Psalm 95:6-7 ESV
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel
before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the
people of his pasture,
and the sheep
of his hand.”
We are to have no other gods before God – Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. He is to be our only sovereign, our only Lord (master), the only
one to whom we give our hearts, minds, and souls, and the only one deserving of
our worship and our praise.
No politician is worthy of our worship, and yet the way many
Christians talk about their candidate for president you would think that person
is a god to them – that he is their savior. They venerate their candidate way
too high for any human being to ever deserve.
We are not to put our trust in princes or in the wisdom of
man. We are not to be followers of man, but of God. We are not to be slaves of
men. We are not to seek to be men pleasers, either. And, we are not to be taken
captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of
men.
Oh, if Christians were only as passionate about Jesus Christ
and his gospel of salvation as they are about pushing their political candidate
for president. Oh, if they were only as passionate about defending the truth of
the gospel as they are about defending their candidate and political platform.
If we are truly concerned about our nation and the people in
our nation, then we need to be sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, not pushing
some man or woman as the hope of our nation to save us from what ails us. What
if that man or woman turns out to be the (or of the) antichrist?
So, let’s give our worship only to God. Let’s look to him
only as our Savior, to heal us, to deliver us from evil, and to give us hope
and change. Let’s not put our trust in man to save us, for that is a vain hope.
God is to be our only God – the only one we look to as our hope.
Psalm 95:7-9 ESV
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden
your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day
at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to
the proof, though they had seen my work.”
The people of Israel in Old Testament times had been in
slavery in Egypt. So, God sent Moses as his servant to bring his people out of slavery
in Egypt, which he accomplished in the power, strength, and wisdom of God.
A couple of months had now passed, and the people were
grumbling against Moses and Aaron. They were lamenting their deliverance from
slavery, and they wanted to return, for there they had their bellies filled.
Then, God provided the people with bread (manna) from heaven.
But then the people complained about no water to drink, and
they quarreled with Moses and demanded he give them water. Then God provided
water for the people, but Moses called the place Meribah, because of the
quarreling of the people and because they tested the Lord.
So, what were the people doing? They were not trusting God
to supply their needs. They were making demands of God’s servant Moses. They
were arguing and complaining and wishing they could go back to being enslaved
again. And, that is what many Christians are doing today.
They are fighting and arguing among themselves over which
candidate is the best to “save” this nation and to give us “hope” and the “change”
that we need (or they think we need). They are looking to man to save them,
even if it means that they go back to being enslaved again.
Remember the prophesies of Scripture here regarding these
last days before the return of Christ. An antichrist (or beast) is going to
rise and he (it) is going to conquer the whole world and to bring us all into
submission (slavery) to him/it. If we are looking to man to save us, we may be
opening a door wide to bring in the rule of this beast. So, trust God only!
Psalm 95:10-11 ESV
“For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, ‘They
are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have
not known my ways.’
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not
enter my rest.’”
But this isn’t just about putting our trust in man over God
on a political level, though that is a serious issue, especially if it brings
in the rule of the beast. This is about putting our trust in a man-made gospel,
too, which sends us back into slavery to sin. And, this is also a precursor to
the one world religion, because of all the compromises the church has made regarding
the gospel of our salvation from sin.
Those who are following a cheap grace gospel are in danger
of hell, because they are believing a lie which says we can profess faith in
Jesus Christ or merely acknowledge Jesus or accept his affection for us, and
that we are saved and heaven is guaranteed us no matter how we live on this
earth.
They are the immature, the irresponsible, and the self-indulgent
who would rather return to enslavement to sin in order to have their fleshly
appetites satisfied than to follow Jesus with their lives and to suffer for the
sake of the name of Jesus and for his gospel of salvation.
They are men followers instead of God followers, who listen
to the lies because the lies tickle their itching ears and they tell them what
their flesh wants to hear. But because they have listened to the lies, they
have fallen into sin, but not just into sin, but they have fallen for a lie.
For, the gospel they are accepting is false, for it requires
no repentance, no obedience to Christ, and no submission to Christ and his
cross. For, there is no dying to sin and no living to righteousness required.
Under this gospel you can sin as much as you want and still go to heaven when
you die.
But Jesus said if we want to come after him, we must deny
self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For, if
we hold on to our old life of living for sin and self, we will lose it for
eternity. But if we lose our old life (die with Christ to sin) for the sake of
Jesus, we have eternal life (Lu 9:23-26; cf. Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph
4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9).
Oh,
to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics
by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music
by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s
treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of
compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the
fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy
love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy
fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
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