This article deals with one of the chief causes of defection from the Christian ranks and also a hindrance to those seeking to enter in to the Kingdom of God.....
HYPOCRISY
The Bible depicts human nature / Adam nature as it is in Psalm 51:5 but also
speaks to us of human nature as it could be in Psalm 51:6. From the very first moments of our existence, we are, in our human nature / our Adam nature, riddled with sinful and iniquitous drives, desires, tendencies. But God desires something different and better for us. He, in fact, desires the exact opposite for us.
David, at this moment in his life, felt himself to be the exact opposite of what
God would have him to be. God desires truth - He had been false. God desires
honesty - He had been dishonest. God desires wisdom - He had been foolish.
David was not without knowledge. He did know the truth, and yet, he deliberately
violated the truth he knew. How greatly aggravated is sin when it is committed
by someone who knows better!
Who betrayed Jesus? Name was Judas…one of his own…a friend! What great light Judas sinned against. Jesus said that it would have been better for him never to have been born. Wow!
I want you to see first, THE LORD’S DESIRE (Psalm 51:6) - The Lord desires truth in the inward parts. Whatever is desirable to God must be exceedingly and essentially desirable. If He desires it, then we would be wise to desire it as well. His primary desire concerns inward things.
When we look at man, we see the outward (body / actions); But when God looks at a man he sees the outside and the inside (thoughts, feelings, motives, desires). Please look up and read I Samuel 16:7, I Chronicles 28:9, Proverbs 17:3, and Psalm 139:1-2. Our Chief and primary concern should be our heart. Have you read what Jesus said in Matthew 23:26.
Did you know that the great mass of humanity thinks that the more religious they are on the outside, the more righteous they become on the inside. Actually, the exact opposite is true - The more right you are on the inside, the more righteous you will live on the outside. You can be religious on the outside and wrong on the inside, but you cannot be righteous on the inside and remain wrong on the outside…
The force of John Wesley’s and Charles Finney’s revivals were in their emphasis upon practical and experimental righteousness. Yes, they preached that men should repent and believe on Christ; BUT, they also taught that believers were to live out their personal faith in their public lives.
God’s chief interest is in the truth. He desires your “inward parts” to be
conformed to the truth! God is opposed to hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is abhorrent to God. It is moral disease of the worse kind! An out and out hypocrite does not truly know the Lord. When a person has love on their lips but hatred in their heart; loyalty on the surface but treachery deeper down; light and life on the outside, but darkness and death on the inside, this is hypocrisy!
God wants truth in the inward parts and not lies, error, and hypocrisy. God’s main desire is that truth be the active reality and force in our heart. He wants our inward parts to be conformed to the truth. He wants there to be real knowledge, experience, joy, love, peace and strength. He wants to see real faith, real repentance, real godliness, real prayer. Do you really have joy? Love? Peace? Have you experienced genuine repentance and faith? Is there a real godliness about your life? Please read 2 Corinthians 13:5, and Psalm 139:23.
I understand that Christians sometimes falter in certain areas mentioned above. Sometimes the ideal and reality are different. When we fall beneath our privilege and standing what should we do? First, consider whether your understanding is truly girded with truth? Do you know the truth? Read Philippians 4:8. What is the first thing mentioned in this list? Read also Ephesians 6:14. What is the first thing mentioned in this list? Truth is VERY important! Secondly, are our wills truly surrendered? To know the truth and rebel against it is devastating to life and living and for a Christian will bring chastening by God!
To live with with a heart that is aligned with truthfulness is the great need of
the hour! A man may be a thief and a robber in heart and yet may have never
stolen a thing. A man may be a lecherous adulterer in heart and yet have never
committed fornication with another man’s wife. A man may be a murderer at
heart and yet may have never killed a person.. A man’s outside may appear
heavenly….and yet his inside be “hellish.”
What a man truly is inside will eventually be revealed on the outside (even if it is finally, at the Judgement Seat of Christ or the Great White throne Judgment). You may have the devil on the inside and hang a cross on the outside; but you can never have a life truly surrendered to the cross on the inside and live like the devil on the outside.
“When Jesus Christ reigns on the interior,
the glory of his presence will glow in the exterior.”