Harold Speaks on Sincerity and True Worship

Join Harold in this insightful talk as he delves into the meaning of sincerity, especially in the context of worship and faith. He discusses motives, conscience, and the importance of aligning our actions with purity and truth. Harold addresses common misconceptions about sincerity, citing scriptures from Matthew, Philippians, and Genesis to emphasize that sincerity alone isn't enough without truth and righteousness. Key points include examining our true motives, diligently seeking truth, living a godly life, and engaging in sincere self-examination. This episode is a profound invitation to reflect on our spiritual sincerity and relationship with God.

00:00 Welcome and Introduction
01:15 Defining Sincerity
03:20 Sincerity in Religion
06:13 The Importance of Truth
10:15 Pure Motives in Worship
23:35 Living a Godly Life
28:10 Self-Examination and Sincerity
32:40 Invitation to Reflect and Act

Transcript

Thank you for being here this evening. I know that your purpose is to worship God in spirit and in truth, we hope that we afford you an occasion for that. You're visiting with us. We want you to know that we're pleased to have you with us and hope that we help you worship God, if you're joining us online, we thank you for doing that.

Also, for those who are note takers, I am not going to be using the PowerPoint tonight, but I'll try and make the points vivid and let you know from changing from one to another so that you can take notes easily if you can. And I will tell you that as I got into the lesson and studying it and preparing for it.

The further I went, it seemed like to me the more valuable that it could be to us, and yet at the same time, I will tell you that the value of this lesson will not be the depth of the scripture that we study, but how deep you look into your heart and how much you apply these things to your heart and to your life.

I want to begin by asking you a question. You don't have to answer it out loud. You don't have to raise your hand. I just want you to think for a moment. How would you define the word sincere or sincerity? Think for just a moment. How would you define the word sincere or sincerity? I will tell you that if you look it up in the dictionary, you'll find that Webster defines it as free from Dissimilation.

And if you look up Dissimilation, he says to hide under false appearance, and then he gives some synonyms and some other things that perhaps were even more helpful. He talks about how that sincerity is honesty that is marked by purity. By genuineness and he gives the the synonym of truth or truth.

And as I thought about it, it seems to me like that sincerity deals with motives and that it deals with conscience as well as our actual actions. And I think his, I think about it, and this is just me thinking it is not. From the scriptures, it's not earth shattering, but as you think about sincerity in regards to our motives and our conscience and actions, that a motive is kind of looking at the reasoning and why you're doing something and then the conscience, you kinda look back.

What you've done and are determining the degree of, of sincerity and, and rightness and wrongness and so forth in that, I have another question for you, having talked to you a little bit about sincerity, and that is, do you count yourself as being a sincere person? I wanna talk with you, if I may, this evening, about the subject of sincerity and.

Particularly as it relates to our religion and our being pleasing unto the Lord. And I will tell you to begin with that sincerity is not all that matters. You have certain people that think that sincerity is all that matters. If they're sincere in what they're doing, they can be as wrong as wrong can be.

But if they are sincere in what they're doing and they have a good conscience after they get through, they don't know that it's wrong. At this point, they think they're all right. And sometimes you'll seek people that kind of think, well, all that really matters is sincerity. Oftentimes they'll quote Matthew the seventh chapter to justify themselves, Matthew one, and listen as I read, verses one through five, judge, not that you be not judged for with what judgment you judge you will be judged and that measured that you use it will be measured back to you.

And why do you not look at the spec in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank that's in your own eye. How can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye. Hypocrite. First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you'll see clearly to remove the speck outta your brother's eye.

That's a key passage to some of these people that think all that really matters is sincerity. And if you question what they do when they're sincere or even. If you question what they do, maybe sometimes when you're not sincere, they're gonna draw that passage out. And sometimes it's just really their insincerity speaking.

They know sometimes they're not doing what's right or they know they're being challenged at what they're doing and to think about if it's right and they don't want to do that. And so it's just easier for them to say, Hey, you have no right to question me or to judge me. We'll talk more about this passage in a few minutes, but it's not that given for that purpose so that we can just say, well, I'm sincere.

That's all that matters. But I wanna emphasize again, there are people that their plan of salvation is just, let me be sincere. And their condition of forgiveness is, well, I did it in sincerity. They're not. Profession wrong. They're not trying to repent. They're just saying, well, I was sincere when I did it so, so God's going to overlook it.

It is their one commandment to be kept, and that's just not what you find in the Bible. There are plenty of passages that certainly indicate as we will talk about, that we need to be sincere, but it also points out that we need to be right and we need to be standing in the truth. For instance, you remember John four in verse 24, the Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well, and he talked about where to go, whether in the mountain of Samaritan or in Jerusalem, but he says there's a time coming.

Well, what really matters is that you worship in spirit and in truth, I would think that probably this idea, worship in spirit. To include what we're talking about, being sincere in our worship, doing it for the right reasons, right purpose, right motivation. But you have to understand and acknowledge the fact that he doesn't stop there and say all that matters is that you worship in spirit.

He says, you need to worship in spirit and in truth. Look over if you would with me to a passage in the book of Philippians in the first chapter. Listen to the Apostle Paul as he writes these words. Philippians one in verse nine and 10, he says, and this, I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and in all discernment, and that you may approve the things that are excellent and that you may be sincere without offense till the day of Christ.

Now he talks about our being sincere. He also talks about us being without offense, meaning I want you to be sincere, but I want you to be free from sin too. And he is not saying that this sincerity is the only thing that matters. He's saying you need to be sincere, but you also need to be free from sin.

And I would turn you back as an example maybe to the Book of Genesis in the 20th chapter in verses one through seven. When Abraham goes down to Jar and, and there, you remember, he takes Sarah and he's, he's fearful that somebody will harm him so that they can take Sarah. So he says, Sarah, you tell everybody that you're my sister, and the king sees her and, and recognizes she's a very pretty woman, and he takes her, and then God speaks to the king, and he said, you're a dead man.

Because you've taken another man's wife and the king says, Lord, I acted with integrity. He told me that she was his sister and she told me it was her brother. And God says, I know that you did it with integrity and you turn her back or else you're going to die. He acted. But I want you to see here's a man that is doing something and he's sincere.

He really thinks it's her Abraham's sister, and yet he's wrong and God would not have accepted it that way. And then I think you can see also if you think about the life of Paul twice in the Book of Acts, in the 23rd chapter, and again in the 24th chapter, Paul talks about his prior life when he was a persecutor.

He talked about how I did it in all good conscience, if all that matters is our attitude and whether we're sincere or not, Paul would've been fine because he was saying yes, I was putting Christians to death at that time, but I thought, honestly thought that I was doing what God wanted me to do. I thought this Jesus was an imposter, that he wasn't the Christ, the son of God.

And so I was doing what I thought was best. But he found out on the road to Damascus that he wasn't doing what God wanted him to do, that he was wrong, and just being sincere was not enough. He had to change. So let me tell you some things that sincerity will do for us though, and this is the first point.

If you're taking notes that I want you to note, sensitivity helps us to have pure motives. It is involving our peer motives, and I want you to know that God does care about our motives. If you were to turn back to the book of six, we'll just Matthew six chapter and we'll just reference and won't turn back and read all of it.

I think they're familiar to you, but you remember that this is when Jesus is talking about the scribes and the Pharisees and how they, Alton times would pray, but he would say they would, or, or first of the things he talks about is mentioning how they were fasting. And he talks about how they, they've disfigured their faces and all, and he points out they're not really trying to get the good out of fasting.

And this is not just about them serving the Lord. He pointed out their motive was that people see them and think, oh, here's a person that fasted. He must be a good person. And he's condemning their attitude. He's saying, you're not sincere in what you're doing. And then he would talk about how they pray and they pray long prayers in hopes that people would see the long prayers.

And somebody would say, oh, they must be a very religious person. Listen to how long they can pray. And Jesus says, you need to go in on the closet and shut the door, pray. And he is not telling us that it is absolutely positive or or important that we pray and nobody hears us, but he's saying they were doing it for the wrong reason.

When I bow to pray, I'll not be bowing to try and impress somebody, but I'm bowing to talk to God and that my motive matters. And then he would talk about, again, the idea of fasting given of arms and how that they, they want to be seen for those things. And again, he's just condemning them because he's saying their attitude is not right.

They're not sincere in trying to serve God. All of these things are things that they ought to be doing in service to God, fasting, prayer, giving of arms, but he was saying, you're insincere in what you're doing and it doesn't help you on that occasion. We've talked before about the book of Proverbs from the 23rd chapter.

That's the passage where he talks about a man giving IES to others. He warns those people that are getting the daney and says, you know, you need to be careful. And he says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And what he's saying is, here's a man that's giving Daney out to some people trying to win their allegiance and so forth.

And yet he's not really that concerned. He's more concerned about what he can get out of this than what he's giving. I've likened it before to, to the fishermen that puts the worm on the, on the hook and throws it out in the water. He's not trying to feed the fish. That's not his motive. He's trying to get the fish so that he can be fed.

And again, he's just going back to motive and saying, I care about your motives and your motive needs to be right, and you need to be sincere in the things that you do. I want you to know that God cares about our motives and God requires that we do things in order to please him. That's got to be our motive.

I have told you before that one of the neat words that I like Bible words, there's two or three of 'em that I, I have just loved through the years. One of 'em virtue, one of 'em, meekness and the word godliness. The idea of godliness, and you can find it in one Timothy four and verse seven if you're looking for the passage.

But in one Timothy four and verse seven, he talks about we need to be, do things, God or, or be godliness. And that word carried the idea that you're being godly with an effort or or attitude of pleasing God. And so that's just one passage that tells us God cares about our attitude and when we do something for him or in his name, he wants us to be doing it with the idea of pleasing him.

He gives us the act that he wants us to do, but he also says, and I want you to do the act. I want you to have the right attitude. I want you to do it in order to please me. Here for me was Second Peter one and how that he says, give all diligence to add to your faith. Virtue. Virtue knowledge.

Temperance. Temperance. Patience. Patience, godliness. That's the King James, I think. But here he is saying, if you wanna please me, even as Christians. After you have faith, add to your faith, and, and we've talked before, the idea is not like climbing a ladder where you get one and then leave that and go to the next, but it is the idea of, of adding two and bringing inside of 'em.

So he says, take your faith and add to it virtue and add to your virtue knowledge you, you direct those energies and zeal that you have and then add to your virtue self-control. Then he says, and then you add patience and you add godliness. He wants us to make sure that what we're doing is done with the right motive and the right attitude.

And so I would tell you that God wants us to have the right heart, the right attitude. He wants us to do things sincerely with the right attitude. God wants us. To have a faith that is unfed. When he talked to Timothy in two Timothy, one in verse five, he talked about Timothy's grandmother Lo and mother Eunice.

I say Eunice, I heard one time preached say he learned that that was supposed to be uni. He said, I ain't saying it that way. People think I'm dumb, so I wish still could stick 'em with Eunice. That's the lady back home when I grew up, that was her name and it was Eunice. It wasn't uni. But anyway, he says, I want you to, you to remember their unsane.

Faith is King James. I think now some of the versions say the genuine faith, but it's still the same thing. I want you to have faith, but I want it to be real. I want it to be done in order to please me and not just something that you're doing or I don't want you just to do acts and so forth. And, and just be pretend attitude matters.

And that's where our sincerity comes in. When we begin to examine why do we do these things? Why do I even have faith? Well, it needs to be because I'm trying to please God. I. Romans 12 in verse six. He talks about Let our love be without the simulation. And again, that's just means let it be real love. You know, love is having the best interest of another at heart.

Really, it's the bottom definition of it. He's saying, don't go around doing things for other people as if though you love them when you've got ulterior motives. He said, I want your love to be without dissimilation. He cares about the motives and the things that we're doing, and that's the first point I want you to notice.

How sincere are we in our motives when we're doing things for the Lord when we look back? Can we say we're sincerely doing them to please God or do we have some ulterior motive for it? The second thing I want you to think about sincerity assures us that we will be diligently seeking truth. Sincerity will will ensure that we're diligently searching for truth.

There's some passages again that tell us how important truth is. John 17, verse 17. You sanctify them by thy truth. Th word is truth, he says, and those sanctification outside the truth. And God's word is the truth. He talks about to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life talking about Jesus.

Then Ephesians six in verse 14, Paul was giving us that picture of that soldier, and he says, you gird your loins with truth. And so all those passages are trying to tell us how important truth is that we can't be saved without truth and we need to to have truth. But you know what, not everybody really seeks truth.

Look over if you would to Matthew the 13th chapter just real quick. This is a time that Jesus has been telling the parables and he talks about why he's telling the parables and so forth. But he quotes from Isaiah and he says in them, these people that are not really catching the parables, don't really care about the parables.

He says in them, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says. Hearing you will hear and shall not understand and see, and you will see and not perceive for their hearts. This people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing their eyes. They have closed less. They should see with their eyes and hear with their ears less.

They should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. He's saying some people just don't want the truth. Jesus has come. He's given his life so that we can be saved. And tries to tell us that, but some people are just not interested in that. But Jesus wants us to be interested in it.

And when we come to Jesus, Jesus wants us to come because we're interested in truth and, and know that he's pro proclaiming the truth. Sincerity, listen. Sincerity is truth loving. If you're sincere, you want the truth and you, you know that, it's held up to us in the scriptures as being that which we should desire.

In Acts 17th chapter in verse 11, Paul talks about those in Berea and he talks about them, or Luke's recording Paul's statement about those in Berea, saying those in Berea are more noble than those. That's Nicola, and they searched the scriptures daily. They might know what God is telling them is is the idea.

They search the scripture. He wants us to know the truth. Then you look at passages like the book of Hebrews in the 13th or the third chapter in verse seven when he talks about that. Today. If you hear his word, then obey it. Or James one when he talks about be you doers of the word and not hears only.

And Hebrews two in verse one through three where he talks about that God has given us these words and how should we escape if we neglect so great a thing. My point is that God wants us to know the truth, and my question is, how sincerely do we study and try to get that truth? How sincere are we in our search for truth?

I told you we'd talk about Matthew seven, one through five again a little bit, and this is the place Matthew seven and one through five is not telling us we ought never connect or correct somebody. You have places like Matthew 18 and verse 15 where he tells us that if somebody's gone astray, we ought to go and point out their faults to 'em.

Or James five in verse 19, that if a man leaves and departs from the Lord, then you who are spiritual, go to that person and, and try and teach him so that he can have his soul back. That God wants him to be saved is the idea. This passage in Matthew seven is not telling us we ought to never try to correct somebody.

It's a passage against hypocritical and maybe hypocritical judgment. And often it is cited to mask insincerity. It doesn't want to admit they, they don't have the truth or they need to change, and they're more loyal to the tradition or whatever practice they have than they are really the truth itself.

And these people, if you examine the motive and, and all of us should be examining this, we want truth. But how sincere are we about truth? Why do we want the truth? Do we want it for the reason God tells us to have the truth? Knowing that the truth shall make us free, that the truth is God's word and we want God's word to live and to act by it.

Or do we just want to impress people with our knowledge or, or just have the truths that we want? Whatever it is, how sincere are we in really seeking the truth? The third thing I want to suggest to you, sincerity will aid us in living a godly life. Now, we talked about godliness just a moment ago. But godliness demands that we renounce sin.

Two Timothy two in verse 19. Paul talks about that we ought to, to forsake evil. Look over, if you would for a moment. Two Timothy two in verse 19. And Paul says, nevertheless, solid foundation of God stands Having this seal, the Lord knows those who are His, and then listen and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

So if I'm going to claim to, to love Christ and serve Christ, then he says, well, I ought to be fleeing evil. Second Timothy, or not second Timothy Titus, the second chapter in verse 11. For the grace of God, that brilliant salvation has appeared to all men. Notice teaching us denying ungodliness and worldly lust that we should live soberly, righteous, and godly in this present world.

Is that our attitude? I wanna be a Christian. I understand that it's all about godliness and pleasing God and that God wants me to put sin away. How sincere am I in that? I think back even to the Romans, the six chapter, Romans six is, is a fascinating passage to me. You have people talk about, well, God didn't tell these people to be baptized.

Have you ever noticed that in the book of Romans? Like chapter three verse 21, so forth. He talks about all the sin, but we can be made alive and righteous through Jesus Christ and how that we're saved by our faith. And then he gets over to chapter six and he says some will say, shall we continue in grace or in in sin?

That Grace May abound. He said, God forbid. And they'll notice. Don't you know that as many as we're baptized into Christ have put off sin. It never dawn on anybody that he's just said. All these people I'm talking to, I know they've been baptized. Well, that's because that's what Faith does. It leads us to baptism, and we're baptized in the name of Christ.

And but my point at this time is that here he is telling these people you've been baptized. And then he goes on and tells 'em what it means. He says, it means you have become dead to sin and alive to righteousness. If we are not doing that, how can we stand up and sincerely safe? I'm following the Lord if we know that passage is in there.

This idea of sincerity. Should help promote the idea of godliness and renouncing sin. Some are untrue to their profession. You remember the book of Luke in the six chapter in verse 46. Jesus talked about some said, why? Call me a Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say. Here's somebody saying, you're Lord, you're my master, which means, in essence I will do whatever you say do.

But he says, you're not doing what I said. Do. Where's the sincerity in that is the idea and how can we do that and still even claim to be sincere. Or then you have the Pharisees in Matthew 23 and verse three who he warns. He says they'll tell you to do things, but they themselves won't do 'em. And that happens in this world.

You have people saying, well, you ought to be doing this, this, this, this, this, and this. And you say, well, how come you're not doing that? Well, that's a different story. No. If we're going to be sincere about things, we ought to realize that this sincerity is going to promote godliness and try and help us to be everything we should be.

Sincerity is integrity of the heart that demands that we do what we think is right, no matter what the cost. It'll help us overcome temptations because it prohibits us from being and doing those things deliberately that violates God's law. It'll, it'll help us with our conscience because we're gonna be trying to keep our conscience clear.

It's going to keep us from disobeying God if we're really sincere in our efforts of serving the Lord. And then I want to suggest to you, fourthly that. Being sincere will help us in our self examinations. Second Corinthians 13th chapter in verse five, and Paul tells the Corinthians, he said, examine yourselves and see whether or not you're in the faith.

Well, some people can examine themselves. They can be just as wrong as wrong, can be, and they don't see it because they're not really looking very much. And because they have a distorted view of themselves. You remember on that occasion that Jesus talked about the publican and, and the Pharisee and you remember the end of the story.

The publican beat his breath and said, oh, God, be merciful unto me as sinner. He's looking at himself like he ought to. But you remember the Pharisee stood and said, oh God, I thank you. I'm not like all these other people, like this Republican. And then he talks about how I fast twice a week and do all these other things.

He has a distorted view of himself. He is trying to tell us we need to be honest with ourselves and really do what God wants us to do, examine ourselves and if we're trying to be sincere. Then we'll come and do a better job of, of examining ourselves because it's going to give us the right standard. If I'm trying to sincerely judge myself and figure out where I am with God, I'm gonna need to know what the standard is, and that's going to lead me to God's word.

It's going to show me the right standard. It means I won't be resting the scriptures and twisting them. I you can. Twist the scriptures in all kind of ways. Peter writes, I think it is in second Peter, the third chapter, and talks about how some of 'em have wrestled and or rest and twisted the passages that Paul had given.

And you see people doing things today. For instance, you see some trying to justify homosexuality and they'll go back. In reading Jonathan's story the other day, and David, I saw some. Readings that said, ah, this has got to be love affair. No, that was good friendship. And it is just to say some people will twist the scriptures and, and they want this relationship, so they're gonna find what they want in the scriptures and they're going to twist it enough that they will feel justified.

But if we're trying to be sincere and, and sincerely handle the scripture. Then we're not going to be resting the scriptures in that way, and it'll give us a fair estimation of ourselves and it'll help us to really understand where we are. Sincerity is honesty, and it'll cause us to handle the word of God a right, and it'll cause us to look at ourselves as the scriptures tell us to look.

I wanna share with you one other thought that is that sincerity does not mean that we're never wrong and that we never do anything wrong. That's not what sincerity does. You can think back, no doubt, to scriptures and people that certainly God counted as, as righteous. Think about Abraham. But yet in that Genesis, the 20th chapter we were in, he's telling the people that Sarah is his sister, a half truth.

But it wasn't, it wasn't what God wanted and, and so we're gonna make mistakes, but if we're trying to be sincere and honest, then we'll admit our mistakes when we find out that we've made them, and not only that, we will confess our faults and we'll ask God to forgive us, and we'll change when we've seen our mistakes.

If we're sincere. In the book of Acts 18th chapter, you have the story of Aquila and Priscilla and, and Apollo, and they hear Apollo preach. Apol is preaching the best he can and the best he knows to do, but he, he still knows only the baptism of John. And so they took him aside and they taught him and he changed.

He didn't keep preaching that he wasn't of the attitude, well, you can't show me I'm, I'm gonna do what I want to do. He changed. That's the case with us. If we're really sincere, somebody shows us our mistake, we're going to change.

Here's the hard part. I want to ask you a question. Are you sincere? I want you to think, first of all, are you in a right relationship with God? Be sincere and you answer. That's the only way that you're going to get be saved is if you consider these things and you answer them rightly according to the scripture.

And the scriptures tell us that in order to be saved, we need to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of living God. And then having done that, we need to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for their mission, sins. And rise up to walk in you of life, sincerely. Have you done that? And did you do it with the idea of I'm pleasing the Lord, I'm doing it in order to be saved.

And then that tells us you need to put away your sins, you've died to sin. And so my question is, are you really dead to sin? I'm not saying, do you ever sin? I know we're gonna slip up and mess up and and have to confess sin sometimes, but do you count yourself as dead to sin? Are you really sincere in that?

You really mean I'm dead to sin? And then maybe we should ask, am I diligently serving the Lord over and over in the scriptures? He talks about being diligent. And I'll tell you the truth, that's the thing that I, I'm concerned most about right now is am I diligent in the work of the Lord doing what I need to do to the degree that I need to do it.

But we need to, to be sincere. And if we're sincere, we're going to ask ourselves our talk and, and look at our motives. We're going to try and be exactly where we need to be, where we can sincerely say, yes, I'm in the Lord. Yes, I feel confident that if the Lord came tonight, that I would be saved, not just based upon what I want, but what the scriptures teach us.

Can you sincerely say that, and let me tell you that if you answer no to those questions. Now's the time to get right. Now's the time to confess your insincerity or your shortcomings and get right with the Lord. You know, we always talk about, we never know when the lord's going to come or when our time's gonna be up, and we always think, yeah, many preachers have said that and it hadn't happened yet, but we ought to face the facts.

Some preachers someday may stand up and say, you know, the Lord come in the next five minutes. Some preacher's going to be right and who knows whether I'm that preacher and this is that time. Get right. If you need to be right, be sincere with yourself, answer the questions sincerely, and then do whatever you need to do.

We can assist you. We'd invite you to come if it's too, be baptized into Jesus Christ, farther remission of sins. In the name of Lord Jesus Christ. Be added to the church or if it's just to get rid of some sin that you need, you need to confess and, and ask us to pray with you and for you and ask God to forgive you.

We can do that. Want you come together. We stand and same

I.