Sermonette: Acceptable Living Sacrifices
#1893-AMs
Bill Onisick
Given 12-Sep-26; 19 minutes
description: The Feast of Trumpets calls believers to a life of complete devotion to God and selfless service to others. Its offerings illustrate this balance: the burnt offering represents wholehearted obedience, gratitude, and praise toward God, while the grain offering represents mercy, forgiveness, humility, and loving service to others. Neither is acceptable when polluted by pride, judgment, complaint, or self-righteousness, for God alone is Judge. The memorial teruah—a joyful yet alarming cry—celebrates God's redemptive work, calls His people from spiritual blindness, and points toward Christ's return. Those who hear and walk in His light are blessed by a calling grounded entirely in grace. To become like God is to learn to give like God: freely offering obedience to Him and generous love to others, so we may joyfully welcome Christ at His return.
transcript:
Well, we are here today on this first day of the 7th month in the Hebrew calendar as commanded in Leviticus 23, you can go there now, verses 24 and 25. So on this day, God commands us to do 5 things, 5 things on this day. He says, you shall, 1, have a Sabbath rest, 2, have a memorial of blowing of trumpets, 3, do no customary work. 4, have a holy convocation that is a gathering of God's people together as a rehearsal, an assembly. And 5, offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. Now the one thing God wants more than anything from each of us, each day is acceptable living sacrifices. We must emulate Christ who sacrificed his entire life. Being totally consumed for our salvation. Now we know sacrifices are not acceptable if not given according to God's command. In Leviticus 1 and 2, we read of the burnt offering representing complete devotion and service to God. This always came first, but it was always accompanied by the required grain offering that's found in Leviticus 2 representing service and sacrifice to fellow man. The two had to be done together. Now, some might be tempted to put Christians down who profess to follow Christ but fail to meet the required burnt offerings. Maybe they fail to love God with all their heart. That one's hard to see from the outside though, is not it? Maybe they fail in obedience to God's law, keeping the Sabbath. Maybe they haven't learned about the Sabbath yet. Maybe they fail in thankful prayer and praise. There are many ways we can fall short in our required burnt offerings each day. Now others might be tempted to put us down in the greater Church of God for being too Legalistic, lacking love, failing to sacrifice the required grain offerings and daily living sacrifice and service to man, and indeed, we often fall short in giving of our time and resources. Thinking badly or speaking badly about others. We fall short in forbearance of others' mistakes. We fall short in the inability to just forgive and forget wrongdoings. And we often fall short. We see this a lot at the feast, in our inability to just sacrifice our ego. And not complain. We've all been blessed with different gifts and to whom much is given, much is required. It's a higher standard, and we have to be really careful. When we start judging others, we must never allow our best attempts at lawkeeping, which still fall very short, by the way, each day, to create in us this prideful, judgmental attitude where we can look down on others and judge them. This attitude leads to an improper grain offering which lacks mercy, forbearance, gentleness, and loving kindness. Now we are warned in Isaiah 1, Amos 5, Malachi 1. That God will outright reject sacrifices and offerings if they are not given in an acceptable manner. In fact, in Malachi 1:7, you can jot this down, God specifically condemns their polluted bread, which is grain offerings. Think about that. All right, over to Psalm 50 now. And I want us to reflect back on Exodus 19:16-18 on Mount Sinai, when the thunder, lightning, the thick cloud, and the voice of the trumpet, exceedingly loud, with the entire mount there quaking. The people were fearful. Let's pick up verse 3. Psalm 50:3. Our God shall come and shall not keep silent. A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very temptuous all around Him. Verse 4, he shall call, hold on to that, he shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. Let the heavens declare His righteousness. His righteousness for God Himself is judge. OK. So God is calling, hold on to that, his people to assemble before him so that he can judge them, and he defines his people as those who made that covenant of sacrifice with Him. Let's read on verse 8 now. I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings which are continually before me. All right. So God is saying, I do not rebuke you in your outward and public obedience to the law of sacrifice. Your burnt offerings are not wrong per se. But your underlying heart is It is not proper You somehow think your attempts at keeping my law have earned you something, he's basically saying. You think you have a right to look down and judge others. God Himself is judged, he repeats in verse 6. OK, reading now verses 19 to 21. You give your mouth to evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother, you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I have kept silent. You thought that I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes. God is saying your sacrifices, your worship are worthless because of your improper grain offerings. Your pride and evil heart drives you to take my role as judge and have the audacity to speak evil about anyone else. You've got your own problems, God is telling us. Stop thinking about other people's problems. OK, reading on verses 22 and 23. Now consider this. You who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise glorifies me, and to Him who orders his conduct aright, conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God. And boom Goes the dynamite, so to speak. Here we have the root of the problem that leads to unacceptable grain offerings. We have forgotten our God. And that's where this day fits in, and why it's so important. You see, 4 of the 5 commandments that we looked at for this day are pretty common across all of God's holy days. But 1, It's very unique to this day. The command for a memorial, blowing of trumpets, a memorial terro ah, a memorial terro ah. First, the command, we gotta remember this. First, the command is that this is to be an act of remembrance. It's first a memorial to remind us perpetually of the significance of this day, from all other days. And second, this act of memorial is specified. What is it? It's a terroir Strong's 86:43. It's meaning a clamor, a loud noise, an acclamation of joy, an alarm, a battle cry, a clangor of trumpets, rejoicing, shouting. Today we are commanded to have a memorial loud voice as both an acclamation of joy. And an impending battle cry. This memorial of noise serves as a reminder both of God's past actions, his previous divine interventions, And his future redemptive work of Jesus Christ returning to earth. The coming events. Now we are here in Psalm, so let's go over to Psalm 89. Now, we likely, I've done this pretty much every day of trumpets by the way, we likely spend most of our time on this day thinking about the future, God's redemptive plan and Christ's return. As we read in Revelation 1:7, behold, he comes with clouds and every eye shall see him. And Matthew 24:30, they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven. With power and great glory. It is appropriate to think of this day in the future sense. It is a great future event and everyone will see Jesus Christ return, but not everyone. will be rejoicing In those same scriptures, Revelation 1:7 and Matthew 24:30, it reads, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. And then all the tribes of the earth. will mourn Many will mourn and wail at his return, and we must remember, sin is missing the mark, falling short of God's holy righteousness. We can miss it high, we can miss it low, we can miss it with an improper burn offering, or we can miss it with an improper grain offering, but it's still a mess, and it's still sin, and it separates us from God. And so today's memorial shouting, today's terroir calls our attention to the fact that We are all sinners. We are missing the mark each day. We are dead without hope. If it were not for God's love, unmerited mercy, and his action to reach in and call us and literally pull us into a relationship with Him. Today we must remember God's past redemptive actions with, which enable us to have hope for the future when Jesus returns. Now in Numbers 1, Numbers 10, 1 through 10, no need to turn there for time, we find the instruction for the trumpets, and they are to be used for calling the congregation together, calling the congregation to gather, I should say. They're used as an alarm, a terroo. And they are used in your appointed feasts and sacrifices, a memorial before you, it reads, for I am the Lord your God. As we hear the memorial terroo today. Can we recall our spiritual wake-up call? That first time when God's voice started to, to, to ring in our ears, so to speak, and we started to understand and respond to God's truth. I did not know it at the time, but my first terroir happened at a hockey game of all places. All right, over to Psalm 89. Psalm 89. We're going to spend a decent amount of time in Psalms today. And we are going to see the same word terua used here. So we will pick up verses 14 through 16. Psalm 89. 14 through 16. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Mercy and truth go before your face. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound. They walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance. In your name they rejoice all day long, and in your righteousness, they are exalted. Blessed are the people, His called ones who know His joyful sound, the Terua. His voice calls us to assemble before Him, and he calls us into that relationship with Him. And we then must respond in obedience to His word and walk in the light of God's countenance. Now we should recall the miracle in Mark 10. Again, we will not go into this when we do not have enough time in this offertory sermonette, but that's where Jesus heard the blind man's words over and over again. Have mercy on me, he said. Have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped, and he commanded the blind man to be called, and the disciples say to him, be of good cheer, rise, he is calling you. And Jesus tells him, receive your sight, your faith. Has made you well, and immediately he receives his sight, and he follows him, and he starts glorifying God. Brethren, we too, we are spiritually blind. Before God's unmerited calling, His loud voice that sounded like an alarm to wake us up. And right now, those of you that have not yet been baptized, listen up. You're not here by, by accident. This is not just happenstance. That doesn't work, doesn't work like that for God. You're here for a reason, can you hear God's? Terua, he's calling you. Will you respond in prayer? Have mercy on me. Paul exhorts in II Timothy 1:9, God alone has saved us. God alone has saved us, he says, and called us with a holy calling. It is a holy calling that we have. He goes on, it's not according to our works. But according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. Let that wander around in your mind for a minute. It's it's incredible. In Ephesians 1:4-5, Paul admonishes us that God may give to you the spirit of wisdom and the Revelation and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling. Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, he says in Ephesians 4:13, with all lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing with one another in love, and endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, for there is one body. One spirit Just as you were called in one hope of your calling. So he says in Ephesians 5, walk in love as Christ has loved us and has given himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savior. All right, back a few chapters now to Psalm 81 and thank you, Hunter, for singing this one. We will not have to drain it since we already sung it, but there are a couple of key scriptures here that I do want to call out on this day. Psalm 81:1, sing aloud to God our strength, make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. Raise a song and strike the timbrel. The pleasant harp with the lute, blow the trumpet at the time of the new moon, at the full moon on our solemn feast day. For this is a statue for Israel, a law for the God of Jacob. And then verse 6, I want us to get this one, verse 6, 81 verse 6. I removed his shoulder from the burden. This day of trumpets is a day of remembering for us, an annual wake-up call to remember. God has awakened each of us from our deep spiritual sleep with His loud voice like a trumpet reverberating deep in our mind so that we could understand his truth and respond to his calling. With a shout, the Lord has called us, redeemed us, and removed our shoulder from the burden. of sin Verse 7, 817, you called in trouble and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meriba, Selah, and verse 8, here, oh my people, and I will admonish you, O Israel, if you will listen to me. Brethren, are we listening on this holy day of trumpets to the memorial Teruwa. Now the Jews have a custom of reading Psalm 27 during their 10 days of awe they call it, which is from this day all the way through the, the Day of Atonement. There is no scriptural backing for that that I could find by the way, but let's turn there because it is a very fitting place to to end where we are going to read Psalm 27:6 and I'll pick up just the end there. So I'm 276. Therefore, I will offer sacrifices of joy, ter roa in his tabernacle. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Yes, this feast of trumpets pictures Jesus Christ return and we can be prepared for it. But we can't take that for granted. And we must remember, we must hear and respond to His holy calling each and every day by giving acceptable living sacrifices, including both our merited responses to God, right? Our daily burnt offerings and obedience, right? And, and thankful praise to our great God. And our daily grain offerings and sacrifice and service to man. Remember, it's this simple. To become like God, we must learn how to give like God. God doesn't just give what is deserved. God gives unmerited, undeserved sacrifices of loving kindness to others, which is the basis of his judgment recorded in Matthew 25. So as we remember on this day, As we continue to focus on what Jesus Christ has done for us, and that's great sound of the Teruwah, then and only then can we be ready to greet Him with joy. Then and only then can we be trained and prepared to teach and guide others as they strive to enter God's kingdom. Well, I hope you have a rewarding holy day season, and God-willing, we are going to pick up this admonition on rejoicing. And singing at the Feast of Tabernacles.
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