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The Book of Luke, Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisee, Which is Hypocrisy, Part I - Lesson 153
Luke 12:1‑12 1In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. 3Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. 4And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. 6Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? 7But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. 8Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: 9But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. 10And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. 11And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: 12For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
We live in the age of hypocrisy for with every direction we turn we find hypocrisy.
In fact hypocrisy is revered and promoted as the way of promotion and advancement and the way to success.
Not only are horns tooted to promote oneself but they are enhanced horns which will present an amplified image of oneself.
Television is hypocrisy for television is the perfect medium to project an image that does not reflect reality.
Image that does not reflect reality is what hypocrisy is.
There is no such thing as a reality show for we are only given images that the producers wish for us to see.
Our politicians depend on hypocrisy for in most cases they do not want to be seen as they really are but instead desire to project an image which is designed to attract voters to them.
We truly do not know our governmental representatives, the only thing we know is the image of them that is presented to us.
That is naturally a form of hypocrisy.
Putting on anything that covers our real selves is hypocrisy.
In fact ladies the makeup that you wear is hypocrisy for makeup covers up that which is real in order to project another image.
We admit that some forms of hypocrisy such as moderate makeup are acceptable for the overall greater benefit that they bring, do we not?
When is the last time that you bought a hamburger that looked like the advertisement for that hamburger, so juicy and fresh and tasty looking with crisp lettuce and ripe red tomato?
A man named Melvin F. Wheatley wrote the following:
Because we are sinners we are split spiritual personalities.
We swear allegiance to one set of principles and live by another.
Our souls are the battlegrounds for civil wars, but we are trying to live serene lives in houses divided against themselves.
The following words are from an old engraving on a cathedral in Labeck, Germany:
Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us:
Because we are sinners we are split spiritual personalities.
We say one thing and do another.
We appear to be one thing but our life reflects another.
Because we are split spiritual personalities we are all hypocrites in one form or another.
Got reminded the people of Israel of this through the prophet Isaiah in:
Isaiah 9:17, Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly.
The Bible holds up King David in high esteem and he is listed among those of faith in Hebrews 11 but David was a hypocrite.
Yes, David is a saint but he was a hypocrite.
He pretended to be interested in the welfare of Uriah, the Hittite and gave Uriah a little furlough so that he could go home to be with his wife whom David had made pregnant.
David’s motive was not concern for Uriah’s welfare but his motive was to cover up his sin.
David was not pure but David was hypocritical?
Even Saints like David have been pretenders.
David was a murderer just like Moses.
And Moses tried to cover up his sin just like David tried to cover up his sin.
All these sinned the sin of hypocrisy.
Yet they will be in heaven according to Hebrews 11.
They are in God’s book of life even though they were hypocrites for they were forgiven.
According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary:
Hypocrisy – simulation; a feigning to be what one is not; or dissimulation, a concealment of one’s real character or motives. More generally, hypocrisy is simulation, or the assuming of a false appearance of virtue or religion; a deceitful show of a good character, in morals or religion; a counterfeiting of religion.
Hypocrite – One who feigns to be what he is not; one who has the form of godliness without power, or who assumes an appearance of piety and virtue, when he is destitute of true religion.
Hypocritical – Simulating; counterfeiting a religious character; assuming a false and deceitful appearance; applied to persons.
And in light of what Jesus is telling his disciples in this passage “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” I would like to add to this definition the following:
A hypocrite is one who feigns to be what he is not; including the feigning of not being a Christian when he is a Christian.
Peter feigned knowing the Lord after he had walked with the Lord.
Matthew 26:73, And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech betrayeth thee. 74Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man.
His disciples forsook him in his darkest hour pretending to be other than they were.
Peter also on another occasion withdrew himself from the Gentiles in order to fit in with those of the circumcision.
Christians cover up their Christianity all the time in order to fit in, do we not.
That is the aim of hypocrisy for hypocrisy exists in order to curry favor.
How many times do we give obvious testimony of our salvation while in the company of other Christians but easily conceal that testimony outside that company, perhaps only in part but concealing some part of it nevertheless.
Francis Bacon who lived from 1561–1626, said “A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint.
Now I, who liveS from 1938 to the present will say: A saint is worse than a bad man when he pretends to be a bad man.
This is what our Lord is cautioning his disciples against.
“Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Before we get into this verse we need to know a few things about leaven for our Lord uses this word on several occasions in his preaching.
Understanding this word is so important to our study for it reveals to us what takes place in hypocrisy.
Ladies in the kitchen do not use this term “leaven” but use the term “yeast” for leaven is yeast.
The purpose of yeast is simply to produce bubbles.
That is all yeast is for, to produce something that has no substance, that has no reality.
It is used to puff up, to expand something to a size no longer solid but full of carbon dioxide bubbles.
******* SKIP IF I WANT TO
I remember an old song that expresses a life that has no substance, no reality to it.
Remember the song, I’m forever blowing bubbles.
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
This song expresses a life of dreams that never come to reality.
A wished for life, a wished for life designed to cover up that which is real.
********
That is what yeast does to bread.
Jesus had no problem with the leaven of bread for he said in Matthew 16:12, 12Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
The leaven of bread, yeast, is the ingredient that puffs up bread, that makes bread rise.
Yeast is alive for yeast is neither a plant nor animal but a fungus.
We add it to the flour in its dormant state and we expect it to thrive and grow in our bread dough with moisture and the proper temperature.
Under the right conditions, the yeast cells feed on sugar and multiply or convert the starch in the flour to sugar for food.
A loaf of bread, ready to go into the oven, may contain millions of yeast cells.
As the yeast cells feed, they expel carbon dioxide and alcohol.
The carbon dioxide gas rises through the bread dough and is captured by the gluten structure in the dough to form air cells or bubbles which are left behind and that is what makes bread soft.
Cooking will destroy the alcohol and the yeast but leave the bubbles.
Salt impedes the growth of yeast so you can slow down the rise with salt.
Conversely, you speed up yeast growth with sugar.
But note that truth! Sugar promotes the carbon dioxide production, sugar promotes the puffing up of the bread.
Note also that salt retards the production of carbon dioxide, retards the puffing up of the bread, retards the action of the leaven.
Sugar is connected with hypocrisy and salt is connected with the retardation of hypocrisy.
Jesus told us in Matthew 5:13, Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
I have searched the scriptures and find no mention of sugar but I find that the word salt appears 35 times and saltness one time.
But the word sugar does not appear.
The Lord Jesus Christ does not tell us that we are the sugar of the earth.
We are not to be sugar for sugar in the spiritual sense promotes hypocrisy.
The false sweetness expressed by some is simply a cover for the deadness that lies in the heart and is designed to promote further covering which is hypocrisy.
Jesus never told us to be nice, which is another word absent from the Bible, but he told us to be salt.
If we are salt then he is satisfied. |