What God Has Specified
From the very first example of worship in the Bible, Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, we learn that God will not just accept anything we offer in worship; rather we must offer by faith in order to be accepted like Abel (Hebrews 11:4). Faith means taking God at His word and doing what He has said. The word of God produces faith (Romans 10:17). If one does not believe God’s word, then it will not benefit him spiritually (Hebrews 4:2).
The institution of the Passover included God specifying that a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, be used (Exodus 12:5). This specific instruction eliminated the use of other animals, female lambs, lambs with some sort of defect or blemish, and lambs that were a different age than a year old. While some sacrifices, such as the peace offering (Leviticus 3:1, 6), could be either a male or a female, for Israel to keep the Passover by faith required using the male lamb. To use a female lamb for the Passover would have violated God’s word. If God had given a generic instruction such as “a lamb” without any other specifications, then Israel could have used either sex as the Passover lamb, but when God specified “male” that eliminated the use of female lambs.
We understand this principle by the many times we use it on a daily basis. If I order food at a restaurant, or some sort of gadget online, I specify what I want; my specific selection, by its very nature, means I am electing not to have everything else. My food order means I have selected a particular meal. I don’t want everything on the menu, just what I ordered.
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s supper, He used unleavened bread and fruit of the vine. In fulfilling the law of Moses, Jesus kept the Passover with His disciples (Matthew 26:18-20). The Passover was accompanied by seven days of eating unleavened bread (Leviticus 23:4-6). While Jesus was gathered with His disciples for this, He took bread and fruit of the vine and gave it to His disciples instituting the Lord’s supper (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus commanded His followers to partake of these two emblems to remember Him (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24). This memorial represented His body and His blood, the blood of the New Testament, a new communion in the kingdom (Matthew 26:28, 29).
Could one substitute lambchops for the unleavened bread of the Lord’s supper and still keep it by faith? No. One could argue that Jesus is indeed the lamb of God, His death showed Him to be the ultimate Passover lamb (John 1:29, 36; Isaiah 53:7; Acts 8:32; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6, 8, 12; 6:1). Yet, the pattern and command of the Lord when He instituted the supper compels us to use unleavened bread if we are to keep it by faith.
Our worship must be regulated by what God has ordered if we are to do it by faith and be acceptable to Him. We live by every word that proceeds out of His mouth (Matthew 4:4). If we have the command and example of speaking, teaching one another, singing and making melody in our hearts, then God has specified what we should do and where the melody should be made (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). We should offer the acceptable sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips (Hebrews 13:15), rather than incorporating additions which have no New Testament basis, very late historical precedent, and involve the assembly in listening for entertainment rather than speaking the word of Christ to one another. Let us worship by faith, doing what God has specified in His word.
No Other
God made it clear to Israel that He was the One who delivered them; He would not allow any false gods before His sight (Exodus 20:1-3; Deuteronomy 5:6-7). However, Israel gave into the temptation to worship gods of the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Babylonians, etc., bringing in foreign religious practices alongside their worship of the Lord. Any person or thing we place before the face of God as an object of worship is an affront to Him to whom all our homage is due.
Jesus responded to this temptation by referring to Deuteronomy 6:13, saying, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10). On two occasions in the book of Revelation (19:10; 22:8-9) John was reprimanded for falling down to worship an angel, “And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God” Revelation 22:8-9). Colossians 2:18 forbids the worship of angels. God has no peer; no other can be placed beside Him (Isaiah 45:5).
Not only angels and people, but things can also be objects of worship. Paul wrote, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). Greed for material possessions is idolatry. Jesus warned about one’s attitude toward money in Matthew 6:19-24, concluding in verse 24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
God is personal. He is jealous (Exodus 20:5; 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; 5:9; 6:15). The English word jealous often has negative connotations, but this description of God does not involve the pettiness attached to the word in our language. It is rather a zeal for what is right, what properly belongs to Him. By this zeal He punishes evil (Nahum 1:2). God said through His prophet, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). God is the fountain of living water that gives life and refreshment. Embracing other gods is like rejecting the refreshing spring to carve out our own cistern. Water from a cistern is stagnant. A broken cistern cannot hold water. False gods cannot match the Lord; e.g., money is a broken cistern, it will not give you happiness. Only the true God can lead us to lasting contentment.
Our worship must not be influenced by the world, but must be directed by God. We would do well today to consider the words God told Israel long ago regarding worldly influences on worship, Deuteronomy 12:29-32: When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
The Need for Reminders
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, a younger preacher, about the work of the ministry. He wrote that a good preacher reminds Christians of what they already know, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained” (1 Tim. 4:6). Much of the work of teaching and preaching is not introducing ideas that are new—that people don’t already know. Often preaching involves reminding people of what they have already been taught so that they continue to make application in their own lives. We can make mistakes in life because we neglect to keep the right priorities. We need to be challenged to continue to pursue the task of living out the principles of God’s word. Certainly, each time we come to the Bible, we have a fresh perspective that causes us to see something in a familiar text we hadn’t before seen that makes us think. However, preaching should not only make people think more deeply, but also should move people to act with reminders to live out what they already know about the Christian life.
In his second epistle, the apostle Peter gave his readers the challenge to add to their faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Pet. 1:5-7). Christians are to give diligence to abounding in these characteristics instead of blindly forgetting that they have been cleansed of their former sins (2 Peter 1:8-10). While Peter was still alive, he was committed to reminding them of these things: “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance” (2 Pet. 1:12-13). Peter wanted to always remember these things, even after his death (2 Pet. 1:15). This was the reason he gave for writing his letters, stating, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour” (2 Pet. 3:1-2).
What is said from the pulpit might well be a portion of the Scriptures with which you are already familiar. But all of us need to be reminded. All of us must ask ourselves if we are living it out and in what ways we can improve.
The Pandemic of Promiscuity
Clearly, a baby in the womb is a human being (Psalm 139:14-15; Jeremiah 1:5; Hosea 9:11-12). God acknowledges many times in His word that a child in the womb is just as much a person as one outside the womb (Luke 1:41, 44; 2:12, 16). He hates the shedding of innocent blood (Proverbs 6:17). Government functions to stop evildoers (Romans 13:1-4). When more powerful individuals murder the helpless, government’s role is to put a stop to it and enact justice (Genesis 9:6; 1 Peter 2:14).
However, establishing that abortion takes the life of a human being is not enough to stop some from promoting it. We are at a point in our culture where some can brazenly admit that a child in the womb is a human being, and still assert they have a right to terminate that life. Each one of us is here today because we survived in the womb and were nourished to the point where we could care for ourselves. This is self-evident, regardless of one’s religious beliefs. What do fairness and decency demand? A civilization cannot view human life as disposable and continue to flourish.
God is the ontological basis for morals that uphold the sanctity of life. That foundation has been eroded for generations in the minds of a tremendously vocal portion of our nation. When one believes in God as Creator, then fair treatment of others made in His image logically follows, as Job asked, “Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?” (Job 31:15).
A nation is in trouble when it becomes bent on fulfilling lusts to the disregard of harming others. Romans 1:18-32 describes such a moral decline where instead of glorifying God, people unthankfully pursue their own evil desires while viewing themselves as wise and enlightened. A nation of people can become, “filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (Romans 1:29-31). Wouldn’t this be a fitting description of some today? Herod was willing to slaughter babies when they posed a perceived threat to his agenda (Matthew 2:16-18), but he did not prevent Christ from reigning (1 Timothy 6:15; 1 Corinthians 15:25). Abortion does not fix any of the ills of a nation, it only adds bloodshed (Hosea 4:1-2). God destroyed nations in Canaan because sexual promiscuity and perversion became endemic to these peoples (Leviticus 18). Bloodshed and sexual promiscuity cause nations to fall.
We have a choice today. We can choose to enjoy the sexual relationship only within the committed covenant of marriage where children are given the stability of a mother and father (Genesis 2:24). If some other path than that has been taken, we can choose not to extinguish the life and potential of a baby conceived out of wedlock, but instead give the child a chance to overcome whatever obstacles are before them. We can choose to come to Jesus for forgiveness for whatever we have done, for He died for the worst sinner (1 Timothy 1:15).
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