Dt. 12-13

Read 12:1-14, 29-13:18

Does it matter to God where you worship?

Does it matter to God how you worship?

There were some people in the early church who heard the language

about the promised land being a land of milk and honey.

So they decided that they would have a time in worship

where they would have a special ceremony

where the pastor would remind the people of the blessings

that we'll have in the New Jerusalem,

and then everyone would drink a cup of milk and honey.

It never caught on in most churches. But it sounds pretty harmless, right?

Today, some people have started doing that again.

Instead of the Lord's Supper, they have a milk and honey ritual.

Instead of worshiping Jesus, they worship Sophia--the wisdom of God.

They say that Sophia is the feminine name of God.

And the milk and honey ritual is less bloody and gruesome than the Lord's Supper.

Do you have a weird feeling in the pit of your stomach when you hear that?

What's wrong with the milk and honey ritual?

What's wrong with worshiping God as "Sophia"?

Why are you uncomfortable with that?

Simple.

He never told us to do these things.

God does not want us making up our own ideas about worship,

he wants to be worshiped HIS way.

Let me put it this way:

are we allowed to make up new doctrines?

are we allowed to wake up one day and say,

"I think I'd like a God who doesn't send anyone to hell!"

Of course not!

In the same way,

could I come in next Sunday and say,

"today for worship, we are all going to do three cartwheels,

listen to a Barry Manilow album, and then have a coke and pretzels."?

What would you do if I did that?

If you didn't start throwing rocks, you'd leave!

The Worship of God must be done in the place and in the way that God desires.

Second commandment: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments."

The second commandment focuses on the worship of God.

We must not worship the creature; we must worship the Creator.

But how does Dt 12-13 expound this commandment?

Today we'll focus on 2 points:

In order to love and worship God properly,

First, God wants to be worshiped in His Place

Second, God wants to be worshiped in His Way

First, God wants to be worshiped in His Place

Let's look at Dt 12.

Here God makes it perfectly clear that idolatry is unacceptible.

You may not use the practices of the nations to worship the one True God. (v2-4)

"high mountains and hills"--the Canaanites thought that the higher up you got,

the closer you were to God (Eritrea)

And the place that God chose--Jerusalem,

is at the top of a mountain,

and the temple in Jerusalem was at the highest point of the city.

So the problem is not that they were worshipping on high mountains,

the problem is that they were worshipping at the WRONG mountain!

We must only worship in the place that God chooses.

"every green tree"--perhaps a memory of Eden,

many cultures have had sacred trees

And in one sense, they are right:

In the garden, the tree of life,

At the cross, Jesus hung on a tree

In the New Jerusalem, a new tree of life.

So they understand that trees are important to God's plan,

but they focus on the wrong trees

God has never said that we should worship under a tree!

We must only worship in the place that God chooses.

Now, some of you are scratching your heads, saying,

"but what about the Samaritan woman?"

Okay, let's look at her question: (John 4:19)

"This mountain" is Gerizim.

Remember last week? Gerizim is the mountain of blessing,

so the Samaritans worshiped there.

Now look at Jesus' answer: (4:21-24)

Does God still care where he is worshiped?

Yes and no.

No, you don't have to be IN Jerusalem,

but you still must be in a particular place.

And that place is in the Spirit and in truth.

Jesus Christ IS the temple of God.

We must worship God in his holy temple--namely, In Christ.

If you are not in Christ,

then you cannot worship the Father.

If you are not in the Spirit,

then you cannot worship God.

But notice what else Moses says:

In v6 he tells the people to take

their offerings, sacrifices, and tithes to the place of worship.

The whole family is to gather in worship, and partake of the sacrifices together.

In verses 15-28, he explains that ordinary meals may be eaten at home,

but the sacrificial meals--the burnt offerings and vowed offerings--

must be eaten together in the place which the Lord chooses.

The animal was to be killed on the altar,

and the blood drained out and poured on the altar,

and then the meat was to be eaten by the whole family.

We have no bloody sacrifices.

Christ was sacrificed once for all on the cross 2000 years ago.

Yet every Sunday we remember his sacrifice.

Every Sunday we gather together in his temple,

--because we are the temple of the Holy Spirit--

This is one reason why the apostles and the early church

celebrated the Lord's Supper every Sunday.

because every Sunday they proclaimed the Lord's death until he comes.

But this passage shows us why we need to worship as one body.

The Israelites could only find spiritual nourishment at the temple.

Even so, we who are one body, can only find nourishment as the one temple.

You cannot grow as a Christian without the rest of the body.

As Paul says in Ephesians 2:19-22

--"Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,

but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone,

in whom the whole building, being fitted together,

grows into a holy temple in the Lord,

in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

You are a building--a temple--not just as individuals, but as a body.

And Christ is the architect who is fitting you together into a holy temple,

a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

If you are going to continue to grow in grace,

you will need to grow together!

The biggest danger in the church is that we will try to build our own little temples,

our own little private places of worship.

There is no place for that in the church.

If we have four families over here,

and two families over there,

and a couple of lone ranger Christians doing their own thing,

what do we have?

You have a bunch of little temples all over the place.

Everyone does what is right in his own eyes

--rather than doing what God commands.

Christ's body is one temple;

and our worship is to reflect that unity.

What God is building?

Paul says in I Cor. 3:1-17

God desires that you be one temple.

God still insists that his people worship him in ONE place ONLY

--and that one place is his church, his body, who is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

How can we do this?

How can we avoid building our own little isolated temples?

Spend time together--there is no substitute for this.

If you fellows have projects around the house to get done,

call up someone in the church--perhaps someone you don't know too well

and suggest that the two or three of you spend a Saturday

going from house to house doing projects.

Perhaps you wives could do the same sort of thing.

Look for ways in which you can serve each other,

and ask how you can help out.

Social times are great--so make a point of having someone over

on the second Sunday of the month--or whatever time is good for you.

But doing projects together is a great way of getting to know each other.

After all,

when you have people over for a social visit,

how often do you feel awkward about finding something to talk about

--and then you think, "well, I really should be getting to that project..."

Well, how about doing that project together?!!

Look for ways to love each other!

Our Second point is that God wants to be worshiped HIS way!

Not only must we worship him in a particular place--in Christ and in his church--

but there is a particular way in which God wants to be worshiped.

So the prohibition against idolatry also requires us to focus on the true worship of God.

We are to set our hearts upon the true worship of God,

because if we come with hearts eager to sing the praises of God

if we come with minds ready and eager to hear the Word read and preached

if we come with souls longing to be filled with the bread of heaven,

then we will have no desire to follow false gods.

Dt. 12:29 through ch 13 warns us against being led away by false worship.

It presents four types of people who might draw us away from the worship of Christ:

1) our own inner voice (12:29-32)

Don't trust in your own experience to tell you how to worship.

Don't look to our culture.

v32--do whatever God commands.

Look to God's Word--listen to it.

Do not add to what God has said.

Do not subtract from it either.

We should not structure our worship around what we think or feel.

Neither should we structure our worship in order to please those around us.

v30

You may say, "oh, but our culture isn't like the heathen nations,

we don't burn our children in the fire!"

Oh really?

What does abortion do?

Abortion sacrifices children to the god of convenience.

Now, it's really easy for a pastor to get up here and smugly say,

"we're not like our culture--we don't abort our babies!"

But wait a minute,

do we worship the same god?

do we structure our worship to fit our own convenience?

If we do, then we are actually encouraging the idolatry of our culture!

I think of the early church in the book of Acts,

which met together in the temple daily.

I think of the reformation churches,

which gathered every morning and every evening,

for daily worship.

I think of churches in this country which are not tied in to our culture

--like the Korean churches,

hispanic churches, or Orthodox churches--

They will meet together for three or four hours to worship God,

because their whole week is structured around Sunday worship.

And what is our worship doing to show forth the beauty of Christ,

and the love of Christ?

If our children cannot see the point of our worship,

then perhaps we have lost sight of it ourselves.

Why are we here?

2) The second kind of person who might lead us astray is the false prophet (13:1-5)

Jesus Christ is the Great Prophet who has spoken to us the Word of God.

All preaching is to proclaim him.

If you ever hear a preacher who does not proclaim Christ.

If ever a heretic enters this pulpit,

don't be afraid to stop him in the middle of his sermon,

and kick him out.

God may send you false prophet as a test (v3) to see if you really love him.

It may be a pastor, an elder, or a member.

But if anyone calls you away from the worship of the one true God,

get rid of him.

The Israelites were commanded to destroy idolaters by killing them.

We are commanded to destroy idolaters by excommunicating them,

handing them over to Satan

so that they may be taught not to blaspheme (I Tim. 1:20)

Beware, because if you permit a false prophet to remain in your midst,

you will pay a high price.

God's judgment will come against you,

if you do not discipline those who teach heresy.

3) The third kind of person who may entice you from Christ is the hardest

--your family (v6-11)

How often are you tempted to neglect God because of family concerns?

How often are you tempted to make your faith a private thing,

because you don't feel like teaching your kids about Christ?

Do your relatives ever try to get you to ignore the worship of Christ?

I knew a man whose non-Christian father used to expect him

to go to the Chicago Bears games

--forcing him to skip worship for a football game.

The son didn't like it, but he excused himself saying

"if I don't go, then my father will get upset

because I'm putting my religion above my family."

Uh...but isn't that the whole point!

What do we do here on Sunday morning?

We worship the Living God.

Is there anything more important than that?

If you have a really contagious disease, you could skip.

If it's a matter of life and death, that is a different matter.

But think about it.

If we prefer something else to worship,

--we are blowing God off, saying,

I'd rather worship something else this morning!

And for those who prefer to attend Bedside Baptist,

or Pillow Street Presbyterian,

remember our first point--God wants to be worshiped in his temple

--by his body--and you can't do that alone.

That is why Hebrews 10:25 says what it says.

But let's read Hebrews 10:25 in context (10:19-30).

Now, I'm not saying that this means that if we miss one Sunday

we have insulted the Spirit of grace,

but what is the willful sin referred to in v26?

The willful sin of v26 refers back to those who

1) do not hold fast their confession, and

2) forsake the assembly of the church.

And so we come back again to the importance of worshiping in the way that God requires.

Because, quite frankly, a lot of modern worship has no idea what God requires.

The tendency is that worship just becomes

"sing-a-little-pray-a-little, here comes the preacher!"

But is that what God commands?

4) the fourth thing that can lead us astray is other churches (v12-18)

Each city in Israel would have its own Levites to teach the Word of God.

Now that Christ has opened the door to the Gentiles,

we don't have "christian cities".

But if we hear of other churches who have forsaken the true worship of God,

we must beware not to follow them just because we like what they do.

God's blessing will only come to those who keep his commandments

and worship him in the proper way.

I'm not suggesting that we make radical changes here.

Everything we do in worship here is biblical.

But do you know why we do what we do?

What are we doing when we sing?

What are we doing when we pray?

What are we doing when we hear the Word?

What are we doing when we have the Supper?

If we don't know, then are we really worshiping God in the way that he desires?

In conclusion, I would like to draw your attention to our Larger Catechism:

The Larger Catechism (Q. 108) asks: what are the duties required in the 2d commandment?

Answer: The duties required in the second commandment are,

the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire,

all such religious worship and ordinances as God has instituted in his Word;

[Okay--that sounds good--but what are these?]

1. particularly prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ;

2. the reading, preaching, and hearing of the Word;

3. the administration and receiving of the sacraments;

4. church government and discipline;

5. the ministry and maintenance thereof;

6. religious fasting;

7. swearing by the name of God, and vowing unto him:

8. as also the disapproving, detesting, opposing, of all false worship;

and, according to each one's place and calling, removing it,

and all monuments of idolatry.

The next Q (109) asks: What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment?

Answer: The sins forbidden in the second commandment are,

1. all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving,

any religious worship not instituted by God himself;

2. tolerating a false religion;

3. the making any representation of God,

of all or of any of the three persons,

either inwardly in our mind,

or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness

of any creature whatsoever;

all worshiping of it, or God in it or by it;

[in other words, don't worship the gift; worship the Giver]

4. the making of any representation of feigned deities,

and all worship of them, or service belonging to them;

5. all superstitious devices,

corrupting the worship of God,

adding to it, or taking from it,

whether invented and taken up of ourselves,

or received by tradition from others,

though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion,

good intent, or any other pretense: Whatsoever;

6. simony; sacrilege;

7. all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing

the worship and ordinances which God has appointed.