Kneel Before the Lord

Psalms 95:6-7 ESV

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

For he is our God,

    and we are the people of his pasture,

    and the sheep of his hand.”

We read in Romans 12:1-2 that to present our bodies to Jesus Christ as living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable and well pleasing to God, is our spiritual worship of God, our reasonable service to God. We are to serve God with our lives, doing what he commands and what he has called us to do and to be. And to be holy is to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being made to be like Jesus Christ in character and in deed. 

And to kneel before God doesn’t have to be a physical thing at all, and it should not be merely physical. For kneeling is a sign of deference and respect and of submission, too. It is an expression of honor, surrender, and reverence to God. And the position in which we kneel has more to do with the disposition of the heart than it has anything to do with a physical position. It is the same as bowing down, in other words.

So, although singing songs of worship to God can be part of our worship of our Lord, if our hearts and our lives are not surrendered to Christ, and if we are not living in submission to his will for our lives, and if we do not practice daily giving our lives to the Lord as living sacrifices to do his will and to serve him with our lives in living holy lives pleasing to him, different from the world, then we are not truly worshiping our Lord.

For if we are truly his sheep, then we are those who are following him with our lives in obedience to his commands, in practice. We are listening to the Lord speak to our hearts through his word and through the Holy Spirit living within us, and we are doing what his word teaches us we must do, perhaps not perfectly, but we are growing and maturing and changing and progressing in our walks of faith in a forward and not a backward direction.

[John 10:27-30; Romans 12:1-2; Titus 2:11-14; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Ephesians 4:17-24; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23]

Psalms 95:7-11 ESV

“Today, if you hear his voice,

    do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

when your fathers put me to the test

    and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

For forty years I loathed that generation

    and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart,

    and they have not known my ways.’

Therefore I swore in my wrath,

    ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

Now, this is repeated for us in Hebrews 3:1-19 and Hebrews 4:1-13 which also go along with 1 Corinthians 10:1-22 teaching. So this is not just OT teaching, but this is NT and New Covenant teaching. For we learn in the Corinthian passage that the things that took place when the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years were written down for us as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

And then we are given some examples of what is meant by this. Many of them were idolaters and revelers and those who indulged in sexual immorality and who put Christ to the test and who grumbled and complained against God and against his servant Moses because they didn’t like their circumstances. And most of them died in the wilderness and did not get to go into the Promised Land because of their disobedience which our Lord described as unbelief. We are not to be like them or we will die in our sins.

So, if the Lord is speaking to you today about the life you are living, and if he is warning you that you need to change, please take him seriously. For it doesn’t matter what your lips profess. What matters is what you do with Jesus and with his Word and with his gospel. For Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and live for him and no longer for ourselves, and so we would honor him with our lives and no longer live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness.

[1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 6:1-23]

And there are all kinds of warnings to professers of faith in Jesus Christ all throughout the New Testament like this one here. For biblical salvation is not a one-time thing which takes place in our lives, done deal. The Scriptures clearly teach progressive salvation for they teach that what we practice, and how we live, will determine where we will spend eternity. For faith is faith in practice, in walks of faith and obedience to our Lord, and not just something we profess with our lips. We have to live out that faith in our daily lives.

[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 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

So, we have these warnings given to us to not be like most of the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for forty years who ended up dying in their sins and who did not enter into God’s eternal rest because of their disobedience which our Lord called unbelief. And it was because they loved their sin more than anything else that they did not enter into God’s eternal rest. And the New Testament teaches us the same, that if we walk in sin we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what our lips profess.

So, please take God’s word seriously and don’t play with fire. Repent of your sins today, die to sin daily and walk in obedience to your Lord, in his power and strength. Do not give the devil a foothold in your life, but resist him, and flee temptation, don’t toy with it. For Jesus Christ died on that cross to deliver us from our slavery to sin so that we might now walk in obedience to his commands (New Covenant) and that we might serve him with our lives.

Songs in the Night  

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

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