Tag: Worship

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Isaiah- Week 1- Day 5

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Isa 1:18-20

Explanation:
God had been making an argument. The people were putting their faith in performing rituals while being blatantly disobedient in every other area of their lives. What was the point of the rituals in the first place?

We know that God justified those who believed in Him. They were justified because of their faith. Their faith was demonstrated through obedience to the rituals and ceremonies that God required of them. The shedding of blood through the sacrifices God demanded were a picture of the coming sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, for the sin of the whole world.
God had been calling out the children of Israel because of their disobedience to his commands throughout their lives, and then their ritualistic adherence to the ceremonial law. Their lifestyle outside of their obedience to the rituals demonstrated their lack of faith in God. They may have had faith in the ritual, but they did not have faith in God.
So God says to them, “let us reason together.” He’s asking them to think about what He has said. If they were obedient to him and sought to obey him, every part of their lives and their faith would justify them. He depicts this transformation from dirty to clean with a very visual picture. Though their sins were as scarlet and crimson to white as snow or wool.
He then tells them that there will be blessing with obedience. If they would obey they will have his favor. But if they disobeyed they would be “devoured by the sword.” So the question he had for them could be phrased this way: “Do you want blessing and life, or do you want wrath and death?

Application:
There is a similar application for us today. True saving faith always results in works. James said it this way.

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

James 2:17-18

These people were thinking that empty ritualism and religious activity would make them right with God. The problem was their hypocritical living revealed their lack of faith in the true God. It is important for us to examine our faith as well. Do we serve God out of sheer tradition? Have we truly repented of our sin and trusted in Christ alone for our salvation? Is there evidence of our faith in God exhibited in our works, or are we content to practice our religion on Sunday and deny Him by our life the other six and a half days a week?

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2:12

And like the audience of this first chapter, this is a matter of life and death for us. We will all face eternity, and at that point the genuineness of our faith in Christ is the only thing that will matter.

Response:
• If you haven’t truly trusted in Christ as Savior, know that though your sins be as scarlet they can be as white as snow! Trust in Christ today!
• If you do know Christ as your Savior, has your worship in any way become ritualistic and dispassionate? What do you need to do for that to change?

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Authentic Worship- Isaiah- Week 1- Day 4

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Isaiah 1:16-17

Explanation:
What was the proper response once they agreed with God about their empty ritualism? How could they respond in a way that honored God to the diagnosis he was making about their spiritual health? We can see the responses in these verses by just identifying all of the verbs given as commands. Read them as a list:

  • Wash
  • Make clean
  • Put away
  • Cease
  • Learn
  • Seek
  • Relieve
  • Judge (or Defend)
  • Plead

There were some things he was calling them to do. We could categorize them by saying that He was calling for them to repent, clean up, stop doing injustice and evil, and start doing right and defending the innocent and vulnerable.

Notice He did not tell them to stop doing their religious practices. God had commanded those things. He wanted their religious practice and their lives to match. He wanted their worship on the Sabbath and their worship throughout the week to not be misaligned. There needed to be worship that came from sincere hearts devoid of hypocrisy. The sincerity of their worship would be substantiated by their willingness to walk away from evil and to do good for those who couldn’t bring them financial, political, or social advantage. This is the essence of “pure religion” as James tells us.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27

Application:
Worship is not something that happens only on Sundays. It is not limited to singing. Most ministry should not happen in a church building. Worship is what we do as we live our lives every day. Everyone is worshipping something. People worship money, material wealth, other people, false gods, themselves, and almost anything and everything else. For the believer in Christ, we must remind ourselves that our worship on Sunday does not allow for us to live however we want the rest of the week. We must worship the Lord not only with our singing, responding to the preached Word of God, and service on Sunday, but also in the way that we live with our families, live in our neighborhoods, do business in the marketplace, and interact in our communities. No matter what we do we ought to do it as unto the Lord.

This is not to minimize the importance of what we do as a gathered body of believers in weekly corporate worship. Rather, our time together in gathered worship ought to equip us to live lives of honorable worship to the Lord the rest of the week.

The way we live ought to be aligned with the way we worship.

Response:

  • Is there an area of your life that is making authentic corporate worship impossible? Look at the commands of God in verses 16 and 17 and give yourself some homework due today.

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Stop! Empty Rituals (part 2) Isaiah- Week 1- Day 3

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah 1:13-15

Explanation:
In the first few verses of this week’s passage we saw God calling out the behavior of the people of Jerusalem and Judea. Let us gain some understanding by answering three questions from these verses.

  1. What religious acts they were doing?
    In short they were doing “empty rituals.” Let’s list the words that describe them:
    • “oblations”
    • “incense”
    • “new moons and sabbaths”
    • “the calling of assemblies”
    • “the solemn meeting”
    • “new moons”
    • “appointed feasts”
    • “spread forth your hands”
    • “make many prayers”

Instead of describing what exactly each of the expressions describe, it is enough to know that it describes their participation in the ceremonial laws prescribed in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

  1. How did God see their religious expressions?
    God describes their participation as hypocritical and offensive to Him. Notice the terms describing his view of their religioucity.
    • “vain”- empty and meaningless
    • “abomination”- detestable
    • “I cannot away with”
    • “iniquity”- sin
    • “hateth”
    • “trouble”
    • “weary to bear them”
    • “hide my eyes”- He didn’t even want to look at what they were doing.
    • “I will not hear”- He was not listening or considering the worship they were offering.

Why did he see them this way?
God gives the answer for his view of their worship when he said “your hands are full of blood.” God would not accept their worship because of their participation in a lifestyle characterized by sin and injustice. Their lifestyle outside of their religious practice disqualified their worship.

Application:
Scripturally prescribed practices are not the problem. We ought to assemble with our church family for corporate worship and study of the Word of God. We ought to baptize and partake of the Lord’s Supper. Hypocrisy and injustice are the problem. When we live a life that does not show faith in God through our obedience in every part of life it damages our attempts at genuine worship. Paul warned the Corinthian church about this when he spoke about the coming to the “Lord’s table.” Notice his instruction in 1 Corinthians:

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

1Co 11:27-29

We ought to worship God in the way that He has called us to worship Him. We must do it with a right heart and life that matches the worship that we offer.

Response:
• Are you offering God honorable worship?
• Is there any way you are participating in injustice?

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Romans: Week 2- Day 2- Romans 1:20-21

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:  (21)  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Romans 1:20-21 

Explanation:

God, Himself, is not seen through physical eyes.  So how can someone be held accountable for believing in something or someone they can not see?  Paul tells us that the seen world was created by the invisible God.  By simply viewing the natural world we can come to an understanding that there is a powerful and eternal being that exists that had to create what we see.  The Holy Spirit communicates here that this is clearly seen.  God is actively revealing Himself through the created world to mankind.  We know that something before us and more powerful than us had to create this.  Paintings come from painters.  Sculptures come from sculptures.  Cars must have car designers and manufacturers.  This created world, with all of its order, is designed.  It is obvious.  Even many scientists today are coming to this conclusion.  Check out this video.Check out this video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noj4phMT9OE

The response of most people to this simple fact is not to seek out the true and living God.  Many do not respond to the light they have been given.  They do not glorify the God who made them.  They were not thankful for the common grace that was given to them.  Instead, what they do with the common grace they were given is to use this freedom and grace for themselves.  Their “imaginations”, or what they can think up to do and live for, is empty and foolish. 

Application:

The two things that they did not do in the verses in response to God is glorify Him or be thankful to Him in response to His creation.  We who believe in God, and have been changed by the Gospel, should respond in these two ways to God!  He is worthy of our worship and of our thanksgiving.  We ought to glorify Him for His eternal power and Godhead.  We should be thankful to Him for the things that He has made.

Response:

  • Take some time to worship God today through a prayer and/or a worship song giving.  Aim at giving Him glory in this way.
  • Pray a prayer with no requests, thanking God for what He has done for you.