Hypocrisy to Humility
Series: MADE NEW
Speaker: James Barnett
Date: 15th May 2022
Passage: Romans 2:1-29
00:00:00 --> 00:00:06 Thanks, James. Good morning, everyone. Nice to see you. My name is James. I've been away
00:00:06 --> 00:00:14 for a couple of weeks, so it's wonderful to be back with you. I find hypocrisy really
00:00:14 --> 00:00:21 hard to take. My community group this week had a visitor from overseas, and I was attempting
00:00:21 --> 00:00:28 to explain the Australian tall poppy syndrome. And I was wondering if it's because we have
00:00:28 --> 00:00:39 a history where Australia was founded by criminals and then people doing it tough. And so when
00:00:39 --> 00:00:45 we see someone at the very top, we like to cut them down. We like to make them more normal.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:51 And I think this is one of the consequences of what happens in an election cycle like we
00:00:51 --> 00:00:57 are in. Our politicians try to pretend like they're normal people. And so they do things
00:00:57 --> 00:01:04 like go and cut hair and cook meals and try and make themselves look like everybody else.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:13 But sometimes it can come off as lacking authenticity. It looks like hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is when a
00:01:13 --> 00:01:21 person's public life and personal life don't match up. When the public and private life don't match up.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:30 What they present to the world doesn't match up with who they really are. Hypocrisy has caused
00:01:30 --> 00:01:37 incredible damage in the church. There's been a whole series of well-known pastors who have had
00:01:37 --> 00:01:45 dark secrets revealed. Who they presented themselves to be hasn't matched who they really are behind
00:01:45 --> 00:01:54 closed doors. Hypocrisy is a wrecking ball that comes in, smashing souls in its path. In the church,
00:01:54 --> 00:02:02 it sees counterfeit shepherds create calloused sheep. Some leave the church, some stop following God,
00:02:02 --> 00:02:10 and those who stick around can often be filled with anger and bitterness and distrust. And yet it's not
00:02:10 --> 00:02:19 just church leaders or politicians that can cause problems with hypocrisy. Do our private lives and
00:02:19 --> 00:02:27 our public lives match up? Does who we really are ever accidentally creep out when we're talking with
00:02:27 --> 00:02:35 people and act surprised? Oh, I thought you were the Christian. Why are you speaking like this? I thought
00:02:35 --> 00:02:39 Christians were supposed to forgive people. You don't seem very forgiving right now.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:49 We are all tempted to hypocrisy, but we're called to humility. We're all tempted to hide our faults and
00:02:49 --> 00:02:56 our problems, but we are called to know who we truly are in Jesus. We are in the book of Romans.
00:02:57 --> 00:03:04 It's a wonderful book filled with deep theological truths. Deep truths that are not always easy to hear.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:14 Truths about who we are, about our nature against our God, and the only way to be right with him.
00:03:14 --> 00:03:20 For him to work through the death and resurrection of Jesus to make us right with him. And over the last
00:03:20 --> 00:03:25 two weeks, Steve has taken us through that first chapter of Romans. And today we're coming to the
00:03:25 --> 00:03:32 second chapter. But these first two chapters of Romans present two ways of responding to God.
00:03:32 --> 00:03:39 It's like the two brothers in the story of the prodigal son. If you remember the story of the
00:03:39 --> 00:03:47 prodigal son, the youngest son took half his dad's money. He ran off and he wasted all his dad's money
00:03:47 --> 00:03:56 pursuing the pursuits of personal satisfaction, wild living. And the older son was at home,
00:03:56 --> 00:04:05 self-righteous, appearing to be the good son judging his younger brother. And so chapter one of Romans
00:04:05 --> 00:04:12 speaks to us who are like the younger brother. Those who have run far away from God. Those who've pursued
00:04:12 --> 00:04:22 idols of money and sexual satisfaction outside of God's order. Those who have made idols. They are far
00:04:22 --> 00:04:29 from God. And now Paul turns to people who are much more like the older brother. Those who appear to be
00:04:29 --> 00:04:36 good on the outside, but their own goodness, their own self-righteousness has become their idol.
00:04:38 --> 00:04:45 And so the challenge for us today will be to consider our own hypocrisy. Does our private life
00:04:45 --> 00:04:53 match up with our public life? How does the gospel help us to identify our hypocrisy and to grow in
00:04:53 --> 00:05:00 humility? So as we jump into Romans 2, let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word
00:05:00 --> 00:05:10 today. Lord, help us to understand who we are as we stand before you. And help us to know the difference
00:05:10 --> 00:05:17 between our public life and our private life so that we would not be hypocrites, Lord. Help us to know
00:05:17 --> 00:05:25 who we are before you and how much you have loved us, Lord. Amen. Two points for us this morning,
00:05:25 --> 00:05:33 hypocrisy and humility. First of all, we'll start with hypocrisy. Paul starts Romans 2 by turning to
00:05:33 --> 00:05:39 those who in his audience thought that they were right before God. Those who would have heard Romans 1 and
00:05:39 --> 00:05:45 thought, yes, Paul, yeah, you tell them. You tell all these terrible sinners about how bad they are and about
00:05:45 --> 00:05:51 God's coming wrath and judgment. But now Paul gets the bucket of cold water and he throws it on them
00:05:51 --> 00:05:58 and turns to those who thought too much of themselves. And he says, let me just go to see if I can get my
00:05:58 --> 00:06:06 clicker to work. Is my clicker working, Wendy? It doesn't look like it's working. There we go. Let me see.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:11 Okay, that will work. He says, Romans chapter 2. Have your Bibles open with me, brothers and sisters.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:19 Romans chapter 2 verse 1. You, you therefore have no excuse. You who pass judgment on someone else.
00:06:20 --> 00:06:25 For at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself. Because you who pass judgment
00:06:25 --> 00:06:30 do the same thing. You there who are passing judgment on others, you are condemning yourself.
00:06:30 --> 00:06:36 It's that old saying when you point a finger at someone, you've got, you know, three fingers
00:06:36 --> 00:06:42 pointing back at you. It's not just saying that sin over there is wrong, but there's the attitude
00:06:42 --> 00:06:50 behind it, which is you are lost. You are a sinner. You deserve judgment. And now I feel better about
00:06:50 --> 00:06:57 myself because you are far worse than me. To pass judgment is to think others should be judged by God,
00:06:57 --> 00:07:05 but not ourselves. Verse 2. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is
00:07:05 --> 00:07:12 based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things,
00:07:12 --> 00:07:19 do you think you will escape God's judgment? Paul's saying that you're putting yourself in God's
00:07:19 --> 00:07:24 shoes when you do this. When you're thinking that it is right for you to judge someone else.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:28 Because at the same time, you are excusing your own sin.
00:07:29 --> 00:07:36 Pastor John Stott said of hypocrisy, Wendy, if you can go to the next slide for me.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:38 Thank you, mate. He said,
00:07:38 --> 00:08:06 Christian hypocrisy looks like condemning others while we indulge in the same sins.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:13 I'm going to indulge in that same sin because it makes me feel good. But Paul says we're condemning
00:08:13 --> 00:08:21 ourselves. God will judge, verse 2, based on truth. Imagine with me that we get to heaven.
00:08:22 --> 00:08:31 It's a wonderful, exciting day. And we get to God and his judgment. And he takes your phone from you
00:08:31 --> 00:08:39 and says, I am going to judge you completely fairly. I will judge you based on how you have judged
00:08:39 --> 00:08:46 other people. On the basis of your words and your standards. And he says to your phone,
00:08:46 --> 00:08:52 hey Siri, play all hypocrisy. Now I wonder what would happen.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:58 I wonder what would come out of our phones who are with us and those microphones are listening to us
00:08:58 --> 00:09:08 at every stage. What is going to come out? How fairly have we judged others compared to ourselves?
00:09:10 --> 00:09:16 How easy it is to condemn others and yet excuse our own sin to make ourselves feel better.
00:09:16 --> 00:09:24 The problem with our hypocrisy is that we forget what God has done for us. Paul says in verse 4,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:31 Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, his forbearance, his patience,
00:09:31 --> 00:09:36 not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
00:09:37 --> 00:09:43 Do you forget all of God's forgiveness of you? When you're judging someone else,
00:09:43 --> 00:09:50 do you forget how God has forgiven you of the exact same sin? How easy it is for us to look down
00:09:50 --> 00:09:57 from our place of lofty judgment, but forget that we're in the exact same place as the person we're
00:09:57 --> 00:10:04 judging. Under judgment from God. We can do this comparing ourselves to others to make ourselves feel
00:10:04 --> 00:10:10 better. I might have my issues, but at least I'm not as bad as that person over there.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:17 This is the kind of person who comes to church, who believes in God. They do the right things.
00:10:17 --> 00:10:22 They appear good on the outside, but ultimately don't act like they need God.
00:10:23 --> 00:10:29 They're functioning as their own savior and they welcome God's wrath on other people,
00:10:30 --> 00:10:37 but see no need to repent themselves. So that's why in verse 4, he calls you to repentance.
00:10:37 --> 00:10:43 He calls us to repentance. But there is no need to repent. They see no need to repent.
00:10:44 --> 00:10:49 And so because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you're storing up wrath
00:10:49 --> 00:10:54 against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
00:10:55 --> 00:11:01 Paul says that those people who think they are righteous are just as sinful, just as idolatrous,
00:11:01 --> 00:11:10 just as far from God as those he described in Romans 1. Instead of making idols out of sexual
00:11:10 --> 00:11:18 gratification, making idols out of money, they've made themselves God. Instead of repenting,
00:11:18 --> 00:11:26 they worship their own goodness. Both of these types of people need God. The religious and the
00:11:26 --> 00:11:35 unreligious, the one in church and the one outside of church. I heard of two church pastors in the US
00:11:35 --> 00:11:42 who were comparing how hard their jobs were. The first pastor argued that his job was the hardest
00:11:42 --> 00:11:49 because he was in the most unreached city in the US. My job is so hard. There are so few Christians here.
00:11:49 --> 00:11:57 The other pastor said, oh, you think your job is hard? I am in the most churched city in the US.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:03 And so my job is harder because I'm trying to convert the people who are in church,
00:12:03 --> 00:12:07 who don't think they need to be saved, who think that they are already good enough.
00:12:10 --> 00:12:17 Hypocrisy is the gap between our personal life and our public life. The people that Paul is
00:12:17 --> 00:12:23 describing here are hypocrites. Those who say that they're Christians, those who are appearing on
00:12:23 --> 00:12:30 the outside to be doing the right thing and yet not trusting in Jesus. The person who appears in
00:12:30 --> 00:12:35 public as if they've got everything together, but they're just minimizing their sin and hiding it in
00:12:35 --> 00:12:47 private. The Christian who sins, let me try this again. The Christian hypocrite is not the person
00:12:47 --> 00:12:51 who is struggling with their sin. If you're struggling with your sin, you're not necessarily
00:12:51 --> 00:12:58 a hypocrite. The person who is struggling with their sin, who confesses their sin, who is calling
00:12:58 --> 00:13:04 to God for help, who is asking their community group to be praying for them, that person's not a hypocrite.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:11 That person is who we want to be, who I want to be. The person who sees their sin and confesses it.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:17 The hypocritical Christian is the one who minimizes sin. My sin's actually not that bad.
00:13:18 --> 00:13:23 I can explain it away. It's actually not an issue for me. I could stop my sin at any point.
00:13:25 --> 00:13:30 This is an issue I have. I'm a hypocritical Christian. I'll confess that to you, brothers and
00:13:30 --> 00:13:37 sisters. I will minimize my sin. I will explain it away. I will explain my sin for these reasons.
00:13:37 --> 00:13:44 Oh, look, I'm tired. It's been a really long day. Do you know what? It's been a really long two years
00:13:44 --> 00:13:50 for me, for me personally. COVID's been hard. And so I find it really easy to excuse my sin.
00:13:51 --> 00:13:55 But then I see someone doing the exact same thing, and I think, do you know what? They should know
00:13:55 --> 00:14:00 better. I'm not pointing at anybody in particular. I'll point down here. That person, they should know
00:14:00 --> 00:14:08 better. Don't they know that Christian should be following God? And do you know what I do? I don't
00:14:08 --> 00:14:14 extend the same grace to them. I don't extend the same excuses. I don't extend the same context of the
00:14:14 --> 00:14:20 last two years where I will take all of those as excuses for my own sin. Hypocrites don't deny sin.
00:14:20 --> 00:14:31 They minimize it. It's not that bad. We all are sinful before a holy God. We need to be quick to confess.
00:14:31 --> 00:14:39 Like verse 4 said, to have repentant hearts. Are you quick to confess or to cover up?
00:14:40 --> 00:14:44 When you're put on the spot about your sin, do you leap to your own defense?
00:14:44 --> 00:14:52 Proud hearts seek to justify. Repentant hearts acknowledge and confess.
00:14:53 --> 00:14:58 So where are you at? Can you feel the heart of a hypocrite beating within you?
00:14:59 --> 00:15:08 Let me ask a couple of questions. Do you feel deep down that you are a hopeless sinner?
00:15:08 --> 00:15:16 That God has the perfect right to cast you off at any second? Do you judge others?
00:15:17 --> 00:15:22 When you look at others, do you shake your head and judge in your heart? Or do you think,
00:15:23 --> 00:15:29 I'm just like them. My sin is just a different type of sin, but I'm exactly the same as that person.
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 Or do you think you can stand on your own at the coming judgment?
00:15:33 --> 00:15:39 When good God pulls out your phone of life and goes through all your hypocrisy?
00:15:40 --> 00:15:44 Or have you accepted that you are totally dependent on God's grace?
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 And you're given a standing before him that we can't earn.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:55 So what do we do then? If we feel this beating heart of hypocrisy within us?
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 Well, Paul helps. Paul helps us in Romans chapter 2.
00:15:59 --> 00:16:03 But first, he's going to sharpen his words towards his audience from verse 17.
00:16:04 --> 00:16:09 And I wonder if I add in a slight translation to modernize it for us today,
00:16:09 --> 00:16:12 as if Paul was writing this to us, I wonder if this would help.
00:16:13 --> 00:16:18 So have a look with me at the next slide at verse 17. Thank you, Wendy.
00:16:18 --> 00:16:23 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew or a Christian,
00:16:23 --> 00:16:26 if you rely on the law and boast in God,
00:16:26 --> 00:16:28 you know, you've signed a commitment card,
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 you've walked down the front of church,
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 you prayed a prayer, you became a Christian.
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 If you know his will and approve of what is superior
00:16:36 --> 00:16:38 because you are instructed by the law,
00:16:39 --> 00:16:40 you've been to Sunday school,
00:16:40 --> 00:16:41 you've been in church for years,
00:16:41 --> 00:16:42 you're in a community group,
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 you've memorized verses of the Bible,
00:16:45 --> 00:16:46 you know some theology,
00:16:46 --> 00:16:48 you love to read books on the Bible.
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 If you're convinced that you are a guide for the blind,
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 a light for those who are in the dark,
00:16:54 --> 00:16:55 an instructor of the foolish,
00:16:55 --> 00:16:56 a teacher of little children,
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 maybe you actually lead as part of our Next Gen ministry,
00:16:59 --> 00:17:00 or you lead a community group,
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 or you're serving here today
00:17:02 --> 00:17:06 because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.
00:17:07 --> 00:17:08 Oh, over the next slide.
00:17:08 --> 00:17:09 Thank you, Wendy.
00:17:09 --> 00:17:10 The end of the next slide.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:14 You know all there is to know.
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 This is a pretty comprehensive list.
00:17:17 --> 00:17:19 I think this includes most of us here today.
00:17:19 --> 00:17:20 Paul gets to the point,
00:17:21 --> 00:17:22 you then who teach others,
00:17:23 --> 00:17:25 do you not teach yourself?
00:17:26 --> 00:17:28 Do you consider yourself?
00:17:29 --> 00:17:31 What is the Bible saying to me?
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 Are you hearing God speaking
00:17:34 --> 00:17:36 and not thinking,
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 oh, this part of the Bible is for somebody else?
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 Have you been reading the Bible,
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 working toward a regular time with God,
00:17:44 --> 00:17:46 but nothing in your life has actually changed?
00:17:48 --> 00:17:49 Do you sit with God,
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 reading His Word and say,
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52 this is me.
00:17:53 --> 00:17:55 I see me in this.
00:17:56 --> 00:17:57 God's actually talking about me.
00:17:57 --> 00:17:58 Oh God, I need you.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 Are we actually practicing what we preach?
00:18:03 --> 00:18:04 Verse 21.
00:18:04 --> 00:18:04 Verse 21.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:09 That's not verse 21.
00:18:09 --> 00:18:10 Let me read verse 21.
00:18:10 --> 00:18:11 You who preach against stealing,
00:18:11 --> 00:18:12 do you steal?
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 You who say that people should not commit adultery,
00:18:15 --> 00:18:15 do you commit adultery?
00:18:16 --> 00:18:17 You who abhor idols,
00:18:18 --> 00:18:18 do you rob temples?
00:18:19 --> 00:18:20 You who boast in the law,
00:18:20 --> 00:18:21 do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 Are you allowing what you judge others
00:18:26 --> 00:18:27 to judge yourself?
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 Preach to yourself before others.
00:18:32 --> 00:18:36 True gospel living looks into our hearts
00:18:36 --> 00:18:37 and not down on others.
00:18:38 --> 00:18:41 Often after church,
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 I'll have lots of different conversations
00:18:43 --> 00:18:44 about the sermon
00:18:44 --> 00:18:45 and about the part of the Bible
00:18:45 --> 00:18:46 we've been looking at.
00:18:46 --> 00:18:49 Often it's details about the sermon,
00:18:50 --> 00:18:51 details about the passage.
00:18:52 --> 00:18:52 You know,
00:18:52 --> 00:18:53 this part of the Bible is really interesting.
00:18:54 --> 00:18:54 What does this mean?
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 I've only touched on a couple of different parts
00:18:57 --> 00:18:58 of Romans 2
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00 and so there's often some good questions
00:19:00 --> 00:19:01 about the other parts
00:19:01 --> 00:19:02 that I haven't touched on.
00:19:03 --> 00:19:04 And these are good conversations.
00:19:04 --> 00:19:04 conversations.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 But my favorite conversations,
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10 the very best feedback for a preacher
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12 is when someone says,
00:19:12 --> 00:19:13 when you said this,
00:19:13 --> 00:19:14 that's me.
00:19:15 --> 00:19:16 What you were talking about in the Bible,
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 that's what I struggle with.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 They've looked at God's word
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 and they're not judging others.
00:19:25 --> 00:19:27 They're not just interested,
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 but they see themselves in the Bible
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 and God convicts them.
00:19:34 --> 00:19:35 Paul closes his chapter
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 with a discussion about circumcision.
00:19:38 --> 00:19:43 Circumcision was the symbol of faith for the Jew,
00:19:44 --> 00:19:45 those who were God's people.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 But they began to depend on the symbol of faith
00:19:49 --> 00:19:53 and not the God who was the place
00:19:53 --> 00:19:54 where their faith was to be in.
00:19:55 --> 00:19:56 Paul says the symbol itself is worthless.
00:19:57 --> 00:19:58 Verse 28.
00:19:59 --> 00:20:00 The next slide.
00:20:00 --> 00:20:00 Thanks, Wendy.
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 A person is not a Jew who is one outwardly,
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly.
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 And circumcision is circumcision of the heart,
00:20:12 --> 00:20:12 by the spirit,
00:20:13 --> 00:20:14 not by the written code.
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 Such a person's praise is not from other people,
00:20:17 --> 00:20:18 but from God.
00:20:19 --> 00:20:19 Circumcision,
00:20:20 --> 00:20:21 not to dwell on it for too long,
00:20:22 --> 00:20:25 is a cutting off of a very intimate part.
00:20:26 --> 00:20:28 And so what God is saying to Abraham,
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 who he initially gave this sign to,
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 was if you want a relationship with me,
00:20:34 --> 00:20:36 you need to be circumcised
00:20:36 --> 00:20:38 as a sign to you and everyone else,
00:20:39 --> 00:20:40 that if you break this covenant,
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 you will be completely cut off.
00:20:44 --> 00:20:45 If you break this covenant,
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48 you will be completely cut off.
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 But no one keeps the covenant.
00:20:51 --> 00:20:52 No Jew has kept the covenant.
00:20:54 --> 00:20:55 So they all have to be cut off.
00:20:55 --> 00:20:59 And this is why Jesus comes.
00:21:00 --> 00:21:02 The one on the cross,
00:21:02 --> 00:21:05 the one who is cut off from God on the cross,
00:21:05 --> 00:21:08 the one who takes the penalty of our hypocrisy
00:21:08 --> 00:21:09 and our sin,
00:21:10 --> 00:21:12 so that we could have the symbol,
00:21:12 --> 00:21:13 not in the flesh,
00:21:14 --> 00:21:15 but in the spirit,
00:21:16 --> 00:21:16 in our hearts.
00:21:16 --> 00:21:21 And so Paul closes with some radical words.
00:21:23 --> 00:21:27 The person who trusts in the Jesus who was cut off,
00:21:28 --> 00:21:31 that person's praise is not from other people,
00:21:31 --> 00:21:32 but from God.
00:21:32 --> 00:21:35 When we trust in Jesus,
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 we don't need to seek praise for ourself.
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40 We get praise from God.
00:21:40 --> 00:21:44 The challenge of hypocrisy for our human hearts
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 is that we want praise.
00:21:46 --> 00:21:47 We want approval.
00:21:47 --> 00:21:48 We crave it.
00:21:49 --> 00:21:51 We're living in a cancel culture world,
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 and so there's a fear of being cancelled,
00:21:54 --> 00:21:55 and there's this desire for praise.
00:21:55 --> 00:21:57 I must know I'm in the right.
00:21:58 --> 00:22:00 And so we minimize our issues.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 You know, I'm sure every celebrity's gone through
00:22:03 --> 00:22:05 their Twitter history
00:22:05 --> 00:22:08 and made sure they delete any radical,
00:22:08 --> 00:22:09 controversial thing.
00:22:10 --> 00:22:11 We minimize our issues,
00:22:11 --> 00:22:12 we hide our sins,
00:22:12 --> 00:22:13 and we pretend
00:22:13 --> 00:22:17 so that we can get praise from people around us.
00:22:18 --> 00:22:21 They don't really know how bad we are,
00:22:21 --> 00:22:24 and so we are allowed to continue to fit into society.
00:22:26 --> 00:22:27 We want approval.
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29 We want to know we're living the right way.
00:22:29 --> 00:22:31 We want the pat on the head.
00:22:33 --> 00:22:37 The hypocritical heart creates a false approval of its own.
00:22:37 --> 00:22:38 My heart says,
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 yes, James, you're fine.
00:22:41 --> 00:22:41 All those other,
00:22:41 --> 00:22:42 again, I'm not pointing at any of you,
00:22:43 --> 00:22:43 all those other people,
00:22:44 --> 00:22:45 they're all far worse than you.
00:22:45 --> 00:22:46 You're doing a good job.
00:22:47 --> 00:22:48 You've actually got it all together.
00:22:48 --> 00:22:51 But the humble heart,
00:22:51 --> 00:22:54 the one circumcised by God,
00:22:54 --> 00:22:57 who knows that if it wasn't for Jesus,
00:22:57 --> 00:22:58 they would be cut off,
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 that heart knows that their praise comes from God.
00:23:02 --> 00:23:04 Can you imagine praise from God,
00:23:04 --> 00:23:05 brothers and sisters,
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 standing before God on the day of judgment,
00:23:08 --> 00:23:08 and he says,
00:23:08 --> 00:23:11 well done, good and faithful servant.
00:23:11 --> 00:23:14 You trusted in Jesus,
00:23:14 --> 00:23:14 not yourself.
00:23:16 --> 00:23:22 Hypocrisy is the wrecking ball that hangs around our head,
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 threatening to explode through our lives
00:23:25 --> 00:23:26 and smash our families,
00:23:26 --> 00:23:27 our communities,
00:23:27 --> 00:23:28 and our church.
00:23:29 --> 00:23:30 But humility,
00:23:31 --> 00:23:33 looking at God's word,
00:23:33 --> 00:23:35 seeing who we are,
00:23:35 --> 00:23:38 and yet how much we are loved by God,
00:23:38 --> 00:23:43 that humility seal is real relationships built on Jesus.
00:23:44 --> 00:23:44 Let me pray.
00:23:47 --> 00:23:48 Heavenly Father,
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51 we thank you for your word today.
00:23:52 --> 00:23:55 We thank you for Paul's directness to us.
00:23:57 --> 00:23:59 Lord, we ask that we would not be people
00:23:59 --> 00:24:01 who minimize our sin
00:24:01 --> 00:24:04 or hide it away
00:24:04 --> 00:24:07 as if we could make it smaller
00:24:07 --> 00:24:10 and therefore somehow stand before you
00:24:10 --> 00:24:12 on the day of judgment.
00:24:13 --> 00:24:15 Lord, we thank you for Jesus,
00:24:16 --> 00:24:19 that he is the one who was cut off
00:24:19 --> 00:24:20 so we could be brought in.
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 Lord, help us to look to him,
00:24:25 --> 00:24:28 to desire not to hide our sin,
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30 but to praise you that it has been dealt with.
00:24:31 --> 00:24:32 So that we can confess,
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 knowing that you love us.
00:24:37 --> 00:24:39 Lord, help us be quick to confess
00:24:39 --> 00:24:40 and not to hide our sin,
00:24:41 --> 00:24:44 knowing that our righteousness comes from you, Lord.
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 We pray this in Jesus' name.
00:24:47 --> 00:24:47 Amen.