Episode Transcript
Tonight's proverb addresses the matter of false religion.
And it's not just speaking about all false religions, because there's a lot of them out there, but it's speaking about false religions.
That are corruptions of Christianity.
And we've had those corruptions since the fall of man.
It's speaking about those religions that pattern Christianity, but they lack the power of Christianity.
I had that in my notes before I ever heard Brother Shepherd teach his Sunday school class.
But I'm always so amazed at how they always cross because he used that scripture.
About in the last days how people would have a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.
Well, a corrupt Christian religion, it has the pattern of Christianity.
It has very many similarities.
They'll wear a cross, they'll have a cross, we have a cross.
Maybe they have sacrifice like the Jews.
Then you have pagan sacrifices.
That's corruption because they got the sacrifices from The true religion that God established in the Garden of Eden.
And so we're talking about those types that have the pattern but not the power.
And we know the power of Christianity is the gospel.
In speaking about this, Solomon begins by saying the sacrifice.
The sacrifice.
And this word, if you're taking notes in the Hebrew, it literally means the slaughter.
The slaughter.
So when Solomon says sacrifice, he's not speaking about self-denial, as one might say, I sacrifice so much for my children.
He's speaking about the slaughter of an innocent substitute on an altar for someone's sins.
He's talking about religious sacrifice, religious offerings.
And there have been a lot of corrupt Christian-based religions out there.
And the very first corrupt offering, I believe, recorded in the Bible was when Adam and Eve tried to clothe themselves with the fig leaves.
They tried to use them as a means to cover their nakedness and their guilt.
Genesis 3:7 says, And the eyes of them both were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together.
Together and made themselves aprons.
And though Adam and Eve were not corrupting the established pattern for sacrifice, there had not yet been an established.
Pattern of sacrifice revealed yet.
There was one established, but that established sacrifice had not yet been revealed to man.
There was no need for it, there was no sin.
However, the word atone means to cover, and there is no denying the fact that that's what they were trying to do.
Was cover their guilt and shame.
And we know that God didn't accept that covering.
He instead slaughtered, sacrificed, our word tonight, innocent animals, and clothed them with the animal skins.
And then as time passed and they had children, we see Cain and Abel.
And then They approach God with their own individual offerings, and they are both seeking to be accepted by God and to please God.
And what do you know?
We see the two things again.
Cain offers vegetation like his parents.
Abel offers a sacrifice like God did for his parents.
And as God did not accept the vegetation of Cain's parents.
He did not accept the vegetation that Cain offered either.
Both of these boys worshiped the same God.
But Cain knowingly rejected the way that God had established for him to be accepted through the sacrifice of an innocent substitute.
So God rejected the one and He accepted the other.
Why?
We've looked at it before, but to remind everyone, because Abel's offering which God accepted, it showed Abel's faith in the coming Savior, Jesus.
But Cain's offering, which God rejected, had nothing to do with Jesus.
It had the pattern He had an altar.
He approached the same God.
He laid something on the altar.
But it lacked the power.
There was no lamb to die for his sin.
It had a form of godliness, but rejecting the Lamb, Cain denied the power thereof.
It's like Cain's sacrifice was not a sacrifice at all, you see.
It was something Cain offered instead of the sacrifice God required.
It's like Cain said, God's way is not pleasing to me, so God will have to accept me my way.
And there's only one way to be accepted by God, and that's by accepting the Savior God provided.
And I bet those fig leaf garments were a sight to behold.
I would have lo seriously would have loved to have seen how they wove them together.
I bet it was very beautiful, very ornate.
But they couldn't take away sin.
I bet the vegetation that Cain offered, whatever it was, the fruit of the ground, I bet it was very beautiful.
But it couldn't take away his sin.
Cain didn't care about God's plan to redeem man.
He didn't care about following God's word at all.
And that's why Cain, when given the choice to come God's way, ended up killing his brother instead.
Cain was a wicked man.
So Cain's sacrifice was the sacrifice, look back in your text, of the wicked.
See it?
Saul is talking tonight about the sacrifice of the wicked, and the wicked is speaking about someone who is morally wrong.
Someone who goes against God's word.
And Solomon says, the sacrifice of a wicked person, look back in your text, is an abomination.
That word abomination means disgusting.
Disgusting.
I read a news article tonight.
Before I came to church, I thought to myself, that is disgusting.
I then told Tammy about the news article.
She used the exact same words.
She said, that is disgusting.
You know what we were both saying?
That's an abomination.
That's what we were saying.
When something's disgusting, You see abomines and abomination to the Lord, it means it's disgusting to him.
So we know what that feels like.
That's why God uses words that we can relate to because we have similar feelings to His personality.
He created us that way.
So the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination.
It's disgusting.
And I want you to notice, though, that this verse is not saying the wicked are an abomination.
It says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination.
I like that.
Going back to Cain and Abel, the Bible says.
To Abel and to his offering, God had respect, but to Cain and his offering, he had not respect.
Both Cain and Abel were sinners.
So, in a sense, they were both wicked.
I thank God that a wicked person can come to God through Jesus.
So it doesn't say the wicked is an abomination.
It says their sacrifice is an abomination.
And why is that important?
Of course, wickedness is an abomination to God.
But why is that important here?
It's because I can see the devil getting inside some troubled soul's head and telling that person, now see there, you are wicked.
And that means God does not accept your Christianity, the sacrifice of the wicked.
So, you going around and saying, Jesus is my Savior, I believe in him, yet you're a wicked person, and you think wrong, and you do wrong, and you're always.
Failing in these areas here.
You're an abomination to the Lord.
That's not what the proverb's saying.
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination.
If you accept Jesus as your Savior, you can rest assured that God accepts you.
Rest assured.
Remember, it is the sacrifice that is an abomination.
Cain's sacrifice was an abomination to the Lord.
And that means a wicked person does not offer God the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross.
You see what's happening here?
The sacrifice of the wicked.
Do wicked people sacrifice to God?
Yes.
Are wicked people involved in religion all the time?
Yes, Brother Shepherd pointed out the man in Africa that says he's Jesus.
He has a million followers right now.
There are lots of religious people out here, so in a sense, you could say their religious service is the sacrifice of the wicked.
But what we know about it is this.
What is the sacrifice of the wicked?
It is the wicked substituting something for the gospel.
It is false religion.
How do we know that?
Because God would never consider the sacrifice Jesus made as an abomination.
If I bring to God in faith the sacrifice of his Son.
I'm not wicked.
I am justified by my faith in Jesus.
So I can't be wicked in his sight.
I am now righteous in his sight.
The just shall live by faith.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so when I offer Jesus to God, Then God is pleased with me.
And God would never consider Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross as an abomination.
Remember, God said, This is my beloved Son.
In whom I am well pleased.
Isaiah chapter 53, verse 10.
Isaiah chapter 53, verse 10.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
Have you ever thought about this scripture?
The Bible says he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our transgressions.
And it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
Now, when the Lord bruised Jesus, Do you know what that was?
That was the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
And when God bruised Jesus on the cross, because our sins were put on Jesus, And God smote Jesus in our place.
And that's the bruising.
Remember what God told the devil?
It shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise It shall bruise thy head, yet thou shalt bruise his heel.
And so that was the bruising.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him.
And when Jesus was bruised, it gave God pleasure.
Why?
Because it was like the sweet aroma.
That's why.
When it says it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
What that's talking about is basically explaining why they had burnt offerings in the Old Testament.
God said it will be a sweet savor to me.
Man, I tell you what, you know what smoked meat smells like.
That's what that smelled like.
You just step inside Soul Man's Barbecue and you say, Man, that's a sweet savor to me, right?
That's why there was incense.
In the tabernacle, because Jesus' sacrifice would be pleasing to God.
The reason it pleased the Lord to bruise Jesus Is because prior to Jesus' death on the cross, all of our sin was held against us, waiting on the redemption provided by Jesus.
When God Bruised Jesus for our sins, then now we have a true atonement, and now God is pleased.
He's pleased with the love, the obedience, and the offering that Jesus made.
And so it says, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
Do you know how you're saved?
By making Jesus an offering for your sin.
If you make Jesus an offering for your sin, that's not the sacrifice of the wicked at being an abomination to God.
That's the sacrifice of a justified person that's now pleasing God.
When you shall make his soul, Jesus' soul, an offering for sin, he that is God the Father.
Shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days.
That's God the Son, excuse me.
He shall see his seed.
The seed of Christ, if ye be Christ, and are ye Abraham's seed heirs according to promise, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure, there's that word pleasure again, of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Amazing.
Isaiah 42, verse 1.
Isaiah 42, verse 1.
Listen to what the Father says about the Son again.
Behold, my servant.
Whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.
This is not, once again, this is not talking about a person that trusts in Christ as their Savior, yet isn't living up to to the good godly standards they should and thus their sacrifice is an abomination to God.
Our poor work can never Undo Jesus' good work.
Your bad works can never stain Jesus' good work.
Make sense?
So the pleasure the Lord shall prosper in.
He says, In whom my soul delighteth, he said, I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
God will never reject a man who comes to Him through the sacrifice Jesus made.
That's the whole point.
And him making that sacrifice.
So, what makes a wicked man's sacrifice an abomination to God?
It's because God sent Jesus to take the place of sinners.
And then the wicked want to make a substitute to take the place of Jesus.
You know, you think about that.
God sends His only begotten Son to take the place of sinners And then you have some sinners who want something to take the place of Jesus.
And there is no one who can take his place because he's the only one who took our place.
And it's a special kind of sin to know Who God sent and why, and then to reject that and substitute it with something else.
It's a special kind of wickedness, spiritual suicide.
When it comes to Cain, thinking back on Cain, Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11 says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood.
You let your blood out, you're letting your life out.
And I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.
For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
So, blood on the altar as an atonement for the soul.
Cain's offering was made on an altar.
But Cain's offering had no blood.
Therefore, it had no life to give.
Therefore, it had no atonement to provide.
Cain's offering had the pattern of Christianity, but it lacked the power of Christianity, which is the blood Jesus shed.
So, we're not talking about people who trust in Jesus as their Savior.
We're talking about people who replace Jesus with another Savior.
It doesn't have to be another person.
But another object, something other than Jesus Christ.
And that the Bible says is an abomination, look back in your text, to the Lord.
It's an abomination to the Lord.
It's disgusting to the Lord when somebody does that.
Can you imagine what God must think when he is willing to accept sinners?
I mean, the holy, righteous God is willing to accept Unholy, unrighteous people, but those unholy, unrighteous people are unwilling to accept Jesus.
God's willing to accept us.
But some of us are unwilling to accept the Savior he sent.
And I can just imagine what God must think when Sinners offer to him something other than Jesus, as if they have found a better alternative.
I've argued with people till I've been about blue in the face.
I don't argue with them much anymore.
But I've had people so aggravated with me because I insist that the only way to be saved is through faith in Christ alone.
I've had so many church people upset at me about that.
But God provided one way for us to be saved and for us to reject God's way.
To offer him our own way is the height of foolishness and an insult to the Almighty God.
Who made us?
Anything we put our trust in to be saved from our sins, other than Jesus Christ, is an abomination to God.
And a lot of people would say, well, as long as we're being sincere, I believe Cain was sincere.
I don't believe Cain sincerely wanted to please God.
If he did, he would have done what God said.
I do believe Cain wanted to be accepted and promoted by God, though.
He just wanted to be on his terms.
And it doesn't matter how sincere we are, anything that we present to God Instead of Jesus, Christ is an abomination to him.
Look back in your text, but the prayer of the upright.
The prayer of the upright.
Now, I want you to notice the comparison here.
Remember when Jesus told the sick of the palsy, He said, Thy sins be forgiven thee?
And they said, well, you can't say that.
Nobody can forgive sins but God.
Well, he had just forgiven the man's sins.
They just couldn't see it.
So he thought, well, I'll give them something they can see.
So he said, well, which is easier?
Is it easier for me to say, your sins are forgiven?
Or is it easier for me to say, get up and walk?
Well, it's a whole lot easier to say your sins are forgiven.
No one can tell me different if they're not If you say rise and walk That's a difficult saying because if the man doesn't get up, you're going to be exposed as a fraud.
And so Jesus says, so you'll know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.
Get up and walk.
And the man got up and walked.
So you had the small thing, your sins are forgiven, then you had the big thing, rise and walk.
This is what we have.
We have this kind of comparison here.
At the first of the proverb, we have the sacrifice of the wicked.
Which Is greater in a sense.
Which is easier, because Jesus said, which is more difficult to say, your sins are forgiven or rise and walk.
Which is more difficult?
Is it more difficult to whisper a prayer to God or is it more difficult to offer a sacrifice to God?
Which is more difficult?
Huh?
Hands down.
Y'all ever, I mean, years ago, we went through Leviticus.
Man, you're talking about some.
Really, really complicated rules when it comes to offering.
Cut a certain way, wash body parts, burn this, don't burn that.
Take this over here.
I mean.
It's really complicated.
So to take an animal, lug it up here to the temple.
You go through all these motions and have all this done.
I mean, before you could even get the animal in the back of your cart.
Before you can even put a rope around its neck to drag it, however, you get it up there.
You could already whisper two or three prayers.
So the sacrifice of the wicked is a big religious work.
The prayer of the upright is a small religious work.
See the difference?
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God no matter how big of a religious work it is.
The prayer of the upright, on the other hand, that little prayer is what?
Look what it says.
It's his delight.
Remember what God said about Jesus?
He delights in his servant.
We read that earlier.
The prayer of the upright is his delight.
So It doesn't matter how small your act of worship is to God if you're doing it in faith.
And with a sincere heart, through faith in Jesus Christ, it is the delight of God.
The very thing that Jesus said, not even someone who gives a cup of water to another person in Jesus' name, they won't lose their reward.
It's God's delight.
Whether you whisper a prayer for someone, or you give a cup of water to someone, or if need be, you give your life for someone.
It's the delight of God.
But mark this down.
There is no degree of grandness when it comes to false religion.
You can make it as big as you want.
You can donate as much money as you want.
People who donate a lot of money to a false church.
Which is more pleasing to God?
Furthering the mission that goes against the kingdom of God in a great way?
We're furthering the mission that fulfills the kingdom of God in a small way.
We know what that answer is because Jesus.
Commended the might of the widow.
Remember that?
One of these days I'm going to bring a widow's mite up here.
I've got a couple at home, little 2,000-year-old Roman mites.
I'll bring one for y'all to see, if I can remember.
So, just because someone does something big in a great way, I've seen People that I would consider probably to be false teachers.
You watch them pass away, and people say, A great man of God did so much for the Lord.
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
Now, this word prayer also means intercession in the Hebrew.
Intercession.
And here's the difference between prayer and intercession: prayer is when you're praying for yourself.
Intercession is when you're praying for somebody else.
Just think of it like that.
You're interceding for someone.
And you know what a sacrifice is?
A sacrifice intercedes for someone else, doesn't it?
Did you know that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ actually intercedes for us?
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ, remember now, watch how it's all connected.
When the priest offered the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, Or, whatever sacrifices they were offering out there.
While those sacrifices are being offered, and he comes in And he's going to go into the most holy place.
There is another altar inside the golden altar.
Where that sweet aroma is being made in the Bible explains that that aroma is talking about the prayers of the saints.
So there is a direct connection. between the priestly work of the sacrifice and the priestly work of intercessory prayer.
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ becomes the basis of his intercession to God on our behalf.
So the sacrifice is an intercession for us.
It's a prayer, if you will.
Sacrifice, like intercession, it goes between us and God.
That's what a sacrifice does.
When Jesus hung on the cross, He went between us and God.
He mediated, praying that God.
Would forgive, remember what Jesus did as he was dying, he was praying.
Father, forgive them For they know not what they do.
What do you have there?
You have prayer and sacrifice at the same time, the prayer on the basis of the sacrifice being offered.
The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God, but the intercession or sacrifice of Jesus is his delight as well.
The upright, the word upright, literally speaking about someone who's straight, morally straight.
And there's no one more morally straight than the person that comes to the straight gate of Jesus.
And there's nothing more straight than Jesus, who is the straight gate.
The prayer of the upright is his delight.
This brings us back to Isaiah 42:1, where God said, Behold, my servant, speaking of Jesus, whom I uphold by.
Elect in whom my soul delighteth.
The intercession Jesus makes for us is God's delight.
Jesus saves us by praying for us.
On the basis of the sacrifice he made.
John 17, 20 through 21, Jesus said, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.
Have you believed on Jesus through the word?
Of Jesus' apostles?
Yes.
If you have read the New Testament scriptures, and come to accept Christ as your Savior, then you are one who believes on Him through their Word.
That means you're actually reading Jesus praying for you individually right there in the Gospel of John.
What is that?
That's intercession, it's the prayer of the upright.
He said that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.
That the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Romans 8:34 says, Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died.
There is his death.
That's his sacrifice.
It is Christ that died that was sacrificed, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
There's the prayer.
Of the upright who prays for us.
God is delighted in the prayer of His Son on our behalf, which is based on the sacrifice Jesus made.
But any other attempt to replace Jesus is an abomination to God.
Nothing else went between us.
There was only one person that went between Israel and God on the Sinai desert.
That was Moses.
He went between God on the mountain and the people over here.
He made intercession.
Only one person.
And there is only one person that made intercession for us.
If the prayer Jesus makes on our behalf to God is God's delight, then lastly, We know that the prayer we offer to God in Jesus' name is also God's delight because we're offering it to God on the basis of the person God is pleased with.
And the sacrifice that he made, in which it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
That's why we pray in Jesus' name, instead of our own, instead of anybody else's.
There can be no upright prayer unless it's made in Jesus' name.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word, for the instruction you've given us in the proverb tonight.
Thank you, Lord, for letting us know that even though the devil may say, Oh, you've done nothing great for God.
As I believe he's told many, many people before, making them think that their prayers, their time, their efforts. the small contributions they've been able to make have not made a difference in your eyes.
But here you correct the record and you let us know that just the prayer even of an upright person Is delightful to you.
Thank you, Lord, for making it so easy for us to please you.
In Jesus' name.
And thank you for making it so easy for you to be pleased with us on account of him.
Amen.
