How can we be the Church............

“Wash yourselves and be clean!
Get your sins out of my sight.
Give up your evil ways.

 Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.

 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.

 If you will only obey me, you will have plenty to eat.
But if you turn away and refuse to listen, you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies. I, the Lord, have spoken!”  Isa. 1:16-20 NLT

 

So how can we be the church? 

How can we live Godly lives in a corrupt world?


 Isa. 1: 16 - 17, gives us a place to start that journey.

It says we are to wash ourselves; make ourselves clean.  As Christians we need to ask the Lord to forgive us of our sins.  I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

We then need to put away the evil.  When you ask God to forgive you of your sins then you need to turn from your sinful ways.  But, that is the problem for some of us, a lot of times we ask God to forgive us, knowing very that we will do the same sin again and we are just looking for some temporary relief of our guilt.

 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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.”

 This means we must turn away from our wicked ways. A total surrender of our flesh and old habits must be left behind.   We all desire to turn from our old sinful nature but sometimes we like it too much that we choose not to give it up.  Our desire to live in the flesh is stronger than our desire to surrender to Christ. 

We must make a choice to stand in faith and believe God to empower us to walk in righteousness and holiness.   We have the Holy Spirit living in us to guide and empower us to be Christ like if we surrender and choice to live for Jesus.

We also must learn to do good.  How do we learn to do good?

We learn from the teacher. And who is the best teacher?  None other than our Lord Jesus Christ; He taught us by example and through His teachings.

Hebrews 4:15, says; “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”   (NIV)

Always remember to pattern your life and the decisions you make to be like Jesus.

If you do these things then you will learn how to live godly in a corrupt world.

In verse 19 we find the last two conditions of how to live godly lives:

Willingness and Obedience!

The first thing you have to do is be willing.  You have to be willing to make the sacrifices to obey God and His commands to make it happen.