UNMIXED WORSHIP

Before the prince of liars broached his three-pronged temptation against Eve, we read that he first suggested that God's love was false, or at least only minimal. Then, secondly, God's veracity is attacked - and third - an open assault attempted to put the creature in God's place.

He said to the woman, "Did God really say,

'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'" (Genesis 3.1, NIV)

Very subtly the suggestion is made that the commandment was merely arbitrary, imposed by power, rather than ordained by love. It infers that God begrudges you good and that He can't really love you - because if He did He would not forbid you anything you might desire!

The Psalmist overcame this negative attack:

Praise the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all His benefits.

He forgives all my sins

and heals all my diseases;

He redeems my life from the pit

and crowns me with love and compassion,

He satisfies my desires with good things,

so that my youth is renewed like the eagles!

(Psalm 103.2-6, NIV)

Proof of His love and care are everywhere about us - and we need to set our minds on the gifts that He has given us, is giving us, and His infallible promises of grace and life age-during. Yet the mixed mind of man, unconscious of God's faithful presence, will almost always fix attention on the thing denied and awaken peevish and rebellious thoughts. Suiting thought to action, man then,more often than not, demonstrates or voices his rancor and signals to the tempter that there is a weakness to be exploited. Impious and harmful thoughts are roused, and these thoughts are the tools used by Satan and his minions to plant doubt in the heart. Whether in the marriage relationship, parent/child relationship, - whatever - ! his tactics are to emphasize the negative to the exclusion of all good; and perhaps make any denial of desire seem to be absence of love. Soon, self-pity and self-centeredness take over.

Note well that the beguilement of Eve was opened by questioning God's actions. When man questions what God does he's JUDGING GOD. This puts the creature, man, out of his place, and God is relegated to a false position in man's overall consciousness - he becomes God's judge rather than His worshipper. "God why did you do this to me?" Having dethroned God and placed Him in the witness chair, man usurps the judge's bench - and his whole being is gone awry.

This basic temptation, first suffered in Eden, is still with us, and we are often tempted to question our LORD as to His motive and method of operation, rather than falling in worship before Him and praising Him for ALL His ways. "He hath done ALL THINGS WELL." (Mark 7.37, my emphasis).

We have no right to entertain questions of God's ways. Certainly, questions may arise, being initiated from within or without just as the Hater suggested "Did God really say ...?" If the thought comes bouncing into our mind, we need give no place to it, but by His grace "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10.5, NIV). "Not my will, but THINE be done..." and thus we continue to bow down to Him, submit our will to His will, and proceed in the unbroken fellowship of Christ.

We need to let pure WORSHIP, (unmixed with man's fretful and caviling trappings), wash away all the judgmental questions of the carnal mind. HE knows what is ahead for us and has hedged us about with His love and merciful care. We may fume, whine and stew, but such actions only exacerbate our carnality. OR, we can just praise Him for all things, and in due time recognize that He has ordered our steps just exactly right. It's essential that we "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5.7) - because we'll probably not always immediately see what He's working in us, nor may we always have an example of the divine plan at hand. Whether we see the reason or not we have no right to judge God.

"Did God really say...?" asked the Deceiver, and Eve answered, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" (Genesis 3.2-3, NIV, my emphasis). Eve answered with truth and an intimate knowledge of God's will - but FELL SHORT. Why? Because she was conversing (some say fellowshipping or communing) with the Deceiver, instead of worshipping God with a "single eye", i.e. unmixed consciousness.

There is absolutely no need for us to carry on any communication with our accuser! He has nothing in us and we have no negotiations to present to his lie-loving consideration. Eve spoke the truth, but was hooked on the lie which Satan gave her. "He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him . Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar and the father of lies." That's what Jesus said (John 8.44, NASB, my emphasis). And Jesus doesn't lie - just as Satan can't tell the truth. It's absurdly foolish to converse with a liar who has only your downfall at heart. Sure, he may quote a portion of scripture here and there - but it's always bent and angled away from the truth, away from righteousness. And you may be quoting the letter of the truth to him, too, but meanwhile you're listening to him return answers. It's best to just drop the whole conversation - because he always speaks lies, twisting and turning the scriptures to his evil advantage. BUT REMEMBER - HE'S THE CONSUMMATE LIAR; THE TRUTH IS NOT IN HIM. What have you to do with him, Christian?

Truth, as the letter, away from God, won't defend you from the Hater. You may quote chapter and verse over and over again - and still be frustrated. Why? BECAUSE ONLY THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE! ONLY HE CAN MAKE THE WRITTEN WORD ALIVE IN AND TO YOU, CAUSING IT TO BECOME LIFE AND LIGHT WITHIN. It's THEN you have the strength of the Indwelling Christ!!

According to Numbers 24.16, Balaam was shown truth, but he didn't walk with God so it didn't help him. Rather, it judged him. He had a truly beautiful experience as one "...whose eyes see clearly...one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty..." (NIV). He heard the words, he saw the vision and had the knowledge, and he was able to receive the inspiration of God to prophesy concerning Israel. He couldn't curse what God blessed. BUT, the time came when the LORD commanded Moses and "They also killed Baalam son of Beor with the sword." (Numbers 31.8, NIV).

Why? Baalam yielded to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. He coveted riches offered by Balak, and thinking about such earthly things, unrighteous yearnings rose up in him and he set his heart on the wrong thing. His end was shameful - mostly because it cut him off from God.

Knowledge isn't enough, neither prodigious spiritual experiences nor strenuous religious exercises will keep us. We are "...kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1.5). Continuous worship, constant God-consciousness keeps self humbled, and God exalted, because in our complete surrender to Him, He freely gives Himself to us and is our KEEPER.

Often man turns toward others for love when he begins to doubt God's love. The Liar easily convinces him that God doesn't love him because He allows disciplinary trials to come his way; in fact, He orders the testing. "Therefore", thinks the man of the world, "since this grief, this deprivation, this unreasonable burden of distress has befallen me, it's certain that God doesn't love me." Then man turns to the world for comfort and assurance - and this destructive course consummates in death - a short-lived victory for the Accuser.

"God doesn't love you!" This is the fundamental lie, and if it is believed then all lies told by God's slavish adversary are possible (even probable??) of belief. The world - yes, even the church - is rife with the lies of darkness, and unhappily, the church perpetrates the lies. Sure, the divine folly-swaddlers of churchdom will devoutly and loudly preach that "God is love" - and then promptly teach that all of His judgements are expressions of His "righteous wrath", meant to slay and condemn to eternal torment.

"God's going to get you for that!" "He's got the hammer raised to smash you so you'd better watch your step!" "God hates sinners!" Thus, in imputing the most base of carnal man's emotions to God, man has lowered Him from His high and holy place to be such as man is. Man no longer acknowledges that all of the Creator's actions are motivated by His nature of love, and they wipe from their conscience that "...whom the LORD loveth, he doth discipline...with a view to our partaking of His holiness" (Hebrews 12.6,10, Rotherham. See also Proverbs 3.11 ff.).

How shall we cancel the lie that has raged through the ages? By simply declaring the LOVINGKINDNESS OF GOD, and forthshining His nature to all!!

Who would be foolish enough to desire being at the mercy of God in EVERYTHING, if he couldn't believe in His love? It's a strange paradox, that man will trust almost anyone and anything before God, because man fears God will cheat him. The Liar started that base canard in the Garden with, "Has God REALLY said", et cetera, and the lie yet ferments in the carnal subconscious.

Perhaps the reader has heard people say something like, "I'd like to commit my children totally to the LORD, BUT...WHAT IF GOD...? They fear that perhaps God will take the children and not provide for them, allowing them to "fall into the hands of the devil" or die someplace doing God's work. There seems to be an inbred distrust of the Almighty, a deep-seated fear that Our Creator, with all His lovingkindness and tender mercies, is going to short change His chosen, causing heartache and grief. This fear causes man to mistrust God and trust in himself, exclusively, for the care of his family. Eventually, this leads to judging God unworthy of worship, and finally to exalting man's self.

(Committing one's children, spouse or self to the LORD'S care in no way relieves the Christian of parental, spousal or even self care. Commit your ways, and the ways of your loved ones to Him, do your duty and REST IN HIM. HE IS EVER FAITHFUL!! Let the reader understand.)

We know that the scriptures we call the "Old Testament" are given us for instruction and as a great store of examples with which to guide our worship. I think one of the best of this kind of teaching is the story in 2 Samuel 24. You recall that David had commanded the numbering, or census, of Israel, an obvious outward manifestation of inward distrust in God's providence. David received the census and was immediately convicted of sin, (the NIV says he was "conscience-stricken"). His "heart smote him" (verse 10) and he said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing."

David realized his foolishness was in depending on his own conception of Israel's MAN power, and trust in his own ability to do those things in God's hands. His deeply felt remorse is evident and his confession clearly indicates his awareness of the pernicious sin of unbelief or distrust in the LORD.

So God sent His prophet to David and said, "Shall there come upon you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days* of plague in your land? Now think it over and decide how I should answer the ONE who sent me." (Verse 13, NIV).

(*So, in LXX, Jerusalem Bible, Moffat, Goodspeed/Smith Translations.)

David thought it over and gave the only answer possible for a man who had returned to absolute trust in the LORD. He said to the messenger, "I am in deep distress." (N.B: NOT distrust). "Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for His mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.' (Verse 14).

David knew he couldn't expect mercy from his enemies, and the famine would empty the land of living things, so he TRUSTED GOD, knowing that God loved him - and chose the pestilence. Such trust is its own form of worship, and we can truly worship our LORD, even, perhaps especially, in our periods of disciplinary development.

When the love of God is doubted, truth is assailed: "'You will not surely die', the serpent said to the woman." (Genesis 3.4, NIV).

As soon as God is displaced in man's trust, then he conjures up an "ANTI", an "instead of". The Holy Spirit wrote of those who doubted truth and therefore believed a lie, "...they received not the love of truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie" (2 Thessalonians 2.10-11). Those who believe the lie will be thoroughly processed, purged from the lie, so that they will return to worship Him - the TRUTH personified.

Verse 12 of this chapter continues "That they might be damned (KJV) who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." The word "damned" has caused many to fear that they may never return to God once He has sent them that "strong delusion" and allowed them to believe the Liar. The word in question is KRITHOSIN , a subjunctive aorist form of the Greek verb, KRINO , which means to make a distinction between; to exercise judgement upon; to call to account; to decide, determine, resolve, to make right. It does NOT mean to send to a Dante-like hell without hope of forgiveness.

In the cited scripture we see that those having ceased to be worshippers of and believers in God, since they judged Him to be untrue and unworthy of their trust - then turned to embrace a lie. Now, God wields this right as JUDGE, and passes sentence, and THROUGH HIS RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENTS corrects the misaligned, quells the rebellious, and scourges the lawless until such time as the miscreants fully surrender to Him and receive Him as their LORD.

Herein is His EVERLASTING MERCY: ALL His judgements are generated by His nature of love. They are correctional and done to RESTORE the sinner to the REDEEMER so that the sinner may no more sin but receive His life as a personal and permanent possession!

Now THAT'S LOVE -- and it NEVER fails!!

No matter what the poetasters, socio-psychologists and other poppycock peddlers proclaim, MAN CANNOT STAND ALONE -- HE IS NOT THE MASTER OF HIS FATE NOR CAPTAIN OF HIS SOUL. If we abandon God, then we must trust in the creature -- and the Holy Spirit admonishes us in Romans 6.16, "You belong to the power which you choose to obey,whether you choose sin, whose reward is death, or God, obedience to whom means the reward of righteousness." (Phillip's Translation).

We'll either worship the creature or the Creator, and it's plain that creature-worship leads to death, but to worship the Creator leads us into His life and righteousness.

"SELF" takes God's place when Love and Truth are rejected. Remember, the Liar spoke further about the "fruit of the tree". He said, "God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3.5, NIV).

The Liar can say anything - and it becomes a lie because he speaks from his nature. So man has swallowed the lie, - hook, line, and sinker - and SELF seeks to be "as god", and judge both good and evil; ready to pass judgement on everything, even God! Thus he would attempt to ROB GOD - and take His place on the throne!

The Holy Spirit uses Paul to make it very clear that we have no right at all to take the bench in judgement. "Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the LORD is able to make him stand." (Romans 14.4, NASB). Man receives and is able to dispense such mercy when he is completely surrendered to God.

Briefly, let us note how terrible was the lie: The Liar promised that the man and woman would "be like God, knowing good and evil". Just as soon as they bought that lie, the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked. (See Genesis 3.7).

NAKED! UNCOVERED! Bared to the ravages of the elements and especially to their own awareness of unrighteousness!! What sort of gods are these people without the covering of God Almighty?!? Weakness, shame, emptiness and self-accepted defeat was the only knowledge they gained. How strange, (or perhaps not so strange) that even in this degenerate and defiled state, man continues, to this day, to deceive himself into thinking he's capable of deciding the right and wrong of God's actions, accusing God of malfeasance of office. With his exceptionally limited knowledge man pretends he needs only "science", "technology" and "human reason" (YUK!) to find all the truth in the universe.

WHAT A GRAND DELUSION!

There are far too many weird and pretentious doctrines running amok, in-church, out-church and not-church. Naming them here would be a waste of time - and, anyway, the reader can find lists of them in almost any "Christian" bookstore. I've been asked what I think is the "most dangerous" doctrine now in favor with churchdom and I believe it's the one - any one - that holds God's own truth carnally, used to exalt self.

Sadly, there are many examples of man's use of the truth to beat and coerce others into helping build their puny earth-bound kingdoms, to promote their vain-glory interests and projects. The truth can become a chain of slavery when perverted. It causes man to fall in worship of a system, a creed, a doctrine, an organization, even a particular translation of the Bible we hold so dear. Is it any wonder that we need such harsh purgings, such scouring and drubbing until we are truly "Holy because He is Holy"? WE WILL BE CLEANSED so we can worship Him out of a pure heart.

Let us pray that the lie will be routed from our consciousness, our idols destroyed, and the hidden man of the heart entirely subdued so that we come to that place where EVERYTHING WE ARE CAN CRY, "ABBA! FATHER!"

EPILOGUE

Lest the reader misunderstand what is written above: Mankind will be holy and perfect but not by its own effort.

The word "holy" is used by most of the church-world in a way that burdens man with the responsibility of "being" holy, "becoming" holy, or "acting" holy and perfect.

As used in the Old Testament the word "holy" ( qadosh in Hebrew) means "set apart, dedicated to special purposes, clean, morally or ceremonially pure". When used as a verb it means "to set apart something or someone for a special ministry". The LORD says in Leviticus 19.2, "You shall be holy ones for I..am holy."

In our kitchen we have a pot that is set apart for the cooking of rice. It didn't make itself, nor dedicate itself to this separation. Neither can it fill or empty itself, nor can it cleanse and purify itself. In this sense it's holy.

The same word in the New Covenant is the Greek hagios : separated, blameless, pure, sacred. The rice cooker is not responsible for rice cooking, nor is it able to purify itself. It is "sacred" and "blameless" because it has no power of its own but only submits to the authority of the cook.

Man can't make himself holy in any sense of the word. God alone has that power and authority - the same power and authority that places men as sons.