How Many Hypocrites Are in Your Church Are You One — E.A. Johnston

A country evangelist brought his trained pony onto the church platform with him during a youth meeting at church. The evangelist asked, Ponyoni, how many commandments of God are there? To which the pony tapped the wooden floor with its hoof ten times.

Ponyoni, how many disciples of Jesus were there? To which the pony now tapped the floor twelve times to the amazement of the crowd. A smart aleck teenager on the front row shouted out, Ponyoni, how many hypocrites are in this church?

Just then the pony broke into a little dance. Our churches today across this land are loaded with hypocrites. Nice little church folk who given the opportunity would crucify Christ all over again. Some stand in the pulpits and some sit in the pew and others serve on a deacon board.

They love prestige. They long for recognition. They want control. They are full of self-love and they break their wrists patting themselves on the back. Like that young smart aleck teenager cried out,.

The Hypocrite’s Hope and the Need for Self-Examination

That's the question today, friends. How many hypocrites are in the church? And the title of my message today is, How many hypocrites are in your church and are you one? I'm going to lay out some marks of a hypocrite today, friends.

Job 27:8–9 and the Hypocrite’s False Hope

As they fall into certain categories. My text today can be found in the book of Job and chapter 27. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 8 and 9. Let me read God's word to us at this time.

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, When God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? Our text both asks a question and begs an answer in two parts.

The Hypocrite’s Hope of Heaven

Number one, our text asks, What is the hope of the hypocrite? What do you think it is, friend? One of you just pointed upwards. That's right. The hope of the hypocrite is heaven. He or she firmly believes they are going to heaven, Like everyone else at church when they die.

They have a hope of heaven. Unfortunately, the hypocrite's hope of heaven Is nothing more than a hole in the wall Because of their empty religious profession. They don't know what a changed life is. They've never been changed through a conversion experience.

Whether God Hears the Hypocrite’s Prayer

Secondly, our text begs an answer to the following. Will God hear his cry? The answer is a definite no. When the hypocrite prays, God looks the other way. I used to be in a big Baptist church, And the minister of prayer always led the weekly prayer meeting.

And the congregation before the meeting Would be in little huddles of prayer groups And laying hold of God in prayer Until this man walked out on stage To lead the rest of the meeting. It never failed.

As soon as this man took the stage, God took off and was nowhere to be found. Now, I'm not exaggerating one bit. You could sense the Spirit of God leave the sanctuary When this minister of prayer walked onto the platform.

We overlooked it for years Until the truth came out about this man. His teenager son came public with the news That his father had been raping him. This man was the minister of prayer for that Baptist church.

False Hope of Heaven in Church Membership

How many hypocrites are in your church? And are you one? Well, let's take a look at some aspects that Are marks of the hypocrite. Remember our text from Job. The hypocrite has a hope of heaven And believes God hears his prayers.

There are baptized individuals Who have a hope of heaven, And more often than not, They hold the reins to a church And positions of power as well. Now, this message may cut a little too deep today for some.

Some might get mad, And I hope you get mad enough To realize how lost you really are To see the great danger you are in With a false hope of heaven And by flirting with death, Eternity, and hot hell Full of misery and suffering.

If you're not really safe, friend, Wouldn't you want to know it? Wouldn't you? I would. Let me tell you my story. I used to be one of the biggest hypocrites at my church. For years, I taught a Sunday school class As an unconverted church member.

Religious Activity Without True Conversion

Every Sunday, I stood up there smug Before my class in my religion And gave out a lesson to That Lord's Sunday school class. I doubt, looking back on it, Very many were actually saved in that class. I know I wasn't.

Yet there we met, Sunday after Sunday. I served in church. I was there every time the door was open. I prayed. I gave a lot of money to that church. A lot of money. But had I died, None of that would have helped me into God's holy heaven Because I was yet in a natural condition Of a lost person who merely had a little religion.

And I fear, friends, That's the majority who make up our church membership today. Nice church members who give of themselves And give their time, give their money To an organization they believe in. But of whom the Lord Jesus Christ does not know Because they have never gotten to Him, Gotten their filthy, wretched sins under His blood By way of repentance and faith.

They are strangers to work grace upon the heart Through regeneration, by way of the new birth. They are baptized, self-ruled individuals Who must have their way Or heaven help the fool who gets in their way.

Inconsistency Between Church and Home

How many hypocrites are in your church? And are you one? Let's look now at some marks of hypocrisy. Number one. Inconsistency in religious life. You are one way at church and quite another way at home.

Teenagers, more than any others, Notice inconsistency in their parents' hypocritical religious life. They hear, do as I say, but not do as I do. The teenagers see right through a parent Who is nothing more than a church hypocrite.

Uncharitableness and Blindness to Personal Faults

It is evident in their life of inconsistency. Another mark of a hypocrite is Number two. Uncharitableness. Matthew 7, 3 says, And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, But considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

A mark of hypocrisy is a person Who is quick to point out the faults in another, But who is oblivious to his own faults. Baptists are the worst offenders here, For they are known for shooting their own.

Religious Talk Without Obedient Living

Number three. Religious talk without the walk. In Luke 6, 46, Jesus says, And why call ye me Lord, Lord, And do not the things which I say? A black mark of hypocrisy is found in church folk Who love to talk about Jesus, But who refuse to make him Lord of their life.

They want to sit and rule on the throne of their life, And sit there on their way to heaven, Ruling there. And they have a form of religion, So long as God doesn't get in the way of their daily living.

Now you sit up and listen to me, friend. I used to sit in church and think the preacher Was talking about the fellow sitting next to me, Never knowing the message was for me. Religious talk without the walk Is a dead giveaway of an insincere heart.

Legalism and Self-Righteous Religion

Number four. Legalism. In John 7, verse 23, Jesus says, If a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision, That the law of Moses should not be broken, And you're angry at me because I have made a man Every whit hole on the Sabbath day.

The religious leaders in the time of Christ Were led by the biggest bunch of legalistic hypocrites In the form of the Pharisees and the scribes. The woes that Jesus pronounced against them were many. And it was this very group of religious phonies Who crucified the Lord of Glory.

How many hypocrites are in your church, and are you one? Legalism is a dead giveaway to the church man Who wraps himself in the robes of a self-righteous religion, But who has not the covering of the robe of righteousness In conversion.

Preaching Without Practicing

The next mark of hypocrisy is Number five. Preaching and not practicing. In Romans 2 .21 we read, Thou therefore which teachest another Teachest thou not thyself? That thou preachest a man should not steal, Dost thou steal?

This mark of a hypocrite is found behind a pulpit, Or in a seminary chair, Or in a Sunday school classroom. Preaching and not practicing. A big famous pastor years ago Never questioned why his son-in-law Asked for copies of his sermon in advance So he could preach those same sermons To his own congregation out of state.

It turned out when he was using one of these sermons on adultery He was found out himself to be in an adulterous relationship And was fired from his church. Preaching and not practicing Is a glaring mark of a hypocrite in and out of the pulpit.

False Profession and the Watered-Down Gospel

You better watch out, brother preacher, That what you preach is a reality in your own life Before you preach to others, Lest you be a castaway. The next mark of hypocrisy is Number six. A false profession.

We see in Titus 1 .16 They profess that they know God, But in works they deny Him, Being abominable and disobedient, And unto every good work reprobate. Like I said, When I was teaching Sunday school as a unconverted man, All my good church works were reprobate.

They couldn't have helped me into heaven, But only could have stood as a witness against me. The sad reality, friends, is this. By the very nature of a modern watered-down gospel And an easy-to-believe gospel invitation, We have made thousands of people our own converts, But not ones of true Christianity.

We've broadened the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did, And we have facilitated folks onto our church role Who never were in the Lamb's book of life to begin with. A false profession will only damn you to a devil's hell.

Selfishness and Refusal to Help Others

You better be dead certain, friend, That you were born from above and washed in the blood, Or your false profession will keep you out of heaven. As sure as I'm warning you now, The next mark of hypocrisy is number seven, Selfishness.

In James chapter 2, We see the religious hypocrite in his full regalia As they are individuals full of self-love Who have little love for others As they live a self-centered and selfish life. James 2, 15 through 16, says about them, If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, Notwithstanding you give them not those things Which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?

I believe, friends, This is one of the most tell-tale marks of a religious hypocrite When they'll say, I will pray for you, When they have the means to help you, But refuse to because of selfishness.

How many selfish sinners are in your church, And are you one? We live in a covetous society, And it has spread its phantom into the church. We sit in pews and stand in pulpits Wrapped in the garments of hypocritical selfishness.

Double-Tongued Speech and an Unsound Heart

Lastly, the next mark of hypocrisy is Number eight, the double-tongued church member. James 3, 10 says of this hypocrite, Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessings and cursing. I am reminded of the very pious church elder Who could pray like a saint in the sanctuary at church, But in his daily place of business He had the filthiest mouth you would ever want to hear.

Do you like praying at church to impress your friends While your family has to listen to your filthy mouth at home? The swearing church member who cusses like a sailor Is a mark of an unsound heart. How many hypocrites are in your church, And are you one?

Let us pray.