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GALACTIC NEWS FROM THREE ANGELS #8
EXPOSING THE HYPOCRITES
There was a rotten little story in the Ventura County
section of our hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times. And really, this
story is just one of hundreds we could pick from. The article was about
statutory rape: older men who have sex with young girls. Which, as we
all know, is a crime. Well, this one example was of a teen-aged girl named
Carrie, age 16. There was a teacher at her school; he was 31. And the
two of them began to drift into conversations that were inappropriately
intimate. Pretty soon he was kissing her. Then, after the summer break,
they picked up where they left off, and soon this married man was having
an affair with a high school junior. She had to “sneak around” to be with
him, lying to her friends and her own family. “I really, really cared
for him,” she confessed later. “I really didn’t see what was happening
until it had happened.”
Well, stories like that are probably a dime a dozen these days, unfortunately.
But let me share with you the hidden half of the tale. Carrie was attending
a private Christian school. And the 31-year-old teacher she had the affair
with was the religion teacher at the school. This was the man who was
teaching the Bible classes, who stood up in front of Carrie’s classroom
and gave her training and instruction in Scriptural principles . . . and
then met her later for the illicit tête-à-tête.
Now, there’s something I need to say to you and to me both. Of course
this is terrible — but no more terrible than the sins of pride and selfishness
and anger that you and I indulge in. We’re very tempted to think that
Seventh Commandment violations are the most wicked ones, as well as the
most exciting. But the point I want for us to really think about is linked
to what we’ve studied these past few days.
The Bible tells us, here in our study passage — Revelation chapter 14
— that we are to be of sober minds in these last days. “Fear God and give
glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come.” And we’ve halted
our expedition right here for a few days to meditate together about what
this judgment is really all about.
I mentioned yesterday the suggestion that this end-time judgment, sometimes
called the Pre-Advent Judgment because it happens right before Jesus returns,
basically involves two groups: real Christians and those who claim to
be Christians. Do you recall the sound bite from Monday where Dr. Norman
Gulley, in his book, Christ Is Coming!, says:
“The pre-Advent judgment is wonderful news for all
good Christians”?
But now we want to think about this Bible teacher,
who says with his mouth: “I am a Christian.” He teaches and preaches from
the Word of God; he allows himself to be set up as a role model for impressionable
young people. He is a professing Christian. But then with his life, with
his after-hour liaisons and his midnight rendezvous, he seems to give
testimony that his profession of the Christian faith is simply that: a
profession. Just words. Is it possible, then, that the judgment scenes
described in the Bible, by Jesus in the Gospels and again here in Revelation
14, are for the purpose of deciding who is really with God and who is
simply pretending to be with Him?
You know, we could really stay out of the book of Revelation entirely,
and just read the great parables of Jesus, and still learn many powerful
truths about the Judgment. For a moment, let me assume you kind of know
these stories; if you don’t, by all means, look them up and enjoy reading
them on your own. Because we’re just going to scratch the surface. In
Matthew chapter 25 is the famous parable by Christ about the ten virgins
who were going to a wedding. Five wise, and five foolish . . . remember?
All of them professed to be friends of the groom; all of them claimed
that they were in the wedding party. But in verse 12, the groom — that
would be Jesus Himself, of course — says through a locked door, to the
five foolish ones: “Hey, I don’t know you. You say we’re friends, but
we’re not. You weren’t prepared with the extra oil in case I came late.”
Just back a few pages from there, in Matthew 22, is another parable along
the same lines. There’s a great wedding banquet put on by the King for
His Son . . . and you can certainly figure out that part. God the Father
and Jesus, of course. And they invite all sorts of people: good ones and
bad ones. Rich and poor. Nicely dressed and not-so-nicely dressed . .
. but the king graciously provides all of those in attendance with a free
wedding garment.
However, one man sitting at Table #7, sampling the caviar and enjoying
the free food, doesn’t have on that free garment. He’s right there with
the king’s friends; he’s a professed part of the entourage. But he doesn’t
have on the requisite clothing. And the king judges him on that basis;
he has this rebellious man sent away, “into the darkness, where there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We’ve already mentioned the famous “weed” story, back in Matthew chapter
13, where there’s a certain field. Wheat is in the field . . . and . .
. weeds are there too. There should be only wheat, of course, but somehow
the tares and briars are there as well. “Hey, let’s get rid of these,”
says a servant. “They don’t belong here.” But the owner very wisely responds:
“No, that’s all right. If we pull up the weeds right now, we might uproot
the wheat with it. Leave it all right there. But when it comes time for
the harvest, I’ll sort it all out. The wheat will go into the barn, and
the weeds will be destroyed.” And for the third time, we find this imagery
where the real and the professed real are all together. God doesn’t disturb
the mix; He doesn’t separate the genuine article from the hypocrite. Not
then. But in the end, when it really counts, then He makes a determination
about it all; He separates the good from the pretend good. Of course,
a wise farmer with a keen eye might know very quickly which plants are
wheat and which ones are tares. But is it possible that He would very
carefully and even methodically explain to the servants: “Okay, these
are fine. These are good plants. The ones right over there, you can tell
by the leaves, and by those tiny jagged edges — see, right there? — those
are the weeds”? Would He open up the judgment process so that everyone
who works at the farm understands how He makes His decisions? Would He,
in a sense, “put it in the L.A. Times”?
Friend, let me say it again. God already knows who are His. And He knows
it instantly. If you and I are able to spot hypocrisy — and most of us
think we’re pretty good at it — you can be sure that God knows in a heartbeat
if someone is just talking and not doing. At that Christian high school,
He knows a fake Bible teacher from a real one. But I believe this judgment
process talked about in Revelation chapter 14 is for the benefit of the
watching universe. It’s for the angels. It’s for you and me — involving
the cases where maybe we don’t know a person’s heart.
Actually, Jesus addresses this issue, not in a parable, but right out
on the street corner, so to speak. In His well-known Sermon on the Mount,
which run from Matthew five to Matthew seven, He says a few words about
people like this womanizing Bible teacher:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who
is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many
miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from
me, you evildoers!’”
I suppose at this point, you might be tempted the same
way I sometimes am. Maybe by now “sober” has just plain turned into raw
fear. “There’s no chance for me,” you say. “I’ve said I love God. I’ve
said I want to serve Him. But I’ve messed up so many times, I’m probably
in the same camp as the guy at that school who cheated on his wife. Or
like the five foolish virgins. ‘Cause I talk a lot better than I do. You
say the Judgment is ‘wonderful news for all good Christians,’ but I’m
not a very good Christian.” Which means that if God and Jesus are up in
heaven and going through the books, with a lot of angels looking on to
see if we’re hypocrites . . . well, that sounds like bad news.
I hear what you’re saying, friend. Believe me. And just because you’re
listening to a Christian radio program right here on a Wednesday, and
I’m talking on one, doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot of weeds in our hearts.
But let me remind you right here, before we break and wait for Thursday’s
good news, that the Apostle Paul bemoaned how he was the worst sinner
around. He reeked of hypocrisy and bad thoughts; he was steeped in naughty
attitudes. And yet, he calls the gospel “good news.” Good news for him.
Good news for the thief on the cross. Good news for me. Good news for
you.
So don’t let go of the rope just yet.
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