"Blessings for Obedience"
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One morning R.C. Chapman, a devout Christian, was asked how he was feeling. "I'm burdened this morning!" was his reply. But his happy countenance contradicted his words. So the questioner exclaimed in surprise, "Are you really burdened, Mr. Chapman?" "Yes, but it's a wonderful burden--it's an overabundance of blessings for which I cannot find enough time or words to express my gratitude!" Seeing the puzzled look on the face of his friend, Chapman added with a smile, "I am referring to Psalm 68:19, which fully describes my condition. In that verse the Father in heaven reminds us that He 'daily loads us with benefits.'"
The blessings of the Lord are abundant and totally overflowing in so many different ways and at many different times, but it is always there.
Praise the Lord; praise God our savior!
For each day he carries us in his arms.
Interlude
How many times have we said that we were not gonna make it. How many times did we say, if God does not help me… if God does not do anything… if God does not bless me… I’m not not gonna make it. And its funny how we are still here. Is it because we were being hyperbolic in our speak or did God really carry us through our hardships? Was not He blessings still there? Was He not still blessing us?
Many times we don’t think God’s blessing is with us, because it is not the blessing we are wanting or the blessing we are hoping for. Again we get to the place where we are asking God for stuff but we get discouraged and upset because it does not happen the way we want it. We don’t get what we asked for. But in our immaturity we always fall in to wanting what is not good for us. We confuse God’s blessing with God’s absence. We confuse God’s blessing with God’s distance. When we approach how God deals with us and how He has dealt with us, we know and we can see that we are blessed beyond measure. Let’s take a look.
On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. Ask the priests this question about the law: ‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’ ”
The priests replied, “No.”
Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?”
And the priests answered, “Yes.”
Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord. Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin. Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple. When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.
“Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid. Think carefully. I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn. You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward I will bless you.”
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
The Question
The Blessing
The first thing we will look at today is the rhetorical question asked by the Lord to illustrate the current state of the people of God and the vivid description of the people of God in the eyes of the Lord. Second, we will see the amazing blessing of the Lord ultimately in the giving of His Son Jesus.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to lose sight of the continued blessing of God in our lives, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the scriptures that will open our hearts and minds to the truth of the blessings of God and how we are and will always be blessed beyond measure because of Christ and Christ alone.
I. The Question
- A question for the priests about the law.
A. The meat that was offered was holy.
“Give Aaron and his sons the following instructions regarding the sin offering. The animal given as an offering for sin is a most holy offering, and it must be slaughtered in the Lord’s presence at the place where the burnt offerings are slaughtered.
Anyone or anything that touches the sacrificial meat will become holy. If any of the sacrificial blood spatters on a person’s clothing, the soiled garment must be washed in a sacred place.
B. Such holy portions must have been carried in the robes of the priests and according to Leviticus 6:27 the garment itself would be holy, but here it is… holiness would not be passed on from the garment to anything it might touch.
C. This is why the priests said no. And then we would see the contrast. Would ritual defilement be passed on?
“If any of Aaron’s descendants has a skin disease or any kind of discharge that makes him ceremonially unclean, he may not eat from the sacred offerings until he has been pronounced clean. He also becomes unclean by touching a corpse, or by having an emission of semen, or by touching a small animal that is unclean, or by touching someone who is ceremonially unclean for any reason. The man who is defiled in any of these ways will remain unclean until evening. He may not eat from the sacred offerings until he has bathed himself in water. When the sun goes down, he will be ceremonially clean again and may eat from the sacred offerings, for this is his food.
D. Here is the charge… this is how it is for my people. Everything you do and everything you touch is defiled. Even the good things you do like sacrifices ect… are all defiled. How can anything be made holy if you are defiled? How can the offerings that purge defilement were already defiled?
E. This is the reality of our sin. This is the reality of the effects of our sin. This is our problem this is our predicament. This is what it is to be defiled by sin. This is why it is said in Isaiah...
We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds,
they are nothing but filthy rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,
and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
F. But Shane im doing good things for the Lord… I pray everyday.
God detests the prayers
of a person who ignores the law.
G. But Shane I worship the Lord in church that has to count for something...
“I hate all your show and pretense—
the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
There’s no use offering me sweet frankincense from Sheba.
Keep your fragrant calamus imported from distant lands!
I will not accept your burnt offerings.
Your sacrifices have no pleasing aroma for me.”
When you come to worship me,
who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?
Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;
the incense of your offerings disgusts me!
As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath
and your special days for fasting—
they are all sinful and false.
I want no more of your pious meetings.
I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals.
They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!
When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.
Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,
for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
H. What if Eve said no? Eve is in the garden and the snake comes to tempt her. He tells her of all the realities of the fruit in the garden. She takes a look and says no… I have already hit my calorie count for the day. I am watching my weight right now. Don’t want to have to kill more animals to get their skins cause I don’t fit my clothes anymore. So she didn’t eat the fruit but did she obey the Lord? This is a big one for us.
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
I. One more time… the water bottle illustration.
II. The Blessing
- From this day onward I will Bless you.
A. And what we found to be amazing for the people of Israel was the Lord showing their plight and their defilement… the consequences of their defilement and rebellion and the move on God on them, their repentance, and the Lord sparking their enthusiasm.
B. It was all gonna be ok, because the Lord was with them and He promised that from this day onward He would bless them. And this is the wonderful promise for us today.
C. We were all sinful from the beginning. Romans declares that there is no one righteous no not one. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. All defiled by the flesh and suffer from the effects of original sin. In Adam we were all made sinners. And you know what… even if it was not the case we all at some point broke the 10 commandments. Yeah but Shane I only broke one of them my whole life.
For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.
D. Defiled continuing to be defiled … passing on our defilement to others. passing on the effects of our defilement to others. Causing others to fall. Causing others to sin.
E. "What's wrong with the world?" a newspaper editorial once asked. G.K. Chesterton wrote in reply, "I am."
F. Okay Shane I get it… But can I be saved from this?