I was contemplating this evening the subject of hypocritical religion. Many people calling themselves “Christians” give a bad name to Christianity because their religion and their religious practices are tied up in rules and traditions of human origin, not of God, and because they are following the traditions of their cultures and their religious upbringings, and not of God. They call it Christianity, but they are followers of man, and not of God.
I am reading in Matthew 23:1-39.
Jesus talked about such people when he described the scribes and the Pharisees of his day. But he told his disciples that they had to observe (obey) what their leaders told them (not what was against God), but they were not to do the works that they did. For, he said, “They preach, but do not practice.” And he continued by describing them as those who do their deeds to be seen by others, and who love the seats of honor in public.
He called them hypocrites for they lived the opposite of the faith in God that they professed with their lips. He said that they cleaned the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they were full of greed and self-indulgence. So he told them that they needed to first clean the inside of the cup and the plate (referring to their own hearts), that the outside also may be clean. For they made an appearance of righteousness but were full of lawlessness.
And we have many such people today who go through the rituals of religious practice, feeling as though they are being good religious people or good Christians, but it is outward only, not from the heart, and it is not reflected in their words, attitudes, values, morals, and behaviors. For outwardly they attend worship services on a weekly basis and they may do religious stuff, but their hearts are still given over to the flesh and to self-indulgence.
And while they look down on those who don’t do all the same things that they do in all the same ways, they are ignoring God and his commands to us under the New Covenant, and they have not forsaken their sinful practices. And they are living much the same as the people of the world who make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ, which is not in holy and in godly living as the Scriptures teach that we must do as followers of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said about these hypocrites that they shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For they neither enter themselves nor do they allow those who would enter to go in. And how is this being done today? It is happening via people teaching us that we can make a one-time decision in our lives to believe in Jesus Christ and now all our sins are forgiven, and now heaven is guaranteed us when we die, and it can’t be taken away from us, but regardless of how we live. But that is a lie from hell. Why?
Jesus said that if anyone would come after him that he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For in essence he said that if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self that we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Christ Jesus we die with him to sin and we now live to him and to his righteousness, then we will live with him for eternity. And Paul and the other apostles taught that, too (see Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-21).
And Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one DOING the will of God the Father in heaven. For many will stand before him one day and will call him “Lord,” and they will proclaim all the things they believed they did in his name. But he will tell them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness” because they would not obey our Lord (Matthew 7:21-23).
Therefore, a Christian is not a Christian if he/she is only one outwardly, in form only, and if the Christian has not forsaken his life of sin, and if he has not bowed the knee to God in submission to our Lord and to his will for our lives, and if he is still deliberately and habitually sinning against the Lord and against other humans, and if he is not living a holy life in the power of God for the glory of God. For that is what this teaches us, and here, too:
[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]
Have Thine Own Way, Lord
Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907
Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!
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