a year into His Galilean ministry they were making plans to have Him killed for breaking their man made rules and in his Sermon on the Mount he threw fuel on the fire by attacking their character. He said as they obeyed these rule they felt better than the people who didn’t; they loved for people to see them do their good things; they felt no need to confess; and to top it off they were just acting like they loved God and wanted to lead people to Him. They were playing a part, pretending to be what they knew in their hearts they were not.
Isaiah 29 pictured this in the OT and Jesus took that text and added the word that suited them – hypocrite- the Greek word for an actor. Jesus coined this phrase. He introduced it into the Bible. If hypocrites in the church bother you; you are in very good company because Jesus preached against it more than all other sins put together. And in the end, it was the Bible teachers (Scribes) and the Pharisees, whom He called hypocrites, who had Him crucified.
Mark Twain’s wife illustrates this. She wanted to break him from cursing, so one day, with a paper full of curse words she came into the room and shouted each curse word out loud. Twain looked at her and said, “Honey- you got the words right, but your heart wasn’t in it.” That is the hypocrite.
The latest George Barna poll reveals regular church attenders are just as likely to cheat at school, commit adultery, etc. An interesting fact is that 34% of all marriages in America end up in divorce, and the rate among those who attend church is 34%. It has been said, “The best argument for Christianity is a good Christian.” If this is true, then the best arguments against Christianity are the multitude of men and women who claim to be “born again” Christians and act no different than the world.
THE PRESENCE
In the first church service in the Bible, half the congregation was unacceptable to God. Rebuked by God, Cain, all dressed up in his Sunday best, stormed out of church and killed Abel. (Gen. 4) Jeremiah stormed into church and said,
Jer. 7:1, 2, 5, 10
“The Lord sent me to the Temple where the people of Judah went in to worship. He told me to stand there and say, ‘Change the way you are living and the things you are doing. / Be fair in your dealings with others. Stop taking advantage of strangers, orphans and widows. You do the things I hate and then you come and stand in my presence, in my own Temple and say, we are safe.’”
The finest church ever, had twelve hand picked members with Jesus as the Pastor. Yet one of them, Judas, was stealing from the collection plate and sold Jesus for a month’s wages.
After Jesus went back to heaven and the Holy Spirit was poured out, two members of the early church, Annanias and Sapphirra were struck dead for lying. Vance Havner said if God did that today you would have to have 50 funeral coaches parked outside of church every Sunday. James (4:8) said to the young church in Jerusalem,
“Clean you hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts you hypocrites. (James 4:8)
THE DAMAGE
Such people do more harm to the cause of Christ and the efforts of the church than all other kinds of sinners put together. One angry church conference in a Baptist church does more harm to that church than all the liquor stores in that town combined. The Bible says
“The name (character) of God is maligned and blasphemed because of you.” (Rom. 2:24).
Jesus said Pharisees “close the door to heaven people’s faces and don’t go in themselves.” (Mt. 23:13)
When Ghandi, the spiritual ruler of India in the last century, was asked why he admired Jesus but would not ecome a Christian, he answered, “It is because I have met too many Christians, and most of them are nothing like Jesus.”
THE REASON
1. The Power of Religion
People like this are in churches because all people are religious and connect themselves to the religion of their culture. Jesus compared the Christian church to a net that catches all kinds of fish (Mt. 13:47ff). As a boy I used to set “trot lines” across a river with many “hooks”. You catch all kinds of “critters” doing that- slimy critters, wormy critters, scaly critters, ugly critters. It is the same with every religion that has ever existed. Human beings are naturally and incurably religious. Even those who do not go to a place of worship will tell you they have their “own religion”.
Religious people in the church with unchanged hearts will put their interests and needs above the demands of the Lord. They will always make god in their own image. He becomes what they want him to be so they can do what they want to do.
How else could men in white hoods, killing Jews and Negroes, do it in the name of Jesus, with a cross as their symbol. How else could the Church in the Middle Ages, both Protestant and Catholic, put people to death in horrible ways because they did not believe what they were supposed to? How else could Jesus own home church try to kill Him when he dared teach that God loved non-Jews? (Lk. 4). How else could Jewish religious leaders, get together, have a crooked trial, have Jesus killed, and mock him while he died?
2. The Power of Satan
In another parable Jesus said the church was like a field of wheat, with weeds called tares growing among the wheat.
The weeds are the people who belong to the Evil One. The enemy who sowed the weeds is the devil. The harvest is at the end of the age.” (Mt. 13:38-39)
The problem was the weeds looked almost exactly like the wheat. The amazing thing about Judas was that no one in the Lord’s church ever suspected him. When Jesus predicted one of them would betray him, they did not point a finger his way. He looked every bit as good, and as much in love with Jesus, as any of them. But his heart was rotten. Jesus said,
If you were the devil; where would you put your best workers; so they could do the most harm; in the bars or in the pulpits and pews of Christ’s churches? One foul mouthed deacon or Sunday School teacher or preacher, can do more harm for the cause of Christ than ten thousand drunks and ten thousand atheists.
It is hard to get into the mind of the hypocrite and understand why they do what they do. Jesus said they love the praise of men (Mt. 6:2).
3. The Pride of Those Who Love Praise.
Pilate knew they brought Jesus to him to be put to death because they were envious of Him (Mt. 27:18). He was too popular. It was a power trip. We all love to put down those we do not like and to be the one in charge
4. Peer Pressure
Some are trapped in a lifestyle. In another parable Jesus compares the church to throwing seed into a field. Some lands on the road and never takes root. Some lands on shallow soil, with rock below it and takes root and soon dies. And some lands among briars and bushes. Of these people in church He said,
“The seed (gospel) fell among thorns and they grew and choked the plant / The thorns represent the person who hears the word; but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth, chose it, and make it unfruitful.” (Mt. 13:7, 32)
Most of the devil’s people are in church with their minds and hearts and energies in the world. Living a life of love and sacrifice is ridiculous. Business, or family, or recreation, are their priorities; not God and Christian living.
The problem is they can’t figure out a good way to stop going to church. . If they could, they would bail out, but they have ties with their parents; ties with their families; and ties with their friends. If they miss a few Sundays in church, they are contacted, so they find it easier to go through the motions than give up church altogether.
They stay in the church lifestyle like they stay in a bad marriage; or a bad job. They hate it, but they cannot find an easy way out. A lot of these are going for their kids. Every Pastor can tell of scores of people, active in church; who drop out in their later years, after the kids are grown and married.
Sometimes they come back, when the grandchildren come. But even then, who knows if they are embracing Christianity or getting their grandchildren with the right kind of people so they won’t get on drugs or something. The problem is; they find they are only playing a part.
5. Ignorance of True Christianity
Some do not understand what it means to be a Christian. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus pictures the true Christians as those, “Who bear fruit, some a hundred fold, some sixty fold, and some thirty fold.” (Mt. 13:23). Galatians five lists these fruits as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self control.
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Many in our churches see Christian living as optional. They trust in their salvation experience; in their baptism; in their conformation; etc. They don’t know the seriousness of not bearing fruit; of not have the new life that flows from the new birth. Before Paul listed the fruits of Christian life he listed the lifestyle of those without them, people with – jealousy, envy, anger, etc. Then he said in Galatians 5:19-21,
“I warn you now as I warned you before, Those who do these things will never enter the kingdom of God.”
6. A Watered Down Gospel Gives them False Assurance
Sadly they get help from the pulpit. Some Evangelical churches have substituted the experience of “accepting Jesus” as the evidence of salvation instead of a godly life. With a shallow evangelism when people answer a few questions or pray the “sinner’s prayer” they tell people they are “saved”. They are told they SHOULD practice Christ like living and if they don't, they will be "carnal" Christians. Most of what they call "carnal" Christians are not Christians at all
. Jesus said, "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit." (Matt. 7). James says, "Faith without works is dead" (James 2). Jesus told of preachers of the gospel who called him,."Lord" (The OT name for God) and were sent to hell because they did evil things (Matt. 7)
Arthur Pink applies this to conservative, evangelical Christian preachers, who see Christian living as optional and teach it to others.
Spurgeon says any salvation that does not deliver a believer for sinning is like healing a leper and leaving him with his leprosy.
We should not be too quick to tell a person he or she is "saved" after they have said the "right things" We should tell them what God wants them to do and let the Holy Spirit tell them whether or not they are saved. Very ma
OUR RESPONSE
1. Admit our Hypocrisy (Job)
We all play a part to some degree. We tell people that we are not afraid of something because the Lord is with us. Job was a model Christian when all his troubles came and he said, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Ch. 1-2). But after a period of silence all the rage and anger he had for God came pouring out. God did not put this in the Bible to tell us not to do this. Job came out good in the end and his hypocritical friends were the ones in trouble with the Lord (Ch. 40 ff). We need to be willing to face the truth and share our doubts, anger, etc. with God because we are lying to God and:
We might as well kneel down
And worship gods of stone
As offer to the living God
A prayer of words alone
2. Doing What we Should When we Don’t Want to Is Not Hypocrisy
In a perfect world we would always go to church, give our tithe, apologize to people or be nice to people who don’t like us, because we love the Lord and in our hearts really want to do it. Sometimes we do it only because it is right and because it is what the Lord wants. This means Jesus has our “wills”. We cannot help how we feel, but we can help what we do and this is our gift to the Lord.
3. Remember Not all Bad Christians are Hypocrites
In Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the look-a-like weeds we read:
“The servants said, ‘Master, should we go and pull up the weeds?’ And the Master replied, ‘No. You might pull up some of the wheat.’” (Matt. 29-30)
Our Lord said wait until the Judgment and let God separate the true from the false. Some we think are hypocrites are
backsliders. We Christians can do any bad thing that lost people do. Noah got drunk. Abraham lied twice about his wife, and put her in danger of being called to Pharoah’s bedroom. David committed adultery and then murder (2 Sam. 11-12).
Had you been at Jesus’ trial you would have seen Simon Peter curse and deny that he even knew who Jesus was (Mt. 26:74). What you wouldn’t see was him running into the night sobbing because of what he did. The rest of the story is:
“And then the Lord turned and looked at Peter / And he (Peter) left there weeping bitterly.”
The important thing is not what he did but what it did to him and what he did later. Peter’s sin broke his heart. What the world seldom sees is how much Christians hurt and suffer when they do wrong. To see what David’s sins did to David read Psalm 32 and 51. In fact, the only reason Peter failed was that he brave enough to put his life in jeopardy and go into enemy territory.
Some we call hypocrites are baby Christians. Paul wrote the bickering church at Corinth,
“I had to talk to you like people of the world (carnal, like babies.” (1 Cor. 3:1).
When the gospel net goes out and catches us, most of us are “creepy critters” and ugly to look at. We are born again as baby Christians. We don’t know how to face temptations; how to draw on the resources of God; and until we are convicted by the Spirit, we don’t know that some of the things we do are wrong in God’s sight. In our sins we doubt our salvation and the Bible scares us when it says,
“Don’t you know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God/ Do be fooled- the immoral, the adulterous, the sexual perverts, the greedy, the drunks, those who slander others, and those who steal, will not inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Cor . 6:9
This kind of preaching falls on deaf ears when it comes to hypocrites, but the baby Christian is driven to soul searching and repentance and faith. This is growth, and growth takes time. Billy Graham used to say that the way to judge his Crusades was to wait two years and look at the lives of those who made decisions
4. Focus on True Christians
Pick out the best Christians and let them be your examples and source of strength. In every age the church has been filled with hypocrites. The Pharisees were proud.They went to church, tithed their incomes, called the Bible; killed Jesus and went to hell. The Sadducees believed only part of the Bible and their main interest was in making money. The Priests were greedy and dishonest, and their temple merchants cheated the worshipper out of their money (Jn. 2). All of them got together to kill Jesus, the best man who ever lived.
But in church we find the best people on earth. We see this every Christmas in the beautiful people around the cradle -.the parents of John the Baptist; the parents of Jesus; humble shepherds; and two wonderful senior citizens who saw baby Jesus in the Temple. Scripture called them “blameless” (Luke 1). They were not perfect. Matthew Henry explains this:;
“It is not that they always did their duty but it was always their aim to do so.”
5. Unsaved People! Don't let hypocrites keep you out of heaven
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To you who are thinking about becoming a Christian; do not let false Christians keep you from coming to Christ. Remember the true, loving, godly, humble people you know who are true Christians without being “holier-than-thou”.
When I was a boy, the only person in my family who attended church regularly was my uncle. And he was cruel and abusive to all of us in his family and especially to his wife. He treated me like dirt and went to church every Sunday with a Bible in one coat pocket and a bottle of whiskey in the other. When I came to Christ at age 22, I was thinking about him. My prayer was, ‘Lord, don’t let me be like Uncle ___. I want to be the real thing.”
My mother was a good, moral person who was turned off by what she called “phony Christians she worked with. I kept telling her, what they are is between them and the Lord, just like what you are is between you and the Lord. They will answer for themselves and you and I will answer for ourselves. Then, by God’s grace I could say to her, “Mama, am I a hypocrite? Do I act like a Christian?” Thank God, she saw the "old me" coming out at times. But she also saw the change,integrity and the desire for holy living that God put in me, and one day she came to Christ.
The great African American pastor, E. V. Hill was on an airplane. When the man next to him learned he was a preacher, he got religious and asked Dr. Hill what he thought of Jim Bakker who had recently been put in prison. Dr. Hill said, “God has a Book on Jim Bakker and I’m not in it. God has a Book on me, and Jim Bakker is not in it. God has a Book on YOU and Jim Bakker is not in it, and I am not in it. Sir, the only thing that matters is what YOU have done with Jesus and how YOU stand with God.
Billy Graham had a different approach. When asked what he thought about Jim Bakker he said, “I prayed for Jim this morning.” That is the kind of person we need to be looking at when it comes to true salvation..
