In the Fear of You

Give ear to my words, O Lord;

    consider my groaning.

2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,

    my King and my God,

    for to you do I pray.

3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;

    in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

    evil may not dwell with you.

5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;

    you hate all evildoers.

6 You destroy those who speak lies;

    the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,

    will enter your house.

I will bow down toward your holy temple

    in the fear of you.

8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness

    because of my enemies;

    make your way straight before me.

9 For there is no truth in their mouth;

    their inmost self is destruction;

their throat is an open grave;

    they flatter with their tongue.

10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;

    let them fall by their own counsels;

because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,

    for they have rebelled against you.

11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;

    let them ever sing for joy,

and spread your protection over them,

    that those who love your name may exult in you.

12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord;

    you cover him with favor as with a shield. (Psalms 5:1-12 ESV)

When we humans are born into this world we are born with sin natures, in the image of Adam, the first man God created and the first man to sin against God. Ever since Adam sinned all humans have been born with sin natures separate from God and not able in ourselves to attain to God’s approval and to his righteousness. And that is why God the Father sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth, ultimately to be the final and full blood sacrifice for the sins of the entire world so that by genuine faith in him we might be delivered from slavery to sin and obey God with our lives.

[Rom 3:9-26; Rom 5:12-19; 1 Co 15:21-22,42-49; Eph 2:8-10]

By God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ we are thus crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in  him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Therefore we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if obedience to our Lord is what we obey, that leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (Romans 6:1-23).

So, if we are indeed those who are denying self and dying daily to sin, by the Spirit, and who are walking in obedience to the Lord, in practice, by the grace of God, and in the power of God, then Satan is going to be hot on our trail to try to get us to fail and to disobey God and/or to falsely accuse us of wrongdoing and/or to attack us and persecute us in some way in order to hurt us and/or to attempt to make us look bad, and/or to get other humans to hate and reject us and to mistreat us, hoping that we will give up.

And so when we are going through such times as this, if we are truly followers of Jesus Christ, we are going to call upon the Lord in prayer. And we will seek his counsel, his wisdom, and his direction in knowing what to do, and in what to say, and in how to respond (react) to what we are being called upon to endure for the sake of the name of Jesus and for the sake of his gospel message. And if we are patient, and if we don’t try to take matters into our own hands, the Lord will lead us in the way to go.

Now our salvation from sin is not free license to keep walking in deliberate and habitual sin, regularly returning to our vomit, committing the same evil acts over and over again. For our God is not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil cannot dwell with him. Evildoers, i.e. those who make evil their practice (their “go to” habitually) will not stand before God as those who are righteous in his eyes. For God hates lies. He hates all that is evil. And the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and the deceitful who speak lies.

So, if we want to be saved from our sins and to have eternal life with God, we must deny self, die to sin daily, and walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in practice, by the Spirit, via God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ. And sin must no longer be what we practice. We must walk in the fear of the Lord in surrender to his will, in submission to his Lordship, and in honoring him as the holy God that he is via our walks of obedience to him in holy living. And we must be those who are being led to walk in righteousness.

For if we continue in deliberate and habitual and premeditated sin against the Lord, continually returning to the same willful sins over again without genuine repentance (turning away from sin) and without genuine submission to the will of God for our lives in walks of obedience to his commands, then we will face the judgment of God, regardless of what our lips profess. And we will not inherit eternal life with God. For true faith results in walks of obedience to our Lord and in death to sin, by the Spirit.

And all of us who have trusted Christ with our lives, who have died with him to sin, and who are dying daily to sin, and who are walking in obedience to his commands in holy living, are in genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Our faith is genuine because it results in dying to sin and following our Lord in obedience, and so we can be assured of salvation from sin and eternal life with God provided we continue on that course and we do not turn away from the Lord and go the opposite direction and stay there.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

Give Ear to Jesus  

An Original Work / February 16, 2016

Based off Isaiah 55 

Call on your Savior.

Seek the Lord while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way;

Turn to the Lord.

God will have mercy.

He’ll forgive you of your sin.

He will freely pardon you

And give peace within. 

Turn from your sin, follow Jesus,

Be cleansed from sin. 

Give ear to Jesus.

Come to Him. Your soul will live.

Listen to Him speaking to you:

“Eat what is good.”

If you are thirsty,

Come to Jesus, drink from Him.

Drink His Spirit given to you.

Be born again.

Listen to Him. Do what He says.

Rejoice in Him.

God’s Word, eternal,

Will achieve what He desires.

He is willing none should perish,

Saved by His blood.

Share now the gospel.

Jesus died so we’d go free.

Walk in vict’ry, 

Free from your sin, eternally.

Die to sin, and live to Jesus.

In Him believe.

https://vimeo.com/155612854