The
Nature of the Fallen Man
Part Five
By Nick Bibile
Today
we are going to see some religious hypocrisies of the fallen man. There are
times that we cannot distinguish the difference between the fallen man and the
regenerated Christian, as we see only the outward, and they look almost the
same. Only God knows the heart and God can expose the hypocrisy and the
deceitfulness of the heart, and we know the heart of fallen man is deceitful.
If you remember in our last sermon, we saw the natural man is like a snake full
of venom and the snake like the warmness of the fellowship of other Christians.
Religious hypocrisy is one thing that God truly hates.
First,
let us see the outward of the fallen man when it comes to religion. Remember we
are not speaking here of other cults where we can distinguish them easily, we
are speaking of the ones who attend a church and call them selves Christians.
The
natural man will show some respect to God and many in the church will see this
respect and think that they are not enemies of God. Let us see some of these
outward acts. They will attend the Lords Day services. They will pray in public
and their prayers they will say, God is great almighty, a glorious God,
infinitely holy God. They will even pray to God in secret and will take much
pain to worship, will show much respect to God in their prayers. They will show
much respect to God in their voice and other gestures. They will look like any
other Christian. But let me tell you, all this is done in hypocrisy. You will
certainly disagree with me and say how can you say that? I will tell you, yes
there is much respect to God externally, outwardly but not sincerely inwardly.
It is only a show and nothing else. Jonathan Edwards said, You cover your
enmity with a painted veil. There is external honor but inward despise to God.
Ps
66:3 Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of
thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
The
word submit in Hebrew is kahash means {submit...: or, yield feigned obedience:
Heb. lie} This is what it means in the context. The word feign means only a
show, a false appearance. John Calvin about this verse said, through the
greatness of Gods power, his enemies feign submission to him. Calvin goes on to
say, The power of God is such as to force them into a reluctant subjection.
The
Geneva Bible in its commentary on this verse says; As the faithful obey God
willingly, so the infidels disguise themselves as obedient out of fear.
Matthew
Henry says that this is a feigned submission.
In
the original King James, there is a foot note that says, submit...: or, yield feigned obedience: Heb.
lie
Let
me give you an example. If you are traveling in your car on the freeway, and the
speed limit says, 65 miles per hour, but you are going at a speed of 85 mph.
Then suddenly in the back mirror you see the police, and then naturally you
will slow down to 65 mph. My point is you did this reluctantly. You had to
force your self to do it. As soon as the police pass by you and you see the
police exit, then you will resume your speed again at 85 mph. When the police
car was behind you, you became obedient. Why? There was a fear; there was a
respect to the police. You became humble, you were afraid, that you will get a
ticket. But this was only a show; it was a false submission because as soon as
the police left you began speeding again.
In
the same way the fallen man in the presence of God, show a great show of
respect to him. We can see his manner of speaking, his reverence in the voice.
You put a humble act out of fear to God. But it is only a feign respect. It is
done as a show. There is no true sincerity. When people are in the Church it is
easy to show respect to God, when they are gone, then you are on your own
again.
Remember
the children of
Gods
power has restrained you to become evil, and there is a fear and a false
humility toward God. Remember the devil he showed a respect to Jesus in fear.
Lu
8:27 And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain
man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any
house, but in the tombs.
28
When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud
voice said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I
beseech thee, torment me not.
We
see here the demons were afraid of Jesus, as they thought he was going to
torment them. This was only a show, as we know that the demons hate God, but in
the presence of the Son of God, they show a respect and a fear. The fallen man
is no difference than the demons, as you will see their respect and fear only
in the presence of God. Even when they pray in secret to God it is only a show,
so God will see his sacrifice for the day.
This is the life of a hypocrite.
When
Sunday comes the fallen man realizes is time to go to church, and with the
fellow Christians, he act like a saint, he praises the Lord with music, listen
to the word of God in fear, respect the fellow friends in the church, they have
performed their duty to the Lord. When everything is over, the fallen man
realizes now I have my freedom and my will and I can kick back now do my own
things. First thing he does is to break the Lords Day. Then in his car driving
listen to the worldly music that pleases the flesh, come home put the TV on and
eyes are focused on the things that pleases the flesh, then call the worldly
friends over the phone and enjoy speaking to them as it pleases the flesh, then
go to work and others see him as a regular worker not as a sincere Christian,
then come home and will do the ritual of Bible reading and prayer out of fear
of God but not in true sincerity, then when it times to attend a prayer meeting
will come and join other Christians and pray a beautiful prayer with much
humility then go home and back to normal life.
Advise to Children and Adults.
Even
Children are taught from early age to respect God. They too fall into a
hypocritical life style. But if I see an adult praying with children and very
seriously bowing down and praying but the children their eyes wildly open and
looking around all over, the adult who is praying think the children are in
respect to God, but in reality not. When they see me or someone else coming
they close their eyes as if they are agreeing with the adults prayer. I am
grieved because if the children hearing the word of God and they can fool the
adults now, how much more when they grow up. Listen adults, now I am talking to
you. Do not spoil the children and do not compromise with them and say oh, they
are only children; we were like them when we were small. I will tell you when
you were small you did not hear sound doctrine. But these kids are hearing the
words of God. The children too are accountable to God, they can sing loud the
songs, they hear the word, just like anyone else, they too need to pray, Lord
help me to understand your word and to obey. What is the difference if they can
be disobedient and adults cannot? They are not infants. Listen adults if we do
not discipline them now in the Lord the next generation will not read and study
the word of God, they will not be interested in good puritan literature. The
children who will grow up will continue the ministry; they are to maintain the
pure religion. We will die, they will continue, and then they should teach to
their children.
Ps
78:5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their
children:
6
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be
born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
7
That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but
keep his commandments:
Why
did the Jews respect Jesus at the beginning? It was for their selfish reasons.
They
were calling him Rabbi because they wanted to make him a king, their respect to
Jesus was not sincere but they honored him for their own selfishness. They were
looking for food, bread. Their respect and honor was only a show.
The
fallen man has a high opinion of himself before God. They are self-righteous.
They can even pray with tears falling down their cheeks. Jonathan Edwards said,
There is commonly abundance of pride in the midst of tears. They weep before
God because of their difficult situation and they weep because they love them
selves. If your tears have been from sorrow of sins, and you have mourned for
your sins it is because you see that you have sinned against yourself and not
against God.
Zec
7:5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted
and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at
all fast unto me, even to me?
6
And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and
drink for yourselves?
Let
me tell you what John Calvin said in this portion of scripture, I will use easy
English for us to understand. The Jews thought that God was pacified by their
fastings and other ceremonies. God was satisfied by their external worship.
They think when they have performed their duties to God, God is satisfied. They
were deceived as they were looking for what they have done to please God. They
have done their duties faithfully, performed the services, but these are all
self-pleasing thoughts. This was all a show, it was all external but there was
no sincerity.
All that Glitters is not gold.
Sometimes
Christians can be very gullible to outward appearance of a person, and the true
Christians can be deceived. Read Joshua 9:1-14. Here we see how the Gibeonites
deceived Joshua, as the Israelites saw their outward appearances and the felt
sorry for the Gibeonites and they did not ask counsel of the Lord. How we need
discernment. One of my prayers that I pray continually is for discernment.
The
natural man can shed tears and show affection towards God but in reality, they
are enemies of God. Another good example is Saul.
1Sa
24:16 And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words
unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up
his voice, and wept.
17
And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me
good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
18
And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch
as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.
1Sa
24:19 For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the
LORD reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.
20
And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the
kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.
21
Swear now therefore unto me by the LORD, that thou wilt not cut off my seed
after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.
22
And David sware unto Saul. And Saul went home; but David and his men gat them
up unto the hold.
Well
reading the above scriptures we see Saul was so much affected by Davids words,
that he wept aloud, called him David his son, he was Davids mortal enemy
before, but now we see him weeping, repenting but we know from scripture this
was only external but there was no inward sincerity. This was only for a
moment, just like when you are speeding on the highway suddenly you will see
the police you will reluctantly slow down, and become humble and pay much
respect to the police, as soon as the police overtakes you and you cannot see
them anymore, you begin your speeding again. In the same way the next thing we
see of Saul is that he is going after David to kill him.
1Sa
26:1 And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide
himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?
2
Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand
chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.
In
concluding, we see how terrible was the fall of man. We see how deceitful and
wicked his heart and there is nothing good in the fallen man, we see a picture
even more gross and ugly. The picture of the fallen man is the true picture of
the devil. May the word of God that was spoken today awaken the fallen man to
have a sincere walk in Christ Jesus.