Why So Many Hypocrites?
Ezekiel 18:24, 25
Today we continue looking
at another question that is on the mind of many people these days. Why are there so many hypocrites in the
church, anyway? Why go to church, when
all there is is hypocrisy? So let’s look
at this question.
Famous Hypocrites . . .
a short list
David
The lines have fallen
to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good
inheritance.
I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs
me in the night seasons.
I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at
my right hand I shall not be moved.
Psalm
16:6-8
Then it happened one
evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s
house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very
beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone
said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah
the Hittite?”
In the morning it
happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of
Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the
hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” So
it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where
he knew there were valiant men. Then the men of the city came out and
fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell;
and Uriah the Hittite died also. 2
Samuel 11:2, 3, 14-17
What’s with this? Is this the same guy? Is the guy that said those nice things the
same dude that committed both adultery and murder? How can that be? It just isn’t right! It’s just dreadfully wrong! Why, he’s a blooming hypocrite, that’s what
he is!
Hey, the Bible is a record
book—it’s a historical narrative! It
records the good and the bad, the blessings of following God’s will, and the
curses that result from violating His will.
It’s all there…and this guy—this King David—why, he’s just a blooming
hypocrite. Says one thing and does
another. Portrays himself as a man of
faith and principle, and then just like that he commits both adultery and
cold-blooded murder, all in one week!
The Unknown Prophet
And behold, a man of
God went from
4 So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man
of God, who cried out against the altar in
So the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him,
and became as before. 1 Kings 13:1-7
So it was, after he
had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the
prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on
the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey
stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. 25 And there, men passed by and saw the
corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went
and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
1 Kings 13:23-25
So, what’s with this
guy? We don’t even know his name. He starts out well, but ends terribly. Because of his word, the king’s hand becomes
paralyzed, and then it’s healed again! Because
of his word, the altar was split in half!
This prophet quickly established that he meant business!
His whole message is that
the people are sinning against God, and they need to return to Him. They need to do what he says. God needs to be the true Leader of their
lives. God gave him specific
instructions: don’t go to anyone’s house, don’t eat at anyone’s house, get out
of there quickly.
But the unknown prophet
rationalized. He was invited to go to
someone’s house and eat, so he could be refreshed for his journey. It was a nice offer. But to do so would violate God’s Word to
him. So the prophet goes to this man’s
house and he eats and drinks. When he
leaves, he gets killed by a lion on the way.
Then the lion and the donkey just stand there near the dead prophet all
day, so everyone can see clearly what happened.
The Bible indicates that
even this prophet’s death was a message to the people, not to disregard what
the Lord says. And yet that’s what we do
all the time in our lives. We don’t take
God seriously. We compromise. We rationalize. We go the easy route. We give in.
We go the path of least resistance.
The path of least resistance is the path of death. There’s a dead prophet lying in the road to
remind us that God is no respecter of persons, and that He sees the choices we
make.
This unknown prophet, as
good and noble as he may have been, was not consistent in his love for the
Lord. He was a blooming hypocrite! Telling people to stop doing something, then
doing it himself. Takes a lot of nerve.
And then there’s Samson.
Samson
So Samson went down to
Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah.
Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him. 6 And the Spirit of the LORD came
mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a
young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. Judges 14:5, 6
Then she lulled him to
sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks
of his head. Then she began to torment him,[a] and his strength left him. 20 And she said, “The Philistines are
upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as
before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the
LORD had departed from him.
21 Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought
him down to
Samson—the pride of
See him there—eyes gauged
out, chained to a mill wheel, pushing it round and round all day long. His strength gone. It’s picture of terrible results of
hypocrisy.
Lots of Reasons Not
to Like Hypocrites
There are lots of reasons
not to like hypocrites:
They can’t be trusted
They are confusing
They are a bad example to
the rest of us decent folks
They bring trouble on the
church
They often pull us into
their sin
They’re not nice
They poison the
atmosphere, so we can’t worship in peace
Yep, lots a reasons not to
like them. And why should we? Pesky critters anyway.
Even Jeremiah was fed up
with hypocrites. They never did what he
said, but then they would ask him to pray to God and ask Him what they should
do!
For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you
sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and
according to all that the LORD your God says, so declare to us and we will do
it.’ Jermiah 42:20
Hypocrites Live in Fear
The Bible says, by the
way, that hypocrites live in fear. It’s
not a peaceful life that they live:
The sinners in
Can’t Get Away From
Hypocrites
One thing is for sure—we
can’t get away from hypocrites—people who say one thing and do another—they’re
everywhere! They are at the grocery
store, they are at church, they are at school, they might even be a teacher you
have, they walk around town, they drive to the same places we drive. Nope.
Can’t get away from them.
Jesus couldn’t
either. Everywhere He went He seemed to
meet up with hypocrites. On one such
occasion, found in Matthew 23:
“Woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and
have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and
faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat
and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse
the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and
self-indulgence.[f] 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the
inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full
of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear
righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:23-28
These Pharisees were
taking advantage of widow ladies—imagine!
It’s the same thing that goes on today—these people that telephone
senior citizens and put a bunch of fear in them, and get them to give them their
personal information, their credit card number, etc. People get milked all the time in fraudulent
schemes. Well, that’s what these
“religious” Pharisees were doing. The
would gain the confidence of these poor widow ladies, then get them to donate
their money and their property to the
Then they would stand on
the corners of the streets in their flowing robes, and pray long prayers so
everybody could see how pious they were.
They were nothing but a bunch of extortioners—in the church, no
less. The nerve.
You know Jesus loved these
guys, don’t ya? Sure. He was able to get through to several of
them. So there’s hope.
What’s Important
Here
When we look at all the
hypocrites that have gone before us, and all the ones that are around us, it’s
easy to get sick to one’s stomach. It’s
easy to say, “Well, phooey with these people, anyway! Who needs ‘em!”
But not so fast.
What’s important here: not so much what they’ve done or how they
messed up, but rather 1. how God was able to bless in spite of the sin (when
they came to their senses), and 2. what we can learn from their mistakes.
So, Why So Many Hypocrites, Anyway?
Well, it’s like this. Hypocrisy is part of the fallen, carnal
nature that we all are born with. And
unless we are daily born again with Jesus Christ, and love Him and serve Him,
and keep His Word in our minds, we will naturally flow to the lowest point of
our nature—like water on your windshield flows down to the lowest point—unless
your driving fast, then the wind makes it flow in all directions, and it gets
into that little crack you left in your side window to let fresh air in, and
you end up getting water on you.
But anyway, if left to
ourselves, we naturally flow to our lowest nature. It’s as simple as that. And because there are SO MANY people that are
left to themselves, and don’t surrender to Jesus Christ, it follows that there
lots of hypocrites around, even in the church.
Let’s back up . . . Let’s
look at how easy it is to become a hypocrite . . .
How Easy It Is to
Become a Hypocrite
Do I have any pleasure
at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord GOD, “and not that he
should turn from his ways and live?
24 “But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and
commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man
does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be
remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin
which he has committed, because of them he shall die. Ezekiel 18:23, 24
First of all,
notice that God’s basic stance towards us is one of peace. That’s a good thing. He doesn’t apparently enjoy tossing folks
into the lake of fire. He would much
rather have us turn from our selfish, egotistical, lustful, gluttonous ways,
and live.
Notice too
that it’s not enough to live right for a while, and then think that this period
of goodness will cover a period of badness, just do what you want. It doesn’t work that way. When we give the Lord our hearts, and we ask
Him to be our Leader, He takes us seriously.
He leads us day by day, and we get stronger and stronger. But if we let go of Him, and don’t spend time
reading His Word and talking to Him, we will end up turning from our
turning. Does that make sense? We will be lost, plain and simple.
How easy is it
to become a hypocrite?
Just tell
someone that you are health conscious, then go buy a chocolate shake.
Just tell your
friend that you follow Jesus, then yell and cuss at the driver that just cut
you off.
Just agree to
your baptismal vows, then live as if you don’t believe them.
Just tell your
friend that you observe the Sabbath, then rush off to work on the Sabbath.
Just
compromise, rationalize, and cave in.
It’s easy to
become a hypocrite, and to remain one indefinitely. Very easy.
Because if left to ourselves, we flow to the lowest point of our nature.
For Church Folks
For those who are in the
church I would say that we must be very careful that we try to live lives that
are consistent with what we believe, with what we say we believe. Because many people form their conclusions
about the church and about God based on what they see in God’s adherents—church
goers.
So there is a big
responsibility resting on us. People are
watching to see if what we believe is making a difference in our lives. Do we take our own teachings and beliefs
seriously? That’s what they are watching
for.
For Non-Church Folks
For those of you who are
not in the church, and those of you who don’t claim to be a Christian, I will
say this. You have every right to call
things the way you see them. Call out
the hypocrisy when you notice it. When
it’s glaring. Call it out, and bring it
to our attention.
But don’t let the
hypocrisy keep you away from God, and His church. Realize that there is a long history of
hypocrisy in the
And realize that you too
have a responsibility to take every opportunity to get close to God, and learn
of God. Learn from the weaknesses of
others, and try not to copy bad behavior.
Don’t let the inconsistencies keep you away from God or His church.
Look beyond all of
that. Look deeper. Look for the core values and principles that
are there. These can enhance your life,
because they are very old, and very wise.
Look for a real God to
meet you where you are at. Look for Him
to come near to you, accept you where you are, teach you as you are willing to
be taught, and empower you as you are willing to be empowered. Look for God, because He is there.