Intimate Strangers

 

This people draw near me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips

but have removed their hearts far from Me. [Isa.29:13]

 

 

Lip service, ceremonial sanctity and impressive religion are the profanity of our time. Benumbed of all spiritual sensitivity, our generation discerns no distinction between the truly spiritual and the mundane. Strange it is that we would pursue a compromise between Flesh and Spirit. With no intent to do away with fleshly desires and indulgence, we still seek to appear religious. And left alone to the diabolical designs of our wanton hearts, we have developed a hybrid Christianity!

The passion for a show of religion devoid of godliness is not of recent origin. It has ever been man’s attempt to forge an alloy of self and true spirituality. In the days of Malachi religion was the desire of every Jew. All laid claim to Jehovah as their God. The regular fasts, sacrifices and sanctimonious holidays were punctiliously observed. Open rebellion was unknown and zeal led many into meticulous adherence to the feasts and worship services of their adorable temple.

Though the carnal populace was impressed and even complacent over their priests, temple and religion, the Lord was not deceived. He sent the prophet Malachi to warn them against their hypocrisy, but they disdained his warnings. Theirs was a most pitiful condition, for while the messenger of the Lord brought His indictments against that godless but religious generation, they, with an impudent face, brazenly questioned the veracity of his castigations; to which they replied, “In what way?”

The seven count charge of the Lord against them was; [1] By way of lip service they laid claim to being God’s people, but despised the responsibilities that should accompany such claims [Mal.1:6]. [2] By virtue of their impure natures they offered defile food on God’s altar [Mal:1:7]. [3] Fires of religious service for gain were vainly kindled [Mal.1:10]. [4] Israel regarded true spiritual living as burdensome [Mal.1:13]. [5] They offered to the Lord that which cost them nothing and were valueless to themselves [Mal.1:8]. [6] The priests who supposedly represented God were corrupt [Mal.2:7]. [7] God’s people freely intermarried with the heathen daughters of the land [Mal.2:11].

Yet these were a people most orthodox in their religious attitude, though their ceremonious worship was devoid of the essentials of true faith [2 Pt. 1:5-9]. When indicted with these charges they sullenly replied in their blindness, “In what way? What do you mean? How could we possible be guilty of these things you say? Are you knowledgeable than our acknowledged priests who are versed in the things of God? We do not see any sense in what you are saying!!”

Dear reader, are we any different than the people in the days of Malachi? Statistics of world religions claim billions of adherents to be devotees to “Christianity.” More than any other age in the past, liberty of worship has led to the proliferation of churches and seminaries. Our tongues are filled with religious greetings. Shalom, Peace to you, It is well, Jesus loves you, etc. We dress according to the dictates of our denominations. We announce a multiplicity of programs from our pulpits and call for interdenominational prayer conferences.

With all of our outward show, haven’t we passed into that fearful and most dreadful condition of complacency in a display of sanctity when we are actually reprobates vainly attempting to protect the indulgence of our self- life?  What right do we have to identify with His holy name when we refuse to renounce the hidden things of shame?  And though we lay claim to sonship and intimacy with the Lord, the Babel of Christendom’s tongues abide as irrefutable signs of certain Judgment.

 God is not deceived. He sees through the pretense that easily may delude others. And He yet sends His messengers to call our attention to His displeasure over the counterfeit faith that we practice. O for a voice to penetrate our stony hearts that God’s judgment might not fall upon us for failing to separate ourselves from that which we cling to with such fatal pertinacity!

Christ the Son of God decried the vanity of an empty religion without spiritual reality when he narrated the parable of the prodigal son and his elder brother. We are quick to pass judgment on the prodigal, thinking this to refer only to the openly rebellious and those without the household of God. But while that is true, the elder brother aptly pictures our malady.

Intimately connected to the Father, dutifully working in His vineyard, apparently not wanting in character, he continued in the Father’s house for years. But the garment of hypocrisy, which he wore all through those years, was ripped apart by the return of his wayward brother.

He who had all the while toiled “not complaining” in the Father’s house, now showed his true nature. He complained, These many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends—Lk.15:29. Self, not love for the Father, is displayed as the reason for his service. He disdained the repentance of his wayward brother.  The music and feasting within the Father’s house were a strange thing altogether to him. His own friends were without, and merry-making was what he sought with his friends [Lk.15:24], not the feast of joy  within which the Father affords.

With disrespect for the Father whose hands of love were extended to this grumbling son, he proceeded to malign his younger brother slanderously. Listen to his accusation, This son of yours who has devoured your livelihood with harlots—Lk.15:30. But how did he know that?

Fearful but true, the elder son who before now had maintained an outward proximity to the Father, ended up outside while he who was considered prodigal was in the house! This is a striking illustration of the first being the last and vice-versa!

Dear friend, does not this elder son describe us?  Is this not what Christ meant when He said to the religious men of His day, Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you—Mtt.21:31. We are always found engaged in some church activity, organizing programs and evangelism outings, never discovered in instances of open shame, while maintaining a connection in the eyes of men with the name of Jesus. Yet seeking our will while parading in His courts pursuing our own desires, we condemn those who ought to be objects of our pity and love though posing as being holy people. In spite of all these, the Lord is sending more prodigals our way to prove that, though we are orthodox in worship, we are truly heterodox in heart. We merely intimate that we know Him, but actually we are strangers to Him.

Is this not then a cause for lamentation? How long shall we continue in this delusion? Why all these deceptive services?  Has Christ not told us that God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth —Jn.4:24? Why then do we persist in drinking from broken cisterns? Is it not wisdom that we abandon the unscriptural religion contaminated by the unholy honey of mere natural goodness, that of decorum and ecumenism [Lev.2:11], in order to partake of that unleavened bread of sincerity and truth [1Cor.5:8]? The word of God is explicit, All things are open and naked to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account—Heb.4:13. May the Lord grant us the heart to abandon the empty form of religion and embrace the true life of Christ. Amen.

 

                                                         By

                                                   Ade--Peters

                                                

http://gospelfromtheheartofafrica.com

 

Brother Peters near the village of Rotaprr in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

A Bible teacher and Gospel preacher, Temitope Adewole (Peters) desires to help make disciples for the Lord Jesus.