Isaiah 63:7-9 ESV
“I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,
the praises of the Lord,
according to all that the Lord has granted us,
and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, ‘Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely.’
And he became their Savior.
In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”
When I recount the steadfast love of the Lord, according to
all that the Lord has granted us, according to his compassion and to the
abundance of his steadfast love, I think of his great salvation he provided for
us by his grace.
I think of how God the Father sent Jesus Christ, God the
Son, to the earth, to take on human form, to be born as a baby to a human
mother, to live to adulthood, to minister his love and grace to the people of
God, to share the gospel message, and then to be crucified on a cross for our
sins so that we might be crucified with him in death to sin and live to him and
to his righteousness, by the grace of God, and in his power and strength.
I think of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who was
fully God and fully human when he lived on this earth, in being willing to give
his life up for us on that cross to free us from our slavery to sin so that, in
his power and strength, we might now be slaves of God and of his righteousness.
He who knew no sin became sin for us on that cross so that we might become the
righteousness of God. For whoever has been born of God by his Spirit practices
righteousness. Therefore he is righteous, as God is righteous.
But it isn’t just forgiveness of sins and new lives in
Christ Jesus, our Lord, and freedom from slavery to sin, and the empowerment to
live holy and godly lives on this earth that he granted to us, by his grace,
and by his death and resurrection. He gave us the Holy Spirit to live within us
– God within us – to teach, counsel, guide, rebuke, exhort, strengthen,
empower, comfort, and encourage us in our walks of faith in Jesus Christ.
And he gave us communion with our Lord via time spent with
him in his word and in prayer, and the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts
and minds as to God’s will and purpose for our lives. And he called us to holiness
and righteousness and to forsake our sins and to follow him in obedience. And
he called us to specific areas of ministry, and he gifted us with spiritual
gifts, for his glory and praise, and for the salvation of lives, and for the
encouragement and maturity of the body of Christ, and so much more.
[Lu 9:23-26; 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; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 15:58; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 2 Pet 1:1; Rom 12:1-8;
1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16]
Isaiah 63:10 ESV
“But they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
and himself fought against them.”
We live in a day and time, at least here in America, where
those who have professed faith in Jesus Christ have largely turned away from
following him as Lord of their lives and they have become worldly, and there is
not much of a distinction between the church and the people of the world
anymore. For, so many who profess faith in Jesus Christ have been convinced
that they are to be like the world in order to attract the world to the church.
But “the church” they are talking about is not the people of
God, the called out ones, i.e. God’s holy people who have been set apart from
the world and set apart for God and for his service. “The church” they speak of
is a building built by human hands, and it is a church denomination of man, not
of God, and it is a business of human origin and a corporation under the state,
all of which are not of God but are of the flesh of man.
They have been convinced that if they make “the church” more
like the world that the world will be attracted to their gatherings and thus “the
church” will grow. But that is not God’s design and purpose for his church, for
his called out ones. His design and purpose for us is that we be separate
(unlike, different) from the world because we are being made into the likeness
of Jesus Christ, according to his holiness and righteousness.
God’s design for his church, for his people, is that we
forsake our lives of sin and that we follow him in obedience to his commands,
and that we live lives which are morally pure and upright and godly and
therefore pleasing to God. And it is that we gather together for mutual
edification of the body of Christ, and that we minister God’s love and grace to
one another in exhorting one another daily so that we are not hardened by sin’s
deceitfulness.
The purpose of our gatherings is to be for the building up
of the body of Christ to maturity in Christ as EACH PART does its work. And it
is for the teaching of the word for our instruction in holy living, and it is
for the saints to gather together in prayer and for spiritual fellowship in the
Lord Jesus with one another for our encouragement in our walks of faith in our
Lord. And it is to be for the breaking of bread with one another.
But the church has turned the gatherings of “the church”
into a marketplace to be marketed to the world just like any other business
might market its products. And so they are not functioning like the body of
Christ but more like a place for mostly clean and family oriented
entertainment, fun, laughter, and more worldliness, just slightly
Christianized. Pastors have been turned into clowns and times of worship of God
have been turned into stage productions in order to attract large crowds of
people from the world.
Thus, in order to attract the world to their gatherings they
also diluted (altered, adulterated) the gospel of our salvation to make it more
appealing and acceptable to human flesh and to the people of the world. So,
they removed God’s requirements for holy living, for moral purity, for
repentance, for obedience, and for submission to God. And they now give carte
blanche to their followers to keep on in their deliberate and habitual sins,
only now guilt free and without fear of punishment in hell.
And so God must discipline his people who have joined in
with this world in this endeavor to turn God’s plan of salvation, and his
holiness, and his righteousness, and his church (called out ones) upside down
to where people are no longer being confronted with their sins and called to
repentance and to submission to Christ as Lord. And they are not being called
to obedience to our Lord’s commands nor to holy and righteous living. And so
many who profess faith in Jesus are still headed to hell on the false promise
of heaven.
And if you are party to all of that, and thus you are not
surrendered to Jesus Christ to doing his will for your life, but you are still
living to the flesh and in sin, claiming that God’s grace covers it all, please
know that if you walk in sin that you will die in your sins and you will not
inherit eternal life with God.
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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