Handling Hypocrisy (Psalms 119:25-32)
Handling Hypocrisy
Psalms 119:25-32
September 4, 2011
As you know we are working our way through the 119th Psalm,
And as we do, we not only get a new appreciation for the word of God,
But we also learn something of it’s sufficiency.
• We have seen that God’s word is sufficient to bring about blessing in a life.
• We have seen that God’s word is sufficient to produce purity in a life.
• We have seen that God’s word is sufficient even when you aren’t getting the specific answers you desire.
Tonight we will learn that God’s word is sufficient to revive us.
Verse 25 is often quoted anytime a church
Schedules a revival meeting for the congregation.
“Revive me according to Your word”
Revival is for the redeemed to be re-vived.
(not necessarily an evangelistic event)
And the insinuation is that those are God’s people
Have cooled off, or backslidden, or have grown apathetic
And need to be confronted, and convicted back into a dedication
That is the purpose of revival.
What I hope to show you tonight is that revival is always at your disposal,
Even if your church isn’t planning one in the near future.
You can have revival any time, for God’s word is sufficient to produce it.
The power behind revival has never been the preacher or the song leader,
But has always been the word of God.
SO IF YOU HAVE THE WORD, YOU HAVE ENOUGH.
The fact of the matter is that even believers stumble and struggle
And need to be revived at times.
Even believers can go through moments in life
In which they don’t look or act or talk like true believers.
Even believers have moments when they display hypocrisy.
Now I know that is a harsh word.
Hypocrite is a word often used in the New Testament.
John used it on Jerusalem, Jesus used it on the Pharisees.
In the New Testament it comes from the Greek word HUPOCRITES,
Which was the name for a Greek “actor”.
It referred to someone who wore a mask, someone who played a role.
Jesus often called the Pharisees
“actors” or “pretenders” or “role players”.
They were not real, they were phony.
Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”
The word “hypocrisy” appears significantly less in the Old Testament.
Daniel 11:34 “Now when they fall they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in hypocrisy.”
There the Hebrew word literally mans “smoothness”
And it is a word used other places to refer to the anti-Christ.
Daniel 11:21 “In his place a despicable person will arise, on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred, but he will come in a time of tranquility and seize the kingdom by intrigue.”
But you get the picture.
It is someone who deceives, who lives inconsistent with their heart.
It is someone who puts on a show, and someone who is very good at it.
Now the hypocrisy of the wicked and the hypocrisy of the redeemed look completely different.
A lost man displays hypocrisy any time he acts like he loves God.
(This is what the Pharisees did)
A believer, however, demonstrates hypocrisy
Any time he acts contrary to the word of God.
You see a believer’s heart has been redeemed.
He has been made righteous. He has been given a love for God.
So for him hypocrisy is to live or act contrary to God’s truth.
So a lost man is a hypocrite when he acts like he is saved.
A saved man is a hypocrite when he acts like he is lost.
And while none of us wants to be a full-blown hypocrite,
I think we can all agree there have been times
When we have all show hypocrisy.
Let me tell you about a man named Peter.
Galatians 2:11-13 “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.”
There Peter actually displayed a form of hypocrisy,
And I think we can identify.
In fact, I like to call this stanza of Psalm 119 “Peter’s Stanza”,
Because I think it properly mirrors how Peter must have felt
At various times in his life.
I’m certainly not critiquing Peter, he was a great apostle, but even Peter would admit he had moments of inconsistency in his life.
• Certainly one we just read about.
• But how about the day when he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, and then in his next breath tried to talk Him out of going to the cross?
• Or how about the day when he was bold enough to walk on water, but to frightened to stay afloat?
• Of course Peter will always be tagged for the night he promised to die with Jesus, only to deny Him three times before sunrise.
But of all those incidents in Peter’s life,
Scripture only gives Peter’s response to one of them.
Luke 22:60-62 “But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.”
Did Peter have a good heart?
Yes
Was Peter redeemed?
Yes
Did Peter always act like it?
No
And I think we can all identify with that.
Furthermore we should also be able to identify with Peter’s response.
“He…wept bitterly”
And please understand, that Peter didn’t weep
Because of the consequences he received.
(That was like the man in the first 8 verses,
Who was broken because of his sin and now lived in shame)
Peter wept because he would have rather died
Than to have this awful feeling in his stomach.
Peter walked in hypocrisy and it broke his heart.
And that leads us to our Psalmist tonight.
As we have done, tonight, let me show you the circumstances our Psalmist is in.
#1 HIS CIRCUMSTANCE
Psalms 119:25
After reading that first verse
It really isn’t hard to tell where our Psalmist currently dwells.
“My soul cleaves to the dust”
You’ve seen that word “cleaves” before.
Genesis 2:24 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”
You probably learned it “and cleave unto his wife”.
This man is literally married to the dust.
He didn’t just fall, he is broken.
He is on the ground, and he can’t seem to pick himself up.
And of course what he longs for is revival.
“Revive me according to Your word”
He is broken and he longs to be restored to a proper biblical state.
Now that isn’t the only place we see his circumstance.
(28) “My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word.”
Not only is his soul cleaving to the dust,
But his soul is also heavily grieved and weeps.
Even the fact that he prays for strength
Indicates that he has none in and of himself.
This man is totally and completely broken.
(32) “I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.”
Obviously there he has a plan with the consequence being
That God will enlarge his heart.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
Psalms 118:5 “From my distress I called upon the LORD; The LORD answered me and set me in a large place.”
• This man feels trapped in.
• This man is getting spiritual claustrophobia.
• His world is pressing in on him.
The NIV actually translates his request as “set my heart free”.
This man is carrying a massive burden,
And it has him broken without strength, and cleaving to the dust.
SO WHAT IS HIS BURDEN?
WHAT IS IT THAT HAS HIM ENCLOSED?
Well, he doesn’t state specifically what he did,
But by his requests we can tell.
(29) “Remove the false way from me”
There is something about himself that he does not like.
He has been prone to walk in “the false way”
Literally translated “the lying way”
In other words this man played the hypocrite.
Just like Peter hypocritically denying the Lord and then weeping bitterly,
That is where this man is.
He walked in hypocrisy and the weight of the guilt
Is more than he can bear.
Like Peter, he isn’t necessarily under certain consequences,
He just hates himself for what he has become.
I think most of us can identify with that feeling.
• It is the feeling we get when we don’t do what the Lord requires.
• It is the feeling we get when we feel as though we let God down.
• It is the feeling we get when we don’t live as a Christian should.
And even if we seem to get away with it at the moment,
The inner turmoil of it is bad enough
That we almost would have rather gotten caught.
So we have here a man who walked in hypocrisy; that is his circumstance.
Let’s move on.
#2 HIS CONFESSION
Psalms 119:26
Now this is actually a very important step to this Psalm.
I don’t want to minimize the total sufficiency of the word of God,
But you understand that God’s word is not all you need at this moment.
A person also needs repentance.
And this man does that.
“I have told of my ways”
And notice the response.
“and You have answered me.”
That is forgiveness.
Psalms 32:3-5 “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.”
When we sin against Him, especially with hypocrisy,
It is vitally important that we confess that to Him.
There must be repentance,
Because it is repentance that moves God to forgiveness,
And apart from forgiveness we will never get out of the dust.
So don’t miss the importance of his confession here to God.
If you have walked in hypocrisy,
You must confess that to God and ask for His forgiveness.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This Psalmist did that.
“I have told of my ways, and You have answered me; Teach me Your statutes.”
And not only did his mouth confess, but his heart repented,
And now he wants to learn the commands of God.
His Circumstance, His Confession
#3 HIS CRY
Psalms 119:27-29
I suppose we could really throw the end of verse 26 in here as well
When he asked “Teach me Your statutes”,
For it flows in line with what he asks for in these verses.
And let’s break his cry down a little bit.
You can really see four things he asks for.
(Good requests for a recovering hypocrite)
1) ENLIGHTEN ME (27)
I like how he says, “Make me understand”.
He almost paints himself as a hard-headed pupil.
Don’t stop on me until I get it.
(I can identify with that)
“Make me understand the way of Your precepts”
What do precepts speak of? – “treasure”
So his request is that God will make him
Understand the value and the treasure of His word.
His prayer is that God will open his eyes to see how valuable His truth is.
WHY DOES HE WANT TO SEE THAT?
“So I will meditate on Your wonders”
The point is, that he had lost his excitement about the word of God.
The “new” had worn off to him.
He had gotten to a place where he was no longer captivated by God’s word.
(Hint: Losing our excitement about God’s word is the first step to hypocrisy)
But he doesn’t just say, “I’m gonna get excited about Your word.”
He knows his weakness.
He asks God to help him see why His word is so great
So that it will be easy to be captivated by it.
This, by the way, is why I preach.
And this verse is my goal for you as we study this Psalm.
I want to make you understand the infinite value of God’s word
So that you will be captivated and will meditate on God’s wonders as well.
But this guy wants to turn his life around and he asks God to help him.
Enlighten me
2) STRENGTHEN ME (28)
We already saw that he was broken and without strength.
The problem is that his weakness makes it virtually impossible
For him to pull himself out of this spiral.
Was Peter strong enough to confess Christ upon pain of death?
No, not on his own.
If Peter was going to stand, Christ would have to make him stand.
The Psalmist has learned that as well.
He is praying that God will make him strong so that he doesn’t fall again.
This too is a good idea.
3) PURIFY ME (29a)
“Remove the false way from me”
• Please take away my hypocritical heart.
• Please help me not to be an actor.
• Please help me not to be a pretender.
We read it earlier, but I love the verse.
1 John 1:9“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Obviously I love the forgiveness part,
But I also love the promise that He will cleanse us.
I don’t just want to be forgiven, I want to be changed.
As believers we aren’t looking for a means to sin,
We are looking for freedom from it.
Remember David’s great penitent Psalm?
Psalms 51:1-3 “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.”
He didn’t just want his sin forgiven, he wanted it removed.
And this, by the way, is at the heart of atonement.
Remember the day of atonement?
Two goats, one to sacrifice, and one to send away.
It signified, sin atoned for, and carried away.
Christ also did this.
“Living He loved me, dying He saved me, Buried He carried my sins far away, rising He justified, freely forever, one day He’s coming, O glorious day!”
And that is precisely what that Psalmist wants.
Forgive me, but don’t stop there, purify me as well.
Enlighten me, Strengthen me, Purify me
4) BLESS ME (29b)
“And graciously grant me Your law.”
When I look this verse up in my interlinear bible
(which gives the actual order of words)
They translate this verse, “with Your law favor me”
In other words, it is not only gracious for God to give His word,
But God’s law is also the means by which he shows you favor.
There is no greater blessing God can bestow upon us,
Than to reveal Himself to us, and this He does through His perfect word.
This is what the Psalmist wants.
I’ve been a hypocrite and I’m sorry.
• Now, please remind me why your word is great,
• Strengthen me not to do this again,
• Purify me of the wickedness that would do this in the first place,
• And bless me with Your word one more time.
That is a repentant prayer of a recovering hypocrite.
If you or I have walked in hypocrisy,
This is certainly how we approach God’s throne of grace.
His Circumstance, His Confession, His Cry
#4 HIS COMMITMENT
Psalms 119:30-32
All three of these verses speak of his new commitment.
But this is important.
It is not just a commitment not to be a hypocrite again.
Certainly that is part of it.
But many a man has told God, “I’ll never do that again”
Only to fall right back into the sin.
See, we need more than a commitment not to sin,
We need help not to sin.
WHERE DO WE GET THAT HELP?
From God’s word.
So this man doesn’t just commit not to be a hypocrite,
He commits to God’s word, which will help him not to be a hypocrite.
1) HIS CHOICE (30)
See, he made a choice to walk in “the faithful way”.
Your Bible may call it “the way of truth”
At any rate, he has chosen to quit being a hypocrite.
But just a decision alone is not enough.
So he does something to cement his decision.
“I have placed Your ordinances before me.”
He genuinely wants to walk in the way of truth,
So he puts God’s word before his eyes.
Tired of being a hypocrite?
Tired of living a double life?
Then the first step is to get into God’s word.
That was this man’s choice.
2) HIS FAITH (31)
I just love reading the truthfulness of the Psalms.
I can identify with their fears.
WHAT IS THIS MAN AFRAID OF?
That God will lead him to shame.
That is why he prays, “O LORD, do not put me to shame.”
Why would he be worried about shame?
Because he is clinging to God’s testimonies.
Now we have also talked about “testimonies” before.
This refers to the recordings of God’s faithful acts in the past.
And by the way, trusting in them requires faith.
And with faith often comes fear.
“God, if I do this, and You don’t come through, I’m gonna look like an idiot”
That is how this man feels.
He knows that he wants to cling to God’s “testimonies”
But he also knows that God will have to come through.
You see, he has chosen to walk by faith.
And this indicates the strength of his commitment.
Many times I am committed until I am forced to trust God alone,
And then I retreat to what seems to be safer waters.
That is hypocrisy.
It is to claim a trust in God, but to bail when the waves crash.
This man already did that, and he doesn’t want to do that again.
So he is going to cling to God’s word
And pray that God doesn’t let him look like an idiot.
His Choice, His Faith
3) HIS EAGERNESS (32)
I can’t help but here seeing Peter running
And taking that head-first dive into the empty tomb of Jesus.
This man is running to God.
WHY?
“For You will enlarge my heart”
You will set my heart free.
This man has been oppressed and the walls closed in on him.
Next time he is running to God’s word
Because he doesn’t ever want to feel this way again.
I can’t help but wonder if it was the remember pain of his previous denial
That gave Peter the strength to stand while being martyred for the Lord.
Martyrdom was bad, but he had already felt the guilt of hypocrisy
And he didn’t want to feel that again.
• This time he saw the green pastures…
• This time he saw the still waters…
• This time he saw the wide open spaces…
They were found by obeying God and so he was eager to do it.
And there you have the steps to climb out of hypocrisy.
• Confess it before God
• Cry out for God’s help to defeat it
• Commit to God’s word
• Choose to read it
• Cling to it even when faith is required
• Run to it like a glass of water in the middle of the desert
You see God’s word not only protects from hypocrisy,
But it is also sufficient to pull a life out of hypocrisy.
So if you have found yourself grieved to the soul,
Then confess it to God, cry out to Him, and commit yourself to His word.
It will protect you and it will guide you
To help you never play the hypocrite again.
Psalms 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”
