Secret Double Agents

An ambassador is an appointed representative of his country to another country. He works to help his government succeed among rival governments. We're pretty familiar with the term ambassador. An example is Ambassador Bible College, or ABC. We've used the term ambassador for years because we have an affinity with God's kingdom being his church.

We're representatives in that sense. Jesus said, Your light's to the world like I am, and a city that's set on a hill cannot be hid. So let your light shine. Let's go over to a biblical example of an ambassador. It's found in 2 Corinthians. And if we look in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 1, we'll see here the assignment that was given. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, he's one cent, he's an ambassador of Jesus Christ. So he's representing the kingdom of God. And this is by the will of God. And Timothy, our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth.

So they here are speaking to Corinth and representing God's kingdom. Now, if we go over to chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians and verse 20, Paul says, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God.

So here they are ambassadors to the church as though God were pleading through them and imploring them on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God. So in verse 21, For the Father made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

So we see here, and you and I should identify this as well, in that sense we are all representatives of Christ, and as we live our lives, we are imploring others to be reconciled to God, if they will be. So in verse 21 again, Jesus took the penalty of sin from us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Now you and I probably see ourselves in that light, not perfect, but we are striving to do right in God's eyes.

And thus we think of ourselves as ambassadors. But there is another type of government agent that I want to talk about today, and that's a secret double agent. Ooh. A secret double agent. You have the ambassador, the open agent working for the government he represents, and then you have a secret double agent. He's also working to help his government succeed among rival governments, because he is an agent, but secretly he's a double agent. He is secretly also helping the rival government undermine the goals of the government he represents. Now there are some secret double agents operating in God's church today.

That must sound pretty strange. But with your help, my purpose during this message is to expose two secret double agents. Hopefully we can do this during this sermon, which is entitled, Secret Double Agents. Now we all love a good whodunit mystery from time to time. And sometimes Mary will say to me, Well, let's watch a spy movie. And you know the theme. Whichever one it is, there's something trouble that's brewing.

And it seems like it's a secret trouble. And nobody knows exactly what it is, but it's trouble. And who is responsible for this trouble? Now is it the guilty-looking person? Can look on their face? The story takes you through twists and turns.

There's deception covering a covert plot. The goals of the nation that you represent are failing. But who is causing it? Is it the shady-looking importer? Or perhaps the innocent lady that's completing for help? You just never know. Will the ambassador and MI6 find him in time? Or is the secret double agent the ambassador himself? Or maybe a member of MI6? You know, when looking for a secret double agent, it's common to interrogate suspects.

But humans lie. And some humans lie very, very well. They can even beat polygraphs. Let's go to Jeremiah 17, verse 9. The Bible tells us that we as humans are good at that. It says, the heart is deceitful. Deceitful means you can't pin it down. You can't know the truth. You can do an interrogation. You can do an interview. But this thing is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? Who can know it? So maybe even individuals who can beat polygraphs and lie well would deceive you or me as to who the secret double agents are in God's Church. So to find secret double agents in God's Church, we need help in the interrogation, don't we? Interviewing a liar or a deceiver.

Look in verse 10. I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. So God, who created us, and God knows our thoughts, God knows our hearts, he says, I search the heart and I test the mind. Wow! Now that is some great help. We could use God to help interviewing these deceitful liars. You know, Jesus Christ is very good at exposing hidden secrets. We're told in Hebrews 4 and verse 14. We're going to read Hebrews 4 verses 14 through 12. We're going to read these backwards.

So we have here in Hebrews 4, 14, saying that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. So he was dead and now he's resurrected. He's alive. He's passed through the heavens. He has eternal life. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, our profession, that link that we have to God. In verse 13, there's something about him.

So all humans must give account to him and no one's going to fool him. So in this interrogation, he will be a great asset. Verse 12, Well, let's drop down to verse 14.

Now, as we look for these secret double agents in the church, we're given a strong clue as to who they are. And our clue comes from Jesus helping our ambassador expose him. Let's go to Romans chapter 7 and verse 21. Remember our ambassador here, the Apostle Paul that we spoke of earlier. We're going to find him again in Romans chapter 7 and verse 21.

So he says, the one who wills to do good. I'm an ambassador here. I'm sent by God. I'm preaching the gospel. I'm doing right. But I've discovered inside with Christ's help that evil is present with me.

I have found the law of God according to the inner man, but I've found another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Wow, this is quite a surprise.

Romans chapter 24. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? What's important is the last statement. Who will deliver me from this body of death? We have a double secret agent and an ambassador in the same individual.

The ambassador is promoting and helping the government he is assigned to support, which is the kingdom of God. But we see him with a body of death that is contrary to the success of God's kingdom. He won't terminate God's kingdom. He's only one individual. But God's kingdom wants him to be there, wants him to reign with Christ, wants him to be part of the apostles working with Israel, wants him to be a pillar in the temple of God.

And yet this body of death works against that. And that's why he's a secret double agent. So what's to happen? Paul sets us a good example. He discovered a secret, a double secret agent in a church and he began killing him. Verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You know how it works in all the good spy movies. You discover the guy and you take him out. Well, that's what happens here. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then I've discovered him. So then with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Now, go back to the statement, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. What did Jesus Christ our Lord do for him? For him. Well, he gave him a calling, which we read about. He gave him faith.

He gave him the ability to see his sins, which we call repentance. And now, through Jesus Christ, we have forgiveness of sin. And so he thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord as he says in Romans chapter 6, I put to death the old man. He is killing off. I didn't say he killed him. Paul begins killing him off. And he'll be working on that the rest of his life. He is putting to death the old man. Let's take a look at another individual in Scripture. Jesus Christ was called the son of David.

Jesus will sit, he said, on the throne of David. David was quite an important individual. He was an ambassador of the kingdom of God in his time. He is called a man after God's own heart. He served to help God's kingdom succeed among rival nations in his day. If we look in 2 Samuel 12, verses 7 and 8, 2 Samuel 12, verse 7, breaking into the second half of the verse. Thus says the Lord God of Israel.

This is the God of Israel saying, David, I anointed you king over Israel. That's a pretty big ambassador there. And I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping. And I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. This was God's people. If that had been too little, I would also have given you much more. So here we see Ambassador David, a man after God's own heart, a person commissioned, a person representing, and a person helping the kingdom of God on earth at that time, the representation of God's kingdom on earth at that time, succeed.

So David was a great ambassador, but David found a secret double agent assisting the enemy. So secret, in fact, David didn't know about him. But Jesus helped expose the secret double agent, Jesus, previously the Lord, the Word. In verse 1, let's pick it up. Then the Lord sent Nathan the priest to David. The Lord here is going to help David expose the secret double agent that's working against God and his kingdom. And Nathan came to him and said to him, there were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. Very wealthy person. Verse 3, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, a little female lamb, a virgin, which he had bought and nourished. And it grew up together with him and his children, and ate of its own food, and drank from his own cup, and lay in his bosom. It was like a daughter to him. Speaking here, actually, of a woman, a precious daughter.

And as a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him, he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it, killed it for the man who had come.

Verse 5, so David's anger was greatly aroused against this secret double agent man. He said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the secret double agent man who has done this shall surely die. Verse 7, then Nathan said to David, you are the man.

Wow! You see, the man was hiding. He was a secret agent, a double agent. He was working against what God had put him there for. He was working against David. God had put so much stock in David. I mean, the throne of David, Jesus Christ being the descendant of David, David reigning over specific things in the world tomorrow, the kingdom of God. And this secret double agent was working against that taking place. He could have terminated David. The result was the secret double agent was exposed and David began killing him. We begin in Psalm 51 and verse 5.

Psalm 51 and verse 5, and we see this result. David said, I've come to see something. I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. I believe what he's saying there is, I really have an internal and a historical link with the wrong side. And in verse 6, he said, Behold, in contrast, you desire truth in the inward parts. And in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom. You know, you and I don't see our inward parts. We kind of think that we're pretty nice looking covered in skin, smiling with a couple eyes and a mouth.

But we have a lot going on inside. And in our hearts and minds, Jesus wants truth deep in there. In the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom. He says in verse 6.

Verse 7, the result now is, let's kill this double agent off. Purge me with hyssop, so I shall be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Once again, it is through repentance and through the forgiveness of sin by Christ's sacrifice, which we look at at the Passover, that you and I can not only expose the double agent that we might find, but also begin doing away with him and getting him from doing any harm, preventing him from the demise that would hamper the success of God's kingdom, even in one individual.

But it could happen to so many, and Satan wants it to happen in all of us, so that the rule of Jesus Christ would even fail. So how about those two secret double agents in God's church today? Could they just happen to be one, me, and the other, you?

Working for God's government and unknowingly at the same time against the success of God's government, like Paul, like David. You know, you and I tend to flaunt our good ambassadorship for the kingdom of God, and often it's not just to others we do that. We do it to ourselves, and we can deceive ourselves. It's just seeing the good side, oh look, I'm serving, I'm giving, I'm keeping the laws of God, and I'm being alight. While there could very well be a secret double agent undermining the success that we're striving to help God's kingdom obtain. Like Paul and David did, our goal is to kill off our secret double agent. Let's go to Romans 6, verses 4-6. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. That old agent, that secret double agent, is uncovered, discovered, revealed. He is judged by us in Christ, and then we put him into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of Father, even so, we also should walk in a very new way of life. For if indeed we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. That's the success God's kingdom wants from you and me.

To be raised in the likeness of him, in his resurrection, to live and to serve. In verse 6, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Now, the point of this message is, as we come up to Passover each year, and really, Passover isn't the festival about our sins. It's the festival about God's gift to take away our sins. So, as we come up to any day in our life, we should be looking to see, is there a secret double agent that needs dealing with today? You might say, yeah, but, okay, this is a curious topic. Are there really any secret double agents in God's church today?

Well, let's see. And if there are, would they really impede the success that God wants from his church to be his bride and firstfruits? Let's let Jesus tell us. Let's go to Matthew 7, verse 21. Matthew 7, verse 21. Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, not everyone who declares themselves an ambassador, or a light of the world, or salt of the earth, the bride of Christ. One who says, Lord, Lord, I recognize you as the Lord.

I'm coming under your governance. You rule over me. I'm related to your kingdom. You're the Lord. Not everyone who is in that position or feels that way will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Okay? Verse 22. Here's the proof that there are secret double agents in the church. Many will say to me in that day, the word many can mean most.

It is a word that means a lot. And many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not been ambassadors of you? Have we not worked for the kingdom of God, served in the kingdom of God, prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name? To help support the kingdom of God, which we all do. But he will declare to them, verse 23, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

There's the secret double agent. These individuals didn't know that secret double agent existed. It hadn't been revealed to them. They weren't killing it off, and it was alive and well. So how can we expose this secret double agent? First we ask God, who am I in your sight? You know, might seem silly, yet the truth, Jesus Christ, who is the truth, he can reveal some surprises from our inward parts. He can show us what's really there. So who am I? And who are you? Any chance we just found our secret double agents that we were looking for?

Paul asked us to consider this in relationship to observing the Passover. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 28. We'll read verse 28 through 32. But let a man examine himself. Now, once again, the heart is so deceitful and desperately wicked that we're not going to know if we just do it on our own. So a little fasting is good, asking and beseeching God to show us, and this is always good to do before Passover, but also during the year.

Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks an unworthy manner eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. So we really do need to have a view of ourselves that God and Jesus Christ have so that we are not drinking some sort of judgment or condemnation because we're hypocrites.

In verse 31, for if we judge ourselves, and the Greek here means if we put ourselves on trial, we would not be condemned. The word judged is krino, or condemned. So if we put ourselves on trial, God would not need to condemn us. But when we are judged, Adam Clark says of that word, when we are corrected, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. So it's a very, very good thing to expose our secret double agent if he or she is hiding in there, and find them with God's help, and then put that out so that we are not condemned with the world.

And we don't end up like Jesus having to say, I don't know you. I know you thought you were working for me, but your secret double agent there was undermining your success and minds my success. So as we see here, this is not a negative thing. Exposing and killing off our secret double agent is a very good thing. It works both for the benefit of the ambassador, and also for the government that he represents.

Paul said later to the same church members in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 5, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified? So it's a good thing for us to do this now rather than show up to give account and have him say, sorry, but you know you were you were working double there. If our internal motives are different than our ambassador image, then we truly are a secret double agent because we all are working for God. We all are working for the success of the kingdom. But if internal motives are subverting that and working against us secretly, then as it says in Job chapter 27 verses 8 through 10, Job 27 beginning in verse 8, for what is the hope of the hypocrite? We know what the hope of the righteous is, but what is the hope of the hypocrite? Though he may gain much, if God takes away his life, God doesn't want that. That wouldn't help God's kingdom. That would leave an empty spot for each individual who misses in the governance of God and serving in the world tomorrow. In verse 9, will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call on God? So Job introduces this term hypocrite. From the Hebrew International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says the word hanef means to cover, to hide, or to be cloud. So the hypocrite is one who is hiding. He's the secret double agent. He's got a side of him that's hiding or it's to be clouding. It's foggy and you can't really see it. Or it's covered. In the New Testament, Jesus uses the term hypocrite many times. And in the New Testament, the Greek word in classical Greek refers to stage playing. It's an individual, like you or me, but up on stage, they're pretending to have a different role. They're a different person. In fact, there was a form of amplification. It was sort of like putting a little funnel to your mouth because they didn't have PA systems in, but they held this little device up to their mouth so that the audience could hear them better and it made their voice change to a higher tone. So even their voices were all different than reality. So the hypocrite in the New Testament was acting apart to pretend and using even a different voice. In Matthew 6, verses 2-6, Jesus here begins to teach us how to not have a secret double agent as part of our Constitution. And really, if you look at all of Matthew 6, this is what he's saying.

As an example, Matthew 6, verse 2, therefore, when you do a charitable deed, wow, this is agape love, this is serving others. Do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. So serving others actually becomes serving self, but it feels like I'm serving others, right? I'm giving. I'm doing a charitable deed. I'm serving. I'm doing something wonderful, but I don't even realize it myself. I'm doing it for me, for selfishness. And that's wrong. That's wrong. It's pretending to do it for God and deceiving ourselves.

So how does this apply in our lives? Sometimes we can serve others to feel good or get a reward from God or to look good or to obtain visibility, obtain an office, get a kickback. It still feels good at the same time. We are serving, aren't we? We are giving.

But there's that little double agent there that is causing something different. Continuing in verse 2, assuredly I say to you, they have their reward, and it's not in God's kingdom. Verse 3, but when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Don't let the secret double agent know what's going on here. Don't let that feed into his knowledge so that he can work against you. Verse 4, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and that your Father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And then he goes on, when you pray. Now, pray is an act of sacrifice, an act of love. It's private communication with God. He says, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men.

What is that? Well, they're actually trying to get recognition of themselves, not God, not praying to God and giving him glory and worship. They're actually looking for worship of themselves and glory of themselves. They're turning their back on the whole elements of the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you that they have their reward. And again, it's not in the kingdom of heaven. But you, verse 6, when you pray, go into your room and when you've shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. You know, the model prayer outline is given within this context of hypocrisy. You know, it speaks to our double-mindedness. We give and we serve, but we want gimme on the backside. The last thing that Jesus tells us before telling us how to pray in verse 8, Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask Him. So the model prayer outline is not about asking God for a bunch of stuff. It just says, don't be like them. God already knows what you need. But then He gives instructions that do not include any prayers for yourself. There's no I, there's no me. I and me are not in the model prayer outline. It's all us and we. You can go on down through this chapter and look at the hypocrisy. Verse 15, you don't forgive others, but you want to be forgiven. Verse 16, you fast, you humble the self, but you use your fast to elevate yourself. Verse 19, you profess to seek the kingdom and His righteousness, but your focus is on materialism. So again, this is a great time to stop and ask the question, who is the real me? Do I see a secret agent working inside against me? Or is he so secret that I can only see my ambassador at work? You know, humans typically lead to lives, one of serve and one of self. Which am I? Well, perhaps both, like so many find out. And I found this out, hopefully you as well. It's a good time to remind ourselves of this. In verse 24, Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. You can't be an ambassador for Jesus Christ and a secret double agent for Satan, which is what sin is all about and wickedness is all about. It's not necessarily working for him, but it's doing his will, which is to get you to miss out on serving in the kingdom of God. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. So our secret double agent is kind of like a thief. It works unseen. You know, thieves work at night. Nobody sees them. You wake up the next day and things aren't the way they should be. And so you have a sign that something's not right in life, but you can't really identify who did it. These dress darkly. They sneak. They do evil. And yet in the daytime, you pass them in shops. They're nice people. They might even help you.

They might be in a restaurant. They're probably very, very nice people. I remember one, in fact, when I was a child, we had a burglar actually come into our home when my mother and I were there alone. We heard him in the back room. It was a scary thing. And my mother quickly called the police. And a little while later, there was a knock at the front door. And a man in plain clothes said, Yes, I'm a policeman. I'm a detective. I heard your call. It came in on the radio. And let me check in and see if there's anything, anybody in your house. So he went through our whole house with us. He wanted to see if we were missing any valuables. Make sure he didn't get them. And we looked. Mom looked at all of our valuables with him there. And then there was a siren in the distance, a police siren coming. And he said, Okay, the other police are coming and they will handle it. And he hurried out the door. And it wasn't until then that we became suspicious. And Mom said, I think the thief just was in our house. The police chased him but lost him. And Mom and I through the years have always remarked, What a nice young man he was. Again, a double secret agent in the church. Changed on the outside, but Jesus says, White and Sepulchre is a term that could be used for those who are corrupt on the inside.

It's important that we spend this short life properly. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8. Ephesians chapter 5 will read verses 8 through 18. This applies to all of us. For you were once darkness.

David said, I see here that the darkness of my life has been part of me since birth. But now our light in the Lord, we are ambassadors of this way of life, walk as children of light. Let that really be the true you. For the fruit of the Spirit, verse 9, is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

Verse 11, And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. We need to go in and find if there is a secret double agent and expose him. God's help will make that possible. Jesus Christ, who can show us anything, will make that very possible, if we truly ask him to.

Verse 12, For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Verse 14, Therefore he says, Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. You know, Jesus sees everything. Again, Mark 4, 22. There is nothing hidden which will not be revealed. Nothing has been kept secret, but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. So you and I have the eyes to see, the ears to hear. And we're led by the Holy Spirit. We are the sons and daughters of God. We are ambassadors of God. And we are doing good work for God. Seeing oneself and repenting, those are gifts of God as well. So in conclusion, we need to examine our ambassadorship and see if that ambassador might also be a secret double agent.

If so, we need to discover him and take him out. And then promote the ambassador. Help him or her grow. Help serve the kingdom of God. You know, be all in devoted for the success of Christ's reign on earth. And to do this, our final scripture is 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 7 and 8. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7.

Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. He's the one that will help us do that. Find the leaven. Put out the leaven. And Jesus Christ was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, that old secret agent, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. There's nothing like a good whodunit mystery. Take this one on. It's a good one. Follow it through all of its twists and turns. Along the way, you might discover a secret double agent, but the story will finish with a very happy ending for everyone involved.