Living in Religious Hypocrisy

Psalms 50:16-18 ESV

“But to the wicked God says:

    ‘What right have you to recite my statutes

    or take my covenant on your lips?

For you hate discipline,

    and you cast my words behind you.

If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,

    and you keep company with adulterers.’”

First of all, before I get into what this passage is teaching, I want to state that “the wicked” are all who are living wickedly, regardless of whether or not they profess faith in Jesus Christ. The wicked are those who are doing evil, who are ungodly in practice, who are living immoral, sinful, and dishonest lives. But they can be those who profess faith in Jesus, which is what this passage actually indicates by stating that they were reciting God’s statutes and they were taking God’s covenant on their lips.

For it is not enough for us to just give lip service to our Lord. We must actually be those who are walking in holiness and in righteousness, and not in sin, and who are obeying the Lord, in practice. Otherwise, what right do we have to profess him as Lord when he is not Lord of our lives? And this is certainly not teaching that all who are of genuine faith must live in absolute sinless perfection (see 1 John 2:1-2). But all throughout the New Testament we are taught that if sin is what we practice, we are not of God.

There are many people today claiming Jesus as Lord, though, who are living wickedly. They hate discipline, and they certainly do cast the words of the Lord behind them, for they completely ignore God’s words in order to do what they want to do. And then they will claim ignorance as though they did not know they were doing wrong, or as though they don’t know how to do what is right, but they do know. We all know right from wrong. And yet sin is still what they practice, and some of them are thieves and adulterers.

Psalms 50:19-21 ESV

“You give your mouth free rein for evil,

    and your tongue frames deceit.

You sit and speak against your brother;

    you slander your own mother's son.

These things you have done, and I have been silent;

    you thought that I was one like yourself.

But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.”

Now these are also people who speak what is evil, in practice. They are those who are gossipers and slanderers who even turn against their own family members. And they will speak against other people’s evil deeds while some of their own evil deeds may be a whole lot worse, or even the same. So, they are also hypocrites. And yet they will not change how they are living, but they expect others to change. So this is like the one who has a log in his own eye trying to take the speck out of his brother’s eye.

Now it will appear that God is being silent when he allows those who profess his name to live in sin and he does nothing, it appears, to stop them from doing evil. And when this happens, the evildoers can get the wrong idea that God is not concerned over their sin or that he can’t even see when they sin, and so they may get overconfident and think that they can continue in sin and that God will continue to do nothing about it. And they may have minds which are full of pride thinking that they cannot be touched.

And much of this today comes from this idea that God is like us, for that is how God/Christ is being portrayed much today. For the character of God/Christ has been altered and made to be more like humans so that he is more acceptable and appealing to human flesh. And we see this a lot in these modern day movies about Jesus, and we hear it a lot in people’s sermons where they characterize God/Christ in ways that are not biblical, and so many people are assuming God will not judge them, but he will.

Psalms 50:22-23 ESV

“Mark this, then, you who forget God,

    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;

    to one who orders his way rightly

    I will show the salvation of God!”

Those who forget God in this way are those who are, at least, somewhat acquainted with him, who at least are giving lip service to him, who have made a profession of faith in him, and at least have given the outward appearance that they are Christians and that they are living Christian lives. And they are people who are reciting the Lord’s statutes, so they may also be people who are teachers of the Scriptures or who speak as though how they are living is biblical, in a pure sense.

But God is saying to them that it is not the one who gives lip service to him who is honored in God’s sight, but it is those who offer thanksgiving to God as their sacrifice to God. And this is not about mouthing empty words of praise. For we show true thanksgiving to God for what he has done for us by submitting to him as Lord, by forsaking our lives of sin, by obeying his commandments (New Covenant), and by living holy and godly lives pleasing to him, in his power and strength and wisdom.

Those who live this way are those who have salvation from sin and the hope of eternal life with God. And no, this is not “works salvation”. This is the gospel of salvation that is taught us in the New Testament by Jesus and by his NT apostles. We don’t live holy lives to earn our salvation for we can’t even live holy lives until we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives. But as those who are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin so we live in sin no longer and so we now walk in holiness and in righteousness in the power of God, to the praise of God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Seek the Lord  

An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him. 

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you, 

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

https://vimeo.com/379408296