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Tag: Matthew

  • What’s a Hypocrite to do?

    What’s a Hypocrite to do?

    It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

    (It is a Higher calling, though.) It is a higher calling as Jesus pointed out also given to the Pharisees, whose hypocrisy was frequent target of our Lord.

    We should not think for one instant that we (because we are not Pharisees or teachers of scriptures) are not also call to the higher calling of Christ Jesus to REPENT of our hypocrisy.

    Proverbs 25:4-5

    Take away the dross from the silver,
    and the smith has material for a vessel;

    take away the wicked from the presence of the king,
    and his throne will be established in righteousness.

    How can Christ Jesus claim His Throne of righteousness without taking away the dross of hypocrisy from His church?

    Are you the dross?

    OR do you REPENT and as a disciple seek once more to be “like his teacher” and as one who witnesses Jesus as Lord, “the servant like his master?”

    HYPOCRISY is a warning of Christ Jesus even in this teaching of scripture (which we will reach in a moment). CHRISTIANS (disciples and servants of Jesus Christ) are NOT to live like the world we seek to convert to join us as one of the forgiven sinners of His church.

    Matthew 10

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

    21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

    tolerencecoexistWhy are you, dear brother or sister, trying for tolerance, though our Lord calls for you to be hated for His Name’s sake?

    IF those we would win to Christ Jesus see christians as “just like us” they see hypocrisy when we try to pluck the speck of sin from their lives while we witness the tree branch in our own.

     24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

    25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

    If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

    You and I are NOT above Jesus. We call Him LORD.

    Neither are we like Jesus (in many ways), but by establishing His continual righteousness in our hearts as His servants we represent the household of the King of Heaven and earth as ambassadors to those He would bring into the church family along side us (miserable sinners that you and I have been).

    To be continued…

     

  • The Mirror of Church Hypocrisy – 2

    The Mirror of Church Hypocrisy – 2

    Is Christ’s church not His betrothed, as Israel was chosen of the Lord?

    A word for the Church from Prophets of old:

    Israel Forsakes the Lord

    The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord,

    “I remember the devotion of your youth,
    your love as a bride,
    how you followed me in the wilderness,
    in a land not sown.
    3 Israel was holy to the Lord,
    the first fruits of his harvest…

    “Dearly beloved,” begins our covenant witness for marriage.

    “Dear Lord Jesus,” we praise Christ when first we bow to Him.

    9 “Therefore I still contend with you,
    declares the Lord,
    and with your children’s children I will contend…

    19 Your evil will chastise you,
    and your apostasy will reprove you.

    Know and see that it is evil and bitter
    for you to forsake the Lord your God;
    the fear of me is not in you,
    declares the Lord God of hosts.

    20 “For long ago I broke your yoke
    and burst your bonds;
    but you said, ‘I will not serve.’

    Yes, on every high hill
    and under every green tree
    you bowed down like a whore…

    DIVORCE, by ‘christian’ husbands?

    DIVORCE, by ‘christian’ wives?

    You have long ago forsaken your love for the Lord your God. Your whoredom is against Christ Jesus, your returning Bridegroom!

    Our “Lord,” Christ Jesus warns: “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce … but from the beginning it was not so. – Matthew 19:8

    Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord…

    25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church… that she might be holy and without blemish.

    31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 

    32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    How dare we (christians) even speak of the sexual sin of the world, when we have not returned to the purity Christ Jesus expects of His betrothed so soiled in sexual sin!

    Jeremiah 2:

    22 Though you wash yourself with lye
    and use much soap,
    the stain of your guilt is still before me,
    declares the Lord God…

    29 “Why do you contend with me?
    You have all transgressed against me,
    declares the Lord.
    30 In vain have I struck your children;
    they took no correction…

    Do our christian children witness the love and forgiveness of  Christ even less than their divorced christian parents?

    Do our christian children sell their flesh and souls to the same sexual desires we would hide from the world?

    To be continued…

     

  • The Mirror of Hypocrisy

    The Mirror of Hypocrisy

    As I left the busy area of the mall wearing my brand new ‘Jesus’ tie I had just purchased as witness to family members far from Christ, I hurried onto the main freeway. Morning traffic was still dense, but I had time to merge; BUT the car in the lane next to the ramp was not making room for me.

    It breezes by as I braked rather than merging. The woman driver had a cell phone up to her right ear. She never saw me.

    So (of course) I followed my gut reaction as I squeezed into traffic behind her. As she blew by the ramp, phone to her ear; I tried my best to get her attention back on traffic with a long blast on my horn.

    And you guessed it. What was the first thing I noticed?

    Her bumper sticker:

    PRAY

    Yes, this brother in the Lord (with the log in his eye) noticed clearly this sister in the Lord with the speck in hers.

    I had to laugh. (And pray that nobody would notice that the car honking his horn had a bumper sticker on the back from his daughter’s Christian college.)

     Matthew 7:3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

    Want to witness to an unbeliever? (For they are hypocrites, too.)

    Tell them you are a sinner. I am!

    When I look in the mirror I do not see Christ; I see a sinner.

    Even unbelievers see the sins of OTHERS, including ours.

    Look in the mirror and remove the log of hypocrisy from your eye. THEN, confess your sin and witness Christ Jesus.

    Even the unbeliever will see clearly: the truth of your witness or the lie of our hypocrisy.