You
Okay, number 86, we'll go ahead and start there, right on the front.
thank you for the salvation that was out so many tonight Lord and I pray at this
time that you bless the service and help us to sing loud with understanding
Lord in Jesus name I pray amen for our next song if you would turn in your
we'll go ahead and start there right on the first have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power
are you washed in the blood of the fan are you fully trusting in his grace fixed out are you
washed in the blood of
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the crucify?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you washed in the blood?
In the soul cleansing blood of the lamb?
Are your garments spotless?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
When the bridegroom's coming, will your robes be white?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin
And be washed in the blood of the lamb
There's a fountain flowing for the soul of unclean
Oh, be washed in the...
with that, we'll go ahead and go to our announcements. If you need a bulletin, they are backed by
the media desk. If you need one, we'll go ahead and look there. Welcome again to Anchor Baptist
Church. Our memory verse there is on the front. Flip the page. We have our service times and
our soul-wissing times there on the left. We also have our stats and upcoming events to look forward
Today is actually the start of the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
You didn't know. So tonight, Pastor Corbin Russell is going to be preaching.
And actually, tomorrow night is going to be Pastor Oz.
So make sure you tune in. It's at 6 p.m. Pastor Oz will be preaching
at Step Fast Baptist Church. And of course, there's other preachers
that are down there that are going to be preaching the whole weekend.
So obviously, keep them in your prayers.
Also pray for all the people traveling. We have a lot of people that went down there or are going down there
Keep them in your prayers or they have safe travel and that they would have a good time there as well
September 6th
We're gonna have a soul winning marathon in our more and the following day that Sunday
We'll have a men's preaching night with the pop luck to follow
And then the last event there is the Bahamas Mission Strip, which is coming up.
It's about a month and a week or two away, six weeks away or so, so just keep that in mind if you are going.
If not, just make sure that you keep it in your prayers.
And obviously, you know, that's a big trip, and I'm very excited to go.
And I know a lot of people that are going, so just keep them in your prayers.
And then on the right side, we have our prayer list and all the information over there.
Let's go ahead and just go to the word of prayer.
Dear Lord.
Thank you for the church. I pray that you would be with all the people on this prayer request list Lord for a pastor Reyes
Who is dealing with a collar bone break? I pray that you would heal him and help him to have a successful
Recovery Lord. I also pray for brother Theodore for his grandmother and her surgery that everything would go well
In the recovery process Lord. You could also be with brother Theodore over in the Philippines and bless him in the work that he's doing
I pray also for the Houseburg family, specifically for the miles with his health board, help him to be healed.
And also Lord, I pray for all of the 10 members that we have that are not saved.
I pray that you would just send soul winners to them and give us the boldness,
encourage to preach to them, and give many opportunities for these people to be saved, Lord.
I'm a browser for a special blessing to this church and for protection for all those people that are down
The fire breathing bad spell is your lord and jesus name i pray amen
All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song if you would turn in your hymnals to hymn number 244
Amazing grace
In number 244
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that sings.
plates are being passed around. Turn in your Bibles to Malachi chapter number one.
Malachi chapter number one.
and of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
I love you, sayeth the Lord, yet he sayeth,
wherein hast thou loved us?
Was not Esau Jacob's brother, sayeth the Lord,
yet I love Esau, or I love Jacob.
And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains
and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Whereas Edom sayeth, we are impoverished.
But we will return and build the desolate places. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down.
And they shall call down the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever.
And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.
A son honours his father and a servant his master.
If then I be a father, where is my honor?
And if I be a master, where is my fear?
Say it to the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest,
that despise my name, and ye say,
where and how do we despise thy name?
He author polluted bread upon my altar,
and ye say, where and how do we pollute thee?
And that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible.
And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?
And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?
Offer it now unto thy governor, and he be pleased.
Will he be pleased with thee?
Or accept thy person, sayeth the Lord of hosts.
And now I pray you, beseech God.
he will be gracious unto us. This has been by your means. He will
will he regard your person, saying the Lord of Hosts. Who is
there even among you that would shut the doors for not? Neither
do you kindle fire on my altar tonight. I have no pleasure in
you, say the Lord of Hosts. Neither will I accept an offering
in your hand.
From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the nations.
And in every place, instant shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the even saith the Lord of hosts.
But ye have profaned it, and then ye say, the table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible.
He said, also behold, what a weariness it is, and he has
stumped at it, saith the Lord of hosts, and he brought that
which was torn, and the lame, and the sick.
Thus he brought it offering, that I accept this in your hand,
saith the Lord, cursed be the deceiver.
Which have in his plot a male and valid and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing
Where I am a great king say of the Lord
My name is dreadful among the heathen
Let's pray
We follow the grace of the Lord thankful for those that are gathered here today thankful to have place to meet
And to hear the preaching of your word. I pray that you feel brother Eric with your spirit Lord
I will preach clearly, and I pray to the Lord that we have tender hearts to the message that we learn from it.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen. Thank you, Brother John, for reading that chapter for us.
I also want to thank Pastor Oz for this opportunity to stand behind the pulpit and preach to you guys.
It's definitely a great honor and a great blessing.
And I know it's a thin crowd tonight, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a thin sermon.
It's going to be a very long sermon. I'm just kidding.
But we're going to be there in Malachi chapter number one.
Turn if you would to Romans chapter number 12.
Keep a finger there in Malachi chapter number one.
But turn if you would to Romans chapter number 12.
Romans chapter number 12, the Bible reads there in verse 1.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
So the Bible is telling us here in the book of Romans that it is our reasonable service
to be a sacrifice unto God, a living sacrifice, and that we should be holy and acceptable
unto God.
to be a sacrifice unto God we should be a living sacrifice and how do we do that well
we are holy and what does it mean to be holy it means to be set apart it means to be separate
turn if you would to 2nd Corinthians chapter number six 2nd Corinthians chapter number six
We should be holy and set apart, apart Christians.
The Bible reads in James chapter number one, verse number 27.
It says,
The Bible teaches that we should be unspotted from the world.
We should not look like the world or act.
like the world you know in order to be pure in order to be undefiled in order to be holy.
We are supposed to be unspotted from the world. Additionally we're also supposed to visit
the fatherless and the widows in their affliction as well and you know we do that as a church.
We go out soul winning. We offer the gift of the gospel and oftentimes it's to people
that are widows, that are fatherless,
that don't have a lot of money.
That's how we go out and love them.
That's how we go out and reach them.
That's how we are holy.
We go out, preach the good news to these people.
And obviously we can help them out as well.
There's obviously a lot of carnal blessings
that we can do to people as well.
But in order to be holy and undefiled
and to have a pure religion,
we ought to do those things
and also to be unspotted from the world.
You're there in 2 Corinthians.
Chapter number six, look down there at verse number 17.
The Bible reads,
and I will be a father unto you,
and ye shall be my sons and daughters,
sayeth the Lord almighty."
So if you want God to receive you,
if you want him to be happy with you,
you ought to be a living sacrifice,
you ought to be separate,
you ought not to be dabbling
with the unclean things of this world
and with the wicked people of this world
and just yoking up with every unsaved person
and you know, just hanging out
with all the worldly drunkards.
You know, obviously there's a place
have a good time with someone that's not saved,
where we're trying to get them saved.
And obviously we have situations where we're working
and we're working with unsaved people.
And obviously there's not really a whole lot
you can do about that.
But hey, still be a good friend of them,
try to get them saved,
but we shouldn't just be just yoking up
with every unsaved person.
You know, our best friends should be people in church.
We should have people that are saved
where we can yoke up with.
So go back to Romans chapter number 12 Romans chapter number 12
So how do we be a living sacrifice? How do we present our bodies to God? We ought to be holy, right?
Now let's keep reading there
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
wholly acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
Verse two, and be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.
So the Bible again is hammering home
that we shouldn't be conformed to this world.
We should not act like this world and dabble in all the sins that the world.
dabbling in. We should be transformed by the renewing of our mind and if we renew
our minds, if we're holy, then we can be an acceptable sacrifice unto God. The
title of the sermon is an acceptable sacrifice unto God and I'm going to give
you three points as to how we can be an acceptable sacrifice unto God. Go back,
You can lose your place there in Romans 12 go to Malachi chapter number one
We'll start reading there in
verse number six
The Bible says in Malachi 1 6 a son honoreth his father and a servant his master
If then I be a father, where is my honor?
And if I be a master, where is my fear?
Sayeth the Lord of hosts unto you,
O priests, that despise my name.
And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name?
Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar,
and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee?
In that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible.
And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?
And if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?
Offer it now unto thy governor.
Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person?
Say it the Lord of hosts.
So here in Malachi, God is rebuking these priests
that are kind of going through the motions as it were.
They're going to church, they're offering the sacrifices,
they're showing up, but the problem is
they're doing it with the wrong heart.
And the problem also is that they're offering
the blind for sacrifice.
they're offering the lame for sacrifice, they're offering the sick as a sacrifice.
And in verse 8, God has kind of given him, you know, a question here, it says,
offer now unto thy governor, will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person?
I mean, just imagine if you had the governor of Oklahoma or if you had pastor Oz, just come to
your house and you know, you have the fatted calf, you got the brisket, you have the bacon,
But you know the governor comes over past draws comes over and you say nah, I'm not gonna give him that
Let's give him some frozen food
I need to I need some freezer space and you just kind of give the governor you give past draws the frozen food
You know, that's that's not a good way to be hospitable
You know, we should give people
the best, especially if it's someone of authority or someone
that's high up in the command. You know, we should have a lot of reverence
and respect for those in authority and we ought not to just
treat it as a light thing and just give kind of our weakest
and kind of not really care. You know, we should give
our best to people in authority and obviously
more importantly than the governor or any authority in this life
is give to God your best.
So how do we be an acceptable sacrifice?
Well, this is how you do it.
You give God your best.
You don't give him the lame and the sick and the evil.
You know, when you come to church,
you know, you shouldn't be tired and.
Here's the thing about that if you're always tired at church or if you're always tired when you're reading the Bible
You're always half asleep. You're always falling asleep. Hey, maybe you're not giving God your best
You know, we should be giving God our best
We should be reading the Bible when we're awake when we're focused we should come to church alert
Focused and ready to hear what the Bible says. We should give God the best of our time
the best of our day when we're reading the Bible
we should give to God our best and here in the book of Malachi we have a bunch of Levites
they're checking off the box they're in church they're praying they're reading their bible
you know seemingly maybe they're checking off the box maybe not they're offering the sacrifices
the problem is they're offering the lame and the sick and the evil you know
We ought not to give God our lame, sick, and evil.
We ought to give God our best.
Let's keep reading there.
Malachi chapter one, look down at verse nine.
It says, and now I pray you, besiege God
that he will be gracious unto us.
this have been by your means.
Will he regard your persons?
Say it the Lord of hosts,
you know, God is not just going to,
you know, just because you go and go to church
does not just guarantee that you're going to be
accepted in God's eyes.
It does not guarantee that you are an acceptable sacrifice.
And there's a lot of Christians.
Hey, they check off the box of Bible reading.
They check off the box coming to church.
They check off the box for their prayer.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that God is accepting those prayers.
It doesn't necessarily mean that God is happy with you or that he has a lot of respect to you.
You know, God is not just going to respect someone's persons.
He didn't do it just because they were a Levite.
You know, if you're a child and you're coming to church, you know, you're kind of forced to come to church.
It doesn't necessarily mean that you're right with God.
You know, you actually have to want to serve God.
You actually have to put it within you.
to be an acceptable sacrifice on the God.
You have to put it within you to give God your best.
Verse number 10, the Bible reads,
who is there even among you
that would shut the doors for naught?
Neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for naught.
I have no pleasure in you,
sayeth the Lord hosts,
neither will I accept an offering at your hand."
See, in Malachi chapter one,
it's just kind of hammering over,
hey, God's not going to accept your offering.
He's not going to regard your persons,
respect your persons.
He's not going to be pleased with thee.
You know, over and over,
it's just hammering home
that we ought to try to be pleasing unto God.
We ought to be acceptable unto God,
respectable unto God.
But you know, if we're just kind of going through the motions,
not really caring, we're not living a holy,
separated, acceptable life unto God,
we're not giving our best,
God's just not going to accept us.
That's the sad truth.
Let's keep reading there.
Verse number 11, the Bible says,
For from the rising of the sun,
even unto the going down of the same,
my name shall be great among the Gentiles.
And in every place,
incense shall be offered unto my name,
and a pure offering.
For my name shall be great among the heathen,
sayeth the Lord of hosts.
You know, the Levites,
they were offering sacrifices,
they were going to the temple,
they were praying,
but here's the thing,
God still replaced them.
with the Gentiles. You know, if you don't want to get used by God, if you're not giving God
your best, you might just get replaced. God's done it before. The Israelites, the Levites,
they're in the temple every week, but God does not respect their sacrifices and he moved on from
In that ye say, the table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness it is it, and ye have snuffed at it, sayeth the Lord of hosts,
and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick, thus ye have brought an offering.
Should I accept this of your hand?
Sayeth the Lord again,
God is saying, hey,
I'm not going to accept this offering that you're giving.
Yes, you're coming to church,
but you're complaining about it.
And you're saying, oh, what a weariness it is.
You know, we should not have this attitude when we're coming to church
that, oh, church is just kind of some drag.
It's just, oh, why do we have to go to church three times a week?
You know, do we really have to sing four songs?
Do we have to have an hour long sermon?
Yes.
You know, we ought to do these things.
But, you know, we ought not to complain.
You know, we ought to be in church, we ought to love the preaching, we ought to have long
sermons so that we can be edified, we ought to sing praises unto God, don't be complaining
about the songs.
Oh, you know, then sing my favorite song this week.
I didn't know this song, so I didn't get to enjoy it.
You know, church is not just about us getting all of our enjoyment.
You know, church is to give God glory, to give God praise, and to edify us so that we
so that God can be glorified even more.
We ought to give God our best.
When you come to church, have a good attitude.
We ought to be acceptable unto God, not complain,
not give God the lame, not give God the sick,
but we ought to give that spotless sacrifice.
We ought to try to live unspotted from the world
and not be a complainer.
Verse 14,
But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and
sacrificeeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith the
Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen."
So
Again, there's this idea that someone, you know, has an opportunity.
He has in his flock a male and this guy even vows unto God, but he ends up sacrificing a
corrupt thing.
He ends up trading that out and what we can take away from this is if we have the ability
to serve God, if we have the time of day to read the Bible with clarity of mind, you know,
we ought to give God that and if we have the opportunity to come to church, we ought to
We have to come to church and not just check off the box,
but be thankful for it and to sing the praises
and to listen to the sermon
and to not fall asleep during the sermon.
You know, if you fall asleep during the sermon,
you might literally die.
You know, it's, it's happened in the Bible.
Uticas, he fell off the third window and he died.
And you say, well, I'm not on the third loft.
Well, Eli, he fell out of his chair and he broke his neck.
OK, so you can still die if you doze off at church.
OK, now I'm not saying it's going to happen,
but I wouldn't test that.
All right, something bad could happen.
It's going to be embarrassing.
Don't fall asleep in church.
But don't fall asleep for your sake, for God's sake,
so that you can actually be edified, so that you can grow,
so you can give God your best.
Here's another way we can give God our best Colossians chapter number three
Colossians chapter number three the Bible reads in verse number 22
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh.
Not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men."
So the Bible is teaching us that we, when we're at work, when we're with our masters according to the flesh,
you know our bosses, that we should obey them in all things.
We should give them our best.
And the way to give God your best is by giving your boss your best.
by doing what you're supposed to do at work,
not with eye service, as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
You know, if you have a fear of God in your heart,
just naturally you're going to do things the right way.
If you have a right attitude about serving God
and fearing God,
naturally you are going to do better works.
And if you fear God,
You know, we should obey in all things our bosses and you know, you say, well, my boss
isn't saved.
I don't like my boss.
At the end of the day, the Bible doesn't say, you know, obey in all things.
If he's a good boss, if he's saved, no, it says obey in all things your masters according
to the flesh, not with eyes, services, men, pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fear
in God and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord.
respect and reverence and you should follow his rules as you would unto the Lord and that's
another way that we can give God our best by being a blessing in our daily life and obviously
it gives other verses in the in Colossians verses 18 through 21 it talks about wives and husbands
and children and fathers how we can also give God our best and some good advice on how we
And if we do those things with a good heart,
you know, that's how we give God our best.
Verse 17 of Colossians 3, go back there.
Colossians 3.17, the Bible says,
and whatsoever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
You know, everything that we do,
every word that we say, every deed or action that we do,
we should be doing it in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks and doing all to His glory as well.
We should do everything and be thankful to God
and giving God our best.
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter number four, Genesis chapter number four.
And here in Genesis chapter number four, we have kind of a popular story,
a very well known story of Cain and Abel.
And there's two different sacrifices that are given here.
Genesis chapter number four, let's look down there at verse number one.
The Bible reads Genesis 4 1 and Adam knew
Eve his wife and she conceived and bear Cain and said,
I have gotten a man from the Lord and she again bear his brother Abel.
And Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain
was a tiller of the ground.
and in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought forth brought of the fruit of the ground
and offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof
and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
But unto Cain and to his offering, he had not respect.
And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
So here in this story, we have the famous Cain and Abel.
And Abel, he brings a sacrifice unto God,
and Cain, he brings a sacrifice as well unto God.
God is pleased with Abel's sacrifice,
he is not pleased with Cain's sacrifice.
Abel, he brings of the firstlings of the flock.
Cain, he brings of the fruit of the ground.
So those are the two sacrifices,
but Abel, he was accepted and Cain was not accepted.
The reason why Abel was accepted
was because he gave his best.
He gave the firstling of the flock,
you know, the firstborn sheep, you know, the healthy sheep.
He gave that to God and the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel's offering, and Cain, you know, he did not get respect
from God, and there's kind of a few reasons why I think he did not get respected from
God.
Number one, Cain was not saved, okay?
The Bible says Cain was of that wicked one, so Cain was not saved, so God is not just
going to accept an offering from every unsaved person.
and maybe they did do a sacrifice back then
and they were not saved or they're going to church,
they're not saved, they're giving their money away.
That doesn't necessarily mean God
is just 100% displeased with them
because we have in the New Testament stories like Cornelius
where he is praying to God, he's giving alms
and the Bible says that God has seen his alms,
he's heard his prayers and that he's kind of like,
hey, I want to get this guy saved, he's genuine.
that he was not accepted.
He was not accepted because he was not saved.
Number two, he was not genuine.
He was not seeking to be saved.
Number three, also the picture of Cain
giving of the fruit of the ground.
Pictures work salvation.
It pictures us giving our works to God
in terms of like salvation because Abel,
he's bringing in the lamb of the flock.
He's bringing the first thing of the flock,
the blemishless flock, the lamb.
That pictures Jesus Christ, but the fruit of the ground pictures Cain's works
So I also think because of the works picture that God was not pleased with it
Also Cain just had a bad heart if we keep reading in verse number six
The Bible says and the Lord said on the cane
Why art thou Roth and why is thy countenance fallen if thou doest well shout thou not be accepted
And if thou doest not well, sin lyeth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."
So in verse 7, God is saying, hey, if you do well, you'll be accepted.
So Cain, he was not doing well, he was not saved, he was not genuine.
His offering kind of picture to work salvation, and this kind of number five is my opinion.
Yeah, I think Kane was not really bringing a whole lot.
That's just my opinion.
You guys can tell me after the service
if you have an idea on that,
because it just says Kane brought
of the fruit of the ground.
It doesn't say he brought of the first fruits.
It doesn't say he brought an abundance of fruits.
It just kind of says he brought
of the fruit of the ground.
So when I see this, I kind of just picture
like one of those produce baskets
with like 10 pounds of fruit in it.
And it seems like that's just kind of the offering
that Kane's giving.
Whereas Abel, he's giving the first thing in the flock, you know.
Obviously a very valuable possession.
I think Cain is giving a less valuable sacrifice as well.
So that's kind of my idea on why I think Cain's was not accepted.
That's just an opinion on mine, but we know for sure that Cain was not doing well.
He was not saved and his offering obviously did not get accepted because he was not genuine.
And in verse number eight, the Bible says, of course,
and Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field.
that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him.
So, of course, Cain kills Abel, he's envious of Abel.
So Cain was an evil person, he was a wicked person,
and his sacrifice was not accepted because of his heart,
and he was not giving the best to God, but Abel was.
And Abel was accepted, he gave the first thing of the flock,
the very firstborn.
and Abel was accepted.
Go back to actually turning your Bibles
to Psalm chapter number 78.
So we should give to God our best.
If we want to be accepted in the eyes of God,
if we want to be an acceptable sacrifice,
we ought to give God our best.
The best of our time, the best of our words and our actions,
we ought to give God our best.
Not just be half in and half out.
We ought to do what Brother Cameron preached a week or so ago.
Hey, full send it.
Just go all in, go all out and just give to God your best
and just nonstop.
Just give God your best.
Give God your best.
Just keep pushing through those walls.
You're there.
I think I had you turn to Psalm chapter number 78.
Let me get there myself Psalm chapter 78 so point number one is to give to God your best
Give to God your best point number two is give to God what you have said give to God what you have said
You're there in Psalm chapter 78. I'm gonna read for you Malachi or yeah Malachi chapter number one
Verse number 14 again for you guys
The Bible says in Malachi chapter 1 verse 14,
But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male,
and voweth, and sacrificeeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing.
For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts,
and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
Here in Malachi, God is saying, hey,
cursed is the deceiver that has in his flock a male,
And then he ends up sacrificing unto the Lord a corrupt thing.
So if you say something to God, if you tell God you're going to do something,
or if you vow something unto God, you better keep that,
especially if it's a vow.
But you know, if you tell God something, you ought to keep that.
And you know, there's a lot of people out there,
you know, believe it or not, that just lie to God all the time.
And maybe they don't even really recognize it.
Look down there at Psalm chapter 78.
We're going to start reading in verse 32.
Psalm 7832, the Bible reads,
For all this they sin still,
and believe not for his wondrous works.
So here in Psalm chapter 78,
it's giving us a recap,
a rundown of the children of Israel
when they're wandering through the wilderness,
how God gave them manna,
and he gave them quail,
and he gave them deliverance,
and he parted the Red Sea,
and he did all these miracles.
He brought forth water out of a rock,
And in verse 32, it says, for all this, they sinned still.
God did all these miracles for them.
He gave them all these blessings,
and they believe not for His wondrous works.
Verse 33, the Bible says,
Therefore their days did He consume in vanity,
and their years in trouble.
When He slew them, then they sought Him,
and they returned and inquired early after God.
And they remembered that God was their rock and the high God their Redeemer.
So when some kind of trial came through to the children of Israel,
when they were in the wilderness and people died,
yes, some of them got right with God for a little bit.
They remembered God for a little bit, but let's keep reading.
Verse 36, the Bible says,
and they lied unto him with their tongues.
For their heart was not right with him.
Neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
So the children of Israel,
when they're wandering through Egypt,
they're getting all these blessings.
And then they don't believe the blessings.
They kind of get hardened.
God punishes them.
They kind of get back.
But then when they're kind of getting back,
it says that they flattered God.
they lied unto him. And what I think of when I read this passage
I think of people going to church and singing all to Jesus, I surrender, all to Him I freely
give.
People are going to church and telling God that they're surrendering all to Him, that
they're freely giving all to Him, that they're going to be acceptable unto Him, that they're
going to work until Jesus comes.
They don't work until Jesus comes.
They don't go soul-winning.
They don't surrender their life to God.
They don't follow Him.
Yeah, they go to church.
They check out the box.
Yeah, they sing the song.
But throughout the week, they're not surrendering unto God.
And you know, we, if we tell God something,
if we tell Him that we're going to surrender all to Him,
hey, why don't we do that?
Hey, if you sing the songs, will work until Jesus comes?
Hey, why don't you work until Jesus comes?
If you sing all to Jesus, I surrender.
Why don't you go out and surrender?
Why don't you actually do that?
Give God your time, read the Bible, come to church,
be free to thrive and have a good heart about it.
And not be a complainer, but actually surrender to God.
Give God your best and you know, we shouldn't lie to God
You know lying is a horrible sin and you know, God hates and abhorrs
Lying and you know if we lie to God like that, we might just get punished if we tell God on Sunday
Hey, all to Jesus I surrender and then Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday, you know, we're not surrendering to him
You know, he's gonna see that and he's gonna be like wow you're lying to me
And you know, he might just bring some punishments down on you
OK, so if we tell God we are going to do something,
we ought to do it.
You know, cursit is the deceiver that Hathen is flock of male.
and voweth, but then gives a corrupt thing.
You know, if we have the opportunity to serve God,
if we have a good church, which we do,
Anchor Baptist Church, you know,
we ought to actually go to church
and we ought to be thankful for that
and we ought to give God our best.
And if we sing, I surrender all, you better mean it.
And if you say, well, I don't really think I can do that,
then don't sing the song, okay?
You know, but if you want to surrender to God,
Yes, sing that song, but actually apply it, don't just sing it, don't just lie to God.
You know when you sin and you go to God and say, God, I'll never do that again.
You better never do it again.
Better not lie to God.
And you say, well, I don't know, maybe I will sin again.
Then don't tell them that you're never going to do that sin again.
You know, obviously we're all sinners.
We're all going to make mistakes.
We're all going to be lazy sometimes.
We're all going to make foolish thoughts.
We're all going to have maybe lustful thoughts or covetous thoughts.
At the end of the day, you know, we shouldn't just tell God,
hey God, I'm never going to have a foolish thought again.
You know, that is a foolish thought, okay?
That is a foolish prayer.
We ought not to just tell God, hey, I'm never going to do this.
I vow to do this.
We have to be careful with our words.
Turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter number five.
Ecclesiastes chapter number five.
Ecclesiastes chapter number five the Bible reads in verse one keep thy foot when thou goest to
the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God.
For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore, let thy words be few."
You know, oftentimes when we come to church, it can kind of be an emotional experience.
You know, maybe we have done some bad throughout the week, and you know, we kind of come to church.
You know, it's been a bad week.
and we kind of get refreshed.
And maybe some emotions are high,
you're singing the songs,
you're listening to great preaching,
and you're like, man, it sucked a couple of days ago,
but this is great, I'm loving this.
You know, church can kind of be an emotional environment,
but you know, we ought to be careful with our mouth.
We ought not to let our heart be hasty
to utter anything before God.
You know, that's why our church,
we don't do altar calls because at some old IVB churches,
and honestly, most churches out there,
They'll bring you up to the altar at the end of the service.
They'll have the music playing.
They'll make everything really emotional.
Hey, make a decision tonight.
And you know.
Oftentimes, these people at these churches,
they're coming up to the altar and they're saying,
God, I vow to never do this again.
God, I'm sorry for all these sins.
I'll never do it again.
You know, oftentimes people are being foolish
and they're giving the sacrifice of fools.
We ought not to be rash with our mouth.
We have to keep our foot when we go into the house of God
and be more ready to hear.
You know, church is where we ingest.
the preaching and we intake the preaching and we intake
the Bible reading. Church is where we intake and where we exhaust is when we go out soul-winning.
It's when we preach the gospel and we go home and, you know, we live a Christian life and we
take the preaching and we apply it. So church, we should be more ready to hear than to just utter
something hasty before God. You have to be careful just uttering everything to God that just pops into
With our mouth. Let's look at verse number three
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by
multitude of words, you know a fool what he's going to do is he's just going to tell God
Hey, God, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna stop this sin and I'm never gonna do this again
You know a fool is known by an abundance of words
By a multitude of words, you know, we ought not to be foolish.
We ought to be careful, you know, a dream coming through the multitude of business.
By actually doing things and, you know, the Bible often teaches, hey, it's here a little, there a little.
And the Christian life, we're slowly growing up, we're slowly climbing the mountain.
The Christian life is not a sprint, it's a marathon.
And, you know, sometimes you're jogging, sometimes you're walking, sometimes you're running.
You know, it's not just an all-out sprint,
but a lot of people, what they're doing,
they're just sprinting.
You know, it's a 26-mile race,
and they're just, the bell rings or the gun blows,
and they're just sprinting.
You know, if you do that, if you just run your mouth
and you just try to go super hard,
you know, you have to be careful with things
that you say to God, and we have to be careful
when it comes to the words that we say,
because if we say something to God and we don't do it,
And he might punish us, especially if we vow.
Let's keep reading verse 4.
And in the New Testament, you know, Jesus says,
hey, swear not at all.
You know, we should be careful with what we say and we shouldn't just be hasty to just utter vows unto God.
And at these altar calls, at these old AFB churches and other churches, people are making vows at the altar.
They're telling God, hey, I'm surrendering today.
Hey, God, I promise I'm going to be in church every single Sunday.
You know, we can be a little bit more careful than that.
We don't have to tell God, you know, I'm going to be in church every single Sunday.
And then you get a flat tire, then you get sick and you can't make it to church, you know, people just get super emotional and they just say these stupidly fast things.
You know, when we say a prayer to God, we have to be careful with what we say and not just tell Him just everything in our heart and everything that I'm going to do and I promise you this, I promise that.
If you vow and you don't pay, you know, it's better that you just don't vow at all.
You know, it's better to not tell God at all that you're going to go to church every week
than to promise Him, hey, I'm going to church every single Sunday and then you miss the next Sunday.
You know, God is going to be angry with that.
I mean, look at verse 6. It says,
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin.
Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error.
Wherefore, should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands?"
You know, if you make a vow unto God and you don't pay that vow, you know, you can't
just say, oh, there's an error, you know, maybe I got a little bit too zealous at the
altar or whatever, you know.
We're not, we don't get to have that excuse.
You know, if we make a vow, you ought to keep it.
We ought to give to God what I have said.
You know, that's why our church,
we don't do like these faith promise missions
or the altar calls because oftentimes
these faith promise missions, what you're doing,
you're promising a certain amount of money
like in the future to the church.
We shouldn't just promise
you know, hey, I'm going to give this kind of money or I will give X amount of money.
But a lot of churches, they have these faith promise missions and I guess I should have explained it.
a little bit better.
But what they do is they kind of hand out
like these sheets or these envelopes
and you basically put on your name and how much money
you pretty much promise to give to missions.
You promise to give to the church
and it's money that you don't necessarily have right now
but you're promising to give it in the future.
You know, this is just a foolish thing.
You know, better is it that thou shalt not vow.
You know?
Yes, give money to church.
Yes, give offerings, give your ties to church.
But you don't have to vow to God,
you don't have to promise to God
that you're going to give your money to church.
You don't have to promise to God
that you're gonna be in church every Sunday.
How about you just have that dream come
through a multitude of business?
Why don't you just come to church every Sunday?
Instead of saying that,
hey, I'm going to church every Sunday, no matter what.
Instead of just saying that, just running your mouth,
why don't you just actually do it?
You know, the Christian life, it's by doing things and it's by going to church, it's by reading your Bible, it's by praying and you know, it's not just reading the Bible 30 chapters one day and then none for the rest of the week.
No, the Christian life is, hey, read here a little, there a little. If you have time throughout the day, read the Bible. You know, even if it's 10, 15 minutes, read the Bible.
If you have another 10, 15 minutes later, read the Bible. And yeah, of course, still set time aside to read the Bible, set time aside to pray as well.
And you know, if you want to read the Bible three, four, five times a year, I'm all for you.
That's great.
But don't necessarily make a vow and say, hey, God, I'm going to read the Bible eight
times this year.
I promise.
You know, that's foolish.
You know, that's something that a fool would say, you know, we ought not to promise those
things to God.
Why don't you just slowly work on that?
And why don't you just hammer home the Bible reading instead of praying for 55 minutes,
and reading your Bible for five minutes,
why don't you just read the Bible for 55 minutes?
And you know, I'm not saying just pray for five minutes
or whatever, but actually just read the Bible.
Instead of just running your mouth to God
and just going for hours and hours and hours,
telling him all these things, just pick up the Bible,
read the Bible, slow down, hear a little,
there a little, and yeah, if you want to read the Bible
multiple times a year, God bless you.
That's great.
and you know I hope it works for you and you know that's I think that's a great
goal to have and obviously I'm not saying that goals are bad or that dreams
are bad you know a dream comes through multitude of business you know it's good
to have goals it's good to set forth standards and to have like this idea
yeah I want to be in church every Sunday I want to be in church every
Wednesday you know I want to be in church every time the doors are open I
want to go soul-winning every week
It's good to have those goals.
It's good to have kind of those standards,
but you don't have to promise to God
that you're going to perform those things.
You know, suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin.
Verse number seven.
For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also diverse vanities, but fear thou God.
So the conclusion of this is just fear God.
You don't have to promise God every little detail of your life, everything that you're gonna do. Why don't you just fear God?
Do the multitude of business and things will go well for you.
But if you do vow to God something, which I wouldn't recommend that,
if you'd make a vow to God, keep that vow.
And you know, obviously marriage vows, keep that vow.
God is not going to be pleased if you break marriage vows.
Or if you do tell something to God, maybe it's not a vow,
but you say, maybe, hey God, I'm going to stop this sin.
If you tell him that, even if it's not a vow, hey, still do that.
and still go through with what you told God.
If you tell God something, if you do make a vow,
or if you have made a vow, hey, you got to fulfill that.
You know, don't sin and break that vow,
and you know, we should just not do that.
And the multitude of dreams and many words,
they're also diverse vanities.
So when you're just running your mouth to God
and you're saying all these things,
you know, probably something bad is gonna come out.
You know, we should be more calculated in what we're saying to God in prayers.
And this can also be when we're talking to just brethren or unsaved people.
You know, if we're just running our mouth all the time and saying things, yes, I'll
be there.
Yes, I'll be there for you always.
You're just kind of running your mouth to every single person and telling them every
little detail.
You know, just be careful just running your mouth to anybody.
We ought to be, let our words be few.
That's pretty much what I got to say, but at the end of the day if you tell God you're going to do something
You ought to do it. If you sing I surrender all hey, you better surrender all you say will work till Jesus comes
Hey work till Jesus comes, you know
Do the do the Ten Commandments, you know, obviously, you know
Try not to sin do the best you can and obviously we're gonna sin and you know when you stumble just ask God for that forgiveness
and just move on, repent of that sin.
But if you tell God you're gonna do something,
especially if you promise it to God, you ought to do it.
So if you wanna be acceptable in the eyes of God,
you ought to give God your best.
Number two, you ought to give God what you have said.
You know, don't deceive God, don't flatter God,
don't lie to God.
If you tell God you're gonna do something, do it.
Point number three, turn if you would to Isaiah.
Chapter number one, Isaiah, chapter number one, it should be a couple books over, Isaiah chapter one.
Isaiah chapter one, look down there, verse number 10, the Bible reads,
Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.
Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?
Sayeth the Lord.
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts,
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
When ye come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts?
Bring no more vain ablations, incense is an abomination unto me, the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with, it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting, your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hate it.
They are a trouble unto me.
I am weary to bear them.
And when you spread forth your hands,
I will hide mine eyes from you.
Yea, when you make many prayers,
I will not hear,
your hands are full of blood."
You know, if you want to be accepted
in God's eyes,
you know,
this group right here, this group of people,
they're bringing sacrifices,
they're praying to God, they're praising God,
But, the Bible says that God will hide his ears from them and his eyes from them because their hands are full of blood.
So just because you're in church, just because maybe you read the verse of the day and you say many prayers to God does not mean that you're right with God.
You know, there's a lot of people in the Bible, they're just kind of checking the box.
Oh, I put the sacrifice in.
I put the money in the plate, I must be good to go.
And this is what Catholics do.
They put money in the plate.
And they're just allowed to go sin as much as they want and they kind of have no conscience and they're just kind of like,
I'm just gonna sin, you know, I don't really have a guilty conscience, I put money in the plate.
And you know, we as Baptists, we don't have to have the same stupid mentality where just because you put money in the plate,
just means that you're just immediately right with God.
Just because you checked the box off for coming to church or you read your Bible today,
does not necessarily mean that you're right with God. Hey, what if your hands are full of blood?
So, point number three is give to God with clean hands.
If you want to be an acceptable sacrifice, an acceptable living sacrifice unto God,
you ought to give to God with clean hands.
You ought to have clean hands.
Because if you have your hands full of blood when you're praying to God, he's not going
to answer those prayers.
Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes.
Seize to do evil.
So how do you become clean?
You put away the evil.
You cease to do evil.
You know, you take the sin out of your life.
You know, you're struggling with foolish thoughts, laziness.
Hey, just get rid of that sin.
You know, don't vow to God and say,
hey, I'll never be lazy again.
No, obviously it's going to be here a little, there a little.
But you know, if you sin, just turn from that sin.
I'm all for repenting of your sins,
obviously not for salvation.
But if you put away your sins,
if you repent of your sins,
God will be pleased with you.
And let's keep reading, verse 17.
Learn to do well.
Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now and let us reason together, sayeth the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel,
ye shall be devoured with the sword.
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
So if you want to wash your hands,
if you want to be clean from the blood of all your sins
and all of your impurities,
how you do that is verse 19,
if you be willing.
and obedient.
So if you want God to be happy with you,
hey, be willing.
Have that good heart within you
to serve God and also be obedient.
You know, obviously it's not necessarily
just super easy to not sin,
to not have a lustful thought.
You know, obviously it's easy to skip Bible reading
for a day.
It's easy to not go soul winning.
You know, I get that.
But you know, we ought to do things that we don't necessarily want to do but we ought to also be willing and you know
If you have willingness and obedience, that's the best pair
And you know
We ought to be willing have a willing heart to serve God and if you are willing and you do obey the commandments
Even if there are ones that maybe you have a struggle with and you know
Maybe you don't necessarily want to read your Bible, but you do anyways, you know
If you're willing and you're obedient, you know, eventually things are going to get easier.
You know, obviously it isn't necessarily easy to live the Christian life. It isn't easy to read
your Bible every day and to get the sins out of your life. You know, once you tell a lie and you
kind of get caught into a trail of lies, it can be very hard to get out of that chain, but you
get rid of the sin, just be obedient and you know if you're obedient for a space, for a time,
it's going to be easier to obey in the future and you're going to be more willing in the future.
But if you refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
So if you refuse, you don't want to obey the commandments and you don't obey the commandments.
The Bible says, ye shall be devoured with the sword.
So if you come to God with these prayers and you kind of have blood on your hands and you're not willing to be clean,
you're not obedient to the commandments, you're refusing, you're rebellious,
you might just end up dying. That's what the Bible says, plain and simple.
Turn, if you would, to 1 John chapter number one.
This is how we can clean, kind of have clean hands. 1 John chapter number one.
As you're turning there, James 4-8 says,
Draw an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
So if you want to draw an eye to God,
if you want to have your hands cleansed,
you know, it says cleanse your hands, ye sinners.
You had to put away the sin from among you, purify your hearts, be willing in your heart,
obey with your mouth and with your actions, and obviously don't be double-minded, you know,
don't say one thing and do another like we've kind of been talking about, you know, have those
clean hands, you know, draw an eye to God, get rid of the sin, purify your hearts, don't be double
minded, don't say one thing and do another, don't lie to God, you know, if you tell God something
and get rid of the sins.
You're there in 1 John chapter number one.
You know, obviously nobody here is going to be perfect.
We're all sinners.
We're all going to make mistakes.
And you know, we are going to continue to sin.
And you know when we sin this is what we should do first John 1 verse 9 the Bible says if we confess our sins
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness so when we sin
The first thing we should do is confess our sins to God.
And if we confess those sins, the Bible says that he will forgive us,
he's faithful enough to do that, and he will cleanse us from that unrighteousness.
So if you do have a lustful thought, a foolish thought,
or maybe you miss a Bible reading day, and obviously there's a lot of sins lying, stealing.
If you do some of these things, just come clean to God, confess it, and forsake it.
That's what we should do.
And obviously there are sins like foolish thoughts that are going to be hard to completely forsake.
But you know, if you do it, you know, ask for that forgiveness and move on.
That's what we should do.
That's how we can have clean hands.
Let's actually keep reading 1 John chapter 2, a couple verses later.
Verse number one, the Bible says,
These things right eye unto you that you sin not and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father
Jesus Christ the righteous. So obviously
Step one is not sin
But if you break the commandments if you do sin just come to Jesus
Confess your sins to him and we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous if we sin
We can give that to God and Jesus can mediate that and he can tell that to God and he can have our sins forgiven and our hands cleansed because we want to have clean hands when we come to the house of God, you know, we want to have clean hands when we're praying to God.
Because if we have bloody hands, God is not going to hear us.
If you have sin that's unconfessed and you're coming to church, you know, you might not get edified by the sermon.
You know, God might not just give you an abundance of the Holy Ghost, you know,
we have to have clean hands when we come to the house of God.
When you read the Bible, have clean hands.
Have all your sins, you know, confessed, and obviously try to forsake them as much as possible.
You know, if you want to get the most out of the Christian life,
You know, if you want to be accepted to God and to be an acceptable living sacrifice on the God,
you're going to need to have clean hands.
And you know, if you sin, you should immediately get rid of that sin as soon as possible.
That's what we should do.
Turning your Bibles to Acts chapter number 20.
Acts chapter number 20.
I have two more passages I want to go to then we'll be done.
Look down there at verse number 20 here's another way you can have clean hands
The Bible says in verse 20 and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you
But I've showed you and I've taught you publicly and from house to house
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ
So Paul here. He's talking about how hey, he's kept back nothing
He's preached the gospel, he's gone from house to house, he's testified to the Jews,
he's testified to the Greeks, he's told them, hey repent, have faith in God, have faith in Jesus
Christ, put your faith in him. He's gone out and he's preached the gospel. Skip down to verse 25,
and now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see
Therefore, I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men."
So Paul is pure from the blood of all men.
Paul does not have any blood on his hands because he has preached the gospel.
The Bible teaches that you have blood on your hands.
You know, if you want to get rid of that blood,
if you want to be pure,
hey, obviously confess that sin of not going soul winning,
but then go out and go soul winning.
And when you go soul winning
and when you preach the gospel,
your hands are pure.
And you know, obviously it can be very difficult
also to preach the gospel to family members.
I get that.
You know, I think family members can be some of the most difficult people to preach to,
but hey, if your family member dies and you never preach them the gospel, you never try
to get them saved, you know, I believe there's blood on your hands, you know, that's kind
of a sad thing to think about, but it should motivate you to preach the gospel to them
because we don't want to be at fault for people going to hell.
You know, God sees that person and says,
man, this guy's got a lot of blood on his hands.
He's not going out preaching the gospel.
And you know, maybe God just won't answer your prayers.
You know, if you want God to answer your prayers,
if you want to be accepted in the eyes of God,
hey, get the sins out of your life, confess those sins.
Hey, why don't you preach the gospel?
Let's keep reading, verse 27.
For I have not shun to declare unto you
all the counsel of God.
So Paul his hands were cleaned because he's preached the gospel to all men,
but he's also preached other things.
He hasn't shunned a Declare unto you all the counsel of God.
He's taught other things in the Bible.
Paul is teaching the whole Bible,
and when he's preaching to his congregations that he's going to,
he's not sparing anything from the message.
He's not clipping stuff out of the message.
He's preaching all the counsel of God.
And, you know, some of these churches that are not preaching all the counsel of God,
you know, they have blood on their hands.
You know, there's a church that's not preaching against fornication, and there's a couple
in fornication.
You know, that church has blood on their hands.
And, you know, thank God we have Pastor Oz, where he is preaching all the counsel of
God, and I don't think there's any blood on Anchor Baptist Church's hands, as it were.
You know, we're doing this all winning.
We're doing the great works as well.
you know, but if you personally want to get the blood off of your hands, if you want to be
acceptable to God, you ought to be a soul winner. You ought to preach the gospel. You ought to
preach the gospel wherever you go. And Paul said he's pure from the blood of all men. So you say
when do you stop going soul winning? Well, Paul said all men. So until everybody in this earth is
That's not gonna happen. Not everybody's gonna get saved. That's just the reality
So we're just gonna have to work until Jesus comes so sing the song
We'll work till Jesus comes.
Sing the song, actually mean it, go out and work until Jesus comes.
Get people saved. That way you can have the blood off of your hands.
And if your hands are free from the blood of all men, if your hands are cleansed
from your sins, you've confessed your sins,
then you can pray to God and God will hear your prayers
and you will be acceptable in the eyes of God.
And he will look at you, you know, as he did Jesus and say, hey, this is my beloved son.
and to whom I am well pleased and obviously you know we're not the Son of God but we are sons,
we are adopted into the family and God will be pleased with those that are cleansed from the
blood, those that have confessed their sins, those that are preaching the gospel, those that are
doing the right things, those that are obedient but that are also willing, that are doing things
out of a pure heart. Turn if you would, this is the last place we'll go. Malachi chapter number three.
Malachi chapter number three, look down there.
Adverse number two, the Bible reads,
but who may abide the day of his coming
and who shall stand when he appeareth?
for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap,
and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
and he shall purify the sons of Levi,
and purge them as gold and silver,
that they may offer unto the Lord
an offering in righteousness.
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
be pleasant unto the Lord,
as in the days of old and as in former years.
So whether you like it or not,
God wants you to be an acceptable offering unto him and you know if you decide to harden your heart and
To not confess your sins to not be willing and obedient to not go soul-winning
You know God he might just purify you. He's gonna purge you so that way you can be that
Acceptable offering, you know if I'm not going out soul-winning and things are going well for me at home
You know God just might allow something to happen
where I lose my job, you know,
maybe I get a disease or health condition
and I lose all my money.
You know, if I have blood on my hands.
and I'm not purifying myself, I'm not confessing my sins,
I'm hardening my heart.
You know, the Bible says that God is going to purify us
and purge us.
And those that are doing good things,
obviously we have small things
that God is still going to purge on us.
And the Bible talks about someone bringing forth fruit
that they are also getting purged.
So God is obviously going to purge everybody
for every sin and every little sin that they do
because God obviously wants
pure gold, pure silver, he wants that blemishless lamb,
he wants the lamb without blemish, without spot,
he wants the perfect lamb and we ought.
to strive to be perfect.
Obviously, that's not necessarily possible.
It is not possible to be perfect,
but we can at least try
and we can try not to sin if we do sin.
Obviously, confess that sin
and just move on.
And for sake, that sin, that's what we should do.
We ought to give our bodies
a living sacrifice unto God.
And if you want to be acceptable,
In the eyes of God, if you want to be accepted in God's eyes,
well, number one, give to God your best.
You know, if you have a lot of time, give God the best of your time.
If you're always falling asleep when you're reading the Bible,
you know, it sounds to me like you're not giving God the best of your time.
We have to give God the best of our time, the best of our words.
We have to give God our best.
Point number two we got to give God what we have told him what we have said give to God
What you have said if you had make a made a vow unto the God
You know keep that vow and obviously marriage vows or something that I think is biblical
You know keep that vow and if you've made another vow for whatever reason keep that vow
And maybe you've just told God something.
You know, maybe you sung the song,
we'll work till Jesus comes, I surrender all.
Hey, if you sing those songs, actually do them.
And if you don't meet it in your heart,
just don't sing the song.
And you know, I want you to sing the song.
So why don't you just sing the song and do it?
That's what we ought to do.
Let's sing the song and actually do what the song says.
If you're telling God you're going to work until Jesus comes,
Let's do that. Let's work till Jesus comes and I love that song and I'll sing that song and I want to work until Jesus comes
You know, I'm not gonna vow to God and say hey
I'm gonna soul win every single day for the rest of my life or I will soul win
Every single week multiple times a week, you know, I'm not gonna say that, you know, and you don't say that either just
Give to God what you've said, you know, if you say we'll work till Jesus comes
Hey, just do your best to work until Jesus comes and yet go soul winning every week go soul winning as much as you can
But if you tell God something, why don't you keep that?
And if you tell God, you know, you surrender to Him, surrender to Him.
And you know, we ought to do those things, especially if you vow a vow unto God.
But if we want to be accepted in God's eyes, we ought to give God our best.
We ought to give to God what we've said.
And we ought to give to God with clean hands.
And the way to get clean hands is to confess your sins,
You know, that's how we have clean hands and if you have blood on your hands
You're not going to be accepted in God's eyes if you break what you've said and you lie to God and you're a deceiver
Bible says cursed be the deceiver
You know, if you tell God you're going to do something, do it.
If you don't give God your best, you know, you might end up like Cain.
And obviously, if you're saved, you're not going to go to hell like Cain, but you could
get punished and, you know, Cain also had a curse.
So, if you want to be cursed by God, don't give your body a living sacrifice, but if
you want God's blessings, give to God your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto God.
This is your reasonable service.
Dear Father, thank you for the word and thank you for the example of your son, Jesus Christ, who died for us
and was that sacrifice for us. Help us strive to do as good as we can and to purify our hearts.
And I pray, Lord, that if we do have any sins that we are not aware of and that we do have blood on our hands,
I pray that you would purge that from us, Lord, and help us to be
accepted in your eyes and to be an acceptable sacrifice. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
All right, we'll go ahead and sing one last song.
To conclude the service, if you would at this time,
take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 324.
Hymn number 324.
Draw me nearer.
hymn number 324 nice and loud we'll go ahead and start there right on the first
Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine.
Let my soul
To thy breath.
singing this evening. With that, you are dismissed. Thank you all for coming.