Anything but God

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”

Romans 1:21–23

Every year at this time we hear the stories of lawsuits being filed to remove manger scenes and any other indication of religious observance from public places. Schools remove Christmas carols from their programs so they don’t get in trouble, and stores instruct their cashiers not to say “Merry Christmas” to avoid giving offense to some of their customers. What is behind this change? It is at heart part of man’s continuing rebellion against God.

The God of the Bible demands worship for Himself alone as is His right as Sovereign and Creator. “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images” (Isaiah 42:8). This is not a popular message in our anything goes culture, and so people are turning to all sorts of alternatives to avoid worshiping God. Of course we are too sophisticated to erect graven images to worship—instead we worship cars and money and fame and pleasure. But it is no less idolatry because it lacks a physical representation to which people bow down.

We sometimes hear about a “war on Christmas” but what is really going on is a war on God. The proper response for us is not to go to war but to go to worship and witness. When our hearts are right with God and our evangelism is strong, we will see fruit in our society. Remember that with just ten righteous people Sodom would have been spared—but Lot’s desire for prosperity was stronger than his heart for God, and tragedy came as a result.

Today's Growth Principle
The world can ignore the meaning of Christmas, but they cannot make us stop worshiping God.

Old Testament Reading

Amos 4-6

CHAPTER 4

¹ Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. ² The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. ³ And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the LORD. ⁴ Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: ⁵ And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

⁶ And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. ⁷ And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. ⁸ So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. ⁹ I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. ¹⁰ I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. ¹¹ I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. ¹² Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. ¹³ For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

CHAPTER 5

¹ Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. ² The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. ³ For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

⁴ For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: ⁵ But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. ⁶ Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. ⁷ Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, ⁸ Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name: ⁹ That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. ¹⁰ They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. ¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. ¹² For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. ¹³ Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. ¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. ¹⁵ Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶ Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. ¹⁷ And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD. ¹⁸ Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. ¹⁹ As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. ²⁰ Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. ²² Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. ²³ Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. ²⁴ But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. ²⁵ Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? ²⁶ But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. ²⁷ Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

CHAPTER 6

¹ Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! ² Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? ³ Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; ⁴ That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; ⁵ That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; ⁶ That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. ⁷ Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.

⁸ The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein. ⁹ And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. ¹⁰ And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD. ¹¹ For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. ¹² Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: ¹³ Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? ¹⁴ But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.

New Testament Reading

Revelation 7

CHAPTER 7

¹ And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. ² And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, ³ Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. ⁴ And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. ⁵ Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. ⁶ Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. ⁷ Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. ⁸ Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. ⁹ After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; ¹⁰ And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. ¹¹ And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, ¹² Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

¹³ And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? ¹⁴ And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. ¹⁶ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. ¹⁷ For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Proverbs Reading

Proverbs 16

¹ The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. ² All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits. ³ Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. ⁴ The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. ⁵ Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. ⁶ By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. ⁷ When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. ⁸ Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right. ⁹ A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. ¹⁰ A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment. ¹¹ A just weight and balance are the LORD'S: all the weights of the bag are his work. ¹² It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness. ¹³ Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right. ¹⁴ The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it. ¹⁵ In the light of the king's countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain. ¹⁶ How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! ¹⁷ The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. ¹⁸ Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. ¹⁹ Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. ²⁰ He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he. ²¹ The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning. ²² Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly. ²³ The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips. ²⁴ Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. ²⁵ There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. ²⁶ He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him. ²⁷ An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire. ²⁸ A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends. ²⁹ A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good. ³⁰ He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass. ³¹ The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. ³² He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. ³³ The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.