Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy

Thus Saith Our Lord
Ye call Me Master and obey Me not,
Ye call Me Light and see Me not,
Ye call Me Way and walk Me not,
Ye call Me Life and desire Me not,
Ye call Me wise and follow Me not,
Ye call Me fair and love Me not,
Ye call Me rich and ask Me not,
Ye call Me eternal and seek Me not,
Ye call Me gracious and trust Me not,
Ye call Me noble and serve Me not,
Ye call Me just and fear Me not,
If I condemn you, blame Me not.

We Are Social Hypocrites
The famous Robert Redford was walking one day through a hotel lobby. A woman saw him and followed him to the elevator. "Are you the real Robert Redford?" she asked him with great excitement. As the doors of the elevator closed, he replied, "Only when I am alone!"

Front Yard Christians
A small boy had a little wagon that was a new possession and the delight of his heart, but when he brought it out to the front walk one morning he was told that he must play with it at the back of the house. "This is Sunday," added the father by way of explanation. The boy obeyed, but he questioned wonderingly as he trudged away, "Isn't it Sunday in the backyard, too?" A Soldier's Wish
By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact, but I am prouder to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father never destroys. The one has the potentialities of death; the other embodies creation and life. And, while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle, but in the home, repeating with him our simple daily prayer, "Our Father Who art in Heaven...."
-General Douglas MacArthur

Hypocritical Excuse
The man who says he is kept away from religion by hypocrites is not influenced by them anywhere else. Business is full of them, but if he sees a chance at making money he does not stop for that.
Society is crowded with them, and yet he never thinks of becoming a hermit.
Married life is full of them, but that does not make him remain a bachelor.
Hell is full of them, and yet he does not do a thing to keep himself from going there.
He wants to have you think that he is trying to avoid the society of hypocrites, and yet he takes not a single step toward heaven, the only place where no hypocrites can go!

Acting Saved
An interesting phenomenon is occurring in our society. There is a high interest in salvation but a low interest in Christian living.
Recent studies show that church attendance on any given Sunday morning across this great land is at an all time high. There are more men, women, and children filling church pews on Sundays than at any time in our history.
However, the same studies show that moral standards are at an all time low. Some of these same church-goers are divorcing mates, aborting babies, cheating on spouses, drinking liquor, gambling paychecks, and abusing children at an unbelievably high rate.
What's the problem here?
In a recent class, the teacher may have given us a good hint as to what is happening.
He stated, "More people today want to 'Get Saved,'than want to 'Act Saved.'" He referred to this conflict as "Justification versus Sanctification." A Critical Eye
A certain hog farm er refused to have anything to do with the church because all he ever saw was a bunch of hypocrites who belonged to it. He always named two or three.
One day the pastor of the church came by to buy a hog from him. After looking over the farmer's entire swine herd, the pastor pointed to a scrawny, sickly, ugly little runt and said, "I want that one."
The farmer remonstrated vigorously, "Why, Preacher, you don't want that one. He's the scrawniest runt I ever saw. Look, here are some fine hogs over here." "That's all right," said the preacher, "I want that one."
After the purchase was completed, the pastor said, "Now I am going to haul this pig all over the country and tell everyone that this is the kind of hog you raise!"
"Hey, Preacher, that's not fair," the farmer protested. "I raise fine hogs. An occasional runt doesn't ruin my whole stock."
"I am only following your example of condemning a whole church because of the stunted spirituality of a few of its members," explained the pastor. The farmer got the point!

Deceptive Packaging
Through its laws, our country declares it a crime to lie about the contents in a box of cereal. These laws demand that the outside of the package tell the truth about what is on the inside. Deceptive packaging is illegal. "Truth in advertising" regulations are another way to protect the public. A good example of this is the warning on a pack of cigarettes: "Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy."
Unfortunately, there are no such laws about people. We require no one to tell what really lies behind the packaging-the clothes, facial expressions, mannerisms, speech patterns, or affected behavior. No one is forced to tell you what he or she is really feeling, thinking, or planning to do.
Our deceptive packaging-the way we appear to others-is an accepted, even an expected part of our way of life. We have become experts in this type of trickery. Before we are going to get the help we need, we need to confess this sin of hypocrisy. Only then can we go on the path of discovering and knowing our real selves.

Strange People
People who talk about prayer but never pray.
People who say tithing is right but never tithe.
People who want to belong to the church but never attend.
People who say the Bible is God's Word to man but never read it.

Thou Art the Man
Some years ago in Chicago, after a traffic accident, a policeman awakened parents to report the death of their only daughter. He indicated that an empty bottle of liquor was found in the wrecked car. When the father heard this, he went into a rage and said, "When I find the man who sold liquor to these kids, I'll kill him." Later, upon seeking a bracer from his own liquor stocks he found a note in his daughter's handwriting which read, "Dad, we are taking along some of your good liquor. I know you won't mind." Compare this father's reaction to David's in 2 Samuel 12:1-7.

Know Your Destination
The town of Pisa, Italy, is famous, of course, for its leaning tower. Not so well known, but far more significant, is a painting on the wall of a cemetery there. The artist has depicted the last judgment, with Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Twelve Disciples, and a number of angels. In this painting, groups of people are coming out of their graves, some going to the right and others to the left of the scene. But there appears to be some confusion. Some who thought they belonged on the right and destined for heaven, are being shifted back to the left, destined for hell-and vice versa. What was the basis for their judgment? Christ said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). The Italian artist was inspired by his vivid imagination and the prophetic words of the 5th chapter of Matthew.

Test of Salvation
One of the best ways to test the genuineness of our salvation is to find out whether the old nature within us responds when it is called by an outside voice. A French woman was being sought by the police. As soon as she descended from the train, a policeman approached her and asked her who she was and from where she was coming. She gave him false information and started walking away. Then the voice of the policeman was heard behind her: "Rosine." That was her real name. She immediately turned. Are you responding to the hypocritical name of a Christian in church and in the world by your real name? The Bark on the Inside
A child was walking along a street when a large dog came out of a yard barking. She stood terrified. Soon a stranger came by and said to her, "Come on, little girl, the dog has stopped barking." "Yes," she said, "but the bark is still on the inside." She saw in the eyes of the dog an unfriendly spirit. The False Christian
"Look, Mommy, this potato is so big and nice, isn't it?" Then the mother peeled it and cut it in half. How surprised was the little girl when she saw it all black and hollow in the middle. "Oh, Mommy," she said, "this potato is not a real Christian, is it?"

Deceit
A woman, enlarging on her husband's inconsistencies, said, "At a theologically liberal meeting he's a liberal and at a conservative meeting he's a conservative." Someone asked, "What is he at home?" She replied with emphasis, "He's a real demon!" The Bat's Reward
Aesop, probably the most renowned writer of myths, speaks in one of his fables about a time when the beasts and the fowls were engaged in war. The bat tried to belong to both parties. When the birds were victorious, he would wing around telling everyone that he was a bird; when the beasts won a fight, he would walk around assuring everyone that he was a beast. Soon his hypocrisy was discovered, and he was rejected by both the beasts and the birds. He had to hide himself, and now he can appear openly, only by night. You cannot hold on to the world with one hand and to the Lord with the other. If you do, you will enjoy neither the world nor the Lord. A house divided against itself cannot stand, was the verdict of the Master (Mark 2:25). The Condemning Evidence
There was a very well-thought-of deacon who was a zealous advocate of the cause of temperance. One day he employed a carpenter to make some alterations in his living room. As the worker was tearing things down, he came upon a very nicely concealed closet. He was shocked when he saw a jug and tumblers in the hidden closet. The carpenter, with wonder-stricken countenance, ran to the proprietor with the announcement of the discovery. As soon as the deacon heard of it, he said, "H'm! Well, I declare, that is curious. Sure enough, it must be that Captain Brown left those things here when he occupied the premises thirty years ago." "Ah, perhaps he did," answered the carpenter; "but say, deacon, that ice in the pitcher must have been well frozen to have remained solid all this time."

Sour and Sweet Apples
Spurgeon used to illustrate hypocrisy with the following story: An American gentleman said to a friend, "I wish you would come down to my garden and taste my apples." He asked him about a dozen times, but the friend did not come. At last the fruit grower said, "I suppose you think my apples are good for nothing, so you won't come and try them." "Well, to tell the truth," said his friend, "I have tasted them. As I went along the road I picked one up that fell over the wall, and I never tasted anything so sour in all my life. I do not particularly wish to have any more of your fruit." "Oh," said the owner of the garden, "I thought that would happen. Those apples around the outside are for the special benefit of the boys. I selected the sourest kinds to plant all around the orchard so the boys might give them up as not worth stealing. If you will come inside, you will find that we grow a different quality there, sweet as honey."

Violating the Gospel
We are so eager to defend the cause of Christ that sometimes in our defense of it we violate the very gospel we defend. We are like the man who wrote a famous tract entitled, Come to Jesus. Soon after the writing of that tract, which was mightily used of God, he engaged in a theological dispute in which he wrote to an opponent's publication an invective article bristling with sarcasm, and sharp and cutting as a razor. Reading it to a friend, he asked, "What do you think of it?" "It is a masterpiece of invectiveness," was the reply. "You fairly flay him alive. What have you decided to call it?" "I have not thought of a title. Can you suggest one?" "Well," said his friend, "how about calling it, Go to the Devil, by the author of Come to Jesus?"