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THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS

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THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS

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  1. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts?

  2. “Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies--I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.”

  3. “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

  4. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:10-20)

  5. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • Israel had rejected the law of God. • They had rebelled against the Lord. • They had forsaken the Lord. • They had become like the peoples of Sodom and Gomorrah. • However, they still kept the external rituals of their religion. • But God is not honored by rituals when the lives of those involved are not righteous. • God did not look with delight on their sacrifices nor did He listen to their prayers. • The heart of the problem was a problem of the heart. • The solution: • A necessary change. • A need for an obedient heart. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” (Isaiah 1:2-3) Hear, Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. (Isaiah 1:4) “Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” ( Isa. 29:13-14) Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

  6. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • It was during this period of infidelity that Isaiah prophesied the coming of the Messianic Kingdom. • Notice verse 3 in particular. • Many people will be taught God’s ways.. • They will then walk in God’s paths.. The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. (Isa. 2:1-2) Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isa. 2:3)

  7. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • Micah, contemporary with Isaiah, was the “country preacher.” • He gives us additional insight into the situation. • Justice was perverted in Judah. But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, And of justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgression And to Israel his sin. Now hear this, You heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And pervert all equity, Who build up Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with iniquity: (Micah 3:8-10)

  8. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • Micah, contemporary with Isaiah, was the “country preacher.” • He gives us additional insight into the situation. • Justice was perverted in Judah. • Religion had become commercialized. Her heads judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.” (Micah 3:11)

  9. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • God did not want a mere external religion. With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8)

  10. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • God did not want a mere external religion. • Indeed worship was to be a “bowing before God” both physically and spiritually. • How could a people humble themselves before God when they were rejecting God’s will in their everyday lives?

  11. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, “Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’” (Jer. 7:1-2)

  12. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.

  13. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?

  14. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

  15. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

  16. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. “And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer,

  17. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. “therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

  18. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. “And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren--the whole posterity of Ephraim. Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.” (Jer. 7:8-16)

  19. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. • Not only were they immoral. • But they were also idolatrous.

  20. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS “Do they provoke Me to anger?" says the Lord. "Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?” (Jer. 7:18-19) • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. • Not only were they immoral. • But they were also idolatrous.

  21. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS Thus says the Lord: “What injustice have your fathers found in Me, That they have gone far from Me, Have followed idols, And have become idolaters?” (Jer. 2:5) • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. • Not only were they immoral. • But they were also idolatrous. • And ungrateful.

  22. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS “I brought you into a bountiful country, to eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled My land and made My heritage an abomination.”(Jer. 2:7) • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. • Not only were they immoral. • But they were also idolatrous. • And ungrateful.

  23. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me; the rulers also transgressed against Me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.” (Jer. 2:8) • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. • Not only were they immoral. • But they were also idolatrous. • And ungrateful.

  24. THE PROPER SPIRIT OF TRUE WORSHIPERS • The people were coming to the temple to “worship.” • But their hearts were far from God. • Not only were they immoral. • But they were also idolatrous. • And ungrateful. • What God really wanted was an obedient people whose spirit/attitude was such that they could show honor to Him.

  25. Jeremiah 7:21-23 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’

  26. Jeremiah 7:24-26 “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

  27. Jeremiah 7:27-29 “Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’”

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