Sep. 18, 2016 An Actor’s Guild by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Well the psalmist says that God is the one who desires truth in the inward parts of men.

And Jesus in John chapter 4, speaking to the Samaritan woman that he met by the well, the hour is coming and now is here when the true worshippers will worship the

Father in spirit and truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

Our text this morning is actually Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 18 and we'll put our focus this morning really on just the first verse.

I'm taking what we've been doing in the afternoon portion of the service as we've been going through the Sermon on the

Mount and taking what was originally intended for that and brought it to the morning service because I wanted everyone to hear this message.

The Lord speaks of God's great burden here that is sort of as we would say today maybe what you see is what you get.

What you are on the inside should show on the outside and what we see on the outside should not be something that is intentionally there just to put on some airs, just to fit in.

The word is hypocrisy and it comes up so many times in the

Sermon on the Mount in this portion of chapter 6 where Jesus speaks against it and over and over again throughout the book of Matthew.

This comes up as an abomination to God that is the opposite of truth in the inward part, is the opposite of worshiping

God in spirit and in truth. I think we all need to be warned about this this morning.

We need to take Jesus' words seriously because that's the way he meant them. He wasn't just saying oh by the way beware of this.

It was with a greater severity. It was beware of this, watch out, be on your guard against this.

It creeps in so easily sometimes we don't even know we're doing it. What are you willing to do to fit in?

Oftentimes this exterior that we manufacture, this outer being as it were that we put on for you to see is something that has nothing at all to do with what is inside of us.

It's to fit in. We're social creatures. We do like to fit in. I think God made us to fit in.

God made us to want the company of others. But what are we willing to do to fit in?

The desire for acceptance is a powerful force. It can cause us to do all sorts of things just to feel like we belong.

I speak this morning to the Christian who by fear of man doesn't let his exterior or her exterior be what

God has made you on the inside. I speak this morning to you who on the exterior seem to know and worship and have faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, but truly in your heart, in your spirit between you and God you do not.

You want to belong? Very pleased you want to belong to a place like this if that is the case.

As a pastor, I love it when people love my people. But this is a dangerous thing because what

Jesus warns us about here, this hypocrisy which we're going to spend our time on this morning, it can slip in.

It can be insidious. We can kind of get used to it and we do have to sign to stop sometimes.

Take Jesus at his word. Beware of this. Let's look to our spirit and see if we've fallen into this as a trap so to speak.

It is something that is just so easy to slip into.

I want to begin my message actually with something entirely different than the gospel of Matthew which is that first verse in chapter six will be our main text.

But to show you just how insidious this can be and we're going to open up this idea of hypocrisy, what it really means, what is

Jesus warning us about, turn in your Bibles please to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 and I want to read from verse 11 through verse 14 for you.

I want us to see how prevalent this can be. Of course here in Galatians chapter 2 beginning at verse 11,

Paul is going to speak, he's going to write about this confrontation he had with the apostle

Peter. Mark that, the apostle Peter. And let me just read it, we're very familiar with this text.

I'm not going to say a lot about it, but I want us to see this as part of this warning that Jesus gives us.

Paul writes this, Galatians 2 beginning at verse 11, When they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a

Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

His conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. Now we cannot have any doubt that Peter was saved, he was a

Christian, he had the spirit, he knew the truth of the gospel, but this exterior, this outward behavior was not just failing to manifest the gospel, it was demonstrating something antithetical to the gospel.

And so Paul had to confront him on this, apostle to apostle, publicly.

Now our text of course is Matthew 6 and verses 1 through 18, which was read to you.

Previous to this, we've gone through this in the afternoon portion of the service, Matthew 5, 21 to 48,

Jesus gave six examples of what I've been calling sub -kingdom righteousness, the works -based, man -centered ways of making oneself fit for the kingdom, something we all of course know is quite impossible.

Fitness for the kingdom of God is possible only by the imputation of a righteousness that is not ours, a righteousness that is foreign to our natural disposition, is as foreign to our natural disposition as a child is to a space alien, it has nothing to do with us because we cannot have it, we cannot generate it.

It's by God's imputation of Christ's righteousness to us as if it were our own, only then can we call, can we be qualified for the kingdom of heaven.

And here is one of the great warnings we have already on this idea of hypocrisy, because hypocrisy, one of the things, and like I said we're going to open up this idea some more, exactly what hypocrisy is, but it's where we pretend on the outside to have what the

Bible says is this kind of a righteousness. Any other righteousness other than the righteousness of Christ is false, just not good enough to open up heaven's door.

Remember Matthew 5 verse 20, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Remember what is at stake here. False righteousness will not open heaven's gate, and the danger here is great because we are all to one degree or another man -fearers.

We want to look good, we want to be respected, is that not what happened to Peter? Is that not why when the

Jewish converts came, he wanted to show that he was still part of that group? He wanted to be accepted, he wanted to be respected.

It's an easy ditch to fall into. We become experts at putting on airs that make us appear to be one thing while in fact we're another.

And I started this message with that Galatians passage. I want to have this clear picture of what is at stake.

He called Peter a hypocrite because of this behavior, this doctrine that he was demonstrating, being antithetical to the gospel, being opposed to the gospel.

He said Peter stood condemned because of this. He was outwardly very social with the

Gentiles, and this makes sense. I mean before the circumcision party comes,

Peter, a Jewish convert to Christ, is being social with the Gentiles, and we should expect this.

It was he, it was Peter who first broached the gospel to the Gentiles when he went to Cornelius's household.

Read of that in Acts chapter 10. It was he, it was Peter who had been given that vision of the unclean animals being declared by God to be clean, and of course that applied to the

Gentiles. So Peter would understand that the salvation of God that he accomplished in Jesus Christ was not just for the

Jews, but for the Gentiles as well. That was Peter who was first given that vision.

It was he, the preeminent apostle, who first saw Gentiles receive the Spirit just as they had.

Acts 11 15. It was he, it was Peter who was part of that inner circle with James and John, closer to Jesus than the others.

He, Peter, knew better than almost any other Jew that against Jewish traditions he could and he should keep company with Gentiles.

But why? Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was, that is what's in play.

The gospel of God in Jesus Christ. Because of that gospel by which the dividing wall was torn down,

Peter, who so well defended himself at the Jerusalem Council, who stood so solidly on God's grace, defending

God's grace going to the Gentiles, showing the Jewish believers that indeed that was the case, and therefore there's no distinction to be made.

That dividing wall has been demolished between Jew and Gentile. It was he, Peter, who knew this better than others.

It was he, Peter, who with his outward behavior, who was confronted by Paul, who denied all of this.

That was the hypocrisy. Jewish believers came, then all of a sudden Gentiles were forbidden.

He so wanted to impress these fellow Jewish believers, he played a part that was totally opposed to the gospel he proclaimed.

And make no mistake, Paul's severity was well placed. His alarm against Peter was justified because Peter's hypocrisy put the gospel itself at risk.

Lord willing, this message this morning will present the gospel to you.

That I'll have something to say other than, well don't be hypocritical, stop being so lousy, stop not being brave enough to show on the outside what's on the inside.

Lord willing, this message will not devolve into that. And yet the warning that Jesus gives, you could go forward sometime to Matthew 23.

He says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites over and again. Woe, hypocrites.

We need to have in mind, even we who know the grace of God in Jesus Christ, just what

God thinks of something like that. Well Peter, to stay on him for just another moment, he of course represented

Jesus Christ. When people looked at him, they expected to see the gospel. And so they should also expect of we today who believe in Jesus Christ.

We are ambassadors of Christ, says Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 20.

We represent him with every word, with every action, with every stroke of a pen.

We do and we should represent the gospel that saved us. And so Jesus begins this portion of his sermon,

Matthew chapter 6 verse 1, with a command that is a warning of just the utmost importance to us.

The issue is hypocrisy. When we perform acts of charity, he goes on, and we're not going to get there today.

Lord willing, next week in the afternoon service we'll pick up the rest of this chapter. But he's going to tell us when we perform these acts of charity in order to be praised, in order to be seen, when we pray in order to be admired.

And people say, well what a wonderful, eloquent, grand prayer that was. But when that's the purpose, when we fast so that others will see our piety, with all these pretenses at true faith and worship, what we're doing is joining

Peter in that incident in denying the gospel, being hypocritical, just as Peter was.

Now I can't tell you how great the risk here is. We're all at some level, as I said before, man -fearers.

We want to please men. We want to do what we think they want us to do. We all have some desire to please men more than God.

And so we change our behavior to meet others' expectations. We want to be accepted, respected, and we'll do sometimes just about anything for it.

Lord willing, the Spirit will work in us by this word from Christ exposed for us where we need to see the truth.

We need the Spirit's help because this can be subtle. And it can be subtle because it creeps in, as I said earlier, so slowly, so incrementally.

We just don't see it. Have you ever had to have a major brake repair done on your car?

The mechanic might look, this happened to me once, and I'm a fairly decent mechanic. I keep my car up pretty good.

But he came and said, these brakes are shot, and so are the rotors and drums, and we have to replace the whole thing.

And I saw them and they did. But what happens is as your pads wear down slowly, they can't dissipate the heat anymore.

I think that's what's happening anyway. But pretty soon you're not stopping nearly as well as you should be stopping, but it happens so slowly you don't notice it.

So with the hypocrisy that we're going to look at this morning, it creeps in.

It goes on layer by layer. Next thing we know. Well, Jesus continues to use the

Pharisees, the models then, the models of piety as examples. If anyone should be imitated, surely it was them.

I mean that whole section, Matthew 21 to 48 in chapter 5, was characterized by, you have heard, where what they had heard was the

Pharisaical and Scribal teaching, the man -made false righteousness followed by, but I say to you, and then the truth of the matter.

And now we have these three examples, these charity, prayer, and fasting, and there's a pattern there of secret, secret reward, so that your giving, your praying, your fasting may be in secret, and your

Father who sees in secret will reward you. Beware, says

Jesus, beware of practicing your righteousness before the people, praying, fasting, giving, in order to be seen by them.

Is that the purpose? In order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Now the key there is before the people in order to be seen. Before the people tells us who is the target audience, and here in what

Jesus is saying, it's certainly not God, even though the activity itself, the charity, the prayer, the fasting, purports itself to be for God.

To be seen is the Greek word, the aomai. The aomai, if that sounds to you suspiciously like our word theater, that's where the word comes from.

A place intended for entertainment. The purpose of the place is to entertain, to show you something that's not real.

And verse 2 says, when you give, sound no trumpet as the hypocrites do. Verse 5, when you pray, you must not lay like the hypocrites.

Verse 16, when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, those who do what they do only to impress others.

It's not religion, it's theater, it's entertainment. The word hypocrites was first used of actors.

They'd cover up who and what they really were, and they'd play their part, play a role, which is of course, that's what they were supposed to do.

That's what we expect an actor to do, that's what we watch actors, is it not? And I want my entertainers to play a part.

I mean, one reason I personally don't care very much for Kevin Costner, and I'm not against Kevin Costner, don't get me wrong, but the reason

I don't like him that much is because he looks to me like Kevin Costner playing Kevin Costner. I have nothing against you if you like him, and I'm not saying anything qualitative about movies.

He just looks to me like not the part he's playing, and I want them to draw me into the part. George C.

Scott playing Patton, if you ever look at or see old videos of George Patton, George Scott played the part.

You wouldn't know he was George Scott. He was Patton, at least for three hours.

He put on that mask, which is what we pay him to do, that's what we want him to do. But we're not supposed to be actors.

We're not supposed to be actors. People whose yes means yes, whose no means no, we should be of a different sort than that.

Of course, by Jesus' time, the word hypocrite had the negative cast that we associate with it.

Like a professional actor, the hypocrite hides the true self. What you see is definitely not what you get.

But of course, we're not thinking of paid actors, we're thinking of people who intentionally mislead others.

Now what's the difference? Isn't that still what actors do? Yes, it is. But the goal of the hypocrites

Jesus is concerned about here is not to entertain, but to mislead. And these hypocrites in that day were very influential.

The Pharisees were highly respected. Some, maybe like Nicodemus, were even revered. They knew the law, they knew what

God required, so they presented themselves as such. Sort of like, follow me because I can show you the way to God.

I can show you what God requires. I can show you how to do it. I can show you the behavior that I will look upon you and say, yes, this one's righteous because he's doing the right things.

And the problem was, of course, what they purported to be, which was pious and religious and faithful to God, concerned for others.

All of this was only on the outside. There was no internal correspondence. Jesus' most stinging rebukes were against these sorts.

Matthew 23, I mentioned a moment ago, it's six times where he says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

Let me go on with one of those verses so we can get the intensity of this, because we need to have God's mind. We need to have

God's view of this. You are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and uncleanness.

So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

In Matthew 23, 15, Jesus says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

By using their highly polished exterior, they drew men to follow their falsehoods. They drew men to themselves and away from God.

And why is Jesus so incensed about this? It's because they made men believe that when they followed their ways, when they came to them, when they came to this man and followed what he was doing, because he looked so good on the outside, they were actually taking men away from God, away from the gospel, away from understanding their need for Jesus Christ, their inadequacy to come to God on their own terms, which is what these hypocrites in Jesus' day were trying to make them convince they could do.

If you do these things, if you act this way, say these words, pray prayers like that, then

God will be pleased with you and you'll be okay. So this is first.

Do not be like those who perform acts of righteousness before the people in order to be seen before the people, before you and me, as if my or your being impressed would gain anyone anything.

What can we give? An applause, a clap on the back, a thank you? We'd be impressed for an hour or two?

I mean, Peter was a Christian, of course, but he got called on the carpet for this very sin, for playing the hypocrite.

It's just so easy to slip into this man -fearing, man -pleasing frame of mind. Now, it would be impossible for us to see this exactly the way

Jesus does. Our vision is clouded by sin. Our vision is impeded by our fallenness.

His anger in Matthew 23, just those few verses I read to you, that does give us a hint of it though.

Why is he so severe against hypocrisy? Is it worse than other sins? No, the hypocrite takes others down with him.

I mean, whose were the dead people's bones that Jesus said they were full of? It was those who fell for their false religion and were led away from the gospel.

Where did their converts end up? Twice as much a child of hell as they themselves. Jesus came to save men, not to condemn them.

Yet here are these men making such a show of their religion, using their influence to draw men to themselves, leaving them staring at the pit of hell with its maw wide open, greedily devouring those who had been deceived.

This is why the intensity, this is why the severity of what Jesus says. This is the warning to us.

If we claim to be Christian, if we claim to be Christ's, if we are his ambassadors, and yet the outside, the things that come out of us, where does

Jesus say they proceed from? They proceed from the heart. If that heart has truly been converted by God, then we need to understand that if the outward action doesn't meet that inner man, that inner spirit that God gave us, we could very well, as Jesus is castigating these

Pharisees, be leading men away and towards us. How often we do something, it's just what is the subliminal, if you will, message.

Look how easy this gospel is. Look how easy this is to follow. That sort of thing to drive men away from what it really is.

Maybe this isn't intentional. As I said, these things can build up slowly. And what

Jesus says, beware, it gives us time to just sort of put on the brakes, do a little self -examination.

The consequences for us couldn't be more extreme. He says, you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. It tells us that there is a reward to acts of righteousness that are done with the right spirit, that such a spirit, even if it's imperfect, as it must be in our fallen nature as we live in this sin -cursed world, it must be imperfect.

But it does tell us from Jesus' own lips that there is a reward that can be had, that it is possible.

Throughout here, the issue at hand is the same as this entire

Sermon on the Mount. It's entrance into the kingdom of heaven. I mean, the fate of eternal souls, your soul, my soul, this is about salvation.

The hypocrites who make a show of their charity, and their praying, and their fastings are the ones who taught the other people the things that caused

Jesus to say, but you have heard. And what did they heard? They had heard these false righteousnesses.

They had heard these ways to please me by watching your behavior, and then

I could pass judgment, say, well, this looks good, or this doesn't, you have it, or you don't, this sort of thing.

Jesus says people who are in that mode, in that frame of mind, they already have something.

They have their reward. When men adore them, pat them on the back, applaud, whatever it might be, what is

Jesus saying here? He's using a word that means you've been paid in full. It's almost a commercial sound to it. Yes, you give me the ticket,

I see the ticket, and here's what it's worth. You've got it, your reward, and now you're done. They've gotten what is due them.

Thank you for that prayer. It really stirred me up. I wish I could pray like you. I love the way you give so freely. Thank you for showing me what it means to really devote myself to God like you've done.

And that's it. Done. Paid in full. And what does Jesus say?

And this has to stop us in our tracks. We need to really take note of this. He says in that case, if your reward has been paid in full, you've gotten it from me because I was impressed with you.

You're done. There's no reward from God. No reward from the God of the universe.

And this makes sense because the reward has been received from those the whole show was intended for.

And that target audience is anyone but God. What is the reward from God?

Might it be the 10 talents added to what has already been entrusted to a faithful steward? I mean the context here

I think would lead us to a different kind of conclusion. Are there rewards in this life?

In God's providence there may be. I don't think we can make promises in that way. But the context here forces us to stay in the spiritual realm.

Jesus is contrasting the here and now reward that man can give with the reward that only your father in heaven can dispense.

Verse 20 of chapter 5 once more, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Heaven is the reward that's in play here. Salvation is what this whole sermon on the mount is about.

In the next portion chapter 6 verse 19, how does Jesus begin? He says do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.

Brethren it must be spiritual reward that God is talking about here. There's only one focus here.

It's heaven. It's salvation. It's eternal life. That is the reward. How is this done?

This is by faith. This is by faith. Faith that God does see. Faith that God does reward. Hebrews 11 6 and without faith it is impossible to please

God. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who would seek him.

So I ask us, do you believe that God sees? Does he know what you've done? Can we answer yes to that?

Then good. This is faith to know that God does in fact see. That God does in fact know.

That you don't have to show it to me. Now the gospel has much behavior that's required of us.

The gospel ends up with much things that we do because of the gospel. We're not going to set aside all activity because of this.

But for now do you believe that God sees in secret?

That if no one else knows what you did, whether it's pray a prayer in the privacy of your home, this person who is struggling, this one who is sick, and you're the only one who knows.

You don't even tell that person, I've been praying for you. I'm not saying you can't tell people that. Don't get me wrong here.

But if no one knew, it never came up in any conversation, are you satisfied that God heard you?

That God knows? The wicked man of Psalm 10 verse 11 says,

God has forgotten. He has hidden his face. He will never see it. He meant that God will not see his evil deeds, but it can apply just as well to whether he sees our good deeds.

Psalm 73 11 has them asking, how can God know? Is there knowledge in the most high? Well the church says yes to both.

God does know. There is knowledge in God the most high. Let's take this to charity if we can for a moment.

To this left hand right hand business. I mean what's the plain meaning? The plain meaning is that no one can know what you've done.

With charity that serves to protect the recipient's dignity, so that that's one reason for what the

Lord says. But it's also faith. Faith that God, the one whose glory we are living for, faith that he has seen.

When no one else knows, faith believes that God does. And this in and of itself has to be enough.

What's the hypocrite like? Well the hypocrite is like that cheap coffee table we bought a while back.

I mean it looked so good on the showroom floor. It had wheels so you could put it where you wanted to. The wood was shiny, nice dark cherry kind of color.

And it presented itself as a quality piece of furniture at a good price. But when we picked it up, you know

I found it was in a box. It was ready for assembly, which didn't worry me at the moment as much as it should have.

But it turned out that the wheels are wobbly and they're not well secured. Not because the way

I put them in there, the way it was designed. And that beautiful cherry kind of finish. Well I don't think it's any more quality than a piece of wood tape put on there.

What am I trying to say? That tape that has the wood design on it taped on there. And we get a chip and we found out that underneath that wasn't even wood.

It's just press board. That's what hypocrisy is like. That what's out is not what's in at all.

The table is a hypocrite. For some of us this moves in so subtly and so slowly.

I mean our prayers are to God. We believe that He is, that He hears, that He rewards. But the way of our prayer, its sound, its content has been molded by others and what we begin to think that they expect.

I just wonder if I or you, anyone had to move to another church and we went to that prayer meeting.

If after six months at another church's prayer meeting, I wonder what our prayers would sound like? Would we simply fit the mold of what's going on around us?

Fit a different style than what we learned here? Or are our prayers from our own heart, from our own spirit?

I don't bring this up to make us self -conscious about our prayers at all.

I only say that when you pray, you're praying in accordance with your own special gifting and patterns. We trust that when you pray, for example on Wednesday nights, when you join in prayer, that we who are praying along silently with you, we're hearing your unique address to our common

Savior. Others here have assimilated the language and behavior of the gospel, but only the language behavior.

And here for me as a pastor is a great burden that you've learned how to fit in.

You've learned how to get along. You've picked up some words like the eschatological inauguration of the kingdom, something like that, which

I don't think I've ever actually said that from here. I hope not. I made that up right now on the spot.

But you see what I'm saying? You just learned the culture here. How we dress, how we pray, how we talk, the way we deal with each other, and you've kind of put it on as a costume.

Not intentionally, not with an evil wicked heart desiring to deceive us. I don't know what you'd deceive us for.

We have very little to give here. We're just a small church trying to live by the gospel. But you get my point.

You've just kind of gone along with us. Enjoy fitting in. Enjoy being part of a group.

Some of you have a Christianity that is really based solely on imitating what others do.

You've convinced yourself that if I do what she did, if I pray like he prays, if I'm here with the rest of them, if I use these or those words, even if I have no idea what they actually mean, but if I do these things,

I'll be accepted. I'll fit in. And it goes no further. The gospel becomes just an act. An act in the hypocritical sense that Jesus is speaking of here.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be seen by them. A friend, if that is you,

I would plead with you to look carefully at your heart. You can fool me.

I've been fooled more than once by people who said they believe in Jesus and then they leave and say, well, you know,

I never really did. It was all kind of an act. Well, I looked carefully at myself and said, no,

I don't buy it. But I, with many others, believe them. It's happened to us more than once in this place.

You can't fool me. And the danger of hypocrisy is you can even fool yourself.

If you pray right, if you give freely, if your piety seems right, if you do all this and you claim Jesus, well,

I'm pretty sure I'll believe you. But you know, if truly, in the final analysis, if that is the reward that you're looking for, you've got it.

What did Jesus say? You have your reward now. Paid in full. God owes you no other.

Well, God owes you nothing. But you take my point. God commits himself to none other.

If I'm the one you want to impress, I am duly impressed. And many of us here can say that, because as I said, we've been fooled before.

But you've got your reward and it's here. It's now. It's done. I beg you not to be satisfied with so poor a reward.

Your satisfaction is only here and now in this life, though probably for not very much of this life, just a few hours maybe.

There's a far greater reward. There's an infinite reward. There's a reward won not by you.

A reward that you cannot gain no matter how wonderful you are on the outside, no matter how eloquent your prayers, no matter how huge you're giving.

It's the reward of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Christ's righteousness imputed, given to you.

An infinite reward. I'm speaking of Jesus Christ here.

I'm asking you, as you come here and you worship with us and you pray with us and you put money in the offering box to support this ministry, is it for Jesus Christ?

Is it for God's glory? I ask you to look at yourself carefully because by grace you've been saved, not of works.

It is the gift of God. You're here.

Have you truly repented of your sins? You are here. Is your faith really in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross?

I just plead with you. Look to yourselves and ask yourself if you just assimilated a culture, a language.

Maybe you watch me and you imitate me the way people would imitate the Pharisees and say, if I do like this then

I'll be okay with God and it just ain't so. It just ain't so.

Repent of your sins. Believe the gospel. Repent of your hypocrisy. Repent of having only pretended to believe.

Pray to God for the gift of faith and believe that he, Jesus Christ, died for your sins.

Pray to God in the quiet of your own heart. Speak no words to men that might make you self -conscious, that might make you bend again towards trying to please me or impress me or anyone else.

I just ask you to take Jesus' words at the utmost severity and seriousness. Beware of this and stop now even this moment in the quietness of your heart and ask

God, have I played the hypocrite? Have I only pretended to believe because I like hanging out here? I like being accepted.

It's a powerful force. It can make us do the darndest things. What does

Paul say in Ephesians chapter 1? He says, you are accepted by God in the beloved.

You don't have to fight for my acceptance. You certainly don't have to work for God's. Jesus Christ did the work on the cross.

The Spirit gives you faith to believe. When you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins on the cross, then

God imputes to you the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So when he sees you, he sees you with that quality righteousness, not your own, not my own, because that's not good enough.

Jesus Christ's imputed to you if by faith you will believe.

Righteousness of God says Romans 3 .22. Through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Romans 5 .17 speaks of the free gift of righteousness. Two problems with the hypocrisy of self -made righteousness.

The first is, it's no good. It is sub -kingdom.

You will not enter the kingdom of heaven with that kind of righteousness. And the other is, it could be so almost self -affirming.

You can fool ourselves, you can fool the rest of us, and therefore think, I truly do have that righteousness, but all you have is an act.

And know it or not, it's a hypocritical act. What we're after is this righteousness that is fit for the kingdom.

Hypocrisy being the exact opposite of it. The righteousness Jesus says to seek first is yours by faith if you will repent and seek his forgiveness.

If you will believe that according to his gospel, your sins, even sin of hypocrisy, are forgiven.

So I ask you, I ask all of us, look deep within.

Not just praying and looking at your inner child. I ask you to pray to God and ask him by his spirit to expose to you, to all of us, where we've fallen into this trap.

And peel away the layers. Take off the mask. Trust us to love you as much as you wish to be loved in this place.

Because the reason we love each other, we didn't even know each other before we walked in these doors, did we?

Whenever you came here, however many years it's been. Because the love of Jesus Christ that binds us together.

And as you're found in him, your acceptance here is because you're accepted by God because of faith in him, in Jesus Christ.

Amen. Heavenly Father, we do thank you again for the day that you've given us time together in your word.

And Lord, I pray that you would, by your spirit, work in each of us to show us where we have erred in this way.

Father, to just peel away all the layers that have built up over time. To be who we are, but not just what we are in the natural man, but who we are in the way that you have made us, the new man created by God in true righteousness and holiness.

I pray, Father, especially for those who fool themselves into believing they are saved, that they are in Jesus Christ, but that by a false righteousness, one that's been put on for us.

I ask, Father, that you would expose that. And Lord, that you would grant repentance and bring true and eternal salvation to that soul.