Covenant with death (continue from previous post Fear God)
After few days of praying and seeking, the Holy Spirit explained this to me; Isaiah 28 has been going on for a very long time. The evil ones set up traps to lure God’s children into “covenant with death” in various forms. For example, signing a “church membership covenant” is required for anyone who wish to serve in the church. The specific content may vary, but they all include attendance and offering commitment. This usually means agreeing to affirm your commitment to follow the teachings and practices of the leadership and congregation.
All true believers have a New Covenant with God already, but many are unaware of it’s real value and meaning. I am also ignorant of what covenant really is until re-reading these scripture; Gal 3:15 (NIV) Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. Covenant is like an oath, unlike a contract, the signer can not set aside or suspend his commitment regardless the congregation will follow Christ or not. In essence, it can be used as a tool for control and manipulation of the flock!
We should focus on the New Covenant; Heb 9:14-15 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance–now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
It is written, Jer 31:31-34 “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. …… “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.“
Those who have the new covenant will be know and seen by everybody; 2Cor 3:2-6 (NIV) You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant–not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Jesus had made it very clear; Matt 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. God’s people have to be very careful, a covenant may have impact on spiritual life. We have to ask, what is the real intent of man-made church covenant that require submission to a group which include both sheep and goat? For it is written; Acts 20:29-30 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, always seek God for an answer, Do not trust men, as it is written; Jer 17:5 (NKJV) Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.
Beware a ‘den of deceivers’
Certain people with hidden agenda use church membership covenant to deter the sheep from following their Good Shepherd — Jesus. They subtlety reject the leadership and authority of the Lord in all church activities, such as what to preach, what to pray and what to do. Decisions are made by men through vote, not by God through prayer. The main goal is to deceive the sheep into submission to man-made doctrine from false teacher, which is exact the opposite of Jesus’ teaching; Rev 2:2 (NIV) I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. Jesus instructed his children to test their leaders, for many are false.
Furthermore, some pastor’s conference are held mainly for exchange ideas on how to increase attendance by not to offend anyone. They make the flock only hear sermons with carefully selected scriptures that never deal with sin, nor call for holiness, righteousness and repentance. The congregation knows very little about how to pick up their cross to repent and imitating Jesus to do the will of the Father. These leaders have lots of blood on their hands, as it is written; Acts 20:26-27 (NKJV) “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
In these type of “churches” Jesus remain largely a very remote figure, almost no one hear His voice for instruction to do anythings. All warnings against sin and false teacher from God’s word are tossed out of the window, under the guise of peace and unity. They create a delusion that every member who passed away went to be with the Lord, so people feel “save” regardless living in sin or not. Many may not even know what is sin from the beginning, they don’t care to seek the Lord about it. They don’t like what Paul did; Phil 3:18-19 (NKJV) For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame –- who set their mind on earthly things.
Eternal condemnation
I was inquiring of the Lord on what type of sin that lead to death, because John wrote; 1John 5:16-17 (NKJV) If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
After praying, the following scriptures came to me; Gal 1:8-9 (NIV) But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
Jude 1:4 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Generally there are two groups of people in churches, one is willing to obey the word, imitating Christ to do God’s will, another does not. As it is written; 1Cor 11:1 (NKJV) Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. Eph 5:1-2 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Whoever refuse to imitate have believed in vain as it is written; 1Cor 15:2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you–unless you believed in vain.
Woe to those who preach sermons with cherry-picked scripture in order to get more people. Remember Jesus’ word, Matt 23:13-14 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
Fruit of false prophet
Jesus warned us, Matt 7:15-20 (NKJV) “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Recently, I was meditating what is this “fruit” and how to distinguish it? Then these scripture came to me; Acts 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. And Eph 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Doing good works is the fruit that false prophets are not interested at all.
1Cor 11:1 (NKJV) Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. No false prophet or false leader will say, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ”, because they don’t think it’s necessary.
John 10:11-13 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
False prophet and false teacher have one thing in common, they have no fear of the Lord whatsoever, nor interest in the oracles of God or the rhema, word coming from the mouth of God. In the same way, if anyone does not have any fear of the Lord, he will be deceived by false prophet and false teacher over and over again.
Now let’s learn to fear God by praying or meditating the following verses from the Psalms (NKJV);
- Ps 25:12 Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
- Ps 25:14 The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant.
- Ps 86:11 Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
- Ps 2:11 Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling.
- Ps 19:9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
- Ps 27:1 THE LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
- Ps 33:8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
- Ps 33:18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy,
- Ps 34:7 The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.
- Ps 34:9 Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him.
- Ps 103:13 As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him.
- Ps 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children,
- Ps 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.
- Ps 112:1 PRAISE the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments.
- Ps 115:11 You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.
- Ps 115:13 He will bless those who fear the LORD, Both small and great.
- Ps 118:4 Let those who fear the LORD now say, “His mercy endures forever.”
- Ps 128:1 BLESSED is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways.
- Ps 128:4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the LORD.
- Ps 147:11 The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.
I have repeated them many times, but still not sure how much my heart knows the fear of the LORD. However, I know more about this verse now; Luke 19:46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” Now let’s pray again psalm 123 and 68;
UNTO You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He has mercy on us.
Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
Our soul is exceedingly filled With the scorn of those who are at ease, With the contempt of the proud.
LET God arise, Let His enemies be scattered; Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.
As smoke is driven away, So drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
But let the righteous be glad; Let them rejoice before God; Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly.
Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name YAH, And rejoice before Him.
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
O God, when You went out before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness,
The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
You, O God, sent a plentiful rain, Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, When it was weary.
Your congregation dwelt in it; You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor.
The Lord gave the word; Great was the company of those who proclaimed it:
“Kings of armies flee, they flee, And she who remains at home divides the spoil.
Though you lie down among the sheepfolds, You will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver, And her feathers with yellow gold.”
When the Almighty scattered kings in it, It was white as snow in Zalmon.
A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan.
Why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks? This is the mountain which God desires to dwell in; Yes, the LORD will dwell in it forever.
The chariots of God are twenty thousand, Even thousands of thousands; The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.
You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the LORD God might dwell there.
Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!
Our God is the God of salvation; And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.
But God will wound the head of His enemies, The hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses.
The Lord said, “I will bring back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
That your foot may crush them in blood, And the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies.”
They have seen Your procession, O God, The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; Among them were the maidens playing timbrels.
Bless God in the congregations, The Lord, from the fountain of Israel.
There is little Benjamin, their leader, The princes of Judah and their company, The princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.
Your God has commanded your strength; Strengthen, O God, what You have done for us.
Because of Your temple at Jerusalem, Kings will bring presents to You.
Rebuke the beasts of the reeds, The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples, Till everyone submits himself with pieces of silver. Scatter the peoples who delight in war.
Envoys will come out of Egypt; Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God.
Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth; Oh, sing praises to the Lord,
To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old! Indeed, He sends out His voice, a mighty voice.
Ascribe strength to God; His excellence is over Israel, And His strength is in the clouds.
O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!