Godsloveandlaw's Blog

Our Lord’s great work of redemption caused to cease the sacrificial atonements of the slayed animals. Upon the cross, the veil was  ripped and from then on,  the “sacrifice” had new meanings, and was  forever changed. This being understood, is there now a new sacrifice, where we as His people are required to make?

Here is our quote, of which we shall base this post on, ” The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall keep not silence: A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness:For God is judge himself. Selah. Hear, O My people, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God (Psalm 50:1-7)

As in so many places in God’s Holy Scriptures, many revealing truths are packed into one paragraph.  Ellen White said the following ” Each of the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours, so that their prophesying is in force for us.” (Selected Messages, Vol. 3, p.338) That being the truth, then (Psalms 50:17) has  prophetic truths for us today, right now. So let us with the Spirit of Truth , look into the many applications of these words.

First we notice that our Lord is called mighty, meaning He can and will do all that He says He will do, in His word. Second, we notice “out of Zion” indicating out of His people,  aka. His church comes something beautiful.  Something performed and done by our Lord, “Our God hath shined” and “shall come”.

Next we find what work our Lord will do to obtain the “perfection of beauty”. This indicates  clearly what this event is about. “A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him… that He may judge His people.” Notice clearly He judges HIS people. This indicates a judgment of His church, since no where in the scriptures are the heathen ever referred as “His people”. Otherwise we would find “He may judge the people” or similar words. Let us ever remember our Lord is a precise Lord, never missing on any fine point of clarification. The Spirit of Truth guides us in this.

 As studious Bible students we know that there will soon be the Lord’s judgement upon His people, and it begins in His sanctuary. “For time is come that judgment must begin in the house of God…” (1 Peter 4:17)

This fire is none other than the destroying fire of His judgments upon the church!  We as SDA are well aware that the judgment of the dead began in 1844, we must be  aware that judgment of the living begins among us in the church. The heathen judgement come after us!

Next we find that after this tempestuous judgment (meaning a surprising and shocking execution of His  judgment upon His church) He shall gather His saints to Him, who have made a “sacrifice” to  Him. On the “perfection of beauty”point, it means finally our Lord has His church which is pure. He had to take the reins into His own hands to obtain this, otherwise the co-mingling would have been never ending.

We asked in the beginning of this post if there is a current sacrifice required to be made unto the Lord. The answer is –yes, most definitely. What is that sacrifice?   The answer is–we must forego worldly pleasures! The great and tempting worldly pleasures.

Our Lord said ” For whoever wants to save his life, will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35) Here we see that our Lord asks us to give up “our life” for him. Meaning our own desires and pleasures (Worldly TV, theatre, worldly music, lusts, passions,love of money, carnal habits(gluttony, tobacco, alcohol), and generally all worldly entrapment). As we begin a converted life, our life becomes a new life for Him. How many today are trying to straddle the two lives? They have one foot in the world and one foot in the Lord’s work. They believe the “smooth things” by the sleeping pastors, that they are safe, even while they continue to sin!

Ellen White says the following ” Your hearts will be where your treasure is. You are situated where there are temptations to be plunging deeper and deeper into the world, to be continually accumulating; and while you are thus engaged, the mind becomes engrosed with the cares of this life to such an extent as to shut out true godliness..no wonder that we experience so little of the illuminating influence from the heavenly sanctuary. Our desires are not in that direction, they are mostly confined to earthly pursuits, seeking for worldly things, and neglecting the eternal.” (Test.for the Church, Vol. 2, p.183)

Continuing with our reverenced quote,  we see that our Lord asks us,  He pleads–to hear Him! His word is speaking to us, will we hear?  Remember His word is His very essence, His core.  And then sadly, He confesses that He will testify against us. He has no other choice. Most have not converted and kept one foot in the world.

How is it that only 144,000 from His last church can sing a song that only they know?  One of the reasons is because they have overcome the most temptations that have ever fallen upon mankind. Since the beginning of time, there has never been the powerful and tempting worldly desires, as we have today! Every where we look we are tempted. Our friends, our relatives, the TV, the radio, the computer, music,  the shopping malls, the newspapers, everywhere! The devils have pulled out all stops in an effort to distract us, and sadly it has worked for the most part.The world and it’s many interests take our time and devotion.

If we give up these powerful entrapments that engage us to turn them into idols, we shall indeed overcome. This is what our Lord speaks about in (Rev.21:7) “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

So in closing my beloved, let us look upon the final goal, to walk the golden streets and drink of the pure life giving water, and behold our majestic King, His hands, His sacrifice for us. When we realize that our sacrifices really are  investments into life eternal with  our King, and all the rewards He will bestow, it really shouldn’t require much thought. Will we  make the  sacrifice that He asks for?

This entry was posted on June 23, 2012 at 4:53 am and is filed under Christian walk, Covenants, Obedience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.