Beware of Hypocrisy
Matthew 6:1
I am excited to be back in our study of the Sermon on the Mount. I was thankful to have the time off and hear Bro. Jimmy and Bro. Rick, and let them feed my spirit. But I have been anxious to get back to this study. We finished chapter 5 several weeks ago, and now I want ot move us into chapter six.
We're going to be considering verses 1-18 as a whole, and it's a tremendous portion of Scripture. But it is all introduced to us at the beginning of verse 1. There is one major truth that I want you to see that is found in the first statement of the first verse of Chapter 6.
It says this, "Beware that you do not your righteousness before men to be seen by them." Stop right there. That simple statement opens up an incredible panorama of truth. "Beware that you do not your righteousness," or your righteous acts, "before men to be seen by them."
The principle that is introduced here is the principle of hypocrisy.
The story is told of an eastern holy man who used to sit in a prominent place on a busy corner of the street of his city. And every day he would sit there covered with dust and ashes. A passing tourist asked him for permission to take his photograph, to which the holy man replied, "Just a moment please, let me rearrange my ashes."
I suppose in all of our lives, there's a little of that rearranging of ashes going on. There's a lot of that going on in religion. We are busy fixing up our pious-ness so it'll look better for the photograph. We want to make a good impression. We want to appear holy, especially if there are some true holy people around us. And so we play a game and the game is hypocrisy and we're phonies.
Obviously, if you read the Bible, you know the Lord seeks real, genuine, authentic devotion of the heart. He is not interested in rearranging your ashes. He is not interested on how you look on the outside and whether you look humble and holy and pious. The Pharisees of Jesus' time were the all time artists at rearranging their ashes. They made sure they put on a show. And that's the issue to which Jesus speaks in the first eighteen verses of Matthew 6.
But it opens up a wider concept for us because we have to understand what God thinks of this in general. Generally speaking, hypocrisy is dealt with in Scripture from the start to the finish.
There are hypocrites in Genesis. There are hypocrites in Revelation. There are hypocrites when the world begins and there are hypocrites when it ends. There are hypocrites in every form of religion and even Christianity, the true form. There were hypocrites among the 12. There are hypocrites in the leadership of the church. They're always around. It's just part of the sinfulness of man to play the game of religion.
By the way, the Greek word hypocrite which appears in verse 2, again in verse 5, and again in verse 16 is used in classical Greek to refer to an actor on a stage who masks his real identity and assumes a role. He is speaking of one who plays a part that isn't the truth about his life. Who assumes something other than what is genuine.
That same thought is continued in Jesus warning in verse 1. " to be seen." The word seen is theatomi. The first three letters are the same first three letters, or four letters of an English word theater.
Do not be an actor on a stage before an audience as if you were in a theater putting on an exhibition. Don't do your righteous deeds theatrically before a watching audience. Don't rearrange your ashes for the photographs of people so the impression will be made that you're really holy. That's being a spiritual phony.
That is precisely the word of our Lord here in Matthew 6. Look at it again. Let me insert a word here about translation. I prefer, for this particular verse the New American Standard. There are tow key words that are timportant. First of all, the warning, “Take heed” in the NKJV is not strong enough. KJV and NAS use “beware”.
I like the word beware because it's the best translation to force us to see the seriousness of this.
The other important phrase is “charitable deeds” in NKJV. Now the King James says alms. That is not the best textual rendering. The word in the Greek really is the standard word for righteousness. The word alms comes in verse 2. But for verse 1 it should be translated "your righteous acts." NAS Simply says “righteousness”.
But the verse actually translates best as “Beware that you do not your righteous acts before men to put on a theatrical show for them.”
Now look a little more closely at that: “Beware” is a strong word. Beware tells us that we are not looking at something that is a sentimental issue or something that is a soft matter. This is serious. Beware. Why? There are consequences.
Now I want you to get the context a little so you'll understand what's going on here. We're in the Sermon on the Mount. You know that. Let’s review a little. We learned in chapter 5 that the Sermon on the Mount is designed to present to the Jewish people of that time and to every succeeding generation, whoever reads the Bible, the true standard of righteousness.
Now you remember that the Lord began with the character of righteousness in the Beatitudes. And then He moved to the influence of righteousness, salt and light in the world. And then He moved in to the very elements of righteousness. The character of righteousness, its influence, and its standards. And the character of righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. They didn't have that kind of character.
They weren't mourning over their sin. They weren't meek. They weren't broken in spirit. They weren't hungering for righteousness. They weren't pure in heart. They weren't peacemakers. They weren't merciful. They weren't any of those things.
And so He says you don't meet the standard. And then He talks about the influence of righteousness. It's salt and light, it preserves and lightens the world. They didn't do that. They were part of the rot and part of the darkness.
And then He says now I want to tell you the standards of righteousness and He started them in Chapter 5, verse 21 and they didn't live up to any of them. They never met it. Their character was unqualified for His kingdom. Their influence was unqualified for His kingdom, and so was their standard of righteousness.
And frankly, He's still talking about the same thing, the standards of righteousness here in Chapter 6. But there's a little different twist that I want you to see.
In Chapter 5, verse 21-48, He was talking about the righteousness, now mark this word, taught, taught by the scribes and Pharisees.
The righteousness taught by the scribes and Pharisees.
Now in Chapter 6, He wants us to see the righteousness practiced or lived by the scribes and Pharisees. One is their theology and the other is their living. In 5, He was saying this is what you teach, but this is what God teaches. Now in 6 He says, this is how you worship. This is how you live. This is your practice. But God's standard is up here.
Now don’t miss the obvious: Their worship (chapter 6) was phony because their theology (chapter 5) was phony.
True religion has to have both. You have to have the facts. You have to have the moral standards. You have to have the proper teaching, and then it has to be lived out in the proper way. And so here He is saying when you're doing something whether in verse 2, giving alms, or in verse 5, praying, or in verse 16, fasting. In other words, when you put your religion to practice it is substandard. Your theology is inadequate and so is your practice of religion.
As believers we have to have both. There are always those people who think Christianity's only a matter of what you do. Just go to church, give a little in the offering, do a religious ritual, do your daily Bible reading or whatever and you're all right. Well, that's not all there is.
On the other hand there are those who think it’s just what you believe.
But there's a balance. Jesus is saying yes, you have to proper teaching, but yes, there is a place for giving and praying and fasting within the community of those who believe and that is to be exercised properly. It is a question of what you know and what you believe and also how you act. And the two have to be together.
Now I want to show you another interesting thing. Jesus is setting a standard here that nobody else has ever set in the history of the world.
No other human system ever came across this standard. It exceeds every system that has ever existed at the invention of man. I'll show you why. Go back into this section, Chapter 5, verse 20. Now we're back into the moral section, what you teach, what you believe, your theology.
Notice verse 20: Jesus says, “I say unto you that except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven."
Now Jesus goes on then to present a moral standard that is in excess of the scribes and the Pharisees who were the teachers in Israel.
So first of all, His standard has a superior moral standard.
Now go to Chapter 6, verse 2, 5 and 16.
Here He says when you do alms, pray and fast, don’t do it like the hypocrites.
Now the hypocrites are synonymous with the Pharisees and the scribes. And again He is saying when you practice your religion, when you live out your spiritual life, it's got to be superior to theirs too.
So what Jesus is saying, “What I'm saying to you in content and practice is superior to what's going on right now” This is an incredible indictment of the whole system.
Then there's a third category. He goes from theology in chapter 5, to practical religion in the opening verses of chapter 6 to everyday things in verse 19.
There He talks about very mundane things like what you eat and what you drink or what you wear, clothing and all of those kinds of things.
He talks about money and how you treat it and how you think of it and how you regard it and so forth. So He goes all the way down the down the line. He goes from your theological moral values to your religious practices, to your mundane every day living. And in the whole sequence He says your theology is inadequate, your religion is inadequate and your approach to life every day is inadequate. Your standards are totally too low.
And as a result of that the totality of their life is out of whack. How do I know? By what He goes on to say: verse 19, "Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.” “don’t be anxious anxious," verse 25, "for your life." Why does He say these things? Because they are the result of an inadequate belief system and how it is practiced and lived.
So He says it's got to be a system beyond that of the scribes and the Pharisees. Now why am I emphasizing this? Because both our theology, our religion, our worship, if you will, and our daily living must be superior to the finest system men could ever devise at their very best efforts. It's inadequate.
Further, there are some people who might say well, I’m just going to scrap all religion and just be a pagan. The Lord even deals with that.
Look at chapter 5, verse 47, He says this, "If you greet your brethren only what do ye more than others? Do not even the heathen? Be ye therefore perfect as your Father who's in heaven is perfect."
In other words, you're not only to have a commitment that is better than the scribes and the Pharisees, but it should also obviously be better than the heathen!
Why? Because they're substandard also. He says the same thing in the next section in Chapter 6:7. Here He's talking about the religious life. "But when ye pray, use not vain repetition as the heathen."
And in the third section, He does the same thing. When He gets to the mundane things in verse 32. "For all these things do the heathens seek."
In other words, Christ is saying, I'm offering you a standard and the standard is superior in its content, in its worship and in its daily living to any religious or nonreligious system the world has ever seen.
Now when somebody comes along and says well, how come you Christians say you're the only ones that have the truth? You tell them. Because that was the claim of Jesus. That’s what Jesus said.
Jesus, without question is the most narrow-minded human who ever lived. He said, "Everything I say to you is true and anything else is false."
Listen, this is what he's saying here. You don't measure up. You come miserably, woefully short of the standard for my kingdom. I'm a king and I'm offering a kingdom, but you're not going to get in it on the terms that you are now offering. But there is another way and that is to realize that you can't make it. Your theology is inadequate. Your religion is inadequate and your approach to life is inadequate.
You need somebody to wash away your sin, purify you, give you a new nature fit for my kingdom and I'm that somebody. That’s what Christ is saying.
Now, that gives you the general context. So when we come to chapter 6:1-18, we're looking at that middle section between theology and the mundane. This is the section that deals with religious worship or practice.
And He begins it by saying whatever you do, in verse 1, make sure that you do your righteous acts not to be seen by men.
And He gives three illustrations.
The first one is giving in verses 2-4. The second is praying in verses 5-15, and the third is fasting in verses 16-18. The Lord just picks out three religious activities, three spiritual activities, three elements of worship. And they're very comprehensive.
Giving has to do with our religion as it acts toward others. Praying has to do with our religion as it acts towards God. And fasting has to do with our religion as it relates to ourselves.
Fasting deals with our own flesh. The mortification of the flesh, self denial, discipline, bringing ourselves Christ in terms of total commitment, praying is then communing with God, giving is then touching the lives of people around us.
These three illustrations are not random, arbitrary choices. They work together to beautifully sum up all the elements of our spiritual life, of our life of worship
And Jesus is saying to them in effect, you do all these, you give, you pray, you fast, but you are substandard and I offer you something beyond that. By the way, it's interesting to notice, verse 2 says, "when you do a righteous deed," verse 5 says, "when thou pray," and verse 16 says, "when you fast." It doesn't say if, it says when. Why? Because it's an assumption that you'll do that. It's assumed as a part of religion, worship, spiritual service.
Now, I want you to see three key points in these first four verses. I want you to see the practice of righteousness, the peril of religion, and the promise of reward. We’ll just look at the first one tonight. And we'll cover the other two next time.
First of all,
The Practice of Righteousness.
Look at verse 1 again.
The Bible talks about doing righteous acts. God never designed for us to be monks. Monasticism, stuffing yourself into oblivion and doing all your righteousness locked up in cubicle is not biblical. And some have misinterpreted this verse. Well, beware that you don't do any of your righteous acts before men. So go in a corner and do all your righteous acts.
Is that what the Bible means? That would seem to be contradictory with Jesus has already said in the sermon.
Look back at Chapter 5, verse 16.
So on the one hand, Jesus says we are to let people see our good works, then He turns around almost in the next breath and says don’t do your righteous acts before men.
That’s why the last phrase is so important: But you have to see the last phrase. It really in the Greek has the construction of purpose or design. Jesus says, Don’t do your “stuff” for the purpose of or to the design that we would be seen by men.
In other words, do your righteousness but not for the purpose of simply being seen by men so that you look good. Let me show you the contrast.
Look again there at 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works."
Notice how the motives are different. It says do your works that God may be glorified, that's the positive in verse 16 of Chapter 5. But don't do your works that men may glorify you. We are to do what we do that men may glorify God, but not for the purpose of seeking approval from them.
That's a fine line. There are times when you give or serve or respond, and it feels good when people notice. Right? Especially people who question your commitment. You want them to know so they'll know how really spiritual you are. Or you pray long and wordy prayers. Or you go around all burdened and bedraggled so people will think you are really spiritual. Just look sick or painful and people will think you're humble.
We're good at that. But we all play that game.
Our Lord is saying beware. It was a mark of the Pharisees that when they gave, they blew a horn about it and when they prayed they stood in a public place and prayed out loud so everybody knew how spiritual they were. They're almost a caricature so ridiculous it's hard to imagine. And when they fasted, the put cosmetics on their face so they'd look half dead hoping someone would say oh what a holy man he is.
Listen, we are to let our light shine. We are to let our works be seen that God may be glorified, but we are not to do it that we may receive honor. That's hypocritical.
The heart of the issue is the issue of the heart. What's your motive? Two people can give. Two people can pray. Two people can fast. Two people can do religious deeds. You and I would never know the difference between one or the other and yet to God one is a source of joy, a sweet smelling savor and the other is smoke in his nose. And the difference is inside that person.
There's nothing wrong with displaying your Christianity. Let your light shine. But be sure the motive is pure.
Who is the best illustration of this? Jesus. Jesus preached His messages in the public hearing. Jesus lived His life day by day the flawless majestic sinlessness of His life in front of the gazing eyes of the whole watching world. Jesus performed miracles and wonders and signs so everyone could see.
But in the midst of it all, in humility, He said, "I have come not to seek mine own honor, but the honor of Him who sent me." It was motive.
Do your righteous deeds beloved, if you're a believer. Do them that your light may shine to the glory of God, but beware when you do them to rearrange your ashes so somebody's picture of you will turn out to appear more holy than you really are.
Now, there are two audiences for the message this evening as there were that day. There were the Pharisees and there were the disciples. For the disciples it said something. They had already committed themselves to Christ. But just because you're committed to Christ doesn't mean you don't struggle with hypocrisy.
The message to them was be real, be genuine, be truly spiritual and truly righteous in your giving, your relation to others, your praying, your relationship to God as if you could fool Him. And your fasting, your relationship to yourself. Be real. Don't be a phony. Don't ever fall prey to that.
To the non-Christian, the Pharisee, don't think your good works, your self-developed and devised system will suffice, because it won't. No matter how righteous you appear, unless you have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and your sins forgiven, you'll have no entrance into God's kingdom and the severest eternal judgment will belong to the severest hypocrite. It's a fearful thing. So I trust you'll examine your heart.
Let’s pray.
