Serve the Lord with Gladness

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

    Serve the Lord with gladness!

    Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

    and his courts with praise!

    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

    his steadfast love endures forever,

    and his faithfulness to all generations.” Psalms 100:1-5 ESV

I never really noticed this before, as best as I can recall, but as I read through this Psalms 100 this morning I noticed that this call to make a joyful noise to the Lord was to “all the earth” or to all lands and to all peoples, and this is back when only the Jews were God’s chosen people, and only the Jews were the sheep of his pasture, at least those who were following him were. But then it says, “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” 

So, immediately I was conflicted in my mind. Why would the call be to “all the earth” and then say, “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture”? For not everyone living on the earth, then and now, are God’s people, the sheep of his pasture. Back then it was the Jews only, those who followed the Lord. Now it is only those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives and who are following him in obedience and in righteousness.

So, how do I reconcile this conflict? Was this, perhaps, speaking of the future, of the time of the Messiah, when people all over the world would believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and would now be God’s chosen people, regardless of whether Jew or Gentile by physical birth? But still it is not all the earth who believes in Christ. And right now, many who profess to be his people are not his people because they do not obey the Lord Jesus.

Perhaps it is a prophecy, a foretelling of the time when Jew and Gentile who believe in Jesus Christ would be his people, as one people under one God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:14-18). But we are not his people by profession only. We are his people who deny self, die daily to sin, and who follow him in obedience and in holy living, according to his word, by his grace, and in the power of God, and in practice (Luke 9:23-26).

So for a Jew to be a true Jew under the Old Covenant, it required obedience to the Lord, just as a Christian today (Jew or Gentile) must also obey the Lord in practice to be a true Christian, and one whom God accepts as his chosen people. And that is why so many of the Jews (Israelites) who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years (or less) did not enter the promised land, because they rebelled against the Lord and refused to obey him.

For when God gave his covenant promise to Abraham (Genesis 17:7-9), he told him that he must keep (obey) that covenant – he must and his offspring after him – they must keep (obey) God’s covenant regulations and stipulations if they wanted to receive what was promised. And…

“For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him” (Genesis 18:19).

Do you see what this is saying? God required obedience of his people in order for him to fulfill what he promised them. If they did not obey him, they did not receive what he promised. And that is why the majority of the Israelites he rescued out of Egypt did not get to go into the Promised Land, because they rebelled against the Lord, and they did not obey him, but they chose their sins, instead, because they loved their sins more. And so they also did not enter into his eternal rest (Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16).

“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Romans 2:28-29 ESV).

And then if you read Hebrews 8:6-13 you will read this (not quoting the whole thing):

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

“For he finds fault with them when he says:

“’Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,

    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel

    and with the house of Judah,

not like the covenant that I made with their fathers

    on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

For they did not continue in my covenant,

    and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.’” 

“In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.” Hebrews 8:7-9,13 ESV

Do you see what this is saying? God’s covenant promise to his people was conditional on the people’s obedience, but they did not keep his covenant, so he showed no concern for them. So he made the Old Covenant obsolete and he made a New Covenant – all at the same time, via Jesus’ death on that cross to deliver us out of our slavery to sin so we would now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living.  Please take this to heart!

[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 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 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; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Then please consider what Jesus told to two of the churches in the book of Revelation who were being persecuted by the Jews. He said:

“I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9 ESV).

“Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you” (Revelation 3:9 ESV).

And this can apply to anyone professing to be a Christian, too, but who is not following Jesus Christ in obedience, but who is literally being used of Satan to persecute the Lord’s servants and messengers who are bringing us the truth of what God’s word teaches us. 

I will say right now that for the past ten (+/-) years I have been persecuted for teaching what the Scriptures teach on the subject of Israel today. And I have been accused of being a heretic for teaching the truth because I do not support the notion that the Jewish nation, which is antichrist, and anti-God, is still God’s chosen people and that they have a right to the physical land of Israel and that us Christians should be giving them our loyalty, devotion, full support, faith, and blind trust. And I have been told that, biblically speaking, I should be put to death for what I teach, and just recently, again.

And so the Lord gave me this message today, because all who give their support to those who are antichrist will be judged of God along with them (see Revelation 18:4-6; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). So please believe what the Scriptures teach, not the teachings and theologies and traditions of man.

Who are God’s Chosen People Today?

[Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19; John 8:18-19,38-47; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 9:4-8; Romans 11:17-25; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:6; Colossians 3:12-15; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13; 1 Peter 2:9-10; 1 John 2:22; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9]  

Persecution of Christians in last days: 

[Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

O The Deep, Deep Love Of Jesus 

Samuel Trevor Francis (1875), 

Welsh melody adapted by Thomas John Williams (1890)

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,

Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!

Rolling as a mighty ocean

In its fullness over me!

Underneath me, all around me,

Is the current of Thy love

Leading onward, leading homeward

To Thy glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,

Spread His praise from shore to shore!

How He loveth, ever loveth,

Changeth never, nevermore!

How He watches o’er His loved ones,

Died to call them all His own;

How for them He intercedeth,

Watcheth o’er them from the throne!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,

Love of every love the best!

’Tis an ocean vast of blessing,

’Tis a haven sweet of rest!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,

’Tis a heaven of heavens to me;

And it lifts me up to glory,

For it lifts me up to Thee!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPXapfFfesA