Whitewashed Religion

By Mac 19 June 2001

"Stop the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Stop the labboard! Come ahead on the stabboard! Stop her! Let your outside turn over slow! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow-ow-ow! Get out that head-line! Lively now! Come -- out with your spring-line -- what're you about there! Take a turn round that stump with the bight of it! Stand by that stage, now -- let her go! Done with the engines, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling! Sh't! S'h't! Sh't!" (trying the gauge-cocks).
Tom went on whitewashing -- paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben stared a moment and then said: "Hi-yi! You're up a stump, ain't you!"
No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:
"Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?"
Tom wheeled suddenly and said:
"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."
"Say -- I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"
Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:
"What do you call work?"
"Why, ain't that work?"
Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:
"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
The brush continued to move.
"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect -- added a touch here and there -- criticised the effect again -- Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:
"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."

The above conversation between Tom Sawyer and Ben Rogers was originally penned in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, chapter 2, by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (or better known as Mark Twain), and was published by the American Publishing Co. in 1876.

Although this story does not reflect directly upon the points of this study, I thought it interesting enough to include it. What we have here, of course, is the cleverness of young Tom Sawyer as he convinces one of his best friends, Ben Rogers, to help him whitewash a fence. What I want to zero in on here, is not the trickery involved, but what was being done to the fence. They were whitewashing it.

You know what whitewash is? In this story, the substance that the boys were applying to the fence, was a mixture of lime and water. Sometimes other substances are added to make it thicker, stronger, or stick better, but basically it is lime and water. It is also cheap. It is easy to apply, it goes on smoothly, and cleanup was simple….just add more water until the brushes and buckets were clean. As a verb, whitewash means to ‘cover’ something. Usually, when you whitewash a fence or a wall, you are covering imperfections on that fence or wall. You whitewash something to make it look better. To clean it up. Whitewashing does NOT make the structure that you apply it to any stronger. It may make it last a little longer, but because of the nature of whitewash, it quickly comes off. Also, when you whitewash something, you can sometimes still see the imperfections, because whitewash is normally very thin, and a lot of the cracks and dirt will show through. In this study, I want to talk about ‘Whitewashed Religion’.

Turn your bibles to Ezekiel, chapter 13. Start in verse 9, and read through verse 16:

“⁹My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.

¹⁰`Because they lead my people astray, saying, "Peace," when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash,

¹¹ therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. 12 When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, "Where is the whitewash you covered it with?"

¹³ "`Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury.

¹⁴ I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD.

¹⁵ So I will spend my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, "The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it,

¹⁶ those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign LORD."'

The term ‘whitewash’ is translated from the Hebrew word, Taphel, which comes from a root word meaning ‘to smear’. This same word is also defined as ‘foolish’ or ‘bland’.

If you look at the American Standard, King James, and the Revised Webster’s Versions of the Bible, the noun ‘Taphel’ is translated as “untempered morter, or mortar”. And the verb use of the word in verse 15 is translated as “daubed it with untempered morter”. The word mortar as used here is also a mixture of lime and water, but could also be referred to as a form of concrete. The adjective, untempered, means NOT STRENTHENED (when you temper something you add materials or use a process to increase its durability or strength). In these verses, Ezekiel is explaining that the mortar material being used on the wall is NOT strong, it is Untempered.

Just like in these scriptures from Ezekiel, we all have a WALL. This wall is our own personal attempt at righteousness. Many times, that wall is not as sturdy as it should be. It is oft times, very flimsy, just like the wall Ezekiel refers to in verse 10. But in a feeble attempt to make this flimsy wall stronger, we pour gallons of whitewash on it. And, like Tom Sawyer, may even look back at it and admire the great work of whitewashing we have done.

Take, for example, the way we present ourselves at Sunday services. We get all dressed up, well, at least some of us, and put on our Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. Also, many of us put on our Sunday-go-to-meeting facades. You all hear Ben talking about how we quarrel in the morning, or the angry argument on the way to service, but once we get there, we are all smiles, as if everything was okay with the world. At that point, we have just whitewashed our sins. We have coated our lives so that others cannot see the dirt, the cracks, the imperfections. But ya know?, whitewash comes off pretty easily. And, it is relatively thin and people can usually see right through it. And, as many coats of whitewash you put on, GOD can see right though every layer. It looks good for a little while, but it doesn’t last very long.

Look what Jesus says about whitewash in Matthew 23:27. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.” The Greek word that is translated as ‘whitewashed’ is Koniao, and is defined as ‘to cover over with lime”, and is derived from the base word konia, which means dust.. This time, in the American Standard and King James Versions ‘Koniao’ appears as ‘whited’, but as ‘whitewash’ in the Revised Webster’s. Our sins may look ‘beautiful on the outside’ when we attempt to hide them, but “on the inside”, they are “unclean”.

Turn to the book of Joshua, chapter 7. (READ ALL OF IT). Here we find Achan who committed a sin…stealing. He was able to conceal it from everyone in his family. He even buried it in his own tent. But the whitewash job that he did, even though was good enough to fool his family members, God saw right through it. No matter how much we attempt to cover our sins from one another, God knows about it.

Turn to Luke 8:17: “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” Jesus himself is telling us that all sin will eventually be discovered, if not by man, but at least by God.

Go to Exodus 2, verse 11: “¹¹ One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people

¹² Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

¹³ The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"

¹⁴ The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."

Even Moses attempted to conceal his sin. We are not told how the two Hebrews found out about Moses killing the Egyptian, but they did. In verse 12, Moses made sure that the coast was clear, but somehow God got the word to other men. What he did, “became known”.

When we lie, cheat, steal, lust, and commit other sins today, our sins also ‘become known’. We may be able to hide it for a little while, but that whitewash we put on it, eventually washes away.

Let’s talk about a few individual sins and how we whitewash them.

Over-indulgence in eating, that Ben talked about, is a sin that is visible no matter how much whitewash you put on it. I suppose, if you increase your exercise to match your big appetite, then you can whitewash it….! But what happens if you can NOT exercise, or you start getting on in years and you have an over-indulgence of food HABIT? That white coating you put on your over-eating, starts to wash away, and you gain weight!

Proverbs 21:20 says: In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.”

Lust! Maybe your spouse doesn’t see your eyes wandering, but others do. And when lust leads to worse things, any whitewashing you had done with the lust, will certainly disappear. You can’t hide an unwanted, out of wedlock, pregnancy. You can’t hide the hurt on your spouse’s face once your sin has become known.

Proverbs 6:25-26 “Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute (substitute ‘person other than your spouse here ) reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.” This applies to women as much as it does to men.

Anger! Can you conceal your anger? Can you whitewash it? You may be able to suppress it for a while, but eventually, something will snap. The only way to rid yourself of anger is get rid of it, don’t cover it up. Turn to Ephesians 4:26.

“In your anger do not sin" : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,” This is one practice that we should ALL do. Confess your anger to whomever you are angry with.

How about GREED? Can you cover up your greed? I doubt it. Greed in itself, is visible. The more worldly items you have, the greedier you are. And, if you don’t have enough money to cover your greed, the whitewash will slowly disappear as the credit card balances start increasing. That strong fence you were planning on building for a retirement nest-egg, was like the fence Ezekiel talked about. Weak, flimsy. And any application of an untempered mortar that you apply to that weak fence, is not going to help. You need to attack greed at its roots and stop spending!!!!!! Not only will you lose your worldly nest egg, but you will also lose your final ‘nesting’ place with God. Paul tells us this in Ephesians 5: 5—“ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person--such a man is an idolater--has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

In 1^st Thessalonians 2:5, Paul is telling the church at Thessalonica that he, Silas and Timothy did not try to cover up any greed, and even dropped the “Big Man’s” name when he told them. “You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed--God is our witness.” Paul is explaining through personal example that concealing greed, or any other sin, is useless. If you disciple anyone, and we ALL do, even though there is a chain-of-command in the church, EVERYONE has a discipling PARTNER. It is a two-way street when you get together. BOTH should confess sins, not just one of you. We should each be a personal example for each other.

How about laziness? Having no Zeal for God. Are these sins easily concealed? Can you “daub lots of untempered mortar” on laziness? You can try, but no matter how much you try to cover it up, the results are visible to the naked eye. If you don’t share your love for God with others and invite them to attend church, you have no visitors. Kind of hard to cover THAT up. Especially seeing as how the church records our ‘lack of performance’ every Sunday. Jesus repeatedly taught about bearing fruit. You can find references to this in the following scriptures: I will not talk about each of them, but you should be like a Berean and researched them to see if what I say is true.

Matthew 3:8-12

Matthew 7:16-20

Matthew 12:33

Matthew 13:22-23

Matthew 21:33-44

Luke 3:8-9

Luke 6:43-44

Luke 13:6-9

John 15:1-7

John 15:16

Romans 7:4

Colossians 1:6-10

Jude 1:12 (plus others)

You just can’t hide your laziness for God. Maybe God hasn’t yet ‘blessed’ you with personal fruit. Or if he has, maybe just not lately. There are many reasons God has for that, but one thing that will definitely hinder ANY production of fruit, that is laziness. This one, you can NOT whitewash.

Ezekiel referred to a flimsy wall, and how, if you try to improve it with whitewash, it will be to no avail, because God will tear it down.

When you apply whitewash to a surface, as I mentioned before, sometimes it doesn’t fully cover all of the blemishes and cracks. Dirt still shows through. Being the “last to know” is so true about ‘concealed’ sin. You may THINK you are fooling people, but you aren’t. Others can tell it in your voice. Your mannerisms. Your actions. For example, when is the last time you called your discipling partner for the sole purpose of confessing sins? James 5:16 says that you can be healed if confess to each other. He also said that you are to confess your sins to God as well. Flip to Proverbs 28:13 and read what happens you DON’T confess your sins:

Proverbs 28:13—“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

Other sure-fire signs of hidden sin is consistent lateness for church services. It probably indicates a desire not to want to fellowship in case someone might learn about some of your sins. Of course, that applies just as well as bugging out immediately AFTER services. We are put together in this church as one body. We should be talking openly about our sins. And, while we are in Proverbs, go to 26:24. Read 24 through 26:

²⁴ “A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. ²⁵Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart.

²⁶His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.”

This is what we are like when we conceal our sins. We’re malicious. We can definitely use deception when we are with other brothers and sisters. But WHY do we do it? Are we just trying to get the fence painted quickly and are not concerned about the circumstances? Tom Sawyer was clever in the way he got people to help him whitewash that fence. Why can’t we be just as clever and clean the whitewash off our sins and get people to help us beat fight them?

I am going to close out in Hebrews 4. Read verses 1 through 16.

To God be the Glory. Amen.