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Praise the Lord and welcome to the O.W. Prince Ministries. It is always my prayer that the Spirit of the Lord ministers to you out of His Word and that souls are saved through the teaching and preaching of God's Holy Word. (I Corinthians 1:21) This Bible Commentary endeavors to show the sinful offense of disingenuous praises. It rebukes those who dare think that they can buy God's favor through flattering praises while practicing disobedience to His Word. This lesson will demonstrate that disobedience disqualifies our praise and that authentic praise comes from a repentful soul and Faith in God. Now Faith is not only the substance of hope and the evidence of the unseen but it is obedience to God's Commandments and trust in His unfailing Love. For without "Faith" it is impossible to please God or to see God. Our salvation hinges on Faith in God and if we do not accept and obey God's divine instructions, our praises are in vain. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. ~ John 4:23 (KJV) 2
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 made up only of rules taught by men. ~ (Isaiah 29:13) He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. ~ (Mark 7:6) --------------------------- Empty Praise I cannot tell you how many times I ve heard people say that they are giving God the ultimate praise or that they are giving God the credit for their lives or they are thanking God for something that they believe that God has done for them or they are proclaiming how much they love the Lord. You may call me a skeptic if you will, but I ve found that most of these statements are empty praises without substance or integrity. The Word of God in John 14:15 says that if you love the Lord you will keep His commandments. I Corinthians 7:17-21 indicates that keeping the commandments of God is the only thing that matters. 1 John 5:2-4 tells us that keeping the commandments of God is the way to show love for God and demonstrate faith in God. (I'll talk about Faith a little later.) It is clear from scripture that unless one is obeying the Word of God, their praises are empty and meaningless. This does not mean that they cannot offer thanksgiving but it does mean that their expressions of praise, love, loyally, trust and obedience lacks integrity. For how can they praise someone they don t trust enough obey? (Request the lesson on The Curse of 3
Disrespect) How can you earnestly praise God while practicing fornication, adultery, incest, homosexuality, lesbianism, prostitution, bestiality and other forms of abominations and sexual sins? How can you say you love God while practicing drunkenness, extortion, lies, profane language and disobeying His commandment to be holy as He is Holy? How can you say that you are giving God the ultimate praise when you are unforgiving, unloving, unfaithful, disrespectful and ultimately disobedient? How can you praise God when you don't respect His divine order, you don't honor His Sabbath Day and you don't keep His commandments? Ultimately, disobedience disqualifies your praise. There is a rising trend in Christendom whereby praise and worship are treasured above keeping God s Word. Now everyone, regardless of their sinful nature, are encouraged to praise the Lord with vigor and vitality as if praises will save their souls and enrich their pocketbooks. Worship has become a place of theater and entertainment where actors put on their costumes and perform their songs, dramatize their scripts and present well rehearsed inspirational and motivational speeches. They behave as if playing holy will somehow fool God. No one s sins are being uncovered and therefore, no one is being convicted of their sins. No one thinks that they are that bad so no one is truly repenting and therefore no one is being saved. God never required us to praise him in exchange for salvation neither did Jesus suffer the tremendous torture of scourging and the horrible death of the cross just to receive the praises of fallen man. God says, On this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at My word. (Isaiah 66:2) Kings David tells us that the sacrifices that are acceptable to God are a 4
broken spirit and a heart that is broken down with sorrow for sin who is humble and thoroughly repentfull. These are the sacrifices of praise that God will not despise. (Psalm 51:17) It has been my personal observation that a lot of people give praise to God just like they give money in the church -- only to be seen of men. I tell you the truth. They need not expect anything from God for they have received their reward from men. (Matthew 6) True praises begins in the privacy of the heart and soul and is a very intimate matter between a merciful God and a sorrowful sinner. The genuine praise of God is not for a showy demonstration. It does not happen because someone prompted you to do it. You don t need a cheerleader in order to praise God. Praise alone is not an indication of your salvation as some may have you to believe. Authentic praise is generated out of the heart of a repentfull soul who realizes that God has delivered His soul from the enemies death, hell and the grave. Authentic praise is generated out of the heart of a repentfull soul who realizes that God s commandments are a delight and a joy to obey. Authentic praise is generated out of the heart of a repentfull soul who realizes that God has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:10) Authentic praise is generated out of the heart of a repentfull soul who realizes that God, by his very nature, is worthy of all the praises and the honor and the glory forever and ever Amen. (Psalm 150 & Revelations 7:12)) Authentic praise is generated out of the heart of a repentfull soul who seeks to obey God s commandments and realizes the unsearchable riches of God s 5
love for Him. (John 3:16 & 2 Corinthians 8:9) Only an obedient and repentfull child of God can offer genuine praises to God. However, there are many who feel that their faith in God qualifies their praises to God. They are under the delusion that Faith alone will save them yet they have no real understanding of what true faith is. They are gambling their souls on what their church organization says that Faith is. Their definition of Faith allows their bodies to participate in ungodly and sexually immoral acts while they profess holiness with their lips. (Matthew 15:8) They know that they are not saved. They are just trying to convince themeselves and each other that they are saved. They have not believed in His Word. They have not repented of thier wrong way of thinking, therefore they are not sorely sorrowful for their sins because they have not been convicted of their sins. They don't really believe that the wages of sin is death. No one dares tell them that they are hell bound church members. So they don't believe in God ordained plan of salvation and refuse to repent and be buried with Christ in water baptism in His name as instructed in His Word (John 3:3-7 and Acts 2:38-42). And as a result of their unbelief and disrespect of God s Ordained Plan of Salvation they have not been truly filled with His Holy Spirit because they don t believe what the Word says about the divine tongues. Yet, they proclaim that they are saved by Faith and living a holy life. They are deceived liars! 6
They are empty vessels witout the Spirit of Christ and thus their praises are empty also. The song writer John H. Sammis had a revelation of what real faith was and he sat down one autumn day and penned these words: When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, What a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, And with all who will trust and obey. Then he Refrained: Trust and obey, for there s no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. And in the last verse of that hymn he wrote: Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet, Or we ll walk by His side in the way; What He says we will do, where He sends we will go; Never fear, only trust and obey. And he Refrained again by saying: Trust and obey, for there s no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Trust and obedience are the key components to Faith. Without absolute trust and total obedience to God, you do not have real faith and your praises are empty. Real Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of thing not seen. Real faith manifests itself in trust and obedience to God's Commandments and his way. We obey God because we Trust in God without having to see God and we hope to receive the promises of God for God is not a liar and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him to obey him 7
[Keep His Commandments] (Hebrews 11:6-40). It was the apostle Paul who taught that faith without works does not save or profit a soul. What he was saying is the same thing I am attempting to say here. And that is that the works of faith are obedience and trust in God. Therefore Paul said You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works...for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:14-26) Dead faith = Dead Praise I pray to God that someone is listening and hears what the Spirit is saying to the body of Christ. No one entered the Faith Hall of Fame just by believing in God. They trusted and obeyed God's instructions. (Hebrews 11) Isn't it time to get real and be filled? Isn't it time to stop faking faith and offering God empty praises? Isn't it time to surrender to God and confess your sin and turn from your wicked ways and seek God's forgiving embrace? Do not be deceived. God is not mocked by disingenuous praises. He knows who is real and who is not. He knows who is worshipping out of a repentful heart and who is worshipping out of a self-serving and deceitful nature. If you want to praise God Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. (Acts 2:38-39) Do You Believe This? 8
Don t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:3-4) If You Believe... REPENT! If you would like to help this ministry continue to operate and offer free resources like this one, please mail your check or money order to: Bishop O.W. Prince P.O. Box 3253 Sumter, SC 29151 No gift is too small. As little as $3.00 per month; roughly 69 cents a week less that the price of can soda - can help keep this ministry operational. Thank you for your spirit of giving, for God loves a cheerful giver. Keep Looking Up! 9