All Talk but No Walk | Isaiah 29 | Gary Hamrick

Isaiah chapter 29 and verse 13 the Lord says these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by man I've been titled my teaching today all talk and no walk let's pray first father we come into your house this morning just grateful for your love and thank you Lord for your grace Your mercies that are new for every morning your Compassion's they fail not great as your faithfulness to us Lord and as we open up your word today we pray that you would speak to our hearts that you would take this passage and the surrounding story of Isaiah 29 and just bear witness with our hearts today that we might be shaped more into the image of Jesus Christ our Lord and whose name we pray and everybody said amen well with your Bible still open there to Isaiah 29 if I could draw your attention to verse 1 notice how this chapter begins in verse 1 Isaiah writes woe to you Ariel Ariel the city where David settled the first word here of chapter 29 is the word woe whenever you see the word woe it should cause you to pause because it is a warning it is a pronouncement of God's impending judgment and his judgment is coming to Ariel Isaiah writes that word twice Ariel Ariel and then he helps us to understand exactly who or what he's writing to because he adds the city where David settled so this is an indictment against Jerusalem and Ariel is a nickname for Jerusalem every Allan Hebrew means Lion of God and so it speaks to the majesty and splendor and strength of the city of Jerusalem which is the capital city of the southern kingdom of Judah during this time Isaiah the prophet has been called to minister God's Word to the southern kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem as its capital but this is probably a play on words because while Ariel means Lion of God Isaiah is probably being a little sarcastic here in indited the city of Jerusalem this is the only place in all of the Bible in this chapter where Jerusalem is nicknamed Ariel and again probably a play on words that Isiah is in as much saying to the people of Jerusalem you pride yourselves in your strength in your majesty and in your splendor like the line of God like the king of the beasts but woe unto you because your splendor and your majesty and your strength are about to fade and that's this chapter here he's writing to the people of Jerusalem the capital city of Judah is warning them in advance because of their rebellion against God God is going to come against them and he's going to judge them that's why here in chapter 29 look at verse 2 God says through the pen of Isaiah I will besiege Ariel in verse 3 I will in camp against you in verse 4 you will be brought low now the question becomes what have they done to rile the judgment of God like this well one of the things that they've done wrong is found here in our opening verse where we started at verse 13 look at it again with me now the Lord says to them these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men so one of the things here that has displeased God very much so in terms of the actions and attitudes of the people of Jerusalem is this disposition of they give God lip service but their hearts are far from him what exactly does this mean and why is it so serious well again as I've said many times here at Cornerstone the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible and we see Jesus quoting this verse to indict the people of his day as well and Jesus gives us a word to help us understand what was so wrong Isaiah's day same problem in his own day so if you have your Bibles still handy if you'd go to mark chapter 7 if you'll turn to mark chapter 7 we're going to see Jesus quoting this verse and we're gonna see the context in which he uses it so go in your New Testaments to mark chapter 7 now on your way there just by way of free information Isaiah is one of the favorite books that Jesus quotes from Jesus will quote from the book of Isaiah eight times in the course of his ministry this is going to be one of them here in mark chapter 7 as you're turning there and let me set the background for this scene so that when we get to mark 7 you'll understand what's going on as most of you are aware there were many people in Jesus day who did not believe in him who did not accept him as Messiah as the Son of God the Bible says in the Gospel of John that Jesus came to his own and his own received him not there were many who rejected him Isaiah is going to tell us later they despised him they rejected him they will eventually crucify him among those who were of his worst critics was a Jewish sect by the name of the Pharisees many of you familiar with the Pharisees the Pharisees would pride themselves on being strict adherence to the law of God so much so that the Pharisees were guilty of actually adding to the commandments of God by their oral traditions they would come up with commentary on the commandments of God and in the eyes of the Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus day they actually elevated and valued their own commentary their own traditions on par with the commandments of God and even today in circles of some it's particularly conservative Jews in Orthodox Jews the oral tradition is held in the same value as the scriptures and so the Pharisees are here in Jesus day and they are strict adherence to the law they pride themselves on just how much they try to keep the law they've expanded and expanded the law but they're always looking for ways to trap Jesus or to discredit him and this is one of these occasions so Jesus is up in the Galilee region ministering and a delegation of Pharisees has come up from Jerusalem to the Galilee region for this Congress sation mark chapter 7 verse 1 the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were unclean that is unwashed the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing holding to the tradition of the elders when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash and they observe many other traditions such as the washing of cups pitchers and kettles so the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands he replied Jesus speaking now Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites Circle that word there that's key to understanding the passage and then he quotes what we read earlier from Isaiah 29:13 as it is written these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they worship me in vain their teachings are but rules taught by men so here's this conversation the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus discredit him and they're like hey we noticed your disciples don't wash their hands before they eat now by the way nothing wrong with washing your hands before you eat okay as a German we're not a germaphobe but myself as a German where it's a good thing for you to practice good hygiene particularly in a public restroom okay wash your hands thoroughly and then when you dry them off take the paper towel and open up the bathroom door to get out and if they have the hand blowers and you don't have the paper towels use your sleeves and cord get creative with your elbows but don't touch the handle of the door it's a matter with you if you go to burgerfi in town by the way at burgerfi i don't know about the women's restroom but in the men's restroom there's actually this little pedestal at the foot of the door I love it you can actually take a pedestal and open up the door with your foot now absent the pedestal and absent paper towels or apps of your sleeve if you have short sleeve shirt the most glorious thing is when you finish washing your hands and dry and then someone happens to come in at that same moment be quick with your foot hold the door open it and off you go all right listen it's technique people listen to me so there's nothing wrong with washing your hands I hope you actually practice good hygiene this conversation here at mark 7 is much more than just good hygiene if it were only about hygiene Jesus would have called them germaphobes but he called them hypocrites okay because here's the deal the Pharisees weren't just interested in washing their hands good before you eat they were interested in adding to the commandments of God ritualistic cleansing ceremonies and so they began to discuss among themselves the ancient rabbis and the teachers of the law what does cleanliness mean and so then they started talking about what we need to go to great lengths to wash our hands before we eat and other ceremonial purposes by the way I almost showed you a YouTube clip but then I thought no I don't want people to think I'm making fun of the Jewish people but you can for your own edification you can google today the Jewish practices on the ceremonial of washing of the hands it's very elaborate it is it is very detailed it is very particular they use a cup they have to pour it twice on one hand held this a certain way held your hand like this twice here twice their wrists down make sure the water drips downward if you have a shortage of water at least go knuckles down I mean I'm not making this up it's very meticulous very elaborate very detailed ok and the Pharisees here we're all about the ceremonial cleansing of the hands and making sure you did it just right it's at two times this way two times this way some juice today say no it's three times this way three times I mean they can't even make up their minds but this is the emphasis that the Jews replacing on the serial moe neol washing of the hands the reason why Jesus indict s-- them with Isaiah 29:13 is because it calls them hypocrites is because they're more interested in external cleanliness than the cleanliness of the heart they're more interested in duty than devotion they were more about rituals with God and then they were relationship with God and for this reason Jesus then quotes Isaiah 29:13 and calls them hypocrites so when we read in the context of Isaiah's writings in chapter 29 when he speaks there about people draw near to me with their lips they give me lip service but their hearts are far from me really it's it's about hypocrisy and Jesus uses that verse to expose the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his own day for those of you who like to take notes the word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hoop accrete taste hoop accreta literally translates a play after someone who was involved in a drama and who would change masks depending on what skit they were performing and what character they were performing one who hides behind a mask Hoopa creed taste is derived from two greek words Hoopoe meaning under and cree no meaning to judge so basically a hypocrite is one who under judges himself or herself and typically over judges others hypocrisy always involves some form of inconsistency inconsistency in what you say or inconsistency in what you do or inconsistency in how you treat others or in how you relate to God now here's an important and very sad statistic according to the Barna research group they surveyed a cross-section of Millennials in our country now Millennials basically are the age category of 20s and early 30s the Millennials are some of the most unchurched generation today they don't like going to church they don't prefer to go to church in fact even among Millennials who were raised in the church by the time they have gotten to their 20s and early 30s almost six out of ten Millennials have dropped out of church and the number one reason they gave when they were surveyed by the Barna research group why don't you like coming to church number one reason they gave 66 percent of Millennials said because American churchgoers are hypocritical now the truth is that a lot of people can make a lot of excuses for why they don't want a relationship with God and why they don't want to go to church and the truth also is that every single one of us will have to give an account of ourselves before God and you will not be able to blame anyone else you will not be able to say well I didn't want a relation with Jesus because you know I saw a bunch of hypocrites who who do you know said that they were Christ's followers and they weren't and so then you you're not going to be able to blame anybody else so so get rid of the hip hypocrisy argument and plus let me just say this it is hypocritical to say that people are hypocrites because unless you've never been inconsistent or duplicitous in your attitudes thoughts or actions then you're among us - there's a little bit of Apocrypha in every single one of us every single one of us is guilty at some point in our lives of saying something inconsistent doing something inconsistent relating to other people over judging under judging ourselves over judging others and relating in a wrong way to God in some way so all of us are guilty in some way of hypocrisy now that's sad shouldn't we still be concerned rather than just dismiss this well okay everybody's a little bit of a hypocrite so you know can't we just get on with a different Bible study I mean the fact of the matter is that this should concern all of us shouldn't we be concerned about any inconsistency in our lives that might be a bad witness to this generation or any generation and shouldn't we even be more concerned about the inconsistency in our lives as an affront to God hypocrisy is a sin and when we practice hypocrisy when we engage in hypocrisy that we not only cause God to be Dishonored but we cause unbelievers to be disillusioned because they look at the duplicity of our lives in the hypocrisy of our lives and an unbeliever stumbles and this should concern us again everybody has to give a personal account to God I get that but we should at least be mindful what is our witness are we consistent or inconsistent are we sincere or are we hypocritical in terms of the way we think and live out our lives Peter would say in first Peter 2:1 therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit hypocrisy envy and slander of every kind we need to rid ourselves of hypocrisy if there's any inconsistency or contradiction in our lives we need to look at it examine it confess it as sin and get rid of it it dishonours God and it causes unbelievers to be disillusioned now for you know takers there are typically three types of hypocrisy three types of hypocrisy the Apocrypha towards South the Apocrypha toward others and the Apocrypha toward God so our remaining time we're going to look at each one of these and examine our own hearts the first is hypocrisy toward self now this is when you say one thing and do another when there is inconsistency or contradiction between speech and action you're not you're not really being hypocritical towards others I mean in a sense all hypocrisy is also toward God but for the purpose of our discussion this is just as it relates to you damaged yourself you damaged your own reputation you damaged your own integrity because there's an inconsistent contradiction in your life okay and so we need to examine understand all of this now the Apostle Peter was guilty of this now the Apostle Peter was a man that God used in a wonderful way to bring the first evangelical sermon to 3,000 people in Acts chapter 2 and they got saved but by the time you get to Acts chapter 10 God is going to use Peter to preach the good news to Gentiles for the first almost ten years of the early church and the book of Acts the first 10 chapters covers about 10 years the early church of believers in Jesus Christ was exclusively Jewish it's not until you get to chapter 10 of Acts that you see the first Gentile who comes to faith in Jesus a guy by the name of Cornelius he's a Roman centurion he is a Gentile and his whole family is going to get saved but God's gonna have to work in Peters heart first to get Peter to the place where even wants to visit Cornelius house because Peter as a strict Jew was always taught you don't socialize with Gentiles let alone go into their home and so in order for God to get the message of the gospel to Gentiles he had to first work on the Jewish heart that was prejudiced towards Gentiles most Jews believed in Jesus day that Gentiles were created for one purpose as the father for the fires of hell and so here Peter is is a strict Jew and he prides himself on on Judaism and and his adherence to the law but but he understands Christ as Savior and and so he wants the gospel to go forth but God's gonna have to work on his Jewish mindset in order for him to present the gospel to Gentiles so in Acts chapter 10 Peter has this vision God shows him this vision and in this vision there's this sheet that gets dropped down out of heaven and inside the sheet are these these animals that are not kosher that would be against the Jewish law to eat and in the dream in this vision God says to Peter get up and eat and Peter's like you might be Yahweh but no way you know that's the kind of it he actually has I'm not gonna eat these these non kosher animals because in acts 10 14 he says surely not I Lord for III will never eat anything unclean and then God responds in the vision acts 10 15 and God says do not call anything on impure that I have made clean now got what God was doing was helping Peter understand more than just the dietary aspect of the law God was helping Peter to understand those unclean stinking Gentiles that you have viewed as unclean are actually the ones I died for too and so you need to present the good news of Jesus to them as well so Peter gets up from this this vision this dreamlike vision and on his way he goes to the house of Cornelius and Cornelius wonderfully responds to the gospel to the good news of Jesus Christ and his whole household Cornelius this whole household gets saved they get water baptized they get baptized in the Holy Spirit I mean it's just this wonderful event and Peter then in Acts chapter 10 verse 34 says this I now realize that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from all nations who fear God and do what is right and so Peter realized hey my own heart had a little prejudice toward some Gentiles but I now realize that the message of the Cross is for all people and that God does not show favoritism Christ died for all that all might be saved in response to the free gift and so and so this light bulb goes off in Peters - I now realize that God has called everybody to salvation loves everybody whosoever will shall be saved and and that God accepts all men from all nations who fear Him and do what is right ten years later Peter is socializing with some Gentiles because now he's he's had this epiphany in Acts chapter 10 and he and he's enjoying hanging out with Gentile he's eating pulled pork barbecue he's wrapping scallops with bacon I mean he's just he's literally living high on the hog you know what I'm saying to you and he's like this is wonderful Liberty Liberty Liberty Gentiles bros sister you know and he's all he's all hamming it up with them dare I say more puns and and sand but what happens is Galatians chapter 2 Paul says I opposed Peter to his face because he was clearly in the wrong here's what happened as Peter is socializing and eating with Gentiles in walked some Jews and all the sudden Peter gets up from the table and pretends like he doesn't even know these Gentiles and in Galatians chapter 2 verse 13 Paul says that by Peters hypocrisy by his hypocrisy Galatians 2:13 he led Jews astray and even Barnabas by his hypocrisy that's why Paul says I posed him to his face as he was a hypocrite he was like one minute like Oh God I now see you don't show favoritism you accept all men from all nations who fear you and do what is right this is wonderful but then in an awkward moment he's like I don't even know these people that's hypocrisy aren't you glad that God forgives hypocrites the second thing we need to be aware of is hypocrisy toward others this is when you hold others to a higher standard than yourself it's under judging yourself and over judging others it's when you call someone out for eating too much but you drink too much it's when you call someone out for cheating on their spouse but you cheat on your taxes it's hypocrisy toward others holding others to a higher standard than you hold yourself to we got to be very aware of not being quick to look at the sins of others you should be more concerned about our own sins let me illustrate a true story DL Moody and Charles Haddon Spurgeon great preachers of the 19th century they hadn't met each other though Spurgeon lived in England Dalziel moody lived in a character so deal moody took it upon himself to go visit Spurgeon in England and when he got to Spurgeon's house knocked on the door Spurgeon answered the door smoking a stogie now just for background dl moody was a kind of a round portly man and so dl moody looked at Spurgeon who answered the door smoking a cigar and deal moody said to Spurgeon how could you a man of God do that and Spurgeon patted deal Moody stomach and said the same way that you as a man of God could do that we can't be quick to point out the faults of others you should be examining our own life now here's a verse a lot of people love to quote even if they're not Christians people love this verse and they don't even know where it is in the Bible was Matthew 7 verse 1 judge not lest you be judged don't judge me bro don't judge me sis you know because you don't you judge me one finger point at me is for back at you you know that whole thing right ok now I get that we're not supposed to judge or else we could be judged but let me read you the whole context of what Jesus was saying it's Matthew chapter 7 verse 1 Jesus did say don't judge or you too will be judged but now listen if he meant never address anything and anyone else's life then how are we to hold each other accountable listen to the rest of the passage this is Matthew 7 verse 2 for in the same way you judge others you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye how can you say to your brother let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye you hypocrite Jesus says first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye so the reason I bring this up is because when we talk about hypocrisy toward others some people are quick to jump to the conclusion that that means I should never hold you accountable and you should never hold me accountable because we don't have the right to speak into each other's lives otherwise it would be hypocrisy towards each other now not true Jesus does not say we should not judge he says there's a right way to do it and it involves two things number one order and number two purpose you see if Jesus here meant that you should never speak into the life of another person out of sincere care and concern for where they might be going off the rails and they also having the same freedom to do the same for you then how are we to ever hold each other accountable so Jesus here speaks about the wrong way to judge and a right way to judge in fact he actually goes on to say you got to be careful so that you can remove the speck from your brother's eye so in other words he's not saying disengage and pretend like you're never to speak into somebody else's life he just says there's a right order you have to move remove the plank from your own eye before you can with proper dexterity and compassion remove the speck from your brother's eye so we have to still be engaged with each other we still have to hold each other accountable we have to still be in the body of Christ people who will speak and do each other's lives Jesus does not say it's it you can't judge it all or that we shouldn't in fact he says we need to help a friend when there's something wrong in their lives but hypocrisy happens when we are aware of their sin but blind to our own that's hypocrisy so Jesus says the order is I want you to deal with your own heart first your own sin first well when will I ever be dealing with myself such that then I can speak into someone else's life listen we're never gonna reach a state of perfection until we're with Jesus but in the meantime we have to do what we can to examine our own hearts first and then with loving tenderness and humility we can speak into the life of another individual but we had better know the order we got to work on ourselves first and the purpose would be to help a brother or a sister in some kind of sin issue or sin struggle avoid the hypocrisy toward others though by being more concerned about your own sin than the sin of others the last hypocrisy here is hypocrisy toward God and this is probably the most serious of them all and this is what Jesus accused the religious leaders of they were going through the motions without the emotion it was all about duty and not devotion the head was engaged but not the heart that's why Isaiah said in our opening verse these people come near to me with their mouth and they honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me see that became the hypocrisy they're like showing up the church or praising the Lord and then during the rest of the week they're living like the devil and that's the hypocrisy of it God is not interested in your lip service God wants your heart and God knows that if he really gets our heart then our actions follow God wants our hearts more than he wants your worship more than he wants your offerings more than he wants what you could do to serve him in the kingdom God wants your heart and God wants all of your heart God wants us to live lives that are not in contradiction or inconsistent but God wants us to live lives where we judge ourselves first where we are the same in public as we are in private God wants a consistent life and an undivided heart and first John 2 verse 6 John said whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did hypocrisy is sin it causes God to be Dishonored and it causes unbelievers to be disillusioned and so as far as it depends on us may we examine our hearts and our lives may we be honest about ourselves may we realize and admit to God where there's been inconsistency in our thoughts our attitudes our actions in our lives before God and may we repent of the sin of hypocrisy it is offensive to God and it is a bad witness to the world and may our prayer be as David prayed in Psalm 86 11 teach me your way O Lord and I will walk in your truth give me an undivided heart not a hypocritical or duplicity is heart an undivided heart that I may fear your name this is the verse I just quoted I thought it would be good for us to say it aloud and together as our prayer Psalm 86 11 let's say it aloud and together teach me your way O Lord and I will walk in your truth give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name Lord this is our prayer forgive us when we've been hypocritical it's dishonored you Lord it's caused unbelievers to look at us and be disillusioned with the church we pray Lord as far as it depends on us that we would live lives that are consistent with undivided hearts in undivided devotion to you that people will look on our lives as Jesus said may they see your good deeds and glorify my father which is in heaven that people would look at our lives and not be repelled but they would be drawn to you because they see a humility and a consistency and an undivided heart we know Lord people are watching we don't ask for your help to live this way just because people are watching we want it to be glorifying to you but because they're watching it we want to be an example that reflects you well we want to be a stepping stone Lord for people to come to know you not a hindrance not a stumbling stone so right now Lord point out to us in our own hearts in our own lives as we just take this last minute to pray before we leave speak to our hearts where is their hypocrisy in us and where you bring it to our minds right now we confess it a sin and we say Lord forgive us help us with the power of your Holy Spirit to live a life that is consistent with undivided devotion to you Lord we love you and we thank you that you forgive hypocrites you restore lives you cleanse hearts you're a merciful and gracious God and we need some of that mercy today Lord that we would be men and women and young people who reflect you well you point people to Jesus through our consistent lives bringing glory and honor to you in Jesus name we pray and all God's people said amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 7,278

Rating: 4.9148936 out of 5

Keywords: hypocrisy, Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel

Id: 3pSNVQ4h8gc

Length: 33min 59sec (2039 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019