Mt 15:7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
15:8 ‘This people honors Me (Jesus) with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; 
15:9 in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’

Hypocrites
Mt 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and  have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
23:24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

The word tithe represents 1/10 of a person's income is donated to God.
When we neglect justice, mercy and faith and follow human rules, we are like straining the gnat from the camel. The Apostle James gives us this example of mercy and justice when it pertains to those who are hungry. 
Jas 2:15 If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day,
2:16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?
2:17 So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Dill, mint and cumin were not necessary to the daily diet of biblical people. The weightier parts of the diet were bread (wheat, barley) and olive oil. Jesus is saying we must not neglect the most important parts of His commandments which are justice, mercy and faith. This takes great discipline. Each and everyday, week after week, month after month and year after year we must place the word of God in our hearts. By following the feet, we can know what's in a man's heart. God's words must travel from our lips and be applied to our feet. If we fail to do this we are hypocrites. 














Ps 50:16 But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite My statutes, or take My covenant (promises) on your lips?
50: 17 For you hate discipline, and you cast My words behind you.

Jesus gives us another example of justice and mercy. 

 Lk 10:29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
10:30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 
10:31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
10:32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
10:33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion,
10:34 and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
10:35 And the next day he took out two denarii (coins) and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 
10:36 Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
10:37 He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” 



mint
Dill is an herb.
The warning is this, pay lip service to God and we will be called a Hypocrite. Hypocrites pretend to be religious and fear God but in fact they are trying to show others they are good and religious. This can be illustrated as a mask in front of our faces. A "precept of men" is a command intended as a general rule of action created by man and not by God. Jesus accused the Pharisees of creating laws. Instead we should be using the trainer "grace" to govern our actions. 
If we neglect the weightier parts of the law, we are hypocrites. In other words, if we fail to help others in need, Jesus calls us hypocrites. Let this be a huge warning to all who call themselves Christian. Anyone can say with their lips how Jesus is Lord. Words with no action are hypocrisy. We must study justice, mercy and faith and apply them.
Paying lip service to God and neglecting the weighter parts of the law, Jesus calls such people hypocrites. Jesus said recognizing a hypocrite is diffucult because such men appear beautiful but are full of dead works. They may appear righteous and good but their actions are full of hypocricy and sin. Jesus spoke about how the Pharisees and scribes built monuments to previous saints who were martyed, but such actions, even though good, didn't help them in the eyes of Jesus.  
As we can see, paying lip service to God and neglecting the weighter parts of the law, Jesus calls such people hypocrites. They may appear righteous and good but their actions are full of hypocricy and sin. Jesus spoke about how the Pharaisees and scribes cleaned the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full greed. They would gain wealth using the authority of their office. (extortion).   

Mt 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
23:26 You blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

When hypocrites preach the Word of God, they are unable to preach and teach with their hearts and thus are unable to lead people to the kingdom of heaven.

Mt 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.
23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single new convert, and when he becomes a convert, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

When a person is attracted to the teaching of a hypocrite, that person is comfortable with his teacher because his thoughts and emotions are very similiar. 
Another way to be called a hypocrite by Jesus is to treat people in away you would not want to be treated. The Pharisees came to Jesus to ask Him questions so they could accuse Jesus with a crime. I seriously doubt if the Jews would want to be tested in the same way.

Mt 22:17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
22:18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put Me to the test, you hypocrites? 
22:19 Show me the money for the tax.” And they brought Him a coin.
22:20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
22:21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 
22:22 When they heard it, they marveled; and they left Him and went away. 

There are many people who have no funds to help the poor. But there is more than one way to give assistance to those in need. We have prayer. 
Mt 23:29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,
23:30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
23:31 Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
23:33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 
23:34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
23:35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 
23:36 Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. 
We must not forget the importance of the Natural Law. If we fail this commandment, Jesus will call us hypocrites.

Mt 7:12 So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. (The prophets preach about events after death.)

Gal 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
5:15 But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another. (Refers to the Final Test. Each person will have accusers and if they fail they become accusers.)

By studying God's words and commandments, we can see quickly that the laws against stealing, killing, lying and many other laws make us hypocrites because we would not want these things done to us. If we do not repent of our hypocrisy and show good fruit of our repentence, we will fail our Final Tests and live forever in hell. 

Rom 2:21 you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?
2:22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
2:23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 
The local ruler of the synagogue played the hypocrite by having no compassion on the woman that couldn't stand up. If he was the person with a back ailment, I doubt he would have complained to Jesus about giving him a cure on the sabbath. The synagogue was a local meeting place and assembly of the Jewish people during the time of Jesus. In the Old Testament, the Jews from the tribe of Judea only worshiped at Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Their is no mention of local synagogues in the Scriptures in the Old Testement.  


Lk 6:41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
6:42 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

Lk 13:10 Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
13:11 And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.
13:12 And when Jesus saw her, He called her and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.”
13:13 And He laid His hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God.
13:14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.”
13:15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it?
13:16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?”
13:17 As He said this, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by Him. 

Samaritan's are Jews from the northern tribes that were conquered and scattered many centuries before. These Jews married non-Jews and became mixed. Thus the Jews of the tribe of Judah considered them inferior. In addition to this, Jews and Samaritan's disagreed on how to worship God and thus disliked each other. Jesus used the Samaritan in His parable to show the Jews it's a man's actions that make him acceptable in the eyes of God.
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Jesus would use the words " He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Jesus used this phase three times in the Gospels when He was telling the Jews His riddles. Mt (11:15), Mk (4:9) and Mk (14:35)
2 Sam 22:4 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
22:5 “For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of perdition assailed me;
22:6 the cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me.
22:7 “In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I called. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry came to His ears.

A torrent is a violent stream. Perdition means damnation. Cords means ropes.
mt 7:6 “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you.


 Ps 86:13 For great is Your steadfast love toward me; You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Lk 12:54 Jesus also said to the multitudes, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it happens.
12:55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.
12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? 

The complaint is made by Jesus that men will study earthly things, but not study spiritual things. They did not know how to interpret that the Messiah was walking in their mist. As for today, men study the universe, but man has countless religious' theologies. Thus man does not know how to interpret the present time. If Jesus was walking the earth today, He would be calling mankind hypocrites like He did 2000 years ago.

Mt 24:44 Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 
24:45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time?
24:46 Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. 
24:47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 
24:48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’
24:49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with the drunken, 
24:50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know,
24:51 and will punish him, and put him with the hypocrites; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.

The warning can't be taken lightly. Hypocrites will weep and gnash their teeth because they will not be ready when master of the house arrives.

After death, hypocrites will find that their faith will not save them because their faith was dead. The Protestants preach that we are saved by faith and grace. Such people have misunderstood Apostle Paul's Apistles and misunderstood salvation. All men must walk through the valley of death called Sheol. 2 sam (22:4) If we are wicked lazy servants not ready for the Master of the house because we failed to love others in the way Jesus loved us, our hypocrisy will cause us to fail our Final Tests.


































Questions


1) When people honor God with their lips and not their hearts, they are called what?

2) People who pay lip service to God will be concerned with the little things and neglect the weightier matters of the law, ________ and _______ and __________.

3) People will declare with their lips that Jesus is Lord but will not help the poor with food and clothes. What will Jesus call these people?

4) Hypocrites will hate discipline and cast God's ______ behind them.

5) A man was attacked by ______. A priest of the Temple and a man from the tribe of Levite passed by without helping him. But a __________ stopped and had compassion on him.

6) If we have no funds to help the poor we are still obligated to _________. 

7) People who pay lip service to God will do noble things like build _______ for prophets that were murdered. But Jesus calls them hypocrites because these same men will murder others that the Lord sends. 

8) If we teach others, do we practice what we _______?

9) If we accuse another person of his sin, do we commit sins that are greater? What parable does Jesus use to illustrate this?

10) We can appear clean on the outside, but are we clean on the _________? 

11) So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. This is called the _______  _______. If we do not do this, God will label us ___________.

12) Jesus cured a woman with a severe back ailment on the sabbath. The ruler of the synagogue complained Jesus was working on the sabbath. Why is this man a hypocrite?

13) If the day was going to be hot in Jerusalem, the wind would be blowing from the ________.

14) Jesus says in His parable that hypocrites will _____ and _____ their teeth.

​15) Every person that dies will be surrounded by the dead of Sheol and our enemies are described as violent waves. If we are hypocrites, we will fail our ______  ________.

16) People will deny the existence of God, heaven and hell because God has given them a spirit to trample such doctrine. They have no _____ to hear because they have sinned seriously. Hypocrisy is a very serious _______.
The following will happen if God has judged us as hypocrites.


If we are judged hypocrites, we will not be able to hear the words of our Lord because He has not given us ears to hear. See lesson on "ears to hear". 

a) Having no ears to hear, we will not leave our love for worldly things because we will be addicted to the dopamine. This occurs because God will give us a spirit to avoid the light. See the lesson on the Natural Law.

b) Recall how Jesus didn't speak to Herod. God will not give what is Holy to dogs or pearls to swine. Having no ears to hear, hypocrites will trample under foot and grow angry when their goodness is questioned. See lesson on swine and pearls.

c) When our hypocrisy has reached very serious levels, God will give us a spirit that will deny that God exists and reject heaven and hell. When we meet such people who deny God, it has occurred because of their hypocrisy. The sin of hypocrisy is very dangerous. 




1)
Rom 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 
1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
1:24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 
1:25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
1:26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, 
1:27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. 
1:29 They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 
1:31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 
1:32 Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them. 



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