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Becoming A Person of Worship in a Culture of Counterfeits

!!! Restoring the Savor of Our Salt Series                Message # 10

 

 

We want to be looking at a couple of passages today. 1 Samuel 5 and then Revelation 4. We’re working on a series of message around the general theme of restoring the savor of our salt.

We’re trying to think about whether we are being molded by the culture around us, or are we being molded by the Word of God.

And if I really know Jesus Christ and if I am really being impacted by the Word of Christ, it should make a different person out of me.

We want to look today specifically at the issue of being a person of worship in a culture of counterfeits.

We want to focus on the question of how do I come to understand God better and understand more what He is like?

And therefore, when I understand what He is like, to be a better worshipper.

I’d like to begin reading in 1 Samuel 5:1-12, and then we’ll skip all the way over to Revelation and read chapter 4.

These are two powerful, contrasting passages about the matter of worshipping a false god as opposed to worshipping the God of the universe.

1 Samuel 5 is the story of the Philistines capturing the Ark of God in probably the worst spiritual and military move they ever made in some ways, and yet in some ways, it was the best move they ever made.

And they brought this Ark of God to their town.

“And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.

2  When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon [Dagon, by the way, was one of their idols, a little carved god].

3  And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD.

And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

4  And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

5  Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.

6 ¶  But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods [that is a word referring to tumors], even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.

7  And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.

8  They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?

And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath.

And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.

9  And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.

10  Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron.

And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.

11  So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

12  And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.”

That’s a little insight into God’s relationship to false gods and God’s relationship to idols.

Then to Revelation chapter 4, verses 1-11, please, as we think about what it is like to worship the true and living God, and how does He differ from a little idol like Dagon.

Revelation 4, starting in verse 1.

The apostle John gets a little view into Heaven, into eternity and what it is like there.

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

2  And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

3  And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

4  And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

5  And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

6  And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

[These beings described are generally regarded as angelic beings, who spend full time worshipping around the Throne of God.] 7  And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

8 ¶  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

9  And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 10  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

All people are worshippers by nature.

Without even thinking about it, without even working on it, every person decides something that they believe is of ultimate good, of the greatest power, of the greatest whatever.

And when they figure out what they think is the ultimate good for them, they give ultimate allegiance to it.

We are worshippers by nature, we don’t even have to work on it.

We don’t even think about it.

Probably the most godless people you could think about are natural worshippers.

Timothy O’leary was a man who decided that drugs and the experience they gave him were of the ultimate value, and he became a worshipper of those things.

Gloria Steinem is a woman who believes that feminism and the women’s movement is of ultimate value, and she gives her ultimate allegiance to it.

Donald Trump is a person who is a worshipper of money, and business achievement, and financial victory.

He has said in his mind, this is of ultimate worth, and I need to give ultimate allegiance to these things.

Adolf Hitler was a worshipper of white supremacy.

There are many Catholics who have become worshippers of Mary.

There is a huge move in the Catholic Church to make Mary a co-redemptrix, meaning, she along with Jesus Christ accomplished our salvation.

There are many, many people who are believing that Mary is of ultimate value and giving her ultimate allegiance in their lives.

Many cultists today who have picked out some god, small g, some god that they created or that was created by their founder, and decided, this god is of ultimate value.

I will give that ultimate allegiance.

We have probably all met people who are worshippers of control.

They see the greatest value in life is to be in control.

They decide that control is of ultimate value and that gets their worship.

Every one of these people is giving ultimate allegiance to something.

They believe that their god, small g, deserves their ultimate loyalty.

The sad part about it is that there many people who claim to be Christians who give God the top billing in their publicity and outward public image, but who really give something else top affection in their hearts.

Who love someone or something far more than they love God.

Even though God may have top billing in their publicity—they are saying the right things and professing to believe the right things—but at the core of themselves they love something more than God.

I’d like us to think about this question of how do I become a person of genuine worship in a culture that is filled with counterfeits?

How do I become a person who makes genuine connection with God, who really understands the nature of God, who escapes the incredible number of counterfeits in this culture that I could possibly worship?

Let’s take a look at the passage in 1 Samuel chapter 5:1-12.

Worship Issue A. Counterfeit gods can never deliver anything to us.

We read this story about Dagon.

We read how the Philistines captured the Ark of God.

They brought the Ark into the temple of Dagon and they set it down next to their little carved god named Dagon.

Dagon was the god of grain.

The Ashdodites believed that Dagon could produce more grain.

And in their system he was also the father of their main god, this god named Baal.

Dagon was a very important god in their system, and they thought that he could produce more grain for them.

They kept him in a little city named Ashdod.

It is 25 miles south of modern-day Tel-Aviv, right on the coast of Israel.

They had a little temple for him.

They were worshippers of him.

The worshippers of Dagon had bought into an incredible lie.

They had bought into a huge lie, hook, line, and sinker.

Maybe you have gotten one of those letters that told you that if you would write a certain kind of letter and mail it to a huge number of people, they will send you back a certain amount of money and they will mail it out to their friends, and the more friends and relatives you mail this to, the more money you will get back.

One man spent over $500 on postage and copying, and put together this huge mailing.

He mailed everything out and sat back to wait for his money to roll in.

You know the rest of the story.

He never got a dime back!

He bought into a big lie.

The worshippers of Dagon in Ashdod had bought into an incredible lie, and the lie was, Dagon is the true god, Dagon can help you.

They believed, first of all, that Dagon controlled the amount of grain that they got, and that the amount of grain they got was of ultimate importance.

There is nothing more important in life than how much yield you get on your grain.

They further believed that this carving could fix their grain yield and they further believed that he was influenceable—that they could somehow make him do something different than what he had planned to do.

They bought into a huge lie.

The fact is, how much grain you get is not the most important thing in life.

That’s the first part of the lie.

The second part of the lie is, that this little carving has nothing to do with the control of grain.

The third part of the lie is that this little stone god could be influenced and prayed to and  caused to change his mind.

The reality of this is that this little stone god couldn’t even stand up in the presence of the Ark of God.

Not only could he not fix your grain yield; he couldn’t even stand up when they brought the Ark of God to set in his temple and next to him.