I am reading in Isaiah, chapter 1. It is a lengthy passage, so I will summarize much of it and quote part of it.
Summary Isaiah 1:1-17,21-31 (quoting verses 18-20)
Now, the people of God under the Old Covenant were his people by physical birth (physical offspring of Abraham and Sarah). But this doesn’t mean that they all believed in God. So, if they did not believe in God, which was evident by their rebellion against him, and by their disobedience, and by their continued sinful practices, which were deliberate, then they did not inherit eternal life with God. They did not enter into his eternal rest.
[see 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13]
And since this is going to be paralleled over to the New Testament church of today, I will say that we who are God’s people today are those who have united with Christ Jesus in death to sin and to living to righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands and in holy living (Romans 6:1-23; 1 Peter 2:24; Romans 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Titus 2:11-14). But many have walked away from that and have rebelled against the Lord, just as the children of Israel often did under the Old Covenant.
So, what’s the situation then and now? We have people claiming to be God’s people who are truly living for the Lord. And we have people claiming to be God’s people who were living for the Lord but who have since strayed from their purity of devotion to Jesus Christ to walk now according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit. And we have many professing faith in Jesus but who never really ever united with him in a marriage covenant, because they did not die to sin and they never did obey him in practice.
But the ones being addressed here are those who have rebelled against the Lord. They are the offspring of evildoers, but they themselves are also evildoers. They have broken the bonds of marriage with God/Christ in order to go after other lovers. For they are the selfish and the self-indulgent who are intoxicated (addicted) to sin and who want their sins more than they want a covenant of marriage relationship with Jesus Christ (and many of them are treating their spouses the same way).
They are the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, the homosexual (active), liars, deceivers, manipulators, workers of evil, faithless, tricksters, morally impure, abusive, and hypocritical. They are haters, malicious, vindictive, cruel, spiteful, resentful, unforgiving, prideful, and utterly selfish. They are lovers of self rather than lovers of God who are living to please the flesh, and not God. But at the same time they are professers of faith in Jesus Christ. So, whether or not they ever had genuine faith in Christ, they are not now walking in that faith, but in sinful rebellion against the Lord Jesus.
Even though some of them made a commitment of marriage to Jesus Christ, to be his and his alone, to honor him with their lives, to be faithful, obedient, honest, and morally pure, they have since moved away from that and they have thrown off the bonds of matrimony (speaking of our spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ). And they are now united with the world and with the flesh of man, and they are chasing after the sinful pleasures of the flesh and not after God and his righteousness. They are wanderers who do not remain faithful to the Lord.
And certainly this is their own fault, but the church of today is largely giving them permission to live like that. For so many have altered the gospel message to make it more attractive and acceptable to human flesh and to the ungodly of this world. And so many are teaching against repentance and against holy living and obedience to our Lord’s commands (New Covenant). And they are teaching a gospel absent of surrender of one’s life to Jesus Christ to truly let him be Lord (Owner-Master) of our lives. For their “gospel” is very much driven by flesh, and not of the Spirit of God.
There is an old secular song out there by the title, “How Deep is Your Love?” Now that is speaking of human love, and so the song itself is not particularly relevant to what this is talking about here, but some of it can give a message of the kind of wandering being talked about here. But the title is what I believe the Lord wants me to focus on. I believe he is asking of all of us, “How deep is your love?”, not that he doesn’t know the answer, but so that we will do a heart examination and answer that question with regard to our relationship with Christ? Is it deep? Or shallow? Or non-existent?
Oh, and the other thing related to this passage of Scripture in Isaiah is that the people were giving vain offerings to God. They were going through religious rituals and performances while they neglected the greater things of submission, obedience, faithfulness, moral purity, honesty and commitment. And this is where many professing Christians are today, going through the motions of religion while their hearts are far from God, and while they are deliberately and habitually sinning against the Lord. So, the Lord said,
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 1:18-20 ESV).
Please always notice “if” clauses in the Scriptures, for they mean that something being said is conditional upon our response. For our sins are not going to be as white as snow if we are not willing for God to change us and to change our hearts and to remove our slavery to sin out of our lives. If we refuse the Lord and the changes that he wants to make in our lives, and so we rebel against him, and against his will and purpose for our lives, then we will not have eternal life with God, but the fearful expectation of judgment. For we have to be willing and obedient if we want to have his promises.
[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]
Broken Cord
An Original Work / August 29, 2018
Your bond is broken with your Lord and Savior
And your testimony is separate from Him.
Your words not matching your actions today.
Repent of your sin and bow down and pray.
Live what you testify in truth always.
Purity’s lacking in your life and witness,
For you profess one thing, but other you do.
Not moral, spiritual. Still of the flesh.
Not living in truth to what you confess.
Lying about it puts you in a mess.
Living a lie is your practice, ‘tis true of you.
Masquerade righteousness – none of it true.
Your heart is not given to your Lord God.
Because of how you live, you are a fraud.
Turn from your sin and give your life to God.
https://vimeo.com/287303934
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