Worship God Only 1978

I want to start out by reading from Matthew 4, starting in verse 18. Again, the devil took him into a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And he said to him, All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him. In my dream, I saw the whole human race moving in procession through a valley.

Every face was sober. Every eye was fixed. There was no conversation.

The only sound you could hear was the grinding of sand and stones under the shoes of numberless people. At the head of the valley, there was a giant rock, kind of in the shape of a wedge, which seemed to split this procession into two human rivers as they flowed past. By far, the largest of these rivers of humanity went to the left of that rock and wound down to a vast plain below where often the distance could be seen a gigantic pyramid made of pink marble.

The procession pressed across that plain and began to be swallowed by the dark mouth of this giant pyramid. Inside the pyramid, which was really miles wide, there were three mammoth thrones on which sat three huge, hideous beasts. The atmosphere inside the pyramid was one of total and absolute worship.

It was obvious that this procession had come to this place for only one thing to worship. Some were shouting praises and some were singing songs and some were speaking in ecstatic utterances and some were utterly silent, prostrate on the stone floor as they continued their worship. Many of these people began to take on the very form of the beasts up there.

Their faces began to become distorted into that shape. And even their bodies began to turn and wiggle and writhe until a strange metamorphosis went on. And while they still looked human, they looked really more like the animals, like those beasts.

It was obvious that this was the one purpose of their whole life. This was the moment of fulfillment. This is what they had lived for and this is what they had existed for all their days.

In my dream, I knew that their worship was going to be brief, that this was false and it would soon come to a horrible end. Meanwhile, back at the head of the valley, the other procession, moving to the right of that huge rock, traveled upward, crossed a cold river, moved over a rocky plain, a wilderness, and finally after wading through a stream of blood, which wonderfully cleansed them, came to their destination. Off in the distance, rising from a sea of glass, could be seen a magnificent throne covered with an emerald rainbow.

And on that throne was a being whose face was so pure, it took a while for their eyes to adjust and be able to distinguish his features from the light that radiated from him. Around this throne were beings of unspeakable beauty, beings of sheer light, and near the throne was a land that looked as if it had been slain. Now here was pure, unmixed, holy, continuous, and magnificent worship of God.

And as these people worshiped, their faces began to take on the radiance of the one whom they adored. Consciously or unconsciously, every human being who has or will ever live is driven by the need to worship. Everybody, the man at the racetrack, the woman at the bar, the gluesmith in the alley, the wealthy stockbroker, everybody is moving toward worship.

And even now inside the heart that worship has begun, and it will ultimately be either worship of the true and living God or worship of the satanic lie. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon its head. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth.

And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed. And the whole earth followed the beast with wonder.

Men worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? And who can fight against it? And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.

And authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, and all who dwell on the earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb that was slain. That's the stream that moves to the left of that rock.

And here's the stream that moves to the right of that rock. After this, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no man could number, from every nation and from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.

Then one of the elders addressed me saying, Who are these clothed in white robes and whence came they? And I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they who have come out of great tribulation and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night within his temple.

He who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Our problem is not that we don't have it in us to worship. We were made for worship and worship. We will, if we don't worship God, we'll worship something.

Our problem is that though we were made for worship, and though most of us, if not all of us here, have already seen some vision of God, and though we have already heard with our hearts the call to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, we find ourselves continuously inclined to fix our hearts on something less than God, and we end up worshiping an idol. Now, this is not a coincidence. This happens even to those whose intentions are the best.

If the heart is not clearly fixed on God, directly on him, we will end up with one form or another of idolatry. For instance, it's very possible and it's easy to make an idol out of one of God's servants. The angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who were invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And he said to me, these are true words from God. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, you must not do that.

I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

As soon as the apostle John fell down to worship that angel, the angel stopped him. You must not do that. For his protection, John's protection, as well as the angel's himself, worship God.

Just because I prophesize as an angel doesn't mean that I'm worthy of worship. The spirit, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Anybody who has the testimony of Jesus inside is ruled by the spirit of prophecy.

You, as well as I, I am your fellow servant and fellow servant with those of your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. And yet, how many, many times we try to satisfy our craving for worship by fixing our hearts on someone who's serving God, but who is not God.

Consciously or unconsciously, we begin in a subtle way to worship that man or that woman. And if that person doesn't instantly stop us as the angel stopped John, that person will be destroyed by our idolatrous worship and we along with him. I'm a Paul.

I'm of a palace. I'm of secrets. They were saying in Corinth and Paul came really hard on that because that kind of thing has within it the seeds of man worship and man worship is always the beginning of devil worship and it divides the body of Christ.

There is no possible way that we can worship the father in spirit and in truth if we let ourselves get caught up in the cult of personality, no matter how saintly that person may be worship God. Secondly, very possible to make an idol out of our place of worship, not necessarily the building, be the fellowship. The woman said to Jesus, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the father? You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews, but the hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for such the father seeks to worship him.

God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now it's certainly the case that God always sets believers in some kind of fellowship, some community, some family, call it what you like an assembly. People have their favorite terms.

It doesn't make any difference. Like the brothers and sisters who came made a public commitment, not for life, but as long as God wants them to be among us today, that's right. And that's valid.

But we must be very, very, very careful that our loyalty to the fellowship where God has put us never begins to take the place in our hearts that belongs to Jesus alone. And this is so subtle. After a while, we find ourselves in conversation, speaking in such a way that it becomes obvious that the fellowship has become too important where it was once Jesus who was our chief love.

Now it's my church or our assembly or our community, and we use the name, you know, and we think, you know, of bringing people to Jesus, but we're really all too often thinking of bringing them to our outfit. And when this begins to happen, we have entered into idolatry. Women, the hour is coming and now is when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship God.

The hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. Thirdly, it's possible to go through all the motions of worshiping God on the surface when deep in our hearts we are bowing at the shrine of human physical love. To be more accurate, the spirit of adultery that pervades this age.

You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks on a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And that can work both ways.

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better that you should lose one of your members than that your whole body should be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better that you should lose one of your members than that your whole body should end up in hell. It was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress, makes her an adulteress.

Think of what that means. Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Now, Bible-believing Christians love to take that passage and others like it and get into hot arguments about whether divorcees can remarry and miss the whole point of what Jesus is striving at here.

He's dealing with a tendency in us all to make an idol out of physical love. See, instead of allowing the physical, sexual side of our lives to also glorify God in all purity and love for him by either making ourselves units for his kingdom or making marriage a holy school of mercy and forgiveness, we allow ourselves to be caught up either through fantasy or act in something which is rooted in adultery. And we destroy ourselves and we devastate our marriages.

Now, the cure is not willpower, cold showers, blinders for your eyes, or rules and regulations about who can get married and who can't get married anymore. You know, whether a divorcees can remarry and all that stuff. The cure is to have a worship of God which is so intense and so all-consuming that we root out of our hearts the things which interfere with that worship.

If your right eye offends you, pluck it out, get rid of it. If your right hand offends you, cut it off. Not so that you can be holier than the rest of the crowd, but so that you can continue to worship finally.

It's possible to go through all the external motions of worshiping God when in fact down in our hearts we are bowing at the shrine of mammon, money and things. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. See, and again we get tangled up in the rules and regulations. We make rules for ourselves.

You can't be a Christian and drive a late model car. You can't be a Christian and wear late stylish clothes. Things like this.

You got to have holes in your knees to prove that you're a man or a woman of prayer. That's not where it's at. It doesn't mean that we're not to handle mammon.

Of course we have to handle money. Very important how we handle money. What it does mean is that we handle money in such a way that it never gets our hearts in such a way that as we handle money and things, God is glorified.

We do it faithfully for him. He who is faithful and very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest and very little is dishonest also in much.

If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous manner, who will entrust to you the true riches? Never been faithful to God in the handling of money. If you have not been faithful in that which is in others, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. The Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all this and they scoffed at him. But he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.

For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. God deliver us from being pious and spiritual on the outside where in fact in our hearts we were caught up in the lust for money and fame and power and influence. Worshipping man.

God help us to have such a continuously renewed worship of him that we handle money for him, always for him. And he'll show us what to do. We don't make rules for somebody else.

Your grandmother left you $50,000. That does not mean you have to put it here on this point. We're not saying that hang on to the 50,000 till the Lord shows you what to do with it.

He'll show you. And don't let 15 people tell you what to do with it. God will show you.

The point is that whatever comes in our hands in the way of mammon will be properly handled and will in one way or another glorify God only if our hearts are worshiping him. And the place where we begin to really learn how to worship God is at the feet of Jesus. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him. Now they were able to worship him as they could never worship him before, since he died and rose again, they were given a spirit that was teaching them from within, even before Pentecost already in one way or another, how to worship. They spent the rest of their lives in worship of him.

And these same men and women are now at this instance, still worshiping Jesus in worlds beyond our comfort. And we right now are also worshiping. And with every hour that passes, we are being formed more and more into the image, the likeness of that, which we worship.

And one day we will either be totally perfected in the image of the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, or we will be perfected in the image of the beast. May the spirit of God help us to give ourselves in worship to him for whose worship we were made.