Run With It: If Jesus is Our Lord, Where is Our Obedience?

Malachi 1:6-9 ESV

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts.”

Today, this would be the Lord speaking to the church living in adultery who are wayward and who need to be brought back to repentance and/or he is speaking to those who profess faith in him, and who profess him as Lord, but not in truth, but in form only. They give lip service to him only but they do not honor him as Lord of their lives. He is not truly their God. They just say he is. But they do not walk in the fear of the Lord but still according to their own sinful flesh, to gratify the sinful cravings of their own hearts.

Either way, these are people who profess Jesus as Lord and as Savior of their lives but their actions do not match their words. For if he is Lord, he is Owner-Master of our lives and we are his possession created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them. And we are to submit to him as Lord and to do what he says to do, and we are to live according to the flesh no longer, but now according to the Spirit. For Jesus died to free us from our slavery to sin, not so we continue in sin.

And the polluted food being offered on the altar of God today are these false teachings of a cheap grace which is not the true grace of God but a cheap substitute. It is this whole “it’s all about me” attitude like the teaching that says that God is just so enamored or enthralled with us humans and so all we have to do is to just receive his affection for us. Or there is the teaching that says we don’t have to repent of our sins and we don’t have to obey God but all we have to do is “believe,” which is not defined in most cases.

It is a “me focused” gospel which is all about the benefits we receive as children of God but minus the teachings on what it means to be children of God and to be “in Christ.” For we are not “in Christ” just because we said some magic words that we think are going to secure heaven for us when we die. We are in Christ by God-given faith in Christ which dies with him to sin and which is resurrected with him to WALK (in conduct, in practice) in newness of life in him (not like our old lives), created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, walking in obedience to his commands.

For Jesus died on that cross and he was resurrected from the dead in order that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. So we are to no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life for us. For he shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) so that we would now be God’s possession, and so he would be our Lord and Master, and so we would now honor God with our lives. For he died to free us from slavery to sin that we might be slaves of his righteousness.

[Matt 7:21-23; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15,21; Eph 2:8-10; Jn 6:44; Heb 10:23-32; Heb 12:1-2; Lu 9:23-26; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Malachi 1:10-11 ESV

“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.”

Now let me say this. The temple of God today is the church, the body of Christ, comprised of all people of genuine God-given faith in Jesus Christ. It is not a physical building. It is not a business. It is not a corporation under the state. It is not under the authority of a church denomination or the government. It is not a civic center or a social club or a physical location, either. We who are “in Christ” by genuine faith in Christ are that building, which is a spiritual building made up of living stones (us, the people).

But people have turned “the church” into all those things I just said it is not. The true church still is not those things, but these organizations which are doing all those things call themselves “the church,” and that is where it gets confusing. They call their buildings “the church,” and they call their church denominations and their businesses “the church,” and so most people have come to accept that “the church” is Baptist or Methodist, etc. and that it is a building in a specific physical location, which is of man, not of God.

For the true body of Christ, his church, is not confined to a building nor to a specific location for it is spiritual, not physical, and it is universal, although the body does meet in groups of people in locations which can also be on the internet or via phone calls. For we can function as the body of Christ even on the internet and via text messaging and phone calls, etc., if we are using the gifts God has given to us to encourage and to exhort the body of Christ to maturity in Christ and to walks of faithful obedience to our Lord.

But the doors that need to be shut today are physical doors to physical buildings where they are marketing the church to the world and so they are diluting and altering the gospel message to make it more appeasing to human flesh and to the people of the world. These doors need to be shut where they are teaching a “me focused” gospel that teaches that Jesus does it all for us and that nothing is required of us other than to accept his grace and his affection or to “believe” in him (not defined) with man-created faith.

The lies that these charlatans and wolves in sheep’s clothing are teaching the people need to be exposed for what they are. And the “dirty little secrets” of these “wolves in sheep’s clothing” and their followers in crime need to be exposed and called out and named so that others do not fall into their traps and end up believing a lie and end up in hell and not heaven because they would not submit to Christ as Lord, and they would not honor God with their lives, and they would not obey the Lord or forsake their sins.

The lies need to be exposed in order to set the people free from bondage to sin and from living in deliberate and habitual sin while professing faith in Jesus Christ with their lips. So we need to be those who are speaking out against false teachings, who are exposing the lies for what they are, and who are speaking the truth of the gospel. And that is that Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to his righteousness. But if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, heaven is not our eternal home.

[Lu 9:23-26; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:26-31; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Jn 15:1-11; Matt 7:21-23; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

The Battle for Truth

An Original Work / May 18, 2013

Based off Malachi 1-4