The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon
so is it everywhere; veneer, painting, and gilding, are at an enormous premium. Counterfeit material is of such a quality that it is with the utmost difficulty that you can detect it. The counterfeit so nearly mimics the genuine, that the eye of wisdom itself needs to be enlightened before she can discern the difference. This is especially the case in religious matters. There was once an age of intolerant bigotry, when every man was weighed in the balance, and if he was not precisely up to the orthodox standard of the day, the fire devoured him; but in this age of tolerance, and of most extreme tolerance, we are very apt to allow the counterfeit to pass as currency, and to imagine that outward show is really as beneficial as inward reality. If ever there was a time when it was needful to say, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,” it is now. The minister may cease to preach this doctrine in the days of persecution: when the faggots are blazing, and when the rack is in full operation, few men will be hypocrites. These are the keen detectors of impostors; suffering, pain and death, for Christ’s sake, are not to be endured by mere pretenders. But in this silken age, when to be religious is to be respectable, when to follow Christ is to be honoured, and when godliness itself has become gain, it is doubly necessary that the minister should cry aloud, and lift up his voice like a trumpet against this sin, “the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
2. I am sure that every true child of God will stand at times in doubt of himself, and his fear will probably take the shape of a suspicion concerning his own state.
He that never doubted of his state,
He may — perhaps he may — too late.
The Christian, however, does not belong to that class. He will at times begin to be terribly alarmed, lest, after all, he his should only seem to be godly, and his profession an empty vanity. He who is true will sometimes suspect himself of falsehood, while he who is false will wrap himself up in a constant confidence of his own sincerity. My dear Christian brethren, if you are at this time in doubt concerning yourselves, the truths I am about to utter will, perhaps, help you in searching your own heart and trying your own reins, and I am sure you will not blame me if I should seem to be severe, but you will rather say, “Sir, I desire to make sure work concerning my own soul, tell me faithfully and tell me honestly what are the signs of a hypocrite, and I will sit down and try to read my own heart, to discover whether these things have a bearing upon me, and I shall be happy if I shall come out of the fire like pure gold.”
3. We shall note, then, this morning, first, the character of a hypocrite; then we shall try to tally up his accounts for him, with regard to his loss or gain; and then we shall offer a cure for hypocrisy, which, if constantly carried around with us, will certainly prevent us from attempting to deceive. The cure is contained in these words which follow the text — “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hidden, that shall not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and what you have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”
4. I. First, THE HYPOCRITE’S CHARACTER. We have an elaborate description of the hypocrite in the chapter we have just read, the twenty-third of Matthew, and I do not know that I can better portray him than by turning again to the words of Christ.
5. A hypocrite may be known by the fact that his speech and his actions are contrary to one another. As Jesus says, “they say and they do not do.” The hypocrite can speak like an angel, he can quote texts with the greatest rapidity; he can speak concerning all matters of religion, whether they are theological doctrines, metaphysical questions, or experiential difficulties. In his own esteem he knows much, and when he rises to speak, you will often feel abashed at your own ignorance in the presence of his superior knowledge. But see him when he comes to actions. What do you see there? The most complete contradiction of everything that he has said. He tells to others that they must obey the law: does he obey it? Ah! no. He declares that others must experience this, that, and the other, and he sets up a fine scale of experience, far above even that of the Christian himself; but does he touch it? No, not with so much as one of his fingers. He will tell others what they should do; but will he remember his own teaching? Not he! Follow him to his house; trace him to the market, see him in the shop, and if you want to refute his preaching you may easily do it from his own life. My hearer! is this your case? You are a member of a church, a deacon, a minister. Is this your case? Is your life a contradiction of your words? Do your hands witness against your lips? How does it stand with you? With a blush, each one of us must confess that, to some extent, our life is contradictory to our profession. We blush and we mourn over this. But I hope there are some here who can say, “Notwithstanding many infirmities, with my whole heart I have tried to run in the ways of your commandments, oh my God, and I have not intentionally spoken that with my lip which I did not intend to carry out in my life.” Ah! believe me, my hearers, talk is easy, but walk is hard: speech any man may attain to, but act is difficult. We must have grace within to make our life holy; but lip piety needs no grace. The first mark of a hypocrite, then, is, that he contradicts by his acts what he utters by his words. Do any of you do so? If so, stand convicted of hypocrisy, and bow your heads, and confess the sin.
6. The next mark of a hypocrite is, that whenever he does right it is that he may be seen by men. The hypocrite sounds a trumpet before his alms, and chooses the corner of the streets for his prayers. To him virtue in the dark is almost a vice, he can never detect any beauty in virtue, unless she has a thousand eyes to look upon her, and then she is something indeed. The true Christian, like the nightingale, sings in the night; but the hypocrite has all his songs in the day, when he can be seen and heard by men. To be well spoken of is the very elixir of his life; if he is praised, it is like sweet wine to him. The censure of man upon a virtue would make him change his opinion concerning it in a moment; for his standard is the opinion of his fellow creatures, his law is the law of self-seeking, and of self-honouring: he is virtuous, because to be virtuous is to be praised; but if tomorrow vice were at a premium he would be as vicious as the rest. Applause is what too many are seeking after. They shun all secret religion, and only live where men may see them. Now, is this our case? Let us deal honestly with ourselves; if we distribute to the poor, do we desire to do it in secret, when no tongue shall tell? Are our prayers offered in our closets, where God who hears the cry of the secret ones, listens to our supplication? Can we say, that if every man were struck blind, and deaf and dumb, we would not alter our conduct in the least? Can we declare that the opinion of our fellow men is not our guiding law, but that we stand servants to our God and to our conscience, and are not to be made to do wrong by flattery, nor are we urged to do right from a fear of censure? Note, the man who does not act rightly from a higher motive than that of being praised, gives strong suspicion that he is a hypocrite, but he who will do a right thing against the opinion of every man, and simply because he believes it to be right, and sees the stamp of God’s approval upon it, that man need not be afraid that he is a hypocrite; he would be the kind of hypocrite that one has never discovered as yet. Hypocrites do their good works for applause. Is it so with you? If so, be honest, and as you would convict another convict yourself.
7. Again; hypocrites love titles, and honours, and respect from men. The Pharisee was never so happy as when he was called Rabbi, he never felt himself so truly great as when he was seated in the highest seat in the synagogue. Then he must be good indeed. But the true Christian does not care for titles. It is one of the marks of Christians — that they have generally taken names of abuse to be their distinctive appellations. There was a time when the term Methodist was abusive. What did those good men say who had it so applied to them? “You call us Methodists by way of abuse, do you? It shall be our title.” The name “Puritan” was the lowest of all; it was the symbol which was always employed by the drunkard and swearer to express a godly man. “Well,” says the godly man, “I will be called a Puritan; if that is a name of reproach I will take it.” It has been so with the Christian all the world over. He has chosen for himself the name which his enemy has given to him in malice. Not so the hypocrite. He takes what is the most honourable; he wishes always to be thought to belong to the most respectable sect, and to hold an office in that sect which will confer upon him the most honourable title. How, can you say from your innermost soul, that in religion you