NOT A SINGLE PERSON GETS AWAY PERMANENTLY WITH EVIL OR DECEIT
Before God absolutely nothing can be hidden. (Hebrews 4:13)
Sakkie Parsons
Someone wrote to me asking:
“Is there any Scripture that refers to people who will no longer be able to pretend who and what they really are?”
What I believe the writer actually wanted to know is this: If someone lives a life pretending to be something he or she is not, will the truth about that person always, at some point in their life here on earth, be revealed?
Then the answer is, of course:
No. Unfortunately, not everyone who lives out such a false image in their lives has their true colours exposed in this life, and there is also no passage in the Word that I can use to proclaim the opposite—that their false way of living will necessarily be revealed while they are still alive.
I recently listened again to a woman’s testimony about her 38-year marriage. Her husband died of a heart attack, and within a very short time after his death, she received one devastating shock after another as the truth came out about who and what her husband really was—the man she loved so dearly and trusted completely.
One fact, however, is as certain as the fact that you are alive while you are reading this:
No one— not a single person—ever gets away permanently with his or her evil.
I am now going to share a few examples from the precious Word of our Lord to confirm what I have just said. And as you read this, keep the following words of Jesus in mind—words that He spoke and had written down for us:
Luke 12:5
“But I will tell you whom you should fear: (this applies if you are living a life that is not right before our Almighty God)
Fear God, who has the power to kill and then to throw into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him.” (This is Jesus—God who became man—who will have the final say over where you will spend eternity.)
Now regarding those people who, on the surface, are able to deceive and manipulate others so completely through their lives, while they themselves are full of some form of evil—and who appear to get away with it:
Many of them (unfortunately not all) are already exposed in this life for who and what they truly are—but ultimately, according to our Lord’s Word, not a single one of them escapes with their evil, false lives.
I now share a few passages from the Word to confirm what I have shared with you so far:
Luke 8:17–18
17 For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all.
18 “So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.”
Ecclesiastes 12:14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.
Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
Read what Jesus said to people He encountered here on earth—people who lived exactly such hypocritical lives. People whom others looked up to with reverence. People whom Jesus knew would even crucify Him—yet people who would ultimately appear before His judgment seat, and whose lives would continue in the same way until they left this world. Of them Jesus already said in advance that a place in hell awaited them—but because of their own false, hypocritical way of living and their self-righteousness, they simply continued living as they always had.
You can read everything yourself from Matthew 23 onward, but I will quote only those portions that I believe are relevant to this writing:
Matthew 23:23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
Matthew 23:25-28
25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!
26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.
27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.
28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:32 “Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started. (In other words, go on with your lives here on earth and take your places in hell alongside your predecessors who lived in the same way.)
Matthew 23:33 Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?”
Whenever I read Matthew 23:33, I think about this:
How terrible it is when your life is of such a nature that God, who created you, compares you to a viper!
Earlier in this writing I wrote:
One fact that is as certain as the fact that you know you are alive – while reading this—
No one, not a single person, ever permanently gets away with his or her wickedness.
We read in our Lord’s precious Word:
Romans 14:11 For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the LORD, (this is Jesus Christ), ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God. ’”
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
How wonderful it is to know now that we, together with all the people on earth—including those whose lives are of such a nature that our Lord places them in the same category as vipers—will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, but that we will not stand there to be condemned, but to be evaluated.
Our Lord says of all who have accepted Him as their Savior and Redeemer:
Romans 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
John 5:28-29
Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.
How will this evaluation of you and me—who will not be condemned, but evaluated—take place before our Lord’s judgment seat?
Well, my great hero Paul gives us, so to speak, an idea of how this will work when he writes:
1 Corinthians 3:11–15
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold (which does not burn), silver (which does not burn), jewels (which do not burn), wood, (which can burn), hay (which can burn), or straw (which can burn).
13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.
14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.
15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
Then Jesus comes in Revelation and, against the background of what you have just read in
1 Corinthians 3:11–13, Jesus says to you and me:
Revelation 22:12-13
12 “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
I conclude this writing with a final word – and this one is especially about the hypocritical counterfeiters and manipulators in the church who cause such great damage to the gospel of Jesus.
Jesus once said the following about them:
Matthew 7:22-23
22 “On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’
23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”
They will always be there, and unfortunately, as lawlessness increases, they will also increase—but you do not have to be one of them.
While you also remember, as you have already read in this writing:
1 Corinthians 3:13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.
So, my friend. In this end-time in which we are living, I want to once again lay strongly on your heart, as a final word to you, what Jesus said:
Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”
Greetings,
Sakkie