THE hypocrite knows that he is only pretending to love Jesus. It is the knowledge that he only affects to be a lover of Christ that constitutes him a hypocrite. He puts a beautiful mask on an ugly face. With his own hand he puts it on, and he never takes it off so long as he remains a hypocrite. If he say, "I was a hypocrite, I had the thoughts of a hypocrite, did the deeds of a hypocrite, I have sinned," then God is faithful and just to forgive. He is no longer a hypocrite, he is a pardoned sinner; and going to God, 'Saying, "I have sinned," God receives him as a son—his sin is blotted out.
A man may think he has been a hypocrite. The best thing for him is to tell, the Lord Jesus what his thoughts are. Jesus died on the cross for hypocrites who have found themselves out, and are weary of being hypocrites, who say, "We are miserable sinners, and without Christ—undone." Jesus died for such hypocrites. If a hypocrite do another any good, he blows a trumpet. He tries to hide his sins by publishing his deeds, and backbites his neighbor to preserve his own character. Hypocrites make long prayers, but they never desire the fellowship of those who really pray. They seek after ceremonies, but avoid the company of true worshippers, lest, coming to the light, they should be discovered and exposed. The hypocrite never contemplates the word of God, unless to deceive others by pretensions to the knowledge of Christ. The moment he contemplates the word, to know God and Christ and himself, he ceases to be a hypocrite.
Let the vilest hypocrite, or the sinner who has sinned ever so much, look to Jesus and His cross—not to himself, but to Jesus crucified—and all is well. Then he may say—
“I the chief of sinners am;
But Jesus died for me.”
Satan in malice would persuade a real child of God that he is a hypocrite, just as in his guile he would persuade a hypocrite to pass for a Christian. Satan has many masks for many faces. He would put the mask of religion on the hypocrite. Satan attains his end when in any way God is dishonored. The Spirit of God, by the cross and resurrection of Christ, through the word of truth, convinces and comforts the believer, showing him that Christ his portion was his Substitute and is his High Priest, and that his desire to be like Christ springs from above: With respect to the hypocrite who never Confesses his hypocrisy, God in due season will make him manifest to all. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
“YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.”
Ye sons of Adam, who your birth
To him can only trace,
Who're "in the flesh," are of the earth,
And of a ruin'd race,
Though righteous as a pharisee,
Your rectitude is vain;
If ye with God in bliss would be,
Ye must be born again.
If only born from nature's womb,
In Adam only known,
Your cheerless prospect is the tomb,
And judgment from the throne.
As sinners, sons of unbelief,
You're bound in Satan's chain,
And soon must wail in endless grief,
Unless ye're born again.
The Word of God doth plainly warn,
(Let none the Truth deny),
That every soul must twice be born,
Or twice in judgment die.
Believers have eternal life
In Christ, where grace doth reign,
Beyond this world of woe and strife,
For they ate born again.
To nature owe they not their birth,
To man, or flesh, or blood;
Their pedigree is not of earths
Their sonship is of God.
The Spirit given, with Christ they're one,
And one shall e'er remain:
A link that can be broke by none,
For those who're born again.
Would ye be of the Spirit born?
Then, see the Son of Man,
The object of reproach and scorn,
Beneath sin's dreadful ban!.
The sinless One made sin for us,
The Lamb for sinners slain!
Believing, look on Him, and thus
Ye will be born again.