WORSHIP GOD ONLY

Again, the devil took him to 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, “Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ “ Then the devil left him…” Matthew 4: 8-10

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 in the shape of a wedge, which split this procession into two human rivers as they flowed past.

The largest of these rivers of humanity went to the left of the rock and wound down to a vast plain below, where off in the distance could be seen a gigantic pyramid made of pink marble. The procession pressed across the plain and filed into the gaping mouth of the giant pyramid.

Inside the pyramid, which was miles wide, were three mammoth thrones, on which sat three huge, hideous beasts.

The atmosphere inside the pyramid was one of absolute worship. It was obvious that the procession had come to this place for only one thing: to worship.

Some were shouting praises. Some were singing songs. Some were speaking in ecstatic utterances. And some were utterly silent, prostrate on the stone floor.

As they continued their worship, these people began to take on the very form of the beasts on the thrones—their faces seemed to twist into the shape of the hideous faces above them.

Even their bodies began to turn, and wiggle, and writhe and until the strange metamorphosis was completed. Though they were human, they looked more like animals—like those beasts.

This final worship was what they had pursued all their days. This was the hour of their fulfillment.

In my dream I knew that their worship was going to be brief—that it was false, that it would soon come to a horrible end.

Meanwhile, the other procession, moving to the right of the huge rock, traveled upward, beside a cold river, and on through a rocky plain—until finally, after wading through a stream of blood, which mysteriously cleansed them, they came in sight of their destination.

In the distance, rising from a sea of glass, could be seen a magnificent throne covered with an emerald rainbow. On the throne was a being whose face was so pure that it took a while for their eyes to distinguish his features from the light that radiated from him.

Around the throne were beings of unspeakable beauty—beings of sheer light. And near the throne was a Lamb that looked as thought it had been slain. Here was the pure, unmixed, holy, continuous, magnificent worship of God. As these people worshiped, their faces began to take on the radiance of the One whom they adored.

Consciously or unconsciously, every one who has ever lived is driven by the need to worship. Everybody—the man at the racetrack, the woman at the bar, the priest, the glue sniffer in the alley, the stockbroker.

Every one of us is moving toward an ultimate worship. Even now, inside each heart, that worship has begun. The outcome for each of us will be either worship of the True God, or worship of a Satanic Lie.

“And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon his horns and blasphemous names upon its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth 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 forty-two 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 earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.” Revelation 13: 1-8

---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, 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 round the throne and round 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 for ever and ever! Amen!’

Then one of the elders addressed me saying, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; 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; and he sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; 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.’ “ Revelation 7: 9-17

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 will worship something.

Our problem is that, though we were made for worship, and may already have had some vision of God, perhaps even heard with our hearts the call to worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, we find ourselves again and again, inclined to fix our hearts on something less than God. In our actual living, instead of worshiping God we end up worshiping an idol. This happens even to those whose intentions are the best.

If the heart is not clearly fixed on God, we will arrive at one form or another of idolatry.

For instance, 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 are 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.“ Revelation 19: 9,10

As soon as the apostle John fell down to worship that angel, the angel stopped him, “You must not do that!” (for John’s protection as well as for the angel’s) “Worship God!” The angel is saying in effect, “Just because I prophesy doesn’t mean that I am worthy of your worship. The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy; any one who has the testimony of Jesus inside is ruled by the Spirit of prophesy—you as well as I. I am your fellow servant, and fellow servant of your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! ”

And yet, how many times do we try to satisfy our craving for worship by fixing our hearts on someone who may be 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 am of Paul. I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas,” they were saying in Corinth and Paul came down hard on them, because he detected the seeds of man-worship. Man-worship is always the beginning of devil-worship, dividing the Body of Christ.

There is no possible way 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, it is possible to make an idol out of our place of worship—not necessarily the building—it could be the fellowship itself.

“The woman said to Jesus, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our father’s worshiped on this mountain; and you say that 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 do know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.’ “ John 4: 19-24

God always sets believers in some kind of fellowship, some community, some family—call it what you like. But we must be careful that our loyalty to the fellowship where God has put us never takes the place that belongs to Jesus alone.

Listen to our conversations. Where once Jesus was our chief love, now it’s "my church," or "our assembly," or "our community," whatever the name.

We think we’re bringing people to Jesus, but all too often we’re bringing them to our idol. We ourselves are practicing a subtle idolatry.

Woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth,

Thirdly, it’s possible to go through all the motions of worshipping 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 that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

---And that warning applies to both male and female.

“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body 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 lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the grounds of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; (makes her an adulteress…think about what that means) and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Matthew 5: 27-32

Bible-believing Christians love to take that passage, and others like it, and get into hot arguments about whether divorcees can re-marry, and miss the whole point of what Jesus is saying.

Our Lord is dealing with a tendency in us all to make an idol out of physical love. 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 eunuchs 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 devastate our marriages.

The cure is not willpower…cold showers…blinders for your eyes…or rules and regulations about who can get married and who can’t be married anymore…

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 that interfere with that worship. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and get rid of it. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off—not so you can be holier than the rest of the crowd, but so that you can continue to worship the true God.

Finally, it is possible to go through all of the external motions of worshiping God, when in fact, down in our hearts, we are bowing down 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.” Matthew 6: 24

“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 treasure 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.” Matthew 6:19-21

Again we get tangled up in the 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 stylish clothes.”

"You have to have holes in your socks to prove that you are broke and committed."

Of course, we have to handle money! But how do we handle money?

We are to handle money in such a way that money doesn’t posses our hearts. We handle money in such a way that God is glorified. We handle money with our hearts fixed on our True Provider.

“He who is faithful in very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches?”

If you haven’t been faithful to God in the handling of money, money has likely become your idol.

“And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 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.

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, while in our hearts we are caught up in lust for money, things, power and influence—worshiping Mammon.

God help us to practice such a continuing renewal of worship in Him that we handle money as his servants---always under his direction.

The Master will show us what to do with money. It is not a matter of making more rules, we simply walk in the light of the Spirit. If your grandmother left you fifty thousand dollars, there is no rule that says you have to put it on the offering plate next Sunday. Hang on to the fifty thousand until the Lord shows you what to do with it. He will show you.

Whatever comes into our hands in the way of Mammon will be properly handled, and we will glorify God with it, if our hearts are worshiping him.

And the place where we learn how to worship God is at the feet of Jesus:

“Now when the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him…” Matthew 28:16

At last they were able to worship the Master as they could never worship him before. Since he died and rose again, the Spirit was teaching them from within how to worship, leading up to their heavenly baptism at Pentecost. And then they spent the rest of their lives worshiping him. Even now men and women are worshiping Jesus in worlds beyond our comprehension.

And we too are worshiping. With every hour that passes, we are being formed, step by step, into the likeness of that which we worship.

One day, we will either be totally perfected in the image of the Lamb 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, daily, to give ourselves in worship to Him, for whose worship we were made.