Hypocrites vs. Heaven (Part B)

Here's my passcode to keep me a hypocrite or whatever it is. I'm going to hand this to you and it's wrapped in bitterness at God. The other guy got the job, I didn't get it.

The other guy this, the other person who's married is wonderful, mine is not, and on and on and on it goes. Bottom line, we are to stand our ground for Christ. Our faith is our bean field and we are to stand and guard that bean field with the sword of God as though it were attached to our hand. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Romans, so please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick in Romans Chapter 2 with this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. We Christians, we have an advocate and as soon as I bring that word up in the context of rescuing somebody, I think most Christians will think of the verse I'm about to read. John writing to the Christians said, my little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin. There's sin is out there, this is writing to Christians and if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous is sort of a don't you forget it. And we love this, the same advocate has made the Holy Spirit available to us to resist sin, not only to be forgiven from sin. And the hypocrites that he's talking about here in this chapter and the depraved in the last chapter, they had no intention on correcting their behavior in the presence of God. So Paul addressing hypocritical accusers of others, those who judge inappropriately and then he of course, there is Jesus who allows honest, honest judgment of sin in others. You know you've heard somebody say don't judge me while they're robbing a bank. I mean that's just my example in the extreme. But maybe they've committed some blatant sin and you're holding them accountable and they're going to try to pull that don't judge me card.

Well tear it up, it doesn't work. John chapter 7, and for we Christians what the Bible says means everything, thus the cross references. For you non-Christians you got other problems too. If you're rejecting the verse references and the strength of them, you got some serious problems with God.

And they can be fixed before the clock runs out. But Jesus said this about judging, he says do not judge according to appearance but judge with righteous judgment. So they like to take the verse in Matthew, you know judge not.

Oh see you can't do it, no that's not, you're out of context. Because in verse chapter 7 he says judge with righteous judgment. Without proper judgment, how could you ever determine whether a person is a false prophet or not? All you have to say is you can't judge me, but I can and I will. Now I won't be, it won't be gleeful, well on the outside, it's not supposed to be. But there is some schadenfreude, there is some delight in seeing somebody dealt with.

Good I'm glad he got a ticket. Christ says look don't be getting into that, that's a bad place for you to go, it's carnal. Anyhow, John chapter 1, beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits, judge them.

Whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. How are we ever going to put an end to this? How are we ever going to protect ourselves if we do not hold people accountability to their confession of faith? You say you're a Christian and you think you can go out there and flatten people's tires or something and get in just like it's okay and no one can say anything, well you're delusional, that's the short of it. Well, we got that and it continues here, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourselves, yourself singular. Well if someone has ample knowledge to judge others, they should also have ample knowledge to admit their own wrongs, see that their own faults are before God, that they are under the same standard.

So if you're going to criticize someone else, remember that there's a standard on you also. Now of course, I can't stress this enough, we're not trying to do away with accountability in others, we're just trying not to let it get out of hand. Christ has not committed his church to a lynch mob. We are to be wise as serpents, as harmless as doves, we are to love, we are to look out for each other, but if you take accountability away, we can't look out for each other. In fact, we're doing the devil's work, we're enabling sin to just go unchecked. The religious hypocrite is a walking, talking, double standard and that's what God is trying to deal with. We hate when we see this in the mainstream media, they can't help it, every time they open their mouths it's a lie, even when they're telling the truth they're lying, just like the devil.

Really they're always up to something because their heart is wrong. Well, Christ wants to fight these things because the identical codes are in all of us. We can be just as rotten as anybody else and to fight this we have these scriptures before us that address it. So he continues, for you who judge practice the same thing, so while condemning failure in others, are you impenitent before God about your own sins? Is there this prolification of personal sin where it just goes on and nobody checks it, it just keeps spreading?

Matthew 23, therefore whatever they tell you to observe, he's speaking about the religious leaders in Jerusalem, the rabbis of his day, Christ speaking, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works for they say and do not do. There's your hypocrites for you. There's the double standard and Christ came against it and they hated him for this and they will hate you for this also, some will, how dare you?

And they'll luck to be petty and pull up something that you've done, some little petty thing, oh yeah well you didn't pay that parking ticket or something stupid like that in which you say, so let's talk about you right now. You know we understand people want to get the change of subject as best they can, Jehovah Witnesses are very good at that if you hold their feet to the fire, who do you say Jesus is? They'll try to get out of that question once you start picking their theology apart and distract you, oh yeah what about blood transfusion, we're going to need one in a minute if you don't get off my property. Anyhow, coming, when we get to chapter 14, Paul's going to warn the Gentiles to not pass judgment on the Jews who are trying to follow their strict dietary customs. You know when Christ gave freedom to the church to eat whatever they want, the Jews, many of them said that's good, I just can't do that, I'm just not going to eat, you know, possum.

And so whatever it is, yeah, because pork is the easy one, right? But you know and they have every right, you have every right to say I'm going to eat that and I'm not going to eat that. What you don't have a right to do is say is God condemns eating this, that's when you start, that's when you're wrong. Well, Paul had to deal with that in the 14th chapter because he knew this was happening throughout the Gentile world where the Christians and Gentiles were worshiping together and he was saying don't go judging those Jews and Jews don't you go judging them. You know he's just like a father putting out all these brush fires, that if those brush fires aren't putting out the squabbling of the siblings, they'll turn into prairie fires, they'll be a big deal. Whenever someone stands on moral superiority, they are standing on thin ice. You know we have an old saying if you're living in a glass house, don't throw stones.

And make sure you have your clothes on all the time too. So why would anyone with a Bible behave so blatantly phony? Why? Well the flesh is one reason and a false conversion can be another reason. You have this acquaintance with the things of the Bible but you have no relationship with the God of the Bible. There are people that know a lot about the Bible but they're not walking with the God of the Bible. Maybe they're you know born in a Christian home. You know one of the hardest jobs, and I say this so if you come across them, one of the hardest roles in the church is the child of the pastor and I've met many of them in my own home. That's a joke.

But outside my home. And a lot of times they're pretty beat up in their theology, in their walk with Christ, they're all over the place. And if I guess if you at a young age were put under their kind of magnifying glass, if you were held to a higher standard in the home because you have come into the assembly that's supposed to love you and be a blessing and you're finding people are just criticizing you and turning on you, criticizing your parents often, it could be a tough route for a kid. Well I can't change all the evils of the world but I can't change how I handle these things when I come across someone who was a pastor's child even into their latter years. They could be 50, 60 years old and you detect issues there. You know then they have other issues. You know how are they going to sit under another man? Another man's preaching if they've you know enjoyed their parent, their father preaching from the pulpit for their childhood then they got to deal with that in life.

So it's a lot of things. It's like if you find a good church as you all have and then you know you find yourself you have to you move away now you're looking for another church. It's very difficult because you want the church you're in now to be like the one you enjoyed wherever you came from.

That's understandable. It's just not the reality all the time. The reality is is you have to become a new wineskin. Now you don't have to become a new something else but you do have to be flexible.

You know not major in the minors. This is an accumulation of knowledge over the decades of pastoral ministry and I'm not charging you for this. This one's on the house. So we come back to what spawned this thing is how can someone have a Bible and behave so be such a blatant phony. Well there are a lot of reasons why that does not excuse them. It just may enlist us to contribute to the solution and maybe you need to tell some pastor's child that are in their latter years you know part of your problem is you haven't become a new wineskin and you've been bursting wherever you go.

Maybe that's part of the problem. Anyway many Jews felt that their relationship to Abraham and the mosaic law the Old Testament they felt because they were Jews they were excused that they could look down on the Gentiles and still go about their own sins. The very sins they were hating on the Gentiles. We just saw this in the gospels. The conniving, the lying, the murder of Jesus Christ by the religious leaders at the top of their pyramid and yet they smugly just went on about their business afterward. So let's be real about this. It does happen and it happens often enough. Verse 2, but we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

So he's bringing them back. He says come on you know there's a judgment of God there is a scripture and it's not a philosophy. Judgment is not a philosophy. It is a fact and just be on the right side and it really isn't that hard to be on the right side of God's judgment because he's done all the heavy lifting on Calvary on the cross. What is the first sin judged in the New Testament church? Not the New Testament.

The New Testament church when the church was birthed. It was lying. Lying was the first sin publicly judged. Lying to the Holy Spirit, to a pastor, and in church.

All three of those. Well it caused the couple that lied, it caused them to leave the church and the planet. You say man that was a harsh judgment.

Yep it was. That's the point. God doesn't say deal with that.

He says think about that. Zephaniah the prophet. These prophets, I love reading them because you know who reads Zephaniah?

I do. And they have so many gems because it's God. He says Yahweh is righteous in her midst in the midst of Israel and her Jerusalem. He's righteous so we got to remember that. So we talk about judgment. God is righteous. He continues he will do no unrighteousness.

Do you believe that? You know some people are so bitter at God for allowing a disaster in their life that they can't get past it and so the devil has a field day with that. You just handing the devil, here's the recipe, here's my passcode to keep me a hypocrite or whatever it is. I'm going to hand this to you and it's wrapped in bitterness at God. The other guy got the job, I didn't get it.

The other guy this, the other person is married just wonderful, mine is not and on and on and on it goes. Bottom line we are to stand our ground for Christ. Our faith is our bean field and we are to stand and guard that bean field with the sword of God as though it were attached to our hand and if you don't the consequences can be uglier than what they ever should have been. You got to believe this by faith. It's not just an intellectual decision or an emotional decision.

It has to be an act of the will. The heart has got to get its skin in the game and understand that's the charge Satan had against Job. You put his skin in the game and he won't follow you anymore.

Hurt him. Let me get my hands on him and he'll curse you. And Satan was proven wrong because he's not. He's not omniscient. He's not all powerful. He is a created fallen being.

He wasn't created that way but he is that way now. Well, Zephaniah, Yahweh is righteous in her midst. He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning he brings his justice to light. You got to look for that sometimes. He never fails.

Do you believe that? Love never fails. That's what Paul told the Corinthians. True agape love does not fail. People may fail. The love does not. What about the righteous is just the judgment and justice of God? Does that fail?

Says here, he never fails. Then he adds, but the unjust, they have no shame. They go about doing what they want to do and this irritated the psalmist in Psalm 73. You know, I see these people. The kids do well.

They go to the best schools, got the best clothes, eat the best food. Here I am doing the righteous thing and we're struggling over here. And then I went into the house of the Lord and it all became clear. There's more to this life than this life. So keeping the major things, the major things, the flesh will flip that around so quickly on you, you won't know what happened. You will take a minor thing. You know, I'm not going back to that church anymore. Can you believe they didn't have skim milk?

I can't believe anybody has skim milk. But I mean those petty things. I'm making up one, but they're real ones. I could throw those out, but I might hit somebody or get a family member. That's not my intention. Though I could enjoy it, right? No, I could not because there's nothing cute about it. And I've got my own things.

You've never seen them? And that's just because. Anyway, coming back to, I finished my Zephaniah quote, to the true believer the Bible means everything. Jesus is the personification of truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And there's more to him, not only the truth, there's more to him. And that's why we do the cross references again because we value scripture. But the unbeliever is too busy scoffing at scripture for it to penetrate. It's like the seeds sown on the wayside.

They don't get into the soil where they can do what they're supposed to do because their heart is too hard and they like it that way. I believe many people want Jesus to be a fraud. Many people want the Bible to be wrong. They want to keep their lifestyle at any cost. And it's going to cost. And they can't afford it. And when they get to hell, they're going to find out they're not dressed for it.

But it's too late. Well, he says, against those who practice such things. Well, God punishes evil and rewards good. That's not how, I mean, not in the sense of salvation, but ultimately he does reward.

And he does punish. That's a basic fact. And there are those that practice without a care.

And then there are those that do and they want out. And we covered that in last, I believe last session, somewhere in chapter one. Last session, I believe, we made the distinction between practicing sin and participating in sin. There's a great distinction between the two. And it is the heart.

It comes down to the heart. Verse three, and do you think this, oh man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Well, here is his first question. There are over 80 of them in this letter. Now, you know, I had that in my notes from years ago and I forgot to check it. But I'm sure it's right.

And if it's wrong, I don't want to hear it. No. I would like you to.

But it costs five dollars to submit them. So the last one is in chapter 14, was the last question. But here's one of his questions. And so if you're listening to, if he were up on a platform giving a presentation and he's having this, you know, monologue or soliloquy, then you understand it.

Well, when you come to it in writing and he doesn't tell you what's going on, you might miss it. He says here, and do you think, oh man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Well, the hypocrite must be telling himself that. What is the hypocrite? Well, they're wearing a mask. The hypocrite is an actor.

Not only more than a kabuki actor, it's men and women involved, not just men. And just because you can criticize others does not mean you're innocent, nor does it mean you're right. Sometimes you can be right, but it doesn't mean you're innocent or better. And if you see sin in another, then you admit what sin is. If you can identify it in someone else, then you know what it is. So how can anyone honestly miss their own sins?

I don't think anybody can. I've come across people that have told me, I don't sin. And they say they're Christians.

What a goitian knot their doctrine is. It's because they misunderstand what John talks about when he says Christians don't sin. They think that we really don't sin. I can prove that in two seconds, that you sin. Or better, just ask their spouse, hey, he says he doesn't sin. What do you think about that?

And don't lie. That'd be a sin. So verse four, or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? So if you put three and four together, the question and then or do you not know, then you get a little better idea, understanding of how this question format is working for him. So he says, or do you esteem the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long suffering? Well, that's a question.

It has to be answered. Do you dismiss it? Well, he has a stronger word. Do you despise? Do you despise that God is good? Do you despise that he's patient and puts up with your junk? Yeah, but it's not about me. I'm angry because he's putting up with people I don't like.

There's no way to get around it. You're guilty. You disesteem God. That's what a beast does. You know that saying, a bull in a china shop?

The bull has no value on the china. They're going to wreck the whole place, according to that illustration. Well, we're not animals. We are created in the image of God, and we have suffered a nasty fall through sin. Peter writes about those who stubbornly adhere to being the anti-Christ they want to be, 2 Peter 2. But these, like natural brute beasts, made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption. He's not saying yippee. He's pointing out to the Christians, there are people like this.

This is a real thing. There's no getting away from it. What are we going to do about it? In 2 Peter, he's talking about the false prophets that have invaded the church, and he's telling the Christians to get them out, so that we can be useful to Christ. Nearly 2,000 years ago, a Jew and a Gentile, as a people, joined hands at Calvary, and they crucified the Son of God. Who crucified Jesus? I did. Who crucified the Christ?

You did. Sinners caused the need for that, because if he did not come and die on that cross, your sins would stay on you. It's sort of like what would have happened to Adam and Eve had they had that tree of life.

They would have lived forever in a sinful state, but God was having none of that. He put an angel there to keep them from that tree, and he's put the cross there for all of us, made from a tree, to come to him. And so that act of crucifixion, talking about the long-suffering and forbearance of God and his goodness, that act of crucifying Christ called for the unleashing of heaven's weaponized armies, the angels in heaven, to outpour the deserved wrath. Instead, we find Jesus restraining himself and telling Peter, that's not how we do it, Peter.

Put the sword away. And so, for two thousand years, the riches of his goodness, divine forbearance and long-suffering, and he has withheld the fury of his wrath. John said, and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Amen. And so what does God do instead of wiping everybody out? He offers them forgiveness through his son, and he deputizes his people, the church, to carry that message to lost people. He sticks out his nail-scarred hand, and he offers companionship, and the world scoffs and expects to be let off the hook on judgment, because they may be successful in this life or independent in this life. They think they're going to be that way when they stand in a judgment seat, a judgment seat that they don't even believe exists, any of them.

So people who abuse this feature of God's character, his patience, his long-suffering, his goodness, they are storing up for themselves wrath. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio.