Inner convictions are better than the utter sacrifices

From the inception of man’s creation God is searching to find an inner conviction of the heart of men in relating to their creator.

Prior to the fall Adam had a conviction in his heart about communing with his creator by a daily walk with Him in the cool of the day in Eden.  The ultimate reason for his creation. Adam walked with God the Bible says until the rebellion was found in Him.

From the fall Adam leaving his God ordained purpose of his creation, forsook the inner conviction of his own heart for a lie which was the covering of his nakedness through reasoning and utter vain sacrifices of his emptiness in all kinds of vanity.

Leaving the basis of their creation children of men were introduced to the system of offering sacrifices; however without an inner conviction of the heart these sacrifices remained un expectable to God.

Like everything else in life the utter works, of humanity without the conviction of one’s heart remains’ unfruitful and totally rejected by God and even men. Like Able who through conviction offered a sacrifice to the Lord, we too need to fully understand its significance by a conviction of the heart to have them acceptable in the presence of our king.  One of the things that our God hates is a deceitful heart that has replaced its conviction with religious façade. Religious façade is a form of hypocrisy and that in relating to our God and His truth is called the worst kind of hypocrisy. Jesus Christ our Lord constantly rebuked the Pharisees of His days, because they had removed the true and Godly convictions from their hearts.

A religious Pharisee is a man whose lips utter the sacrifices of emptiness and has no inner conviction of his own sinfulness before God. He is a man or a woman who has many utter signs of piety, but his or her heart is not bearing witness to his or her need for God’s righteousness. Has a mouth quick to judge others and slander his /her neighbor, yet in his or her mind he  or she stands always acquitted by her own diluted measure of human justification.

Not wanting to look intently in his own heart he or she is constantly offering vain and religious sacrifices to the Lord. This kind of a person delights in vain sacrifices and in the end he receives the reward of a fool into his /her own lap.

These men love the praise of people in the market place and prefer the best seats in the synagogues and are satisfied by their utter signs of religious piety, yet they have neglected the weightier matters of the law.

These men always brag about the law, but they have no inner conviction to live by the law. They neglect the widows and the orphans; they show partiality to the rich by offering them the best seats in their synagogues. They make long prayers and speak many words of emptiness, trying to be heard. These are like the ones Jesus addressed in Mark chapter 7 who very well keep the traditions of men, yet they neglect the commandments of God. These are the ones that teach human doctrines forbidding men to do anything for their parents calling their gifts a (Corban) or a gift that should have been given to God.

Yet God rejecting their foolish sacrifices commands them to repent in allowing God’s commandments to be the convictions of their callus hearts.  Their delight was more in performing the religious acts of men, without truly is convicted in their hearts of their significances in their daily lives.

These are men like us who after being forgiven an unbelievable amount of spiritual debt are often not willing to let men go free in our hearts. Yet in celebrating the feasts and the traditions of the elders we are so quick to perform.

King David of Israel was severely tested in the matters of his multitude of sacrifices, when he was caught by God in sinning with the wife of Uriah the Hittite.

Facing his adulteress and murderous heart in being convicted by prophet Nathan he was found out to be in violations of the moral laws of God, and in them all he admitted the vanity of his own vain sacrifices brought before God.

In psalm 51 King of Israel begins to call on God’s unfathomable richness of His mercies to him who was crying out to Him in convictions of his own heart in recognizing the depravity of his own heart.

It is here where King David confesses

The need for a cleansed heart and a renewed spirit within himself. It is here that he recognizes the greatness of his sin before God.

He speaks of a true convicted heart that is crying out for change. Here the King of all Israel sees the ugliness of his own righteousness before God and is pleading with God for mercy. It is here that he says through the restoration of God’s righteousness all his sacrifices are now going to be acceptable before God. It is here that he truly repents of all his vain sacrifices of his utter religiousness. Like Job being confronted by God in chapter 40 through 42 David too repents insackcloth and ashes from his own vanity of self righteousness before God.  It is at this point that the Lord would be just in David’s heart to convict him of his utter sinfulness for a life without Him. Here is where true repentance comes in to the heart of men.

This is now the start of a true worship of God. When men are able to see themselves as God sees them and not as whom they see themselves to be. Here is where we no longer can hide behind our good works and sacrifices of fools, in which the Lord has no delight. It is at this level that the heart of men are filled with the songs of deliverance and their sacrifices are as a sweet smelling aroma before the Lord, otherwise they are abhorred by our Creator and are totally disgusting in His holy eyes.

It is right here when His true worshippers are heard for their worship and their alters become the altar of the Lord. When men call onto God to create in them a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within them.

Here is where God’s eternal fire of His mercy will come dawn to burn the sacrifices of the meek and the humble among His people.

Here is where our religious festivals and our celebration or our feasts will be accepted by His holy presence.

Now here is the reason why I brought this word to us today a week before we come together to commemorate thePassover of the Lord or the last supper, which are one and the very same thing. Like every year, this year too we by the permission of our Lord and King Jesus Christ will come to partake of the Lord’s Supper next Monday night, and I do not want this to remain as another vain utter expression of our faith lacking an inner conviction of our hearts.

Since many attend the sanctuaries of the Living God these days with uncircumcised hearts, then it remains vitally important that the intents of our hearts to be re examined in His presence, before we come to remind ourselves of our exodus from Egypt into the wilderness of the testing of this short lived life of faith. It is time again to see sin in our lives as it really is. In doing this we can then come together in righteousness and truth.

If we truly do not come with a genuine heart of confession we would have approached this holy communion in vain. we are then allowing our profession of faith to be nothing, but what will one day condemn us with the perishing forever.

We are found then digging our own graves by denying the true faith with a counterfeit one tailored to suit our own false dreams and wild ambitions. Then we do not need for Satan to dig a grave for us, but we would be our own grave digger.

Therefore let us come to Him while there is time, and ask Him to give us the true conviction of the heart instead of the vanity of false altars we have erected in His Name. There still remains one week to the celebration of the atonement for all our sins. Let us come to Him this week with fasting and prayers and confessions and renouncing of our sins, so that we would experience His presence in our midst.