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Blemished Sacrifices - NO!

Blemished Sacrifices – NO!
Sacrifices of Praise – Yes!
Our scriptures are found in the Books of Malachi; Hebrews; Romans and 1st Peter.
{Malachi Chapter 1:1, 2, and 6-8}:
(1.An oracle: The Word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi (My Messenger.)
(2. ”I have loved you,” says the Lord….
(6.A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due Me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you, O priest, who despise My name. “ But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
(7.”You place defiled food on My altar…..

Have you ever gone shopping in the produce section of your local grocery?
Do you find yourself being very selective in your choice of vegetables or fruit?
You obviously want to get the best for your table when shopping.

(7. but you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ “By saying, that the Lord’s table is contemptible.
(8.When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?
When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?
Try offering them to your governor! Would he be
pleased with you?
Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.
{Proverbs 15:8} The word of God says.
(8.The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him.

What we find throughout our society and throughout the world is man's failure to communicate with the Lord in a way that shows the reverence, love, and respect that is due the Lord from man whom He has created.
We live in a society that wants to ask for the best of everything from the Lord, receive the best of everything from the Lord, expects the best of everything from the Lord, but gives the least of everything to the Lord.

When Araunah the Jebusite saw King David, {1st Ch 21:20} he bowed down to King David and said,
{1st Ch 21:23}”Take it! Let my lord the King do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sleds for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
But King David had the reverence, love, and respect for God that would not allow him to place defiled food on God’s altar.
King David said to Araunah the Jebusite,
{1st Ch21:24} But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price.
I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

We must aspire to be like King David, we must revere, love, and respect the Lord so deeply that we refuse to offer any form of sacrifice to Him that we have not paid the cost for. We must not defile the altar of God.

Paul of Tarsus goes beyond even the sincerity of King David. Paul suggests to Christians that they give themselves as living sacrifices to the Lord.

{Romans12:1,2}(1.Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual worship.
(2.Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good , pleasing and perfect will.

By offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, we are privileged to know His perfect will for us. And as Peter tells us, {1st Peter 2:4.5} we will be able to offer spiritual sacrifices to God that are acceptable to Him.

{1st Peter 2:4,5} (4.As you come to Him, the Living Stone, rejected by men-but chosen by God and precious to Him-...
(5.You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

And so, we find ourselves holding the key to open the door to the blessings of God through sacrifice. For unlike in days of old when man offered the body and blood of an animal as a sacrifice, we have a High Priest who has made the ultimate sacrifice for us. {Heb 13:11 -16}

{Heb 13:11-16} (11. The high priest carries blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.
(12. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood..
(13. Let us, then, go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore..
(14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come..
(15. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess His name..
(16. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Amen.

God Said, IF I, THEN I

The Lord gave a word to Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house in order to receive His message to him.

Jeremiah 18:3,4
So I went down to the potter's house and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

While Jeremiah watched the potter reshape the pot, the word of the Lord came to him.

Jeremiah 18: 6-8
6. "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
7. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,
8. and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

The Lord can at will be forgiving to a people who are willing to repent and denounce their evil practices.

Jeremiah 18:9,10
9. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,
10. and if it does evil in My sight and does not obey Me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

So does this mean that God is unjust? Paul says in the book of
Romans 9:14,15 ...."Not at all!
15. For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion of whom I have compassion."

Pauls says, Romans 9:16, It does not, therefore depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.

Romans 9:18 Therfore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

Paul ask the question,
Romans 9:22 What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath -- prepared for destruction?
Paul further asks,
Romans 9:23,24 What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory --
24. even us, whom He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

Paul has already previously informed us of our status as more than conquerors.

Romans 8:28-30
28. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
29. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be comformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firsborn among many brothers.
30. And those He predestined, He also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

And so, Paul ask this question,
Romans 8:31,32 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32. He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all -- how will He not also along with Him, graciously give us all things?

However, God requires something of us. God imposes an "IF" on mankind to be the catalyst for His "THEN."

2 Chronicles 7:14
If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

If today you and I want to receive God's "then", we need to follow His word, do what it says and if we show ourselves to be worthy of His blessings, then He will.