January 11, 2009

• 1st Sunday after Epiphany: Characteristics of false religion, # 1-Hypocrisy

  The last two Sundays I've presented excerpts on true and false religion from Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Henry Scougal (see here and here, respectively). At this point I am planning to continue on that theme for several more Sundays by presenting some excerpts from Martyn Lloyd-Jones' "Triumphant Christianity." The sixteenth chapter of that book is titled Religion and is based on Acts 7:42-50. Dr. Lloyd-Jones begins the chapter by discussing four characteristics of false religion and concludes with a discussion of three characteristics of true religion.

  The first characteristic of false religion which Dr. Lloyd-Jones discusses is hypocrisy.

  Here's the Doctor:

  He [Stephen] first of all shows us the characteristics of false religion. What are they? Oh, may God give us grace to examine ourselves! Do we think you are Christians? If so, are we enjoying life in Christ? Are we happy in it? Are we rejoicing in it? Are we like the New Testament Christians? Is this a power in our life? If not, I wonder whether we have the true thing or whether we merely have religion. The greatest enemy of the Christian faith is religion. So let us look at its characteristics.

  The first characteristic noted by Stephen is hypocrisy. He puts it like this: "Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered"––notice this––"to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?" The children of Israel did offer "slain beasts and sacrifices in the wilderness, "but God asks them, "were you really doing that for Me?" They had done it; He does not dispute that. the hypocrite does do what he says. If he did not, there would be nothing to be said against him. So we must not dispute the facts. People often do this when they consider the Pharisees. Consider the Pharisee who said, "I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess" (Luke 18:12). People think he was a liar, but he was not. He was speaking the literal truth. But God asks, "Did you do it for Me?". . . .
  
  The children of Israel kept up the appearance of worship, but their real worship was not given to God––it was given to their own gods. And that is what Stephen was saying here to the members of the Sanhedrin. He said in effect, "You are a religious people, and you say that you alone are religious, and you regard what I am standing for as blasphemy. You say you are the worshipers of God, but are you really worshiping Him?" You and I, too, must answer his searching question.
  
  So one of the characteristics of this false, hypocritical religion is that we pretend to be something we really are not, that we are only concerned about appearances, that we are fundamentally dishonest, that we are really doing something that we do not actually believe in our hearts and are guilty of this kind of double action––fearing God and serving something else. . . .
  
  Or take what is written in Matthew 23. There our Lord finally exposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. "Ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess" (v. 25)––or "ravening and wickedness," as it is sometimes translated. How typical that is of men and women and of their worship. They put on a good appearance, clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but inside there is filthy and rottenness. That is the essence of hypocrisy. You put up a good appearance to the world, modify yourself in some respects, but what about your inside, what about your heart? What is the condition of your being?
  
  Or, again, our Lord puts it like this, and what a perfect exposure this is: "Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin"––these trivialities, these little minutiae and details of the law; oh, the Pharisees were punctilious about these things––"and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Matt. 23:23). But that is what we all tend to do instinctively. We begin to become concerned about these things, and we say, "Well, yes, I've been wrong. I've not done this and that. I'll put this right, and I'll put that right. I'll drop this and take up that." And we think we are pleasing God. But that is "mint and anise and cumin"! We have not faced the ultimate questions of God and ourselves and his knowledge of our hearts and our relationship to Him.
  
  So, then, we can sum it all up like this: The characteristic of this hypocritical religion is that it is always an external religion, something that people put on as if they were putting on a coat or a garment. It is outside, it is appearance––the outside of the cup and the platter, not the inside.

  –Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "Triumphant Christianity (Studies in the Book of Acts, Volume 5)" (Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 211-214.
  

  What's the inside of your cup looking like?

   

  Oh, may God give us grace to examine ourselves!

  

  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. I Corinthians 11:26-28, ESV.
  

  You may also wish to prayerfully read:
  

  • Questions to Examine Ourselves from Martyn Lloyd-Jones
  • John Wesley's Holy Club Examination Questions

  
  You can also read here, here and here about the other three characteristics of false religion which Dr. Lloyd Jones discusses.

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  Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
  
  Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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