(Continuing from last week)
THE GREATEST PRINCIPLE which underlies all causes of self- deception vis-a-vis unconscious hypocrisy, even among good pastors, evangelicals and leaders of the church, is failure to heed the plain teachings of the Scriptures. We accept what the Scripture teaches, as far as, the Christian doctrine is concerned; but when it comes to practice, we very often refuse and fail to take the Scriptures as our only guide, we employ human tests instead of scriptural ones. And, instead of taking the plain and clear teachings of the Bible – ordinances of God Himself – we argue with them and go about them applying human sense-knowledge. How often do we hear preachers, pastor and evangelists say: “Since the Scriptures were written, things and time have changed
An obvious illustration here is necessary. Take the issue women preaching and being ordained to the full ministry in the church. The Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 14:34-38 states very clearly: “Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted onto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also sayeth the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. What? Came the Word of God out from you? Or came it unto you only? If a man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant And in I Tim. 2:11-14, the Apostles say: “Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression. The foregoing paragraphs are clear and unambiguous commandments of God. How many churches today keep and obey this law of God, in spite of Apostle Paul’s declaration that “the things that I write to you are the Commandments of God”.
Today, Bishops, pastors etc still argue that this ordinance of God was intended only for the Corinthian Church of Apostle Paul’s days and therefore not binding on today’s church.
Others deliberately conjure up unwarranted contentions and controversy about it. Some plead perplexity and base their argument on the fact that the Bible records a number of women prophetesses both in the OT and NT. Others point to the roles played by women like Mery Magdalene, Salomi, etc during Christ’s early ministry, and other such devout women in the early church. The weakness of their arguments is in the fact that none of the women in the OT nor in the early church (NT) preached or taught in the temple, the synagogue nor in the early church. None of such women was recorded as being ordained a minister of the Gospel. The proponents of these points fail to remember that Christ inaugurated the church universal at Pentecost of AD 31 but did not give any doctrines to His church before He ascended into Heaven, He later gave all the doctrines to govern the church and worship to Apostle Paul (AD 37/-39).
And to all those who arrogantly over-value their spiritual endowments to the extent of disregarding God’s laws and ordinances in this regard and pleading “Grace”, as it were, Apostle Paul declares in 1 Cor. 14:37: “If any one think himself to be a prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that what I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant let him be ignorant” The Apostle is saying that by accepting these counsels and obeying them, the believer would be showing his willingness to be led by the Spirit. And to those who claim to be operating on the gifts of the spirit, but still refuse to recognize that these ordinances come from the Lord, would just be betraying the fact that whatever gifts they claim to possess are not Divine.
True faith will always demonstrate its genuiness by a careful regard for the commands of God, therefore any profession of faith that disregards the Divine Commands, rejects the authority of the Scripture with particular reference to its great emphasis on reverence to God, which is a by-product of love and fear of God, as well as, order of the church as handed down by the Lord through Apostle Paul (see 1 Cor. 11:23a; compare as with Moses, Deut. 32:2). Such disregard is definitely, the manifestation of, not only self-deceit, but the work of the familiar spirit, or anti-Christ traits.
In verse 38 of I Cor. 14, the Apostle says: “If anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant” in this passage, the Greek rendered ignorant is “agnoeo” meaning “not to acknowledge, not to recognize” It
is emphasizing that one who chooses not to acknowledge or recognise that the injunction is an ordinance of God, divinely given, does so at his own spiritual peril and lends himself to the consequences of disobedience. And this is a source of potential ultimate ruin to those General Overseers, Bishops and Pastor who ignore this command of God to ordain their wives to the position of pastors, bishops, etc., and allow then to preach and teach in the church with man (husbands) seated. These must realize that the Holy Spirit will not continue endlessly to plead with those who stubbornly cling to their own erroneous ideas and ways of living against God’s expressed laws, ordinances and injunctions, even after they had known and shown the right way (see Gen. 6:3; Hoses 4:17). Such stubborn, willful “ignorance” of God’s plan, laws and rejection of Divine Ordinance, or deliberate wrong or oblique interpretation of God’s Words are dangerous rejection of light from God in order to continue to gratify canal desires which are at enmity against God (see Rom. 8:6-8; Gal. 5:16,11-, 1 John 2:15, 16). Such clergy men are not recognized by God even though they may cast out demons, engage in deliverance, intercession and healing prayers, because they do not love nor fear God (see John 14:15). They are in continuous rebellion against God. His longsuffering, forbearance and mercy which characterize His dealings with believers in this present dispensation of grace and the administration of the Holy Ghost in the church, should not be taken for granted, nor for weakness, nor even as approval of unconscious hypocrisy.
Again, the Scriptures lay down quite clearly, not only that we preach the gospel – the true message of Christ – but also how we are to do this. The Scriptures tell us that we are to preach the gospel with “sobriety” and with “gravity” in spiritual fear and trembling, in “demonstration of the Spirit and Power” and not with “enticing words of human wisdom”. But today preaching methods which are flagrant contradiction of these injunctions are justified in terms of results. And because of the so-called positive results, the plain dictates of the Scriptures are put aside. This is not believing the Scriptures nor is it making the Word of God our final authority. There is a common maxim these days about what is done in the church that “the end justifies the means” meaning that if the result is good, the method by which a result is achieved must be right. This is one of the greatest insults to God who has laid down certain precepts for His people – Christians. When a believer falls short of the glory of God, Satan rejoices and praise the sinner. Remember that Satan is the prince of this world and has some powers with which he can lead the believer into unconscious apostasy, by helping him into a sinful achievement of his desire the result. This plainly repudiates the argument that the end justifies the means. If you want, therefore, to avoid terrible disillusionment on the Judgment Day, face the Scripture as it is. Do not argue with it, do not try to manipulate it, do not twist it, face it, receive it as it is, and submit to it, whatever the cost.
Self-deception is characterized by failure or unwillingness to realize that the only thing that matters in life is our relationship to Christ. He is the judge, and it is what He thinks of us that matters. It is Christ who will say to the unconscious hypocrite: “I never knew you” and the word “knew” is very strong. It does not mean that He is not aware of their existence. He knows all things, He sees everything; everything is naked and open to Him. “know” here means “taking special interest in” “being in a particular relationship to” what our Lord will say on the Judgment Day to the self-deceived is that they did all they did in their own power and energy. He never had anything to do with it. So the most important thing for every Christian is not to be interested primarily in his activities or in results, but in his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Finally, therefore, we must realize that what God wants, and what our blessed Lord wants, above all, is ourselves – what the Scriptures call our “heart” He wants the inner man, the heart. He wants our submission. He does not merely want our profession, our zeal, our favour, our works nor anything else. He wants us. God wants our unlimited obedience more than our offering and sacrifice. It is possible for a man to, say the right things, be very busy and active in His service to achieve wonderful results, and yet not give himself to the Lord. He may be doing it all for himself, and he may be resisting the Lord in the most vital place of all. And that is finally the greatest insult any man can extend to the Lord. What can be a greater insult than to say “Lord, Lord” fervently, busy and actively yet with hold true allegiance and submission from Him, to insist upon retaining control of our own lives, and allow our own opinions and arguments, rather than the Scriptures, to control what we do, and, how we do it. Another greatest insult to the Lord is a will that is not completely and entirely surrendered to Him. And whatever else we may do – it will avail us nothing.
If we believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the only begotten Son of God, and that He came into this world and went to the Cross at Calvary and died for the sins of mankind, and rose again in order to justify us and give us life anew and prepare us for heaven – if you really believe this, there is only one inevitable deduction namely that He is entitled to the whole of our lives – everything without any limit whatsoever. This means that He must have control over all things about us. We must submit to Him and His way as He has been pleased to reveal in the Bible. Whatever we do that does not conform to His will is assertion of our own will, it is disobedience, it belongs to the type of conduct that makes Christ say to the unconscious hypocrite “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity” because they were doing whatever good works they did to please themselves and not to please the Lord. Let every Christian and believer solemnly examine himself in the light of these things (see 1 Cor. 13:5; II Cor. 11:12-15). END
