Sermon Tone Analysis

MBC - 10~/23~/2004 - Pastor Doug Thompson

*/“Hypocrisy”/*

Romans 2:17-29

 

ROM 2:17 But if you bear the name "Jew" and rely upon the Law and boast in God,

ROM 2:18 and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law,

ROM 2:19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

ROM 2:20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,

ROM 2:21 you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself?

You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?

ROM 2:22 You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

ROM 2:23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?

ROM 2:24 For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," just as it is written.

ROM 2:25  For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

ROM 2:26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

ROM 2:27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?

ROM 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

ROM 2:29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

 

*/“Got sieht hinter deine Maske.”/*

Most of you probably know that down in New Orleans, the Day before Lent begins is called “Mardi Gras,” Fat Tuesday.

And on this day before people supposedly make a sacrifice of giving up something important to them out of devotion to God, the same people indulge their flesh in every way imaginable.

The stuff that goes on reminds you of Aaron and the Israelites partying around the golden calf, or Sodom and Gomorrah, or SF during Gay Pride Week.

People dress (and undress) in wild costumes and wear masks to hide their identities.

In Basel, Switzerland, they have the same celebration of Mardi Gras, which they call “Faschnacht.”

But in this city, every year, the evangelical Christian groups put ads on the billboards around the city that say: /“Got sieht hinter deine Maske”--God sees behind your mask!/

A hypocrite is a person who wears a mask--before people--but not before God.

Ø      PRO 15:11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord, How much more the hearts of men!

 

God can see behind any mask, no matter how elaborate or lifelike--yours--and mine.

And Paul was exposing the hypocrisy of self-righteous Jews who thought that because men were impressed with them, God must be also.

They were wrong.

The dictionary defines a hypocrite as someone who “pretends to be better than he really is or to be pious, virtuous without really being so.”

A hypocrite is a pretender, an actor.

He is someone who says one thing but does the opposite.

Hypocrites wants the best of both worlds: to have the respect and admiration of people, but also indulge their own flesh and do whatever they want.

And hypocrites don’t just say one thing and do another, they go out of their way to criticize and judge other people for doing the same things they do in secret.

But it’s all about /appearance/--the hypocrite is consumed with how or she /appears/ to others.

Reality is secondary to appearance.

Ø      I read a great article awhile back that was discussing the difference between character and personality in our leaders and politicians, and how personality is so much more important nowadays than character.

But personality is just what you project to others, it is the way you /appear/ to others, and it might have little or nothing to do with the reality.

Character is who you really are.

Of course, God knows who you are, right?

And Scripture exhorts us to put a premium on godly character--who we are on the inside--not on appearance and personality.

Man looks on the outside, but God sees the heart.

And we can’t hide from God, and if we live with a clear conscience before Him, we have nothing to hide from men--right?

And if we truly grasp the grace of God, we don’t need to mask the fact that we are sinners before other people.

My friends, God doesn’t want people to look at you and I and see some phony, pious, holier-than-thou smiley face mask.

He wants people to look at you and I and see real people, sinners just like them, who have been saved by the grace of God, and who, by that same grace, are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ!

Ø      I want you to get this, this morning, if you get nothing else: hypocrisy is due to a lack of a grasp of God’s grace.

Hypocrites aren’t gripped by God’s grace!

When you grasp God’s grace toward you in Christ, it teaches you that God brings more pleasure and satisfaction than sin ever could.

If you are hiding your sinful indulgences behind a mask of hypocrisy, grace hasn’t gripped you yet.

And then grace teaches us that when we /do/ sin, we have forgiveness and peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Why would we hide behind some super-saint mask and deny that grace?

God is telling us this morning to take off our masks and live in the light and mercy of His grace!

 

Paul exposed hypocrisy in the Jews in this passage, and we are going to do the same this morning, and it might get uncomfortable, but I’m going to be specific so that you and I can spot hypocrisy in ourselves.

We have seen the very same kind of hypocrisy in our generation that Paul say in his--the worst kind of all--religious hypocrisy:

 

*Jim Bakker* - He was once the head of the "Praise The Lord" network.

In the late '80s, Bakker’s mask was ripped off, and his TV viewers who had sent him millions of dollars were shocked: He had been having an affair with a young girl in his ministry, then he had used $265,000 of donation money to keep her quiet.

But that wasn’t all.

People found out what else he had been doing with their money: he and Tammy Faye bought expensive cars and six mansions.

They equipped a dog house with air-conditioning, and spent $60,000 on gold-plated bathroom fixtures.

They once spent $100 on cinnamon buns just to scent the air of their hotel suite.

*Jimmy Swaggart *–In the late 1980s, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries was the largest televangelism operation in the world.

He raked in more than $150 million annually.

He was watched by over 8 million viewers.

And Swaggart was militant against hypocrites in his own denomination.

When the PTL scandal erupted in 1987, Swaggart went on CNN and told Larry King that Bakker was a "cancer in the body of Christ."

But even as he was preaching a sermon series on Rahab the harlot, it was discovered that Swaggart himself was a regular customer of a prostitute.

He was out of the ministry for a few months, but he’s making a big comeback.

*Pat Robertson* –the founder of the Christian Coalition.

A reporter for the New York Times discovered that Robertson owned a racehorse named "Mr.

Pat.”

The paper detailed financial involvement in racing to the tune of more than $500,000.

Robertson defended himself by saying that he saw no contradiction between his condemnation of gambling and his ownership of a racehorse.

“I don't bet, and I don't gamble, I just enjoy watching horses running and performing.

I’m sorry that my fondness for the performance of equine athletes has caused you an offense."

*Jesse Jackson* - During the Clinton~/ Lewinsky scandal, Jackson paid a personal visit to offer his moral and spiritual counsel to the President.

He brought along staffer Karin Stanford, who was pregnant at the time with his child.

The good reverend used organizational money to arrange for his playmate to live in a home worth $345,000 and to receive $10,000 per month.

I’ll tell you the hypocrite that really ticks me off--it’s not the one on TV, it’s that guy in my mirror.

It’s so easy to spot hypocrisy in others, and it is so hard to recognize it in ourselves.

And I want to talk about how we can do that in a minute, but we need to review what it is that Paul is getting at here and why he is being so hard on the Jews.

*I.

The essence of sin and the need for grace.*

Before Paul spells out the good news of the gospel, he painstakingly, methodically diagnoses the disease of sin.

He begins in ch.1 with pagan Gentiles, people who either don’t have or don’t acknowledge the Word of God and the God of the Word.

They are condemned for their sins.

They have enough revelation of God in nature to know better.

Paul says that they are without excuse.

As we said, the bad people really are--bad!

Then he turns to the so-called good people--people who have the Word of God and believe it.

Paul is shocking when he says that they are just as bad!

We saw that at the beginning of ch.2.

But they are not just as bad--they are worse, because they have more light.

The standard is even higher for them because they know better, and yet they do the same things.

They are doubly guilty.

*/The essence of sin/*

And the essence of sin for both groups is the same.

Look with me at:

 

Ø      ROM 1:21 [speaking of pagan Gentiles] For even though they knew God, they did not /honor /Him as God or /give thanks/. .