Esaias Said

Good Sunday morning to you, as you prepare to go to church and hear the Word of God preached consider a few things with me. In Mat. 15:7-9 Jesus says "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias (Isaiah), prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." In vain they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, as we go to church we need to make sure that our heart is right with God, and that our churches are based on Biblical doctrine, not what man thinks we are supposed to do.
If you turn over to Is. 29:13, we will look at what Isaiah said about the Israelites in his day. He said the people had removed their hearts from God because, "their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men:". We no longer have to worship out of fear, but because of His mercy and grace, we have so much more reason to keep our hearts turned toward Him.
God told Ezekiel to preach to the people and warn them about the coming captivity if they did not change their ways. However He also told Ezekiel what would happen when he did preach, in Ez. 33:30b-31 God says, "And speak one to another, every one to his brother saying, Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear they words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness". How many people today do you know that will go to church every Sunday, and sit and hear the Word preached, then walk out the door and turn their heart away from God once again?
I want to look at a couple of verses in Ps 78, starting in verse 34, the writer says that when God slew the people they returned to Him, and remembered that He was "their rock". Verse 36 says that even though they had returned to Him, they "flatter Him with their mouth, and lie unto him with their tongues". God knows when we lie to Him, so what is the point? Verse 37 tells why they acted this way, "For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in His covenant". They did not study His word, so their heart was not right with Him. The first part of verse 38 "But He being full of compassion forgave their iniquity...", He is a loving merciful, graceful God.
Even though He forgave them, their was still a price they had to pay, vs.46 "He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust" The writer is actually talking about crops, but there is a deeper meaning here also, He had a blessing waiting for them, but they turned their back to Him, so He gave it away, destroyed it because they did not deserve it. The writer also goes on to tell how they spent 40 years in the wilderness until all the original people had died, before He took them into the Promised Land.
How many times have I forfeited a blessing He had planned for me? How about you? As we go to church today, let's make sure that our heart is right with God, so we can receive the blessing He has in store for us, and so we don't lie to Him.