Sermons About Sadducee
Exposure of Religious Hypocrisy (Matthew 3:7)
“Evangelicals generally and the coming generation particularly have adopted to various degrees an ethical code of political civility. This compels them not only to be tolerant of others’ beliefs, opinions, and lifestyles, but more importantly , to be tolerable to others. The critical dogma is not to offend but to be genteel and civil in social relations … [Such[ a religious style … entails a de-emphasis of Evangelicalism's more offensive aspects, such as accusations of heresy, sin immortality, and paganism, and themes of judgment, divine wrath, damnation, and hell.†John insist on true repentance by exposing its counterfeit - religious hypocrisy and warning of its consequences. We will break down 3:7-12 into three main sections and then deal with each one on its own. 1) Exposure of Religious Hypocrisy (7) 2) Expectation of Genuine Repentance (8-9) 3) Execution of Divine Judgment (10-12) This morning we will look at verse 7 and the Exposure of Religious Hypocrisy. What do I mean by Religious Hypocrisy? Those who have a form of religion and religious commitments - even the right religion - but do not know its internal transforming power: “form of godliness, although they have denied its power†(2 Tim. 3:5); “[broad way] that leads to destruction†(Matt. 7:13) - They have a form of obedience, but the wrong heart. They have religion, but they don’t internally hate sin and love righteousness; they lack true humility before God; their religion is more about what they do than who they are; they feel secure in the externals of religion but are ignorant of its internal realities. This morning we will look at John’s Exposure this Religious Hypocrisy and note two dominate aspects of John’s rebuke: 1) Religious Hypocrisy Blinds a person to their true condition. 2) Religious Hypocrisy Puts one in Great Danger of Judgement.
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