Proverbs
11:9 (KJV)
An hypocrite
with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just
be delivered.
Our Bible
says,
Hebrews 13:8
(KJV)
Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
God never
changes.
There is a
good reason for that; God is the same yesterday and today and forever
because, for God, yesterday, today and forever are the same.
· He sees all of time at the same time
· He plans all events to happen in the “eternal
now.”
He makes no
contingencies for the future because, for God, nothing is future.
That would
include His Word.
His Word is an
unchanging book but it is also a living book.
So though,
from our perspective things have changed over the course of thousands of years,
nothing has changed from God’s perspective.
When God
inspired the “holy men of old” to speak what is our Bible, He gave them words
that He knew would have meaning:
· To the original audience
· To those who would hear from that audience and
· To those who would come thousands of
years after
Clearly God had future generations on His mind
when He gave His word.
Mark 13:37
(KJV)
And what I
say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Jesus told
His disciples to watch for His coming because they would not know the day or
the hour of His coming, but then He said, “What I say unto you, I say unto all…”
John chapter
17 is a prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. While He prayed, Apostle John heard,
remembered and recorded what He prayed.
John 17:20
(KJV)
Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word;
He had in
His mind, those who were with Him at the moment, but He also had in mind those
who would become believers because of their message.
Over the
course of time, words evolve. We change what we think those words mean.
I want to
tell you that, though words evolve, all the meanings have meaning to God.
The word
hypocrite is one of those words whose meanings have changed over the years.
What comes
to our mind when we think of a hypocrite, might be different than what came to
the mind of a Jew living 1000 years before Jesus was born.
I intend to
take a walk through time and visit the transformations in meaning, believing
that God has something to tell us in them all.
I. WHAT A
HYPOCRITE WAS IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE JEWS
Proverbs
11:9 (KJV)
An hypocrite
with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just
be delivered.
The Hebrew
word translated hypocrite in this verse means:
· Soiled by sin
· Polluted
· Defiled
You and I
would probably call this person wicked or ungodly.
There is no
question about it that this word has a connotation of immorality.
This is the
person we Christians are challenged to try to save but to do so with fear,
Jude 1:22-23
(KJV)
And of some
have compassion, making a difference:
And others
save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted
by the flesh.
They are the
people whose influence we do not want to touch us.
· We should mark them
· We should avoid them
· We should have little contact with them
And that
contact we do have ought to be:
· Limited
· Measured and
· Purposeful[1]
The Bible
says the hypocrite
with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor.
There are at
least two possible ways he might do that:
1. By saying evil and lying things about his
neighbor
There are
some people you don’t want to be around very much and when you are around them,
you want to make sure there are other people there too because they will lie about
you to destroy you.
I know a
pastor who went to prison for ten years because someone told a lie about him.
And because
he had been alone with them, he could not prove they were lying.
2. The hypocrite might also destroy his neighbor
by luring him into sin.
He’s good
with his words.
He is
ungodly and he knows how to make ungodliness appealing.
The Bible
says that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.
That means
he did not look as dangerous as he was.
And he said – he used
words – yea hath God said…?
He used
words to make Eve question the Word of God.
It happens
all the time these days.
1925
Though there
were supposed atheists, America was largely influenced by Christian thought.
Darwin’s
theory of evolution had been published and was gaining traction among the
ungodly, but the public school system across the country taught Creation rather
that evolution.
An unsaved
teacher by the name of Scopes had broken the law in Tennessee and taught on
evolution.
He was
arrested and the case became national news.
Clarence Darrow
A powerful
and articulate avowed atheist was called in to defend the teacher’s right to
teach evolution.
William Jennings Bryan
A famous
American Christian and politician, had twice been the Democratic nomination for
President, and was at the time the leading spokesman for fundamentalist
Christianity, was chosen to lead the prosecution against Scopes.
The trial
became a circus, complete with monkeys dressed in suits in the stores around
town.
Clarence Darrow’s tactic was
direct.
He defended
Scopes by attacking the Bible – and he had the perfect subject.
Darrow, called, Bryan, the prosecuting attorney to the stand and, by smooth words
and twisting the Bible, so confused the testimony of Bryan, that he looked like a buffoon.
Bryan won
the case, but his reputation was so marred that
· He died just five days later and
· Fundamentalist Christianity was labeled
unintelligent
To this very
day people in the academic world dismiss those who believe the Bible as
unintelligent, regardless of how much education they have.
The
hypocrite will try to destroy the faith of the believer with his mouth.
I want to
look secondly at
II. WHAT A
HYPOCRITE WAS IN EARLY ENGLAND
Proverbs
11:9 (KJV)
An hypocrite
with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just
be delivered.
Obviously, the most
major shift from the first to the second would be in language:
· From Hebrew
· Into English
And there is a process
that happens in that.
The English word,
hypocrite develops out of Greek, Latin and French.[2]
It originally meant a stage actor.
There was an old movie
that Tim Allen did called Galaxy Quest.
Allen plays a Captain
James T Kirk character for a now discontinued TV sci-fi show.
He and the co-stars
survive by attending photo signings at fan conferences.
Suddenly, he and his
crew are approached by a naive group of Space Aliens who, believing the old TV
series to be historical documents, have come to seek his help defeating and
enemy bent to exterminate them.
In one scene their, not
so naïve enemy who has captured them. When he realizes the situation. He forces
Tim Allen’s character to reveal that they are not space heroes.
· They are actors
· They are liars
Though acting has been
around thousands upon thousands of years, acting was never, until lately,
considered an honest job.
· Early actors were thought to be demon possessed[3]
· Many of them practiced homosexuality[4]
So, when a second
century actor got saved, the question was asked of Polycarp, a disciple of
Apostle John, about this man’s future livelihood.
The pastor of the church
that had led this actor to the Lord wrote to Polycarp and stated, “We know
that, as a Christian, he can’t act any more. But may he teach acting to earn
his living?”
Polycarp said that it
would be as wicked to teach others to act as it was to act himself. He said
that they should help the man take care of his obligations until he could find
honest work and suggested that if they could not afford to do that, he could
move up to Polycarp’s church and they would help him out.
The word hypocrite was
also defined as,
Someone who pretends to be what he is not.
When we combine the
first definition of
· Someone who is ungodly, with the second definition of
· Someone who pretends to be what he is not
We discover what is the
most popular current definition of
III. WHAT A HYPOCRITE
IS TO US TODAY
Proverbs
11:9 (KJV)
An hypocrite
with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just
be delivered.
I want to
read to you several modern definitions:
Dictionary.com
“A person who pretends to have virtues, moral or
religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess.”
Merriam-Webster.com
“A person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated
beliefs. A person who puts on a
false appearance of virtue or religion.”
Vocabulary.com
“A hypocrite preaches one thing and does another.”
While the
word hypocrite isn’t always associated with religion, it is always associated
with morality and belief.
One dictionary offered this as their example of the use of
hypocrite in a sentence,
“The only reliable product of
an organized religion is a flock of hypocrites who feel that only *their*
hypocrisy is divinely sanctioned.”[5]
Conclusion
I just
want to ask you tonight
Please, don’t be a hypocrite.
Don’t
pretend to be something you are not.
If you are saved
Behave as
a Christian should. Be moral and honest.
If you are not saved
· Stop pretending that everything is all
right between you and God.
· It’s time to stop pretending and get
saved for sure and forever.
[1] In order to win them to
the Lord
[2] Dictionary.com
1175-1225;
Middle English ipocrite Old French Late Latin hypocrita Greek hypokritḗs a stage actor, hence one who pretends to be what he is
not,
[3] Hence the words “muse”.
The ability to speak in rhythm was considered to be something the spirits did
in a person.
[4] I get the impression
that homosexuality was widespread in ancient Greece
[5] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hypocrite,
accessed 6-4-17
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