In the previous devotion, we talked about how God never intended the ceremonial to be a permanent avenue to salvation. This devotional reading looks at two verses that gives evidence to the temporary status of only the Jews being His people and the continuation of the world.
Nuggets
- God always intended that His People would expand from just being the Jews to being all mankind.
- God intended that each of us change from what we were to be more like Him.
If you’ve been reading the other devotions in the Ceremonial Law series, you’ve figured out that God never intended the law to be the end-all, be-all. It was intended to lead them to salvation, not give them salvation.
Charnock acknowledged that. He wrote that God “… often mentioned a coming spiritual change …” He offered three verses to back up that statement.
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Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Finding Jesus through Spiritual Worship study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this series is Menander and Charnock’s Spiritual Worship.
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All Will Honor God
“‘But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations,’ says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies” (Mal. 1: 11 NLT)
God always intended that His People would expand from just being the Jews to being all mankind.
When God gave Abraham his marching orders, He didn’t say that Abraham’s descendants would be His people. He just said he would make him a great nation.
“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you’” (Gen. 12: 1-3 NLT).
The first instance where the My people designation came up was in Exodus. “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Ex. 6: 7 ESV).
The Israelites saw this as an exclusive privilege. And it was.
God didn’t call the Canaanites, the Hittites, or all those other people groups. He called the Israelites.
But it wasn’t because of their nationality. He set them apart for a reason.
In a recent devotion, we talked about performance of the ceremonial law set the Israelites apart from the other nations. It was tied up in the laws and commandments given to Moses for Abraham’s descendants.
But Jesus ushered in a new covenant that opened that up. Disciples are still set apart, but any person can be welcomed into the family if they believe Jesus is their Savior and Redeemer.
“There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you” (Gal. 3: 28-29 NLT).
But look at the address of the section verse. God said way back in Malachi that He was worshiped all around the world.
Good thing. “For the Scriptures say, ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God’” (Rom. 14: 11 NLT).
Every knee shall bow is going to happen at Judgment Day.
That goes along with Lessey’s take. Even those they are present tense verbs, Lessey said that it is prophecy.
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Jesus said He came mostly for the Jews. However, He did have many encounters with Gentiles.
- Healed a demoniac (Mt. 8: 28 – 34)
- Healed a Samaritan leper (Lk. 17: 12-19)
- Talked with the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn. 4: 5-42)
- Healed a Canaanite woman’s daughter (Mt. 15: 24-28)
- Healed the Roman centurion’s servant (Mt. 8: 8-12)
- Talked with a group of Greeks (Jn. 12: 23-32)
Go back to all around the world. The English Standard Version translated it as in every place.
That makes it spiritual worship. Remember, spiritual worship is the product of knowledge. God reveals Himself to us through His Word and His revelation by the Holy Spirit, and we worship Him.
Worship comes through faith. Faith is a gift from God and a work of the Spirit that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Glossary
Malachi said that incense would be offered over the whole world. Lilley said that the incense would come from our devout hearts.
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That is a lot off change that has to happen. But it is much needed.
Our sacrifice – our worship – has to come from the heart level, not from the ceremonial law.
All Will Grow
“They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set” (Gal. 4: 2 NLT)
God intended that each of us change from what we were to be more like Him.
There is a saying that, if something isn’t growing, it is dying. That can be said about our relationship with God.
Sanctification is about growth. Sanctification is the transformational process of the mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
It is growing our character to be like God’s. That means change — being transitory.
We know that this physical world is transitory. “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide” (Rev. 20: 11 NLT).
Vaughan instructed us that even the Church is transitory. He wrote, “And the Divine government, which is now, is mainly to illustrate the government which is to come. We have churches now; but they are only to prepare us for a state where there shall be no church — because every spot shall be holy.”
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That is why we say this life is preparing us for eternal life. We are learning now what we will be doing then.
Vaughan said that training comes in three areas.
- Gaining knowledge through instruction
- Learning new ways to direct our hearts and minds through education
- Changing our character through the creation of new habits through discipline
Now, don’t think getting knowledge is learning everything God knows. Never going to happen.
Instead, we are to learn the things of God.
- What is Heaven like? (Read Revelation).
- What will we be doing? (Worshiping!).
We have to daily find some new beauty in Jesus. We can only do that by being buried in the Word and in communication with God. We have to be in tune with the Holy Spirit.
I love what Vaughan said. He reminded us that the education — the ways to direct our hearts and minds — pulls out that which is already in us. He wrote, “But, be sure of this, there is that in you which, if you will, and if you will only let it, can expand into all that is happy, and all that is holy, and all that is useful, and all that is Divine, here and for ever.
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It is in us because we are made in God’s image. God’s character is in us. It has just been buried by our sinful nature.
Until we get that sinful nature under control and out of us, we can’t enter Heaven. We get it under control in this life by exercising discipline to build godly habits. We get it out of us by completing the Sanctification Road.
No, we are not talking about going through some self-help program. We can’t discipline ourselves. Only God can.
Remember, God corrects us through love. “For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights” (Prov. 3: 11-12 NLT).
Oh, there are going to be times that we don’t care for the discipline. But we need the struggle to get the sin out.
And think of the sweet victory!
Our job in this life is to form sinful habits and form godly ones. That is how we transition to Heaven.
Garbett said something that I hadn’t thought of it this way. He said that, really, people serving under the ceremonial law were in bondage.
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I get that in a way. People were still in spiritual bondage until Jesus came as the Sacrifice.
They had to have Old Testament faith to be set free from that bondage.
Vaughan made a great point. We will never grow out of being children of God.
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Adam has grown up now. He is an adult. Therefore, our relationship has changed because he now makes more decisions for himself. He has to do more things for himself.
We never grow to that point in our relationship with God. He will always be the Father. We will always be the child.
But that puts us in a great position. We are heirs in the kingdom of God.
Making the Connections #1
Since God is spiritual, He dwells within us. “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’” (Jn. 14: 23 ESV).
We know God does. We feel his presence.
Lessey explained that. He wrote, “A real Christian carries about with him a solemn sense of the spiritual presence of God; and he connects with that the presence of all His attributes — of power and purity and love. Wherever we go we have a present God.”
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Now, I see you jumping up and down over there. You’re saying, “But I don’t feel God!”
We can’t limit God because of our earthly feelings. He is there. He has promised never to leave us.
That doesn’t mean that sometimes He doesn’t go quiet. He has growing our faith, because faith is belief in the unseen.
If we were to always feel God’s presence, that wouldn’t be the unseen part. God has to keep silent so we can grow.
Making the Connections #2
Irons had an interesting take on what is acceptable worship for God. Yes, he said it was worshiping in spirit and truth.
It was Irons’ explanation of that that got me. He wrote, “The first idea relative to God’s ordination of worship is, that human inventions in the worship of God are rejected as hateful to Him. Open vice is not more evil in the sight of God than the mockery which is offered in human inventions. There is one offering that is pure, and that is the offering of God in Christ for us, and that alone God will accept. Its purity constitutes its value.”
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Elaine-speak
- Nothing that we create or can do on our own is acceptable for worship to God.
- Our worship has to be given to exalt God’s name. We cannot worship Him in a sinful way.
- Our worship will only be excepted when we have received Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer.
We have to worship God His way.
How Do We Apply This?
- Continue to present our best offerings to God.
- Inform our minds about God.
- Exalt the name of God.
- Worship God His way.
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Father God. We thank You that You want us to change. We want to be more like You. Help us to grow closer to You as we turn away from the sinful elements present in us. Amen.
What do you think?
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