In Psalms, chapter fifty, verses sixteen through twenty-three, the Lord delivers a stern warning to religious hypocrites among His people, threatening to tear in pieces, as in verse twenty-two, those who pretend to be devoted to Him, who claim the covenant salvation and the blessing of His Word, and who at the same time ignore His righteous commandments, and conform to the godliness of a wicked society. They will find no deliverance in the end. Such people will receive greater damnation, as in Matthew twenty-three, verse fourteen.
The theme verses, beginning with verse sixteen, describe the wicked from God’s perspective who say a righteous word with their mouth but the opposite in their heart. In Matthew fifteen, verse eight, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” God further calls out the false teachers who profess instruction in public but do not care for it when not in the spotlight. God further declares their social environment is ungodly, and so is their activity. Their conversation is especially ungodly, and their words are unrighteous.
God will serve justice to those who are counterfeit and mislead innocent people away from God. False servants and teachers will be punished severely because they experienced God’s presence, mighty power, and mighty acts and then turned away to succumb to earthly or carnal lifestyles. In Mark eight, verse thirty-six, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” For a believer to experience how real God is and manifest in their life and give up for something temporal, not eternal, is sad in itself.
Judas was one of the twelve disciples who betrayed Jesus. He experienced how real He is, the Son of God, only to turn away and set the Holy One up for thirty pieces of silver. Look what happened with Him in the end: he could not live with himself. In Matthew twenty-seven, verse five, “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”