Reengaging the Spiritual VI
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Turn to Exodus 20
Grab a pen - and as we continue our journey of Reengaging the Spiritual, write something down - write down the top 2 or 3 sins of the person next to you. Then put it in the offering plate … just joking.
Write down the number one sin you believe God hates the most. Don’t say God hates all sin – pick one. Even though God does hate all sin, not all sin has equal value in this world. Sin is never permissible or without consequences, but there are some sins that have greater and more damaging effects than others.
Again, which one do you think God hates the most. Tuck that away for now.
Let’s talk relationships for a moment. As we saw last week, humans were made in God’s image. And part of that image means relationship – relationship with God and with others.
For relationships to be at their best, they require the best boundaries.
Boundaries define what is permissible and what is not. Boundaries define what you do and don’t do. When boundaries are appropriate, concise, mutual and adhered to, the relationship is good. When boundaries are unknown, too broad or too narrow, or crossed – the relationship suffers.
I don’t think I need to give you any examples here – we have all experienced both. How many of you have been hurt or devastated because boundaries were crossed? How many of you have hurt others because you crossed boundaries? Everyone knows the pain of a “breach of contract” - someone crossed the line and it can hurt deeply.
Boundaries are good necessary for every relationship. But our human nature, our flesh says “No! Boundaries are restrictive! I want to have fun; I want is freedom; I want to do what I want even at the expense of someone else!” And consequently, relationships without boundaries always has a price.
But that’s more in the physical realm – what about our spiritual relationship with God? Again, In order for the relationships to be at its best, we must have boundaries. And understand that as we Reengage the Spiritual,
Godly boundaries DO NOT restrict and harm us – they free and protect us.
See, Godly boundaries are designed to give us the best possible relationship with God. The boundaries that Susan and I have in our marriage do not restrict our enjoyment of one another. Not at all –our boundaries free us to love each other fully – without fear or strife. Our boundaries protect our marriage. And the same is true with God – His boundaries free us from worry, strife, fear - they protect us and so on. And they help us to truly and deeply enjoy and love Him and others.
Since we’ve been in the Old Testament for a while, let’s take a very brief look at the 10 Commandments in Exo. 20. If you’re not familiar with context of the story, in your handout I listed some short but powerful videos to watch from the Bible Project.
In Exodus 20, we find the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Remember, Israel had been in captivity in Egypt for over 400 years. God, through Moses led them out of Egypt – He rescued them and redeemed them - and now at Mt. Sinai God comes down to the mountain to meet with Israel and He gives them the Torah or the Law – or boundaries.
Of the 10 Commandments, the first 4 are our relationship with God, the other 6 are our relationship with others – which is connected to our relationship with God. This morning, however, we’re only going to look at the first two.
And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Before we continue, I want to note that even though this is the Old Covenant, these 10 carry on into the New Covenant. Jesus did not abolish the Law, but came to fulfill the Law. However, because we are incapable of perfectly obeying the Law, Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection, put an end to our striving. Salvation is now through Him and Him only – it is by grace we have been saved and not by works (Eph. 2). And now Jesus enables His followers to fulfill the Law of loving God and loving others through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now the 10 Commandments are not just arbitrary rules – they are boundaries for people to abide within in order to have the best relationships, again with God and others.
The 10 Commandments are in covenant language – kind of like wedding vows.
What is the underlying purpose of wedding vows? You know, “For richer or poorer, for better or worse, in sickness and health” etc. - what’s the point?
The vows of marriage are a covenant of mutual faithfulness
- that no matter what, don’t cheat on me, don’t leave and always love me and I promise to do the same.
Do you hear that in the Commandments? This is not Charlton Heston - “YOU SHALL NOT …!” No. And God spoke all these words, saying –
“You were enslaved - physically and spiritually - you worshipped other elohim while in Egypt; but I rescued you! No other elohim, no other god, no other power rescued you. You didn’t walk out of Egypt on your own. I alone brought you out of captivity. And now I am taking you as my bride - and I’m making a covenant with you that I will always be faithful to you and in return, be faithful to Me ….”
So, if God were to hate one sin above the rest, what might it be? What did you write down? Murder? Hatred? Abuse … they’re all horrible, don’t get me wrong, but there is one sin that gravely effects everything else – It’s idolatry.
Idolatry is spiritual adultery, or unfaithfulness to the Almighty God.
When we are unfaithful to Yahweh, everything else crumbles – individuals, families and society.
Idolatry is what destroyed the nation of Israel. They struggled with idolatry ever since they left Egypt - constantly caving into the seduction of other gods. But God was always faithful to the covenant, sending prophet after prophet to call His people back into faithfulness. But that eventually came to an end - they severed the relationship and one of the saddest chapters in the Bible is 2 Kings 17, when Israel was conquered by Assyria, all because they worshipped and served other gods. They allowed other gods and idols to come in between them and Yahweh.
It’s easy to look at them and say, “Not me. I don’t have any other gods in my life.” Let’s take a little closer look at these first two commandments.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
So, God is saying there other ʾělō·hîm out there, and they come in many different forms - and even the devil disguises himself as an angel of light - and these other gods, these other religions can look good and appeal to the flesh. And if we let them, they can work their way into our lives and become a wedge between us and the Almighty God - and we begin to worship and serve them … even in the Church.
God says, “Be faithful to me!
You shall have no other means do not be in possession of or be possessed by
- not as in demonic possession, although that can happen - but this means do not be under the influence of or obsessed by any other spiritual being other than Yahweh - or in the New Covenant - Jesus Christ. Only He is Lord and only He is to be worshipped and served - It is at the name of Jesus Christ that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord!
Now we’ve all heard the phrase, “You can look, but don’t touch.” That doesn’t cut it with God. Remember, the Commandments are wedding vows, and the phrase “Before me,” literally means, in my face. You shall have no other gods in my face or in my presence - don’t look, don’t lust, don’t touch, don’t go near - don’t assimilate, blend or invite other gods into the relationship and worship of the One True God. This is where we should cry Semper Fidelis! Always loyal, always faithful!
But knows this is hard, and He warned Israel before they entered the Promised Land and He warns us -
Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;
At this point, we’re talking about real and/or mythological spiritual entities and religious practices. We do not worship other gods - and in our modern context, many churches are doing that - blending other religions into their worship - Wicca, Buddhism and so forth.
If verse 3 is about ʾělō·hîm (spiritual entities), verses 4-6 covers all the man-made stuff.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image (anything that is produced by human ingenuity - i.e. idols) …. You shall not bow down to them (that means to worship - give them a place of prominence) or You shall not serve them …. You know the word serve here means to give considerable energy and time to another - it means do not become a slave to another - whether it’s real or false, tangible or intangible.
If you allow another “god” into your life, it will want to control you. We were designed to worship one God and God only - Yahweh - who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You know the devil and the enemy wants to be worshipped, right. They will do whatever it takes to deceive us and lure us away. He even tried to get Jesus, the Son of God to bow down - and Jesus said, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
The devil is still doing that today with you and me - seducing us and tempting us to bow down and serve other gods - to allow something to become a wedge between us and God. In Mark 10, Jesus was talking about marriage and He said this, “What God has joined together, let no man separate.” The word separate means do not let anything become a wedge between a husband and his bride. And Jesus prayed that you and I would be one with the Father - that nothing would become a wedge in the relationship.
A.W. Tozer, in his book The Pursuit of God, wrote about a shrine deep in the heart of men and women where only God was worthy to dwell. But sin introduced a problem, and other things became necessary to us - something God never intended. And these other things, and at times other spiritual beings become a god to us - they sit on the throne of our hearts rather than God Himself. And we become enslaved.
And just as God rescued Israel from Egypt, Jesus Christ rescues us from the slavery of sin and idolatry. But here’s the thing - as Tozer said, God wants to reign in our hearts unchallenged. He alone is worthy to be on the throne - Him and no other. Just because you have believed upon Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins doesn’t mean He is on the throne. That is a choice you must make and He doesn’t force it upon you! And Jesus said in
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
And make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life and nothing else!
So, what do we do? We do what Abraham did with Isaac, we withhold nothing from God - not ever a child.
Listen to the Holy Spirit - what is He saying to you? Who or what is competing with God in your heart? Who or what is on the throne of your heart other than Jesus Christ? Surrender is the only way to freedom - no other gods.
Gospel invitation
Close with prayer from Tozer:
Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus’ name, Amen. ~ (Tozer, A.W. The Pursuit of God)