Intro: one of the classic, I Love Lucy shows was the show where Lucy and Ethel traded places with Ricky and Fred; one of the funniest parts of that show was when Ricky put a whole box of yeast into his dough and it overflowed the oven. Yeast is a powerful substance, just a little is needed to make bread rise. Jesus stressed yeast or leaven many times in his messages. He warned that the leaven of the Pharisee’s was religion’s greatest sin, and that was the sin of hypocrisy. A classic teaching of the Word is that a little leaven will leaven the whole lump, in other words: just a little bit of hypocrisy in your life will ruin you completely. Today, let’s look at this serious problem that every Christian must guard against in their lives.
RELIGION’S FAVORITE SIN
LUKE 12:1-3
Background: with a large crowd gathered to hear Jesus he starts out by teaching on one of his favorite subjects, the counterfeit religion of the Scribes and Pharisees. He warns people that hypocrisy is a great danger to every life, and that every detail of our lives will be revealed in judgment.
Today, I want to look at the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump, and warn all of us against the sin of hypocrisy.
I. Hypocrisy One—being churchy---Matthew 15:3-6 one of the biggest dangers in all of our lives is becoming a professional Christian. What started with sincerity and humbleness can rapidly become showy and proud.
· Rules of the Church can become more important that winning souls, or seeing God move in our services. You must guard against this as a minister, laymen or member of any church. We must constantly remember the main goal of winning souls for Jesus Christ, and not try to burden people with rules, legalism and man made theologies.
· Lost sincerity—we can know when to raise our hands, when to say amen, how to paint on our religious faces and go to church, but true Christianity is birthed in relationship to Jesus Christ, and anything that replaces that position in Christ is a man made idol.
Ill) it is like the man who acted horrible all the way to church every week but in church acted wonderful. One week his wife had it with his hypocrisy, she said, “today why don’t we switch things up, why don’t you act like an angel with us, and be a devil in the church service.”
II. Hypocrisy Two-Going Through The Motions—Matthew 15:7-8 Lip Service Christianity—another leaven that will leaven the whole lump is lip service Christianity. Everything is from the lip, nothing is from the heart anymore. We all must guard against getting into ruts or routines. In the Revelation, Ephesus had lost it’s love, Laodicea had lost it’s fire.
· We all have seen couples that have grown distant, where communication is missing, maybe the man just grunts his responses or the woman is constantly picking or nagging about every little thing. Most people would know they have fallen into ruts, got into some hopeless routines. The same holds true with our relationship with Christ, we must guard against the lip service Christianity.
Ill) Michael W. Smith—sings a song about looking for a missing person, a young man with fire, vision, dreams. I didn’t understand what the meaning of that song was until recently, he was looking for himself, the person who use to be on fire for God. We all need to do spiritual check-ups to see where we are in Christ.
III. Hypocrisy Three—Talk the Talk, Don’t Walk the Walk—Matthew 23:3-4 Here is the oldest of all hypocrisies, not practicing what you preach. This isn’t just for preachers, this is for everyone who claims Christ. It is easy to become judges of others, but never judge ourselves.
· In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells that some people spend all their time looking for the faults of others, that never see the faults in their own lives. He says, clear out the beam in your own eye, and you will see clearly how to help the person with the speck in their eye.
· Heaping burdens on others that they won’t carry themselves. We must all guard against being hard on others, easy on ourselves. Sometimes the weaknesses we see in others isn’t near the weaknesses we have in our own lives.
In the Imitations of Christ-Thomas A Kempis states that when you feel you are doing well putting up with the faults of others, realize they are doing better putting up with the faults in you.
IV. Hypocrisy Four—Showy Christianity—Matthew 23:5-12 One point that many people miss is that religion is big business, religion is a powerful entity in the world, and those who are the movers and shakers, those who climb to the highest rungs of religious importance have reached near celebrity status in our world. Jesus warned against Spiritual pride. He said we must guard against doing everything for show and pretense.
· Years ago my wife Lauri gave me a great revelation, she said, “ anything that takes people’s attention off of Christ is false religion.” We all must guard against the desire for acceptance in this world, position in religious structure. Paul said, if I should still be seeking to please men, I should not be the servant of Jesus Christ.
· As a church we must always guard against becoming an organization instead of a living organism. The church dies when it becomes institutionalize. If anything we do blocks people from coming to Christ than it is hypocrisy.
Ill) Amos got saved and went to church one Sunday with a lot of excitement for the Lord. He was told by an usher, Amos if you want to be a member at this church, you need to wear a suit, so Amos got a suit. The next week he was told, Amos if you want to be a member at this church, get rid of that worn out Bible, get you a new one, so Amos got a new Bible. The next week he was told, Amos you need to get a better car to be a member at this church, so he got a new car. But still he wasn’t allowed to be a member. He went home and prayed to the Lord, “Lord I have done everything to get into that church and I still can’t get in.” The Lord said, Amos, don’t feel bad, I have been trying to get into that church for years.
V. Majoring On the Minors—Matthew 23:23-26 I am sure the religious leaders didn’t give a five star rating to this sermon. I wonder what we would rate his sermons on sermon central every week. They strained on a gnat, but swallowed camels.
ill) years ago my two of my uncles pulled a fast one on my other uncle who was their brother-in-law. He had never eaten steamed claims before and they told him to eat them just like oysters. So he dip a claim in some sauce and tried to swallow it whole. The claim got stuck in his throat and he almost choked to death. That is what religion does to people, we stuff it down people’s thoats and it kills them.
· Giving to religion was more important than giving to others. People being born into the kingdom was subservient to becoming part of the religious structure. If you understand these times, to be excommunicated from the religious circle was a big deal. Some people are more concerned with their status in a church than their standing with God.
· Looking good was more important than living right. They cleaned up the outside, but didn’t worry about the inside, they had clean hands but cold hearts. We all must guard against the leaven of looking good to others, but not living right for God.
Ill) one of the most amazing testimonies I have ever heard was that of Dr. Mark Rutland, president of Southeastern University in Lakeland Florida. He was one of the highest paid Methodist preachers in Georgia, graduated from Emory University at the top of his class, but at 27 years old, he was suicidal, an alcoholic, and couldn’t even say a prayer over the Christmas dinner. If you spend your life swallowing camels, one day you will choke on one.
Close: here are just 5 of many leavens of hypocrisy. This is the sin of religion, and it is a sin that is still with us in 2005. It will continue to grow until one day religion will rule the world, and a religious leader will sit on a throne as Christ. But that is a topic for another sermon.
Hypocrisy is such a terrible sin because it can look so religious, sound so religious, and from all outward appearance seem to be a wonderful thing.
Today, I am not here to pick on this ministry: but years ago a young man came to our church with a singing group who had been one of the P.T.L. singers. He said, you couldn’t even imagine the height of hypocrisy that he had lived. He told me that they would sing the songs for the program, then go out after the show was over and get high as a kite on drugs, and everyone was sleeping around with everyone else.
Jesus warns: a little leaven will leaven the whole lump. Always remember, just a little bit of hypocrisy will become a life of hypocrisy if you don’t get it out of your life.
