Multitudes today are blindly treading down the broad way to destruction, not in the open filth of the world, but sheltered beneath the grand steeples of their superficial, second-hand, lifeless religion. There are persistent in their presumptuous religion and fake godliness, but have no true Life-giving Grace from above. They are dead in their sins, and dead in their religious hypocrisy - Twice Dead! These external surface religionists are caught up in a delusion of dead formalism and human convictions—proudly wearing the mask of religious pretending and professing while their hearts remain unchanged by the Grace of God (*2 Timothy 3:5: "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof"*).
They are super-pious, hypocritical, and fiercely judgmental, quick to point out the motes in others' eyes while harboring a bitter heart which is at war with God (*Matthew 23:27: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness"*). Their convictions are entirely self-focused and used to keep people in bondage to them—sweating over religious rules, church attendance, tithing, dress codes, and moral posturing to soothe their dead, uneasy conscience, yet they have never once been broken into a spiritual pauper before THE CROSS OF CHRIST (*Romans 10:3: "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God"*). They love their sins in secret while trusting in their own filthy rags of self-righteousness (*Isaiah 64:6: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags"*).
The convictionite promises spiritual life, wisdom, and refreshment like storm clouds rolling across a parched desert, but he carries no actual moisture from above. He is full of ranting and raving, empty words, philosophical posturing, and religious noise, leaving thirsty souls utterly parched because he possess no real connection to Christ Himself - The Water of Life. They are trees whose fruit has withered and died—exhibiting at best a superficial, hypocritical show of morality, but producing no true spiritual fruit born of divine regeneration. This is a real example of the profound deadness of the carnal mind. While the natural man prides himself on intellectual cleverness, religious standing, or moral standing, but all the while his soul remains a spiritual wasteland. External religionists can put on a magnificent show, sitting at feasts of charity and talking about spiritual things, but their inner man is completely alienated from the life of God. They are driven this way and that by the winds of shifting human philosophies, cultural trends, and religious nonsense. THE CROSS strips away every filthy rag of self-righteousness, exposing the utter helplessness of the religious hypocrite. To escape this state of being "twice dead," a Soul must abandon all his dead works, drop his religious pretenses, and look entirely to the Lord Jesus Christ—the One who conquered the grave, swallowed up death in Victory, and alone possesses the power to quicken dead sinners into everlasting life only through simply faith in His Righteousness and Precious Blood.
You may have grown up in the church, but never have been joined to Christ by the power of God - Salvation. Temporal religion cannot save you or gain you any favor with God, and churchianity cannot wash away your sins and guilt. You must be Quickened and Regenerated by the Holy Spirit Himself. You must drop your judgmental hypocrisy, renounce your dead formalism, and abandon every super-pious pretense. Look away from your second-hand traditions/convictions and cast your helpless, guilty soul directly upon the Lord Jesus Christ Himself—trusting solely in His finished ATONEMENT (Precious Blood) to save you from your sins once and for all (*Romans 3:24–25: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood"*).
