What Doth The LORD Require

As Moses spoke final instructions to the Children of Israel before their entrance into the Promised Land, he posed the question that has been asked by every generation since the beginning of time, “What doth the LORD require of me?” At the dawn of a new year the answer to that question is as pertinent as ever to each and every person living in this time. (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

Moses instructed the Children of Israel to first of all “Fear the LORD thy God,” to reverence who HE is, be in awe of who HE is for His great power and majesty revealed to them throughout their forty years of wilderness wandering.

As they first and foremost were to “Fear the LORD,” they were also to “Walk in all His ways,” not to walk after the idolatrous ways of the heathen they were about to encounter. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

They were also to “Love Him” as Moses had previously instructed them in Deuteronomy 6:5, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Later in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses told them “That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days,” (Deuteronomy 30:20).

In like manner were they also to “Serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” As King David later wrote in the Psalms, “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing… Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise,” (Psalm 100:2-4).

Moses then told them it is required of them to “Keep the commandments of the LORD,” not only the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets by the finger of God, but additionally some 600 commands found throughout the Law of Moses given to him by God during his long stays on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 19-31; Deuteronomy 9:10)

God also required the Children of Israel to keep “His statutes” found throughout The Book of Leviticus concerning clean and unclean foods, dealing with leprosy in the camp, keeping their festivals throughout their generations, honoring the Sabbath, and much more.

Moses then asked a question of them concerning, “What doth the LORD thy God require of thee;” he asked, is it “for thy good?” He then reminds them of who God is and how He cared for them in the wilderness when they had to rely on Him for everything, telling them, “He is thy praise, and He is thy God that hath done for thee these great and terrible (wonderful) things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons (70); and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude. Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commandments, alway,” (Deuteronomy 10:14-11:1).

The Gospel

 

“By one man (Adam) SIN entered the world…

All have SINNED and come short of the Glory of God…

The wages of SIN is death…

But GOD so loved the world He sent His Son…

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (payment) through faith in His blood…

To declare HIS Righteousness for the remission of SINS…

Not by works of Righteousness which we have done…

But according to His Mercy He saves us…

I declare unto you The Gospel by which you are saved…

Christ died for our SINS…

He was Buried…

He Rose Again the third day

According to the Scriptures”

(John 3:16; Romans 3:23, 25; 5:12; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Titus 3:5)

Finding New Life in Christ

It’s the New Year… out with the old; in with the new. Time to assess where one has been and where one wants to go. Resolutions are made, diets are changed, and serious attempts at exercise begin once again. As much as these desires may be well and good as long as they last, and prove beneficial to some, there is a decision each individual who has not done so should make in the New Year that will provide not just temporary benefits, but an eternal benefit that will change one’s life forever.

As life can seem to become mundane and at times even dreary when the resolutions wear off as each New Year progresses, most try to find new ways to liven up their daily existence and keep things exciting, only to find emptiness in all their efforts. Their man-made attempts fall short of what God has revealed in His Word is needed to become a new creation, with old things in man’s present fallen state passing away and all things becoming new. In fact, not only will the old things that hinder one’s life pass away, and all things become new, but the new life God offers every man, woman, and child is an abundant life.

During Jesus’ parable of the Good Shepherd, He spoke of a thief that comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but then said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” (John 10:10). The Apostle Paul, whose life was miraculously changed on the road to Damascus from a life pleasing unto Satan to a life blessed by God, wrote in Ephesians 3:20, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” In Paul’s earlier letter to the church at Corinth he wrote, “But as it is written,” referring to Isaiah 64:4 in the Old Testament written some 600 years prior, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him,” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

It is in Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, written some thirty years after his Damascus road experience, that he wrote concerning being able to shed the old things and all things becoming new. He wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “Therefore if any man be IN Christ, he is a new creature,” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Being “in Christ” is having admitted to God you are a sinner, acknowledging the death, burial and bodily resurrection of His Son, Jesus, paid for the sin of all who will call upon His Name, and surrendering one’s life to Him in obedience to His Word. Once one is “in Christ” the showers of His blessings will fall upon one’s life, along with God’s promise of eternal life with Him in Heaven, avoiding the wrath that is to come. (Romans 3:23; 5:8-9; 6:23; 10:9-13; Philippians 4:19)

Who is a Saint?

Contrary to popular belief it is not man who determines who is a saint, it is GOD. Looking at the numerous verses related to saints in the Holy Scriptures, it is obvious saints are not named after their death, but are called saints while still very much alive and on this earth. In 1 Corinthians 1:2 the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth gives a clear definition of who is a saint, “them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.” Throughout Scripture everyone who had, like King David in Psalm 51, confessed their sin to God, repented of their sin, and trusted in Christ as Savior are called saints.

Luke wrote in Acts 9:32 of Peter’s travels, “he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.” Upon Peter’s involvement in the raising of Dorcas from the dead, Dr. Luke further writes, “When he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive,” (9:41). In his testimony before King Agrippa, the Apostle Paul related to him in Acts 26:10, “many of the saints did I shut up in prison.” To be in prison one must be alive. It is not after death one is named a saint by mere man.

The Apostle Paul’s references to saints in his letters to the churches at Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colosse clearly show he is speaking of all those who have placed their faith and trust in Christ for salvation, as the saints of God:

“To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints” – Romans 1:7

“He that searcheth the hearts… maketh intercession for the saints” – Romans 8:27

“Distributing to the necessity of saints” – Romans 12:13

“Now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints” – Romans 15:25

“To make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem” – Romans 15:26

“My service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints” – Romans 15:31

“That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints” – Romans 16:2

“Salute… all the saints which are with them” – Romans 16:15

“Dare any of you… go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?” – 1 Corinthians 6:1

“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” – 1 Corinthians 6:2

“Churches of the saints” – 1 Corinthians 14:33

“The collection for the saints” – 1 Corinthians 16:1

“Addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” – 1Corinthians 16:15

“With all the saints which are in all Achaia” – 2 Corinthians 1:1

“Ministering to the saints” – 2 Corinthians 8:4; 9:1

“The want of the saints” – 2 Corinthians 9:12

“All the saints salute you” –   2 Corinthians 13:13

“To the saints which are at Ephesus” – Ephesians 1:1

“Love unto all the saints” – Ephesians 1:15

“His inheritance in the saints” – Ephesians 1:18

“Fellowcitizens with the saints” – Ephesians 2:19

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints” – Ephesians 3:8

“Comprehend with all saints” – Ephesians 3:18

“The perfecting of the saints” – Ephesians 4:12

“Let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints” – Ephesians 5:3

“Praying always… for all saints” – Ephesians 6:18

“To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi” – Philippians 1:1

“Salute every saint in Christ Jesus” – Philippians 4:21

“All the saints salute you” – Philippians 4:22

“To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse” – Colossians 1:2

“The love which ye have to all the saints” – Colossians 1:4

“Partakers of the inheritance of the saints” – Colossians 1:12

“Now is made manifest to His saints” – Colossians 1:26

God Is Not Pleased With Many

In the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian Church in modern day Greece he took them back to former times in the life of their forefathers. As is important in knowing their history written by Moses in the Old Testament, he wrote them they should not be ignorant how that:

• ALL their fathers were under the cloud  (Exodus 13:21-22)
• ALL passed through the sea  (Exodus 14:21-22)
• ALL were baptized in the cloud and in the sea  (Exodus 14:19-20,29)
• ALL did eat of the same spiritual food  (Exodus 16:4)
• ALL did drink of the same spiritual drink  (Exodus 17:6)

Then Paul reminded them how even though they ALL experienced the same events during their exodus from Egypt, God was not pleased with many of them, for a great multitude of them were overthrown in the wilderness. Paul then listed some of the sins they committed that kept them from entering the Promised Land:

• Idolatry –  sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play (Exodus 32:1-6)
• Fornication –  committed and fell in one day 23,000  (Numbers 25:1-9)
• Tempted God –  were destroyed by serpents  (Exodus 17:2; Numbers 21:4-7)
• Murmured –  were destroyed by the destroyer  (Numbers 14:1-4,27-32)

Paul then clearly tells them “Now all these things happened unto them for examples;” (to the others wandering in the wilderness with them), “and they were written for our admonition.” He then adamantly declares, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” (I Corinthians 10:1-12)

There are those in every generation who go through the motion of church attendance, baptism, giving money to the church, helping the poor, feeding the hungry, but their hearts are far from God just as many of those who followed Moses into the wilderness. God is not well pleased with those who traverse this earth in like manner and they, too, will not enter the “Promised Land” of Heaven that awaits those who truly repent, put their trust in Christ as Savior, surrendering their lives fully to Him.

“Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should NOT lust after evil things, as they also lusted.”

I Corinthians 10:6