John 14:25-27
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Back when I was 20 years old, I was in the US Air Force and stationed at Rapid City, South Dakota. I was a jet aircraft mechanic with the 54th Fighter Interceptor Sqaudron. Someone had the bright idea that we buy a car and take it to the local stock car racetrack to see how we would fare against the veteran stock car racers.
With our limited resources we could only afford an old jalopy that looked like a relic from by-gone days (it was!). We slapped some red, white and blue paint on it and someone painted our squadron emblem on the side. Even with the paint it still looked like an old beat up wreck that was better suited for the junkyard than the race track.
Our driver made a pretty good showing the first week the car raced. As I recall he came in second or third. There was an old mechanic in our outfit that knew just about everything there was to know about engines. He took the engine apart and rebuilt it completely. I can still remember him throwing parts out saying, “We don’t need these they just take up room!”
The next race was a farce. Our car was untouchable. The seasoned drivers, who had laughed at the broken-down old jalopy at the beginning, were now wanting to know what was on the inside! He wouldn’t tell them!
I hope you will immediately be able to see that there is a spiritual application to all of this. It is not what is on the outside that counts, but what is on the inside! We live in a world that is increasingly cynical because they have observed some spiritual leaders who talked holy but were full of corruptible things.
That inward vileness was what Jesus observed in the religious leaders of His day. As we read today’s Scripture we observe that Jesus did not treat these “holier than thou” teachers with the respect they demanded of the people.
How could He do that? Very easy, Jesus was the Son of God and, although He was very man, He was also very God. This gave Jesus the ability to know what was in the human heart. No matter how good the religious leaders looked and acted, Jesus told them that they were full of death.
What would Jesus see in our heart? We may be able to fool family and/or friends, but the Lord knows our heart. He knows if there has truly been repentance and a sincere turning away from the path that leads to death. Pay heed! Your eternal destiny is at stake.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil