SPIRITUAL DECLINE

“You also say, oh, what a weariness! And you sneer at it, says the LORD of hosts. And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand? Says the LORD” (Mal. 1:13 NKJV).

Because the people had gone far from God, the prophet Malachi had some tough things to say to them. Our verse summarizes the spiritual decline of the people. It speaks of the heart, head, and hands of the people.

Heart – “You also say, oh what a weariness.” The people were not interested in the things of God. It was boring to them. Their poor affections for God do not indict them, God but revealed the poor condition of the heart of the people. There are many folk today who are not interested in God. They get very bore and tired listening to a sermon, but these same people can sit for hours in inclement weather in a sports stadium to watch a game and not get disinterested. This reflects a serious spiritual heart problem which if not corrected will bring eternal judgment to the soul.

Head - “You sneer at it.” This speaks of the mocking and ridicule the people had for the things of God. This scorn is often done in the name of intellectualism. Folks mock sin, ridicule holiness and God’s moral laws. People think so little of God they want to run our institutes of education without mention of God. This makes us wonder at the kind of learning we get when God is excluded from our thoughts. When the head leaves out God, it produces nothing but folly.

Hands – “You bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering.” The people had brought inferior offerings to the Lord with their hands. God demanded the best, but they brought the stolen, lame, and sick. This will not pass muster with God. Some folk think they can give God trash, but it will not be accepted. Thus, we are warned about cheap dedication. It will result in our rejection by God.

(Adapted from Butler’s Daily Bible Reading 3)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown!”

John Charles (J C) Ryle (1816 – 1900)

English Evangelical Anglican Bishop

Word Study

Especially (more abundantly)

In 1 Thess. 2:17 we read, “But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire!” (KJV).

Especially (more abundantly) is the Greek word perissotérōs (περισσοτέρως =per-is-sot-er'-oce). The word means more earnestly, more exceedingly, especially, above others. In context, the apostle Paul and his companions had tried to return to Thessalonica on several occasions because of the intense longing they felt for their brethren. They did not forget about the new believers. The care and feeding of new Christians was not just an obligation these missionaries felt toward God. It was because of the love of Christ, in spite of the personal danger that they faced in Thessalonica. They wanted the people to know that the separation was only outward, not in heart.

“Fear Nots” Found in the Bible

“Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh” (Prov. 3:25 KJV).

Did You Know…

According to Psalm 84:10, one day in the courts of the Lord is better than 1000 days somewhere else.

Bible Quiz

What did a woman do to the Lord Jesus in the house of Simon the leper at Bethany?

**Answer to last week’s Bible Quiz: What special quality as demonstrated by certain Old Testament figures is spoken of in Chapter 11 of Hebrews? Faith (Heb. 11:1-40).

Names For the Lord Jesus in the Bible

“FIRSTFRUIT”

"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep!” (1 Cor. 15:20 NKJV).

1. Meaning – FIRSTFRUIT speaks of the Lord Jesus as the only One who has conquered death. He is risen from the dead never to die again. He is alive forever.

2. Insights – “Firstfruit” refers to the first sheaf of the harvest that Israel was to give to God in thanksgiving for the harvest (Lev. 23:9-14). The first sheaf (firstfruits) was the promise that the first sheaf of the forthcoming grain harvest will be followed by the rest of the sheaves. The Lord Jesus Christ as the “firstfruits” was a promise that believers would also be resurrected from the grave. All who died before the Lord Jesus Christ, and were raised again to life, died afterwards. However, the Lord Jesus is the “firstfruits” of all who shall be raised from the dead to die no more. This is a great analogy to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and that of believers.

Did You Know – Christian History

Granville Sharp was born on November 10, 1735 in Durham, England. He was an English political reformer, slavery abolitionist, and Greek language scholar.

Sharp was one of eight children and his father was a clergyman. At 15, Sharp was apprenticed to a London linen draper and then went to work as a civil servant. He had a variety of interests, including theology, for which he taught himself Greek and Latin, and music. He and his brothers and sisters often gave concerts together.

Sharp’s interest in slavery began in 1765 after he befriended Jonathan Strong, a slave who had been badly beaten by his master. When Strong’s former owner attempted to sell him back into slavery, Sharp took the case to the lord mayor and Strong was freed. He then devoted his time to forcing a definitive legal ruling on the question of whether a slave could be compelled to leave Britain. He was involved in securing the famous 1772 ruling by Lord Chief Justice William Mansfield, which reluctantly concluded that slave owners could not legally force slaves to return to the colonies once they were in Britain. This was regarded by many as effectively abolishing slavery within Britain.

Sharp also held other radical political opinions, supporting parliamentary reform and better wages for laborers. In 1776, he resigned his civil service position in disagreement with the British government’s war with its American colonists. In 1777, Sharp published a book defending the Trinity. A decade later, he published another volume which has been useful to Bible scholarship ever since. This book proposed a rule now known as “Sharp’s rule.” It deals with the Greek construction of the word ‘the’ that appears before two or more nouns that are joined by the word ‘and.’ When this construction occurs, both nouns refer to the same thing. It is important when dealing with the deity of Christ.

In the mid-1780s, Sharp became a supporter of the Sierra Leone resettlement project, which encouraged former slaves, first from Britain and then from Canada, to settle in West Africa. In 1787, Sharp and his friend Thomas Clarkson were instrumental in forming the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. They later persuaded the MP, William Wilberforce, to become their spokesman in parliament. After the slave trade was abolished in 1807, Sharp and Clarkson continued to work for the complete abolition of slavery. An accomplished classicist and biblical scholar, Sharp was also one of the founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Sharp died in London on 6 July 1813.

A Little Humor

A mother went to wake her son for church one Sunday morning. When she knocked on his door, he said, “I'm not going!” “Why not?” asked his mother. “I’ll give you two good reasons,” he said. “One, they don’t like me. Two, I don’t like them.” His mother replied, “I’ll give you two good reasons why YOU WILL go to church. One, you’re 47 years old. Two, you’re the pastor!”

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“Christ believed is salvation received!”