Restoring God: Putting Jehovah at the Center of Me

Introduction

Open your Bibles, if you will, to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. We’re going to try to answer a question this morning. Can one man make a difference? I want to begin by saying, welcome. I know there are probably some people that are visiting this morning. I really can’t say that for sure because only 50% of you were here when I worship here on a regular basis. I was talking with Tony about that the other day. I think when Lauren and I left, the maximum attendance that we had seen was around probably 155, 160 people. And I think you’ve come pretty close to almost doubling that since we’ve left. And so that’s that’s phenomenal. But you guys have got to get the parking situation figured out.

I don’t know if you know that or not, but that’s that’s that’s oh, you do? Okay. It was all it was already, Mike’s like, what do you don’t throw me under the bus? It was already it was already an issue back then, and you guys have grown phenomenally in just four years. I don’t know of another congregation that has grown that much. So, but do you want to say welcome to everyone, whether you attend here regularly or you do happen to happen to be visiting upon the invitation of someone else? It’s good to see you. This morning we’re gonna talk about, and it may need some clarification. Why is this sermon called Restoring God? Why is it why is it about making Jehovah the center of me?

And what is this all about? I want to begin by saying that in every generation of God’s people, there has been a struggle with one particular sin. And no, I am not going back to the Song of Solomon this morning. But that sin is idolatry. Right from the very beginning. You see in the book of Genesis, struggles with idolatry. In the Exodus, there are struggles with idolatry. There’s warnings about idolatry in Deuteronomy. There are warnings about idolatry, and the sin of idolatry is all over the book of Judges and the books of the kings and the chronicles. How many kings met their downfall? Because they wanted to be like the nations that surrounded them. I want to begin this morning in Deuteronomy chapter 5. I think I said that already, beginning in verse 1.

The book of Deuteronomy is kind of an interesting book. It’s actually three sermons, if you will, that are taught at the end of Moses’ time leading the people. And the first one is kind of a recounting of what God did for them. And then the second is an expectation sermon. This is what God expects of you. And the third one is basically the covenant sermon, the exchange that God is going to have with the people.

And the Lord, the Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us. With all those of us alive here today. And the Lord spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire while I was standing between the Lord and you at that time. To declare to you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up to the mountain. We’re going to talk about that tonight from Hebrews chapter 12. He said, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery. And you shall have no other gods before me. Pause right there. We need to, we need to kind of expunge some modern English language from our minds to really understand what’s going on with this first one.

When we say, you shall do no other thing before this, we are usually talking about the order of operation. How many of you are math people in here today? Nobody likes math. Okay. Okay, I’m a math person. Okay, we’ve got somebody who will who will join the anonymous group right here. That I am a math person. Okay, I know, I know Lauren is. There’s a few of you that are math people. So, as math brained people, we tend to think about order of operation, right? We’re going to do this before this. And as long as this is in the first place, then everything else is okay to do in the second place. That’s not really how order of operations work, but I’m an English guy. There’s a little more stringency to that.

But that’s not what he’s saying. What he is saying here is you don’t bring another God before me. Not, it’s okay to have them after me, but you don’t essentially bring another God into my sight. I’m the only God. And so you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol. Now listen to the description of an idol here. Or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Okay, so they’re not allowed to worship a tree. They’re not allowed to make figures of people and call them gods and worship at those figures. They’re not allowed to take some animal and form it into the shape of a bull or a fish or a bullfish.

I think Dagon was bullfish, wasn’t he? Top half bull, bottom half dish. I remember right? Or a bird or any other thing, because that’s idolatry. Nothing in the air, nothing under the sea, nothing in the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, verse 9. For I the Lord your God, listen to this, am a jealous God. Visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children and on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. Look at what he says in verse 11. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain.

I want you to stop and think about that for just a second. I think there is definitely an application here about how we would typically think of taking the Lord’s name in vain. Using the Lord’s name as a swear word or using it as just an exclamation of excitement, even abbreviating it when everybody knows what the abbreviation means. But considering we’re talking about a covenant here, might there be another application to this? Might it be the case that to take the name of the Lord in vain might mean to go forth and proclaim his people to be his people and then not live according to the covenant? Can we not do the very same thing today when we put on the image of Christ in baptism and we confer upon ourselves the status or proclaim upon ourselves the status of I’m a Christian, I’m a child of God, I’m a believer in Jesus, I am a disciple, a follower of Christ, I do the things that Jesus expects of me, and then we do not go out and live that way.

Is that not taking on the name of the Lord in vain? This is not just saying, don’t say the name of God at an inappropriate time. That does come. But this is saying, live like people who are under a covenant with me. And I have to wonder, if we do not struggle, in fact, I would say we do with idolatry just as much as they struggle with idolatry.

If as Moses was speaking these things to them, if the events of Exodus 32 were ringing in their ears. I wonder if they thought about the fact that they had requested the idol. Specifically because Moses, who led them out of Egypt, that was their first mistake, was on the mountain, and they did not know whether he was alive. You remember that debacle? I love Aaron’s explanation for it. The people wanted a God, and so they gave me their gold, and I stuck it in the fire, and out came the calf. That’s like my kid telling me, Daddy, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t touch it. Did you touch this? This is broken. This used to be in Daddy’s office, and now it’s broken in the den.

I don’t know, Dad. I wonder if they thought about the fact that in Deuteronomy chapter 1. Moses reminds them, beginning in verse 2, that when they left Horeb at the commandment of God that they were 11 days.

In the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to the Lord, according to all that the Lord had commanded to give them. He is reminding them there that this trip between Sinai and the promised land could have taken you 11 days, real quick. How long did it take them? Forty years. That is the worst detour ever. That is worse than anything the city of Houston has ever tried to do, or textites ever tried to do on 290. And you can ask Alyssa about how 290 works because she drives that almost every day, or at least used to. But the idea there, that’s worse than anything we’ve ever contemplated. You’ve got 40 days, 40 years in the journey should have taken 11 days.

That’s like trying to get to the gallery and rush hour. Well, why? Well, because they doubted the Lord, because they didn’t trust the Lord. And I have to wonder if all of these statements of listen to me, worship me, trust me, be my people, come to me, if these events were not ringing in their ears, but if they were ringing in their ears at that time, the warnings only lasted, sadly enough, for a generation. Because Joshua remained faithful to them. And so did all the people of Joshua’s generation. But when you get to the book of Judges. And you see in chapter 2, verse 6 that Joshua has died, and we looked at this yesterday. The testimony is given in verse 11 that the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

Now remember, Joshua’s generation is here listening to Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. They’re making their preparation to go into the land. And so they’re listening to Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. So Joshua’s being inspired by this. And then, like Caleb are being inspired. And all of their peers, and their peers would have been everybody that was under the age of 20 when they refused to go into the land. Their peers, that generation was with them. But after they died, the sons of Israel, verse 11, did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the balls. And I say that name exactly how meant to. And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods from among the gods of the people.

Wait a second, you shall have no other God before me. You shall not make unto thee any graven images. It shall not look like something on the land or above the earth or under the earth or in the sea. What happened? God brought them out of Egypt. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were around them and bowed themselves down to them. And thus they, look at this, provoked the Lord to anger. And so they forsook the Lord and served the Baal and the ash Jiraf. And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he gave them into the land, the hands of the plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

And wherever they went, the hand of the Lord, this is Jehovah their God. The hand of the Lord was against them. This is exactly what he tells Joshua tells them is going to happen in Joshua 24. You’re going to go into the land. You need to choose today whom you’re going to serve, because you’re going to go into the land and you’re going to fail at this. And your God is a jealous God. If you do not commit to this today. Idolatry is waiting at the door. And so what he is telling them here, what we’re being told here in the book of Judges, is it all came to pass. Moses told them if you don’t watch yourselves, you’re going to fall into idolatry. Joshua told them, if you don’t watch yourselves, you’re going to fall into idolatry.

The first chance they got, they had kindled the anger of the Lord against them. And as the Lord swore to them, and as the Lord had spoken, and as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed. So what did God do? Well, then there’s this pattern of raising up judges, and the people accept the deliverance, but they never listened to the judge. Some of the judges weren’t very good to begin with. But he raised up the people, or raised up the judges to deliver the people. Here’s an opportunity to repent. Here’s an opportunity to bear the fruits of repentance. Here’s the opportunity to really return to God. And what do they do every time? Go right back to idolatry. I want to say this, and I want to say this exactly how I mean to.

Idolatry is part of the human condition. It really is. We want something tangible to worship.

And I realize none of you probably have a day gone that you worship in your home. But I think that God may have been replaced by things like culture. Culture is where we tend to put our trust. I mean, that’s what you what you put in a God, right? Your trust. That’s the idea of faith, fully trusting God, fully believing what he has said. It’s the example we see in Romans 4 of that Paul gives about Abraham. He believed God.

So, what kind of things are we putting our trust in? Are we putting our trust in culture and our finances? -oh, preacher’s talking about money. Everybody bat down the hatches and close the ports. Didn’t have to be that. Are we putting our trust in the kinds of educations we can buy for our children rather than educating them in the ways of the Lord. If you want proof that idolatry is still a struggle for the people of God. Could I encourage you to look at 1 John chapter 5? 1 John chapter 5, beginning in verse 18. All unrighteousness is sin. And there is a sin not leading to death. That could be another one of those Tony sermons, sins leading to death and not leading to death.

I’ve given him lots of good ideas.

He might not think so. But we know that no one who is born of God sins. Oh, there’s another sermon idea. But he who has he who was born of God keeps him. And the evil one does not touch him. And we know that we are of God. And that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. I want you to look at the statement that he closes the whole book on. Little children, guard yourselves from idols. I would say to you this morning that if we’re going to apply that statement as it should be applied, we don’t need to think of idolatry as a problem in the past.

But there are lessons from the past that we can learn about how to deal with idolatry in our lives. I believe idolatry is still rampant in our lives today. I believe it can take the form of soccer or football or baseball for our kids. It can take the form of our spouse when we elevate them to a pedestal, but we don’t, but we don’t, we don’t have the kind of marriage that we talked about yesterday. It can take the form of our children when we don’t bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, but rather we’re catering to their every whim to make them happy. All of those things can be a form of idolatry. Idolatry is anything, guys, that we put before God.

Anything in which our trust resides, anything in which our devotion belongs to can be a form of idolatry. Yes, grandparents, those cute little things that run around can be idols.

So where would we turn? There is a king in the lineage of Judah who is for us an example of how we can deal with idolatry in our lives. We’re going to visit a guy by the name of Josiah.

1. Seeking God Where He Can Be Found

Open your Bibles, if you will, to the book of 2 Kings. I was in 1 Kings, but this does not look like the right story. Why are we reading about Jehoshaphat? And I would say to you that if we’re going to restore God, if we’re going to bring him back to the place in our lives where he needs to be, and drive the idols from ourselves, then we need to begin by seeking God and putting him in the proper place. And to do that, we have to seek him where he can be found. First eleven verses of 2 Kings chapter 22. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jedediah, the daughter of Adiah of Boscath.

And he did right in the sight of the Lord.

Nor did he turn aside to the right or to the left. Now in the 18th year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Ezaliah, the son of Meshalim, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people, and let them deliver it into the hands of the workmen who have oversighted the house of the Lord. And let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of the Lord to repair the damages of the house, to the carpenters and the builders and the masons, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house.

Only no accounting shall be made with them for the money delivered into the hands, for they deal faithfully. Then Hilkiah the high priest said that Shapen the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. Well, that was lost. That’s something pretty important to get lost there, isn’t it? I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, who read it, and Shaphen the scribe came to the king and brought back the word to the king and said, Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it to the hands of the workmen who have oversighted the house of the Lord. Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me, look at this, a book.

I don’t know what book it is, but he gave me a book. And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Can we agree that Josiah understood? He was coming into contact with something pretty special here. This book was not the average book that you go down to Barnes and Noble and find on your shelf. Well, I guess you can find it on the shelf of Barnes and Noble, but it’s not average. He was encountering something special. I don’t know, I’m just thinking, what is the Hebrew version of Barnes and Noble? He was encountering something special. He was encountering something that was life changing. And he realized it immediately because the high priest is sending it from the rubble that had become God’s house after years of idolatry.

And so he’s opening this book, or the scribes opening this book, and he’s reading to it. Interesting fact the kings were supposed to write a copy of the law when they became the king. It probably hadn’t happened. Because this seems to be Josiah’s first encounter with what God actually says.

He found something that he wouldn’t find anywhere else. And it motivated him to restore God to the proper place. And we need to go looking for God where we know that we can find him. If we want to deal with the sin of idolatry in our life, if we want to restore Jehovah and make him the center of our lives, we have to go to where we know we can find him. We’ve got to go back to the standard. And I’ve got to tell you, brothers and sisters, what I want to do cannot be the standard for how I live my life. That is the essence of idolatry. How I want to be, how I want to conduct myself, that my friends or my parents say that I’m okay cannot be the standard for how I conduct my life.

God’s word has to be the standard. Will you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9 with me for just a second? I’m sorry, I said 2 Corinthians. I meant 1 Corinthians. I knew that sounded wrong as I was saying it. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, beginning in verse 24. Do you not know that those who run and erase all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. And then they then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body. Look at this, and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Paul says, Look, I’m trying to live according to those things that I’m instructing other people in. He says, There’s a source for truth, and I’m going back to it. Now forget that there’s a chapter break there, because there wasn’t a chapter break there when the letter was sent. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses. Remember, this thought is flowing out of this is why I discipline myself. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from that spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ.

That’s such a neat idea to contemplate the spiritual rock that followed. Drawing from the living water, as it were, that Jesus himself promised the woman at the well in John 4. There’s a definite analogy there. But that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be, what does he say here? Idolaters. What is idolatry according to this passage? Craving evil things. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play. Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did.

And twenty-three thousand fell in one day, nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents, nor grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example. And they were, what’s that next word? Written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands, take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you, but such is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with temptations will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, tell me if this sounds familiar.

Maybe another passage that we’ve read speaks to this. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. Doesn’t that sound like 1 John 5? Guard yourselves from idols. Flee from idolatry. And then he goes into a long description about meat offered to idols and things like that. That’s not as germane to our topic at hand, and for time’s sake, I’m going to go ahead and skip over that. You can read it at home. There are some lessons we can take from that. But I want you to look at how this whole discussion ends up in chapter 11, verse 1. How do we handle idolatry in the present world? How do we handle the stumbling blocks of causes for us, the stumbling blocks of causes for our brethren? How do we engage with culture when we feel like it’s pressing upon us the ideals of idolatry?

Be imitators of me. Just as I also imitate Christ. Be imitators of me. Look at, look at me. If you can’t find any other example, if you are not strong enough in the Word, if you cannot make these applications, then look to me, and I’m going to try to show you how to imitate Christ because that’s how I’m oriented my life. Can I say to you that’s the role of every parent? We talked about parenting yesterday. I’m going to sneak a few more of those in. That’s the role of every parent. We’re trying to teach this generation. It’s not all young people over here anymore. Some of you guys are my age.

2. Tearing Down the Idols That Occupy His Place

Some of you guys, though, are not. And it’s the role of every parent to teach this generation, wherever they are, most of them now are back in the Bible classes. How to be followers of Jesus. How to imitate Jesus. How do we get over this idolatry hump that we have? How do we get over this problem? We learn how to imitate Christ. I would say, secondly, restoring God means tearing down the idols that occupy his place. It’s not enough for us to know what God expects. We got to get our sleeves rolled up. We’ve got to get to some work here. I want you to look at the work that Josiah undergoes in Josiah chapter, or 2 Kings chapter 23. After making covenant with the people in the first four verses or first three verses of the chapter, that they are going to be dedicated to the Lord.

They’re going to rebuild this temple and they’re going to walk after his ways and to keep his commandments, verse 3 and his statutes with all his heart and his soul to carry out the words of this covenant. They were written in the book, and all the people entered into that covenant. It says in verse 4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of the Lord all of the vessels that were made from Baal, for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the hosts of the heavens. And he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and he carried the ashes to Bethel. This is exactly what they did in Ephesus.

They burned the books. What is Josiah doing to the idolaters? The idols here, not the idolatry. He’s burning the idols. He’s burning those things that are perishable by fire. He’s taking them out, he’s destroying them. He’s burning the boats so they can’t go back. And he did away with the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, and all those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the hosts of heaven. He brought out of the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside of Jerusalem to the brook of Kid the brook of Kidron. And he burned it at the brook of Kidron, easy for me to say, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.

And he also, basically saying, this thing is not a god. And he also broke down the house of the male cult prostitutes, which were in the house of the Lord, where the women were weaving hangings of the Asherah. And then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense from Giba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates, which were at the entrance of the city, the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate the unleavened bread among their brothers.

And he also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Himnon, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molloch. How bad at idolatry God made God into killing their own children to worship God’s. Can I say to you that’s no different than our modern day abortion? Killing our children to worship at the God of culture. Our children are most innocent and unprotected, were passing through the fires of the God of our American dream. And we ought to get in control of that. He did away with the heroes, which the kings of Judah had given to the sun at the entrance of the house of the Lord, but by the chambers of Nathan Melech, the official, which was his which was in the precincts, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire, and the altars which were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and the king broke down and he smashed them there and threw their dust into the brook of Kidron, and the high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for the Asheroth and the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Shamosh the abomination of Moab, and Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king, defiled, and he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the asherum and filled their places with human bones.

Furthermore, the altar was at Bethel, and the high places which Jeroboam the son of Nabak had made, Israel’s sin, had made even that altar in the high place, he broke down. Then he demolished its stones and ground them to dust and burned the asherah. And now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountains, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God had proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. And then he said, What is this monument that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed that these things are these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.

And he said, Let him alone and let no one disturb his bones. So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. And Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord, and he did to them just as he had done in Bethel. And all the priests of the high places who were there, he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them, and then he returned to Jerusalem. Can I tell you something? Josiah did not just fix the immediate problem in his backyard. Under everything under his authority throughout his entire kingdom, and even the land that God had returned to waste that virtually no one was inhabiting, Josiah is going through there and finding everything that is offense to God and burning it down.

That is how we live our lives.

And if it’s get thee behind me, Satan, because it’s a spouse, I don’t recommend to calling your spouse Satan. But you, but you’re in a marriage that is with a person who is not a member of the church. You are going to have to walk a very hard road to honor the covenant you made to them in God’s eyes and honor the covenant that you made to God in the blood of Jesus Christ, but you have to do both. But if you have the luxury, if it is a friend, if it is a co-worker, if it is a job, if it is whatever thing, get it out of your life. It ain’t worth your soul. It isn’t worth your soul. I know that Mike’s been talking to you about the up from the pit series.

3. Having a Proper Passion for Him

I think you’re done with that series, right? It’s a great series. There’s a lot of that in there, isn’t there? How do you deal with the pornography? How do you deal with the issues of life? How do you deal with the problems that are encroaching from the outside world on your marriage? You get rid of them. You get rid of the hindrances, you get rid of the stumbling blocks, you do not give them place. Why? Because restoring God to the proper place in our lives means that we have a proper passion for him. I want to go back to that covenant that I glossed over in the first three verses of 2 Kings 23. We’re not just doing these things because there’s book, chapter, and verse that says to do these things.

We need to live the lives that we live because we have a legitimate, unbridled passion for God. Then the king, verse 1, sent, and they gathered to him all of the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of the Lord. And all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him. And the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which he had found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood by the pillar, and he made a covenant. This is so cool. He’s standing by the pillar of the house of God. And he reaches out and he makes a covenant.

Because that’s as close as he can get to God.

What is this covenant? To walk after the Lord, to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, right? With all his heart and with all his soul. And to carry out the words of the covenant that were written in the book. And all the people entered into that covenant.

Simplified, lacking conviction, commitment. We are not the people of God simply because we teach the truth about baptism. That’s important. That does not make us the people of God. We are not the people of God because we assemble on the right day of the week. That’s important, but that does not make us the people of God. We do not, we are not the people of God because we hold to things that are true about the roles of men and women within the church. We are not the people of God because we observe the Lord’s Supper at the right time. Meaning once a week on the Lord’s Day.

We are the people of God when those things come from passion for Him. One of the most beautiful statements, in my opinion. I realize it doesn’t carry a lot of weight. Because it’s just my opinion.

He says, But you, beloved, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. Some of your translations might say peculiar people, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. For you were once not a people, but you are the people of God, and you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust that wage war against your soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the things in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, look at this, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

So the time we have left, and it’s not much.

Number one, I would say one of the things that clearly kills our passion for God is scriptural knowledge with an unscriptural attitude. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 says, Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth, for you have, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God, who is our life, is revealed. Then you also will be revealed, or I’m sorry, when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, and evil desires, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them, but now you also put them all aside. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abuse of speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, scythe, enslaved and free. But Christ is all and in all. What are we supposed to do in response to that? We’re to put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, self, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other, and forgiving each other as the Lord forgives each one of us.

One of the things that kills our passion for God is when we know the right thing to do, but we approach it with a wrong attitude. You cannot imitate God or imitate Christ just by doing right things. It’s got to be the attitude that Jesus had. Put on Christ. Seek those things that are above. I would say to you that unconfessed and unrepented sin becomes a problem. We’re going to skip the Psalm 34 reference. It’s going to take a little bit, but I encourage you to go read that. Instead, turn over to 1 John chapter 1. I had a contingency plan for this one. 1 John chapter 1, beginning in verse 5. This is the message which we heard from him and announced to you that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

And if we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in light as he himself is light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. And if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and the word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things. Skip the chapter break to you that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Unconfessed and unrepentant sin is a problem. Well, how do I know it’s a problem? I know it’s a problem because that is exactly why Jesus Christ is my advocate. So that problem can be dealt with. But not only is it the unconfessed and the unrepented sin, it is the unacknowledged, undisciplined lifestyle. Romans chapter 12 is a rather long treaty on this, where we’re talking about the image of the person that is that is imitating Christ. And or not imitating Christ, I’m sorry, but behaving as the living sacrifice. But let’s go ahead and read just the opening to that passage, if you will, Romans chapter 12.

I want you to think about what kind of discipline the child of God needs. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, He’s just giving them 11 chapters on how big God’s mercies, his kindness, his love is, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Some of your translations say reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Is that what we embody? You know, that’s the only way to really profess that he is our God. When we live like a sacrifice to him. Now, verses 9 through 13 and a lot further than that deal with what that sacrifice looks like.

I would encourage you to read that. But also, I would say one of the things we need to be careful about is having an undernourished spirit. One of the struggles the people of God have today is finding the right attitude towards those things that nourish him. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Can we all make that statement this morning? The word of Christ dwells in me richly. I’m seeing the benefit of my association with Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in the heart to God. This is not just an instruction of what approved worship looks like.

It’s not just saying, look, a cappella singing is the way God wants it done. He wants you to sing, he doesn’t want instruments. Yes, that is contained in this passage. But I want you to see what this really is. The reason why that is not what God desires is because he’s not trying to please the ears. He’s trying to educate the heart. That is our work with one another. And finally, we need to be careful about unresolved conflict. Too many places and too many people that I’ve worshiped with over the years.

One of my best friends in the whole world did not become my best friend until I stopped listening to things that other people were telling me about him. First John chapter 4. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should also love his brother. Can you explain to me the caveat, the loophole, the donut, if you will, that we can pass through that allows us to behave any way we want to our brethren in that passage.

Conclusion

I can wait here all day and you won’t find me. The one who is the child of God cannot hate his brother. He loves his brother. And this is the commandment that the one who loves God should love his brother also. So there are our lessons from Josiah. If we want to bring God back to the center of us, if we want to make that same commitment that they made in Deuteronomy 5 and 6, if we recognize that God is faithful to those who love him and are faithful to him, then we need to acknowledge that we have to find him where he can be found. We need to tear down the idols that separate us from him. We need to do these things with a sincere love and passion for him and his truth.

Alright, that’s the end of class, guys. Thank you.