Malachi 3:13-15 ESV
“Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”
If our idea of faith in Jesus Christ is merely that a
confession of him as Savior and Lord now secures for us forgiveness of sins for
all time, escape from hell, and heaven guaranteed us at our death, but that how
we live will not impact our eternal security, then we have the wrong concept of
God’s grace and of his salvation. For if we think that is all there is to it,
and that nothing else is required of us, then sadly we are mistaken.
For the message that we give to our Lord when we adopt a diluted
and altered gospel, and then when we consider ourselves saved for eternity
while we have no fear of God before our eyes, is that it is vain to serve God. And
when we reject our Lord’s commandments (New Covenant) in favor of an altered
gospel message which does not confront us in our sins, and which makes no
requirements for holy living, is that humility and repentance and obedience to
our Lord are of no profit to us.
And sadly, this is what the bulk of people in America are
being taught today, that they can make a one-time confession (or profession) of
Christ as Savior and Lord, and now all their sins are forgiven (past, present,
and future), and now heaven is secured for them for eternity regardless of how
they live their lives on this earth. And so the arrogant are indeed being
called blessed if they make such a profession of faith in Christ. And evildoers
are definitely putting God to the test, but they will not escape in the end.
And I know this quoted passage above comes from the Old
Testament, so I will share with you some Scriptures from the New Testament,
under New Covenant teaching, which back up what I just shared with you. And I
will paraphrase them because I am also teaching what they teach.
For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must
deny self, take up his cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow
(obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self,
we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of the name of Jesus we die
with him to sin that we might live to him and to his righteousness, then we
have eternal life with God (see Luke 9:23-26; cf. Romans 6:1-23; Ephesians
4:17-24).
And Jesus also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord,
Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of God
the Father who is in heaven. For many will stand before the Lord on the day of
judgment, and they will call Jesus, “Lord,” and they will make claims to all
the things they had convinced themselves that they were doing in the name of Jesus,
but he will respond to them with, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers
of lawlessness,” for they refused to obey the Lord (see Matthew 7:21-23; cf.
Romans 6:16; 1 John 2:3-6; Romans 2:6-8).
And then there are multiple passages of Scripture which
teach us that if sin is our practice, if it is what we obey, if this is what we
walk in, but we do not walk in holiness and in righteousness, and in walks of
faithful obedience to our Lord, in practice, that we will die in our sins, that
salvation is not ours, and that we will not inherit the kingdom of God. Heaven
is not our eternal destiny, but hell is if we choose habitual sin over obedience
to our Lord.
Malachi 3:16-18 ESV
“Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. ‘They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.’”
To fear the Lord is to take him and his word (which includes
the gospel of Christ) seriously and to apply the teachings of Christ and of the
New Testament apostles to our daily lives. And where Old Covenant teachings are
repeated for us in the New Testament, under the New Covenant, then we should
apply them to our lives, as well, where they agree with New Covenant teachings.
For much of what was taught us in the Old Testament, if it is God’s moral
teaching, is repeated for us under the New Covenant.
To fear the Lord is also to treat God with honor and
respect, which requires that we honor him with our obedience and with our
surrender to his will. It is to humble ourselves before him, to deny self, to
repent of (turn from) our sins, and then to follow him in obedience in walks of
holiness and righteousness. And it is to worship him by giving our lives to him
as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, and for us to no longer be
conformed to the sinful patterns of this world but to be transformed in heart
and mind of the Spirit of God away from sin to now walking by faith in Jesus
Christ.
For the distinction between the wicked and the righteous is
not that the wicked make no profession of faith in Christ and that the
righteous do. For we are not righteous before God based merely on a profession
of faith in Christ. But it is those who practice righteousness as God is
righteous who are considered righteous in the eyes of God (1 John 3:4-10). So,
it all comes down to what we live, not just what we profess. If we make sin our
practice, then we are among the wicked. But if righteousness is our practice,
we are among the righteous.
“Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.”
I
Take Refuge
An Original Work / September 1, 2018
Based
off Psalm 71
O, Lord, I take refuge in You,
For You are my God.
Turn Your ear now to me.
Be my Rock and Fortress
To which I do go.
Deliver me, God. You’re my hope.
My lips now give praise to You, God.
I always have hope,
Since You saved me from sin.
My enemies speak evil
‘gainst me, O God.
Oh, help me, O Lord, rescue me.
The path of my life has been hard.
For, I have had troubles
Too many to bear.
But, You will increase honor,
Restore again.
Your faithfulness, Lord, comforts me.
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