Break up Your Fallow Ground

Jeremiah 4:1-2 ESV

“If you return, O Israel,

declares the Lord,

    to me you should return.

If you remove your detestable things from my presence,

    and do not waver,

and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’

    in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,

then nations shall bless themselves in him,

    and in him shall they glory.”

Today, at least here in America, there are many people professing faith in Jesus Christ who are not living for him, but the opposite of what they should be living. Jesus Christ is not truly Lord of their lives because they are still lord of their own lives. They are still choosing their own choices, and not God’s. And they are still obeying their own wills, and not God’s. Sin still has mastery over their lives, but yet they still claim Jesus as Lord of their lives.

For they are lovers of intoxication to sin. They are the self-indulgent and the selfish who behave wickedly, in practice. For they see themselves as free to live however they want while they still claim heaven as their eternal destiny. So, they fake their Christianity. They make pretense at righteousness and godliness. And they do this while secretly, when no one else can see what they are doing, they are living in sin, doing what their evil hearts desire.

So they put on performances so that others will think they are doing well when they are not doing well. And sometimes they put on performances, much like the Pharisees, in order to bring someone else down, or to falsely accuse someone else of wrongdoing, or to try to trip up the righteous with their words so that they have cause to accuse them of wrongdoing, because they are jealous of them much like Cain was jealous of his brother Abel.

There is no room for God in their lives for they don’t make room for God in their lives. Even if they profess that they are worshipers of God, truly what they worship are the idols of this sinful world and of their own flesh. Because it is not what we say that determines who we are and what we will become, but our actions (deeds, works) are what reveal what is truly in our hearts and who we truly are (Lu 6:45; Matt 15:17-20).

So, this is a call of God to those who profess the name of God as their God, but who make flesh their god, instead, to return to the Lord, to repent of their sins, and to remove the detestable things they habitually engage in from the sight of God. And they are no longer to waver between the flesh and making a genuine commitment to make Christ Lord of their lives. And now they are to profess Christ as Lord, but in truth, not in words only.

No longer are they to make false professions of Christ as Lord of their lives while they deliberately and habitually continue in their wicked and sinful practices. Now they are to walk in righteousness and in holiness and in obedience to the Lord, but in truth, not wavering back and forth in opinion between serving the Lord with their lives and serving their own flesh, instead. For true faith in Christ means we die with Christ to sin.

Jeremiah 4:3-4 ESV

“For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground,

    and sow not among thorns.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;

    remove the foreskin of your hearts,

    O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;

lest my wrath go forth like fire,

    and burn with none to quench it,

    because of the evil of your deeds.”

This, too, is a call to genuine repentance. For those who have been walking in sin and not in righteousness, they are being encouraged here to purge from their lives all that is wicked and evil and of their sinful flesh. By the grace of God and in his strength and power, if they are honest and sincere in wanting to be cleansed of their sins and to walk in holiness and in righteousness, they are to allow God to clean all that ugliness out of their hearts in order to make room for Jesus Christ to be Lord over their lives.

And so they must, in truth, be crucified with Christ in death to sin so that they can be raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer living as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So in true repentance they must eradicate the lusts of the flesh from their hearts and lives, and they must give up their lives of living in sin and for self-pleasure, and then they must daily die to sin and to self and follow the Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands (New Covenant).

For we can’t add on Jesus to our sinful unbelieving hearts and think that everything is now okay. For God’s grace to us is not free license to continue living in sin without guilt and without remorse. God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, instructs us to renounce (to say “No!” to) ungodliness and fleshly lusts, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. For Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

For, if we who profess faith in Jesus Christ continue in deliberate and habitual sin, making sin our practice, and if righteousness and holiness and obedience to our Lord and to his commands under the New Covenant are not what we practice, according to the Scriptures we will die in our sins. We will not have salvation from sin and we will not inherit eternal life with God, and heaven will not be our eternal destiny. So we need to take this seriously.

[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] 

I Will Lift My Eyes  

An Original Work / December 12, 2012

Based off Psalms 121-125

I will lift my eyes to my Lord Most High.

My help comes from Him, who saved me from sin.

He will not let your foot slip, and He who watches will not sleep.

Our Lord watches over you, and your life He will keep.

I will lift my eyes to my Lord Most High.

My help comes from Him, who saved me from sin.

I give thanks to Him.

I will lift my eyes to my God in heav’n.

I look to the Lord. My sins, He’s forgiv’n. 

Because of His great love for us, He made us alive with Christ.

Through the kindness of our Savior, He gave us new life.

I will lift my eyes to my God in heav’n.

I look to the Lord. My sins, He’s forgiv’n; 

My home, now in heav’n. 

Praise be to the Lord, who is on our side.

Our help found in Him. He gives peace within.

Those who trust will ne’er be shaken. God will supply all we need.

Our Lord has done great things for us. He’s our friend, indeed!

Praise be to the Lord, who is on our side.

Our help found in Him. He gives peace within.

I can count on Him.

https://vimeo.com/379508241