No Other gods
Isaiah 43:10-11 ESV
“’You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord,
‘and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor shall there be any after me.
I, I am the Lord,
and besides me there is no savior.’”
God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is the one and only
true God. He is our creator God. He is the one who made us, who formed us in
the wombs of our mothers. And he alone is to be worshipped. He alone is worthy
of our praise. We are to have no other gods. And a god can be anything we give
our passion, loyalty, devotion, time, and affection to above all else.
So, a god can be self, pride, sinful addiction, possessions,
talents, money, food, other people, preachers, politicians, famous people,
entertainment, religion, careers, human traditions, theologies and theologians,
church denominations, institutional churches, and a desire to be accepted, etc.
And claiming God as our only true God is much more than just
words that we say. For, he is not our God based upon lip service only. He is
our God if our lives are surrendered to him, if we have forsaken our lives of
living for sin and for self, and if we are following him in obedience to his
will and to his ways. For, to love God is to obey his commands (Rom 6:1-23; 1
Jn 2:3-6).
You Wearied God with Your Sins
Isaiah 43:22-24 ESV
“Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob;
but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings,
or honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
or wearied you with frankincense.
You have not bought me sweet cane with money,
or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins;
you have wearied me with your iniquities.”
How God Views Habitual Sin
Many people today are teaching that when we believe in Jesus
Christ that all our sins are forgiven – past, present, and future – and so they
say that God is no longer concerned about our sin because it has all been
covered by the blood of Christ. And they say that God can’t even see when we
sin for all he can see when he looks at us is Jesus, and so he delights in us
always.
There is an element of truth to this, but if God is no
longer concerned about our sin and if he can’t even see when we sin, then what
is the point of most of the New Testament? For a good portion of the New
Testament is directed to the church about their sins and how they need to
forsake their sins and walk with Jesus in purity of devotion to him.
If God can no longer see when we sin, then we wouldn’t need
all the warnings and cautions and urgings that are in the New Testament which
tell us of the dangers of continuing in sin, and how God views us continuing in
deliberate and habitual sin after we have made a confession of him as Lord and
as Savior of our lives. It grieves him! So, he still sees.
So, God has not changed his view of sin now that we live
under the New Covenant. He makes it clear over and over again that sin still is
what separates us from God and that if we continue in deliberate and habitual
sin against him that we do not know him, he does not know us, and we don’t have
eternal life with him. And He is saying this to the church!
The
Sacrifice God Desires
Under
the New Covenant we do not have to make the kinds of sacrifices to God as the
Jews had to make under the Old Covenant, but that does not mean we make no
sacrifice to God at all. The sacrifice he now requires of us is that we give
our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, which is our
reasonable (spiritual, and acceptable) worship of him.
And
this includes us no longer being conformed to the ways of this sinful world but
we are to be changed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God and now we are to
be being made into the likeness of Christ. And we are to live holy lives,
separate (unlike, different) from the world because God has called us out from
the world to be his holy people.
Jesus
said it well (of course) when he said that if anyone would come after him that
he must deny self, take up his cross daily (daily die with Christ to sin and to
self) and follow him in obedience. For, he said that if we save our lives (if
we hold on to living for sin and for self) that we will lose them. But if for
his sake we lose our lives (die with him to sin) we will have eternal life (Lu
9:23-26).
And
Paul taught the same all throughout his writings, but it is summarized well for
us in Ephesians 4:17-24 where it tells us that we must no longer live like the
ungodly who have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every
kind of impurity, for that is not the way we should have learned Christ, if we
were taught the truth that is in Christ Jesus.
We
should have been taught to “put off your old self, which belongs to your former
manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in
the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:22-24).
So,
again, the sacrifice that God now requires of his people is that we give our
lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, that we die daily
with him to sin and to self, and that we walk with him in obedience to his
commands. For, Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and
to his righteousness. He is to be Master of our lives.
So,
it isn’t things that we give to the Lord. We don’t give him a certain amount of
time or service or tithes and then the rest of our time and resources are ours
to use to live however we want. It doesn’t work that way at all. For, when
Jesus shed his blood for us on that cross he bought us back for God (he
redeemed us) so we would now honor God with our lives.
So,
Jesus Christ, our Lord, our God, and our Savior wants our all on the altar of
sacrifice laid, our hearts under Spirit control. For we can only be blessed and
have peace and sweet rest as we yield him our bodies and souls (see the hymn
lyrics for “Is Your All on the Altar” by Elisha A. Hoffman).
So,
make Jesus Christ your Lord today. He cannot and he will not be only your
Savior and not your Lord. And he died to free you from your addiction to sin
and to empower you to walk in his righteousness, so surrender your all to him
today, and truly you will be blessed.
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; 1 Jn
1:5-9; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; 1 Co 15:58; Php 2:12-13]
By Jonathan
Foreman
I give you my
destiny
I'm giving you all
of me
I want your symphony
Singing in all that
I am
At the top of my
lungs
I'm giving it my all
So, I lay my head
back down
And I lift my hands
and pray
To be only yours I
pray
To be only yours I
pray
To be only yours
I know now you're my
only hope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU
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