This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your Bibles, we're in Luke's Gospel, Chapter 12. Luke, Chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, picking up in verse one, this is the reading of God's word. In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light. And what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. This is the reading of God's word. I call this sermon hypocrisy, in the last day. And with a title like that, you just have to know this is not going to be an easy sermon for us. I just don't think it can be. I tell you that on the front side so I can just sort of show you my cards and I say, bear with me, brothers and sisters, bear with me, friends and guests. It's not easy when we have to turn the mirror on ourselves. Where Jesus begins is he begins in this context when he is beginning to gain in popularity, gain in reputation, and people want to come out and see him. And we hear that thousands of people had gathered. Thousands of people, so many people that they're trampling upon each other, but in this moment of chaos, Our Savior sort of huddles up the disciples and he has a message for them first. He begins with a warning and a warning in no uncertain terms. He says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Now to make sure we're all on the same page, we start with a definition. What does it mean to be a hypocrite? What is hypocrisy? I think we tend to know it when we see it, don't we? It's that person who wants to look a certain way without being a certain way. For a more formal definition, it's creating a public impression that is at odds with one's real purposes, with one's real motivations. You might just say, simply, it is pretending. It is the person who is perpetually pretending. And Jesus is warning his disciples about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Now, we've spent some good time in the past weeks on Pharisees, and we've spent some good time on lawyers, the lawyers of those times, not the lawyers of our times, necessarily. And something to remember is that the Pharisees were not ignorant of truth. This wasn't someone where they would have said, I had no idea that the Bible said something like that. And the Pharisees weren't people who had just, you know, made a few mistakes. We should give them a break. They just made a mistake. Nobody's perfect. No. These Pharisees were truly hypocrites. And Jesus warns his disciples that their hypocrisy is like leaven. Now people use leaven to cause bread dough to rise. So the way of it back then, you save a chunk of dough from the day before and then you mix that into the new bread dough and then slowly but surely the leaven pervades the whole lump of dough and the bread will rise. What Jesus wants us to see, what Jesus is pointing out for his disciples is not just the sin of hypocrisy, he is pointing out the effect that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees would have on other people. He's warning that their hypocrisy will influence people like leaven pervades bread dough. It will creep, it will spread, and it will corrupt wherever that hypocrisy is found. Now we get into this a little bit and we say, what would it have looked like for the hypocrisy of the Pharisees to spread? What would that have concretely looked like in people's lives? How would it have actually influenced other people? See, Jesus goes quickly over this thought, but this is a thought that could really be unpacked a lot. And there's some basic things that you just know would happen with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. You start out and people would have imitated how the Pharisees lived, wouldn't they? People would have imitated how the Pharisees lived. The Pharisees were a respected group. They were an influential group. There would have been many people who thought that the height of godliness was being a Pharisee. And so if you, you're just the ordinary Joe on the street, if you want to be godly, well then you should act like a Pharisee. You should imitate how the Pharisees live. Now, not too long ago, one of the things Jesus condemned about the Pharisees was how obsessed they were with matters of external purity. They had all these rituals, they had all these traditions, and it was all sort of this big idea of how to keep oneself pure. And as they were obsessing with these externals and just figuring them out to the smallest details, they were utterly ignoring the state of their hearts. They had gotten the whole thing backwards. by focusing on what they focused on and by ignoring what they had ignored. Jesus, he made it clear just some verses ago, he made it clear they should have started with their hearts. They should have started with their hearts. But because they didn't, they had gone astray. And because they had gone astray, anyone who had imitated them, what would happen to them? They would go astray. If you've got bad leaders, you're gonna end up in bad places. And so what happens when you imitate someone with backwards priorities? You start learning those priorities. And so if they're really concerned with looking good, you may not even think about it, but then suddenly you are really concerned with looking good. On the flip side, if they're not all that concerned with being godly, guess what? If you're imitating them, then you're not all that concerned with being godly. And so one person at a time, people would have started to become like little Pharisees. Just like their role models, they would eventually be able to say, purity is everything, but don't worry all that much about your heart. Worry that you've got it together on the outside. Worry about the rituals, worry about the traditions, but your heart, don't worry about it. And as people imitated those Pharisees, their hypocrisy then would be leavening the whole community. Their hypocrisy would also encourage people to outright sin. to flagrantly, blatantly sin. What Jesus condemned in those Pharisees just verses ago, he made a specific point. He condemned them for the greed and the wickedness that filled their hearts, right? They look so good on the outside, but inside their hearts were full of greed and wickedness. And so what you see is that their sinful influence is not the only problem. It's not just their backwards priorities. Their sinful influence turns out to be more than priorities. Their sinful influence is a public sinful lifestyle. The so-called righteous people were actually greedy and wicked. And people knew it. And people knew it. So what you can imagine is you've got, again, that ordinary person on the street, just trying to follow God. And one day they commit some kind of sin like this, and they're feeling guilty for it. They're feeling guilty about what they just did. Maybe they had just been greedy in a business deal. Maybe something they said, maybe something they had done totally qualified as pure wickedness. But then they look at the respected leaders of the community and they say, well, the Pharisees do stuff like this all the time. So I guess it's not that big a deal. I guess it's not that big a deal. What a disaster when your role models make you think that it is okay to sin. Role models, they're supposed to be the people that remind you how to live well. They're supposed to be the reminder of what godliness looks like in real life. And these Pharisees had done the exact opposite. They had given people one more reason to sin. When we are tempted by any kind of sin, the last thing, the last thing we need is a so-called role model who makes us think it's okay. These Pharisees would teach people to live like them and they would teach people to sin like them. And so Jesus warns his disciples, beware their hypocrisy. Don't let it influence you. Don't let it drag you down. Don't let it lead you. Don't let it teach you. Don't let it corrupt you. And there's sort of that background, thousands of people, and there has to be some sort of sense too of, Don't let it corrupt the people of God. 2,000 years later, we still need to do justice to this warning. Because the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is alive and well. And it's not alive and well out there. It's alive and well in me. And it's probably alive and well in you. See, the truth is that pretty much any Christian can be nailed for some level of hypocrisy. Because it's a regular thing for us that what we say is different than how we live. We can stand up and zealously proclaim before God and witnesses the truth of God and then step down and start living our lives and totally undercut whatever it was we had just said. And this is the part where it gets a bit painful because we got to do some concrete examples here. Give me an amen if you agree with the following. Nothing is more important to me than being a Christian. That was a trap. I just had to warn you. A room full of Christians, of course we amen that. Nothing is more important to me than being a Christian. Can anyone else tell? Who else can tell? Who else can tell that being a Christian is the most important thing in your life? If I got to sit down with your coworkers and I said, what is the most important thing to Jack? What's the most important thing to Sally? Would they say it's being a Christian? What if I interviewed your family? Would even your family declare that the most important thing to you is being a Christian? Could someone tell? Let's say they had your life's schedule right there in front of them. Could someone tell that the Lord is all important to you by the way you spend your time? Surely your schedule will show forward the purity of your faith, zeal of your faith, right? Will they notice all that time you're spending in prayer? How you were just longing to be in that sweet fellowship of prayer with your God? Will they notice that you just can't help yourself? are always reading about God, always desiring to know more about Him, to know how you can follow Him more truly. Will they notice that just what fills your life and your mouth are just praises for the Lord, praises for that most important person in your life? Okay, okay, maybe this is just all externals. This isn't fair. It's about the heart, right? Judge me based on my heart. Okay, let's talk about the heart. Does your heart just completely belong to God? Are you sold out? You're just all in for the Lord. Is the Lord always on your mind? You go through your whole day just thinking, I wonder what the Lord thinks of that. Does the Lord delight you? Is He just this source of almost intoxicating goodness and you cannot get enough? Is the Lord your motivation every day? Do you wake up in the morning and think, I'm living for the Lord? Are you still thinking that by the time you tie your shoes for the day? Do you think that it worked? Do you think that with your family? Do you think that with your friends? By the end of the day, do you realize the last time you thought about the Lord was that one second when you thought about Him when you got out of bed? See, we would all like to say that following the Lord is our all-consuming purpose in life. But the truth is we forget about God. The painful truth is that even when we remember Him, we will choose other things and other people over Him. The heartbreaking truth, brothers and sisters, is that so often no one can tell we are Christians. The undeniable truth is that our time is not devoted to him. In fact, much of our so-called devotion to Christ is really just us trying to squeeze a little bit of God into our busy schedules. Our lives disagree with what we say we believe. We'll say things like everyone needs to hear about Jesus. But then we don't talk about him. We say people are going to hell without Jesus. But generally we just say that in rooms full of Christians hoping that someone else will go do something about it. We say things looking out at the culture like I cannot believe what society is doing to marriage. I cannot believe how they are treating God's holy gift of marriage. But then we dishonor the marriage God has given us. We gossip and criticize. We flirt. and fantasize, and we make a lifestyle of lusting for worldliness and immorality, it doesn't seem like we're all that concerned about God's holy gift of marriage after all. There is a word for people like us, hypocrite. Hypocrite. It turns out that it is our own hypocrisy that is leavening the church. It turns out the problem is not someone else, it is me. I am the one modeling backwards priorities. It turns out it's a whole of us. We are the ones obsessed with looking right on Sunday instead of actually dealing with the sins of our heart. We are the ones who would rather look holy than live holy. It turns out it's us. We are the ones modeling sin for each other and we do it in the way we talk and we do it in the way we act. And we teach people through this. We teach other people that their sin is not a very big deal because we're not all that concerned with our own. Jesus wants us to see not simply that hypocrisy is a sin, but he wants us to see that our hypocrisy is also hurting other people. Our hypocrisy is not just some white lie. Our hypocrisy is a danger. It's a danger to us and it is a danger to other people. On top of that, Jesus wants us to understand the futility of hypocrisy. That's where he's going with verses 2 and 3. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light. And what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. One of the temptations to hypocrisy is that we think there is a benefit to it. We think there is a benefit to being a hypocrite. One commentator called hypocrisy an act of temporarily advantageous deception. Note the emphasis on temporarily, because Jesus tells us of a coming certain day when all will be revealed. There will be no secrets on that last day. There will be nothing that can stay hidden. In other words, our temporary deception cannot be sustained. One day the darkest secrets will be trumpeted from the rooftops. the perfect judge of all creation. He is not fooled by your appearance. He is not fooled by the godly words that you have learned how to say, because he knows your heart. Your motives and your inner thoughts could not be any more obvious to him. And on that last day, there will be no hiding, not anymore. We may fool everyone in this life. We may fool everyone in this life for as many years as God has given us to live, but there is one that we cannot fool. And on that last day, it's actually only his opinion that matters. Jesus wants us to see that there is no benefit in hypocrisy. If you think that your hypocrisy is helping you, please believe Jesus. He says you're wrong. He says you're wrong. Hypocrisy is like hiding in a house of cards. And every act of hypocrisy, every lie and every deceit, it's like adding one more card on top of that wobbly house. On the day of judgment, the weight of all those secrets will come crashing down upon us. Why would you hide in a house that's doomed to collapse on you? Jesus wants you to see the certainty of that final day of judgment. Because if you believe him about the last day, then today you will live differently. Let no one leave here without hearing this. Hypocrisy is hopeless. Hypocrisy is hopeless. But just as important, hear this. There is hope for hypocrites. There is hope for hypocrites. Because, see, while some hypocrisy, it's hard-hearted and it's willful, you see, some hypocrisy is not. Some of you, I have no doubt, you weep over your hypocrisy. The guilt nags at you. It breaks your heart. that you are guilty of your hypocrisy. So the question is, why does a person like that continue in their hypocrisy? Often the answer is simply fear. It's fear. It's a fear of what other people will think if you stop pretending. It's a fear of what you will have to deal with if you finally face who you have become. But the Lord has something much better for you than the fear you are living in. Living for the opinions of people is slavery. Living simply for what other people think of you, it is slavery. But there is freedom in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died for hypocrites. See, Jesus knew exactly who he was dying for. and he was dying for the liars, and he was dying for the deceivers, and he was dying for the pretenders. If that's you locked away in this shadowy hiding spot, I want you to hear this. He knows who you are, and he knows your heart, and he knows it better than you do. And he still wants you. He still wants you. You don't need to pretend anymore. You don't. There is no blessing for being fake. And Christ sees right through it anyway. Step out of the shadows. and he'll bless you. Turn from your lies and he'll heal you. Let go of your chains and he will set you free. Until that very last day, there is still hope for hypocrites. That hope is Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, forgive us for being hypocrites. Forgive us that so regularly we talk a big talk, but our life does not look anything like what we talk about. Forgive us for the willful hypocrisy. Break our hearts over the ways we have purposefully put up these masks and these stories about ourselves. And forgive us the hypocrisy that flows from our fear, our fear of men. We've let our eyes drift away from you and all we see are the people around us. Forgive us for the idolatrous fear of man that has driven us to act like we act. Father, shine your truth on us. Convict us, encourage us, and may we be a people of truth. May each one of us be a person of the truth. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. 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