Responding to Mercy — Jason Neil

The Lord put a lot of my heart this morning to share about how we should be responding to the Lord's mercy and to the Lord's righteousness and just the Lord's goodness, what our response should be like.

Those of us who were in Chicago this last week really just experienced the Lord's goodness and it was just wonderful. That first song we sang was like, wow, this is perfect. What a fellowship. What a joy divine.

Leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness and what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way and it goes on and on, it's just great. But we had a great fellowship and just experienced the joy of the Lord the last few days and the Lord really just showed me a lot through that, like how we should then respond after witnessing the righteous acts of the Lord.

This scripture in Revelation that Joe just sang about, Revelation 15, 3 and 4, is just so appropriate. It just says how great and marvelous the Lord's works are and just and true are all his ways. And then the conclusion after considering these things, verse 4 is like, well, who wouldn't fear you?

Who wouldn't worship you? Your righteous acts have been revealed. What's wrong with all the people who don't worship God? How can you not worship God? It's just amazing. That's the proper response to God's goodness.

We show love because he first loved us and we love each other. All the goodness that we have is just a reflection of God's goodness to us. Even Jesus said, there is only one good, that's the Father. But Jesus just reflected his Father all day, every day.

Wow, just reflecting God's goodness. How should we respond serving such a wonderful and great God? What a fellowship. What a joy divine. We should just be leaning on God and just reflecting his grace and his joy.

Wow. If we could start out this morning, let's look at Romans 11. Romans chapter 11. Sometimes we have experiences that are maybe a little more difficult to rejoice in, like being in prison for the Lord or whatever.

Various hardships that we really just are a little harder to rejoice in. But boy, I tell you, in Chicago, it's really easy to rejoice in the Lord. It was just amazing to see the Lord working in the lives of the young men that we met with, and just the wholehearted devotion.

And when you see the Lord transform some lives, hearing the testimonies of these guys, I'm not going to go into great detail, we shared a lot the other night, but just hearing what the Lord has done and just totally changed, it's just really neat.

It's really neat to hear that, because those of us who are his true children have experienced that too. Just walking in depravity and just wickedness, and then just, bam, getting changed by the Lord, becoming a new creation, and just all things becoming new.

And just to see that, even the fresh experience of that. And one of the guys, Pepe, he's been walking with the Lord since February. Just to see, and the other guys, they haven't known the Lord for 50 years or something, but they're just sold out to God.

It's just wonderful. So the end of Romans 11, verses 33 -36. It says, Oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. That's just like, as you're reading through the book of Romans, those verses just kind of stick out of there.

I believe Paul's just writing and all of a sudden he's just, wow! The depths and the riches of God. Wow! It's pretty amazing. Pretty marvelous. And just amazing, beyond description. His ways and His knowledge is just so high and His judgment is unsearchable.

And just concluding, wow! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who can really figure out the way God operates and understand every detail? And no one has ever given to God that God should repay Him. And that just speaks of God's mercy.

The good things we receive from God aren't a reward or aren't a payback from something. Nobody has ever given to God to deserve anything good from His hand. Period. Never. And just realizing that, wow!

God is it. He is everything. For Him, through Him, and from Him comes all things it says. That's it. God is it. He is the all in all. I mean, He is everything. And then continue. How should we respond?

Wow, recognizing this, getting a glimpse of God's greatness. What should we be like? And so Romans 12 continues. If we could just read the end of Romans 11 and then the beginning of 12, like there isn't a chapter separation that was inserted by some people earlier ago.

Because it starts out, it says, It says, I beseech you, therefore. Therefore. What's the therefore? Therefore. It's therefore. It's there for the conclusion of chapter 11. Remembering just how great God is and how wonderful.

He is everything. I mean, through Him and to Him and for Him are everything. We don't deserve any good from His hand because He's not repaying us. And therefore, it says, Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So therefore, in view of God's mercy, because of God's mercy, the natural response, the reasonable, rational response is just to, well, yield yourself to God.

If you really understand that from Him and through Him and for Him are all things, you'll just, oh, yeah, I'm going to yield myself to Him since from Him and to Him and through Him are all things. He's great and marvelous.

He's so high. He's so far above us. I'm just going to yield. I'm going to be a living sacrifice. It says it's your reasonable service. At the end of verse 1. Some translations translate it spiritual act of worship and things.

I was a little curious about that word reasonable and couldn't figure out really where spiritual came from because it means, it's like Greek is logicos or something like that. It's logical, rational, reasonable.

It's like the common sense conclusion. If you really comprehend the greatness of God, it's to do this. Be a living sacrifice. And we've looked at this verse a lot, and many of us have probably memorized that.

But it's got to be in view of God's mercy as a result of His goodness. We can't just sit down with a checklist and go, oh, okay, I'm going to get renewed here in my mind and I'm going to do this because this verse says so.

This needs to be in a response to God's mercy because of God's goodness. And I think the reason why a lot of people don't do these two verses, Romans 12, 1 and 2, is because they have no understanding of the end of Romans 11 or the goodness of God.

Because if they really understood God's goodness, they would submit to Him. They would give Him their all. They would be a living sacrifice for Him. 1 Peter 2, maybe verse 2, it says, to crave, desire that pure spiritual milk of the Word, so you can grow thereby.

If so be you've tasted that the Lord is good. The result of tasting something good is you would like seconds and thirds. So if indeed we've tasted of the Lord's goodness, we're going to crave His Word, we're going to be renewed by His mind.

We're going to renew our mind by His mind. We're going to seek to have the mind of Christ. And so not conforming any longer to the pattern of this world, all of a sudden it doesn't become a hardship to do that.

Like 1 John 5 says, these commandments are not grievous, they're not burdensome. They're liberating the liberty of the children of God, the freedom not to be bound to these things anymore. And it's all in view of God's goodness.

Having an understanding, just experiencing the goodness of God. You know, Saul on the road to Damascus, he couldn't be the same after he experienced God's goodness. He just couldn't. It was impossible.

I mean, he started facing death right away. Boom, boom, boom, boom. I mean, immediately after his conversion. They're plotting to kill him. They let him down through a window or something like that. How's that for a babe in Christ, you know?

I mean, just, wow! He's just going. And so in view of God's mercy, you know, Psalm 116. Psalm 116, verse 12. It says, How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me? How can I? But notice, that's the thought of the psalmist here.

I'd really like to repay God. I know I can't. None of us in this room can even repay God for the goodness that He's shown to us. Nobody can. So what can we do? Well, the only reasonable conclusion from all this is just to be a sacrifice for Him.

That doesn't cut it. I mean, that doesn't really match or repay Him in any way. It's just all we have. That's all we can do is just offer ourselves. That's it. So it's not like we're even to be commended for that.

You know, Jesus said in Luke somewhere that after you've done every single thing I've told you to do, after you've obeyed me fully, your reaction should be, well, we're only unprofitable servants. We're just servants.

We've only done our duty. But we're not going to have that mindset. Nobody will have that mindset if we don't understand the goodness of God. Romans 2 also speaks about God's kindness and God's goodness.

Romans 2, verse 4 says,. Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? God's kindness, His goodness, His mercy, the revelation of who He is leads us to repentance.

It leads us to become living sacrifices. That's what happens when somebody repents. They decide to become a living sacrifice for God. It's not this process of, well, I mean, how can you see God's goodness and keep some selfishness for yourself?

That's not what the Bible says. The reasonable response to God's kindness and goodness is to sacrifice yourself for Him. That's what it says. And so here, showing contempt for God's kindness, God's goodness, really is just failing to offer yourself as a living sacrifice.

You're despising the riches of His kindness because His goodness, His kindness leads you to become a living sacrifice, leads you to repentance. From one time you're going your own way, and later you turn around and you become God's servant, God's instrument for His glory.

So one proper response to God's goodness is repentance. It is the proper response. It is becoming a living sacrifice. And to do that, we need to have, to really live as living sacrifices, it's imperative.

You've got to understand God's goodness. You've got to understand just how great God is. You've got to have an accurate picture of God and then an accurate picture of yourself. Well, Luke 3. You know, God in His richness, in His mercy, in His loving kindness, He prepared people for the coming of His Son.

He did. He prepared them. He said, well, gee, I'm going to send my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ here, and I've got to send a messenger to prepare His way before Him. And this was John the Baptist. And so in Luke 3, we get a glimpse of what kind of things John told the people to prepare them for Christ.

Now, John told the people how great Christ was. I'm not even worthy to untie His sandals. He's going to be baptizing you with the Holy Spirit and He's got His winnowing fork and all these great things that He said about God.

But you know what? He also gave the crowds an accurate picture of themselves. And in verse 7, as John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by Him, he said, You brood of vipers. Oh, brood of vipers.

Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? And then what does he say? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Change your lives. Become a living sacrifice. Don't even start to say to yourself, Oh, we've got Abraham as our father.

We're good people. Don't even go there, he says. For I tell you that out of these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham. The proper way to see yourself is a brood of vipers. Wicked people. Wretched.

So we sing that song, Amazing Grace, that saved a wretch like me, right? So we are unworthy. And when we understand both those things and have an accurate picture of who we are and who God is, now I add the picture, not only the goodness of God, but who we are.

Add that to the picture here and then we see how much more reasonable it is to become a living sacrifice. Not only how good God is, but how wretched and miserable, sinful we were. But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Wow! We were sinners. Christ died for us. Goodness and wretchedness. What's the way out here? It's to reconcile the two. Repentance. Living sacrifice. Join God's team, if you will. 2 Corinthians 5. Just another scripture that talks about our response to the love and mercy of God.

2 Corinthians 5. Verse 14 and 15. It says, For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

Well, there we have it right there. Again, it talks about not living for self, living for Him. That's why He died. That was the purpose. So we have stopped living for ourselves, become a living sacrifice, wholly set apart to do His will.

That's why He came. And look in verse 14. It says, Christ's love compels us. Some translations read, constrains us. I was really interested in that word. And I looked it up and got a better meaning of the Greek word.

And it just means, the literal word is to arrest, like you're arresting a prisoner. That's kind of neat. Figuratively, it means to compel, perplex, preoccupy. So in other words, we are so preoccupied and just amazed, blown away, perplexed by God's love, that it's like we've been arrested by His love and we can't do anything else in response.

We're like a prisoner of Christ's love and just loving to be there. That's really what it's like. This same word, compel, was used in Luke 8 .37 after the demon-possessed man in the Gerasenes was healed and the people were overcome, it says, with fear and they didn't want Christ there.

They were overcome with fear. Overcome is the same word in Greek as compel. So picture that. We are overcome by Christ's love. We are just so deeply persuaded that this is how we react. We stop living for ourselves and we live for Him.

And again, I'm convinced that those who still live for themselves have not tasted of the love of Christ. They have not experienced that goodness. If they had, what would their life be like? They've either outright rejected the goodness of God, they choose to ignore it, or they deceive themselves, whatever, but they are not experiencing the goodness of God, because if they were, their lives would reflect it by being a living sacrifice.

This is reiterated in 1 Peter 4, 1 -2. 1 Peter 4, 1 -2. It says, therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude. Notice what it's saying there. Since Christ suffered in His body, the natural response is to... maybe I shouldn't use the word natural.

The reasonable response is to arm yourselves with that same attitude. Why? Because He who suffered in the body is done with sin. As a result, He does not live the rest of His earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God, just like we read in 2 Corinthians 5 just a minute ago.

I'd like to read this in the New Living Translation. It's pretty neat. So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude He had, and be ready to suffer too. For if you are willing to suffer for Christ, you've decided to stop sinning, and you won't spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but you'll be anxious to do the will of God.

Anxious, eager to do the will of God. So therefore, in view of God's mercy, because Christ suffered, arm yourselves, get that same mind, get that same attitude. Maybe we can turn over to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 10.

Now this passage gives us some practical applications of what it's like to be a living sacrifice. We've talked this morning about the proper response to God's mercy and just being a living sacrifice. Well, how does that carry out in our daily walk?

What practical examples is there for us to pattern ourselves after in Scripture? And this Scripture gives us some, starting in maybe verse 10. It says, Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. There's mercy again. We've received the mercy, the goodness of God. Again, the response. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul.

Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. There's a response to having received God's mercy.

Now, Peter's writing here and he's saying live such a good life among these people. Among the people. We are in the world. We're not of the world. So, other people are going to see our lives here. Verse 13 says, Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men, whether to the king as a supreme authority, or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

There's the authorities. We can submit ourselves to the authorities. That's one practical aspect. We're not going to try to skirt around the law. A lot of people try to do that. We're going to obey the laws that are set up for us.

Why? One of the reasons is we're going to live such a good life. We're so above reproach that other people can see our good deeds. Even Jesus advocated paying tax to the Roman government. Then verse 15 says, For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

Now this is God's will we're talking about here. We know that in Matthew 7 .21, Jesus says, No, not the people who just call me Lord, Lord. Not everybody who calls me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father.

So this is God's will it says here. Pretty important stuff. So it's God's will that by doing good... So all embedded in these verses, we've got God's will, and we've got some instruction on how to do good.

The first practical, concrete thing we came to is to submit to the authorities. It says, Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Live as servants of God. That sounds familiar.

It kind of sounds like a living sacrifice. It says, Show proper respect to everyone. Love the brotherhood of believers. Fear God. Honor the King. Be respectful to people. Now we get something interesting in verse 18.

Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect. Not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. Wow. Now that's an interesting thing. Submit to your masters?

Slaves? Even to the harsh ones? Wait a minute. I could serve God much better if I just ran away. No. That wouldn't be living such a good life among these pagans. That though they accuse you of doing wrong, they can't help but glorify God on the day He visits us.

Instead, Peter's advice is, Ah, just submit. What kind of testimony do you think that is? When you submit, well, we'll find out what it says. It says, For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.

Again, conscious of God. You have God's goodness. You're being conscious of how great God is. But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable for God. And then verse 21 says, To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps.

He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth. So these slaves here that Paul's writing to really had a unique opportunity to suffer unjustly. We can apply this today to maybe employees and employers.

Talking, a lot of other teachers at work really sometimes talk not so good about the principles or administration and different policies and procedures. And you know what happens at work is that we have one principal, two assistant principals.

They're under superintendent and assistant, two superintendents and they're under the governor and all this kind of stuff. Well, what happens is that the building principals say, Hey, I want everybody to do this, do this.

Certain principles. Stay outside your doors between passing time. Some people do it, some people don't. We have different policies. The principal will say, I'd like you to follow this procedure for giving students passes to use the bathroom.

Some people do it, some people don't. I follow the policy. And so when I follow the policy, Hey, I got to fill out your pass in your planner there. Get it out so I can sign it. Oh no, Mr. So-and-so doesn't make us.

Mr. So-and-so doesn't make us. Wow. Does that make for an inefficient operation of a school or what? So we can take that and look at when our employers tell us to do something, we can all just do it and everybody's good.

Everybody's the better off for it and we'll be living such a good life that people will end up glorifying God because of us. In Ephesians 6, verse 6, kind of reiterates the same thing about slaves and masters.

And I'd apply it. Obviously, none of us in this room are literally slaves and masters, but we do have obligations to fulfill. A lot of us have employers. Not all of us. Some of us are self-employed, but still need to be faithful to your responsibilities.

Ephesians 6, verse 5 says, "...Obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them, not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.".

There's the will of God again. Doing the will of God from the heart. Matthew 12, verse 50 says, "...Whoever does the will of God...". He's my brother, sister, and mother. "...doing the will of God.". And so, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 18 says, "...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.".

It's the will of God for you is to give thanks in all circumstances. And I guess after reading 1 Peter, we can say especially when you're being treated unjustly, because that's commendable before God.

As I was looking at these things, I thought about forsaking all. Luke 14, verse 33 says, Jesus is speaking and He says, "...Any of you, you want to be My disciples, you've got to forsake all you have.".

Period. That's it. You've got to. If you don't, you can't be My disciple. And that's really what we've been talking about, right? Being a living sacrifice. How can you be selfish, keep stuff for yourself, if you're somebody else's slave?

If you've sacrificed yourself for God. That doesn't really make too much sense. So of course Jesus would say, you've got to forsake all that you have. So all people are called to forsake all. And we saw some great examples of that when we were in Chicago the last few days.

These guys had forsaken all. A couple of them, both guys named Chris, had just stopped going to college and they just forsook all. They really, literally and physically, just stopped doing a lot of things.

And Justin, at the University of Southern California, forsook all. But he stayed in college. And he continued to go to college to the glory of God. It was crucifying his heart though, just like it was crucifying Chris' life too.

So we see in the Scripture, we see that everybody forsakes all, forsakes everything. But not everybody forsakes everything physically. It's all crucified in our hearts. But for example, most of us in this room, I think all of us have a house.

We have not left our houses and we don't live on the street corner now to serve God. But we better have our houses crucified in our heart, forsaken, so that if it burnt down, we can rejoice. If God called us to go to the street, we can give thanks in all the circumstances, even that one.

The example from Scripture, we don't want to justify our lives just because we've done it. But the example from Scripture, some people are called to physically forsake houses, lands, families, whatever, for the kingdom of God.

Some people weren't. They're all required. Everybody, Jesus said in Luke 14 .33, had to forsake everything, but not all physically. Everything had to be crucified in your heart. There's lots of examples from this, but we all are familiar with the rich young ruler.

In Matthew 19 .21, the rich young ruler was told he kept all God's commandments, he said, and all this stuff, and Jesus said, you lack one thing. I want you to sell your possessions, leave your home, give it all to the poor, and then come follow Me.

So in coming to follow Me, you've left your home, you've left everything, you've physically gotten rid of everything, and you're going to come follow Me. The man from the Gerasenes, I mentioned him earlier in Luke 8 .39, he was healed.

Jesus cast out two demons. And he said, Lord, I'll follow You anywhere. It's gone. He forsook all. It's crucified in his heart. And Jesus says, no, go back home. Go to your home. Here he is trying to physically forsake his home and his homeland, but Jesus said, no, I want you there.

I understand it's crucified in your heart, but you're going to be there because I want you to tell what God's done for you. That's just one example from Scripture, or a couple examples from Scripture.

Everybody, hopefully that's clear, everybody needs to forsake everything in their heart. Crucify it all. It's gone. How that manifests itself physically is up to the will of God. So then we've got a couple pitfalls that people fall into.

Some people would just as soon forsake some outward things or get some outward things right. Make it look good on the outside, but they haven't forsaken all in their heart. Now, what they do on the outside might make it look pretty good.

They might be able to fool some men, but they won't fool God because God says forsake all. So some people give up lots of stuff. Jesus says in Matthew 23, some people travel over land and sea to win only one convert.

But then they make them twice as much a son of hell as they are because they're not sold out to God. So God isn't only interested in physical sacrifices. He wants, first of all, our heart to be fully submitted.

So some people don't take heed to that and think that they can hold back places in their heart reserved for themselves, and yet they've given up seemingly so much for God. Isaiah 1 talks to such people.

So maybe these people, I like to spend a lot of time in prayer. Oh, I spend hours in prayer every day they might say. But you know what? If their heart's not right with God, if they haven't forsaken all in their heart, God doesn't even hear their prayer.

Isaiah 1, starting in verse 15. He says, When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Why not? It says your hands are full of blood.

Wash and make yourselves clean. Repent. Be a living sacrifice. Take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong. All of it. Learn to do right. Seek justice. Encourage the oppressed. And he goes on and talks about some things that they need to reform.

But that shows you right there, prayer doesn't do it. You might be forsaking time or something to go pray. If it's merely outward and physical and not in your heart, if you haven't forsaken all in your heart, if you're not that living sacrifice, if you haven't responded to God's mercy, God's goodness, in a reasonable way, and you just want to respond with offering lots of prayers, even if you offer many prayers, God says He's not going to listen.

Oh, but maybe I'll be a worship leader in my church. Or I'll be in the choir. Let's look at Amos 5. Amos 5 .23 God is speaking through the prophet Amos and God says, Away with the noise of your songs.

I will not listen to the music of your harps, but let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream. Continual, complete righteousness is what God wants. He wants you to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

He doesn't want you to sing songs if you're not right with Him. That's why Amos says, well, God says, Away with the noise of your songs. It's noise. I can't stand it. I think about that on Sunday mornings when we're singing to God, or Friday nights, whenever we sing, I often think about, wow, right now there's probably other people singing to God and God's just saying, Stop.

Don't sing anymore. I'm just thankful that as we can have fully submitted, fully submitted hearts to God, that God can be pleased with our songs. He delights in the songs of His saints, but with some people, He's like, no, no, stop the worthless singing.

Maybe if I read my Bible more, that will make me right with God. Well, only if you take heed to it. Only if you respond to His mercy by becoming a living sacrifice. Let's look at Psalm 50. So some people resort to, oh, I pray a lot?

I'm in the church choir. I read my Bible a lot maybe. Well, in Psalm 50, verse 16, it says, But to the wicked, God says, what right have you to recite my laws, or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.

Can you imagine that? I mean, you think it's pretty nice to recite God's words and read them. But God's actually saying to some people, what are you doing this for? You're not listening. You haven't even responded to what you've read.

Maybe we could turn over to Jeremiah 7. So we don't want to put our confidence in these things. We don't want to examine our outward looks and how we're doing things. We want to examine the heart. God looks at the heart.

And so in Jeremiah 7, there's some people that are trusting in the temple. Oh, I worship at the temple, they say. God says it's deceptive to trust in the temple. It's deceptive to trust in your church.

It would be deceptive to trust in this fellowship. Jeremiah 7, verse 4. Well, maybe we could do verse 2. Let's start in the beginning of the chapter. Verse 1 of Jeremiah 7. So this is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message. Unfortunately, the Lord's house has become a place at the gate of the house where we need some preachers. Because they're just like these people in Jeremiah.

It says, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says. Reform your ways and your actions and I'll let you live in this place.

That's what we've been reading all the time. Hey, become a living sacrifice. Reform your own ways. Conform to mine. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, This is the temple of the Lord. The temple of the Lord.

The temple of the Lord. If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I'll let you live in this place in the land I gave your forefathers forever and ever.

But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. V. 9, Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to bale and follow other gods you have not known and then come and stand before me in this house which bears my name and say we're safe?

Safe to do all these detestable things and we are safe, we are delivered? We're saved? We're saved and so we can continue to sin? No. That's not what God wants. He wants complete reformation of all your ways and actions.

And it says put no gods before me in the end of v. 6. Don't follow other gods. In the words of the New Testament, that might mean crucify everything else in your heart. Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, it says in 1 Peter.

So we've looked at that. Praying, singing, reciting God's words, going to the temple, going to church. All these are physical, outward things that people do in a way they can point to these things and say, see, I've forsaken all.

I've forsaken all. But they reserve in their hearts things that oppose God. So we don't want to be like that. One more verse about the temple. It's just amazing. I can just hear the Lord in Malachi 1.

Malachi 1, v. 10. He says, oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors so that you would not light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty. I will accept no offerings from your hands.

I'm not going to accept your sacrifices if it's part way. Oh, you might be sacrificing some things, but you're not a living sacrifice to Me. I can just hear them. Oh, man, if they could just shut that door, then these people wouldn't be praying, they wouldn't be singing to Me, they wouldn't be reciting My laws.

Well, if I could just stop that. It's like a stench in God's nose. So we don't want to do that. We don't want to take the message of the Bible and make excuses for ourselves, look real good outwardly, and reserve one little thing in our heart.

We don't want to do that. Well, you don't want to go the other way either. There's another pitfall you can do. You can take advantage of this concept in the Bible of forsaking everything in our heart.

And therefore, the outside doesn't matter anymore. Oh, believe me, everything's crucified in my heart. Oh, yeah, I know I'm doing this and this and this, but God doesn't really care because it's all in my heart.

Well, the Bible teaches that if everything is crucified in your heart and you have forsaken all for God, it will manifest itself outwardly. Thus, we read in 1 Peter that we'll be living such good lives among the pagans.