21/09/2013 - MIND THE HONOR OF GOD

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 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? Says the LORD of hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’

Malachi 1:6

Animals without blemish and without spot were sacrificed to God up until the days of the prophet Malachi, but as time went by people stopped giving Him their best. The priests, in turn, said nothing about it because they wanted to please their congregation. So, even though they knew that the Lord required perfect sacrifices (Leviticus 22:21-22), they sacrificed blind and maimed animals, thus disobeying the command. Today, we must sacrifice our lives – stripped of any sin – on the altar of the Lord.

The theology of permissiveness makes people think there is nothing wrong about drinking a glass of wine, or a bottle. In my youth a certain man, who claimed to be a brother in Christ, told me he had been out to a bar to drink beer. When I said that he did not fear the Lord for drinking liquor, he clearly said: “Our pastor drinks wine, whose alcoholic strength is much higher than that of beer.”

If the church does not preach the truth, people are deceived by the devil. It was later discovered that the aforementioned brother also did other things that the saints of God should not do. Their offerings, their testimony and everything else they did to the Lord were like blemished animals offered by priests – a practice that was abhorred by the Lord (Deuteronomy 17:1). We cannot let go of holiness because if we do so, we will have to give account of the lives that will be lost forever.

It is useless for a preacher to blame his lack of knowledge about what people do outside the Lord’s house on the fact that the church has a large number of members. Well, if the preacher announces the Truth from the pulpit – the message that the Spirit of God reveals to him – all the congregation will be sanctified. If, however, he gets carried away by greed, he will be responsible for the destruction of his “converts.” It is better to have an empty church than one full of individuals who do not respect the Most High (Malachi 1:10).

Churches whose leaders are faithful in conveying the message that the Lord commands them to give will never be empty. On the other hand, those who receive members that are found defective and do nothing about it will undoubtedly be rejected. Nothing can replace the respect that should be given to the Lord of the harvest. Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully (Jeremiah 48:10).

We must avoid those who are notorious for despising the divine altar. Only the holy will see the Lord (Matthew 5:8, Hebrews 12:14). So do not be responsible for anyone’s sin, do the work in the fear of the Most High, because otherwise it will not be the work of God.

In Christ with Love,

R. R. Soares