Sermon Transcript
The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.
- Introduction
- A Jealous God
- Possession
- Provision
- Preeminence
- You Cannot Serve Two Masters
- Closing Prayer
Introduction
Good morning, how are you? Good to be with you this morning. I have to say I’m under the weather, so I appreciate if you would pray for me while I’m preaching. It’s a good habit anyway, right? You’ll probably get a lot more out of the sermon today because you’re praying for me.
If you would open your Bibles to Exodus 34, we’re going to continue our study of the attributes of God, and we’ve looked at this passage times in our study. I’d like to read through it again. Exodus 34, starting in verse 1, says:
The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones.”
(Exodus 34:1)
Now, this is after the original tablets were thrown down by Moses in anger and broken. He says, and the Lord says, “And I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain. And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain. Let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.” So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord,” or Jehovah, or Yahweh, “the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. Now that’s really the only appropriate response to who God is. Amen. Worship. When you see God as He is, that’s how you respond. Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
Now in our study we’ve looked at verse 7 quite a bit. We’ve looked at the fact that God is merciful, the fact that He’s longsuffering, the fact that He [audio unclear] As we go on, what we see is that Moses pleads with God to be among the people. In other words, Moses doesn’t want to go on this journey through the wilderness if God is not with them. Because he knows it’s going to be a failed expedition if God isn’t there, right? So he says, God, take us, make us Your people, and dwell among us. So this is what the Lord says. Here’s the Lord’s response starting in verse 10. And He said, “Behold.” Now behold means pay attention. Okay, that’s what it means. That word is there meaning, pay attention to this.
Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. You shall make no molded gods for yourself.
(Exodus 34:10–17)
A Jealous God
In this passage we see an attribute of God which is rarely ever taught. Of the many books that I have on God’s character and attributes, none of them have a chapter on this attribute of God. And people often say the Bible says that God is love, and that’s true, but there’s another “is,” and that’s the “is” here in this passage, because here it says in verse 14, God is a jealous God. He is a jealous God.
Now let me clarify this term jealousy, because when we hear the word jealous, when you hear that term, it’s immediately negative, right? True? Jealousy is a bad thing. So if jealousy is a bad thing, how can God be jealous? Well, then, we’re not understanding jealousy in its full scope. The Bible uses the word jealousy—it’s actually good or bad depending on the context. It’s related to the concept of zeal. As a matter of fact, in the New Testament, the word for zeal is the same word, jealousy. So in a certain context, you would translate it jealousy in a bad way, almost like envy. But in another context, you would translate it zeal, like passion for something good. So it depends on the context. So when we hear the word jealousy it’s almost always negative. But in the Bible it’s negative or positive depending on the context. So here we know that God is good. So when God says that He is jealous we know that there is a positive side to His jealousy.
So there are three words I want to use today to help us understand this attribute of God. The first word is the word possession. They are all going to start with P to help you remember them. The second word is the word provision. And the third word is the word preeminence. You get those? Possession, provision, and preeminence. I want you to hang your thoughts on those three words. And as we look at these three concepts, we’ll come to a better understanding of what the Bible means when it says that God is jealous.
Possession
First, possession. Possession. We know that God owns all things, amen? By virtue of being Creator. He says in a number of places, God says, if I wanted something, I wouldn’t ask you, because the whole earth is Mine. I have everything I need. So you know, I don’t really need your money. I don’t need your stuff. I don’t even need you. I don’t need anything because I have everything. I’m God. Kind of common sense, right? So the Lord says the earth is Mine. I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I own the hills. I own the grass. I own it all because I made it. So by virtue of creation, God is the owner. So why then would Moses say, Lord, in verse 9, take us as Your inheritance? I mean, doesn’t God already own everything? [audio unclear] And that relationship is even compared in many texts to a marriage, and we don’t have time to look at all those. And Israel is the bride of Jehovah, if you will. And it’s an analogy, of course, it’s not literal. But it’s the idea that there’s a covenantal relationship. And so this idea of covenant is fundamental if we’re going to understand what the Bible means when it talks about God being jealous, because this word is used in the context of covenant. So God says in verse 10, behold, I make a covenant. Moses says, take us as Your people. Own us. Which he’s saying, own us. Be our God. Be in our midst. And so God says, okay, I make a covenant. That was God’s response to the request. So when God makes a covenant with Israel here, He’s taking them as His possession. Not by virtue of the fact that He’s the Creator, but by virtue of the fact that He’s now entering into a unique covenant with them. And therefore He has certain obligations toward Israel. He’s entering into covenant and assuming responsibilities for them that He has for no other nation and no other people. And so as you read this text you see God says, okay I’m going to make a covenant. But then He warns them, verse 12, beware lest you make a covenant with false gods. So if we’re going to do this covenant thing, as God’s saying, it’s going to work both ways. I’m going to make a covenant with you, but you need to make a covenant with Me. It works both ways. I’m assuming responsibility for you. You are assuming various responsibilities toward Me.
So God enters into covenant with Israel here. But we see a similar concept in the New Testament, because in the New Testament we see that Jesus Christ takes a unique people for Himself, and that people is called the church. And in Ephesians 5, it’s talking about Christ and the church, it talks about the husband and the wife, and it talks about the fact that the marriage relationship is a picture of the relationship between Jesus and the church, which is His bride. That is to say, Jesus has a unique, special relationship toward the church. The church is His possession in a way that no other people are His possession. This is why Paul says, let’s go to—we’ll probably come back here to Exodus. Look at 2 Corinthians for a moment. [audio unclear] 11. Paul says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he says:
Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
(2 Corinthians 11:1–3)
Do you see it? I’m jealous for you, with godly jealousy. So here Paul is saying I have betrothed you, the Corinthians as part of the church, to Jesus Christ. So he’s comparing the church’s relationship to Jesus to a marriage. And you notice this use again of jealousy. Now I won’t go down that road, never mind. So in the old and the new covenant we see this concept of jealousy. They are unique people and He has a special interest in them. He has a special care for them. He has a special possession of them. And this is part of what it means when we say that God is jealous for them. Okay? 1 Peter chapter 2, and 1 Peter 2, Peter says in verse 9, [audio unclear]
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.
(1 Peter 2:9)
See that phrase? His own special people. The King James says a peculiar people, and many Christians are peculiar, that’s for sure. His own unique people. The idea is that God owns all people. He owns all things because He’s God. But He has a special ownership, if you will. He has chosen to take His church into a unique covenantal relationship with Him. And so He now owns us, if you will, by virtue not of creation, but by virtue of covenant, and that covenant was sealed with blood. Sealed with blood. In Corinthians this is what Paul says. Go back to 1 Corinthians 6 for a moment. Look what Paul says to the Corinthians. He says, verse 13:
Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
(1 Corinthians 6:13–20)
Did you hear that? You are not your own. Why? For you were bought at a price. You are not your own. Why? Because Jesus Christ bought you. If you are a Christian, a real Christian, you are part of the church, and Jesus Christ bought you with His blood. And you are His peculiar, unique possession. And that means that as a part of His church, you are special to God. That’s what that means. We say, oh, does God love everybody? Sure, but God loves His church in a unique way. Just as in the husband-wife relationship, every man, every Christian man, he’s commanded to love all people, but he’s commanded to love his wife in a unique way. And that relationship brings covenantal responsibilities to the husband. Likewise, God has entered into covenant with us, and we are special, and we are precious to Him, and He owns us by His blood. That’s the first word, possession.
Provision
The second word—what was the second word, Jake? Did you write it down? No, I did. Okay. Provision. Provision. Thank you. I thought Jake wrote it down. I’m not trying to embarrass Jake. Provision. Because of this covenant or relationship, God has assumed responsibilities toward His people that He does not have toward others. Special unique responsibilities that He has assumed toward us. And so God, now because He’s in covenant with His people, He provides for them and He shepherds His church. That’s what He does. We can look at many passages. You think of John 10 where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. We think of Psalm 23 where it says, Jehovah is my shepherd. Well that relationship where God shepherds His people is a covenantal relationship. God doesn’t shepherd everybody that way. The unbeliever can’t say, Jehovah is my shepherd. But we can, because we’re in covenant with Him, because He has chosen to make us His inheritance. Therefore we are part of His flock, we’re part of His sheep, and like the good shepherd, He looks out for His sheep, you see, and He feeds the sheep, and He leads the sheep, He guides the sheep, and so He provides and He protects His people. That’s why Moses said to God, if You don’t go with us, I ain’t going. That’s a free translation, by the way. Basically saying if You don’t go, I don’t go. Because everything God [audio unclear] rules or governs His people.
Go to the Revelation chapter 2 for a moment. Last book of the Bible before the book of Concordance. Revelation chapter 2. I remember I led this girl to the Lord years ago, and she called me on the phone and was quoting stuff to me. I’m like, you know, I don’t think that’s in the Bible. And then I realized, she was quoting the footnotes. You know, I brought out the Ryrie study Bible or something. What’s she doing? Everything she says the Bible says. I’m like, well, Ryrie says that, but God didn’t say that. And Revelation, at the end of chapter 1, let’s just read this, this is so good. Let’s go to chapter 1, verse 12. This is John, this is the Revelation. Revelation is not so much a revelation about what’s going to happen, it’s about the revelation of who Jesus Christ is, who the ascended Christ is.
Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.”
(Revelation 1:12–20)
So the Lord explains part of the vision. And the part of the vision He explains is the meaning of the stars, the meaning of the lampstands, or the candlesticks. The stars being the messengers, the candlesticks being the churches. So the churches are compared to a source of light, right? And then it goes on and says in chapter 2, verse 1, to the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Now if you go back to chapter 1, notice verse 13, when John sees this vision, he says in verse 13 that he saw this Person, who he knows is the Lord Jesus, in the midst of the seven lampstands. Of the lampstands? The church. So when he’s seeing Jesus, where is he seeing Jesus? In the midst of the church. And just like Moses said to God, God, if Your presence doesn’t go with us, if You are not in our midst, I’m not going. And God said, fine, I’ll make a covenant and I will go. In other words, I will be in your midst. So likewise in the new covenant God has chosen to be in the midst of His people. And that’s why when Christians get out of fellowship with Jesus they don’t go to church, because Jesus is in the midst of His church. As they drift from God they drift from church, because Jesus is in the midst of His church. And what is He doing there? What is He doing in a church? In chapter 2, it says that He walks in the midst of the golden lampstands. He’s walking through His churches, and as He walks through the church, He says in verse 2 of chapter 2, I know your works. So He’s walking through the church, and He’s inspecting His church. He’s observing His church. He’s looking at how His people live. He’s watching how they praise Him. He’s watching if they are [audio unclear] during the preaching of the Word. He is inspecting His people, because that’s what a good shepherd does. He’s looking at the condition of His sheep.
And you know, sometimes we forget when we gather for public worship and we’re worshiping or we’re studying God’s Word, we forget that God is watching us. He’s watching us. He’s watching to see if we’re singing with sincerity and truth. He’s watching to see our heart’s response to His Word, and He knows everything about us, right? The thoughts and the intents of the heart are open to His eye, and He knows all things. And so He’s here, and He’s observing, and even though we come to church and we smile and everything’s great and act like everything’s cool, He knows. And some of you are feeling convicted when I say that, because you’re [audio unclear] and not walking in the way you need to walk. But that’s not why I’m saying it. I’m saying it because you ought to be comforted by that. That God knows your condition. And that Jesus actually deigns to show up when you go to church. And to be here because He cares about you. And He loves you. Because He loves His church. He bought His church. So because of this covenantal relationship and because the Lord is jealous for His people, He provides for them and protects them. He watches out for them, because that’s covenantal responsibility.
Preeminence
The third P is preeminence. Preeminence. Go back to our original text in Exodus 34. And what we see is the Lord, after the Lord tells Moses, and really Israel through Moses, that He’s making a covenant with them, He then warns them about their covenantal responsibility. And He warns them against worshiping false gods. In verse 12 he says of chapter 34, take heed to yourself lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going. That is to say, I’m making a covenant with you, you are making a covenant with Me, but beware, when you go into the land, there are going to be snares there, there will be temptations, and you will be tempted to make a covenant with the people of the land. In other words, you’re going to be tempted to compromise. You’re going to be tempted to enter into relationships with people you shouldn’t. You’re going to be tempted to attempt to stay in covenant with Me while you’re also at the same time entering into a covenant with another. And God says you cannot do this. And it’s in that context. It’s in the context of God saying that you are not to make covenants with other gods, it’s in that context that God says, I am a jealous God. In other words, God is saying, if you are going to be married to Me, then you are going to be faithful to Me. If I am going to be your husband, I will guard you and I will protect you, I will watch out for you and I will provide for you, but you will be faithful to Me. You will not play the harlot. And all throughout the Old Testament we see that idolatry is compared to adultery and adultery to idolatry, because of this idea of covenantal faithfulness to God. And that when we’re unfaithful in our covenantal relationship to God, it’s as if a woman is being unfaithful to her husband or a man to his wife. That’s what it’s compared to. So when we talk about preeminence, what this means is that when we enter into covenant with God, God pledges Himself to His people, He pledges all of His resources to His people, He pledges to protect His people, provide for His people, but their responsibility then is to maintain absolute fidelity to God. No other gods, no other gods.
Look at the book of Isaiah. You should read the book of Isaiah sometime. Over and over and over God is hammering home [audio unclear] So I’m going to call you Bob, okay? Well, I don’t know about you. I wouldn’t say okay. That’s not okay to me, because my name isn’t Bob. Well, then I’m arguing with this guy, he’d call me Bob, and another guy walks up and he says, hey, Joe. I’m like, my name’s not Joe, my name’s David. Well, but I like the name Joe. Joe’s easy to say. It’s just like one syllable. It’s kind of like Bob, you know? Hey, well, he called me Bob, but you’re calling me Joe. David, but I like Joe, hey I like Bob, but my name isn’t Bob and my name isn’t Joe, my name’s David. Well, we like those names and we’re going to call you by that name because we like those names. And then, while I’m arguing with these two guys, right. No, it’s not Tom, it’s David. [audio unclear] And I say, well he’s calling me Bob and he’s calling me Joe and you’re calling me Tom. My name isn’t Bob, it’s not Joe, it’s not Tom. It’s David. And so I’m trying to get these guys to understand my name isn’t Tom and Bob and Joe, my name is David, and they start arguing among themselves about what my name is. [audio unclear] You know, you might want to call Him Tom, you can call Him Bob, you can call Him Joe, you can call Him Jehovah, you can call Him Allah, you can call Him Vishnu, you can call Him whatever you want to call Him. The name doesn’t matter. That’s the spirit of the age. But I want to tell you something, it matters to Me what you call Me. Because My name isn’t Bob, and it’s not Tom, and it’s not Joe.
The thing we have to understand is this, and this is real important. You might think, well that illustration doesn’t prove anything, because you know, if they want to call you Bob, who cares? It doesn’t matter. You know who you are, right? Indeed, I do. But here’s the thing we need to understand about this illustration. It’s this. It’s that when it comes to God, no one knows His name but Him. His name is His character, and no one knows God except God. So Jesus knows the Father, but [audio unclear] because no one else knows the name. Here’s what God says in His Word in Isaiah 43. Verse 10, he says, says the Lord, 43:10:
“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no savior.”
(Isaiah 43:10–11)
I am He. I am He. I am He. This is what Jesus said when the Jews confronted Him and He said, before Abraham was, I AM. Exact phrase in Greek, taken from the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint. 44 and verse 6:
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them. Do not fear, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.”
(Isaiah 44:6–8)
Look at chapter 45. Verse 5: I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things. Look at verse 20 of the same chapter. He says:
“Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, who carry the wood of their carved image, and pray to a god that cannot save. Tell and bring forth your case; yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me. Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, ’Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, and all shall be ashamed who are incensed against Him. In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory.’”
(Isaiah 45:20–25)
Amen? And one of the strongest proofs of the deity of Jesus Christ is that this text here in Isaiah, right here in 45, is quoted in Philippians 2 and applied to Jesus, where it says that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Well here it says the name of Jehovah every knee will bow. Not only that, but God says, I will not share My glory with anybody else, and yet Jesus gets the glory, because He’s Jehovah. He’s the same God. Look at Isaiah. The Lord says specifically, I am Jehovah, that is My name. My name is not Allah, My name is not Vishnu, My name is Jehovah. And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.
So when we talk about the jealousy of God, He is jealous for His people. He is jealous for their welfare, but He is jealous for their fidelity and faithfulness to who He is. That is to say, it is our responsibility as His people to be faithful to worship Him and to worship Him only. Only. That’s the key word, I’m sorry, that’s the key word, only. Look at Deuteronomy 6. Nope, we’re not going there. Go to 1 Kings 17. We’re going to conclude. 1 Kings—Kings is after Samuel, if that helps. Did I say 1 Kings? I meant second, I’m sorry. I’m not feeling good. Now I can’t give you the background because it’s a long and complicated background, but this is after the Assyrian captivity. But I want you to notice. Look at verse 28 of 2 Kings 17. So what’s happening here is the Assyrians took ten tribes of Israel into captivity, and what’s happening here is the very thing that God said not to happen, in Exodus 34. This is a blending of religions, a blending of gods, okay? A mingling of covenants. And it says in 2 Kings 17, it says in verse 28, then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. That’s good, right? Fear Jehovah. However, verse 29, every nation continued to make gods of its own, and put them in the shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they dwelt. And so it goes on, it says this, verse 32, so they feared the Lord. Now that’s, like, well that’s good, awesome. Great, they’re fearing Jehovah, right? This is good news. Verse 32, so they feared the Lord, and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So it’s saying they feared Jehovah, and so they hired priests to offer sacrifices in the very shrines that God had forbidden. Verse 33, they feared the Lord, yet served their own gods according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. Did you see this? They feared Jehovah, yet they served their own gods. Verse 34, to this day they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying: You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them; but the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice. And the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever; you shall not fear other gods. And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. Man, oh man, oh man, over and over and over and over, saying the same thing, over and over and over and over. I was talking to my kids the other day about reading the Bible, and they were talking about reading the Old Testament, they got to parts of it like, this is tedious, this is really tedious stuff, and it is tedious. But the problem isn’t God, the problem is us. We’ve got to hear it over and over and over and over and over. Precept upon precept, line upon line, over and over and over and over and over. God says, you shall not fear other gods. You shall not worship other gods. I am the only God, over and over and over and over. Verse 39: He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies. This is part of His covenant, His protection, His provision, right? However, they did not obey, but they followed their former rituals. So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images. This is the key. They served Jehovah, yet also. Their children and their children’s children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day. And that’s why when you go back and read Exodus 34 which we read, or you read Exodus 20 when God gives the Ten Commandments, and when He’s talking about worship, He says, I’m a jealous God and I’m going to visit iniquity to the third and fourth generation. And that’s because idolatry is passed down to the third and fourth generation. And so the problem here was not the denial of Jehovah. The problem was a delusion. The problem was the fact that they wanted to worship Jehovah, but they wouldn’t let go of their other gods. Sounds like today, doesn’t it? Like the American church.
You Cannot Serve Two Masters
And some of you are thinking, well I’m glad I’m not in the Old Testament, I’m glad I’m a New Testament Christian. I wish it worked that way. Here’s what Jesus says: no man can serve two masters. For either you will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. This is the same principle that Jehovah tried to hammer into Israel over and over and over and over. You are to serve Me and no other. When you read about the early church, you read about what was done to the Christians, how they were literally boiled and how they were skinned and how they were fed to the lions and how they were crucified upside down, and all the torture, put on fire, all the things that they endured—do you know why that happened to them? It’s because they—it’s not because they simply believed in Jesus, but because when they were asked to merely take a little flower, a little piece of incense, and put it on the altar to Caesar, I mean, just a little thing. Just put this little thing on the altar and we’ll leave you alone and you guys can do whatever you want in the catacombs, you can just do your own private religion. Because in that world, it was pluralistic. And there were many gods. And in the pantheon, there were many idols. And you could go into the pantheon, and you could worship Zeus, or Mercury, or Jupiter, or whatever god you wanted to worship. But you have to agree that all these other gods are valid. The church wouldn’t do that. What the church said is not merely that Jesus was God, but that Jesus was God alone. Alone. And so it’s not just that Jesus was Lord, but rather that Jesus was Lord of all. And so there wasn’t a pantheon where Jesus was one amongst equals, but rather it was Jesus above all. And for that, for saying that, Christians were killed. Because that’s the heart of the issue. It’s not that we worship Jesus. That’s not the issue. The issue is the place that Jesus has in our heart, because just as we learned from Israel, they didn’t deny Jehovah. That wasn’t the problem. The problem wasn’t that they decided to leave Jehovah and worship Baal, or leave Jehovah and worship Molech. That wasn’t it. The problem is that they wanted to profess their allegiance to Jehovah while worshiping Baal. They wanted both. They were double-minded. They wanted two masters. And yet as Jesus says, and the Lord said in the Old Testament over and over and over and over, you can’t serve two masters. In Israel, the career of Israel, you read it. Just read the Old Testament. It’s a career in the attempt to do the very thing that Jesus says you can’t do. It is centuries of trying on the one hand to profess Jehovah and be His covenant people, yet at the same time to be worshiping other gods also. Not instead of, but also.
That’s the human heart, isn’t it? And one of the very reasons I began this series on God’s attributes months ago is because this problem of idolatry and compromise is not an Old Testament problem, and it’s not an early church problem. It is a perennial problem. Every generation must decide whom their God is going to be. Every country must decide whom their God will be. Every church must decide whom their God will be, and every individual must decide whom their God will be, and I would say every Christian must decide whom their God will be. I was talking to someone before church who told me they visited another church the other night and they won’t mention names, but it’s in a wealthy part of town, and this individual told me about just how obviously rich everybody was in this church, by the way they dress, and the jewelry and everything. And that’s okay in America. That’s okay, because one of our gods is the American dream. One of our gods is wealth. And when Jesus said, no man can serve two masters—guess what the context was? Laying up treasures on earth. You can’t serve God and mammon. You can’t serve God and any other god. You can’t serve God and the opinion of other people. You can’t serve—if you’re going to serve God, you have to serve God with absolute fidelity, Him and Him alone. That’s what the call of true discipleship is. God doesn’t want your worship if it’s half-hearted. God doesn’t want your worship if you’re worshiping a different god tomorrow. That’s not what God wants from His people. And Jesus Christ is not an appendage. Jesus Christ isn’t something you just stick in Sunday morning. Christ isn’t your personal genie. Jesus Christ doesn’t exist to make you successful or happy. Jesus Christ is the Lord of all. That’s what the Bible tells us. You are not your own. That means He has the right to tell you how to live, and that’s how you’re supposed to live, because He is the Lord, and He is your Master. And if you are a Christian, you profess His name, then you are professing to be a disciple and a follower and a servant of Jesus. And then what that means is you are professing that He is on the throne of your heart, and you are not. And Jesus is jealous for that. And as He said when He went into the temple, and He knocked the tables over, and He threw the money changers out, He says, the zeal for Your house has eaten Me up. I am burning with passion. I am burning with a zeal for God’s people to be a holy people, not a compromised people, not a worldly people—a holy people, fully devoted to God, who put away their idols of sex and money, who put away their idols of the American dream. I want a holy people devoted to Me who will serve Me and serve Me only and do as I say and go where I say when I say. That’s how Jesus preached. And He literally threw the tables over. He was jealous for God’s honor and jealous for God’s people.
Some of you here for the first time: I ain’t going back to that church, he yells. Let me tell you something, friend. The day is coming when we are going to see the fire in Jesus’ eyes. The day is coming, and He is longsuffering, and He is patient, but the day is coming, and He waits for many to repent, but the day is coming, and someday we will, and will be astounded, because the Word of God says that Jesus is clothed in a robe of white, but that white robe is covered with blood, and it’s not His. It’s the blood of His enemies. Do you understand? Do you understand? And it’s retribution for the way that the world and His enemies have treated His people, because He’s jealous for His people. You mess with my wife, you’re messing with me. You understand? That’s the attitude. We say, God, how long? What does Your church suffer? I heard a story just yesterday about a church in the 10/40 window, you know, just where a lot of persecution, suffering, a lot of poverty, a lot of trafficking, just that’s a mess. And one of the pastors over there was asked, how’s the work going? How’s the work going over there? And he said, well you know, we’re reaching the kids, we’re reaching some of the kids with the gospel, we’re doing VBS. Over there doing VBS just like us. And we were seeing some kids come to the Lord, and the gentleman said, well what about the adults, what about the parents? Well, after our VBS campaign, he said, two of the dads came to Jesus. [audio unclear] But one got beaten so bad, he won’t be coming to church for months, and the other one got [audio unclear] And we can’t get people to go to a prayer meeting. And we can’t get people to give 10% of their—give their tithe to Jesus. Man, we’re worshiping the American god. And it’s not the God of the Bible, because Jesus is calling us to that. Jesus is calling us to, if you’re going to confess Me, be ready to die for Me. That’s what it is. That’s what discipleship is. And that’s what it was in the New Testament. It’s what it was in the early church. That’s what it is in so many parts of the world. And I believe that is what it will be in our country soon. So, you know, is it Jesus yet, or is it Jesus only? What is it? Because God is jealous, and He wants a wife that is faithful. So it’s time for us to examine our hearts, amen?
When the elders came before Ezekiel, they said, we want to hear the Lord’s Word. They liked going to church. They liked sermons. You know what God said to them? He said, you have put, you have erected idols in your heart, and I’m not going to speak to you until you take them down. People say, what’s wrong with the church in America? There’s no power in the church, and there’s no power in the pulpit, and a famine in the Word. You know what? It’s all true, because the people come and they don’t want to hear the Word. I mean hear the real Word. I mean hear the prophetic word. I mean hear the word in power. Are you hearing me? Anybody hearing me? Because you can hear sermons all day long and [audio unclear] they’ll quote the Bible, they’ll say all the right things, and there’s just nothing there. And you can hear another guy come up and say, he just says the name Jesus, you start bawling. Because the word is there. That’s what the Bible means by the Word. It’s not the word, it’s the living Word. It’s the prophetic word. It’s the true word. So we have to take the idols out of our heart, because God isn’t going to speak if we don’t want to hear. And it’s a frightful thing, my friend. I read Romans 1 just yesterday. It’s a frightful thing, because when it talks about God’s anger, you know what it says? You know what it says? It says what God did to the Roman world. It says they knew God. They knew Him. But they weren’t thankful. They knew Him, but they didn’t want to know Him. So they created their false gods. You know what God’s punishment was? He just gave them over. Fine. At some point God says, if that’s what you want, okay, go on. Have it. I will give you the desires of your heart. And then man in his folly, the very thing that he wants, and eventually God grants, is the very thing that destroys him. And we see it in history over and over and over and over. So the worst thing God can do is to let us have our way. Or to put it another way, the worst thing that God can do is to stop speaking. May we have ears to hear, ears to hear, what the Lord is saying to His church.
Closing Prayer
Let’s stand and pray. Father, forgive us, God, that we don’t worship You as You deserve. [audio unclear] Lord, [audio unclear] I thank You that You are a jealous God. And I thank You that mediocrity is not okay to You. Compromise isn’t okay to You. And I pray for myself and my family and this church. I pray for all of us, God, that we take the idols out of our hearts, whether it’s money, sex, or possessions, or position, or whatever it is, that we take these things out of our hearts and lay ourselves before You. And when we say You are Lord, then we’d mean it. And we’d begin to live like it. And we’d be willing, like those dads in the Middle East, Lord, to be beaten or to die for our profession. Lord, give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in who You are. And then all will be well if we see You for who You are. I pray this in Your name.