Monday, December 24,
2012, 3:45 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me this morning with the song “Living Sacrifices” playing in my mind.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Psalm 50 (NIV 1984):
The Mighty One, God,
the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to the place
where it sets.
From Zion, perfect in
beauty,
God shines forth.
Our God comes and will
not be silent;
a fire devours before him,
and around him a tempest rages.
He summons the heavens
above,
and the earth, that he may judge his
people:
“Gather to me my
consecrated ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens
proclaim his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. Selah
“Hear, O my people,
and I will speak,
O Israel, and I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.
I do not rebuke you
for your sacrifices
or your burnt offerings, which are ever
before me…
Sacrifice thank
offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in
the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
But to the wicked, God
says:
“What right have you
to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips?
You hate my
instruction
and cast my words behind you.
When you see a thief,
you join with him;
you throw in your lot with adulterers.
You use your mouth for
evil
and harness your tongue to deceit.
You speak continually
against your brother
and slander your own mother’s son.
These things you have
done and I kept silent;
you thought I was altogether like you.
But I will rebuke you
and accuse you to your face.
“Consider this, you
who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces, with none to
rescue:
He who sacrifices
thank offerings honors me,
and he prepares the way
so that I may show him the salvation of
God.”
Not Silent
God’s people, who were under a covenant relationship with
him, were good about following religiously the requirements for animal sacrifice,
yet they failed to comprehend who God truly was and is, and to honor him as
such. They were evidently practicing their religion in form only. They thought
God would be pleased if they fulfilled all the sacrificial requirements of the
law, and yet they failed to honor God and to obey him in all things.
They honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far
from him. They recited God’s laws but they didn’t put them into practice in
their daily lives. They took claim to their covenant relationship with him, and
yet they failed to fulfill their covenant vows to God. They gave lip service to
God and yet they hated his instruction, and they cast his words behind them. They
used their mouths for evil and deceit, and they continually spoke against and
slandered their brothers.
For a period of time, God kept silent. Our God is very
gracious, loving, compassionate and patient with us. He is slow to anger and
abounding in love. But his patience is not without limit, and there comes a
time when he says “Enough!” – “Stop!” And, it was at this point that God
rebuked his people and he accused them to their faces concerning all the evil
that was in their hearts, and how they were religious in form and practice, but
they were not obedient, and how he did not have their hearts. Thus, God
declared judgment on his wicked people.
God’s people today
We, the people of God today, i.e. those who confess Jesus
Christ as Lord and as Savior by faith, may be right where God’s people were at
the time of this writing of Psalm 50. It may be that outwardly we appear very
religious, and we follow all the right rituals and forms of religion, but our
lives are not truly given over to Jesus Christ, and we truly have not denied
ourselves and taken up our cross daily, nor have we followed Jesus Christ in
obedience and surrender to his will for our lives. It may be that we are able
to recite scripture, and even know all the books of the Bible frontwards and
backwards, and we are able to join in debate on Biblical topics, yet we don’t
put the word of God into practice in how we live our daily lives, and, in fact,
we continue to live to please ourselves and to follow the ways of this world.
There may be many reasons why one who professes Jesus Christ
as Lord and as Savior of his or her life may be right where God’s people were
at the time Psalm 50 was written, but none of them are good reasons. It may be that,
like them, we have a skewed concept of who God is, and so we pattern our
thoughts about God after our own image, i.e. after the image of man, and so we
think that God thinks like us. He doesn’t! Or perhaps someone has taught us
that God is like a doting grandfather in the sky who is there to grant our
every wish and desire, and because he loves us so much he will not punish us
for our sins, he will not require anything of us, he is pleased with us no
matter what we do, and when we die we will get to go to heaven, so we feel
under no specific obligation to fulfill any vows because we don’t think we have
to. And, so we get this idea that if we just “do” things for God, he will be
pleased and that will be good enough.
Yet, God has not changed. He still demands our obedience,
our surrender, our respect, reverence, awe and honor of him as our holy God. The
fear of God has been so lost in today’s modern church movement. And, that is
partly why the church today is in the same or a similar condition as was God’s
people of the psalmist’s day.
The Remedy
God told his people to sacrifice thank offerings to him and
to fulfill their vows to the Most High God, to call upon him in the day of
trouble, perhaps in the day he judges them, and he would deliver them, and they
would honor him. He said that those who offered thank offerings to him honored
him, and that they would be shown the way of salvation.
So, how does this translate to today? I think that in the
church, under the modern church movement, that we have given the people in our
churches this idea of entitlement, i.e. that God owes them, instead of the
other way around. We work so hard in our churches at making our meetings
flashy, fun and entertaining in order to attract the world, and we work hard at
having lots of fun games and activities to attract people to the church, and
many of our modern church services are geared up to be fun and entertaining and
pleasing to the flesh of man, and so it becomes like going to the theatre
and/or joining a fun social club, but that is not how God works, nor is it
befitting with his character, his divine nature or with the teachings of
scripture, the words of Jesus, and the truth of the gospel of Christ.
Jesus Christ said that if anyone would come after him, he
must deny (die to) his self, take up his cross (die) daily and follow (obey)
Jesus Christ (see Luke 9:23-25). Does this sound fun and entertaining to you?
Will this message draw in large crowds of people to your local fellowships? Paul
said that the way we receive (come to know) Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of
our lives is by putting off our old self (our sinful lifestyles), which is
being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of our
minds (through the working and power of the Holy Spirit of God within us); and
to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness (see Eph. 4:17-24). Does this sound like fun? Is it entertaining? Does
it give pleasure to our flesh? No! It kills the flesh!! It eradicates it!! The
remedy for a life that is consumed with self-pleasure, instead of consumed with
the power of God in his or her life, is death to self and sin, and to be made
alive in Christ!
These are the vows we must fulfill under the new covenant
relationship between God and his people. This is what is required for true
salvation to take place. When we enter into relationship with Jesus Christ, we
are entering into a marriage covenant with him. When we get married to someone,
hopefully in Christian weddings, we promise to love and to be faithful and to
honor each other and to stay with each other through thick and thin until death
us do part. Except for the parting at death part, when we believe in Jesus
Christ, we should enter into that relationship like we enter a marriage. We
should love him like we love our new husband or bride, and we should desire him
above all else, and we should be faithful to him and not run after “other gods”
of entertainment, self-pleasure, greed, malice, gossip, slander, gluttony,
self-fulfillment or self-gratification on any level. Our hearts’ desire should
be to please our Lord in all that we do and to follow him wherever he leads us.
The kind of offerings or sacrifices that God desires of us
is not what we want to give him, or not what we are willing to sacrifice for
him while we hold on to the rest of our lives for ourselves. The kind of
sacrifice he desires, which is a thank offering, is to give ourselves to him,
fully abandoned to him, holding nothing back for ourselves, fully committed and
surrendered to his will for our lives and willing to obey him no matter the
cost. If we, the church, continue in willful rebellion and/or in complacency
toward God and his will for our lives, and we choose to continue to please
ourselves and even other people over and above pleasing and obeying our Lord,
then he will discipline us (see Rev 2-3). Right now he is knocking and he is
calling us to offer our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to
God, and for us to fulfill our marriage covenant vows to him (see Luke 9:23-25;
Eph. 4:17-24; Rom. 12:1-2); to call upon him and to honor him with our lives.
Living Sacrifices
/ An Original Work / September 14, 2012
Based off Romans 12:1-2; 6:11-14 NIV
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you,
In view of God’s
mercy,
To give yourselves to
God in love
As living offerings,
Pleasing to God, holy
in love.
This is your true worship.
Do not conform to
worldly lives.
Let God transform you
today.
Then you’ll be able to
Test and approve of
what
God’s will is – His
pleasing
And perfect will.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Offer yourselves unto
God.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Do not be conceited.
Humble yourselves
before your God.
Do not be
self-righteous.
The strength you have
to live in love
Comes from your Lord
God, so
Live your new lives in
pow’r of God.
Be changed in heart,
mind and will.
Do this because of
what
Christ did for you
when
He died on the cross
to save
The world from sin.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Humble yourselves
before God.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Count yourselves dead
to sin,
But be alive to God in
Christ.
Do not let sin reign
in
Your earthly lives so
you
Obey its evil desires.
Offer yourselves unto
your God
As those who’ve been
born again.
For sin shall no
longer be
Your lord and master.
Give of yourselves to
God
For righteousness.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Be alive to God in Christ.
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