King James Bible Study – “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” – Mark 8:34
Date: Thursday, August 01, 2019
Chapters: II Chronicles 29-31, Psalm 48
Message: Meaningless Sacrifices
Hello My Friend,
As I was reading the chapters for today I could not help, but think of the state of our the Church. Thousands of congregations, and these are saved, born again brothers and sisters of Christ, have polluted the Church with bringing worldly living, sacrifices, and offerings into the Church. It is no wonder God is so angry that He has allowed the enemy to go in and attack so many churches. It is time for the Church to wake up, judgment comes to you first, God has had it with your meaningless sacrifices and does not accept them. “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 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.” – Isaiah 1:11-14.
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” A sacrifice is something we willingly give to God, our time, possessions, money, for the cause of the Church. Now, we do not bring blood offerings anymore because we are of Christ, but many Christians do bring polluted offering, including themselves into the church, and before you know it it becomes a part of the church. Once that happens it is only a matter of time before those doors are closed. II Chronicles gives us more insight into the amazing job that Hezekiah did to restore Judah and Jerusalem back to a godly nation, his own father used it to give sacrifices to his false gods before he died, and it was ruined. The first year of his reign he had the temple reopened, repaired, and cleaned.
“Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense. And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.” – II Chronicles 29:1-4,10-11,15.
“My sons, be not now negligent:” You see, it had been years, probably since Solomon, that the priests and Levites followed the Law as to service of the temple, feasts, and even the offering of the sacrifices. Churches do not close all of a sudden, it is a result of one person after another neglecting the duties of the church. If we, who are the Church, want to see God bless the Church again we need to restore our own house first, repair those broken doors, cleanse those houses from the pollutants of the world. But the Church needs to do more than fix the outside of their house, they need to fix their spirit as well, which has be polluted by their sin. Now, that the temple had been restored, Hezekiah gathered the rulers of the city to the temple, and for the first time in decades, an offering was laid out before the LORD upon the altar to consecrate the priests and Levites.
“Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD. And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the LORD. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel. And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped. Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the LORD. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings; and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings.” – II Chronicles 29:20-21,27-28,31.
“Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the LORD,” Remember, we must be cleansed ourselves if we want anything we do for God to be recognized, and accepted. The second we receive Christ as our Saviour we are consecrated by His blood, and since Jesus is the great physician of our mind, body, and spirit, it is He that is inside of us that heals our mind, body, and spirit as we serve Him faithfully. And to serve, I mean living in a way that is pleasing to God. Now, as the congregation began to hear about the revival, they too joined in, singing and praising God for all His mercies and His judgments. This song was sung during that revival.
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” – Psalm 48:1-2,9-14.
“Mark ye well her bulwarks,” Bulwark; A fortification; also, any means of defense. Christ is our defense, the one who is our guide, even unto death. God’s forgiveness, mercies, and grace are endless for His saved, born again child, but that does not mean we are to live and condone the sinful and quite abominable practices of the world, especially bring them into the Church. “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” – Romans 6:15-16.
“his servants ye are to whom ye obey;” Okay, I have to say it, these idiots that go around telling you that it is okay to believe yourself to be a woman even though you are born a male, or raise up your child to exclude their natural born gender, are an insult to God. Anyone believing this garbage, and those who bring it into the Church (and they are), are servants to those idiots, and their sin will lead them to their death. Regardless of what sin it is, it is not okay for the Church to keep or condone it. Since God created man, there have been more corrupt leaders in the Church than the congregation. Leader or not, there are things we ought to be doing that are common sense, we need to clean ourselves up, remove the things from our lives that are sinful, and serve God faithfully. Now, once the temple and priests and Levites were cleansed, Hezekiah sent letters all over the country in hopes that everyone, Jew and Gentile, would come to Jerusalem for the first true Passover since Solomon was king.
“So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him. So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD. Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought in the burnt offerings into the house of the LORD.” – II Chronicles 30:9-12,15.
“and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves,” Do you see what was going on here? These were the leaders and servants of the temple, and they had not done anything close to the Law for decades. When we come to understand, that regardless of what we were taught, whether it was through another religion or under the influence of someone else, that all of our efforts were nothing because we need Christ, that is when we repent, and true revival begins. And talk about a revival, after the Passover there were so many people stirred up for God that they came together as one, cleansing heir homes, business, and even the streets of its filth.
“Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the LORD. He appointed also the king’s portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD. Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.” – II Chronicles 31:1-4.
“that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.” Many people will get saved and go on living the lives they live unknowing that the Holy Spirit is working in them to repentance, they face affliction and challenges to get them to go beyond just receiving Christ as their Saviour, but will never truly see His blessings beyond that. However, those who take that extra step to let the Holy Spirit direct them will day by day, to cleanse themselves of the sins and idols that are within them. It is not the sacrifice that God desires more, because He knows we are sinners, it is our faithfulness to Him in doing the best we can to live as He pleases us to be. “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.” – Psalm 51:16-19.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one That prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” – II Chronicles 30:18-19.
Today’s Prayer: Jesus, Thank You for giving Your life that I do not have to give oodles of animal sacrifices to be redeemed and atoned for my sins, my simple faith in You is all that is necessary. I will never forget the day that I got baptized and decided that I wanted to dedicate my life to You, and I know You have chosen me to do a great work in You, which for the life of me I still do not understand, but whatever it is that You want me to do I will do it. I know we all have flesh and are capable of falling into sin when our heart is not right with You. Lord, prepare my way before You, give me Your power, wisdom, and guidance to serve You with all my heart. Give me the strength to stand by Your Word at all times. In fact, let me be the godly example that You need me to be so that others would see You beyond salvation for their souls. In Your name Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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