03/08/10 HYPOCRITES IN OUR MIDST

03/08/10 HYPOCRITES IN OUR MIDST

Years ago I started collecting hypocrites. One is a package for a fortune cookie. Yep, sealed package but no cookie. I have had soft drink cans, salt packets, food boxes and other items. They had the name on the package, they had the look of the product, they had not been opened or tampered with, but they were empty. They claimed something that they did not actually have. They were hypocrites.

While preaching a revival series years ago I went to the pulpit and announced that I was going to expose a hypocrite to the entire congregation. It is times like that you are glad to be walking in victory. It had to be a rough time for some of those folks, not knowing if they were going to be called out during service.

I explained what a hypocrite is and explained the plight of a hypocrite, then I showed them my newly acquired Dr. Pepper can that had never been opened and had not leaked out, yet did not actually have any Dr. Pepper inside.

Some people are hypocrites because they have never had the reality of Christ in them and some are hypocrites because they have fallen from grace, as the Bible calls it.