Psalm 50:1-6
(NKJV)The Mighty One, God the Lord, Has spoken and called the earth From the rising of the sun to its going down. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth.
God is judge
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people: "Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge.
The time has come when God will gather His children to Himself to reveal His glory, but He will first judge them according to His standard (The Word of God) so that they can be qualified to be His vessels, carrying His glory. This judgement is not the eternal judgement that will take sinners to hell (I'm not saying there will not be an eternal judgement.). This particular judgement is purposely for the Church. The Lord will use this judgement to purify His Church in order to make her ready for the times to come.
It is obvious from the current trends that biblical prophecies are gradually unfolding themselves into reality, therefore the Church need to be ready for these times. The Bible says at the last days, perilous times shall come (1Tim 3:1) - These perilous times that Paul was telling Timothy about is not the great tribulation that will take place after the saints of the Lord are carried away, but the difficult times that will come; times where men will love themselves and money rather than the Church, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and other unpleasant manifestations of the flesh will find their way into the church. These are the days the Bible was referring to when it said knowledge shall increase. I am rest assured that the times that Paul was talking about are very near or even here - The fact that he was warning Timothy about these times shows that the times were even near as at his time. Now when
you take a critical look at the Church in present times, you will realise that most of these things that apostle Paul was warning Timothy about are all over in all kinds of Churches today.
We should get one thing clear; Paul was not referring to unbelievers alone in this message, in fact, most of the things he was saying are about Christians getting corrupted and the Church losing her focus and foundation. This is why the Lord's new Church have to be judged, purified and prepared for the most difficult times to come. Paul even touched this issue of judgement slightly here in the 9th verse - 'but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.' (2 Tim 3:9 NKJV) - These judgement will expose most people and those that God will be merciful to will repent, but some will harden their hearts, they will allow their pride to steal away their salvation.
you take a critical look at the Church in present times, you will realise that most of these things that apostle Paul was warning Timothy about are all over in all kinds of Churches today.
We should get one thing clear; Paul was not referring to unbelievers alone in this message, in fact, most of the things he was saying are about Christians getting corrupted and the Church losing her focus and foundation. This is why the Lord's new Church have to be judged, purified and prepared for the most difficult times to come. Paul even touched this issue of judgement slightly here in the 9th verse - 'but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.' (2 Tim 3:9 NKJV) - These judgement will expose most people and those that God will be merciful to will repent, but some will harden their hearts, they will allow their pride to steal away their salvation.
"God is Judge (vv. 4, 6; 7:11; 9:8; 11:4-7; 75:2; 96:10,13; 98:9), and judgment begins with His own people (1 Peter 4:17). They are "godly ones," that is, a people set apart exclusively for the Lord because of the holy covenant (vv. 5, 16; Ex 19:1-9; 24:4-8; Amos 2:3). Some of His people had sinned, and He had been long suffering with them and silent about the matter (vv. 3, 21). They have interpreted His silence as consent (Eccl 8:11; Isa 42:14; 57:11), but now the time had come for the Holy God to speak. The purpose of this "trial" was not to judge and condemn the sinners but to expose their sins and give them opportunity to repent and return to the Lord."- (The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament © 2001-2004 by Warren W. Wiersbe. All rights reserved.)
God gathered His people and dwell among them
Those that are judged are those that will be gathered together (The gathering together is not the formation of a new denomination, but an establishment of saints with the vision and purpose of God in these times in their various localities. So that, these group of saints will form the complete spiritual body of Christ; it will no more be my church this, my church that or I am part of the church, but an issue of having a relationship with God and obeying His desire for the times. These people may be in various geographical locations but will be one in the Spirit.) how Godgathered the carnal Israel from all the other nations of the world and placed them in the land that He has promised them, as we see today, so will it be for God's spiritual Israel - Today we see a lot of powerful nations claiming to be the friends of Israel (these friendships are approaching ruins now anyway) but are they actually friends of the Lord's carnal Church - Israel - NO! The same way many organisations and denominations will claim to be for the Church, but they are not, we must be very careful. The Lord started by calling out His children from Babylon
and bringing them unto mount Zion where they shall be delivered to possess their possessions - 'But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.' (Obad 17 NKJV). There is one
more thing we should also consider here. God's judgement will come, as I said earlier, but not all will accept the judgement andrepent, but those that will repent will surely enter into a covenant with God by sacrifice. (the issue of covenant will be
discussed later) Note that only those who entered into this covenant with the Lord will be gathered together, then deliverance shall come to them causing them to possess their possessions. When these things are fulfilled, the Glory of the Lord will fill His Church and the power of Jesus Christ as exhibited on the day of Pentecost will descend among the saints. We will look into all these later in the subsequent parts of this article. For now we will continue with the issue of Covenant
with the Lord.
"Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." The saints will be gathered! Amen. Those that will enter into the covenant with God are those that will be gathered. The scripture made it clear that this covenant with the Lord will be made through sacrifice, so then, what is sacrifice as used here? The Lord said in verses 8 - 11 that he will not take the sacrifices that are always before Him; sacrifices of bulls are not what the Lord is talking about over here, He is referring to spiritual sacrifices. When we look at the relationship between God and the children of Israel in the bible, we will realise that sacrifices are gifts and offerings that they offer to God for the cleansing of their sins, thanksgiving and for the building or keeping in shape of the temple. There are other sacrifices that are not made explicit in the bible, these are the dedication of their first born sons to the Lord; the dedication of themselves to the Lord by what they were and obeying the laws of God - denying themselves to do the will of God - all these and many more put together is an emblem of the covenant the Lord had with the Children of Israel. It is worthy of note that the Old testament Israel is today's Church, no wonder apostle Paul called them 'The Church in the Wilderness'
and bringing them unto mount Zion where they shall be delivered to possess their possessions - 'But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.' (Obad 17 NKJV). There is one
more thing we should also consider here. God's judgement will come, as I said earlier, but not all will accept the judgement andrepent, but those that will repent will surely enter into a covenant with God by sacrifice. (the issue of covenant will be
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| The will fill them like the day of Pentecost |
with the Lord.
"Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." The saints will be gathered! Amen. Those that will enter into the covenant with God are those that will be gathered. The scripture made it clear that this covenant with the Lord will be made through sacrifice, so then, what is sacrifice as used here? The Lord said in verses 8 - 11 that he will not take the sacrifices that are always before Him; sacrifices of bulls are not what the Lord is talking about over here, He is referring to spiritual sacrifices. When we look at the relationship between God and the children of Israel in the bible, we will realise that sacrifices are gifts and offerings that they offer to God for the cleansing of their sins, thanksgiving and for the building or keeping in shape of the temple. There are other sacrifices that are not made explicit in the bible, these are the dedication of their first born sons to the Lord; the dedication of themselves to the Lord by what they were and obeying the laws of God - denying themselves to do the will of God - all these and many more put together is an emblem of the covenant the Lord had with the Children of Israel. It is worthy of note that the Old testament Israel is today's Church, no wonder apostle Paul called them 'The Church in the Wilderness'
(Acts 7:38). Therefore the issue of sacrifice will best be tackled
from this point of view. What sacrifices does the Church need to
complete the covenant with God. All that man can give to God is from God - when the Israelite were leaving Egypt, God gave them
Gold, Silver, precious stones, metals and a lot of things for the building of His Temple. So all the bulls, sheep, Gold etc. that
the Children of Israel used as sacrifice to God came from God Himself. The same way most of the things required from us today as
sacrifices are from God Himself. The Sacrifices as studied from the word of God are divided into three (3) main categories:
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| Covenant by Sacrifice |
complete the covenant with God. All that man can give to God is from God - when the Israelite were leaving Egypt, God gave them
Gold, Silver, precious stones, metals and a lot of things for the building of His Temple. So all the bulls, sheep, Gold etc. that
the Children of Israel used as sacrifice to God came from God Himself. The same way most of the things required from us today as
sacrifices are from God Himself. The Sacrifices as studied from the word of God are divided into three (3) main categories:
- The Offerings of Metals
- The Offerings of Colours
- The Offerings of Anointing.
The Offerings of Metals are further divided into three main subcategories:
- The Gold Offering
- The Silver Offering
- The Brass Offering.
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| What are we missing? |
Today it seems the Church is stuck at one place, some of us telling ourselves what we want to hear, claiming we are in the right path,
we have found the truth, we have found the Church. We are trying our best to make things right in the Church, but those whose eyes
have been open to see, knew that there is something wrong somewhere hence they are on their knees praying for the completevisitation of the Lord - This will not happen until we enter into a covenant with the Lord by sacrifice. The truth is the Church today is not as it was in the days of the Apostles, we have broken up, clinging unto our own understandings, forming denominations, even orgnisations with God's people. If God opens our eyes to see just a portion of His entire plan, that is it, we know it all; it is our Ministry, then we go ahead to establish our own denomination where we will have the opportunity to rule and be heard only. There are churches all over. This, brethren, is not the the original plan of God. Even those who have found the truth about the mystery of Christ and His Church are becoming fanatical about just the aspect revealed to them, unwilling to succumb to the leadership of the holy spirit. We must know that there is not even a single denomination today that is doing the complete will of God. When we talk about denominations, a lot of people point fingers to Churches with names. But is denomination all about names? The issue of denomination first crop up in the heart. Before the Church in heaven will be divided, Lucifer conceived the idea in his heart, the same thing happens with today's denominationalism, it all begins from the heart. So even if you are part of the local churches but you still consider yourself different or better than those in the denominations, know that denominationalism is cropping up in your heart, if you only want to listen to some of the brothers speak, you are denomination in the heart. I agree that the Church is still in the polishing state, and this is the message of the Lord to the Churches concerning the purification of the Church.
"Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge."
When God speaks
God Himself is the Judge not man, He knows the heart of every man. We will go deeper to see the meaning of all the objects of offering as mentioned earlier in the next part of this article.
These articles are the compilation and a critical breakdown of the messages the Lord spoke through different brothers at different place on different occasions continually - The main reason I'm confident about it.
God Bless you as you read and share them for the enlightenment of all the saints.
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