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The sermon presents hypocrisy as the contradiction between religious profession and actual character, particularly when people seek human praise, neglect mercy and justice, or rely on outward ceremonies without communion with Christ. Spurgeon strongly emphasizes God’s omniscient presence and the coming judgment, when hidden sins and motives will be exposed. His remedy is honest self-examination, consistent obedience before God, and sincere faith rather than confidence in church membership or reputation. The closing appeal is urgent: obtain true grace and faith before death makes false religion impossible to maintain.
Theological center: True Christianity requires inward grace and genuine faith in Christ, not merely outward religious observance or public profession.
Applications: Examine Your Profession · Live Before God’s Presence · Seek True Grace And Faith · Prepare For Death Sincerely
Primary texts: Luke 12:1-3 · Matthew 7:5
“Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Luke 12:1 THIS age is full of shams. Pretence never stood in so eminent a position as it does at the present hour. There be few, I fear, who love the naked truth, we can scarcely endure it in our houses, you would scarcely trade with a man who absolutely stated it. If you walked through the streets of London, you might imagine that all the shops were built of marble, and that all the doors were made of mahogany and woods of the rarest kinds, and yet you soon discover that there is scarce a piece of any of these precious fabrics to be found anywhere, but that everything is grained, and painted, and varnished. I find no fault with this, except as it is an outward type of an inward evil that exists. As it is in our streets, so is it everywhere, graining, painting, and gilding, are at an enormous premium. Counterfeit has at length attained to such an eminence that it is with the utmost difficulty that you can detect it. The counterfeit so near approaches to the genuine, that the eye of wisdom itself needs to be enlightened before she can discern the difference. Specially is this 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 charity, and of most proper charity, we are very apt to allow the counterfeit to pass current, 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 ye 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 kindling is blazing, and when the rack is in full operation, few men will be hypocrites. These are the keen detectors of impostors, suffering, and 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 honored, 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.” 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 wil…