“These people worship me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain, their teachings are merely human rules.”  Matthew 15:8-9

I have lived a Sunday kind of worship life.  I have done the obligatory hour on Sunday and gone on living my sinful life.  But I was pretty obvious with it.  I showed up for church and listened to the sermon and went home.  I didn’t get involved.  I was very stealthy in my church attendance.  My friends knew that I went to church on most Sunday mornings, but they also knew they could count on me to join them in the partying for the rest of the weekend.  I also knew how to hold a grudge.  I could take bitterness to a whole new level.  I sought revenge on those who offended me and they had to earn my forgiveness and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy.

When my husband and I started dating, he decided he wanted to start coming to church with me.  I was thrilled that he wanted to join me but then he started wanting to go earlier on Sunday morning so we could go to Sunday School for an hour of Bible Study before the sermon.  He then started wanting to go to Bible study on Sunday night and Wednesday night Bible Study and prayer meeting.  I hadn’t really bargained for all that, but I agreed to join him.

We then began to get involved in the church and we began to realize that we could party with our fellow church members.  We had social events and had great fun there at church.  We began to serve the Lord.  We have since learned what it means to serve the Lord with our whole heart.  To really serve the Lord and not just fake it.  It is way more fun than the partying that I used to do, if you don’t believe me try it for yourself.

When I encounter people who make great shows of worshiping and serving the Lord but then treat others cruelly and seem to forget many of God’s commandments, I am frightened for that person.  In this scripture passage Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees.  These men were the religious leaders of Jesus time.  They were held in high esteem.  They were considered to be the ruling class of Israel.  Yet Jesus who knows man’s heart, is telling them that their hearts are far from Him.  He is telling them that they are worshiping Him in vain and they are following human rules.  They had strict laws about what people could and could not eat.  Jesus goes on to tell the crowd gathered around them that it is what comes out of man’s mouth that defiles him, not what goes into his mouth.

We started talking at the beginning of this week about trusting and obeying God.  When we get saved, we trust God and we accept Him as our savior.  That is the first step in  trusting Him.  As we giving him our trust, we develop a relationship with Him.  If we trust in Him and we believe His word that is in the Bible, then we want to obey Him.

When we are saved, we become a child of God.  The question is are we truly saved?  The Bible tells us that once we are saved nothing can snatch us from God’s hand and this is a whole other blog so I won’t go too far into that today, but some people believe that and some don’t.  I believe that if you are truly saved, if you are not faking your salvation, then you are always saved.  I believe that we all slip, we all make mistakes, but if we are truly saved then we confess, repent, and go on with our walk with Christ.  I also believe that there are people that profess to be saved, they sit in a pew every Sunday morning, they serve in the church, they make a great show of being a Christian, but when you watch them closely and you listen to what comes out of their mouths, you are sure that they are not saved.  You see those that fake it, will always mess up.  They can’t fake it well enough.  Remember it has been said that you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Now only God knows if someone is truly saved, but the Bible tells us that we can inspect the fruit.  Let me tell you, if the fruit is rotten, you will eventually find that out.

Now let’s say that you know that you are saved and you know that you are truly saved and you are on your way to heaven.  That’s great!  So you may say okay, I’m good.  You are good, but you must be very careful not to be deceived.  Don’t be fooled by the wolf in sheep’s clothing.  Don’t be fooled by the person that is kind to you but treat others horribly and maybe even ask you to do the same.  I have had people who were so good to me and were very helpful but then they will gossip about others and are quick to let me know that they expect me to treat this person as they treat them.  If I expect for them to continue to be good to me, I have to go against God’s word and treat their enemy as if they are my enemy.  Now I know that God’s word tells me to love my enemy and pray for those who persecute me.  I have actually known people who think it is wrong for you to pray for someone that has come against them.  I have known people that get angry if you speak to someone they consider to be their enemy.  Yes I have known so-called fine Christian people who expect you to take sides in their arguments with others.  The Bible says that if we have a problem with our brother that we are to go to our brother and try to resolve the issue.  If the brother refuses then we are to take two or three people with us to try to settle the matter.  We want people that are impartial that can help us work this out.  If the brother still refuses then we are to bring him before the church.  If he still refuses then we are to disassociate with him.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are to gossip and talk to everyone we know and try to turn them against our brother.  If anything, we should ask others to join us in praying for our Christian brother.

After Jesus told the crowd that the Pharisees were worshiping Him in vain and that it was not what a man put into his mouth, but what came out of a man’s mouth that defiled him, the disciples told Him that he had offended the Pharisees.  Jesus replied “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.  Leave them, they are blind guides.  If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit”  This is in Matthew 15:13-14.

I want you to understand that Jesus is referring to the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time.  The Bible tells us that in the end times we will see a lot of people faking it.  Pray for God for wisdom so that you may discern those that are true followers of God.  Don’t be mislead by those that are good to you, but treat others poorly.

My prayer for you today is that God will grant you the wisdom needed to make wise decisions and also that you yourself will understand the danger of pretending to be righteous.  My prayer is that you don’t fake it!

So get real and have a great day!