This morning I would like to speak to you about the Satanic power of religious hypocrisy. And we see this emerging from our text this morning, found in Mark chapter 12, if you will turn there; Mark chapter 12, verses 13 through 17. Before I read the text, and we examine it, may I remind you of something that we tend to forget. And that is what the Apostle Paul admonishes us to do in Ephesians six, beginning in verse 11, he says, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Satan's schemes are as ingenious as they are deadly. And we are witnessing the consequences of his schemes not only in the culture in which we find ourselves, but even in ostensibly evangelical churches. In fact, today is America's most celebrated pagan worship service. It's called the Super Bowl where over 100 million people will be watching. I understand that the average ticket cost is about $10,000. This is the ultimate distraction from the difficulties of life. People's lives that will end up in death, and eternally they will either find themselves in hell or in heaven. Screaming fans can watch fabulously wealthy, athletic entertainers, frankly, try to advance a pigskin over opposing lines. It's really rather funny when you think about it. And I understand that the halftime shows are typically vulgar and immoral, I would certainly never encourage you to watch it. Shield your children from these things. But there you will be entertained, I'm sure by musicians and dancers, skilled in celebrating the immoral values of the world that is passing away in divine judgment. I guess it's fitting that it's being held this year in Sin City. Well, indeed, Satan tempts our depraved hearts, with irresistibly delicious delicacies that promise life, but will only deliver death. In fact, we read in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12, "There is a way which seems right to a man but its end is the way of death." And perhaps his most powerful weapon to accomplish his schemes is through the religious hypocrite. Men and women that seduce the naive and often the desperate with deceptions, and they do this under the pretense of sincerity and integrity, and truth.

You know, this began in the garden when Satan tempted Eve. You will recall in Genesis three one that "the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the LORD God had made." And you will recall that he appeared to her alone; she was vulnerable to seduction, unprotected by Adam's experience and counsel. And portraying himself as a beautiful emissary of enlightenment, he then caused her to doubt God's word, to question the goodness of his will and offer her another, more accurate and more appealing interpretation of what God had said. How sad to think that God will restrict you from partaking of all the good pleasures of the garden. Surely you misunderstood him because he knows that in the day that you eat from that forbidden tree, your eyes will be opened. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And sadly, she was convinced that she was doing the right thing. So, she disobeyed God; she believed a lie. And the rest, of course, is history.

And this kind of deception continues to this very day. False teachers, often unwittingly, and sometimes wittingly, deceive undiscerning people that are ruled by the lusts of their heart, causing them to believe the schemes of the devil. Whether it's the greedy deceptions of the prosperity and social justice gospels, or perhaps the gross immoralities of the alphabet cult. Or the insanity of the liberal woketards or the buffoonery and corruption of our current administration led by a senile old man; whatever it is, dear friends, it all comes from the father of lies. And those lies, the schemes of the devil, always appeal to the lusts of fallen flesh; to those who love darkness rather than light. And again, one of Satan's greatest allies in his assault on the purposes of God, are religious hypocrites; pretenders whose actions belie their stated beliefs, and values. The apostle Paul warned us of this in Second Corinthians 11, verse 15. "Therefore," he says "it is not surprising if his servants also disguised themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds." And as we will see this morning, we are not left without resource. In this battle, we have the word of God, we have the gospel--which is the power of God unto salvation--we have the sort of the Spirit, his word that can effectively parry the blows of the enemy. In fact, Paul reminds us of this as well in Second Corinthians 10, verse 3-5, he says, "For though we walk in the flesh." In other words, though we have human limitations, "we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." And in our text, this morning, we will see this satanic power of religious hypocrisy, again, a power that we often underestimate, even in our own lives. And we do so to our own peril. To be sure, we must always be suspect of our own spirituality, as Jesus warned the naive and overconfident disciples when he found them sleeping in the garden in Matthew 26:41. He says, "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is,” What? "Is weak." This is especially crucial given the growing hostility of genuine Christianity here in the United States. As rare as that is, indeed, America has sown the wind of wickedness and it is now reaping the whirlwind of divine abandonment. I think if God would judge his chosen people Israel so harshly throughout redemptive history, what will he do to nations that mock him?

So, let's examine the Satanic power of religious hypocrisy, as it is revealed in our text here in Mark 12, beginning with verse 13. "Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. They came and said to Him, 'Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?' But He, knowing their hypocrisy said to them, 'Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.' They brought one and He said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' And they said to him, 'Caesar's.' And Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' And they were amazed at Him."

This text is very instructive in helping us understand the character and conduct of religious hypocrites. And I might add that because of the internet in our day, they flourish like maggots on roadkill, along with all of their deceptions. And I wish to examine this section of scripture under three headings. First of all, we will see that hypocrites make unholy alliances to undermine the truth. Secondly, hypocrites masquerade as emissaries of truth, to promote deception. And finally, hypocrites lay traps to discredit their enemies and advance their agenda. And I trust you will examine your life under the light of divine scrutiny, and that we will all grow in spiritual integrity and discernment.

So, first of all, in our little outline, let's look at this issue of hypocrites making unholy alliances to undermine the truth, verse 13. "Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him, in order to trap Him in a statement." Now friends, this is a great example of the little saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," right? I mean, the Pharisees and the Herodians despised each other, and yet they're coming together in this situation. It'd be similar to liberals and conservatives today or even worse yet the astounding antithesis between liberals and authentic Christians. Think of this, the Pharisees were fastidious keepers of religious law-- though a lot of it had been invented by themselves--but the Herodians couldn't care less about the law of God. The Pharisees were fervently loyal to Israel, the Herodians were fervently loyal to Rome. They were basically sycophants of Caesar, not Yahweh. And you might remember that Herod Antipas was not even Jewish, he was half Idumean. In other words, he was an Edomite that comes from the Hebrew Edom, which is, which means "red," a description of its founder, which was Esau, the elder son of Isaac; Jacob being the younger son. So he was half Idumean, but he was also half Samaritan, whom the Jews considered to be unclean pagans. And Rome allowed him to rule after his father, Herod the Great's, death. And he was, at this time, the current governor of Galilee and Perea. The Pharisees wanted a descendant of David, the Messiah, to ascend to the throne, but the Herodians wanted Herod. But despite their differences, the Pharisees and the Herodians both had one thing in common, and that was their sheer hatred of Jesus.

You will remember earlier when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, the Pharisees were absolutely infuriated. In Mark three verse six, we read that, "The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." Of course, the Pharisees were furious, because Jesus exposed their religious hypocrisy, their corruption, and the Herodian saw Jesus as a rival to Herod the king. But they both understood that they had no authority to execute Jesus; only Rome could do that. However, Rome wouldn't even arrest him, much less execute him simply because Jesus embarrassed the Jews or disagreed with their theology. So they had to trap him somehow; trick him into saying something that would cause Rome to believe that he was an insurrectionist. After all, just a few days earlier, 1000s, probably hundreds of 1000s were hailing him as their Messiah. Moreover, he had come into the temple, and run out all of the money changers and occupied its precincts. Astounding.

But here again, we see how these hypocrites make unholy alliances, to undermine the truth. By way of contrast, Jesus never sought common ground with his enemies. Never. Nor should we, Jesus and the apostles never once sought to "build bridges," as you hear people say, they built walls. Those walls were built with the mortar of doctrinal precision. People say today well, doctrine divides, absolutely it does. That's what you want. It divides between truth and error. The eternal destiny of men's souls depends upon the truth. This is the deadly deception of ecumenism that we see today. The attempt to somehow find unity among people of faith, whatever that means, despite their heretical beliefs. Historically, the cause of Israel's failure, and God's judgment upon them, was because they tried to blend the worship of Yahweh and being obedient in their own ways to the Mosaic law with the pagan idol worship of their culture. We see this today in evangelical pragmatism where many churches will say, you know, in order to win the world, we must become like the world. We must become more attractive, more relevant, more therapeutic, less dogmatic. Got to be more entertaining. And then the world will like us and buy into our gospel light. I was reading about a place called Life Church in Edmond, Oklahoma; the third largest church in America, like 30,000 people going there. And they're advertising a Super Bowl Sunday, a tailgating party, themed church service where the pastor will exegete Superbowl commercials. We see ostensibly evangelical churches inviting Muslims and Roman Catholics and prosperity cult preachers and social justice preachers. Even perverted pedophile, drag queens and sodomites to come speak to their people. Second Corinthians six verse 14, we read, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?" And he goes on to say in verse 17, "'THEREFORE, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord. AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNLCEAN.'" In other words, we are never to partnership, never, somehow, build a bridge with some other religious organization, or participate in any kind of a religious event with those who deny the authority of Scripture, and in any way distort the gospel.

I touched on this briefly, I believe the last time we were together, that this is why we would never attend a homosexual wedding, which is no wedding at all in God's eyes. But it is a blasphemous mockery of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, ordained by God, to illustrate the covenantal love that God has through Christ for his bridal church. I mean, we would never want to not only make people comfortable in their sin, but to join in a celebration that taunts God. It's inconceivable. Paul says in Ephesians 5:11, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret." Our response to those kinds of things, and there are many, but especially the homosexual wedding thing, should be like Lot's response that Peter described in Second Peter two beginning in verse seven. There we read that Lot was "oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them,)" that is living in Sodom, "(felt his righteous soul tormented day by day at by their lawless deeds.)" He saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day by day, by their lawless deeds, that's how we should be in anything that dishonors the Lord. So again, Jesus and the apostles never ever made any kind of unholy alliances with apostates to somehow accomplish the purposes of God. You never see Jesus saying to the Pharisees, Hey, guys, look, I know I've been a little tough on you guys. I tell you what, we need to find some common ground here, right? I mean, after all, we're all after the same thing, you know, to experience the love of God and to help people. And I know we've got our differences on things, but let's just find the most common denominator of everything so that we can work together rather than work against each other. Instead of that, Jesus simply unleashed the gospel and let it do what only it can do. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, "'Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; AND A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.'"

Well hypocrites not only make unholy alliances to undermine the truth, but secondly, they will masquerade as emissaries of truth to promote deception. Notice what happens here in the text, verse 13. Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap him in a statement." This is the Sanhedrin, no doubt, here sending them, and "They came and said to Him, 'Teacher, we know that You are truthful.'" Luke's account in Luke 20 verse 21, we read, "'Teacher we know that You speak and teach correctly.'" "Correctly" comes from the Greek word "orthos," which means accurate, we get our word orthodox from that. So they're really buttering him up here. Not only do we know that you are truthful, but they say "'and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any but teach the way of God in truth.'" And I'm sure the many people that are standing around are saying, well, yeah, that's what we think too. But oh, such insincere, saccharin flattery. It's sickening. What a setup and to thin-- that they would think--that the Lord is going to fall for this. Of course, they knew the people thought all of this, and the you've got to win the people if you're a hypocrite. Plus, they would communicate to the people, or this would communicate to the people that you know, like you, we too are seeking the truth here.

We must always be on guard for this kind of hypocrisy. I've seen it so often down through the years. And often these people are winsome, knowledgeable, talented, charismatic, in the sense of their personality, their interpersonal style of relating many times; they're even orthodox. But they will have some aberrant twist in their theology somewhere. And quickly, you'll see them garner a following. But gradually, little by little, issues begin to emerge, you'll begin to hear strange stories about what's happening with them and other people, divisions begin to develop. And gradually, a once hidden agenda of control and manipulation becomes increasingly obvious. I've seen that happen in our church. And then there's conflict. Boom, things begin to blow up. Many times, there's moral failure associated with all of that. Paul warned about this in First Timothy five verse 24. He said, "The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after." In other words, there's somewhere you can tell "no way, we can see this deal a mile away." But others, you have to wait and then you begin to see what's really going on. Again, we've had that in this church. We may even have some of that going on right now. I'm not aware of it, but it probably is and eventually, it'll surface. I've been here almost 30 years. I know how these things work, so do the other elders. In fact, Paul said that this is inevitable in churches, First Corinthians 11, beginning of verse 18, "When you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it." And here's why, "For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you." In other words, God uses factions, he uses hypocrisy in the church, to reveal those who are spiritually mature and trying to honor Christ, versus those who are not. And this is especially a difficult situation when a pastor or a church leader is involved. Because my friends, the pulpit has no place for cowards, for charlatans, for entertainers, for entrepreneurs, and certainly not for hypocrites. Jude spoke of this beginning of verse 12, "These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever." And certainly, this is a perfect description of the religious leaders of Israel, who were trying to trap the Son of God.

Now back to our text. These hypocritical Pharisees and Herodians are masquerading now as these emissaries of truth. They're trying to promote their own deceptions. They're serving their father, the devil, who is master of all of this, like the phony Apostles in Corinth. Remember, Paul described them in Second Corinthians 11, beginning of verse 13, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds."

So, they approach Jesus, "oh wonderful teacher who defers to no one. You who are impartial to anyone, but only teaches the way of God in the truth, like us." And this brings us to the third point, and that is, hypocrites lay traps to discredit their enemies and advance their agenda. You see what they must do is publicly humiliate and discredit the Lord Jesus Christ, while at the same time portraying him as an insurrectionist rebelling against Roman authority. That's what the whole motivation is here. Notice in verse 14, they asked the question, "'Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?'" Oh, this is ingenious. Satan is a genius in his schemes. Now, the Jews had to pay a variety of taxes to Rome. And it was deeply humiliating to them. Frankly, it was forced idolatry. They hated it. But the worst tax of all, was the poll-tax. It was also called the head tax, the "tributum capitis." And it required one denarius per year--that would be about one day's wages. It was payable by all males 14 through 65. And we believe that they had to even pay for their wives as well. But the poll tax was different than all of the other taxes, taxes on things like property and agricultural yield of crops they had, they had sales taxes and toll taxes and duties on agricultural goods and all kinds of things. But this was especially reprehensible to the Jews. And that's why the Pharisees and Herodians picked this one. Notice they didn't say, Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, but rather specifically pay a poll-tax to Caesar? Why was it reprehensible? Well, number one because of denarius, which was a silver coin, bore the image of the emperor, Tiberius Caesar, along with inscriptions claiming divinity. Of course, this is idolatry. This is a violation of the second commandment, that you are not to make or bow down or serve a graven image. They're being forced to do this.

But the second reason why it was so reprehensible is because the clear implication of this tax was simply this-- that Caesar owned them; that they were his possession. Not Yahweh's. And just for this reason that the Jews wouldn't even carry a denarius. So this was a hot button issue. In fact, 25 years earlier, in about AD six, a Galilean named Judas founded the Zealots to revolt against Rome, quoting from the wars of the Jews two, comma 118, from Flavius Josephus, who was a first century Jewish Roman historian. He wrote this, this was written about AD 75. Here's what he said, "Under his administration," and this was referring to Coponius, who was the Roman procurator, at that time, "under his administration, it was that a certain Galilean whose name was Judas prevailed with his countrymen to revolt, and said that they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans, and would after God, submit to mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacher of a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those their leaders." We read about him as well in Acts 5:37. There we read "Judas of Galilee, rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him; he too, perished and all those who followed him, were captured." By the way, one of Jesus's disciples was Simon the Zealot, and he belonged to this movement prior to coming to Christ. It's also worth noting that this highly offensive taxation led to another revolt against Rome, between AD 66 and 70. And it was put down by the Romans in AD 70, when they utterly annihilated Jerusalem.

So, knowing how the Jews despise Roman taxation, their question to Jesus was quite a setup. You know, think about this, if Jesus says, "Well, you need to pay it," then Jesus would be promoting idolatry, and he would lose favor with the people. But if he said, "don't pay it," and Herodians would label him as an insurrectionist and would report him to Rome. So, either way he loses. But I have to laugh at this; like all narcissistic hypocrites, they thought they could outsmart God. One thing you will discover in seasoned hypocrites, is they are a legend in their own mind. In fact, you will see this all the time with people who are in power. No matter how stupid they may be, they think they're smarter than everyone else. We deal with this on a regular basis in our modern politics. We've got people in positions of authority that are dangerously dumb. I don't say that to be unkind. I mean, they're intellectually challenged. And when you listen to them, you think, how could anybody be that stupid? Worse yet, how could anybody be that stupid to vote for these people?

Dear friends, let me put it to you practically, because we all have to guard our hearts with this. You may think that you are pulling the wool over other people's eyes. And you may be very effective in doing this, but know this, the penetrating eye of divine omniscience can see right to the very soul of your being. You are not fooling God. He knows your every motive. And you think of the doctrine of divine omniscience, and we see biblically that he knows everything that is actual and everything that is possible. There has never been a time where he lacked knowledge, where he lacked information. John 2:25, "He Himself knows what is in man." Hebrews 4:13, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." And the Psalmist puts it this way in Psalm 139, verse four, "Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know at all." So, in verse 15, we read, "But He, knowing their hypocrisy." In other words, he knew their motive, he knew what was going on. "Said to them, 'Why are you testing me?'" Luke's account in Luke 20 and verse 23, we read, "He detected their trickery." And Matthew's account in chapter 22, verse 18, he "perceived their malice." So, Jesus said to them, "'Bring me a denarius to look at.'" He didn't carry one. Most of the Jews wouldn't carry one, they are not going to carry a little image of an idol around with them. Probably it was only the Herodians that had some and so they had to find one or here's one. "'Bring me a denarius to look at.' They brought one. And He said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' And they said to Him, 'Caesar's.' And Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' And they were amazed at Him." Well, that's an understatement, right? Can you imagine being there? I mean, to argue with him would have required them to favor one of either of those sides, if they were to argue in favor of paying it, then they indicted themselves. If they said that, well, no, you shouldn't pay it, then all the people would be against them. So Jesus just flipped the whole thing on them. And I'm sure that people realize that they were no match for Jesus intellectually. Reminds me of the little saying "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Right?

And it's also interesting to think about this; this dialogue took place in the public arena of the Court of the Gentiles. So everyone heard it. Everyone's hearing this. And yet you don't hear anybody in the crowd say, "Excuse me, Rabbi." No, nobody's gonna say anything. Luke's account, says this in chapter 20, verse 26, "And they were unable to catch Him in a saying in the presence of the people; and being amazed at His answer, they became silent." Matthew 22, verse 22. "And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away."

Now, there's an important lesson here that needs to be learned if I can digress for a moment. Jesus clearly teaches that we must pay our taxes to a secular government, even though much of its policies are wicked. When Jesus said, "Render to Caesar," the term "apodidomi" in the original language literally speaks of the repayment of something owed. So you owe them this. And what is it that is owed? Well, they're providing for you: peace, safety, protection, infrastructure, roads, bridges; for us electrical grid, and on and on it goes. Paul spoke of this in Romans 13, beginning in verse one, "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is do them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor."

Now, much of what our governing authorities do, is reprehensible in the eyes of God. And we have to expect this. I mean, these people are at enmity with God, they're spiritually dead. They're acting consistently with their depraved nature. They're ruled by that. Ephesians I'm sorry, Romans chapter eight, and verse five. Paul describes him as "Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh." He goes on to say in verse seven, "the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. For those who are in the flesh cannot please God." So naturally, our fallen leaders are going to act consistently with their depraved hearts and how Satan works in them to accomplish his purposes to thwart the purposes of God. Nevertheless, civil authorities are ordained by God. It's an example of God's common grace, I think, where we would be if we didn't have any governing authority, right? If you want to get just a little sample of what it might look like, look at liberally controlled cities today and you see the anarchy, you see drug addicts and sexual perverts and criminal gangs and homeless encampments; unimaginable filth, syringe needles laying around. That's why a lot of you have moved here to Tennessee, right? But where government and sanity and the rule of law prevail, we as citizens are protected. And we can live in peace and in varying degrees of prosperity. Peter spoke of this as well, First Peter two beginning in verse 13, "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and the praise of those who do right. For such as the will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil but use it as bondslaves of God." In other words, willing slaves of God. "Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king." I mean, the only time we can ever rebel against civil authority is when they force us to do something that God forbids or forbids us to do that which God commands. And for this reason, we're even commanded to pray for those that God has placed in authority over us. Paul spoke about this in First Timothy two beginning of verse one, "I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men." And then he adds this "For kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." And I pray often that God will protect us and our children from the exceedingly wicked authorities that he has placed over us to accomplish his purposes, in ways that we can't fully understand.

Now you have to wonder, if the Pharisees and Herodians really heard what Jesus said, When they were trying to trap him, again, "'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,'" and then this last phrase, "'and to God the things that are God's.'" Now, they may have had to have thought this through, as I have thought it through. But here what we see is the ultimate authority speaks with ultimate authority. All right. I want you to notice again in verse 16, he says, "'Whose likeness,'" it could be translated image an inscription, '"is this?' And they said to him, 'Caesar's.' This is so powerful in light of what is happening here. I mean, think about this--God is the only and ultimate sovereign and we as human beings are made in his image. Therefore, it is God, not man, who possesses the only rightful claim on his image bearers. Therefore, by implication, as James Edward states, quote, "If coins bear Caesar's image, than they belong to Caesar. But humanity which bears God's image, belongs to God." So, let's render to God the things that are God's. And how do we do that? Well, by obeying the supreme commandment to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, love our neighbors as ourselves. And only by God's grace, can we even begin to do that? Romans 12, beginning of verse one, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." In other words, don't allow the world to impose its values on you, in such a way as you begin to look like it and act like it and think like it. But rather, by the renewing of your mind, let there be a metamorphosis, where who you really are in Christ begins to be manifested more and more.

So, we want to ask ourselves, does any of this apply to me? Are you an actor? Are you a pretender? Do you just come here to church on Sunday, and you say some spiritual things, and you claim to be a follower of Christ, but in reality, you don't really love him. You don't really have any desire to honor him in your life, to be a holy living sacrifice, to give glory to God. Are you and here I'm going to use the quintessential hypocrite example. Are you a Judas Iscariot? The prototypical pretender, the greatest of all phonies, like all hypocrites. Judas was motivated by self-will for the purpose of self-aggrandizement and self-promotion. I mean, he was a skilled hypocrite. I mean, none of the others in the group could see it, right? He was callous in his hatred of Christ. In fact, he was so proficient in his masquerade that Matthew says that all of the disciples responded to the Lord's chilling announcement that one of you are going to betray me by saying, is it I, Lord? And even Judas said, according to Matthew 26, is it I, Rabbi? You want an example of the power and the insanity of sin. Solomon described this perfectly in Ecclesiastes nine three when he said, "The hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives." I mean, Judas knew that Jesus knew about his plan to betray him. Because Jesus had made that clear in his earlier statements, but Judas was so hardened in his hypocrisy, and his hatred of Christ. He didn't care. The only reason he chimed in with the other disciples by saying, "Is it I, rabbi?" was to somehow keep up the appearance of being like everyone else, with no care of how God saw him.

I want to close this morning with just some pastoral thoughts to you. Okay? Some things that I thought would be helpful, just very briefly, with respect to hypocrisy, because we all have to guard ourselves against it. I want to give you five concepts number one hypocrisy can thrive in any soil.

Beloved, a hypocrite can thrive in a godly church, as well as an ungodly church. In fact, I would argue that the more Christ honoring the church, the more skilled the hypocrite. And they will form alliances with other hypocrites within the church, to promote themselves, to promote their agenda. Guard against that beloved.

Secondly, hypocrisy breeds increasingly worse sins. I mean, sin always goes from bad to worse right? Never the opposite. Hypocrisy is like cancer that weakens the entire body. Cancer never comes in and says, you know what, this organ is enough, we'll just stay here. No, it will metastasize and go on and on. And that's what happens. Hypocrisy gradually sears the conscience and makes us more susceptible to even greater and more destructive sins. I mean, think of the Pharisees in Luke 12 one Jesus said, "'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'" And as you know, leaven is what you put in bread; it permeates through a process of fermentation. And in Scripture, it's used to describe influence, corruption, defilement, sin. And that's what happens; hypocrisy begins to ferment in you, shall we say. It permeates your life. It permeated the lives of the scribes and the Pharisees to a point that they would murder an innocent man--

their Messiah. Thirdly, hypocrisy believes public piety outweighs secret sins. The hypocrite merely gives lip service to true worship. We see this in the Lord's words in Isaiah 29:13. "Therefore, the Lord said, 'These people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips but have removed their hearts far from Me.'" Hypocrites love to find the spotlight so that they can go run and take a bow in it. This is what the Pharisees did with their religious garb, their public prayers, setting in the chief seats, demanding people to respect them. I might add that self-promotion is always a certain sign of hypocrisy. The humble will be willing to serve God in obscurity but not the hypocrite.

Fourthly, hypocrisy seers the conscience and predisposes the soul against heartfelt repentance. I mean Judas is a classic example of this, was he not? Jesus gave him every opportunity to repent, and he never did. He remained unrepentant and determined, the same with the scribes and Pharisees. They saw all of Jesus's miracles, all of his teaching; they heard that and yet they attributed his miraculous works to Satan. As a result, God judicially sealed them in their unbelief.

And finally, hypocrisy will attack and abandon anyone who can see through its masquerade. Consider the scribes and the Pharisees. They were absolutely apoplectic at the very name of Jesus, because he exposed them. Jesus saw right through them. In fact, he reserved his most scathing rebuke for their hypocrisy. But rather than humbling themselves in brokenness and repentance, they determined to kill him. The hypocrite is always on duty, to avoid detection, and he will attack and abandon anyone who dares to unmask him. This, my friends, is the Satanic power, of religious hypocrisy. May we all guard ourselves from it. May we all cultivate within our hearts, devotion to God. Live it out in private worship, and public service, but be willing to do that in absolute obscurity, for the glory of Christ knowing that he sees and he will reward. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that have such power in our hearts. May we all respond with obedience, knowing that you love us and you want us to experience the fullness of all that is ours in Christ Jesus. And Lord for those that perhaps are convicted under the weight of what has been said, I pray that you will bring them to a place of true brokenness and repentance and reconciled them to you in genuine saving faith. We thank you, we give you praise. In Jesus name. Amen.