Worship Of The Creator

2 Timothy 3:1-5....

Form of godliness without the power.......Outwardly with no inward power........A body without the Spirit of God.

Charles Spurgeon: What is the general history of those who have not this power? Well, dear friends, their course usually runs thus: they do not begin with denying the power, but they begin by trying to do without it.

Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

Matthew 23:27–28 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

Paul is describing a false teachers in Ephesus.........They have a form, they look like the real deal, but they deny the power.....They affected its outward appearance but lacked its essence.

Charles Spurgeon said this of them: “They freely speak of the things of God in Christian company. They can defend the doctrines of Scripture, they can plead for its precepts, and they can narrate the experience of a believer. They are fondest of talking of what is doing in the church: the tattle of the streets of Jerusalem is very pleasant to them. They flavour their speech with godly phrases when they are in company that will relish it.......................................But there may be a savour of religion about a man’s conversation, and yet it may be a borrowed flavour, like hot sauces used to disguise the staleness of ancient meat. That religion which comes from the lips outward, but does not well up from the deep fountains of the heart, is not that living water which will spring up unto eternal life. Tongue-godliness is an abomination if the heart be destitute of grace.”

It is possible to be intensely active in the outside work of the church, and yet to know nothing of spiritual power.

Spurgeon also stated this in his sermon on this passage: “When we have done all the work our position requires of us, we may only have displayed the form of godliness; unless we hearken to our Lord, and from His Presence derive power, we shall be as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Brethren, I speak to myself and to each one of you in solemn earnestness; if much speaking, generous giving, and constant occupation could win heaven, we might easily make sure of it; but more than these are needful. I speak to each one of you; and if I singled out any one more than another to be the pointed object of my address, it would be the best among us—the one who is doing most for his Master, and who, in his inmost soul, is thinking, ‘That warning does not apply to me.’ O my active and energetic brother, remember the word, ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ ”

Folks in this state deceive others and help strengthen themselves in this false hope.

Another thing that Spurgeon pointed out in his sermon on this passage, really hits home with what we are seeing today: Paul does not paint the future with rose-colour: he is no smooth-tongued prophet of a golden age, into which this dull earth may be imagined to be glowing. There are sanguine brethren who are looking forward to everything growing better and better and better, until, at last, this present age ripens into a millennium. They will not be able to sustain their hopes, for Scripture gives them no solid basis to rest upon. We who believe that there will be no millennial reign without the King, and who expect no rule of righteousness except from the appearing of the righteous Lord, are nearer the mark. Apart from the second Advent of our Lord, the world is more likely to sink into a pandemonium than to rise into a millennium. A divine interposition seems to me the hope set before us in Scripture, and, indeed, to be the only hope adequate to the occasion. We look to the darkening down of things; the state of mankind, however improved politically, may yet grow worse and worse spiritually. Certainly, we are assured in verse thirteen that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” There will spring up in the Christian church, and round about it, a body of faithless men who profess to have faith; unsaintly men who will unite with the saints; men having the form of godliness, but denying the power. We may call these hard times, if we will, but we have hardly yet come to the border of those truly harder times when it will go hard with the church, and she shall need, even more than to-day, to cry mightily unto the Lord to keep her alive.

That hits home with me.....what we have seen in the battle for our nation to return to the original intent by the founders, it seems that some that are apart of this, as far as christians are concerned, have compromised their faith. They are exactly what Paul is describing here: they have a form of godliness but denying the power thereof!

We blindly make alliances with people of different faiths and of false faiths, thinking that those faiths are real! They are not! Judaism is not legitimate.......What make alliances with Israel, like their faith is legitimate, we know it is not. They deny Jesus Christ! My prayer for Israel is for their repentance, in which that will happen, but I will not compromise Christ for peace with Israel. god will take care of that. Their religion is no faith at all! Jesus said in John 8:42–44 “Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

They have a form but they deny the power.......They deny Jesus!

There is another side of this....Romans 1:18-32.......Another form of this, is just folks knowing there is a God yet they worship more the creation more than the Creator..........they have a form of worship, but is more for what is made, rather than the maker.

Idol worship, whatever you want to call it........It is all over and the live it out publicly........I saw one transgender so-called priestess or whatever it was.....stating the Gospel is about love.......she sounds like a believer, but there is no talk of Godly sorrow, repentance.......John tells us in 1 John 2:15–17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” ........You see it is all about Him and none about us..…God through Jesus is calling us out of this world and basically out of ourselves , to Himself!

In Jesus is the light of life.......John 3:19 “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” .......They love darkness rather than light, because why???? What the flesh wants is evil.

Did you know that Jeremiah 17:9 states that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” .......This is the fall’s outcome.......I can’t even trust myself, by faith I must trust Christ!

We worship and serve the creature more than the Creator......Who is blessed forever? God!

Verse 19-21 of this passage reveals the reality of what we are seeing, but it has been around for a long time......God has revealed Himself to us.......through Christ, but also through His creation......so much so that we become without excuse.....instead of seeking out the true God, we just worship what we see....Romans 1:21 “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Their “wisdom” led them to barter the majesty of the immortal God for “images made to look like mortal man” (v. 23). In fact, they even exchanged the glory of God for images of birds, beasts, and creatures that crawl along the ground.....

God’s wrath will and has come in the form of turning us over......In our freedom to sin, we shall reap what sin’s lifestyle produces and also the ultimate wrath of God which is the 2nd death. Some have said that said that being Paul is speaking of homosexual behavior here, that product of this lifestyle is AIDS and I would sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, that leads to abortion or the abandonment of millions of children.