I hope you didn't give yourself a pass last week. I hope that you thought very deeply and carefully as I'm challenging you to do this summer about these commandments. But on that first one, I think that EVERY DAY we must cast out the gods that vie for first place in our lives. We ARE to have NO other gods but Jehovah-Adonai, the Lord YOUR God.
Today we take up the second commandment, and it's a command to worship God, SPIRITUALLY, in all His many perfections. To worship Him, TRUELY. We'll develop that in a few moments. But next week we are going to look at the third commandment, which is a command to worship God, SINCERELY. To not call forth His name in vain. To not use His name carelessly, or unthinkingly. But to be very careful as we approach Him. And on the final Sunday morning of June, we are going to look at the fourth commandment, which is a command to worship God, REGULARLY. To set aside, that Sabbath day, that one day out of the week is HIS day. For HIS honor, for HIS glory, for HIS worship. I commend you for being in the house of the Lord today.
These first four commandments are all about our worship of God. The first commandment tells us WHO to worship. The second and third commandments tell us HOW to worship. And the fourth commandment tells us WHEN to worship.
We are commanded as believers to worship. Worship is something we will do for all eternity; we might as well get "practice'in" at it! We might as well get good at it. We'll never stop worshipping God. We'll worship Him for all eternity. Worship is something that is suppose to be PERSONAL, and DAILY, as well as corporate, and weekly. Worship is something, that by now believer, you should be good at it. This command to worship is not optional. It is, in fact a COMMAND, that we are to worship Him. Obviously, worship is a much bigger deal to God than it is even to most of us.
See if you agree with Gordon Dahl's assessment, he said, "Most middleclass Americans tend to WORSHIP their WORK, to WORK at their PLAY, and to PLAY at their WORSHIP (read that again, ed.) and as a result their values are distorted. Relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair. And their lifestyles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot!" I agree with that.
How often Christians assume, that they have worshipped God because they have sat through a church service?! Because they put on their Sunday best, and they've come out to church, and they've taken their place in their pew. So they've worshipped, they think. Well, we're told, that the church is God's house. But really, the church is the body of Christ. (amen, ed.) God's people.
Yesterday we had a workday here at Bethel Baptist Church, and I appreciate so much all those who came out and pitched in, we got some of those piddly tasks done, that you know are always lingering (around) and it was such a blessing to get some of those things accomplished. Yesterday we worked on the church house, but today we're working on the church! You and me.
But we're not talking about God's house, when we talk about the church, we're talking about the PEOPLE. God is NOT impressed with beautiful cathedrals, like people are. You know, we're blessed to have an impressive ediface here, but God isn't impressed with beautiful edifaces, He's impressed with SINCERE WORSHIPPERS. That's what God seeks here today. God isn't impressed that we have a comfortable auditorium with padded pews. God is impressed with people who have a SINCERE desire to SEEK HIS FACE. That's what He looks for.
If you can leave this church on a Sunday morning with no feeling of DISCOMFORT, or of CONVICTION, or of BROKENNESS, or of CHALLENGE, then for you the hour of worship has been less meaningful than it should have been. For worship entails ALL of those things. Worship is getting into the presence of God, and getting into communion with Him, and letting Him SPEAK to YOU. And to show you where things are not quite aright. To comfort you, where things are correct.
Paul Reese once said this, "The ease with which we go on being Christian sentimentalists is one of our worst FAULTS." A Christian Sentimentalist?! I'm afraid that "Sentimentalism" has seeped into "Fundamentalism". Sappy sentimentalism. We're not here just to hear a message, and enjoy the harmony of the choir, and see who's wearing what, WE"RE HERE TO WORSHIP GOD! (Amen, ed.) To do business with Him! To HONOR and PRAISE Him! That's why we're here.
Worship goes much deeper than just the trappings of worship. God is a SPIRIT, and we fellowship with Him with OUR spirit. That is the immortal and invisible part of us connects with He who is immortal and invisible. And this thought leads us into our discussion today, this second commandment, which is stated succinctly in just a phrase at the beginning of verse four, and is expanded upon in verses five and six, would you look at it with me:
"Thou shalt not make unto thee ANY graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt NOT bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a JEALOUS God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that HATE me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that LOVE me, and keep my commandments." (Exodus 20:4-6)
Whereas the first commandment forbids us to worship any false god, this second commandment forbids us to worship the One True God in a FALSE way.
You see, it's NOT ENOUGH that we worship the correct God, but we are to worship the CORRECT God in the CORRECT way. There IS a correct way to worship God. Oh, that theology rubs a lot of people wrong these days. Everbody wants to, kind of, "Do their own thing", and self style their own approach to God. But we must be careful that we come to God on HIS terms, and in HIS way, and in NO OTHER WAY. That's what this commandment is all about.
We are NOT to conform God to OUR image, we're not trying to get Him to do what we want Him to do, that's all backwards. This second commandment is something that we better take very seriously, that we better look at from above, and from beneath, and from the side, and thoroughly understand what it means.
A two inch long, discolored eyetooth is reverenced by 400 million Buddhists, as the most sacred object on earth. An eyetooth. This tooth is supposed to have been reclaimed from Budda's face in 543 BC. Today the tooth sits upon a golden lotus in the golden temple of the tooth in Ceylon. It's surrounded by rubies, and literally tons of flowers, and each year a hundred thousand Buddhists come from many countries, to gaze at the sacred tooth. Bringing their gifts of gold, silver, and jewels to place within that temple.
You say, "Boy, I'm glad nothing like that goes on around here!" Not so fast. Less than ten years ago I was out canvassing one day, and I was knocking on doors, and passing out some tracts, and talking to people, and I was over here near Schaumburg and Walnut. And I knocked on the door, and as I was greeted at the door, I noticed that in the living room there was one piece of furniture, and it looked an awful lot like an altar. And as I engaged that person in conversation I realized that it was an altar. And we talked about it momentarily at the door, and that person invited me to come in. And they opened that altar up, and there was an idol. And that person was worshipping, in their living room, at an altar, and praying to an idol, every day.
The core issue in this second commandment is IDOLATRY. But Let's make sure that we understand what idolatry entails, and all that it is. Idolatry is image worship, and we might be thinking that since we don't have any graven images like I've just described in our houses, and since we haven't been dancing around any totem poles recently, that we're safe, that we're alright. But I suggest to you today that idolatry happens when people think about God in a wrong way, and that's going on all over the place! When people think about God in a wrong way, with too low of a view, or in a skewed way, that IS another form of idolatry.
The second commandment prohibits us from thinking about God in any way that is UNWORTHY of Him. Be careful, of thinking about God in a way that is unworthy of Him. If you think about it that's a very easy thing to do. I would suggest to you that as difficult it is to keep the first commandment, it's almost as difficult for us even as Born-Again, Independent, Fundamental, Baptist, believers to really keep this second commandment. To think about God properly. To view Him as He really is. THAT'S what this second commandment is about. A.W. Tozer said this, "The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him."
So how ARE we to think about Him? The second commandment helps us with this by telling us, first of all, how NOT to think about Him. We are not to think about Him with any image, either before us or in our mind. We are not to think of Him in that way, but we are to think of Him as one who visits iniquity, as one who will judge sin on those that hate Him, and as showing mercy on those who love Him.
Back in the 16th century, many parents drilled their children from a document called the Heidelberg Catechism. And in this document there is a couple of questions, questions #96 & 97, that deal with the second commandment. The question #96 is this, "What is God's will for us in the 2nd commandment?", and the answer is this, "That we, in no way, make any image of God, nor worship Him in any other way, than He has commanded us in His word." That's good. That's good. And that's followed up by question #97, "May we then make any image, AT ALL?" The answer is, "God cannot, and may not be visibly portrayed in any way, creatures may be portrayed, yet God forbids making, or having such images if the intent is to worship them or to us them as aids in worshipping Him."
You see, God wants us to worship Him in SPIRIT, and in TRUTH. That's why I say that this second commanded, is a command to worship God SPIRITUALLY, in the heart, not MATERIALLY. He wants to be portrayed ONLY as He is presented in the Word of God. And this is why it is important for us to go DEEP into the Word of God, and to faithfully proclaim the Word of God. Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he said that, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." And so many churches today, the emphasis is on something other than the preaching of God's Word. But it is by the FOOLISHNESS of PREACHING that god speaks to hearts. That God reveals His truth.
"The preaching of the cross is to them that perish FOOLISHNESS,
but unto us who are saved it is the POWER of God."
(1st Corinthians 1:18)
We don't need any worship AIDS to bring us closer to Him. The Word of God brings us face to face with Him, confronts us with Him. You remember over in John chapter 4, the woman at the well, "Jesus must needs go through Samaria..." And you remember how they discussed several things that day, and one of the things they discussed was worship. And she thought that worship was something that is to be presented in the context of a PLACE, of a location, many of us do that, we say "We come into this room to worship." The samaritan said that the place where people are to worship was Mount Gerezim (v.20), which is there in Samaria on a nearby mountain. The Jews, on the other hand, said, "No, the place to worship is in Jerusalem, at the temple mount." But Jesus directed this woman's thoughts of worship of God to an AWARENESS, an awareness that Jesus IS God, and to an acknowledgement that worship should center upon a PERSON (v.23-24), not a place, and that person is our Lord Jesus Christ. (amen, ed.)
We've come today to adore Him, worship Him. One day Jesus said, "If you have seen the Father, you have seen Me... I and the Father are one." (John 14:9-11) Our invisible God is best revealed in the person of His dear Son, and our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm trying to help you today to understand how to think, and to help you in your attempt to worship, in spirit and in truth. Some folks think of worship as some sort of a "good" feeling, or a "spooky" feeling, where we lower the lights, (feel) the reverberation of the organ, (see) the beautiful colors that stream through a stained glass window. But God is a SPIRIT. And the Bible says that His worshippers MUST worship Him, not CAN worship Him, but that they MUST worship Him, if they are truely going to worship God they are only going to be able to worship Him the way HE SAYS they MUST worship Him. And that's in SPIRIT, and in TRUTH.
This second commandment is talking about a COMMAND to worship Him SPIRITUALLY. In this message we are going to take up and answer three simple questions; 1) WHAT is this commandment SAYING? 2) WHY is this commandment IMPORTANT? and 3) HOW does this commandment essentially APPLY to my relationship with God today?
First of all, what is the second commandment saying? It is saying that God is interested only in an EXCLUSIVE relationship. In an exclusive relationship, without any visual symbols of Himself. In a story that is told in 2nd Kings chapter 10, Jehu knew that Jehovah God was the only true God, and he knew that Baal was false, and so he completely ridded the land of Israel, and destroyed Baalism (v.28), with all of its trappings. He rooted it out. And that was fine, BUT, Jehu failed to remove OTHER idols in the land (v.31). Older idols in the land. Some "sacred" cows, if you please. Things that had been established longer, things that somehow had come into an acceptance among the people, those stayed. Jehu had the first commandment down, but obviously he failed on the second commandment because he was convinced that the people could pray to an idol, and that that idol would help them think of Jehovah God, and God said NO WAY, IT CAN'T BE DONE (v.32). It's not to be done.
The worship of the true God in false ways is, in reality, just another form of adultery, of idolatry, adultery too. That was a slip of the tongue, but adultery is SPIRITUAL fornication. It's going after idols. Our worship must be according to the Bible, not of our own invention. It's important how we worship. We're not here today to entertain one another. This choir is not up here, this orchestra did not play today to entertain you. They played and they sang to draw you into worship with God. Instead of thinking about what that person is wearing seated next to you, or thinking about what you are going to have for lunch, or thinking about a basketball game tonight, we are to have our thoughts FOCUSED UPON HIM. We're here for no other reason. We're not here to make truth palatable to pagan people. We're not here to accommodate lost folks. We're here to worship God, in spirit and in truth.
We're not here to worship ourselves, or anything that we've made, or anything that we've done. We're here to truely worship the only true God. And we're here to safeguard the faith that God once delivered to the saints. And not to let people spoil it, change it, corrupt it.
That's why we're here.
Many people go to church these days to get entertained. They wouldn't say it this way, but what they are really saying in their hearts is,
"Amuse ME. Tickle ME. Don't tell ME about a transcendent God, tell ME about a God I can control. Don't tell ME about a God that's going to try and control ME. Tell ME about a God that is convenient. Tell ME about a God that I can serve when I feel good and ready too. Sure, the Ten Commandments are good for everyone, they're not going to hurt anybody, but I don't want to hear a message on them because I don't want to hear about anything that is expected of ME. Tell ME about a God who loves, but don't tell ME about a God who judges SIN." (you convicted yet sinner? I am, ed.)
Of course, we want people to come into Bethel Baptist Church. We want them to come in these doors, but when folks come in here we expect them to find what is happening here to be a CHALLENGE to them. To turn their head. To grip their heart. If irreligious sinners can walk into a house of worship and initially be completely comfortable, then there is probably something wrong with that kind of worship. (that's right, ed.)
Deviant worship is what this second command is all about. People worshipping God any old way they please, saying, "God, this is my approach to you, I hope it's good enough for you, I hope you'll accept it." Deviant worship is more prevalent than you and I might think. It's prevalent all across the broad spectrum of evangelicalism today. I believe it's one of the curses of this church age, here in these later days. Deviant worship.
You recall, in the temple, there was no image of God Himself. Because God knew that it would confuse people to his nature. God never commanded shrines to be built to Him. It's true that in the Old testament that when the tabernacle was raised up, and later on when the temple was built, that there were various articles of special clothing the priests donned, there were special instruments that they used sacrificing, and there were certain pieces of symbolic furniture that were to be placed in the temple itself.
The Art of the Covenant, for example, that contained within it the two tablets of stone. But these things we don't have today, for God in His wisdom knew that if we had the Ten Commandments, or if we had the Art of the Covenant, or if we had the shroud of Jesus (do we really?! ed.), or if we had anything like that, people would just worship that instead of the Lord. (take note Catholic, ed.)
He wants us to worship Him in SPIRIT, and in TRUTH. He wants us, He COMMANDS us, to worship Him SPIRITUALLY. But sadly, in every generation people have rejected this second commandment. In fact, some churches have completely glossed over this commandment, and don't even acknowledge it. They go completely past this commandment, and make TWO commandments out of the tenth! (did you realize this my Catholic friend? ed.)
In every generation this commandment has been ignored. But we must not ignore it, religious images and icons do a great disservice to God's glory. People are under the impression that if they SEE something they will understand it BETTER than if they just hear about something. But according to the Word of God, THAT DOES NOT PERTAIN TO WORSHIP. God does not want us to set up any visual images to help us worship. He wants us to listen to the Word of God, and then worship Him in spirit and in truth.
This second commandment is telling us that WE DON'T NEED any kind of images to enhance our worship of the one true God. He says He doesn't want them. In fact, He says the practice of that is idolatry, and those who are engaged in that practice are idolaters, and as you go through the Old Testament and the New Testament, some of the strongest judgement that God rains forth on this world is against idolaters! Let's be very careful that we don't minimize this.
Now we answer the second question; Why is the second commandment important? Well for one thing, as every parent understands, it is because God said so. God said it was important. But beyond that, let me give you two more reasons. Number one, because images dishonor God. And number two, images misdirect men.
You see the problem is this, no matter how good something may look, whether it's a picture, or a statue, or whatever it is, if someone's trying to depict God, they're going to miss. It's going to be incorrect. How in the world could anyone ever make anything that could even approximate the image of God?! Whatever we would come up with would dishonor Him.
You see God has revealed Himself to us in three ways. He has revealed Himself to us in the created order, in nature. We can look out onto this world, and we can see the beauty and the splendor and the majesty of this creation and we can know that there is a Creator. He has revealed Himself that way as the Creator. He has also revealed Himself to us in the Word, in the Bible. This is how we really know Him, by reading His Word, and by understanding His Word. The third way God has revealed Himself to us, of course, is the Incarnation, in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
These are the ways God has chosen to reveal Himself to us, and we should be satisfied to only accept what He has given to us, and not try to add to it. And not try to create other images to help us. Someone looks at a sculpture, or a replica, or a painting, or even a photograph of somebody, and they look at it and you say, "You know, that doesn't really do him justice." You ever hear anyone say that?
I was recently down at Bob Jones University where they just put up a new seminary building, and there on the first floor they have certain replicas of leaders of the preacher boy's class, and they did pretty good on two of them, but not so hot on the third. It just doesn't do him justice. Did you know, that in God's case, that's ALWAYS true. No matter what kind of an image, or what kind of a picture, or statue, or sculpture, it just doesn't do Him justice. It's not right. It's no where near correct. No painting or sculpture could do anything but diminish our view of God. So He says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." We cannot possibly conceive of anything as great as God. And to try to do so is IDOLATRY.
The golden calf incident, in Exodus chapter 32, was a clear violation of the second commandment. Aaron said, "Take off your earings, take your jewels and throw them here in the fire, put it in the pot here, and we'll boil it all down and make ourselves a calf. We'll make ourselves a golden calf." I'm sure that they thought this was wonderful imagery of the Passover, and I'm sure that they had completely justified this in their own thinking, but you can't just worship God anyway you please.
Nobody can depict God in all of His fullness. Zeal, and sincerity are NOT in question, but OBEDIENCE to the revealed Word of God, IS. The people say, "But, but, what's wrong with having a litle charm, or a little idol, or something that kind of makes me feel good and helps me focus on worshipping God?" IT'S IDOLATRY. It's wrong.
Our human reasoning says, "Yea, that sounds ok, what could be wrong with that?" What's wrong with it, is that it flies in the face of the Second Commandment! And our human nature is prone to this very sin of idolatry. As wood takes the fire, so are we to idolatry, whether we realize it or not. Whether we comprehend it or not. Most of us, I'm afraid, we do not. But there is a tendency for us to do by nature exactly what all of these commandments forbid. Don't deceive yourself. We are regularly tempted to run counter to all ten of them. Aren't we? (yep, ed.) Image making, for worship purposes, is idolatry. It dishonors God.
Take a crucifix, for example, what could be wrong with a depiction of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, hanging upon His cross? Well, while it is true Jesus on His cross speaks of His suffering and of His passion, it DOES NOT speak of His power, it DOES NOT speak of His victory, it DOES NOT speak of His glory. And while we can all agree that Jesus is no longer on His cross, why would we want to depict Him in that way?! (hmmm? ed.)
That's the problem. Because no one symbol, or no one image can do justice to all that God, or God's Son, has done for us. For there might be for us today, an even more appropriate symbol than Christ on a cross. Though we're so thankful that He went to the cross for us, He came OFF of that cross, He was buried, He rose again, He was seen among many witnesses for forty days. And he ascended back to His Father where He is seated now at His right hand.
Today is Pentacost, fifty days past Easter. I would suggest to you that if we were going to try to symbolize, or visualize Christ, that we should not see Him upon a cross, FOR HE IS NO LONGER ON HIS CROSS, but He is seated at His Father's right hand! But, if we were to depict Him seated at His Father's right hand, THEN we would miss the dimension of His suffering, of His passion, and all that He went through for us!
You see, you cannot in a single image, or in any number of a collective group of images, capture or contain God! That's what the second commandment is all about. Often an image is unworthy because of what it FAILS to display. That's what is wrong with a crucifix, that's what's wrong with ANY image you try to put up to help you worship God. It cannot say it all.
Friends, we must learn to simply conceive of God spiritually. How do we do that? We praise Him for His attributes, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His omnipotence. We go to the Word of God, and we see the manifestations of His all-knowingness, and all of His power, and we praise Him for these things, and we worship Him SPIRITUALLY. Not through some material, or visual thing.
Now the Lord knew that we needed something, that that would not be enough, and so He said this, Jesus Christ said this,
"When you remember me, you do so through the elements of the Lord's table."
(1 Corinthians 11:26) (paraphrased, ed.)
Those are the ONLY legitimate forms of symbolism that we have in the church. The juice, representing the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the wafer, the bread, representing His broken body. These are ways that we may legitimately, and spiritually, visualize Him, but in no other way. This is all the Word of God allows. It is in the ordinances He gave, baptism and the Lord's supper, where we have imagery of His death, of His burial, and of His resurrection. But nothing else.
You see, man-made images dishonor God. And God wants honor, not dishonor. But another reason why this is so important, not only that God is dishonored, is that men are misdirected. When people bow down unto some image, they end up someplace they didn't intend to go. That's exactly what happened to Aaron and the calf. I'm sure that when he called Israel to come together and worship the calf, his intentions were good. "We're going to help our people come together here, and focus." But when they rallied there to worship, because their worship was incorrect, and because it was extra-biblical, and because it was outside the parameters of what God had given them for a way to worship and a format to worship, all kinds of evil broke forth.
This is why we can't say it's ok for people to worship any way they please. Because this person will worship this way, and that person will worship that way, and this person will say, " MY worship is as VALID as YOUR worship."
The ONLY worship that is valid, is what is IN THE BOOK.
And it's to worship Him in SPIRIT, and in TRUTH.
When people worship wrong, their lives end up wrong. That's what's happened to the church today. That's what's wrong with so many churches. That's what's wrong with so many Christians. That's why there's hardly a testimony of Christianity in this world that amounts to anything! Because people don't know how to worship. And since they come out of an incorrect worship mode, they don't know how to live! THAT'S why it's important that we know how to worship correctly, when we worship the only true and living God.
You say it doesn't matter how one conceives of God? You couldn't be more incorrect. How you view God makes ALL the difference in this world. You say it doesn't matter how we worship God? Oh yes it does. You see, when we minimalize, or rationalize away God's Word, and His commands, then we are simply inviting trouble. Let's face it, we live in a visual age. It's part of our culture. Everything today is visual. Sound bites, with lots of pictures. Flashed at us, all the time. Visual, visual, image, everything, is about image and entertainment. News, and athletics, to worship. We must make sure that our worship does not get caught up in this craze.
Probably the closest thing to an altar we have in our homes is the television. You ever thought about that? If I were to walk into your home today, and I were to walk into the central room of your house, the room where you would spend your time, in the center of that room is a television. And, if someone were to visit from another culture or another time, they would probably assume that it is some form of worship!
I say we need to be very careful. Because of the television people stay away from church. (hmmm, the definition of an idol, ed.) Because of television people fail to read their Bible, and to pray. Because of television people fail to get involved with Christian service. They get attached to some image there on that television. I say be careful. But there are many other idols in our homes too.
Howard Hendricks tells the story about how he and his wife, Jeannie, were with some friends who lived in a very posh neighborhood in Boston. Howard Hendricks asked the man of the house, "how in the world do you grow up in the midst of such wealth, and not be consumed by materialism?" And he answered this way, he said, "My parents taught us that everything in our home was either an IDOL or a TOOL." (wow, ed.)
I challenge you to go home this afternoon and just label; idol, or tool, idol, or tool. It's so easy for our lives to get misdirected. What is the spiritual significance and practical application of this commandment? Well, it's in verses 5 & 6:
"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." (Exodus 20:5-6)
God says, "I'm a jealous God. I'm jealous. I'm not sharing you with anyone. I don't want you looking at some little thing when you're suppose to be thinking about Me!"
That would be like a wife saying, "When I'm with another man, it makes me think of my husband." What foolishness!
"I'm a jealous God. But I'm not only jealous, I'm just. If you sin against me, I'll judge you. And that judgement will affect your children, and their children, and their children. Your sin will go through the generations which follow you. If you hate me, you'll pay. But if you love me, I'll pay! I'll show mercy upon you."
Justice is God's left hand, mercy is His right hand. And as you go through the scriptures, you find that He uses His right hand a lot more than His left. Even in judgement, there is mercy.
The sins of 50 years ago, are fully ripe now and mature, and (is) a part of the warp & woof of our culture today. Bad decisions of yesterday we live with today. The sins of today we will pass on to our children and grandchildren. There is the principle of "cause & effect" in this world. These commandments will work for you, or against you. God is jealous, God is just. But notice at the end of verse 6, "they that keep my commandments, (do so) out of love for Him."
You see, those who REALLY love God keep His commandments. It's stated right here in the Old Testament! Jesus said in the New Testament:
"If ye love me, keep my commandments.
" (John 14:15)
It's right here! Those who LOVE Me, I will show mercy upon them. And they keep My commandments. None of us can perfectly keep the commandments, but we should sincerely (try to) keep the commandments. Evangelically we can keep the commandments. An unsaved person has no interest or desire, no motivation to follow these laws; but we should.
You don't keep a commandment to BE saved, you keep a commandment because you ARE saved.
(ya get it? ed.) Because you want your life to be a testimony. Because you want others to see Christ, in you. Don't ever set up any kind of an image to help you worship God. Not even in your HEAD. Don't try to imagine God. Even a sanctified imagination can mess you up sometimes.
Colossians 2:9 teaches that Jesus Christ is "the fulness of the Godhead bodily", and the very next verse says that, "we are complete in him," That's enough!
Don't look for something else. Don't try to add to it. Don't make it confusing.
Just worship God in SPIRIT, and in TRUTH. (and the tape ends, ed.)
Let's pray...