God’s Wrath on The Great Pretender! This is one of those unpopular, chasten messages if you will. But remember for whom the Lord loves He chastens.
Definition of Pretender: One who stimulates, pretends, or alleges falsely; a hypocrite. A person who pretends for a dishonest purpose. An impostor.
We are going to talk about fake Christians . A fake Christian is not a struggling Christian, because every Christian struggles. Every Christian has times of falling short and sinning and slipping up. But that is not a fake Christian. A fake Christian is a pretender, an actor and an imitator. A fake Christian is someone who is sitting in the church pew but is another person altogether in their day-to-day living.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
When a person departs from godliness & righteous they suppress the truth about God. {Suppress means; To suppress something means to prevent something from happening, operating, or becoming apparent, or restrain something and limit its effects, prohibit, or subdue. curb, inhibit, or even stop it}.
So they suppress the truth that God is their loving Creator and deserves their worship and praise. When I wake up in the morning, and even all throughout the day, I always say these words; God You have been too good to me for me not to stop and give You some praise and worship.
Although, Pretenders choose to suppress the Truth therefore they are without excuse. They know that God is their Creator and He deserves worship and praise, but they choose to suppress it and not give God the Glory and Praise and therefore God’s anger is being revealed from heaven against the Great Pretender.
God’s anger is being revealed against sin and the suppression of the Truth. Meaning, you know what the word of God says, but yet you refuse to honor or abide by His word.
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. Folks know that God is real, EVERYBODY KNOW THERE IS A GOD. Look around you; man didn’t make the sun. Man can’t make it rain or snow from heaven. Who woke you up this morning? It wasn’t your alarm clock. Plenty folk alarm clocks went off this morning and they didn’t rise. It was God and everyone knows there is a God.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,.
Because nature itself, speaks eloquently of God’s AWESOME WORKS IN HIS CREATION, they are without excuse. Although, man like to think he is responsible and want to take credit, but God is in charge of EVERYTHING! The word of God says, you can clearly see this, so you are without excuse!!!
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Matthew 7:21-23; 25:11, that MANY would be self-deceived. It doesn't say that a FEW will be deceived, but MANY. And these "many" people didn't just call Jesus Savior, they called Him "Lord." In fact, they went beyond calling Jesus just "Lord." They called Jesus, "Lord, Lord."
I’m hearing some pleading going on!!! And the "many" who were self-deceived, did many things "in Jesus name." They prophesied, cast out demons and performed many wonders. Oh The Great Pretender. I can imagine them saying; Lord, Lord I came to Church every Sunday and paid my tithes. Lord, Lord I song in the Choir. I came to Bible study. The Lord responds with, Yeah but every Saturday you were out fornicating, drinking and getting high. Robbing, stealing, lying and cheating too. Lord, Lord I had a good heart. Really? Don’t you know your righteousness is like filthy rags? I came and died for you, it is my blood that cleansed you, not yourself.
Lord, Lord, I didn’t know I was supposed to live a certain way. Really? Well MY people perish for their lack of knowledge. I told you to study to prove yourself worthy…did you even try to study my word?
You are a pretender. Pretending to be a Christian. My children obey my Commandments
These people who said, “Lord, Lord” did not belong to Jesus, even though they professed to. They are Great pretenders.
So what do you have to do to become a Christian? If we were to randomly interview people and ask them this question, we probably would receive answers like “Go to church,” “Read the Bible,” “Pray,” “Believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” “Keep the Ten Commandments,” and “Be baptized.”
Did you know that you can do all things and not necessarily be a Christian. (But if you are a Christian, you ought to do those things.)
Doing those things in and of themselves will not make you a Christian.
For instance, you can pray and not necessarily be a Christian. Most people pray when the chips are down. For the most part, when a crisis hits people call out to God anyway. It may not even be the true God they are praying too; they just cry out for help. But just because you pray doesn’t mean that you really believe and are following Christ. You can go to church and not necessarily be a Christian. There are people who will say, “Let’s go to church. It’s good to get a little religion. I like the way that man/woman preaches.” But they don’t need a little religion; they need a lot of Jesus. That is the only thing they need.
The thing with the people Jesus was speaking of in Matthew, chapter 7, was that true conversion didn’t precede their activity. Despite how impressive they looked outwardly, these people did not know God. They were the Great Pretenders. Jesus response to them will be, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” In other words, Jesus never had a relationship with them. He never knew them.
If you are a genuine Christian, it will show in the way that you live. Real Christians build their lives on the right foundation, a foundation that will stand the test of time. The Bible tells us, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 3:11 If you build your spiritual life on anyone or anything else, then you are not a real Christian. You are a Great pretender.
Pretenders, pretending to have a relationship with Jesus and being a friend to the world. James 4:4 says;… Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Pretenders will go to church sang in the choir and once they leave church in their car their music flips the switch:
They stop signing Amazing Grace and started singing Luther Vandross So Amazing.
No longer God loves us all, its George Strait She Loves Me (She Don't Love You)
No longer singing Rock of Ages cleft for me. It’s Freddie Jackson Rock me tonight. No more How I Love Jesus, its Al Green I’m still in Love with you.
No more the Blood, its Alcohol by Brad Paisley
The Great Pretender. God sees it all.
Folks Rushing home to see , The televisions series The Haves and Have-nots.
Madea??? What’s wrong with Madea? Its a man dressed like an old lady. What's wrong with that Pastor shes funny! Matter-of-fact MOST OF ALL YOUR ACTORS PUTS ON A DRESS, what's wrong with that? Well, Deuteronomy 22:5 “A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God. So if its an abomination to God, why are you sitting down letting that mess entertain you?
But…When you hear the truth and you do not embrace the truth, you begin to lose it. You lapse into a settled state of sluggishness, a settled state of dullness, no longer interested in the gospel, no longer desirous of the truth, no longer wanting to know about Jesus and His word, you’re not willing to embrace Christ, you’re holding tightly to your sins.
People who come to a church where the Word of God is faithfully being taught, initially interested, but eventually dull of hearing, infantile, unable to understand the basics of righteousness. They are in severe danger, severe danger. They've listened, they've understood the truth, the way of righteousness, they heard it, they maybe believed it. They never embraced it. They lost it.
Yes, you’re the great pretender but you’re only fooling yourself!
I looked up the lyrics to that song the Great Pretender. It says;
{Yes, I’m the great pretender, I seem to be what I’m not. I’m wearing my heart like a crown, pretending that you are still around. Yes, I’m the great pretender. Pretending that I‘m doing well. My need is such but I pretend too much, but no one can tell.} Yes, I’m the great pretender. Pretending that I‘m doing well. My need is such but I pretend too much, but no one can tell.
A TRUE Christian can tell. The word says you will know them by the fruits they bear.
Listen, I don’t care what anybody tells you, the word says in 1 Corinthians 6:9 & 10; Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
Be sure your sins Pretender will find you out. Lord LORD. Its going to be a sad day for many pretenders who pretend to be Christians.
Folks walking around disrespecting God. Saying stupid stuff. Like Jesus is my homeboy. Or the man upstairs. God is Holy and you better recognize that HE is Holy and treat him therefore Holy.
