Sermons
Christians Without Wax
Series: The Way Of The CrossCHRISTIANS WITHOUT WAX
Sermon By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / September 02, 2018
Over the last two Sunday's we have laid the groundwork for a new series of Sunday morning sermons that will
take us through the months of September and October. I've entitled this series, “The Way Of The Cross”.
We closed our introduction to this series by speaking briefly about the implications of The Way Of The Cross.
Traveling the way of the cross requires many Christ-like qualities - - thing like:
sacrifice … submission … surrender … self-denial … suffering … servitude … single-mindedness and sincerity.
This morning we want to begin with the last “s” word in our list of eight - - SINCERITY.
Our thanks to Rob Espinosa for suggesting that this ingredient is very important to the way of the cross.
It seems to me this virtue is an absolute imperative for all who claim to be disciples of Jesus.
Sincerity is essential to our Christian walk. Sincerity exudes a sweet aroma (the fragrance of Christ) and
almost always has a magnetism about it that draws others in and causes them to want to be a part of things.
On the other hand, when insincerity is evident it becomes a turn off, and rightly so.
Perhaps the best place to begin our study is to introduce us to a family of words that speak to this topic.
A short list of synonyms for sincerity would very likely include the following words:
pure … authentic … real … genuine … true …
These qualities are all extolled in Scripture.
Heb.10:22 / let us draw near (the throne of God) with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...
1Cor.5:8 / let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven , nor with the
leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Js.1:27 / this is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our Father, to visit the
orphans and widows in their distresses, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
In Eph.6:14, Paul begins his illustration of the full armor of God by
exhorting us to, Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth...
Blessed are the pure in heart (Mt.5:8) … The wisdom from above is first pure (Js.3:7) …
Love one another with a pure heart (1Pet.1:22) … godly sincerity (2Cor.1:2) … the sincerity of your love (2Cor.8:8) ...
Grace be to all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible (Eph.6:24) …
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure...let your mind dwell on these (Philp.4:8).
The word sincere speaks of genuineness.
The Greek word means, “judged in sunlight”. The Latin word means, “without wax”.
In days when art flourished in ancient Greece, it was the common practice to repair with invisible wax
any vase of statue that had been damaged - - due to carelessness, poor craftsmanship or inferior quality.
A rich man or a person of high rank might employ a sculptor to chisel his bust in marble.
Sometimes, if the chisel slipped, the end of the nose would be chipped off.
Rather than go to all the trouble of making a new bust, the sculptor would so mend the
features with a clear wax and palm off on his defective work on an unsuspecting customer.
The flaw could only be detected by close scrutiny - - most often by holding it up to the light.
Clay pots were often inferior because the composite material had not properly sifted.
Holes or cracks were that surfaced during production would subsequently be filled with wax.
Over time and with extensive usage the wax would melt away and the pots or vases would become worthless.
In 2Cor.4:7 Paul speaks earthen vessels. Jesus had charged His disciples with preaching the gospel.
Paul refers to God's employment of mankind in the proclamation of this precious message.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not ourselves.
“Earthen vessels” is sometimes translated “jars of clay” and jars of clay frequently became cracked pots.
In speaking of the need to be sincere, we are not denying our sinlessness, but we are affirming our need to be real.
Striving to be sincere is not some claim to perfection, but it is a determined effort to be authentic.
Nothing hurts the cause of Christ more than fraudulent religion.
We are all flawed, but we must not be fakes.
It is a terrible tragedy (travesty) when our imitation of Christ displays itself as nothing but a cheap imitation.
Let's think for a moment here about antonyms for the word sincerity. i.e., words that mean the opposite.
This list is long: Fraud … Fake … Charlatan … Con … Counterfeit … Duplicitous …
Deceitful … Double-dealer … Phoney ... Two-faced … Swindler ...Hypocritical … etc.
Nothing harms the church of Christ more than counterfeit Christians.
The phrase “Counterfeit Christian” is a truly a contradiction in terms.
One cannot be truly Christian and be counterfeit.
We must be real. We must be genuine. We must be authentic. We must be true.
We must be pure - - unadulterated, unfeigned, unstained - - no artifice about us.
We must be sincere and without wax. And we must be both holy and wholly His.
Integrity used to be a word that was central in describing a person's good character.
It connotes the concept of being fully trustworthy and thoroughly united in upstanding behavior.
In this instance, we are so committed to serving God that every aspect of our lives is
interwoven into the fabric of our being a faithful and diligent follower of Jesus Christ.
What we are on Sundays is what we are every day of the week.
How we act in worship is how we behavior at home, at work, at play.
As we noted earlier, in Paul's image of the armor wore by a good solider of Christ (Eph.6:13ff),
truth is critical to everything else. Being “gird with truth” is essential to our overall armor.
So much of our armor hangs on it this strong and broad belt of truth. Think of a policeman's belt - -
holster & gun … notepad & pen … baton … pepper spray … handcuffs … phone/camera … badge … etc.
When we are prone to misspeak and/or misbehave, we can test ourselves by asking,
“Would I say or do this if all of my church family was watching me?”
An even better test is to ask, “Would I say or do this if God was watching me?”
Surely we know Heb.4:13 - - There is no creature hidden from His sight,
but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Dr. Madison Sarratt taught mathematics at Vanderbilt University for many years. Before giving a test, the professor would admonish his class something saying: “Today I am giving you two examinations - - one in trigonometry and the other in honesty. I hope you will pass them both. If you must fail one, fail trigonometry. There are many good people in the
world who can't pass trig, but there are no good people in the world who cannot pass the examination of honesty.”
Corrie Ten Boom, the Dutch survivor of the Nazi gas chambers, once recounted this story.
A group of believers were meeting in an Iron-Curtain country when the church
door burst open and two Russian soldiers with sub-machine guns strode in.
They said they would give five minutes for anyone who wished to renounce Christ to leave,
and those who stayed would be shot immediately.
As each person searched his heart for the courage to face death, a few got up and left.
The officers then walked to the door of the church, locked it,
and turned to the congregation with words: “Brothers and sisters in Christ,
we are believers, too, but we did not want to worship where everyone was not
completely committed to Christ and willing to die for him.
May we become a part of your fellowship?”
We are not just a gathering of people, we are more than a social club - -
we are the glorious church OF CHRIST.
We have embarked upon a journey through life that requires that we walk with Jesus.
That walk demands that we travel the way of the cross.
The first steps of our discipleship must begin with sincerity.
That sincerity must also be present with our final steps and all steps in between.
There is more to the way of the cross than just sincerity,
but to travel the way of the cross without sincerity is empty and meaningless.
It fact, to to sojourn without sincerity will do more harm than good.
But if we are real and genuine in our quest to walk with Jesus, this matter of possessing sincerity
of heart will prove indispensable in two critical arenas: it will give us the peace that
passes understanding and it will help us in winning other precious souls to the cause of Christ.
“Few things in life are more infectious than a godly lifestyle.”
