Family Worship

God's liberated people fell because they never let go of Egypt. Mark that down, my friends. God's free people fell because they never let go of that in which they were enslaved to for years. And the New Testament articulates it for us in a two-fold fashion. Let me read it to you.

It's found in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. It says this in verse number 11. Now these things happen to them as an example. And they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed. it lest he fall. And then in verse number 14, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. The apostle Paul states very clearly that what happened to Israel in the wilderness can happen to you. You need to be careful. You must aggressively and actively guard yourself against idolatry.

for the Lord God said in Exodus chapter 20 these words you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth you shall not worship them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me but showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.

This is the only commandment that has with it the specific judgment that happens to those who disobey. God wants you to understand idolatry is a very serious sin. The first commandment now shall have no.

know of the gods before me, speaks of the who of worship. The second commandment speaks of how one worships.

The first commandment forbids false gods. The second commandment forbids false worship. The first commandment speaks of the preeminence of God.

The second commandment speaks of the person of God. With that in mind, I have four points I want to cover with you this evening. First of all, the prohibition, then the penalty, the promise, and then we'll close with some principles of family worship.

First of all, the prohibition in verses four to five, says you shall not make for yourselves an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.

You shall not worship them or serve them. Here's the prohibition. Number one, do not carve them. Do not carve them in two ways. You can't carve them materially and you cannot carve them mentally. God is incomparable to anything. there is that we can make. Idolatry is stupidity. You can't limit the omnipresent God into one item. You can't do that. Idolatry limits God. It drops God down from where and who he is. And so whenever you reduce God to your level, you commit idolatry. That's important to understand that.

so many times people say well you know just to have a picture of Jesus in my house really helps me worship God does it does that conjure up ideas of who Jesus is that's idolatry which leads us to the second point you can't carve them materially and you can't carve them mentally back to exodus chapter 20 verse number four listen to what the Lord says you shall not make for yourself an idol or any what likeness it says it's easy for us to condemn the roman catholic church for all the icons and all the saints that they worship because they have painted their pictures and made stone and carved them out of stone so people can look at them and pray to them and praise them and have statutes of them by the way the roman catholic church does not um recognize the second commandment.

You know that, don't you? Can't. Too much money in statues. Too much money in icons. So they divide number 10 up into two parts and still have their ten commandments. That's how they do that. But the Roman Catholics don't adhere to the Second Commandment.

They've wiped it out. It's not a part of their doctrine. That's a problem. But let me give you an example.

Someone might say to you, how do you perceive God? Anybody ever ask you that question? How do you perceive God? That's a very dangerous question. Because you see, if you perceive him in only one way, you could develop an erroneous view of who God is, and in so doing you'll be committing idolatry because you will come up with another view of God that is not a composite view of who God is. And that, my friend, is idolatry. God is a holy, just, righteous God who expects us to bow down before him in fear and trembling and worship his almighty character.

Don't carve any idol, either materially or mentally, is what the Bible says. Don't conjure up any kind of form in your mind of who God is and try to picture him there as an old man in a rocking chair holding you on his knees, and there are a lot of psychologists and psychotherapists under the guise of Christianity that say, you know, picture God as the old man coming to your door with a beard, wanting to wrap you with his arms and hold you tightly and give you love that your father-nevar gave you.

I've heard that a million times. That too is idolatry. But not only do you not carve them, you are not to crave them either. That's point number two.

For the Lord says, you shall not worship them or serve them. 1 Corinthians 10.6, in the account that echoes Exodus 32, Paul says this. Now, these things happen as examples to us that we should not crave the evil things as they also crave them. You can't not just carve something to represent God. You can't crave anything other than God. For if you do, that also is idolatry. Men can't give God priority today because they are too busy craving education, craving making money, craving, craving being somebody.

Paul said in Ephesians 5 verse 5, no covetous man, in parentheses, who is an idolater, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Someone who covets is someone who worships materialism, which emphasizes money and possessions. Covetousness is wanting what you don't have and craving it. That is idolatry. Wanting cars, wanting houses, wanting more cars, wanting a bigger house, wanting more clothes, wanting more kids, wanting more of this, wanting more of that, wanting more of these. The craving of more, more, more is idolatry.

Paul says on Philippians 319, these people have their God as their belly, he says. Could be translated appetite or better yet lust. A lust for anything such as food or sex. Anything that you crave for is idolatry. That's why John says the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the part of life, it's all fading away. Don't get caught up in it. Don't crave those kinds of things for if you do, that's idolatry. He would close his book out by saying, little children, flee from what? From idols. Anything that you crave more than God is your idol.

And you've committed idolatry. Now, my friends, that would make us all guilty, wouldn't it? Every one of us. Is it not true that there are things that we crave more than God? And when we do, we've worshipped, we've served, we have craved in our heart something more than the Almighty God. And you must be careful. which leads me to the second point, that is the penalty.

The penalty. It says, you shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me.

That's a very important phrase. Two things I want you to notice. First of all, the judge. The judge is a jealous God. And to us, jealousy is an ugly term. But there is a holy jealousy. For instance, if you are a musician, you have no right to be jealous of another musician because as a musician, you don't have a monopoly on instruments. Right? As an athlete, you can't be jealous of another athlete because you don't have a monopoly on sports. But with God, he has a monopoly on being God. There is no other God.

There's only one God. His throne is not a duplex. He is not a part-time king. He is king. And there's only one God. And he is your God. And you have no right to worship anything or anyone but God. And so God is jealous for you to remain pure. God is jealous for you to remain holy. And he knows that if you get yourself caught up in craving or carving something else, that's going to steal your affection from him, it will cost you. And so when he says, you can't do that. He doesn't say it because he wants to punish you.

He says because I know it's best for you. Therefore, don't crave any other thing because what's out there can't give to you what only I can give to you. It can't do for you what only I can do for you. And so it gives us a commandment. He wants you to be devoted to him. He is the bridegroom. We are the bride. Therefore, he wants our undivided attention and affection. Which leads me to the judgment. This is very interesting. He's a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me.

Turn with me in your Bible, if you would please, the Second Chronicles, Chapter 26. I want to show you something. You must forget the idea that you can worship any way you want without facing consequences. And hopefully this illustration tonight will be so at home with you that it will rock you to your socks that when you go home, everything in your life is going to change. Because this illustration hit me like a ton of bricks when I read it. The iniquity of false worship will show up in your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren.

when you falsely worship God, it will lead to idolatry in the lives of your children. The verse in Exodus chapter 20 does not speak of the guilt of sin, it speaks of the tragic results of sin. And the classic example is in 2nd Chronicles 26 about King Uzziah. King Uzziah was a good king. King Uzziah loved the Lord. But King Uzziah got arrogant one day. It says in verse number 16, but when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

Uzziah became filled with pride and decided that he was going to worship God his way. How he wanted to worship God. And the following verses tell us that it was neither Uzziah's right nor his privilege to burn incense in the temple. That was the priest's responsibility. He therefore worshipped God the wrong way. way. The priests confronted him, and Uzziah was puffed up with anger. And it says in verse number 21, that Uzziah became stricken with leprosy, because he would not adhere to the warnings of the priests.

God struck him with leprosy. In verse number 21. You know, there are a lot of people today as a side note that want to worship God their way, don't they? They've got to have the right kind of atmosphere. They've got to have the right kind of music. They've got to have the right kind of mood. It's a modern day Uzziah. We want to worship God this way. And I can only worship in this way if this happens and that happens and this happens. And if that doesn't happen, I'm going to go find a church that it does happen.

that way. All that is is pride, saying that God can only be worshipped a certain way, and if he's not worshipped my way, he can't be worshipped. Uzziah was puffed with pride, and God was angry against him. And so his son, Jotham, took the throne. And it says in Second Chronicles 27, Jotham was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Muslim and his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadak.

And he did write in the side of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzai had done. However, listen very carefully, he did not enter the temple of the Lord. Isn't that interesting? So what do we have? We have a father with false worship because of his pride, who should be. son neglected worship. Well, Jotham dies. He decided that to have church at the park, on the mountain, at the beach, a little homemade religion was a little better than going to the temple, as dad did, because dad got a bum deal.

But the story doesn't end there. Ahas, Jotham's son, Uzziah's grandson becomes the king. It says in verse number one of chapter 28.

Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem and he did not do right in the sight of the Lord as David his father had done. But he walked in the waves of the kings of Israel. He also made molten images for the bales. Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of Benhinom and burned his sons in fire. This man took Uzziah's great-grandsons, the fourth generation, and burned them in fire. Because one man decided to worship in a false way. Thus, the penalty that God said will happen if you do not worship me properly.

And say, well, nobody's going to be burning kids today. All you got to do is look at the family abuse and abortion in our society and think again.

Exodus chapter 20, verse 5, is fulfilled. Here's the point. Mom and daddy, are you ready? Nobody sins so long. Your sin is going to affect your kids. Your false worship, your idolatry, your inability to serve God as he wants you to serve Him will affect your kids. Ready for this? More than any other sin. That's how serious idolatry is in the eyes of God. I don't say it to get you upset or to scare you. I'm just trying to reiterate what the Bible says and help you understand once again the seriousness of sin and the effects upon your life.

But here's the good news, there's a promise. Back to Exodus chapter 20. Listen, very carefully. Verse number six. But, but showing what? Loving kindness to what? To how many? Thousands. Look at the ratio.

You see the ratio? Four generations of judgment. Because God is a jealous God if you don't worship God his way, but if you do worship him in a way that honors him and glorifies him, thousands of generations, it says. That's incredible. If that doesn't motivate you to rid your life of idols, to rid your life with those cravings that come in between you and your God. My friends, nothing is. My friends, my beloved friends, do you see the goodness of God? Thousands will see his loving kindness, his mercy, and his grace.

God's the giver. Who's the receiver? To those who love me and keep my commandments. What did Jesus say? If you love me, keep my commandments. God never changes. It's the same old tune, which leads us to our last point, and that is just some principles. Three of them I want to give you. Number one is this.

In order for us not to commit idolatry, we must properly conceive him. We must properly conceive him. John 4, 23, and 24, talks about God being a spirit. and therefore we must worship him in spirit. While on the one hand he is the lamb of God it takes away the sins of the world, on the other hand he is that wrathful land that will trample and destroy all those who do not repent from their sins and come to him. There is balance in Christianity. You must understand that proper balance. For if any time God is put in improper balance, you will conceive him in something other than he is, and therefore you will commit idolatry.

You must be careful. You need to drink in all you can as you read the Gospels, the Epistles, the Old Testament, the New Testament. Second of all, you need to passionately celebrate him.

You can't teach your children to love and obey him with passion if you have a lukewarm kind of love. If you were to ask your children, what is the most important thing to your father? What would they say? If they say anything other than His love and admiration for God Almighty, then you are passionate about something else, and they've picked up on it. But if your kids come back and say, my mom and then love God, and they want to serve him, then you are communicating the proper things. in your family.

And you will have true family worship. Growing up in my home, I never knew how much my dad made. I never knew when he made a sale. I never knew anything about what my dad did. All I knew is that he loved God. And nothing would come between him and his God. Nothing. And they were more excited about going to church than anything else. And I could never understand what got them so excited about. God. But every Sunday, it's time to go to church. Let's go. We're going to go worship the king. Are you ready to go?

We'd have dinner time. Kids, devotions. Let's go. Do we have to? Hey, what do you mean? Do we have to? Let's go. Sure we do. Sit down. We're going to worship the Lord. Never at once was my dad's enthusiasm for work, for play, for vacation, ever above his enthusiasm in celebration of God Almighty. In fact, it paled in comparison. And so I have a vivid picture of my family while I grew up that the most exciting thing that we ever did as a family was go to church. If your family gets more excited about vacation, about your job than you do about church, you haven't passionately celebrated God in your family.

family. I want my kids to be excited about God. I want my kids to be excited about who he is. My kids love to come to church. Maybe it's because they don't get out much, I don't know, but my kids loved coming to church on Wednesday nights. My prayer for you and for me is that that's what excites all of our families. So we passionately celebrate God. If you complain about going to church, you send a loud and clear message to your kids. William Cooper, said it this way, the dearest idol I have known, whate'er that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee.

Is that your prayer? And thirdly, in order for there be a proper family worship, you need to powerfully communicate your God.

Powerfully communicate him. Martin Luther said it this way, whatever your heart clings to and relies on, that is your God thus that's what you will communicate to your children anything you love more than God anything you fear more than God anything you serve more than God anything you value more than God is your God and therefore you will convey to your children either a true God or a false God. Paul said it in 1st Corinthians 10. Beware to him who thinks he stands. You might look at Israel and say that will never happen to me.

Paul says you beware. The very thing could happen to you. So therefore flee from idolatry. Thank you.