Hypocrites in the Church — E.A. Johnston

The Danger of False Religious Profession

Heavenly Father, it is my prayer that you speak to hearts today and break apart any and every false foundation of an empty religious profession and that you reveal Christ to folks today so they can see a bloodstained savior from sin and find salvation in Him.

I pray, dear God, that your Holy Spirit will disturb the hypocrite today and show him his danger of dying in his sins and being cast into the outer darkness of hell itself. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus, Amen.

Recognizing Religious Hypocrisy

When nobody likes to be called a hypocrite, it infers that you say you are one way when really you are quite another. We don't like dishonest politicians or bad cops. I remember years ago I had a Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher who was a legalist and for three weeks he preached to us the evils of Disney and that we should all boycott Disney TV shows because they were all perverts and we should all boycott their theme parks as well.

And then this man went on vacation and one of our class members ran into him with his family at Disney World. That man was talking out of both sides of his mouth and he got caught. Like I said, nobody likes a hypocrite, but oftentimes a religious hypocrite can't see themselves for what they are and that's deceived.

Empty Religious Professions and False Conversion

If you ask them how they got saved, they can usually point to a time in their life when they responded to an emotional appeal and made some kind of public profession of faith, either walking the Nile to accept Jesus, or raising their hand, or repeating a prayer.

But usually they can point back to a time in their life when they got some kind of religion, but they are yet strangers to work grace upon the heart in regeneration. Somewhere in their past they just made an empty religious profession and a mental flip for Jesus and joined the church.

Some folks even think salvation is found in church membership. I used to... People get the craziest ideas on what salvation is. I used to have a friend who claimed he was saved because he was out in the woods sitting there one day thinking about God and an owl appeared to him in a tree.

And this man mistook that owl as a sign from God that he was now a saved individual. But that owl didn't give a hoot in hell whether that man was saved or lost. But nonetheless, our churches are full of the unconverted who are religious but lost, and that makes them hypocrites.

The Deception of the Easy-Believe Gospel

They are victims of the modern easy-believe gospel. Somewhere an evangelist told them all they had to do to have Jesus was to have faith like you would trust in a chair to support you. They say something along these lines.

Friend, you believe that chair you're sitting in can support you. That's why you sat on it. Well that's like faith in Christ. All you have to do is have faith in that chair just like that and have faith in Jesus just like that as well.

But listen friend, that's a lie because an atheist trusts a chair to support him as well. Faith in a chair is not saving faith in Christ Jesus. So many are misled by modern evangelistic tactics into thinking they are saved when they are not.

The Foolish Virgins and Hypocrisy in the Church

The foolish virgins were deceived and they ended up outside of Christ. But it was too late for them then. The sad reality is a good percentage of our churches today are flooded with hypocrites. I recall a story about a country evangelist who would bring his pony with him onto the preaching platform in a church as an evangelistic exhibition.

He would ask the pony, how many disciples did Jesus have? And the pony would tap out twelve with his hoof on the platform. But then the evangelist would ask the pony how many commandments there were and the pony would tap out ten with his hoof on the platform.

Just then a smart aleck teenager sitting on the front row called out, hey pony, how many hypocrites are in this church? And just then the pony broke into a little dance. Well the title of my message today friends is, Hypocrites in the Church.

Building on the Rock Rather Than Sand

Some folks have a hope of heaven but it's nothing more than a hole in the wall. You see friends, one can build on sand without a sure foundation but it won't hold up long. In Luke's gospel in chapter 6 we read beginning in verse 46,.

And why call ye me Lord, Lord and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock.

And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that, without a foundation, built a house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.

A False Assurance and a Self-Made Righteousness

I will stop there friends. A false assurance will lead to a false foundation, and a false foundation will lead men to build a righteousness of their own. And then they will join a church and spend years as an unconverted individual, hanging on to a false hope and a false faith.

A Lost Church Member Finds Christ

I know what I'm talking about friends, I was a lost church member for years, I taught a big Sunday school class in a big Baptist church, and I had a big opinion about myself. I liked to boast and brag about what I had and what I'd done, but I was as lost as that man sitting in the woods with his owl, and a man who is religious and lost can be dangerous.

Just look up the scribes and the Pharisees in your Bible to see what I mean. Then one day I saw that I was on my way to hell, and not only that, but I deserved to go there. Well, I became a seeker of God that day.

I threw down my shotgun of rebellion that day, friend. I surrendered all I was to all Christ was that day, and bless God he saved me. Whatever you do, friend, don't end up like the hypocrites found me.

Isaiah’s Warning and the Call to Repentance

They found Isaiah, who found out too late that they were deceived. In Isaiah 33, 14 we read, the sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?

Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Turn to Christ, friend, in common repentance, confessing you are a sinner, and own him as your Savior and Lord. Repent before it's too late.