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Promises Of The Law - Part 10

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• Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 8 through 10. Deuteronomy 5, verses 8 through 10. We are on the second commandment. Last week I dealt with part 9, which was the first part on the second commandment. Today this is number 10. It is the second part and concluding part on the second commandment. So notice, if you would please, Deuteronomy 5, beginning there with verse 8. God says, "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."

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• "For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." Let me very quickly just review for a few moments on the first part of this. The first commandment, of course, commands us to worship God alone. He is the true and the living God, and there's absolutely none beside Him. In fact, we looked at a number of scriptures where He said, "I am the Lord. There is none else." And certainly, in this commandment, the first commandment, we are commanded to worship Him and worship Him alone. In the second commandment, God also explicitly tells us how not to worship Him.

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• We are not to worship Him with any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or that is in the waters under the earth. And then He tells us why. Because in verse 9 He tells us that He is a jealous God. In fact, the truth of the matter is, I showed you last week where one of the names of God is jealous. And I pointed out how God is jealous for His honor. He's jealous for His worship. He's jealous for His glory. He's jealous for His people. And God's jealousy just demonstrates the fact that He is vigilant in guarding that which belongs to Himself. I pointed out also that envy always desires that which does not belong to you, but jealousy is indeed, in one sense of the word, a very godly attribute and a very biblical attribute. There is in our lifetimes, yes, humanistic jealousy which is unbiblical and sinful, but there is indeed a biblical jealousy. And when you hear jealousy in reference to God, obviously that is a holy, just, and righteous, and pure jealousy.

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• So there is no sin or evil in jealousy in the biblical sense. We are the ones in our sinful nature who make it sinful as well. So God is saying that He is to be worshipped in the way that He commands and in the way that He demands.

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• Now I pointed out last week how it is impossible to worship God aright unless you worship God alone. And secondly, I pointed out, it is impossible to worship God aright unless you worship Him in the way that He commands you to worship Him. God has the absolute right to tell us how to worship. And notice if you would, I pointed out how the sanctions that are listed in verse 9 and 10 are both negative and positive. God always judges those who do not render the worship to Him that He deserves, unto the third and fourth generation of those that hate Him. He also issues a positive sanction, that is, He tells you that there will be blessings that follow those who obey Him and give Him the worship that is due unto Him. Now when you stop and think about the curse and the judgment of God being upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those that hate Him, you have to remember that children usually act like their fathers. They take on the attitude as well as disposition of their fathers.

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• Sometimes you will find that the children are worse than the fathers. For instance, look in your Bibles if you would, hold Deuteronomy chapter 5, but turn to 1 Kings chapter 14 and verse 22. 1 Kings chapter 14 and verse 22. Look at what the Bible says concerning Judah. 1 Kings chapter 14 and verse 22. Here the Bible says this, 1 Kings 14 and verse 22: "And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins, which they had committed above all that their fathers had done." So the descendants did worse than the fathers. The fathers sinned, their descendants did worse than they. If you would turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 15 and verse 9, you'll read about Zechariah who was the son of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and he was a very wicked man as well. But in 2 Kings chapter 15 and verse 9, the Bible says this: "And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." And so usually you will find it

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• will go from father to son to grandson. It's just handed down, the wickedness and the rebellion and the hatred of God. The interesting thing is when you read the book of Ezra, when you read the book of Daniel, both of these men confessed not only their sins, but the sins of their people, the sins of their nation. And in Daniel 9, verse 16, let me just read it. Daniel prayed, he said, "O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from the city of Jerusalem, the holy mountain, because of our sins and of the iniquities of our fathers. Jerusalem and my people are become a reproach to all that are about us." So here he is confessing the fact that we sin just like our fathers have sinned as well. So God says His judgments then are going to extend to the third and fourth generation of those that hate Him. By implication, you could also say that His blessings are going to extend to the third and fourth generations of those who obey Him and give Him the worship that is rendered and that He demands to be rendered unto Him. So you have to understand that in the second commandment there are promises and these promises

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• are involved in sanctions: the negative sanction, their curses, and the positive sanctions, the blessings. Now if you look back in Deuteronomy chapter 5, He tells us in verse 8 that "thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of anything that is in heaven or in the earth or in the water or under the water." And the truth is we should never ever think in any way that there can be an image in reference to God. Let me show you. If you will turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 17 and look if you would please at verse 29.

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• The Apostle Paul has been preaching on Mars Hill. And notice if you would what he says in Acts chapter 17 and verse 29. Obviously you cannot think of an image in reference to God. I'm talking about a graven image. For in Acts chapter 17 and verse 29, the Apostle Paul says, "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God"—that is, we're the children of God, we're the creatures of God, we're the creation of God—"we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver, stone, graven by art and man's device." Now, let me give you two quotes.

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• The first one is from Albert Barnes. Listen to what he says. "Since we are formed by God, since we are like him, living, intelligent beings, since we are more excellent in our nature than the most precious and ingenious works of art, it is absurd to suppose that the original source of our existence can be like gold and silver and stone. Man himself is far more excellent than an image of wood or stone. How much more excellent still must be the great fountain and source of all of our wisdom and intelligence?" So if man himself is greater than images of gold and silver and stone, how much greater is the God who created us? And how stupid it would be to compare Him then to a graven image or anything like that. Adam Clarke goes a little bit further and he says this, "If we are the offspring of God, He cannot be like those images of gold, silver, and stone, which are formed by art and by the device of man. For the parent must resemble his offspring.

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• Seeing therefore that we are living, intelligent beings, He from whom we have derived that being must be living and intelligent. It is necessary also that the object of religious worship should be much more excellent than the worshiper. But a man is by innumerable degrees more excellent than an image made out of gold or silver or stone. And yet it would be impious to worship a man. How much more so to worship these images of God?"

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• Well, you know, the truth of the matter is people—and I can rephrase that and say Christians, not just people, but Christians—are generally ignorant of the Bible. Not only are they generally ignorant of the Bible, they are irrational in their thinking of God and His worship. It's much like the story I heard many years ago about the little girl in Sunday school. She was busy drawing and coloring, and the Sunday school teacher asked her what she was drawing and what she was coloring. And she said, "Well, I'm drawing a picture of God." The Sunday school teacher said, "But no one knows what God looks like." The little girl said, "They will when I get through." Well, that's the way most Christians are, because they worship some God of their imagination instead of the God of the Bible. They suppose things about God that are totally, absolutely untrue. They refuse many times to take what is revealed of God in the Bible. So it is absurd to think that God can be made out of anything material.

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• If you think that God can be resembled, or compared, or made out of anything that is material, then you really don't understand the nature of God. I want you to turn in your Bibles. I want you to hold Deuteronomy 5, but go first in your Bibles, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 40. In Isaiah chapter 40, we're going to begin reading at verse 12 and we'll read through verse 27. Isaiah 40 and verse 12, because here we're talking about God and I want you to watch what He said. Isaiah 40, beginning there with verse 12: "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, being his counselor, hath taught him?

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• With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?" Now look what it says about God. "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

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• Here's the question now, in light of all of this. "To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning?

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• Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he"—that is God—"that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take

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• them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his power, for he is strong in power; not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel,

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• "My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God"?" What is God telling us? God is telling us that He is the most transcendent being. That is, He transcends His creation. He is not only transcendent, He is spiritual, He is unique, He is sovereign, He is incomparable. There is absolutely nothing that can compare to God, and there's nothing that can be made that would be like unto God. I'll explain why now. You're still in Isaiah. So look, if you would please, to Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah 46, and notice beginning there with verse 5. Isaiah 46 and verse 5. We'll read through verse 11 or 12. Isaiah 46, verse 5. Here's the question asked again: "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?" So if you were to ask me, "What is God like?" I have no answer. Because there's nothing I can compare God unto. You follow me? He is unique. So He asks this question: "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down,

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• yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him up in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Remember this, and show yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness." Now notice again, God is asking, "To whom will ye liken me?

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• To whom will ye make me equal, or compare me, that we may be alike?" God is unique. God is incomparable. One of the problems that you have with images and pictures and statues is the fact that there is no way that they can indeed represent God, because God is incomparable. God is unique. There's none like unto Him. If you will turn back to Psalm 50, let me show you something else. Look what God says. Psalm 50, and let's begin reading there with verse 7. Psalm 50 and verse 7. You'll understand, I think, after I read this passage, why nothing can compare unto God. Psalm 50, notice if you would please, verse 7. He says this, Psalm 50, verse 7: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

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• I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. Why? Watch. "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof." Notice what He said: "For the world is mine, and the fullness thereof." Wow! Do you realize

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• that God created everything that exists, which means God is greater than His creation? So if you took everything in creation and tried to make a likeness to God, you would not have enough materials. Because God is greater than His creation. And if you try to represent God by a statue or a graven image or some type of—you're going to run out of materials. Let me show you something else. Look in Psalm 115. You remember He keeps saying that "I am God and God alone," and of course there are plenty of false gods. And He mentioned this also in Isaiah chapter 40, but I want you to see this in Psalm 115. And when you think of all the idols that exist in churches—and not just the Roman Catholic Church particularly, there are idols there, that is for sure. But in a lot of churches there are idols. I'm afraid even Baptist churches as well. But stop and think of even Hinduism, think of Buddhism, think of all the other religions where they have their idols sitting there.

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• And look what God says, Psalm 115, beginning with verse 1: "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?" Now look at this answer. You don't know where God is, but "our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." That is, our God is the true God. He's the sovereign God. He's in the heavens. He does whatsoever He pleases. Ah, look at verse 4 though: "Their idols"—we're talking about the heathen—"their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not.

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• They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. Here it is: "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them." Well, what is an idol? Dead, dumb, worthless. They can't speak. They can't hear. They can't walk. They can't work. They can't deliver. They can't save. And He said, "Whoever makes them and whoever trusts them are like unto them." Wow! Obviously, you cannot make an image of God. If you try to represent God in an image, it's because you do not understand the nature of God. Let me show you. I want you to turn to the book of Colossians chapter 1, and then we're going to 1 Timothy chapter 1. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Look in Colossians 1 and verses 14 and 15, because we're talking about Jesus Christ in this passage. Colossians 1, verse 14. Colossians 1, verse 14: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Now watch. "Who is the image of

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• the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature." Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. You remember in John 14, it was Philip who said, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." And Jesus answered Philip, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not known me? He that has seen me has seen the Father." Because Jesus Christ is indeed the One who is the image of the invisible God. And if you would turn right over to 1 Timothy, right after 1 and 2 Thessalonians, look in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 17. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 17. Here is this adoration: "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Now if God is invisible, how are you going to make a visible image of Him? It's impossible. It is absolutely impossible. God by nature is invisible. God is spirit, and therefore God has no bodily

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• form, and God cannot be contained in a space or any space. Even when Solomon was dedicating the temple, when he prayed in 1 Kings chapter 8, he said, "This house cannot contain thee; even the heavens of heavens cannot contain thee." Because God is over and above and beyond His creation. He may be seen in creation, but He's over and above and beyond it. And the truth of the matter is this.

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• The second commandment prohibits every species of idolatry, whether it is external or whether it is internal. Internal idolatry is just as wicked as external idolatry. Images begin in the imagination. I use this illustration. Cars do not begin in Detroit or Toledo, Ohio, or wherever the car factories are now. Cars begin in the mind of an engineer. He draws it; the factories just build it. And our images stem from our imaginations. So, wrong and wicked and unbiblical imaginations about God are just as wicked and just as idolatrous as bowing down to an idol. Because God is spirit and God is the invisible God.

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• Now, I mentioned this last week. I'm going to mention it again in light of this. But just simply trying to picture a God in your mind or picture Jesus Christ in your mind as you pray or as you worship is equally idolatrous. Not only do we not know what God looks like, we do not know what Jesus Christ looks like. And I know that every church building just about has this picture of Jesus with the long brown flowing hair with this serene look as he kind of looks off to one side up there. That is not Jesus Christ. That is some artist's conception of Christ. And as I pointed out last week, Jesus Christ did not have long hair. Because 1 Corinthians 11, verse 14 says, "Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him?"

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• And the Greek word for shame is atimia, which means a dishonor, it means it is vile, it is a disgrace, it is a shame, it is a reproach. Jesus Christ did not have long hair. He did not look like a woman. They had barbers in those days. They had barbers in the Old Testament. Wow! And have you ever noticed this? Well, let me just give you a good example.

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• Bob Jones University has an art gallery. I've been in that art gallery numerous times. There are some most beautiful paintings, hundreds of years old, by different kinds of artists. But if a Flemish artist paints a picture of Jesus Christ, he looks Flemish. If an Italian artist paints a picture of Jesus Christ, he looks Italian. If a Greek artist paints a picture of Jesus Christ, he looks like a Greek. I mean, come on, you have to understand that every picture that you and I have is nothing more than some artist's conception or imagination of what they think that Jesus Christ looks like.

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• So obviously when you're trying to pray and you're trying to form some mental image in your mind, that is idolatry. That is idolatry. Mental images are just as much a violation of the second commandment as are carved, graven, and molten images. Now, I pointed out last week that we had two promises in the Second Commandment. The first was a judgment or a curse upon those who refused to give God the worship that He demanded. And the second one was His blessing upon those who did give Him the worship that He demanded. But I believe and I think that there is another promise that is clearly implied in the Second Commandment. God says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of any things in heaven above or in earth or in the water or underneath the water. Thou shalt not bow down to them. Thou shalt not serve them." I believe, if we take God's Word at face value and if we give Him the worship that He demands, an implied promise is that we will begin to grasp and see and understand to some degree the nature of God.

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• Since God is immaterial, since God is incorporeal, since God does not have a body, since God is spirit—which I will show you just momentarily—since God is spirit, if we reject all materialistic worship of God, then that only leaves that which is spiritual. So if you'll look in your Bibles to the book of John chapter 4 and verse 24. John chapter 4 and verse 24. In this passage, Jesus Christ is witnessing to the woman of Samaria. She says to Him, "I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain"—that is Mount Gerizim—"but you say that in Jerusalem is the proper place to worship. Where should we worship?" Jesus Christ says, "Believe me, the hour is coming and now is when you shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship God the Father." John 4, look if you would please at verse 23: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

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• God is spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." So God is spirit, pure spirit with no bodily parts. He's incorporeal. And of course, I mentioned this last week, I will mention it again. When the Bible speaks of bodily parts in reference to God, it is what you and I would call anthropomorphically speaking. Anthropos is the Greek word for man. Morphe is the Greek word for form. Anthropomorphic just simply means man-form speaking. So when the Bible says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth," it is speaking of God's omniscience. God does not have eyes the way you and I have eyes. When the Bible speaks of God's hand and God's arm, it is speaking of His omnipotence, His power, because God is spirit. He does not have bodily parts.

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• Now, I want to give you two quotes. John 4 and verse 24: "God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." First one is from Albert Barnes. He says this: "By this is meant that God is without a body; that he is not material or composed of parts; that he is invisible, in every place, pure and holy. This is one of the first truths of religion, and one of the sublimest ever presented to the mind of man. Almost all nations have had some idea of God as gross or material, but the Bible declares that He is pure spirit. As he is such a spirit, he dwells not in temples made with hands (Acts 7:48), neither is worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth all life and breath in all things (Acts 17:25). A pure, a holy, a spiritual worship, therefore, is such as he seeks—the offering of the soul, rather than the formal offering of the body; the homage of the heart, rather than that of the lips."

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• So all he is saying is since God is spirit, what God is interested in is spiritual worship. And Matthew Poole says it likewise like this: "God is not a corporeal being made up of blood and flesh and bones, having senses as bodies do, to be pleased with sensible things, but he is a spiritual being, the father of spirits, and requireth a spiritual service proportioned to his being, and therefore those that pay a religious homage to him must do it with their spirits, and according to the rule that he has prescribed, in truth and reality. This is now the will of God, as though he required of his people under the law a more ritual, figurative service, yet that is now to cease, and therefore the woman of Samaria need not trouble herself which was the truest worship, that at Mount Gerizim or Mount Zion, for both of them were very suddenly to terminate, and a new and more substantial spiritual worship was to succeed or follow."

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• "To the learning of the way and method of which she was more to attend, and not to spend her thoughts about these things, which were of no significance and tended only to minister questions of no use or of no value." So our Lord in John chapter 4 says, "Look, all of this materialism is coming to an end."

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• Now, let me ask you a question. I want to preface my question. You and I both know that God ordained the worship in the Old Testament. He ordained the worship in the tabernacle. He ordained the worship in the temple, right? He prescribed the feasts. He prescribed the days of solemnity. He prescribed the festivals. He prescribed the music. He prescribed everything. So, since we know that God prescribed all of this worship in the Old Testament, here's my question: Why did God hate and despise their worship?

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• You say, "Did He do that?" Oh, yes. Look in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1. And let's begin reading there with verse 10. And here's a very interesting thing. I will go ahead and tell you right now, the reason God rejected their worship is because what they did, they left their heart, they left their spirit out and turned everything into ceremonies and rituals. Ah, so here we go, Isaiah 1, verse 10. God says, "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah." Now you have to ask, to whom is He speaking? Go back to verse 1: "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." So He's talking about Judah and Jerusalem, and He's calling them Sodom and Gomorrah. Now watch verse 11: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord.

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• I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain"—that is useless, worthless—"oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me;

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• I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood." Now God appointed all of these rituals. God appointed all of these ceremonies. But now He says, "I hate them. I despise them." Why? Because their heart was not in their worship. They reduced the worship of God to a ceremony and to a ritual. Left the true worship of God out. If you will turn in your Bibles to the book of Amos, Amos chapter 5. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Look if you would in Amos chapter 5, and let's begin reading there with verse 21. Amos 5, verse 21. This is putting it very bluntly, I can assure you. Amos 5, verse 21. God says, "I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings,

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• I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? No, but ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts." God said, "I hate, I despise your feast days.

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• And I'm not going to smell in your solemn assemblies." Now it is true that God appointed the solemn assemblies. It is true that God appointed the burnt offerings. It is true that God appointed the music. But now God said, "I hate it, I despise it, I will not have it." Why? Go back in your Bibles very quickly to Isaiah, and look if you would at chapter 29 and verse 13. Isaiah 29, verse 13. He tells you exactly why God hates and will not have this worship. Isaiah 29, look in verse 13: "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." God said, "They talk a good

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• talk. But that's it." That's why He says, "Let righteousness run down like rivers. You're living a lie. You're saying you love me. You're saying you're my people. You're saying that you worship me, but you're not. Your heart is far from me. Your spirit is not involved in my worship." Just to show you how applicable this passage is today, our Lord quotes this passage from Isaiah 29, verse 13 twice in the New Testament. He did so in Matthew 15 and verse 8. He said, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." When you get to Mark chapter 7, verse 6, He answered and said unto them, "Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." So here's my question: Has anything changed? Is it any different today? And the answer is no. Because the average church now, everything is mapped out to the nth degree.

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• You have your programs, you have your plays, you have your schemes, you have whatever happens to run through the mind of man. And you give God everything except that which He demands. And the average Christian—I'm serious—the average Christian believes that once he goes to church on Sunday, sings a few hymns and throws a few Federal Reserve notes in the offering and listens to a 15 or 20 minute sermonette and gets up and goes home, he thinks somehow that he's worshipped God. And he doesn't even think of God until the next Sunday again. Everything is canned. Everything is ritual.

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• I told you years ago when there was a hurricane coming through Florida, Alice and I went down because one of our daughters lived in Tampa at the time, and we went down to kind of help them prepare and this kind of thing. And our son-in-law took us out to dinner, and we passed this one Baptist Church, and they had on the sign, "Come to our early service: in by 8, out by 8:30." Now, I'm serious.

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• That's exactly what it said. Salving the conscience of people on their way to spend the day on the beach, I can assure you, that's what it was. But you know as well as I do, if you sing two or three songs, that's ten minutes taken up there. And you know every Baptist church is going to take an offering. And if you have a beginning prayer and if you have an ending prayer, that's going to leave about five minutes for a little sermonette. Ten at the most. And people think, "Well, that's worshiping God." No, no. Since God is spirit, the only acceptable way to worship God is in and through the Holy Spirit in our spirit.

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• What did He say in John 4 and verse 24? "God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." In other words, the true worship of God is bounded on the one hand, on the one side by spirit, and it is bounded on the other side by truth. It is not that we can take our spirits and just let them do what we want to do.

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• We can hoo-hoo, and we can holler, and we can rant, and we can rave, and we can do all kinds of things. No, no, no, no. No, no. The Spirit is bounded by truth. It has got to be Spirit and truth.

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• Now, if there is no spiritual worship, there is no worship. If there is no worship in truth, there is no worship. The only worship that is acceptable unto God is that which is done in spirit and in truth. And by the way, let me point this out. "God is spirit: and they that worship him must"—it's the next word in that verse—"they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth." In other words, spiritual and truthful worship is an absolute necessity in giving God that which He demands in worship. We cannot sit around like knots on a log, unthinking, uninvolved, and unwilling in worship.

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• No, our minds are to be engaged, our spirits to be engaged. We're to be active giving God spiritual worship. Let me show you one last passage. I want you to turn to Psalm 103. Here's an excellent illustration of what I'm talking about. Psalm 103, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Psalm 103, verse 1. Look what David says: "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name." So when he says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me," his mind, his soul, his spirit, everything is involved. Then he says in verse 2, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." So as we're worshiping the Lord, we don't forget His benefits. We don't forget His blessings. In other words, our mind is active and we're ascribing praise and honor to Him. The Bible says in Psalm 50, verse 23, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me."

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• Now, you say, "Well, I can't think of too many benefits." Well, you're alive, aren't you? You're healthy, aren't you? But in case you can't think of too many, David lists them. Look in verse 3: "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." Isn't that wonderful? David said, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Blessed is the man whose iniquities are covered." We can thank the Lord for His forgiveness.

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• "Who healeth all thy diseases." Every one of us has been sick and have gotten well. Then he says, "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction." Look how many times God has spared our lives. "Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." In other words, David says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name." In other words, when we worship God, our minds are engaged. Our spirits are active, thanking Him for all

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• His benefits and all of His blessings. Now, let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this: if we are obedient to the Second Commandment, that means then to some degree we are going to understand and comprehend the nature of God. God is Spirit. And the more we render unto Him spiritual worship, the more we're going to increase in our understanding. And the more we're going to be satisfied. And the more He's going to be satisfied. The second one is this: we cannot have mental images of God in our mind anymore than we can have graven images of God in our home. Both are equally idolatrous. And here is the one thought I want to leave you with: Has it ever entered into your mind? Have you ever considered the fact that God may be hating and despising your worship? If He hated and despised that which His covenant people in the Old Testament gave Him because they did not give Him spiritual worship, since God does not change, He hates the same

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• in His people in the New Covenant. Which means that we need to learn to give God the glory that is due unto His name, and the praise that is due unto His name, and do so in the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit, in our spirits, with our minds active and engaged, giving Him honor and glory and worship. Without having a graven image, without having a mental image, we bow to Him according to that which He has revealed in His Word. It would be wonderful to give God that which He demands, that which He deserves, and that which pleases Him. And it would be wonderful for you to know, "What I have done today has been pleasing to my Heavenly Father." Give Him the glory that's due unto His name. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. And we pray, Father, that You would help us to understand and comprehend to some degree the nature of God. God is spirit, and we must worship Thee in spirit and in truth.

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• Help us to do so for Your honor and Your glory and for our good. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

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• so

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:19:11Z