The Look on Their Faces

Isaiah 3:8-12 ESV

“For Jerusalem has stumbled,

    and Judah has fallen,

because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,

    defying his glorious presence.

For the look on their faces bears witness against them;

    they proclaim their sin like Sodom;

    they do not hide it.

Woe to them!

    For they have brought evil on themselves.

Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,

    for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,

    for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

My people—infants are their oppressors,

    and women rule over them.

O my people, your guides mislead you

    and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.”

Under the Old Covenant which God had with his people, the Jews were God’s chosen people by physical birth, by being descended from Abraham. But under the New Covenant, God’s chosen people are all who are followers of Jesus Christ. We are his people by spiritual birth via genuine God-given faith in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile by physical birth. For Christ made us both one in him via God-given faith in Jesus Christ. And collectively we are the body of Christ, his church.

[John 8:18-19,38-47; Romans 9:4-8; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:14-18; 1 John 2:22]

But just as it was with God’s people of old, so it is with God’s people in our present day and time, though not with all Christians, but apparently with the majority of those who claim faith in Jesus Christ, at least here in America. For so many of them have gone the way of the world to where it is barely distinguishable between the church and the world anymore. For so many professers of Christianity are living not much different from those who profess no faith in Jesus Christ.

And so many of them are following after the lies and after liars and deceivers and those who manipulate people’s minds and hearts. And so they have stopped up their ears and they refuse to believe the truth of the gospel. For the lies tickle their itching ears, and they console them in their deliberate and habitual sins. And so if you try to tell them the truth, then you become their enemy. And they may come against you, and they may persecute and hate and mistreat you and reject you and want nothing to do with you because you speak the truth in love which they do not want to hear.

For so many people are accepting a diluted and altered gospel message which tells them that they can make a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ, have all their sins forgiven (past, present, and future), and be on their way to heaven, but regardless of how they live or how much they sin. And so many of them are continuing in deliberate and habitual sin, thinking that God’s grace covers it all, and that heaven is still guaranteed them when they die. And so their speech and their deeds are against the Lord.

Now, this is not saying that we have to be absolutely perfect in this life in order to be saved from our sins and to have the hope of eternal life with God. God does not demand absolute sinless perfection of us (1 John 2:1-2). But he does “draw a line in the sand,” so to speak. And he sets boundaries for us which we are not to cross over. But the main thing he does is to say that if sin is our habit, and if righteousness and obedience to the Lord are not what we practice, that we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Yet so many professing Christians are caught up in sexual immorality via the internet, and via smart phones (pocket computers). And their leaders who are teaching a cheapened (altered, diluted) gospel message are, thus, giving them permission to keep on in their immorality without guilt and with no requirement to repent of their sin nor to walk in obedience to the Lord and to his commands (New Covenant). And sexual lust is shown in people’s faces, and most do not hide it very well from their facial expressions.

Now, this doesn’t mean that they all literally proclaim their sin like Sodom, for many who are sexually addicted to what is immoral do hide their sins, for they do not want others to know what they are doing in secret. They will especially hide their sins from their spouses. And this is because they are wanting to present a different image of themselves outwardly from what they are actually living. But then there are others who openly live in sexual immorality while still claiming Jesus as Lord and as Savior of their lives.

And what we all need to understand here is that God is not okay with that. He does not condone deliberate and habitual sin in the lives of those who claim to believe in him as Lord and as Savior of their lives. He makes it quite clear in the New Testament Scriptures that if sin is our habit, and if righteousness, godliness, holiness, and obedience to our Lord are not what we practice, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what faith we have professed with our lips.

And what the Lord also wants all of us to understand is that just because someone claims to believe in Jesus it doesn’t mean that person is genuinely saved and on his way to heaven. And just because a man claims to be a pastor doesn’t mean he is a man of God or called of God or that he even believes in Jesus, in truth. For we have many charlatans and wolves in sheep’s clothing serving in positions of pastor of church congregations, or of what is falsely being called “church.” And they are lying to the people, and they are misleading them, and they are leading them to hell, not to heaven.

But to the righteous, to those who by God-given faith in Jesus Christ have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and who have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, as long as we continue in these walks of faith in Jesus Christ, and we do not return to our vomit and remain there, it will go well for us, and we will have the hope of eternal life with God. But we must continue in those walks of faith steadfast to the end.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

For Our Nation  

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Trust Him with your life today.

Make Him your Lord and your Savior.

Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.

He will forgive you of your sin;

Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.

On our knees to God we’re praying,

Seeking God to give us answers

That are only found in Him.

God is sovereign over all things.

Nothing from His mind escaping.

He has all things under His command,

And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing

In our Lord, and interceding

For our nation and its people

To obey their God today.

He is our hope for our future.

For our wounds He offers suture.

He is all we need for this life.

Trust Him with your life today.

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