This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from Me
Pure motives
Clean heart
Worshiping the Creator rather than the creation
I have talked to so many people recently
who have given themselves over to Man’s Doctrine
a church, a leader, a teaching
Their relationship with Jesus is secondary or non-existent
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself;
but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. John 16:13
Instead of seeking God’s teaching via the Holy Spirit,
Who will lead us and guide us into all truth,
they search diligently through the Doctrine of men
The Doctrine that has been carefully crafted and designed
to keep them from Jesus Himself
and to keep the hearers seeking the Doctrine for the answers
and the commentary of what men believe to be true
They believe that as long as they do what Man’s Doctrine has told them,
they are safely following the Lord
What does God mean when He says:
This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from Me?
I can only answer that question from the Word,
from my limited viewpoint of what the Lord has taught me
I implore you to seek the Lord on your own
to find out what He wants to teach you
and how He wants to reveal the truth to you
so that you may walk in His fulness
The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Isaiah 29:13 NIV
The King James Version says it this way:
Wherefore the Lord said,
Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth,
and with their lips do honour me,
but have removed their heart far from me,
and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:
and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
Without fear, true fear of the Lord
and not learned fear from the precepts of man,
we are destined to fail
We have to have that relationship where we know Who He is,
in all His glory and splendor, that He is the God of all the Universe
and there is none beside Him
as well as realize our lowly position is here on earth
It seems we visit again one of the ways Jesus could say to some people,
“Depart from Me, I never knew you!”
God forbid if we miss the mark that much
Jesus is not about rules and mandates and formulas
You want to know what Jesus is looking for?
For all those things hath mine hand made,
and all those things have been, saith the Lord:
but to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2
There are a few very bold statements the Lord has made
especially in the forms of parables, concerning worship of Him,
and how important a relationship with Him is
One such statement is where Jesus said in the last day many will say,
didn’t we do many things in Your name? Matthew 7:22
or when the door was shut on the five foolish virgins Matthew 25:1-13
or when the man with the talents didn’t use them Matthew 25:14-30
Many will be in for a great surprise
It is not about finely taught doctrine, man’s Doctrine, rules and ordinances
It is about following Him, Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega
The rich young ruler obeyed all the ordinances
That was not enough
Man’s Doctrine is difficult to sift through
because it is made from the Word of God
Man’s Doctrine seems to be righteous because it uses scripture
with the emptiness of God’s substance
A mixture of truth and error
The Holy Spirit is the One who leads us and guides us into all truth
Jesus is His Word and His Word is alive
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
John 1:1
And another of his disciples said unto him,
Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
Matthew 8:21-22
The reason for that was not that
we are not supposed to care about the laying to rest those who died
What was important about it was that Jesus was there,
He was calling them, and no matter what, they need to heed that calling
The worldly matters take care of themselves
They always do
Jesus calls and if you don’t listen, He may not call again
It was a difficult act of obedience on their part
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:14
The narrow way
Seek the Lord to make sure you find it
You must know from God yourself that you are on the right path
Nobody else can tell you or assure you
He is able to communicate with you
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me John 10:27