Throughout my life I have been known as a PK and an MK. I was surrounded by religious activity. My whole life was religion; and yet I was an unsaved hypocrite in church. What is a PK? What is an MK? Preacher’s Kid & Missionary Kid. I was both, and yet I was a hypocrite.
What is a hypocrite? I know this definition even better. It is one who focuses on the appearances of the external but does not desire that his soul be clean within. It is one who trusts in his outward actions, even in a congratulatory way, as a way of commending himself before God. It is one whose feet-actions do not reflect his mouth-claims.
I was the son of a pastor, the son of a missionary, I lived on the mission field, I played with other children of pastors, I spent my life in church, I knew all the terminology, I knew how to behave in the presence of polite company, and yet I was an unsaved hypocrite. I would sit in church services year after year believing all was well with my soul, singing, “Oh how I love Jesus,” then I would walk out the church doors and live like the devil.
I possessed head knowledge while lacking heart transformation. My “repentance” was a mirage. Trusting in a momentary prayer feigning repentance is not the same as trusting in the God who grants a lifestyle of repentance. My lifestyle, by contrast, showed who I really was. I stiffed-armed God in the face, while mouthing my love for Him. John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:8, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” There was no fruit in my life that backed up what I claimed to be.
When I was 26, God opened my eyes. God granted repentance even to me, even after I had accrued such an accumulated weight of sin. For the first time in my life I saw my sin and His perfect holiness. I remember weeping with such joy over the forgiveness that He granted me. I didn’t have to hide anything anymore. I was free, and the saving faith that God gave me fell upon my soul in such a way that I could not refuse His grace. True repentance takes place only through the work of the Spirit of Christ in one’s life. And this true repentance began to affect my everyday life. It had feet, and it began to mobilize me for action.
Maybe you are also sitting in church, even while you are under the wrath of God. Maybe you are performing religious exercises, and yet your soul is black. Maybe you are doing well to “play church” on Sunday mornings and put on your fake smile, to hide your lack of love for God’s Word and your lack of respect for God in your Monday-through-Saturday lifestyles. Maybe you are a deacon’s kid, a preacher’s kid, a life-long church member, but are trusting in these things and not realizing your lost state.
You, too, are hypocrites.
How much greater will your damnation be on the Day of Judgment, if you sin against such a great and infinite God? It will be better for the unreached tribes of Papua, who sit in darkness, than for your soul.
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.”
Acts 3:19
How I thank God that He has seen fit to save me, and to save me for the purpose of service – as a missionary like my father. My wife Trish and I now prepare to go to Papua, a province that is not too distant from my childhood home of Australia. Yet, whereas I left Australia as an unsaved and self-serving hypocrite, I return to Asia as a saved man whom God has called into His divine service; to pour out my life so that others may taste the sweet wine of His mercy.
Praise God for that mercy! Praise God that though my obstinacy hardened my heart as packed clay, God in His mercy softened it with the Sun of His Love. And now I even rejoice that God may even use my story of hypocrisy amongst religious activities to awaken you to your sin, and cause you to seek the true God who is not content to merely polish the exterior of the sepulcher, but is able to make you whole within