“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)
This psalm is an appeal to the people of all the earth to
come to genuine God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
(God the Son). For He is God, our creator God who made us. And God the Father
sent Him to the earth to die for us on a cross so that we might die with Him to
sin and live to Him and to His righteousness. By faith in Jesus Christ we
therefore are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with
Christ to walk in newness of life in Him, not as slaves to sin but as slaves to
righteousness.
But this is not just
about singing and making a joyful noise, for we are to serve the Lord with
gladness. And in order to serve the Lord we must first of all believe in Jesus
Christ in truth and in righteousness. We must die with Him to sin so that we
can be raised with Him to walk in newness of life in Him. We must deny self,
die daily to sin, and walk in obedience to His commands if we are to be of the
faith which saves us from our bondage to sin and which empowers us to live
godly and holy lives pleasing to God.
Now God – Father,
Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit – is our creator God. So in that sense He
owns us and He can do with us as He chooses. But only those who listen to
(heed, regard, follow) our Lord Jesus, and who walk with Him in obedience to His
commands, are His true sheep (followers). And they only are the ones who are
promised eternal life with God, that they will never perish, and that no one
can snatch them out of the hands of God. For if we do not obey God, but we
continue in sin, we will not have life in Him.
Now if we are to
enter the gates of the Lord, we can only do that via dying with Christ to sin
and by His grace now walk in fellowship with Him in walks of obedience to His
commands in holy living. Verbal professions of faith in Jesus Christ alone do
not bring us into genuine relationship with our Lord. And they do not assure us
of forgiveness of all sins and the hope of heaven when we die. For we can’t
really know God if we do not obey Him, and we can’t be in fellowship with Him
if we are still deliberately walking in sin.
So, if we truly want
to enter into the gates of our Lord, it is not just with singing and verbally
praising the Lord and verbally speaking or singing words of praise, adoration,
and thanksgiving. For there are many who give lip service to the Lord whose hearts
are far from Him. Their worship of God is in formality only, as taught by other
humans, but there is no substance behind what is verbally coming from their
lips. And so they will die in their sins. They will not enter into God’s
heavenly gates at the end of it all.
For the Lord is
good, and He is completely faithful to all that He said that He would do. And
so we cannot just verbalize worship and praise of God with our lips only and
think that assures us forgiveness of all sins and heaven as our eternal
destiny. Many who profess the name of Jesus are still walking in sin, still
doing what their evil hearts desire, hiding what they do in secret, thinking
that no one knows. But God knows. And He said if we walk in sin and do not obey
Him that we will not inherit eternal life with God.
And that is a very
sad reality, and one that grieves me regularly. So many people giving lip
service to the Lord, singing their praise and worship songs, convinced that all
their sins are forgiven, and that heaven is their eternal destiny, but who are
dying and going to hell because they would not surrender their lives to Jesus
Christ. They would not deny self, die daily to sin, and walk in obedience to
God’s commands. But they continued in their deliberate and habitual sin and
would not submit to Christ as Lord.
So, don’t take God’s
grace for granted. Don’t assume that just because you made a profession of
faith in Jesus Christ, and/or that you got baptized, and/or that you attend
weekly “church” gatherings where you lift your hands and verbally sing songs of
worship and praise of God, that God is now pleased with you and that heaven is
guaranteed you. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to Him, “Lord, Lord,”
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father
who is in heaven.
[Is 29:13-16; Is
53:1-12; Matt 7:21-23; Matt 26:26-29; Lu 9:23-26; Lu 17:25; Jn 1:1-36; Jn
6:35-58; Jn 8:24,58; Jn 10:27-33; Jn 20:28-29; Rom 5:8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14;
Rom 9:5; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 11:23-32; 1 Co 15:1-8; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Eph
4:17-24; Php 2:5-11; Col 2:9; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 1:8-9; Heb 2:14-15; Heb 4:15; 1
Pet 2:24; 2 Pet 1:1; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
Songwriters: L. David Lewis / Kim Williams / Edward
Monroe Hill
There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on and on
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone
Here they talked of revolution
Here it was they lit the flame
Here they sang about tomorrow
And tomorrow never came
From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
And I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On this lonely barricade
At dawn
Phantom faces at the window
Phantom shadows on the floor
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more
Oh my friends, my friends
Don't ask me what your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uethb1O3a0E
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Empty Voices Singing Empty Praise
An Original Work / November 24, 2024
Reposted October 5, 2026
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