Without Wax

This is the sermon today. We have a local elder, Mr. Greg Thomas.

Well, thank you, Mr. Pachager, and happy Sabbath, brother. On a beautiful Sabbath day here in northern Ohio. It's hard to believe that we're just upon the cusp of the year 2010. It just seems like yesterday that everybody was worried about the year 2000, and your computers wouldn't work. And Western civilization is we knew it was going to collapse. And here we are already rolling into the year 2010. As we draw closer to a time of year that many celebrate as the birth of Christ, as is kind of evident by what's surrounding me on the stage today, I thought it might be helpful to discuss a foundation of our beliefs in a unique and a different way than we usually present them.

So today I would like to discuss in a roundabout way why we don't observe Christmas, but there's a lot more to this sermon than just that simple fact. In ancient Rome, if you were a wealthy aristocrat, and maybe you lived in one of the wealthy suburbs of Rome, like West Laca or Avana, or even in a more modest community like Parma, you had to boast of your wealth by doing something that told the world that you had arrived. You had to have statues, and lots of them, both inside and outside of your villa.

Statues back then were a status symbol that was important to your peers. It told everyone that you were of the upper crust that you had arrived. Possessing a large number of elaborate statuary told others that you were important and that you were rich.

Now, at the same time, being in the sculptor's business, being a sculptor, was considered a prominent occupation in ancient Rome. It takes a lot of patience and labor time and a rare skill to create a beautiful statue. If you don't believe me, just go and get yourself a block of stone, and get yourself a little hammer and a chisel and see how well you do. It's not as easy. I think it was Michelangelo once who created this beautiful angel, and they asked him how he did it, and he said, I just chipped away everything that wasn't an angel.

Well, that sounds easy, but if you've ever tried being a sculptor, you would see that it is a gift, that it is a rare and unique gift to be able to create beautiful statuary. And like every profession, there were honest businesses, and there also were dishonest people who were making statues and selling statues. In the early days of the empire, if a sculptor made a mistake, even if you were finishing it up, if you accidentally took the nose off of a statue, or if you tapped it in some way and created a hairline crack, that statue was ruined. And what you did out of a matter of integrity is you would break up that entire statue, and you would start over again.

And they have found, in Roman, you know, underneath the soil of the centuries, they have found some of these statues, which they believe were literally broken up by a sculptor, because they found an imperfection that had occurred in the statue while it was being made. But, as the empire became more decadent, things began to change. And after a while, when someone made a mistake, if a sculptor made a mistake, they would hide the blemish with wax.

Many became so talented with the use of wax that it was hard to tell an unblemished quality statue from one that had been remodeled with wax. What they learned to do was they could warm the wax, sink it into the crack, and put a little bit of the statuary dust over the wax. They became very good at making it look okay, at least for a while.

You would take the statue home, particularly if it were outside, after the elements fell upon it, after the hot sun in Rome baked it a little bit, the wax would begin to pour out. And you would see that you had been had, that you had been shafted by a dishonest person who was selling statues. So, to find a statue of the highest quality, one would go to the artisan's marketplace in Rome and look for a special Latin sign. And that sign said, Cina Sera. And this sign meant that the products sold here are the real McCoy.

They're quality. They're genuine. Because the word Cina Sera means without wax. So, when you would go to shop and you would see a sign, it was kind of the good housekeeping seal of ancient Rome. And you would see a sign that said Cina Sera, meaning without wax, you knew that the products there were quality.

Well, many thousands of years later, people still admire the rare quality of Cina Sera, that is, being Cine-sere. You see, that's the root meaning of the word sincere or sincerity, that is, being without wax. Here's the meaning from the American Heritage Dictionary, sincerity. The quality or condition of being sincere. Genuineness, honesty, and freedom from duplicity, meaning not being more than one person, just being one person what you see is what you get is being sincere. And then living your life in different compartments or boxes is being insincere. The American Heritage Dictionary expands on the meaning by telling us that sincerity means honest, frank, upright, genuine.

So I have to begin the sermon today by asking us a question, how sincere are we as a people? Frankness sometimes means being blunt. And as we'll see later from the writings of the Apostle Paul, at times it is important to be very frank with ourselves and with others, and that's actually a quality of sincerity. The antonyms, or the opposite of sincerity, are evasiveness, deceit, dishonesty, untruthfulness, deception, falsehood, and finally, again from the American Heritage Dictionaries and antonym, fabrication.

Now, it's easy in our world today to find people who are dishonest, manipulative, and phony. And as someone who worked 25 years in the corporate world and played the game of corporate politics and business, I can assure you that there are a lot of people who are manipulative, dishonest, and phony.

That's a sad quality in our world today, particularly in our business world. But what do the Scriptures say about the importance of us as God's people being a sincere people? Let's begin by going to the book of Joshua. We'll begin there in Joshua 24 and do a survey of the Scriptures today and see the importance of sincerity of being a sincere people, being genuine, being honest, and being free of having our lives in different compartments or areas, meaning being one way at work and another way at home, being one way at home and another way at church.

Joshua 24, verse 13. This is Joshua speaking, but he's relating to them things that God had said earlier. He's talking to the people of Israel. Joshua says in chapter 24, beginning in verse 13, I've given you a land for which you did not labor and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them, and you eat the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.

I had to stop there and think about us as Americans because there is a parallel there. People came to this continent, they believe, and they say, that there were 20 million Native Americans living in North America at the time when Columbus came to North America. At least 80% of them died of diseases that they had no immunity to. This is what they believe today, that died because of mumps, measles, chicken pox, and all the things that we take for granted that were common in Western Europeans that they had built an immunity to, the Native Americans didn't have immunities to any of those diseases.

They believe that 80% of them died out of disease. The rest of them, unfortunately, because they were primarily Stone Age cultures, didn't stand a chance against Western Europeans who came across this continent with guns with a mission to take land, to make land their own. And we Americans forget how blessed we are.

Our ancestors came to this nation with phenomenal wealth, a heartland that can grow virtually anything. So many minerals, all you have to do is dig in the earth, and there's copper, and there's gold, and there's lead, and there's all the wealth, phenomenal wealth, and the choices part of the world right here in the United States.

And we woke up one morning, and here it's ours. Yet, do we remember the God who gave us these things? Do we remember the God who made it possible for us to have these things? Are we thankful for the people who, for religious reasons, were the first to come and colonize North America because of their religious beliefs? Or have we forgotten all of that?

Just a little food for thought. Verse 14, Now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, serve the Lord. So we're told here it's important to serve God with sincerity. But what does this mean? To serve God with sincerity? Well, we already defined sincerity. I mean, make it a little more applicable to our lives. To serve God with sincerity means that we serve only one God, and that we don't serve two gods, like God and status, or God and material things, or God and money, what the New Testament refers to as mammon, or God and an addiction.

You see, it means that we serve only one God, that he is above all things in life. He is of greater value to us than anything else, and that we seek first the kingdom of God. To serve God with sincerity means that we are free from duplicity. That means we're the same way at work, and the way that we treat people at work as we are at home. Over the years, I've known people who at work at... Thank you, very good, thank you, I appreciate that. They'd get home, give me this, do this, do that, what's wrong with you? Or sometimes it was reversed at home, so thank you, sweetie, I appreciate that, and at work it was barking orders and shouting at people and demeaning people all day.

That is duplicity. That is living two lives. Sincerity dictates that we don't have duplicity, that we are the same respectful, decent, caring human being at work as we are at home. It also means that we're the same at home or work as we are at church. Or do we come to church with a church face smile? Good guy, so good to see you! And we go to work, you idiot! You see, that's duplicity.

That's a lack of having sincerity. It means, of course, that we have one life, that we're not like someone who's prominently in the news the last few weeks, the greatest golfer in the world, perhaps the greatest golfer in history, who had cultivated a very good image. And I can't tell you how disappointed I am at his conduct, because in a world that needs role models, he was living his life in departments. One life was, of course, a tremendous athlete, which he is.

Another life was a beautiful family, an attractive life, nice children. But then we found out that there was another department with this woman, and another department with this woman, and another department with this woman, and another department with this woman, and we don't know exactly how many departments there are. But we do know that he was a very insincere person, leading a number of lives. And it's got to be very difficult trying to hide all of those compartments from the reality, from the image that you have created. You see, if you understand the Word of God, and if we understand the life that we've been called to, it's easy, because you are the same caring, loving, compassionate human being everywhere.

There are no games. There are no shells that you're moving around. There are no lies that you have to create. There are no myths. There's no smoke. There's no mirrors. What you see is what you get of that person, whether they're at home, whether they're at church, or whether they're at work.

Continuing with what Joshua told us about serve Him in sincerity, it means that we communicate with God on a regular basis, including prayer and Bible study. Being sincere means we just don't appear religious. It means we are religious. It's not a front. This is the real deal. We just don't play church on Saturday. We just don't come here and put on a happy face and pretend that everything's good, and then go home and live a dysfunctional life all week. This life is for real, and that's what sincerity is all about. Let's go to Jeremiah 10, beginning in verse 1. Jeremiah 10, beginning in verse 1. This is a scripture that we often read this time of year.

Even though it's not directly talking about the object that's immediately to my left, because the object immediately to my left, frankly, comes from the Germanic cultures, and that tradition began many, many years after this scripture was written. But as Mr. Johnson correctly mentioned last week, the analogy here of what not to do is certainly applicable to the customs that are done today, including the Christmas tree.

Jeremiah said, Hear the word of the Lord, who speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says, The Lord, do not learn the way of the Gentiles. Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed of them. The Gentiles like to read the signs. They like to read things into the stars. Earlier I mentioned about the year 2000. Remember the media hype. Now there's a media hype about 2012. The Mayan calendar ends. In all of these various cultures, all of which died out for good reason, how all of them had their calendars end in the year 2012.

Well, if they were so smart, how come they don't exist anymore? No one asked that question. But now the media hype is how this is all going to end in 2012. And the scriptures say, don't get wrapped up in the media hype.

Now don't get all excited about this stuff, because that's just what people do. It says, Do not learn the way of the Gentiles. Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are fertile. Now all customs, everything that originates in Gentile lands, everything that originates in paganism, is it bad?

Well, let's continue reading the scripture. For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work in the hands of the workmen with the axe. And I could read the rest of them, but you can see in context here that it's talking about the grave error of taking something that originated in paganism as a form of religious worship and trying to do it to worship the true God. Mankind keeps trying to make God into our image because we want to sanitize creator, genie, who is more of a symbol than ever present.

Mankind wants a genie that when we're in a pickle, when we're on our deathbed and the tubes are in our arms, Oh God, save me! And they'll come out of the bottle, save us, and then we can say, That was fine, now get back in the bottle and get out of my life. That's what mankind wants as a God. They want a symbol. They want a genie. They don't want a being that they can actually have a relationship with. So, they create symbols and images, much like we have with us on the stage today, as their way of worshiping or idolizing God.

And God says it doesn't work. God's called us to be a people of sincerity. And one reason that we don't observe Christmas is we don't have the right to give God a makeover. We don't have the right to give God a makeover. We can't borrow religious customs from other cultures and say, This is how we have decided we're going to worship God. And why is that important? Let's take a look at verse 10.

Here's why that's important. It says, But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. Because He has these qualities, you just can't borrow slop from somewhere else and say, This is how I choose to worship God. It says that His wrath the earth will tremble and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation. This is a God who's majestic.

He's great. And He's also a jealous God as it states in Exodus 20. That means we should desire, we should want to know how He has asked to be worshipped and adored. Not how we want to do it. The first thing as a sincere people we should want to know is, God, how do you want to be worshipped and adored? If He is, as this verse says, the true God, the living God, the everlasting God.

Being a sincere believer means we want to please God, not please our culture, not please our society, and not please our own families if they're into that kind of thing. It means that we observe worship days that He calls my feast because that's what He wants. Because He is a true God, a living God, an everlasting King, we say, what do you call my feast? Are they in here? You bet they're in here. And those are the religious days that we observe.

Rather than days that began in pagan worship and evolved into mainstream Christianity. And I think that's important for us to understand this time of year. The one reason that we don't observe Christmas is because we believe that sincerity, being genuine and honest and upright is a very important quality.

Now, I feel I need to make a deeper explanation of this verse, as some have made, as usual, going beyond what the Scriptures say, and created a doctrine of men by quoting from this verse. Some say that God condemns anything that originated in paganism. And it's a term that I've read many times, and I hear people say, I'm not going to do that.

It originated in paganism. Well, if you look into the context, you will see that the context is not learning the ways of the Gentiles or the customs of the people in the way that they attempt to worship God in their religious practices. The clear distinction is this.

God is not concerned with our cultural customs and traditions, which, frankly, all originated in paganism. He's not concerned with those as long as they don't violate His commandments. We have modern customs like the wedding band. The games that we play, playing cards, dice, chess, they all originated in paganism. Our governments, the concept of a democracy or republic, came from ancient Greece.

Our architecture, our language. English is the great horror of human languages. It's a polygot mongrel whose deepest roots are in Latin, but also was affected by Germanic culture, was affected by French culture. It has its roots in paganism. Every word that comes out of our mouths came from a pagan culture. Our calendar virtually every month came from a pagan Roman culture. Some of the names of the months are of Roman gods. Some of the days of the week are of pagan gods. Virtually every part of our culture originated in paganism.

Let me give you an example. The month of June is named after the sister and the wife of Jupiter, the Queen of Heaven, and the goddess who presided over marriage.

Blushing young brides, say, I'd like to be a June bride. Where did that custom come from? It came from the fact that they wanted to be buried during the month where the goddess who presided over marriage would bless their wedding. That's where that custom came from. Thursday. Ever hear something called Thursday? Does that word come out of your mouth? It comes from Thursday. He was the Germanic god of thunder.

Many months that we pronounce it, words come out of our mouth. Many days of the week, the words that come out of our mouth came directly out of paganism. Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic in their lifetime. Aramaic was a pagan language that was brought in by first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians as they conquered Israel. People stopped speaking Hebrew. They all started speaking a pagan language brought in by their conquerors.

Why? Because God condemns and detests people borrowing from Gentile cultures concepts of worship, especially to worship Him. But He does not detest, quote, something that originated in paganism.

Over the years, many folks have not had a balance on this. I still hear people make comments that I'm not going to do something because it originated in paganism. And you know what? I don't have a difficulty with that. I really don't. The only thing that I ask is whatever we believe that we are sincere about it. Sincerity dictates that we don't pick and choose what we believe. Sincerity dictates that we are consistent and not inconsistent. Which means that if I woke up today and I truly believed that the Bible condemns everything that originated in paganism, that I must stop pronouncing the days of the week. I must stop pronouncing the months. I must stop writing. And perhaps the greatest gift of mankind is I must stop speaking English.

Because you have to be consistent if you believe that. You can't pick and choose and say, well, Thanksgiving originated in paganism, so I'm not going to keep Thanksgiving anymore. Virtually everything we do, brethren, every part of our culture, from our language to most of our customs, originated in paganism. And God doesn't have a problem with that no more than he had a problem with his own son speaking Aramaic. He does have a big problem with borrowing customs from pagan cultures and using them as a form of worship, especially in the act of worshiping the great God, the true God, the living God.

Now let's go to the New Testament and see the writings of a man who speaks about this subject of sincerity more than anyone else combined. There is one particular individual who spoke about sincerity a lot, and that was the Apostle Paul. It's something that was very important to him. In a number of scriptures in the New Testament, he discusses about and uses the word sincerity. We'll begin by going to Colossians 3 and verse 17. Again, Colossians 3 and verse 17.

Paul writes here, 21. Fathers do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22. Many believe Paul is going back to speaking to husbands. The Bible says that the man is the head of the house. What it doesn't tell you is that the woman is usually the neck that allows the head to move and turn to the left or the right. Have you ever heard the old story of Jesus returns to the earth and he divides mankind into two categories? I want all of you who were the head of the house to be in this line and those of you that allowed your wife to be head of the house in this line. Well, the latter line, where the wife was the head of the house, it was so long it encircled the globe. There was one man who stood in line being the head of the house. Jesus said, I'm so ashamed of you, you didn't obey my word. Now listen closely, he says, he turns to the man standing in line. He says, tell everybody. What was your secret? The man says, I don't know. Jesus says, you don't know. He says, what are you doing standing here in line? The fellow says, well, my wife told me to stand here. Verse 22, bondservants. This is actually talking about slaves or employees, not husbands, contrary to popular belief. Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, interesting word we'll get to, as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. If you're a slave, if you're an employee, if you're under authority to anyone for any responsibility, whether it's in the family, in the church, in the world, it says, Paul reminds us, do it in sincerity of heart, fearing God. Verse 23, and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men. Verse 24, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. Now, this word for eye service is interesting. It's a Greek word, ophthalmodulia. That same word we get, ophthalmologist, someone who examines our eyes. And according to the Believer's Study Bible, I will quote, eye service is service rendered solely to impress others. It denotes an attitude of working diligently only while the boss is watching. According to verses 24 and 25, the boss is always watching. You see, because the real boss is God. It's not the human person that you are under authority to. Continuing, quote, Christians should be God pleasers and not men pleasers, end of quote. Well, virtually all of us answer to or are under authority to others. And sincere believers serve with a genuine honesty at all times. That means they don't work hard at work. They don't work hard while the boss is around. And then as soon as the boss leaves the building, whoopee! Yeah! And they stop working. It doesn't mean that while the boss is around, it's respect and so on. And as soon as they leave, that we start condemning them. What a moron this guy is! It means that we respect the people in authority. We serve in sincerity of heart because we're really working for God. We're not working for that person. We're transcending beyond that person. And we're really working and serving God. So it's a very important principle that the Talmud speaks about here. And that is not serving with eye service. And, you know, eyes are very expressive. You know, eyes can say, wow, I really appreciate what you're saying. And then when someone turns around, eyes can also go...

Right? They can be... eye service can be extremely expressive. It can be, I agree with you and you're wonderful. Or I can be, wow, thank you for getting out of here. And we don't want to serve with eye service. As Paul said, we want to serve with sincerity in heart. Let's go now to Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9.

Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9.

Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9.

Philippians chapter 2 and verse 9.

Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9.

Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9.

Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9. Philippians chapter 6 and verse 23. Philippians chapter 6 and verse 23. Philippians chapter 6 and verse 23. Philippians chapter 6 and verse 23.

Philippians chapter 6 and verse 24. Now let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7, because now he begins an epistle by mentioning this word that we've been studying today. 1 Timothy chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. He begins Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God, our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. 2 Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord. As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in emphasis that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. 3 Nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification in the faith.

4 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from some which, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. So Paul begins this epistle, talking to the young Timothy, an elder, talking about sincerity, having a sincere faith. You see, in our midst throughout history, we've had people who had an insincere faith. Some of them were status seekers. They would kiss up, and they would do lots of things to be seen because they wanted a title, because they wanted to claw their way to the top, because their egos needed status, needed attention.

That's an insincere faith. Others were in it because they thought there was money to be made. That's an insincere faith. Some may become involved because they're power mad. They're control freaks. They want to tell people what to do. That's an insincere faith, not the kind that Paul is talking about. A sincere faith isn't based on gossip. It's not based on the study of myths. It's not based on arguing about who is more righteous because they have more truth than the other person.

A sincere faith is built on having a real, personal, one-on-one relationship with God. A sincere faith builds up other people, doesn't try to control them or take them down. A sincere faith is not interested in politics, status, or some perceived authority. They're interested in service. The joy that they receive is seeing other people grow and change. That's their fulfillment. That's what excites them. That's what drives them and keeps them going.

It's not about status, ego, power, money, or control. Paul was reminding Timothy that there had recently been some who had turned aside. Verse 7, Desiring to be teachers of the law, they want to be important. They want to be called whatever religious term. Why? Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. He says they are clueless, but they want to be important.

The dark side of human nature is this, my friends. Some people are so wired that they would rather be in charge of a hundred people than be second in command to a million people. Their egos, some people, are so wired that they have to be in charge.

Even if it's a very small pond, that's desirable in their minds to be number two in a very, very, very large pond. Some people, sadly, are wired that way. They've always been in our midst, and they always will be in our midst until the return of Jesus Christ. It's a problem, and it's one that Paul addressed here in this time before 100 AD. It's a term, and it's a thing that we will struggle with as a people until the return of Jesus Christ.

The point that we need to understand here is that we need to love Christ with a sincere faith. That is a faith without ulterior motives. That is a faith of service, of caring, of giving. It's a faith that builds up other people, that is committed to the development of people, that is interested in development, not control. That's what a sincere faith is. Let's take a look now at 1 Corinthians 5, beginning in verse 6. Again, Paul uses the word, and the word sincerity, in a scripture that we are all very familiar with.

1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6. This is scripture we will certainly read every day, just before the days of unleavened bread, because it confirms to us, of course, that the early New Testament church, primarily Gentiles in this congregation, were joyfully observing the days of unleavened bread. He says, Your glorying is not good. He had just corrected them for allowing someone who had committed incest to continue to attend church. He told them that they needed to put that person out, until that person came to their senses and realized how shameful and sinful their disgusting act was. With that background, he says, Your glorying is not good.

Do you not know that a little leavened leavened is the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you are unleavened. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So this is a classic Scripture we read every spring around the Holy Days. Paul is saying, as forgiven new creatures in Christ, he refers to it as a new lump.

Keep the days of unleavened bread in a fresh and in a genuine way. It's not about offerings. It's not about who sees who. It's not like a synagogue, where the prominent people sit in the synagogue, prominent people sat in chairs facing the congregation. Why? Because they wanted to be seen. It's important. They wanted to be seen as special. So the whole row would sit there, the elder of the synagogue, and all those who had officers and physicians would sit there, and they would all face the congregation, because they wanted to be seen.

Jesus had warned about that. And what he is saying is, we're under a new covenant. We have a chance to do things to celebrate these days, not with rituals, not with sacrificing animals in a temple. We have a chance to do it in a way that is honest, upright, fresh, and genuine. Something that reflects what and how we believe. And let's keep the feast in this way. Paul talks a lot about this topic, but between you and I, how about his personal example?

It's easy to say things. But how about his personal lifestyle? Jesus said that you shall know them by their fruits. Let's take a look at a couple of things that he says and see if Paul walks the walk, or if this were just nice little platitudes to the Corinthian congregation. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 1 and 12. 2 Corinthians 1 and 12. 2 Corinthians 1 and 12. He says, For our boasting is this. Paul didn't boast a lot.

He didn't compliment himself often, but this is one of those areas where he did, because to give you a little background, the Corinthian church was kind of hard on Paul. If you remember our Bible studies in the book of Corinthians, they refused to support him financially. They challenged whether he was an apostle or not. After all, he wasn't one of the original twelve. So some challenged whether he was a genuine apostle compared to Peter and the others.

So they were kind of difficult on Paul, challenging to him. He says, For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God and more abundantly toward you. I'm going to read this from the New Century version. I think it makes it clearer.

This is 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 12, New Century version. Quote, This is what we are proud of, and I can say it with a clear conscience. In everything we have done in the world and especially with you, we have had an honest and sincere heart from God. We did this by God's grace, not by the kind of wisdom the world has.

Paul is boldly saying here, and certainly there are no challengers. Paul is open. He says, I've been honest with everyone in the world and in the church. Why? Because there was no duplicity in Paul.

He treated people in the world with the same kindness, respect, and compassion as he treated the church members. There weren't two different departments in his life. He was a sincere individual.

He was frank, and he was genuine in the way that he served Christ. Sometimes, because of his sincerity, he was also blunt.

And sincerity sometimes means, because you're frank, because you're honest, because you're genuine, when the timing is right, that there is room for bluntness. And we're going to see an example of that going to chapter 2 and verse 13. Second Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 13.

He writes, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother. But taking my leave of them, he's giving a little history here of his travels to the Corinthian congregation, I departed for Macedonia. Now, thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us, diffuses. I'm going to stop right there, because he's going to give the analogy of himself and his traveling team as being a living sacrifice, a term that he uses in his other epistles. And we miss that, if we don't understand the background that he's trying to give, an analogy here of giving your all for others, of being a living sacrifice. Alright? He says, verse 14, thanks be to God, who leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us, diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one, we are the aroma of death leading to death. And if you went and he preached the gospel, and someone rejected it, someone ignored it, then they're going to die a physical death. They're going to die. They're unsaved. We believe in God's plan that there will be a time when they will be resurrected and they'll have a chance for salvation. But Paul knew that when he went and he spoke to a group of people at a synagogue, and some rejected him and walked out, that they were unsaved, that they were going to die. And to the other, the aroma of life leading to life. So a sweet-smelling savor to those who heard the gospel and responded to it and said, Yes, I believe that Jesus is the Christ. Yes, I believe that I should repent and conform my life to God's law, and that I should become a living sacrifice myself. He says that's an aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, this is important, verse 17, He says, For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. So what did Paul know was going on? He knew that there were others who were going around the congregations, peddling the word of God. It's an interesting Greek word. It's kapeyuo, it's spelled K-A-P-E-L-E-U-O, K-A-P-E-L-U-O, and it means to huckster. It's kind of blunt, isn't it? He's basically saying, We're not like so many. And it's interesting that he says, So many, not so few. He says, We're not like so many hucksters of the word of God. Another way that we're going to be defined, I found, was interesting in our materialistic world, to retail. Right? There's not even a discount. They're not even offering a discount. These hucksters are going around selling this thing at full price, not even with a Kohl's discount, which usually is like full price plus 10%, and then with a 20% discount.

But he was saying, We're not like so many others. Paul's talking about, he says, but as of sincere. We were sincere about this. We weren't doing this for money or status or position. Now, why is this important? Because he's writing to a congregation that doesn't support him financially.

He says this in 1 Corinthians 9, but he still served the Corinthians as a living sacrifice. He wasn't a huckster out for their money.

A lot of people would say, If you're not going to support me financially, adios amigos, which is about all the Spanish that I know.

But many people would say that, Hey, you know what? I'm not your yakky. No, I'm not hop-sing. I'm bonanza. If you're not going to pay me, I'm gone.

But Paul's attitude was, Even though you should be paying me, and a laborer is worthy of his hire, and you should be supporting me, in spite of that, I love you, and I'm going to serve you as a congregation.

Why did Paul do that? Because he was a man of cena sera. He was without wax. He was a man of sincerity.

Now, how can one recognize a huckster? As Paul talks about how disconcerting it was to him that there were those who were out-pedaling the Word of God.

Just some things to think about. A huckster focuses on themselves or other men more than on Christ or God. The focus is on them, me, I, what I've done, how important I am.

A huckster usually focuses on what they do or what other men have done more than on Christ or on God. It's all about their work, what they've done, how important what they've done is, rather than about Christ or what God has done.

Hucksters invent religious titles for themselves, usually ridiculous ones, witnesses, whatever that means. They invent inflated titles for themselves because their ego demands it.

Hucksters usually have fruits that are evident by their personal lives, how they relate to people, their relationships with their wives, their children, their closest associates.

As many people come in the back door, the organizations go out the front door, or many people come in the front door of the organization to bleed out the back door of the organization.

These are all indications that something is wrong, and Paul is giving a warning to this congregation.

Well, brethren, we're at the time of year where we are bombarded with insincerity in our culture.

We have a culture that wants to focus on the fact that Jesus Christ was a little babe born in a manger, and all of that is true.

We understand that, and we believe that he was born as a baby, and we understand the original story and its intent.

But we also know that far more important than that, what he wanted us all along, his people, to emphasize, was what's known as his second coming.

The fact that he's coming back as a king and as a Lord, and he's coming back to establish the kingdom of God on this earth.

And that's what God wants us to focus on.

And not to borrow soft, cutesy little adorable customs from other religions, and say, This is how I choose to worship the true God, the ever-living one, because it just doesn't work.

It's offensive to God.

The first question we should always ask is, God, how do you want to be worshipped?

That's an attitude of a sincere heart.

Sincerity. The quality or condition of being genuine, honest, free from duplicity.

One of the most important lessons of the Scriptures is to value genuineness and frankness in your life.

And I encourage you to develop the sincerity in your life in ways that you relate to God and how you worship Him, and make sure they come from the Book.

And I also encourage you to deal sincerely with people following the tremendous example of the Apostle Paul, who not only emphasized it, who not only wrote about it, but personally lived it, who walked the walk and talked the talk, because he indeed was a man of incredible sincerity.

And look what he did in his one lifetime. Because of his work, the faith left the confines of Jerusalem and went into the whole then known Roman world in the lifetime of one, ambitious, dedicated man that we know of as the Apostle Paul. So become like the Apostle Paul. Strive to become sina sera, sincere, a person without wax.