Thank God for His faithfulness. Bible says, ‘there is now no condemnation, to those who are in Christ Jesus’; there is no condemnation but there is a conviction of our sins; so that we can turn away from sin. Jesus says to the woman caught in adultery, ‘I do not condemn you, go, but sin no more’. This is the spirit of God and His will for us, to sin no more. Whatever may be our condition, there is always a way for us to come to our Lord. Let us open our heart and say, ‘Lord, here I am’. Let us come before God, as we are. Ask God, ‘show to us, that which we are lacking’, and the Holy Spirit will show to us that which we are lacking; through our Church and our brethren! It is good to have an internal spiritual audit of our spiritual lives. So, let us have this spirit of prayer and come back to Him, with a repentant heart and restore to what God had already prepared for us.
Psalms 51:6, ‘Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.’
It says, ‘You desire the inner reality in the innermost being’. The Psalm was written by David, when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, murdered her husband. Nathan, the Prophet, revealed his sin through a story, David had a deep repentance and forgiveness. When Nathan explained David’s sin through a story, he couldn’t understand and was saying that ‘this cruel man should die!’ but when Nathan told him directly that it was him, who sinned; David’s eyes were opened, he did not hide anything, with an honest heart he asked forgiveness for his sins from the Lord. He repented. What is the truth about our inner life? God desires truth in our inner heart but not our outward being! God looks at our heart always!
1 Samuel 16:7, ‘But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”’
Men always look outward! What is the truth about our external life? We may have a good testimony! That we are a good brother or sister, always helping others, etc. which makes us think that we are okay, as we have a good testimony before others, in the Church! It is good; but if we ignore the truth about our inner life, being satisfied with the outward testimony, we fall into a big danger in our spiritual life! No one knows about our inner lives! Only God can show us our true inner selves! When a person’s outward testimony is good but inner being is not good, then he is a hypocrite! We need to be true in our inner being! First, let us clean our inner being, our hidden part! Clean the inner side of our cup first, then we won’t be a hypocrite! It is a serious sin. God hates it the most! In the old testament, the righteousness was external, it was a serious sin, if anyone sinned externally. God judges accordingly.
David also committed two serious sins, outwardly; adultery and murder! In the new covenant, everything is focused on the internal, the innermost being!
Matthew 5:21, ‘“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.’
V27, ‘“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.’
Here, Jesus says that adultery and murder; the lust and anger will lead us to hell! Our cup, our heart needs to be cleaned inside first! The Holy Spirit will help us to be cleaned inside. Hypocrisy also leads to hell.
V20, ‘“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.’
The righteousness of Pharisees and scribes was external. God is looking at our inward righteousness. God looks at our inner motives, inner lives, inward righteousness – our attitude toward others and our motives. The Pharisees were blind about their inner lives. They have good doctrine and teaching but they are spiritually blind! Their external lives looked righteous! But they are blind to the reality of their inner lives!
Matthew 6:1, ‘“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.’
V2, ‘“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.’
V5, ‘“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.’
V16, ‘“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.’
Regarding the fasting, praying and giving also, if we are doing for external righteousness, this is hypocrisy. God looks at our heart, our motives behind doing all these! In everything we do, let us not be hypocrites!
Matthew 23:25, ‘“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.’
Jesus hates hypocrisy, the most! He is exposing the Pharisees and scribes, of their hypocrisy! He calls them blind, many times! They are spiritually blind to see their inner lives! They are only focusing on the external things, they are hypocrites!
If we are content with our external lives, external testimonies about us, when we are ignoring our inner reality of our spiritual lives, then we are hypocrites! Ask God to open our eyes to our inner reality!
In the book of Revelation, to 5 Churches, Jesus gave serious warnings. It applies to our Churches too! To all the Churches, is to all the believers in the Church. He is giving them a scan report to all the Churches about their inner being!
Revelation 2:23, ‘..all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.’
God searches our inner – minds and hearts! God judges.
1 Corinthians 4:5, ‘Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.’
God judges the motives of our hearts. God searches our minds and hearts. We need to be serious about our inner lives!
We see about the Ephesus Church in,
Revelation 2:4, ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.’
We read about Ephesus Church in Ephesians, that they have an incorruptible love for the Lord, in the beginning! Now Holy Spirit says, that they had left the first love! They got appreciated about many things, that they were doing many things for the Lord. They were appreciated for their toil, perseverance, testing people if they were true apostles, endurance for God’s Name, not growing weary! There were many good things but the important thing was that they were blind about their inner lives! They were doing everything for the Lord. They had lost their first love! This was the most important thing! Without knowing the truth about ourselves, we also might be living like this, not knowing our inner truth! When God gave them the scan report of their inner lives, their eyes were opened, and came to know that they had lost their first love for the Lord in their inner lives!
May God open our eyes to see the reality of our inner lives!
We see about the Sardis Church in,
Revelation 3:1, ‘..‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.’
We may have a name for our ourselves in the Church, that we are a good Christian, good believer, brother and sister! We are alive outside but inside, we are dead! Inside there is no life! Having a form of godliness! The truth about this Church is that they are spiritually dead!
The Lord says to this Church, ‘Come back!’ and ‘Repent!’
To every Church, God says, ‘Come back and repent!’
God has something good about the other seven Churches, but regarding the Laodicean Church, there is no good thing in them! Jesus says that it is a ‘Lukewarm’ church and Jesus is outside the door! Outside the Church and is knocking at the door!
V15, ‘‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.’
V19, ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.’
They are saying they have need of nothing! They are spiritually blind! Let us ask about ourselves also! They are content and have need of nothing! God is showing them, the truth about themselves, their innermost being! He is correcting them and is opening their blind eyes to see!
We are blind, we need to see our real inner condition! Let us ask God to open our eyes to see our inner reality!
Let us cry out like David, when he repented.
Judas Iscariot, the disciple of Jesus was with Jesus for three years and he experienced His goodness and grace. His motives were not pure and not genuine. He was in the best Church! The deep-rooted hypocrisy leads to the unthinkable acts, even when the goodness and grace are near! Let us examine ourselves! Let our motives be pure and genuine!
John 13:10, ‘Jesus *said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”’
Jesus was talking about Judas Iscariot as his inside was not pure! His inner life was not pure. There was hypocrisy in the inside! Motives were not pure. The other disciples could not see Judas’s reality! They could not see his hypocrisy! Mat God help us to see the reality of our inner most being!
Isaiah was saying, ‘Woe to you!..’ to others, but when he saw the Lord and His glory, (God opened his eyes to see the glory of God) then Isaiah said, ‘Woe to Me! I am a man of unclean lips!’
The uncleanness, the wretchedness, only God has to show us.
In Luke 18, Jesus heals a blind beggar Bartimaeus. Jesus asked him,
Luke 18:41, ‘“What do you want Me to do for you?” And he said, “Lord, I want to regain my sight!”
Let us also ask God to help us see our blindness. This blind beggar did not ask for riches or fame, but his priority was, ‘Lord I want to see’. Les ask God to see Him!
As we see in,
Ephesians 1:18, ‘I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints’
May our eyes of our heart may be enlightened. Let us also have this prayer to see the truth about our inner lives! We do not want to live as hypocrites as having only a form of godliness!
Psalms 139:23, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.’
Hypocrisy is a spiritual cancer! It is a silent killer! Only if we thirst and hunger for the righteousness of God, and cry out to God, ‘Lord show me the reality of my inner life’, then God shows us and God will help us to be healed completely from this spiritual cancer! Today we have time to come back to God and repent of all our hypocrisy, He will heal us of hypocrisy as He is our great physician! He is our healer. He will heal us from all our spiritual sickness.
May God help us. Jesus said, ‘clean the inside of the cup first’.
We can continue living our external lives, ignoring our inner lives. God’s will for us is to clean our inside cup! May God open our eyes to see the truth about our inner life and be cleansed from all the greediness, self-seeking honor, lust, wickedness, self-centeredness, anger, hypocrisy, seeking the honor, seeking the appreciation from our innermost being!
Jesus is calling us!
Matthew 11:28, ‘“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”’
If we are really fed up with this life of hypocrisy, we have hope! If we are really burdened and heavy-laden with our inner life, come to the Lord. We do not want to live old-covenant lives like David, where the righteousness was external; but through Jesus, the new covenant is established! God wants all of us to live new-covenant lives, focusing only on the inward righteousness! God wants us all, from our innermost being, the rivers of living water should flow! If we are really longing for this,
John 7:38, ‘He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’
This is the new covenant blessing for us if we are longing for clean inner lives! Holy Spirit will lead us to lead better lives. New covenant life is a better life! We may have failed in many areas, may be a failure in being a good husband, father, mother, wife, daughter, son, brother, sister, staff, believer; but we can be a betterhusband, father, mother, wife, daughter, son, brother, sister, staff, believer! This is the new covenant Church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is offering us!
This life, the rivers of living water will flow through us! God is building us as an individual and a body of Christ, to live in the truth of this new covenant life, in all the areas of our lives!
May God bless us.
