Hypocrisy and Repentance

Well, church, if you could turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 11, we're going to be examining verses 45 to 54.

When you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's word. Again, the main chapter and text this morning is

Luke chapter 11 and verse 45. Here he is this afternoon, the word of the

Lord. One of the lawyers answered him, teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also.

He said, woe to you, lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burden with one of your fingers.

Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your father for they killed them and you build their tombs.

Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood

Zechariah who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves and you hinder those who were entering.

As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say.

This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated. Think for a moment of one of the greatest insults that can be levied against a person.

If you're ever in the heat of an argument, maybe with a spouse, friend, family member or an opponent, one of the worst things you can hear said against you and against your character are these words, you are a hypocrite.

That just hurts, doesn't it? It stings when an attack like that is levied against us.

Those are one of the most stinging insults a person can get, why? Because it attacks the very center of the self, the very heart, preconceived notion of who you are as a person.

It says you are not consistent with what you say and do, therefore you are a hypocrite.

Friends, I've got admission, I am a hypocrite.

Church, you would do well to reflect on your walk and your life that you too might be found this morning to be a hypocrite.

If you have ever uttered a word, believed a doctrine in your heart and have acted against such things, so your walk and your talk have not aligned and matched, you are to some degree a hypocrite.

The Lord Jesus, when calling out the Pharisees in his day, he levies this accusation against them.

When he says, and we see in verse 45, it says, when the lawyers answered him, so as Jesus was preaching the gospel and he began to pronounce woes against the

Pharisees for their neglect of justice, for their neglect of the love of God, and he goes on to say that the lawyers answered back saying, teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also.

Consider for a moment what the world thinks of when they hear about Jesus. They envision for themselves maybe some type of progressive leader, some type of maybe hippie revolutionary who is all about love and peace, you know, typically the world maybe thinks of Jesus sometimes as some kind of 1960s or 70s revolutionary, where it's all about love, peace, it's all about tranquility, it's all about getting along.

But Jesus here insults a people, not in a negative way of charging something false against them, but by bringing out a reality about the individuals with whom he was contending.

And so the lawyers levied this attack on Jesus saying, teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also.

But how does Jesus respond? And he says this in verse 46, woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

So you're following in the notes today for this afternoon. You were given an insert this morning.

The Pharisees were insulted at Jesus' rebuke. They were insulted.

The Lord again exposes, however, their double standards and hypocrisy.

Again, do you recall your first interaction with an event or person where you experienced hypocrisy from someone you loved and trusted?

Sometimes hard things have been said, but Jesus didn't shrink back from rebuking the

Pharisees and exposing their hypocrisy. Likely, Jesus had in mind what the Proverbs says in Proverbs 27 .5,

where it says, better is an open rebuke than hidden love. Certainly, one of the marks of mature spiritual leadership is being able to cut through the tent of calling such ones to repentance.

And yet, Jesus was not known to mince words.

He was direct, yet loving. He was firm, yet gentle.

He was authoritative, but also humble. This Jesus was unique among all men ever to be born.

Now, the reality is that we all struggle here in this room with a spirit of hypocrisy.

A hypocrite is usually defined as a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion.

It also can mean this, a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.

If you've ever acted against your beliefs, you are a hypocrite. Which means we are all in trouble.

Some worse off than others, but the question I want to relay to us this afternoon is, is there hope for the hypocrite?

Is there hope for those whose walk doesn't always match their talk? Hopefully, as we conclude with this message, we will find the answer to be a resounding yes, but it comes with a warning.

There is hope for the hypocrite, but there is also a woe to those who act against their stated beliefs and convictions.

Specifically, in this text before us this afternoon, the Lord Jesus is dealing with, however, a stiff neck religious elite, and that has misrepresented

God to an entire people group, namely the Jewish people. And as a result of their hypocritical doctrine, they are storing up wrath for themselves and those who they are misleading.

Notice what it goes on to say in verse 47. Jesus says this again. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.

So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your father for they killed them and you build their tombs.

So I want you to write this in the notes. The Pharisees presented themselves as spiritual. The Pharisees were a class of religious leaders who were counted among the zealots, those who were students of the law, who were to be the keepers of the law, to bring forth the doctrine of Moses to the people of God.

And yet, they began layer by layer, brick by brick, building a facade of religiosity, building a decadence of godly appearance, and yet proving false to its power.

The Pharisees presented themselves as spiritual, but had the same wicked spirit that led to the deaths of the prophets.

I want you to write that in there as well. You see, being outwardly righteous and pious is not enough.

Inwardly, the Pharisees had the same spirit as their ancestors who stoned the prophets and rejected the oracles of God.

Now today, in this day and age, we have something that we contend with a little bit differently.

We have, of course, the religious elites that are in the establishments. I think of Roman Catholicism, for instance, and others, high lofty groups that carry themselves around with this aura of religiosity.

But we also have another group in society that are not religious, but instead they brand themselves as spiritual.

And so today, if you're walking in the streets of the Bay Area, you'll likely find someone who's not religious, but they'll say that they're spiritual.

There's a lot of people in the culture today that believe that they are spiritual, forgetting that the demons are also spiritual.

And they use their spirituality as a cover -up to live and do as they please.

You talk to the average person in the world, the average pagan, they say, Well, I'm spiritual. I'm just trying to figure things out.

I'm just going through the world. I'm just learning and growing. And they use all these interesting words and monikers, but truly have no meaning.

Their fleeting emotions have become their God. And these are the same individuals that when confronted with biblical truth about the gospel and about holiness, pick up their pitchforks to attack

Christianity and denounce it as a bigotry. Spirituality, apart from the truth of Jesus Christ, is demonic.

It is the same spirit that was in operation with even the Pharisees, who again carried themselves with a certain amount of piety, and yet had a rebellious spirit, the same spirit that led to the deaths of the prophets before Jesus.

And so, we see this spirit at work today, even. The same spirit that led to the stoning of prophets, the same spirit that we see at work today, according to Ephesians 2 .1,

the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. You see, our

Christian love must be free from hypocrisy. Therefore, we must all be even all the more careful not to foster an environment of gossip or a critical spirit of slander in God's church, because there's a severe judgment which is reserved for those who walk in that spirit in the house of the

Lord. And so, we must be aware not to attach ourselves to the same spirit that the

Pharisees walked around slandering Jesus with, as they could not see past their own faults and burdens.

Jesus rightly calls them out and rebukes them. He says in verse 49, where therefore also the wisdom of God said,

I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute.

Know this, beloved, following Jesus doesn't always come with immediate benefits or physical blessing.

Instead, part of being a follower of Jesus may mean that you will be persecuted, that you will be hated for the message and the one for whom you represent, the

Lord Jesus Christ. And particularly in this area of the world, very liberal space in which supposedly the world celebrates diversity of thought, but when confronted with the exclusivity of the doctrine of Christ, the world isn't a fan of it.

And so, you will be judged. You will be misaligned. You will be called bigots.

You will be hated and persecuted by those of this world, by the new

Pharisee class that exists in the culture today. But have hope and have faith in this, that Jesus is

God's wisdom, which is at work in us today. I want you to write this in a note. God's wisdom, who sent prophets and apostles to preach repentance and received persecution from His people

Israel. You see, Jesus is the key to living a life that pleases

God. In the spirit of what we are reading and learning today,

I think it would be appropriate to highlight how gracious a God and Father is.

You see, our Father is good. It's impossible for Him to be hypocritical.

That is to act against His will or word. And our Father is so good that He loves us even when we ourselves have been hypocrites.

Offers us forgiveness and the gift of repentance and the opportunity to turn from our sin, turn from self -righteousness, and to trust in the perfect righteousness and merit of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is that perfect wisdom from God, coming down from the Father full of grace and truth. He's the power and the wisdom of God according to the word in 1

Corinthians 1, verse 24. He is that perfect wisdom from God. And in His sovereign foresight,

He sent for prophets and apostles to preach repentance onto the people of God in Israel.

Yet, ancient Israel failed to receive that good news, beloved.

You too, beloved Christian, do not fall into the same snare. For yet though we believe in our election, in the certainty of our salvation by means of Jesus Christ, we also must not be foolish in thinking that we can't fall into the same snares that befell

God's ancient people. God dealt swiftly with His people in ancient times.

I'm also reading through, my personal reading through the book of Jeremiah. What's interesting is that the first 12 chapters is just edict after edict of judgment upon God's people.

God's people just being judged harshly. And Yahweh doesn't hold back. He calls out

His people as a prostitute and says that my people have committed a horror of sins.

And He says in chapter two of Jeremiah, He says, be appalled, O heavens, be appalled, all you host.

For my people have committed a double sin. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they have made for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot contain the water.

So great was the fall of Israel and their apostasy and their rejection of the

Lord of hosts that He calls judgment upon them. Now, this judgment of which the prophets spoke of is now culminating in the life and ministry of Jesus.

Jesus is that final prophet of God's people who is coming and He is warning and He is calling out the religious leaders of His day and say, woe to you, just as the prophets before Him also pronounced woes against the ancient leaders of Israel.

And Jesus is now proclaiming judgment upon the covenant breakers. He's calling them to repentance and He's calling the nations to be ready for the infiltration of God's kingdom into the world.

And yet, how does God's ancient people respond? How do the

Pharisees respond? By receiving this woe, by receiving this judgment, because in the first 12 chapters of Jeremiah, God is also pronouncing woes upon His people, but then

He gives them a chance. He says, but if you would return to Me, if you would humble yourself, then there would be hope for you covenant breakers, there would be hope for your apostasy, there would be hope for your adultery, there would be hope for your backsliding.

Yet, as Jesus pronounces this same judgment upon ancient and now the first century

Jews, they too do not heed the warning that He is giving, even though He is

Himself the wisdom of God. And He sent them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute.

But it's for this purpose in verse 50, it says this, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation.

From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

Fascinating text of Scripture here. I want you to write this in the notes. God will require vengeance for the blood spilled by Israel.

If you remember in the early stories of the book of Genesis, the first murder that takes place,

Cain and Abel. Now it says in Scripture that His blood called to Yahweh.

The blood of the innocent was calling, crying out to the God of heaven. Israel's judgment was upon her as Jesus was proclaiming this word.

Letting them know that the blood of all the righteous prophets that was sent beforehand was crying even from the ground.

And that their cries were being heard by the sovereign Lord of history and He would respond with their ultimate demise and destruction of the covenant breakers.

You see, it would fall on that generation.

The question is often brought up when we read the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24 and Luke chapter 21 about what generation is

Jesus speaking of when He's pronouncing all these judgments and this glorious appearance of His judgment coming in those chapters of text of Scripture.

And I think it's pretty clear. If you were listening to Jesus pronounce these woes, if you were listening to Jesus declare emphatically that this generation would face judgment, you wouldn't be thinking to yourself boy, those guys in 2024 had it real bad.

Man, those guys out in the future, they're the ones that are going to be in trouble. No, beloved. He was talking to that generation, to the people to whom

He was speaking, to the religious leaders, the zealots, the Pharisees, the hypocrites. That's who He was addressing.

And He says that upon them would fall all the righteous blood and that this generation would be held accountable in their rejection, not only of the prophets who came before Jesus but also of the very blood of Jesus Himself.

Remember when Jesus was put on trial and what does the Jewish crowds begin to cry as they plead

Jesus' case and then they have another man there who's a criminal and they say, let His blood be upon us, pronouncing a curse upon themselves.

And so God again would require vengeance for the blood spilled by Israel and it would indeed fall on that generation.

So what is the final result of a people who embrace hypocrisy? It's judgment and calamity.

Jesus time and time again foretells and prophesies the looming destruction of Jerusalem which was literally fulfilled in a three and a half year siege of Jerusalem by the

Romans, culminating in the city's destruction in the year 70 AD. Certainly upon that generation had to give an account for the sins committed.

And upon that generation would fall all the righteous blood of the prophets. So there's a lesson for us to learn and it's this, hypocrisy kills.

Hypocrisy kills. The hypocrisy of the religious zealots was of no good or avail on that great day of judgment.

In fact, if you read the historical facts of the invasion of the

Romans upon Jerusalem in the year 70 AD, the Jews were choked out in the stronghold of the city and systematically were being pushed, pushed, pushed into the city when the

Romans sieged it and came in. And all the religious leaders, you know where they could be found? On the temple.

And they were all gathered on the temple mount. And they were waiting for Yahweh to come save them.

And it reminds me of a prophecy both in Jeremiah and Isaiah that the religious leaders would cry out, safety, safety, but there would be no safety.

It would result in their destruction. And today we have those who also claim such things.

That there is safety, safety, that there'll be the judgment that will be due to this generation.

Well, don't worry because we'll be out of here. We'll be raptured. We won't have to see it. We won't have to live through it.

We won't have to go through anything. Those people foolishly, like the ancient

Pharisees, preached a doctrine of safety, safety without seeing the calamity that is coming upon the world.

And so beware of hypocrisy. Because hypocrisy kills. In Luke chapter 11, verse 52 to 54,

Jesus says this. Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

And you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering. As you went away from there, the scribes and the

Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things. Lying in wait for him to catch him in something that he might say.

You see, I want you to write this in notes. The religious zealots kept knowledge to themselves, hindering others from coming to the truth.

Part of the scourge of hypocrisy is the withholding of information, the withholding of knowledge.

Friends, we must have a knowledge that is based upon the word of God. God's word is the antidote to our fallen condition.

It's the antidote to our hypocrisy. It's the answer that we all need to seek after.

Because there will be a day in which God will judge the world in righteousness. And on that day, may you not be found to be among the religious zealots or the hypocrites, but instead, that you would be one who out of sincerity served the

Lord with a clear conscience. May you know and receive this word and this warning.

God has, will and has called us to account. And on that day, you will either plea your case, or you will have one who will plead the case.

And that would be the Lord Jesus Christ, who by His grace and by His perfect obedience, was able to offer

Himself up to God as a perfect ransom for all of our sins. And that if we put our faith and trust in Him, though we might err, though we may backslide, though we may be hypocrites, there's hope for the hypocrite.

There's hope for the backslider. There's hope for the sinner. And there's hope for all those who would call on the name of the

Lord. See, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, when God pronounces judgment, He always does so with the hope that the people of God would repent and turn and trust.

And that invitation is always given in the Old Testament. Repent, turn, believe.

And the same is true in the New Testament. God calls us all to believe, to trust in Him, to turn from our wicked ways so that we may have life.

And this is the means by which God has given us eternal life. By means of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

All of us who trust in Jesus finish work and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead.

The Bible says, Thou shalt be saved. That you can be saved. You will be saved.

If you confess the Lordship of the resurrected Jesus. So then, there is indeed hope for the hypocrite.

There is indeed hope for you and I. Because that hope has been secured by the blood of Jesus and His glorious resurrection from the dead.

I want to close with just a quick vision of the future. So that if you're struggling today, know that there's hope.

Even for you, should you find yourself this morning to be a hypocrite. And that hope will be found in Isaiah chapter 11.

Isaiah the 11th chapter, verse 6.

Notice the hope for the future. That the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.

The leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion and the fattened calf together.

The little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. Their young shall lie down together.

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra.

And the weaned child shall put his hands in the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. As the water cover the sea.

Through Jesus, the whole world will one day be filled with the knowledge of Yahweh.

Where we will have peace forevermore. And soon there will be a world rid of hypocrisy.

Of sin. A world no longer subject to the weaknesses of the flesh and double mindedness.

But instead, unlike the superficial legalistic knowledge of the Pharisees. The true knowledge of the

Lord can and will lead us to true repentance. And a life free of hypocrisy.

Why? Because the gospel is the solution to hypocrisy. Where even the biggest hypocrites can be made right with God.

And have peace with their creator through Jesus Christ. May you know and receive this peace today. Let's pray.

Gracious Father in heaven. We come before you recognizing our shortcoming.

Recognizing that we are indeed at times a people that resemble

Israel more than we ought to. When we consider the ancient people of God and how they erred and how they sinned.

And how their walk didn't match their talk. Lord, that's us sometimes.

Lord, help us not to be stiff necked as they were.

Hard hearted as they were. And thick headed where they could not see their faults.

And instead stored up even more wrath for themselves. Lord, help us to recognize our shortcomings this afternoon.

As we come before you collectively in prayer this afternoon. We recognize Lord that indeed we need a savior.

Indeed we need a deliverer to deliver us from ourselves. To deliver us from the wrath that is to come.

Incurred by our sins. And your perfect justice. And so Lord we ask that in your mercy and your kindness.

And your forbearance looking to the promises of Christ. And what he has fulfilled in the redemption of his people.

We ask Lord that you would be merciful on us sinners. And we pray

Lord that you would grant us the gift of thy spirit. To lead us on level ground. Neither to go to the left or to the right.

But Lord that we would be on that good old path. That path that leads to eternal life. We pray