Sincerity And Truth

Many of you as parents probably can recall a situation like this. The little child comes to mom and dad, or to mom, and you ask, have you been in the cookie jar? No, I have not been in the cookie jar. But in the meantime, it's full of chocolate on the face. It's quite innocent in a way, but it is cute, but it kind of is the beginning of showing how the carnal mind works. And we all heard the story, the fictitious story of Pinocchio, you know, as the nose gets bigger. And again, it's cute stories. But a lie is a lie. A lie is a lie. How is your Christian life, our Christian life, is it based on some little lies? Maybe just a tiny little deviation from the truth.

Maybe just some little thing.

But a lie is a lie.

Or, how are you living your life? How are we living our lives? Is there some lies in the way we appear, appearing, coming to church, really nice? But at home, things are not really nice.

Even worse, if you come across somebody that proclaims he's a minister of Jesus Christ, and he's not.

You see, for you to be a true pastor under the authority of Jesus Christ, you have to be ordained by somebody that has that authority through Jesus Christ to do so. There's got to be a lineage. And that's why those people can represent Christ. They can, for instance, baptize in Jesus Christ's name because they represent Christ. They have the authority of Jesus Christ. You see, using words like Jesus Christ's name is not just words.

It's, do you have the authority? Do you have the authority to represent Christ? And as we are keeping the feast, if you turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and at the end of verse 8, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8, it says, let's keep the feast in verse 8. And then it concludes by saying, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Are we keeping the feast? And in fact, are we living a life? Because keeping the feast represents, symbolizes the way we live. Are we living a life in sincerity and truth? And so today, brethren, let's understand a little deeper the spiritual principle of sincerity and truth, because it has two sides. In a way, you can look at it and say, well, sincerity and truth are kind of one thing. Yes, they are, but it has two sides.

You see, sincerity is being honest, not fake, for real, meaning it, committed. And truth means no lie, no falsehood, particularly as far as God's truth. As far as God's truth, the truth. And so let's look at the one side of that sincerity and truth. And we're going to focus first on the side of sincerity.

Some of you that are scholars know that the word sin-sera means sin, not as sin, but without in Latin, without, and sera is wax, without wax.

Workers of stone and marble and wood in the days of the Roman Empire were often with slaves. And to cover imperfections in the marble or on the stone work or in the woodwork where they had cracks, they would fill it up with wax, and then they'll paint over it so you could not see the imperfections. And so a work that did not have wax was a work without those imperfections.

There's also another possible application of that, is that some brick layers, building homes, are occasionally used in certain places wax instead of cement to save money. And you can imagine that once the wax melted, the bricks would come loose, and the buildings over time would collapse. So to be without wax was important. Very important. The law talks about that principle, and let's just look at one example. Obviously, it's not talking about without wax, but it's talking about that what something is is really what it is. Right? Not disguised. And let's look at an example. In Deuteronomy 25, Deuteronomy 25, verse 13 through 16. In Deuteronomy 25, verse 13 through 16, it says, you shall not have in your bag different weights. For instance, you're going to have a weight of one pound, but you have another one, which is also one pound, but it's a different weight.

You see, you're going to use one pound when you do one type of transaction, and use the other one pound when you do the other transaction. Why? To cheat, to lie, to make more money.

You shall not have in your house different measures, verse 14. A large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight. In other words, if it's one pound, it's one pound. That your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. For all who do such things, in other words, that are not sincere in their business transactions or when they buy and sell and they try and make more money by cheating you by putting wrong weights, all who behave unrighteously are an abomination to the Lord your God.

So in other words, if you're not sincere, you're an abomination to God because you're cheating. You see, in 1 Corinthians 5, you can see in verse 1 and 2 that the situation is that they were pretending. They were pretending. Some were appearing more righteous, and therefore I am better than you because I'm allowing the sinner in church. And therefore, the situation became quite hypocritical. In other words, not sincere.

In other words, they were doing one thing and appearing something else. You know, there are some people that come across to other people. They're so nice, so loving, such a lovely people, but at home they treat their spouses like a piece of rubbish.

There is abomination before God.

And that's where the rubber meets the road. It's a town. How do we treat one another? Spouse, children, brothers, sisters? Oh, yeah, teenagers can say, you see, Mom and Dad are not doing the right thing, so therefore, hey! But turn the coin around the other way. How are teenagers doing the right thing, too?

You know, be careful. Don't start judging one when you're doing the same thing. Teenagers are also guilty of that. You see, when we look at this deeply, I want to show you in Romans chapter 10, verse 1 through 3. Romans chapter 10, verse 1 through 3. And this is basically one of the roots of this problem, because the Paul is saying that the Israelites, you read it in verse 10, his heart and desire, the Israelites, may be saved.

Putting that into today's context, into today's context, you can say, my heart, desire, is a lot of these Christians that are out there that are wonderful people, they would be saved. And then Paul, in verse 2, says, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. You can say that for a lot of Christians out there, they have a zeal for God.

Some of them are amazing, but not according to knowledge.

As we heard in the sermon, they got the wrong sort of glasses, and they see things differently, and their leaders, their so-called pastors, which are not pastors, are deceiving them down the garden path. That is an abomination before God.

And you see, the actual core of the problem is described in verse 3, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness.

People today are ignorant of God's righteousness. Oh, like we heard in the sermon, oh well, you don't have to keep the law because it's legalism. Brethren, legalism is when you add weights to God's law of love. That's what legalism is. Legalism is not God's law of love. God's law of love is love. There's nothing legal about that. Legalism is when you add weights to the law and make it more than what it is.

And this was a problem that was happening in the pharacycle world.

You see, they were seeking to establish their own righteousness. Put that in a different language. They were trying to be self-righteous. That's what it was. They were trying to be self-righteous. I'm better than you.

And they were not submitting to the righteousness of God. Because no, no man is righteous. We all sin. But for the grace of God, there are woke.

So when we read, for instance, in Matthew 6, 33, which you probably know of by heart, which says, seek you the kingdom of God, seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. Doesn't say, seek you the kingdom of God and your own self-righteousness. Seek the kingdom of God. That's the goal. How? How? How do you seek God's kingdom? By seeking and submitting to God's righteousness, not your self-righteousness. See, it's one thing. Seek the kingdom of God. One is what? The kingdom of God. And the other one is how? Seek the kingdom of God. How? By submitting to God's righteousness. That's why when you go back to the Sermon on the Mount, to the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5, so let's just read, start reading those Beatitudes from verse 3, Matthew chapter 5, verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit. In other words, blessed are the humble.

For this is the kingdom of God. You see, it starts with humility. It starts by you and I admitting mistakes. We make mistakes. I make mistakes. You make mistakes. We need to have the courage, the capability of not be ashamed of saying, I made a mistake. I'm a human being. You make a mistake. I make a mistake. We need to humble ourselves. In other words, there's no wax. There's no painting over it. In other words, we are the 11th. We're taking that sin out. And once you do that, you admit that you're humble, you're prepared to admit, then you need to repent. That's why it says, blessed are those who mourn. Mourn means you're sorry for what you've done. You've repented. So blessed are those that mourn, those that repent. You and I need to repent, change of what we've done and what we are. We gotta repent of what we are. You and I have a carnal mind. We have human nature. We are a repent and put on God's mind. And then it says, blessed are the meek. Because what is meek? Meek is being mild, teachable. In Portuguese, it's tied to, for instance, the word is a word that is, it's tame, like a tame animal. In other words, domesticatable, that is teachable. Meek, gentle, yes, it's gentle, but it's malleable. It's pliable. It's like clay, which is malleable. When the clay is hard and brittle, you gotta throw it away. It's gotta be malleable. You and I, in God's hands, need to be malleable. So you see how the beatitudes build up. First, you gotta be humble. Then you gotta repent. And then, as you repent, you gotta be malleable and change to what God wants you to be and need to be and us to be. And then it says, after that, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

It's not your self-righteousness, because if it's yours, your self-righteousness, you would have it and you're not be hungry and thirsting for it. It's God's righteousness, which we have to submit to, that we gotta be humble to, that we gotta be akin to, and submit to God's righteousness. And when we do that, you and I realize that we need to be forgiven, because we've got a lot of things to change. And that's why the next beatitude, blessed are the merciful, because you know that you don't forgive others, your sins won't be forgiven. And so the very next thing, blessed are the merciful. You see how these beatitudes build one on top of another. It's like a layer.

You see, brethren, what does God require of you and I? What does God require of you and I? Turn with me to Micah 6, verse 8. Micah 6, verse 8.

It's one of those that I sometimes struggle getting to it, but I got it. All right, so it's after Daniel, and then it's just after Jonah, and then you got Micah. And if you keep going, then you get Nahum, and Habakkuk, and so on. So Micah is nicely hidden there. But Micah 6, verse 8. He has shown you a man what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? What does God require of you and I? Yeah, what does God want from us? But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

To do justly, you know, or seek God's righteousness. To love mercy, to forgive, so that we can be forgiven, and then to walk very humbly with our God.

That's what God requires of you and I. Can we remember that? I usually think I can only remember three things. One, two, three. All right, so there are three simple things to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God. Just mercy and faith. Right? Walk humbly before God, and it means you require faith, right? Doesn't that ring the bell of other scriptures in your New Testament?

Turn with me to Matthew 23. Matthew 23.

Christ, he is talking to the Pharisees, and he's saying to them, you add weights in verse four. You add burdens. You are legalistic because you're putting pressure on people which are not required by God.

In other words, you're trying to be self-righteous. And then a little later, in verse 23, he says, and boy, is Christ direct. Is Christ direct? Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Imagine you standing in front of somebody and saying, hey, woe to you, you are a hypocrite! Wow, that is direct! And he was just not talking to one. He was talking to a bunch of them and throwing them all together into the same bathwater.

Because you pay tithe of the smallest little things, and he's not saying that he shouldn't, because later on he says, you should have done that, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the law.

God's law of love, which is justice, mercy, and faith. As we saw in Micah, to walk to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God trusting him completely in faith. It's the same thing. So where does this start, brethren? Where does this act of justice, mercy, and faith of not being self-righteous but seeking God's righteousness, or in other words, the side of the coin of being sincere without wax, without being a veneer outside, without being hypocritical, where does it start? In our minds and in our hearts. You know, Scripture, the heart of man is deceitful and wicked. Jeremiah 17 verse 9.

It starts in us. Christ put it very nicely in Luke chapter 6, starting in verse 43. Luke chapter 6 verse 43.

For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And brethren, it's not just speaks. Out of the abundance of the heart, it acts. Out of the abundance of the heart, he makes himself appear that he's such a goody-goody person. But only when you know him deeply at home do you really know there is an evil intent there. But only because his actions and his conduct in public are hypocritical.

You see, we've got to be careful what comes out of our mouth. What do we do? But we've got to be careful what's in our hearts. James chapter 3 makes it very clear when he talks about the tongue. James chapter 3. Let's just read a few verses here in verse 2. For we all stumble in many things. You see, because our heart is not right. We've got to be working on it and hunger and thirst for God's righteousness and submit to God's righteousness.

And we've got to be careful what comes out of our heart. And we've got to be careful what comes out of our heart. And hunger and thirst for God's righteousness and submit to God's righteousness. So we've got to continuously ask God to help us and walk humbly before God. We've got to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God in faith. So if anyone does not stumble in word, he's a perfect man. That's our goal, brethren. I hope we're getting a little bit better year by year as we live our lives year by year that we get better.

We've got to bribe our mouth, our bribe, control our mouth, what it says. And that means we control our whole body, how we behave, how we dress, all these things. Because out of the abundance of the heart, it shows how we dress, how we respect God. It comes from the heart. And then a little later, in verse 10, out of the same mouth precede blessing and cursing, my brethren, these things ought not to be so.

Regrettably, we are, we do, but we've got to be overcoming. We've got to be working through these things. And then a little later, in verse 13, which is another one of my favorite scriptures, it's got this wonderful three words, meekness of wisdom. I really encourage you to meditate deeply on these three words, meekness of wisdom. Make it homework, meekness of wisdom. It says, who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. True, godly wisdom has a meekness about it, has a teachability, a combination of being humble and gentle about it.

That is godly wisdom. Has a meekness about it, the meekness of god's wisdom. But if you have all these other things, better envy. Oh, there's squabbling and self-seeking. Again, it doesn't beat around the bush. It's because you want things for yourself in your hearts. Do not boast and lie against the truth.

This wisdom does not ascend from above. It's not godly, but it's earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, there's confusion and every evil thing there. But the wisdom that is from God, verse 17, is first pure. First, pure. It's got no wax. It's sincere. And then it's peaceable, because it produces peace. It's gentle. You speak with gentleness to other people.

You're willing to submit. You're willing to yield. You're willing to be teachable and malleable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And that's why then it says, why are there wars and fighting amongst yourselves? Why are there squabblings amongst people in the church? And then it says, it's because the spirit of man in man, which is in us, yearns jealousy, wants me myself first. And then it says in verse 7, submit to God, be humble, walk humbly before God, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you.

Draw near to God, and he'll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands. You know what takes sin out of your lives? You sinners, purify your hearts. You double-minded. In other words, outside you appear so nice, but inside there's a problem. Lament and mourn and weep, you know, was repent. So that's one side of this coin of sincerity and truth, and I focused on the side of being sincere, being honest, being...

There's a Portuguese expression that says, bread is bread and cheese is cheese. You know? It's just, by zero means, yes is yes and your no is no. It's not fake. It's real. It's what you are. And so that's being sincere. But there's another side of this sincerity and truth which is more related to truth. And I want to draw your attention to Joshua 24, because in Joshua 24 was the first time that that expression was used, Joshua 24.

And let me just put it in the context here, Joshua 24. Joshua, just before he dies, is going to give his lost speech. Let's call it that. His lost sermon to the nation. His lost... think of it, his lost will. Before he dies, he's like a parent, calls his children, and I'm going to die now. And before I die, I want you to promise me something. That's basically what he's doing. And so we see that he first starts by reminding them what God did for them.

You can see that in verse 6. God did this for you. Verse 13, he says, And God has given you a land in which you do not labor, and you do not plant, and God has blessed you all these things. But then he says, Now therefore, in verse 14 of Joshua 24, Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and truth. Oh, I thought it was a statement from the New Testament. Well, it's right here in Old Testament.

In Joshua. And put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, serve the Lord. So he is now emphasizing the other side of the coin of sincerity and truth is emphasizing the side of truth. Serve God, but not with pagan gods.

And look at verse 16. And so the people said, Far be from it, that we should forsake God to serve other gods. Never! We will never do it. We will be faithful to God till we die. Let me make a promise to a dying man. We'll never neglect you. Oh, yeah? And then look at verse 19. Verse 19, But Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve the Lord. What? You can't serve God. What? What is he talking about? Now they're saying, We're going to serve God. And Joshua says, You can't serve God. Oh, because they are. Oh, we love Jesus kind of thing like in today. We love Jesus. We're praying to God. We're praying to Jesus. And Jesus come to us. And then Joshua says, You can't serve Jesus. What?

For he's a holy God. He's a jealous God. Oh, he's a jealous God because they were serving him with pagan idolatry embedded in their worship. It's like the Christian world today, worships Jesus. Oh, we love Jesus, but they have exactly what Jesus told them not to do. Oh, we believe in Jesus, but they don't do what Jesus told them to do. Say, their worship is not in truth. It's fake.

He says, You will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. And then they say in verse 21, and the people said to Joshua, No, no, no, we will serve God. You are wrong. We are serving God. We committed to God.

And then Joshua in verse 23 goes right to the bone and he says, Okay, now, therefore, Joshua said, put away the paganism, the foreign gods, which are among you. They left Egypt and brought with them pagan gods, and they still have them with them all these years. And you can't worship God by having these pagan things with you, which is what Christianity has today. Oh, we love Jesus, but they have all this paganism embedded in it. Oh, they just call it Christianity, but it's paganism.

You see, they were mixing God, worshiping God. Oh, we worship God, but they had paganism in it. And that is not good enough for God. God is a jealous God. Oh, Satan is quite happy with that. Keep it up! Keep it up! Do it more! But not with God. You see, we cannot keep God's principles by appearing to be keeping them, by just calling them God's days, for instance, Easter. It's pagan! Easter is pagan! There is never—did you know that? Now, think about this. In the Hebrew calendar, there is never, never a Passover on a Sunday. Did you know that? Never! If you've been in the church for many years, you never kept the Passover on a Saturday night, because that's the beginning of that day, right? You never had a Passover ceremony that you had to prepare for the Passover on a Saturday night. There's never a Passover on a Sunday. In other words, there's never an Easter Sunday! And that's because of what they call Hebrew calendar postponements. There's nothing wrong with postponements. You're not postponing God's solidars. You're putting them in the right place. We must keep God's laws and God's only dies in the truth. In the truth, we cannot add or subtract. Look at Deuteronomy 12. Deuteronomy 12, verse 29. When the Lord your God cuts you off from before you, the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in your land. So when you leave Egypt and you go to the Promised Land, and these nations are put aside, verse 30, take heed. Be careful that you yourself, to yourself, that you are not ensnared to follow them. Don't say, oh well, those things they have, these cute little rabbits with colored eggs are so cute, will include them in a celebration of Christ, therefore, Easter. It's got nothing to do with what it's paying.

Don't be ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire after their God, saying, how do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise. You shall not worship the Lord your God that way, for every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, they have done to their gods, for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. We do that today. Oh, I've never seen people burning their children. Oh, how many abortions have you seen? Oh, it's just a modern day version of killing your little babies.

Whatever I command you, verse 32, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it or take away from it. You will not add to God's principles paganism, nor do you take away from God's holidays and make it something else. In the sermonette, Mr. Libby mentioned very clearly, there is only one day of first fruits, well, beg a pardon, of the Feast of First Fruits or the Feast of Pentecost. That is when you finish counting fifty. It's not day one, it's day fifty.

Call a spade a spade. Don't start bringing in paganism and exceptions, because that's how it starts, every little bit, and it deviates from the truth. What is the truth, brethren? Thy word is truth, John 1717. We need to live by every word of God, do we? That's the promise we made at baptism, to live by God's truth, the truth. We need to guard that precious truth. Or do we ever allow that truth to be twisted, corrupted? Oh, it's just a tiny little bit. Oh, it's just so cute. It's not cute when you're breaking God's laws.

In the past, a history in the church has been that some in the church have allowed and compromised with the truth. Look at 95. Some have compromised with the truth. Oh, we haven't changed anything. Well, they did. And when you compromise with sin, it just gets bigger. And so don't allow any form of mixing God's truth with false pagan ideas. Otherwise, we're not worshiping God in sincerity and in the truth.

You see, in 2 Timothy 4 verse 2 talks about, and in verse 4, we've got these people, says, preach in season. And so we are preaching in season. But you get people with each years. They want some new truth. God's truth is the same.

In Jude 1 verse 3 says, be careful to stick to the truth once delivered. Judas 1 verse 3. I think I may have misspoken, but I meant to say Jude 1 verse 3. So stick to the truth once delivered. In 1 Corinthians 11 it says, talking about the days of 11 bread, we are bringing judgment amongst ourselves. If we don't discern these things, we've got to be careful. We've got to stick to the truth. But a real clincher is, do you love the truth? Do you love the truth? God's truth? You see, because when the man of sin will be revealed, and you see that in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, when the man of sin will be revealed, and yes, he will come, because it says that man of sin, when he'll be revealed, he'll then be destroyed at Christ's coming. You see that in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 8. It says, and when the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming, when Christ comes will destroy that man of sin. You see that man of sin is going to be revealed. Still coming hasn't been revealed.

But look at verse 9 and 10. The coming of that lawless one, that man of sin, is according to the work of Satan with all powers, signs, and lying wonders. Brethren, it's going to get harder. Brethren, Satan is angry today. Satan is trying to destroy you and I and your family and my family, and he's trying to destroy the church. Things have happened probably to you and your family that in the last year that had been worse than ever before.

And it's going to get worse because Satan hates you and hates me and hates us. But the ice says you'll come of that deception. Verse 10, all unrighteous deception. That is lying. That's false of truth amongst those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth. Do you and I love the truth?

Are we prepared? Now, obviously, the truth is a large subject. It covers a whole gambit of things.

And we've seen from two sides of the coin, sincerity and the truth. And then, yeah, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 15, it says something very powerful. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or by our epistle. Stand fast. Stand fast. My prayer is that you may continue to have, spiritually speaking, a most profitable Day of Unleavened Bread. And Christ may direct your hearts and mine our hearts into the love of God and into the sincere holding on to the truth until the end.