This is not a comfortable issue for many church people
because much of what they do falls into this category. Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones analyses this
aberration with his usual astuteness and precision.
The first characteristic, he says, of false religion, is its
hypocrisy. It majors on saying one thing, and doing
something quite different. But this is
not always the case with hypocrisy. Like
the Jews in Stephen’s day in the first century, and the Sanhedrin in
particular, they were involved in a cynical game of pretence – they, outwardly,
claimed to do their religion for God, but in fact were doing it for
themselves. This is true of all false
religion. It supposes to be worshipping
and serving God, but is rather an exercise in self-worship and
self-aggrandizement. There are honest
and consistent enough to actually do what they say they are doing – good works,
church attendance, supporting charitable causes, being a good neighbour, as
well as having all the right language for the right occasion. But because this is all supposed to be
directed to the living and true God, it turns into indisputable hypocrisy.
The second feature of false religion is that it is very keen
on what we must call institutionalism. What is meant here is the actual worship of
the church, just as the Jews worshipped the Temple. Hypocrites put the worship of the church up
against the Christian faith. The church
is their idol (which is always a mark of false religion), idol worship; they
would do anything for the church; nothing would be too much trouble for the
church. But would they do anything for
Christ? That’s a different question, for
to do anything for Christ would make you a bit too extreme in religion. And what if the church departs from
Christ? What do you do then? Who do you follow? The hypocrite will always opt to follow the
church, and walk away from Christ and His Gospel. Like the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which
teaches that, left to itself, mater tends to deteriorate and decompose, etc; so
likewise the church, when left to itself after having been given up by God, always tends to institutionalise, and
therefore become utterly ineffective, because maintaining the institution takes
precedence over everything else. What is
central to every form of false religion is the building. This becomes the number one interest – a nice
building, nice decor, soft comfortable seats, and the right temperature. But the building soon takes the place of
Christ and the preaching of the Gospel.
Everything is controlled by the building. But, as Rev. Dick Lucas so famously remarked,
“the building is only for sheltering us from the rain”
The third characteristic of false religion is the emphasis
on tradition - the tradition of men.
How easily we become unthinking copy-cats of what went before, good or
bad. To follow good tradition, that is, Gospel tradition, is good and
acceptable and mandatory for the Christian Church; but to follow the traditions
of men, of the church in the past, of past or present church leaders, is the
height of folly. Today, the trend is to
follow the practice of the modern-day gurus who are experts in worship. Churches, their ministers and elders, ape the
world with the best imitation they can muster.
The worship in many evangelical churches today is nothing but sheer
unadulterated worldliness dressed up to look like contemporary worship, when it
is nothing of the kind. As Paul tells us
in Rom.1, we, like him, must be “separated unto the Gospel of God,” unto
Christ, and away from the world in all its forms and expressions.
The last mark of false religion is self-righteousness.
Hypocrites, like the Pharisees of old, “trusted in themselves that they
were righteous” (Lk.18:9). There is this
pride in what they have achieved or accomplished, and in what they are and
where they belong. There is pride in their particular tradition, glad that they
belong to a church where every preacher is a good one, where there is no
theological pluralism within its bounds, where every elder is a devoted servant
of Christ (or the church!), and where every member is a true Christian. Self-righteousness – repugnant, insulting,
nauseating. But, as Jesus taught his
disciples, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and the
Pharisees, you will, by no means, enter the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt.6). He also said that “That which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
So false religion is essentially hypocritical, and
hypocritical religion is essentially false.
So beware!
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