Sincerely!

Yes. By our God we pray that you’ll give him strength and give him health. Amen. If you wrote someone a personal letter recently, you probably ended it with sincerely. We use that word commonly, and it’s a good word, but I want to share with you this morning that it’s a biblical word, and I want to show it to you this morning. So we’re going to turn first of all, to 1 Timothy, chapter one and verse five. Paul the Apostle is writing to the church, but specifically at this juncture in his letter, he’s writing specifically to Timothy, his young accomplice. He was mentoring young Timothy, and when he was leaving to go on and continue his missionary journey, he said to Timothy, I want you to stay here. And it’s recorded for us that Timothy argued and said, no, I want to be with you. He was at a very comfortable level with the Apostle Paul and he didn’t want to give that up. So he said, no, I’d like to be with you, but the Apostle Paul insisted and said, there’s some things that are going on in this church,

and I don’t think the people have caught on, so I want you to stay as my accomplice, my representative, and I want you to take care of things in this church. So he writes, Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus our hope to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons

not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations, rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. There is the word. We’re going to talk sincerely this morning. Second Timothy, a second letter was written by the Apostle Paul. Chapter one, verse five, he said, again, he’s speaking directly to Timothy,

I’m mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelled in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I’m sure it is within you too. So I want to talk to you about this word, sincere. It comes from a Latin word, sincera, sincera, and that word literally means, are you ready? Without wax. Get the wax out of your ear this morning and listen in. It doesn’t mean that. Sincere literally means without wax,

and there’s a reason for that. Sincere without wax is derived from the Latin words, from the Latin words, which mean without wax, and without wax was used as a mark of authenticity by those who used to back in those days make things from clay, like clay vessels, like, well, I don’t know if they made figurines back in those days, but whatever was needed in the home, but especially pots that could hold wine, that could hold oil, that could hold water. Now the trick was that those artisans who made these things wanted to get away with any Mars, any blurry marks, any inconsistencies. And if there was a crack in the pot, crackpot. If there was a crack in the pot, they would probably use beeswax or some other form of wax and they’d fill in the gap, fill in the crack. But those artisans who would toss away the pieces that weren’t perfect, instead of covering up their mistake or the trouble with the pot, instead of clearing it up with wax, they’d toss that aside. And many of those shopkeepers in those days had a sign hanging outside their shop. Sincere, sincere without wax.

And they were literally testing you, the shopper, if you don’t believe me, give it the sunlight test. And the sunlight test was that you would take that vessel and hold it up to the sun. And if there was a crack in your pot, the light would shine through. And if the wax had been put in that crack, the light would still shine through. So without wax means it is sincere without wax. It means it’s of good quality. And so here we have the apostle Paul telling Timothy to warn the people of the church, don’t apply wax, don’t apply something that does not belong in the church. In the church of Ephesus, there were two dominant peoples there. First of all, Ephesus is in Turkey. I visited Ephesus some years ago. It’s in the midst of Turkey. 

And in that community at the time was quite a busy hub indeed. And there were Gentiles who came from a Greek background and then there were the Jewish people. So when people came into the church and happily, willingly responded to the call of the gospel and said, yes, I surrender my heart to Jesus, they tended to bring stuff along with them. The Greeks came from an idolatrous way of life and they tried to bring some of their idolatrous concepts and try to mix it in. And then the Jewish people, they got in, remember Paul, I read it to you a few minutes ago, he said, tell the church to stop messing around with the genealogies. 

He said, that’s a waste of time. You see, the Jewish people had this concept that chosen people, the chosen people, the chosen people belonged to 12 distinct tribes. And so there was a sense of pride over each tribe because Moses and Deuteronomy 34 pronounced a blessing over each one of these tribes. And everybody in those tribes would try to remind his brothers, his sisters, his cousins, well, I’m of the tribe of Reuben and don’t forget the gods promise over us. So when these Jewish people came in and became part of the Christian church and Ephesus in Bible studies or home groups or whatever, the Jewish people were reminding everybody, well, 

I’m of the tribe of Judah and you remember what the Lord said. 

And so they were actually trying to inculcate their theological biasness. They were, and Paul called them the Judaizers. You’re trying to take the gospel, you’re trying to take the new church, the new covenant, this new vessel, the vessel that God has created, the church itself. So you’re trying to add some wax to it. You’re trying to add some things to it as though it’s not quite sufficient. There’s some blemishes, there’s some needs here and so we’re gonna make up the difference. So the Judaizers were saying, you know, if we were to abide by the laws, if we would spend more time on the 10 commandments, if we would show higher regard to the rules of Moses, we’d get along just fine. And so they were actually trying to introduce a pharisaical concept. If you found a 10 cent coin on the street, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, that’s an increase.

So run down to the candy store, break it up into 10 pennies and run to the church and deposit your one tenth. They were that outlandish, they were that crazy. And one of those things falling all over the place here. So the Apostle Paul is saying to Timothy, tell the church, don’t mess up with what God has done. The church is perfect the way God had made it and we don’t want other stuff being added to it because it’s just not needed. And so there was the Sun Test and there was the Candling concept to find out if the pot was of worthy value. 

Think about this, if you bought a pot and you’d spent some significant money on it and you were depending on it to take some water on a journey or to take some wine or to take some oil and it began to leak, what has it got you into? And so the concept was you’re gonna weaken the church and you’re gonna fracture it and it’s gonna become of done effect if you don’t make up the difference. Get back to what the Lord called his church to be. When you think about Eve in the garden, the Lord God, it was the first marriage. And so the Lord God created the woman from the man and I’ve taught you this before, that when God made Adam, he had Eve on his mind because what Eve was composed of came 100% from him. I’ve mentioned to you before that before I clearly understood the creation as we understand in the book of Genesis, I really believe that God had formed the man from the dust of the earth. And then I believed that the Lord had taken a rib out of his side and then the Lord added some dust to the rib but that’s not how it went.

The Lord God formed the woman in her totality from the one rib, he added nothing to it, nothing. So that is what came to Adam now when he woke up with a scar on his side because it was a brutal thing the Lord did, the Lord tore open his side and broke out a rib and then it says, the Lord closed up the wound. And so what Adam saw, he said, she’s bone of my bone, a flesh of my flesh. She was perfect for him because Adam had just spent a few days reviewing all the animals of God’s creation because the Lord said, we’ve gotta find you a mate, we’ve gotta find you a wife. And no matter what animal passed before him, he found inadequate. No, I don’t know that can’t, no, I’m not going to mate with an elephant. No, I’m not going to mate with a crocodile, look at those teeth. 

And so Adam, at the end of the day, the Lord said, how did it go? He said, no, I couldn’t find anything from all of creation that I would consider a worthy mate. And then the Lord says, I’m going to put you into a deep sleep and then the Lord breaks off a rib. So when the man awoke, remember, he’s looked at all of these animals and the Lord said, choose a wife. And the moment that Adam saw her, there was a revelation occurred to him.

He was asleep, remember, he missed out on the whole operation. But when he looked upon her, there was a revelation came to his heart, which was born in him by the Holy Spirit. Everything that she is came from you. So of course she was a perfect match for him for everything that she was out from him. So what God took from him, God brought back to him. I have this picture with the Lord, the Father, walking Eve through the Garden of Eden to present the bride to Adam. I have this silly concept that as we’re walking by a beautiful still crystal clear water pool, she suddenly notices something she’d never seen before. Remember, she just woke up herself. 

And so she saw something in the water and she paused for a moment. I believe that she knelt down and she looked upon her own face and her own person in the water. She saw a little lily floating by and I just believe this, Bonnie. She picked up the lily, a typical woman. She took the lily and she, I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to say stuff like that. That’s not politically correct. She wasn’t anything typical. She was just typical of Adam. Okay, so she found a flower and she put it in her hair. I just believe that, okay?

That’s the new gospel according to Dave. And I believe that she looked at the flower and said, what do you think? And you went, you’re perfect just the way I made you. The way I made you is perfect. Well, she was a picture of the church of Jesus Christ. In the gospels in the New Testament, Jesus is the groom and we are the bride. And so he won us by his suffering on the cross and what came out of him has gone now be brought presented to him. Because the word of God says that when he was on the cross, you and I were in him, our sin, our problem, our whole person. We were in him. We were destined to die for our sin, but because we were absorbed by him in that hour where it says, the Lord laid upon the sinfulness and the iniquity of us all, so that when he went to the cross, we were in him. I mentioned this before, my father, when you joined the Navy in 1945. I’m not gonna get crude here. I’m just gonna tell you that when my dad was in the Navy in 1944, 45, I was in him.

And if he had died there, there’d be nothing of me today. I was in him and I’m a byproduct of his person to this very day. And apparently some of my antics are some of the things that I do. Much to my father, Chagrin, I’m sure if he knew, I owe it to him, although I don’t roll my arse like he does. My dad, remember the Bugs Bunny and then Elmer Fudd and Elmer Fudd would say, where is that rabbit? And that’s how my dad used to talk. And all of his uncles, they all talked that way. My uncle read when we would go to the farm, just outside Brantford, we’d walk in and my uncle, Ernest, would get all excited. Whoa, hello there, Wedge, how are you doing in hell? And we’ve got a niece that lives in Ottawa. She’s now a mother, I think she’s now a grandmother. And I used to toy with her when she was just a little thing. And I’d say, Jody, come on over here and see Uncle Dave. Would you say something for me, the poor kid knew exactly what was coming. I said, who’s your favorite cowboy? And she’d say, boy, what, just? Where did she get that?

Well, our whole family was in him. Our whole family was in him. When Jesus was on the cross, we were in him. When God was forming Adam there in the garden of Eden, we were in him. And it was by the blood. It was by the brokenness of his body that we came forth. And then when she walked up to Adam and he looked upon her, he said, she’s perfect. 

She’s bone of my bone, she’s flesh of my flesh. So now the church of Jesus Christ was born out of the cross and God made her perfect.

And when we stooped down and we looked in the water and we had a flower to our hair, the Lord God said, you’re perfect the way I made you. And so here we have the church today, trying to dress her up to look like the world and pretend that we are the world. We’ve got to be like the world in order to entice the world. And that’s the exact contrary to everything in the word of God. It’s the word of God, who convinces man of the need of calories. It’s the word of God that touches us and moves us and causes us to believe that, yes, Jesus loves me. We’re called to be sincere.

We’re called to be pure and perfect. We’re not called to dress up the church to be more appealing to the world. I’ve always been known as an in-your-face preacher. And I’m not backing off today. Much of the churches today are crackpot. There’s some weird stuff going out there. I won’t mention a name today, but I had a famous preacher, an American fellow, who had him in my pulpit. That was in Crossroads Cathedral, Toronto. Somebody in this meeting here today was in that service.

And that preacher, although he carried a Bible up to the pulpit, scarcely said anything that was ever to be found in the book. That man preached in my pulpit. I own this place. You own everything else. You can decide the color, but the pulpit is mine. This is my pulpit. He was in my pulpit and he tried to teach our church that Adam had gills. Yes, somebody said, what? Well, why did he have gills? The preacher said he was to have dominion over the sea,

over the sky. He was to have dominion. This preacher was crazy for this word dominion. We’re to have dominion. We’re to have authority. Right. And he said, how can the whale have any respect for Adam if Adam can’t even go to the depths of the Atlantic? He had to have gills. He went on further and said, oh, yes, Adam had wings because he had to have total control over the eagles that would fly in the sky.

I sat there, Paul totally bewildered. I thought, why isn’t this guy just opening up the book? This is proof positive. This is God’s pure sincere word. This book is without wax. It’s sincere. It’s perfect the way it came. It’s sincere. If you were a member of that church, you would remember the following Sunday I got up to the pulpit. And I said, I have an apology to make. I’ll just put it this way.

Everything you heard last Sunday, cancel it and forget it. I said, it was horse feathers. I said, there wasn’t a word of truth in it. Dressing up the church and trying to make her pretty. The church does have fractures. We do have problems, but we don’t fill it with wax because wax is a pretend thing. April and I visited a church one time and they did some pretty things. They did some things that I thought were pretty outlandish. I guess to appeal to the people, I don’t know. And it was so troubling to us, I’d never done this before.

April turned to me and she said, can we please get out of here? And so I took her out and we got out to the parking lot and there was a very nice gentleman. I mean, he was the nicest guy and he was anxious to shake our hands and wanted us to wish a happy day. How did you enjoy the service? I said, we really tried to enjoy the service. But I said, we have to go, oh, what was your problem? And I mentioned to him a couple of things that were happening in that building, in that church service

that would be wilderness to me because there’s no biblical basis for it whatsoever. And that man said, well, I know it seems a little strange to somebody like yourself, but it was explained to us this way. It’s done for a dramatic effect. And I said, I realize that, silly me, of course, dramatic effect. I said, Jesus was into that and he said, there you go. I said, yeah, I said he stopped a funeral procession and you raised a man from the dead. That was for a dramatic effect.

He fed 5,000 people who were desperate for food and for a drink. I said, he fed them, not because they’re hungry, but it had a wonderful dramatic effect. I said, you know, sir, I didn’t go into any detail. I just said, I’m very acquainted with drama, very acquainted with drama. And I said, let me tell you what the word drama implicates. A drama is not real. A drama is a portrayal of something that may or may not have happened in the past or sometimes it’s a futuristic drama.

A drama is something that may or may not happen in the future. I said, it’s just pretend. And he stood there looking at me. I said, drama is not reality, sir. Jesus did not do things for dramatic effect and Jesus does not need dramatic effect. Now that doesn’t mean I’m against heaven’s gates, hell’s flame, that wonderful drama. It is a picture of things that have happened before, a picture of things going ahead, but that’s not the church. That’s a ministry that has touched people around the world and that April and I were very much engaged with at one point. Without wax, sincere. When that artisan put that message out on the wall of his shop, I dare say that some of them probably had a little logo, maybe a little stamp that they would put into the wet clay so that when it was fired in their oven, that little mark was there and it was a symbolic that this is without wax. I don’t know how they would have put it. Maybe just the team, maybe just the Latin words, sincera without wax, I don’t know.

But we need to practice that in our lives too, don’t we? So now we’re talking about authenticity. We’re talking about that gap that can come in the pot. We’re talking about filling in the gap and how’s the gap to be filled in? Well, it has to do with the work of the potter in the first place. A good potter knows how to spin a pot on the wheel. He knows how to do it in such a way as it won’t naturally form a crack. And when he notices something happening as the clay is in his hands and it’s not forming correctly,

even the word of God has a picture for us that that guy will smack that clay down. Cabang, and he’ll start all over again. This is not time to fill in the troubles with the wax, but it’s time to get back on God’s spinning wheel and let him smack you around and rework the clay. Filling in the gap. At times there’s sort of a gap in our lives. There are principles right here that tell us how to where to walk with the Lord, how to serve him, the conversation, our activity, everything about us.

There’s a perfect lineup, a perfect pattern for us. And then there’s actually how we actually live. And there’s something that happens there that I think we could equally call it, we could properly call it, the performance gap, the difference between what the assembly when you’re gonna put that barbecue apart, take it from the original construction engineer right here. I never did look at the plan when I was put, I’d look at it and I’d say, well, it’s pretty simple to me, a few humble bolts and screw up with it.

And I always ended up with parts that did not belong. I was not good at it. April complained to me one time, she said there’s something wrong with my eye and it doesn’t work anymore. I said, well, Dave, to the rescue, I took it down to a humble little bench in the basement of our home. I took my screwdriver and I took this iron apart. I thought, how difficult can this be? I got it all apart and I came upstairs to April and I said, I took that thing apart and you know what, there’s not one thing missing. There’s no scorch marks, there’s been no electric misdemeanor. I said, I can’t find anything wrong with that. I said, I’m just gonna put it back together again. And I said, I don’t understand it. So, but I came up about an hour later and I said, I’m gonna go down, we had towers stores then, that was the original one. I gotta go down and buy you a new iron. I got this funny look, of course. Well, where’s my iron?

You know, I took that thing apart and I thought it had it figured together, but I can’t get it back together. It’s such a simple toy. I forget how much a new iron cost me, but I’m still wearing that to this day. There was a performance gap there between what I said I was going to do and what I actually did. And there’s a performance gap in every one of our lives by times. We know the truth, we know how we should respond, we know what our prayer life should look like, we know what our word life should look like, we know what the outflowing of our faith should look like, but there’s a performance gap. You’re a bunch of cracked pots. But there’s a wonderful opportunity to get restored, it’s called revival. Revival. Authenticity, it means being genuine. Christianity is real, it’s not a pretend thing. Christianity is not a drama. It’s not where you get the score or what the drama looks like and oh, there’s your name right there in Acts chapter three and here are your lines. 

Memorize your lines and say them right now, it’s not like that. You don’t learn your lines and live it. No, the word of God gets into your heart and then that which came in through your lifestyle flows out, flows in by the power of the Holy Spirit and by when you let this word speak to you so that true, authentic Christianity is the outflow of the inflow and it’s important that you continue

the inflow so that there’s always an outflow and you know what, I notice the gas prices, they’re up, then they’re down, then they’re up, they’re down. I’m gonna tell you what, it’s always on sale. The price is always right. It’s always reliable. God doesn’t water down the word, like sometimes the stuff that we buy and we think it’s genuine and it’s actually watered down. I discovered that when it says pure orange juice from concentrate, I found out what that really means.

The only thing true about it is it’s not authentic. You’re drinking sugar honey or honey sugar. I don’t know what you’re drinking. Authentic Christianity, an authentic Christian life is trustworthy. We represent the facts accurately. Authenticity means being connected with Christ at your very core, not just what you say but what you think before you say. Authentic Christianity is the outflow of the inflow. It’s the outflow of the word of God that you’ve digested. 

There’s a beautiful little truth. It’s a short little verse that says, and the truth will set you free. What truth? The truth that’s been real to your heart. Think about this. When you’re reading the word of God, you need to do it without applying wax. What do I mean? It’s important to pause. People brag about how many times they’ve read the whole Bible through. They read 25 verses every day and at the end of the year they’ve done it and so they’re identical. I did it, I did it, I did it. It’s kind of like the recipe. Add a little bit of salt, a little bit of sugar, a little bit of flour, mix it up. Oh, it makes it a little bit more. There, we’ll get a perfect loaf of bread. Ain’t like that. It’s about divine truth that becomes your truth. That suddenly you read something and now you know it. Where do you know it in your knower?

Not in your two by four that has a lot of splinters. No, in your heart where you know the truth. You’ve all experienced it. Maybe the very first time you experienced it was you were in a church and the preacher was reading the word or expressing the word about it and something started to turn inside a feeling. Maybe it’s, we call it a feeling. Something begins to stir that you never experienced ever, ever, ever, ever. It’s your knower coming alive.

It’s your knower and all of a sudden that thing that was proposed to you suddenly becomes your truth. It’s called a Rama word if you wanna get really technical. This is the Logos word. This is the Logos word. Everything in here is accurate. If you read it, it’s reliable. But when you read the Logos and it becomes real to your heart and it becomes authentic to your spirit, you know that you know that you know. I know and I believe in divine healing. Not because April was healed of cancer. She was on her deathbed, Hamilton, St. Joseph’s Hospital. Down to 80 pounds inside of her was a tumor that was gigantic. She was wasting away. I beg the doctors, please, please take that thing out of there. And he said it’s too late, David. 

They didn’t have the technology like we have today. I really believe that that was her last day on the planet if Jesus hadn’t stepped in. But he did and it’s an elongated story. And I won’t trouble you when most of you have heard it anyhow. This is the same lady sitting right here. Oh, the cancer is in remission. Yeah, for about 65 years it’s in remission. Hello. And so, oh, Dave believes in divine healing because he has a wife that’s experienced it. No, I believe in divine healing because the Logos says so. And because I believe and others believe that this is what the word means because we knew it in our nor God came through. Because we apprehended, we took a hold of and we had ownership of a divine truth. 

That’s authentic Christianity and there’s no wax mixed in between. If you don’t say amen, I’m good till five o’clock this afternoon. I got one amen and a few giggles. If you’re listening in on the internet, this is actually a funeral service. I’m conducting a service for these people who are in God’s waiting room. They have an appointment to meet with him. We don’t know when it’s gonna happen. This is God’s waiting room. There’s a few giggles and one amen. Say amen, hello. Hello? Okay. That’s what it takes April. Shout at them, say amen. Authentic. Convinced to your very core and it will change the way you think.

It will change the way you speak. Living a Christ-centered life that Jesus is your all in all. You begin to experience a joy you never knew as possible. You begin to sing a song, peace, peace, wonderful peace, flowing down for the Father above. 

Sweep over my spirit with your billows of love. And I can’t remember the last line. 

Dementia, okay. When you live an authentic Christian life, you are a representative of Jesus Christ wherever you go. In the bakery shop, Cobb’s Bakery, a great place to buy bread. It looks good on you too. It lasts for quite a while. When you go shopping, when you go to the post box, wherever you go, you’re an authentic Christian, there’s no wax, there’s a pure authenticity. You are a representative of Jesus wherever you go. You go into Japan, you’re a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When, what day are you landing there? Sigg freed. It could be, he’s got a flight. He’s not sure when it is. He’s not sure flight, bunkie. In the church, you’re to be outside the church the same person you are on the inside of the church. If you’re miserable here, just be miserable out there. You don’t have to act nice for them. Act nice for us. Without wax, Jesus’ whole life was without wax.

Pilate had him standing there. He had been whipped. He’d been tormented. They spat on him. They accused him of ridiculous things. And even Pontius Pilate said, I find no wax in him. Oh, sorry. I find no fault. You couldn’t find a fault in him. I want to sing a song, and I’ve asked my Japanese piano player. We had Chinese, now we got Japanese. It’s an American piano. I’d like you to stand with me and sing an authentic song. And this song needs to proceed, not from here. It needs to proceed not from the words on the screen. It’s the cry of a songwriter. The songwriter is not saying, I’m sorry for what I made of it. The songwriter says, I yield my tongue to praise him.

Oh, that I had an extra tongue. No, he says, oh, that I had a thousand tongues. I feel so authentic. I feel so connected. And I feel so limited in how I can express myself to him. So sing this out of your heart with me, won’t you? Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer’s praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. My gracious master and my God assist me troll, proclaim to spread through all the earth abroad, the honors of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bits our sorrow sees. Oh, yes, his music in the sinners’ ears, his life and health. Sing in another verse. He breaks the power of cancelled sin. He sets the praise in our free will. His blood can make the foulness clean. His blood availed.

Do we have one more verse we do? Hear him ye death, ye praise his dew. You’re loose and tongues and blood. Ye blind behold, your Savior come and leap, ye lame for joy. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing praises unto thee. Oh, for a thousand hands to raise in honor of my King. Can you sing that with me? Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my praises unto thee.

Oh, for a thousand hands to raise in honor. Can we just sing it one more time? Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my praises unto thee. Oh, for a thousand hands to raise in honor to my King. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, I’m not going to get caught up in the political waves. If you want to make America great again, have at it.

When my prayer is, make your church great. Show us the wax. The wax that’s in David’s life. This guy who spouts off on Sundays and amazes us with little word things. He has waxed in his life. Jesus revealed the wax and how shall it be revealed? The sun test. Search my heart, O God, and see if there be any wicked way in me. Cleanse me, O Lord. Cleanse me from every failure.

I am thine, O Lord. I have heard thy voice. It’s said unto me, come, David, you’re tired of it. Seize from your labors and let the inflow impact the outflow. Jesus helped all of us to be authentic in every way. And Lord, I would pray with all my sincere, sincere without wax. Hope that nobody will now leave this building feeling guilty. This message is to be an encouraging word. The wax is not going to send us into a Christless eternity. It’s just going to hobble us and make us inefficient for you. Lord, God, let none be feeling guilty. For there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not according to the wax, but according to the spirit of life.

Bless every one of us.

We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.