BEWARE OF HYPOCRISY

Scripture often instructs believers about our walk or conduct before men (Eph. 5:15, I Peter 2:12). A believer should live honestly before men, earning the respect of those who know us. But always beware of hypocrisy. Let us not be like the Pharisee of old who “are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” (Matt. 23:27-28) Let us not act religious so men will think we are pious because there is no salvation there. “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.” (Matt 6:16)Rather let us seek Christ in the heart for Christ in the heart is true religion. Our walk will be affected best by Christ in the heart not a desire to impress men.

LOVEST THOU ME?

This is the question. The question is not do you love or understand the doctrines, but do you love CHRIST. The question is not do you love religion, but do you love CHRIST! Where there is love for Christ there is a new heart given by the Holy Spirit. Where there is no love for Christ, for the gospel, or for people, there has been no work of grace done in the heart.

Six Signs of Trouble

Every true believer fears the removal of God’s presence and power. DAVID prayed, “Take not Thy Spirit from me.” PAUL feared that, “while preaching to others, I might become a castaway.” My thoughts are that this condition is manifested in the following ways:

1.) We begin to experience no blessing nor benefit from the reading or preaching of the Word. When the Word ceases to convict, rebuke, burn in my heart, and cause me to rejoice in Christ, then God is not speaking to me; for God speaks through His Word.

2.) We are in trouble when we feel satisfied with our spiritual progress and become puffed up with knowledge. We become authorities instead of learners; having arrived, our humble spirit is in creed alone, not experience.

3.) We can be absent from the fellowship of believers and worship of the Lord without feeling a great loss and an empty heart. A man who can be warmed by his own fire is either dead or dying spiritually.

4.) We begin to be critics and find fault with others. The Spirit of God leads a man to feel that he is “less than the least”, “chief of sinners”. When the Spirit of God is not present, we become judges and fault-finders.

5.) When our souls are not vexed by the sin within us and the conversation of men about us, when we can feel comfortable in the presence of those who “never knew out God”, when we can conform to the “ways of natural men” and the trend of materialism, the light of God is dim or extinguished.

6.) When our thoughts become self-centered and the general welfare, well-being, and joy of others is of no great concern to us, we are certainly not motivated by the Spirit of God. Selfishness, like self-righteousness, is not of God. The heart filled with God’s love and grace dwells on others; to make them happy is to be happy.