1 Hypocrites and Backsliders: Human Nature and the Christian Life Lesson-002: Introduction 1.

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Hypocrites and Backsliders: Human Nature and the Christian Life

• Lesson-002: Introduction

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The Church is Full of Hypocrites By Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller Lately I've been asking strangers if they are Christians, and if they are not, I've followed up with the question: “Why not?” Last week I sat down across from Zedekiah (not his real name) and, as we ate McDonald's together, I asked him some of these questions.

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Zedekiah is a big man, a bit rough looking, dressed for the winter in the middle of summer, and had a look of disinterest on his face. He is in his mid-twenties and had just finished two-and-a half years in jail. The day before he was released he received divorce papers from his wife, and has no contact with his three children. Zedekiah said that he was a Christian, but has no church and hadn't been to church in six years.“Why not?” He answered: “The church is full of hypocrites.”

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This is not a strange implication of the Church and the Lord's people, and I'm sure most of you have heard it from family or friends. In the eyes of the unbelieving world, hypocrisy is the cardinal sin of the Church. The world sees the church as hypocritical when what we do doesn't match what we say. In other words, we act as hypocrites when we talk like we are holy and righteous, but live in sin.

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We talk about the love of Jesus, but we despise our neighbors, we talk about family values but cheat on our spouse or mistreat our children. The Bible certainly speaks of hypocrisy. Jesus especially criticized the Pharisees as hypocrites. His six-fold accusations are found in Matthew 23 (see verses 13, 15, 23, 25-26, 27-28, 29-31). Especially important are Jesus' words in Matthew 23:27-28:

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“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” In the Scriptures hypocrisy means play-acting, pretending, deceiving. “They preach, but do not practice.” [Matthew 23:3]

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This is true of the Pharisees and their outward shows of piety, their carnivals of external goodness. They Pharisees wanted people to see them and say, “My, look at how holy Jim-Pharisee is.” The Pharisees did everything, even their praying and fasting, so that they would be seen by men, and this is the mark of hypocrisy. The hypocrite works and strives to maintain the illusion of perfection.

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There are two things at work behind the accusation of hypocrisy, one true, the other false. The first is the sad reality that the church is often marred with shameful sin. More on this later. But, the second thing behind the accusation of hypocrisy is a wrong assumption about what Christianity is. Those that accuse the church of hypocrisy often assume that the whole point of the Church is to make people good, moral. “You're a Christian: you're supposed to be good and holy and all that stuff.” The world sees the church as a place where people go to learn about God's rules, and to talk about how they are keeping them and the world is not.

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Here we must be clear that the main point of Christianity is not our morality and goodness. This is, to be sure, the thing driving every other world religion from Judaism to Hinduism, Islam to Mormonism and even Atheism! All of these “ism's” are pointing mankind to achieve more and be better, to climb the ladder of moral success and be a good person. But Christianity is different, it begins not with man's goodness or potential goodness but rather with man's wickedness. From the first chapters of Genesis until the Revelation given to St John the Bible is a record of mankind's failure; it is a testimony of his sin.

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Rather than trying to pull man out of sin, the Scriptures begin by pushing us deeper in. We are sunk in sin, dead in trespasses and sin [Ephesians 2:1], completely unable to free ourselves. The Law comes to reveal original sin and all its fruits; it comes to show us how bad we are. The law brings us to the end of ourselves; it ends all hope we have of being good through our own resources. This is what St. Paul is talking about in Romans 7, that the law came along and made him “exceedingly sinful.”

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7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

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10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. [Romans 7:7-14]

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“10 None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” [Romans 3:10-12, quoting Psalm 14:1-4; 53:1-3] Rather than being another system of morality, another teaching about how to live, the Scriptures first put us to death, condemn us, and removes any possibility of attaining holiness by our own efforts.

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It is then that the good news of Jesus comes to the rescue. He Himself says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” [Mark 2:17] To be a Christian is not first to be well, but to be sick, and then to be made well by Jesus. We are not first righteous, but sinners who are forgiven by Jesus. We despair of ourself and then trust in Christ, in Christ alone, for our salvation.

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We know the we are unholy in ourselves, and that Jesus has called us holy in Him. The Lord's people, then, do not speak of themselves as if they had no sin. Every Sunday we make the public declaration of our wretchedness, “I have sinned against Thee in thought, word and deed.” We know that we are sinners, and we know that Jesus died for sinners. Jesus forgives sinners...” [End]

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But what does this knowledge of our wretchedness and its forgiveness do to end our Hypocrisy and sinfullness?Unfortunately, nothing!It is not Salvation that brings an end to sin, but only an end to the penalty of sin, There must be more that God provides; surely He doesn’t want us to be “forgiven sinners”, but “saints”, those “set apart for His use”, which certainly does not include contamination of His name with our wretchedness.

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Peter instructs the Lord's church: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up in salvation.” [1 Peter 2:1-2]So, if commanded to put these away, are we not to expect that the God who could raise Jesus from the dead, would not do the same for us and provide the means and the mechanics to do so?

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If God commands us, and He does, to “be holy, for I am holy”, would we not expect Him to provide that Holiness?Is there a hint of how that may be accomplished?Is it to be found in, “Order your life by means of the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh”?Is it these “desires of the Flesh” that make us Hypocrites and Backsliders?

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Yes, of course! The scriptures are clear; it is our “Flesh”, our “sinful nature” that drags us back from Holiness, and produces hypocrisy and backsliding.The answer is not to “give up” because you are a hypocrite, or because someone else is; it is to learn that you can be free from the “body of this death” and live without hypocrisy and backsliding.

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That is the goal of this study - to teach us how to be free from the “principle of sin and death” and its doubts and fears and failures.If you, like those whose stories we have just read, are looking at abandonment of Christianity because it has failed you, I pray you will hold on ‘til the end of this study so you may learn that it is not God our Father and Christ and the Holy Spirit who has failed you, but those who are just as clueless as you have been.

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Those who have never learned to be more than a “Human Being” trying to be a Christian.Those who have been the “blind leading the blind”; having nothing to offer but their own polished up version of Hypocrisy.I promise you that you will learn something here; that you will learn the “HOW TO” of Christian living, not the “Ought to’s” that have turned all Human Beings trying to be Christians into Hypocrites.

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You will learn that you, once you have been saved by “Faith Alone in Christ Alone”, are no longer a “Human Being” trying to be a Christian, but a “New Creation”, a “New Spiritual Species”, born “from above” by God’s Spiritual regeneration (re-gene-ing) of your spirit.Remember how we began this study in Lesson 001; “According as His Divine Power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness...” (2 Peter 1:3)

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You did not only receive the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to your account so that you would be acceptable to God for salvation, but you received Christ’s Righteousness imparted to you so you would not have to live your life by the potential you received from your Human genes but by the potential you received at re-gene-eration from God’s genes.You are not just adopted, you are born of God, with the Genetic Potential of Jesus Christ available to you.

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Just as you were born a human baby with the genetic potential received from your human ancestors, you have been born again with the genetic potential from your Spiritual Father, God Himself.You have the Spiritual Genetic Potential, you just need to learn how to develop it, just as you did the physical and mental potential from your human parents.That is what we will do in this study...

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The OutlineI. Human Nature and Human Birth

A. Adam & Eve B. Sin and The Sin NatureC. Immaculate Conception

1. Genetics Lesson2. The Virgin Birth

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2. The Virgin Birth

a. Mary as a Type of Our Spirit in Regeneration

1. Announcement

2. Acceptance

3. Immaculate Conception

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II. Divine Nature and Divine Birth

A. Regeneration and the Divine Genetic Potential

1. Reservoir of Righteousness

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III. Biblical Marriage as a Type of The Divine Birth (Regeneration)

A. Betrothal

1. Preparation

2. Consummation

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III. The Human Thinking Process

A. Brain

B. Soul/Consciousness

1. OCD and Henry Stapp

2. Brain Surgeon - Penfield

C. Appraisal

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C. Appraisal

1. Thinking Process

2. Appraisal Filters

3. Emotional Reaction

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IV. The Human Nature, The Human Genetic Potential and the HAM's

A. 1 Jn 2:16

1. Desires of The Body

2. Desires of the Eyes

3. The Pride of Life

1 Jn 2:16 Text

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1. Desires of the Body

a. Sexual

b. Chemical

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2. Eyes

a. Materialism

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3. Pride of Life

a. Religion

b. Approbation

c. Power

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V. The Reservoir of Righteousness

A. Spiritual Orientation

1. The Fruit of the Spirit

2. Character/Essence of God

B. Doctrinal Orientation

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B. Doctrinal Orientation

1. Mandates

2. Promises

3. Categorical Thinking

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VI. The Human Genetic Potential

A. Religion

1. Type 1: (Withdrawing) Peace

2. Type 2: (Assertive) Justice and Power

3. Type 3: (Compliant) Perfection

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B. Approbation

1. Type 1: (Withdrawing) Respect

2. Type 2: (Assertive) Admiration

3. Type 3: (Compliant) Appreciation

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C. Power

1. Type 1: (Withdrawing) Mental Control

2. Type 2: (Assertive) Avoidance Control

3. Type 3: (Compliant) Emotional Control

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D. Materialism

1. Type 1: (Withdrawing)

2. Type 2: (Assertive)

3. Type 3: (Compliant)

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E. Chemical




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F. Sexual




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VII. The Divine Genetic Potential of Regeneration

A. Reservoir of Righteousness

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1. Love

2. Joy

3. Peace

4. Patience

5. Kindness

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6. Goodness

7. Faithfulness

8. Gentleness

9. Self Control

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1 Hypocrites and Backsliders: Human Nature and the Christian Life Lesson-002: Introduction 1.

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Transcript of 1 Hypocrites and Backsliders: Human Nature and the Christian Life Lesson-002: Introduction 1.