Sermon Series: “O Come Let Us Worship the Lord Together in the Beauty of Holiness!”

February 11, 2024

Sermon Part 2A: "The Pathology of Idolatry in Christian Living!"

Think of your bedroom suite as your brain; the place where all ideas, thoughts, reasoning, and final decisions are made on how to live in this world. Is there a Lion in your head that you have been treating like a kitten? Is your life being controlled by God or an idol(s)? 

Good Morning and Praise the Lord Saints

Introduction: A Call to Holiness
When God gave me this Sermon Series entitled, "O Come Let Us Worship the Lord Together in the Beauty of Holiness," I heard the Holy Ghost say to me the following Commandment and question. The Lord said:

“Thou shalt have no other god before me.” (Ex. 20:3)

“Is this too much to require (ask) of born-again Christians?”
Given all God is, and all He has done for the world and humanity, is it too much to ask of us to worship God alone in the beauty of Holiness? (God’s Morality, Word of God)

Given all we learned last week about the Holiness of God, we should all be running to the altar to surrender and devote our lives (spirit, soul, mind of the soul, physical bodies, and all that we own) to worship the Holy God, whose only begotten Son is Jesus Christ forever. (See Sermon dated, Feb. 4, 2024.) And, to leave dumb idols alone.

We should stand in awe of God, for He alone is all knowing, ever-present, and all powerful. Before the foundations of the world, God slayed the precious Lamb of God and established His Kingdom in His Holiness, and He reigns over all creation.

The Holy God who is flawless and incapable of sin pinned the names of every person (in the past tense) in the Lamb’s Book of Life (LBL) who would believe in the name of Jesus Christ and His finished works on the cross; and gave to them eternal citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes, all of our names are listed in the LBL and can never be removed and our citizenship in heaven cannot be revoked! Give God Praise in this place for the things He has done!

Moreover, the unfathomable and Holy God predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His dear Son Jesus Christ; blessed us with all spiritual blessings, called us holy, blameless, accepted in the beloved, and gave to each of us the promise of eternal life.

All these things were done by God before He created angels, such as Lucifer, and other beings; who were all created to worship God. Yes, even Lucifer, fallen and disgraced and renamed by God “Satan” knows that God is his “Lord God” too. (Matt. 4:7)

God alone created and presides over eternity, the cosmos, including all life forms and things contained therein visible and invisible. My God, My God, My God; Holy, Holy, Holy the Lord God Almighty He alone is Holy! By now, surely all of us must understand that God is separate and apart from all things He created.

Forever mindful of us though, God in His great love and mercy also predetermined to dwell within the earthen vessels of Mankind, of those whose hearts are humble and contrite. This despite the fact that after we were a fallen and disgraced creation due to Adam’s high-treason in the Garden of Eden.

For the prophet Isaiah proclaimed in Isaiah 57:15:\

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

With the physical finished works of Jesus Christ on the cross (His death, burial, resurrection on the third-day and seating at the right-hand of the throne of God), coupled with the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, the world was reconciled to God. (Acts 2:1-4 and II Cor. 5:18-19) Throughout the generations of Mankind, Heaven and the angels of God resoundingly rejoice, every time one of us receives Jesus Christ as Lord and the free gift of eternal life; the LBL predetermined that it would be so! We cry Abba Father, as God now is seated on the throne of our hearts (spirit). For we are the sons of God. (Gal.4:6 and I John 4:15)

God’s Morality (Word of God) is established in our hearts and written on the souls of our minds forevermore! (Heb.10:16) Thus, our born-again hearts, know that there is to be “None before God, and none other besides God to be worshiped.” You and I both know that there is to be no other god in our lives that we worship, except the Holy God!

In this moment, as we get started with this section of the Sermon Series, with the help of the Holy Ghost, begin to examine yourselves and determine whether there is any “thing” or “person” in your life that you have placed before God.” Is it too much to ask of us to remove the idols, and to make God our sole priority?”

I hear God saying that, “I have revived (quickened/made anew) your spirit to its original design and plan before the world began, and that there is no place or space in the theater of your head (bedroom suite) for any other god. Only the Great “I AM!” God says “get rid of the dumb idols in your life so that you can offer to Him true worship that renders sweet-smelling savors of sacrifice in His nostrils! (John 4:23-24 & Rom. 12:1) God wants your head empty of false and useless gods, so that He can fill your head full of Perfect Peace. (Is. 26:3)

We cannot worship God together in the beauty of Holiness, in His Morality, if we are practicing idolatry. Think about it Saints, what good does it do for us to assemble together in this place (Zoom Church) supposedly to worship God together, if we are also secretly worshiping false gods in life?

Our worship of God on earth must match that of how we are seated together in heavenly places in Christ at the right-hand of God in worship of the Holy God. (Eph. 2:5-6) There is no idol worship in heaven, so we cannot worship idols here on earth. Does this make sense to you?

God is searching for people who desire to worship Him in spirit and truth; and not in deception. The truth is, God is a Holy God and there is none besides Him! The authority and power delegated to us as citizens of the Kingdom of God is sorely diminished when we all are not in agreement with living solely to worship the Holy God. (Matt.18:18-20 & I Corinthians 6:9-11)

Let’s stop deceiving ourselves in playing the role of harlots; having extra marital spiritual affairs with false gods. We are calling on every born-again Christian to come and live in God’s Holiness.

Today and next week, we are going to take a forensic look at idolatry to find the root cause of idolatry, and with the power of the Holy Ghost, we are going to remove all idolatry from our lives. This will enable all of us to worship God together in the beauty of God’s Holiness, and receive all that heaven has in store for our good. So let’s get after it!

The Practice of Idolatry

King Solomon at the end of his life wrote this powerful admonition recorded at Ecclesiastes12:13:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

The whole duty of every person born into this world is to fear God and obey His commandments. This is how we worship God in the beauty of Holiness, we are to have reverential fear of God, and keep (hear, learn, study, and rehearse) and obey His commandments. Among the commandments we have from God is that we are to abstain from idol worship. The Holy God, in His Absolute Morality, has determined that idol worship is “immoral.”

Yet, throughout the Bible, from the beginning of God’s Covenant with the children of Israel, idolatry was rampant among the people. In Christian Circles, we are fairly well schooled in the general definition of idolatry. Webster’s Dictionary states, and we also teach, that idolatry is the worship of idols or excessive devotion to, or reverence for some person or thing. An idol is anything that replaces the one, true God who is to be the sole object of our devotion and reverence.

I wish the body of Christ today would remember that God is to be the “sole object of our devotion and reverence.” I want you to keep examining yourself to determine whether this is true in your life? Is God the sole object of your devotion and reverence? Is your devotion and reverence of God “excessive” for Him? It should be so!

In the Old Testament Bible times, the most prevalent form of idolatry was the worship of man-made images that were “thought” by the people to inhabit various pagan deities. However, we see in Scripture from the beginning, God’s covenant with Israel was based on “exclusive” worship of Him alone. (Ex. 20:3 & Deut. 5:7)

More specifically, the utter necessity not to practice idolatry is embodied in the first of the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses. See Exodus 20:3-5

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or 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.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

God was so adamant in worship of Him only, that Israel was not even to mention the names of false gods; they were not even to be heard spoken out of their mouths! (Ex. 23:13). The reason God was so adamant about this is because to mention the name of a false god would acknowledge their existence and give credence to their power and influence over the people. In essence, God was warning the children of Israel that whatever they would worship, they would also become. As whatever god (image) they would love to think on, talk about, and embrace, they would behave and perform like what it represented to them.

Sadly, the children of Israel did not fear God, nor did they understand and value that God had made them in His own image and likeness. If they had worshiped God only, they would have behaved and performed like the only true and Holy God. Then they would have reaped, in their generations, all of the benefits of the promise land God had given to them.

Further, Israel was forbidden by God to intermarry with other cultures who embraced false gods. You cannot marry someone who does not worship the god you worship. (II Cor. 6:14-18) God was teaching them not to intermarry because it leads to compromise and the breaking of the commandments of God, and ultimately the annulment of covenant promises.

King Solomon, although the wisest man to live on earth, in his senior years, had an infinity for idol worship; his many wives turned his heart away from sole worship of God, to worship multitudes of false gods. See I Kings 11:4-9. How sad this is:

For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.

Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.

And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord

Continuing on in the Old Testament, the Book of Hosea is complete with imagery of adultery to describe the children of Israel’s quest for chasing after other gods, just like an unfaithful spouse hunts after other potential suitors. Frankly, as you read the history of Israel in the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, it serves as a sick and sad chronology of idol worship by the children of Israel lead by kings who generationally plunged the nation into punishment, repentance, forgiveness and restoration; only to be followed up again to the return of idolatry.

The Old Testament prophets, without ceasing, prophesied destruction for Israel if they continued in their idolatry. However, mostly, the prophets were ignored until it was too late and God’s wrath against the worship of idols was poured out on them.

Thanks be unto God, that God is merciful and never failed to forgive and bring restoration when Israel truly repented and sought to receive God’s forgiveness. In reality though, idols are nothing more than impotent blocks of stone or wood, and their power only exists in the “Minds” (Heads) of the worshipers who seek to worship them.

For example, in I Samuel 5:1-5, the god of Dagon (the image worshipped of half-man and half-fish; the phony god of fertility and crops) was on two occasions knocked on the ground by God to show the Philistines that the image they were worshiping was no god! See the following text of the total ineptitude of the god of Dagon.

And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

Oh yes, and how about in I Kings 18:19-40, which records the contest of God and the prophet Elijah against the 450 prophets of Baal (worshiped by the Canaanites was supposedly a fertility god; also called lord of the rain and dew) on Mount Carmel, which displayed the might power of the only true and living God against the impotence of false gods. See Vs. 22-40:

Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men.

Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:

And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.

And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.

And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.

And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.

And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.

And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:

And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.

And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.

And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.

And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.

And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.
Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.

Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God.

And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

The aforementioned Scriptures make clear that God alone is worthy of “sole” worship. No idol or statute made by man can lay claim to lord over anything God has created. Idol worship seeks to bold-facedly rob God of all the glory due to Him alone; and this is something God will never tolerate! See what God says at Isaiah 42:8.

"I am the LORD , that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.

Idolatry is Rampant Today, Even in Christian Living

Even today, idolatry is rampant across the world. However, we should not be surprised to see the people of many nations still bowing down and worshiping before statues and icons, as they do not know God and/or have chosen not to believe in the only way to the True and Holy God; that is, through His only begotten Son is Jesus Christ. (John 3:16 & 14:6).

In the United States, a majority Christian nation, over the last several years has seen a rapid rise in the number of people declaring themselves to be “Nones” (having no belief in God). According to the Pew Research Center, about 3 out of every 10 Adults in the United States now claim to be atheists, agnostics, or nothing in particular. This reveals the false god of “self-determination.” Satan has blinded their eyes so they cannot believe, and they live as fools in the earth. (II Cor.4:4 and Ps.14:1)

Thus, it is vitally important, as born-again Christians that we not fall prey to the practice of idolatry in any form. But instead, as God’s chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, and peculiar people, that we worship God in His Holiness (Morality). So that Non-Christians may come to the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved. (I Pet. 2:9) Living life in God’s Morality perfects all we set our hands to do.

However, sadly in Christian Circles, there are many Christians who practice idolatry too. Oh, how my spirit turns within in me, like the Apostle Paul’s did when he was in Athens and beheld the abomination of idolatry in all the land. In Acts 17:16, the Apostle Luke pinned of Paul:

 Now while Paul waited for them (Silas and Timotheus) at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

Though in Christianity today, we do not see born-again Christians making hand-made statutes and icons and bowing down and worshiping them. The idols we have are many and varied and are worshiped in the theater of our brains.

Many Christians have “excessive” devotion and reverence to the things and people of this world. Like the unsaved people of this world, many of us have fallen in love with the “things” in the world (i.e. houses, cars, jobs, sports teams, money, shopping, and traveling…on and on), even though we are warned not to in Scripture. I John 2:15-17 says,

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever

My prayer in 2024, and until Jesus Christ comes again to rapture His Church, is that every member and partner of Exousia Ministries, Inc., and born-again Christian in the United States and around the world, would join together as “One Voice,” to worship God in the “beauty of Holiness.”

Psalm 96:3-4 says:
Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.

If we would all worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness, the Church of Jesus Christ would be changed to reflect the image of God in Christ Jesus in the earth, and declare the works of God among the sinner man. Then, multitudes of people would be compelled to come to Jesus Christ and receive salvation. God longs to be worshiped in the beauty of His Holiness!

At I Samuel 2:2, the Prophet Samuel exclaimed,
“There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.

No false god, human being, nor thing created visible or invisible in the heavens above, the earth, and beneath the earth is holy; like The Lord God! “None” is to be worshiped, praised, feared, and obeyed; only the Lord God.

Saints, this is what true worship of God is all about. Daily presenting your “whole-self” to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, as a living sacrifice to God: praising God with all might, praying fervently always with Him, standing in awe and reverential fear and trembling at God’s mighty works, delighting yourself in God’s Word and keeping and obeying His commandments. (Rom.12:1-2) King Solomon rendered the verdict of the whole matter of life when he wrote at Ecclesiastes 12:13:
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

You know, the body of Christ, including me and you at Exousia Ministries, Inc. can do a “far better” job of worshiping in the beauty of God’s Holiness. We all need to go back to our “First Work” in Jesus Christ. (We will be talking a lot about this in the weeks to come.) We need to come back to the altar running with that same humble and contrite heart we first had when we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ, and invited Him into our hearts to sup with us.

In humility and a continual zeal, we need to lower ourselves to the ground and in fear and trembling and ask God to give us an “Upper Room” experience. In like manner to when the 120-believers that were gathered together on the Day of Pentecost, and the Holy Ghost came in like a mighty rushing wind and sat on each of them with tongues of fire! (Acts 1:13-15 & 2:1-4)

Oh yes, we need again our knee caps made ashy, and to enjoy the taste of salty-tears from drenched cheek bones, borne out of a hunger and thirst for the Presence of God, to fill us full, to the overflow, with His Spirit and Power! (Acts 1:8)

For God has declared that we are to be holy, for He is Holy! Clothe yourselves now with the words of the Apostle Peter recorded at I Peter 1:15. Peter wrote,

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
But you know Saints, in our humanity, often times both in spiritual and natural relationships, we treat love the wrong way. We often times are not as aggressive in holding on to and nurturing the love we possess, as we did when we first desired and sought after it. Instead, we take the person who we claim to love for granted; and let the love grow cold and distant. Even in some cases to the point, where we don’t even know if we are in love anymore.

This is what has happened to so many Christians. They have forgotten and taken for granted the Holiness of God; they no longer long for Holiness, fear Holiness, nor love Holiness. Instead, many Christians have chosen and invited into their “mental bedrooms” another lover that has replaced God. And, how about you, has your worship of God’s Holiness grown cold, been forgotten, or even have you ever known of it?

I am here today to admonish all of us that we must never forget the Incalculable, Immeasurable, and Unfathomable Holiness of God. Never stop humbling yourself and worshiping the only True and Holy God whose Son, the only begotten of the Father, is Jesus Christ. God alone is Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent. He is a Holy God! Not only is God holy, but He is Holy, Holy, Holy the Lord God Almighty!!! In other words, God is real, real, and real Holy like none other. Speaking about the angels in heaven in praising God, the Prophet Isaiah wrote,
And one cried unto another and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.”
The Apostle John wrote that he saw and heard the angels of God, praising God without ceasing saying,
“…Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!”(Rev. 4:8)

Obviously, God wants His people to get the message loud and clear, as we, like the angels are to worship God saying “Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord God Almighty is Holy.” Praise God we all need to let God be: Holy, Holy, Holy; the Lord God Almighty in our lives! Let me awaken some of you and refresh for others your understanding of the Holiness of God. This will help you worship God in the beauty of Holiness.
The Holiness of God Understood
The first Verse of the Book of Genesis is a great place to turn to and gain understanding of the Holiness of God. About God, Moses wrote this:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Gen.1:1)
I love it! Genesis 1:1 says that God created the heaven and the earth. This clearly shows that God is “separate” from everything He created.

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (Col. 1:16-17)
God through Jesus Christ created “the beginning,” and He created the “heaven and earth.” Let’s also plug in right here that God also created the “ending.” (Rev.22:13) Therefore, God sits down and rules and reigns over eternity all by Himself; for He made eternity! Everything that God created; was made by Jesus, for Jesus, and consist of Jesus.

Because God is the Creator of all things, all things were made in His omniscience (infinite knowledge). Everything was made according to God’s Divine Will: given a name, given a purpose, given a time of existence, called into being, planned, and planted to bring forth glory and honor to God alone!

I pray that every Church and born-again Christian be awaken or re-wakened to the Holiness of God, and never forget nor take for granted that: “God is sanctified, cut, set apart, from everything He created.” Yes, God is a Holy God!

Scripture tells us that after God re-created the earth, He called it “good.” (Gen.1:2-31) The determination by God to call everything He made good is because God is absolute good; perfectly good! His judgement of good was borne out of God’s “absolute moral purity.”
The “holiness of God” refers to the “Absolute Moral Purity” of God. God is absolutely pure, He is absolute “Light” and in Him is no darkness. (I John 1:5) God’s thoughts, reasoning, character, wisdom, judgments, spoken words, behavior, and ways; are unsullied by sin and moral defects.
God Himself is not only perfectly good. He is the very source and standard of goodness, which is rooted in His moral purity. In this regard, goodness has a permanence to it precisely, because it is rooted in the eternal and everlasting God.
The Psalmist wrote at Psalm 100:5
For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
The “Goodness” of God does not change because God does not change. Likewise, God’s “Absolute Moral Purity” does not change because God does not change. God’s absolute goodness and morality can never be separated from Himself!
Moving further along, the truth is, if God had not made the “beginning” and everything in “heaven and the earth,” then nothing would exist. God, the Word (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Ghost would only be. (John 1:1-3)
However, God having set Himself apart, and having created the beginning and the ending and the heavens and the earth, brings us to the obvious and logical conclusion that God alone also created and established the standard/principals of morality that govern everything made by Him.
Before the foundations of the world, through God’s omniscience (infinite knowledge of everything), He fore-knew every person that would be born into the world, and those who would choose to believe (to stand firm in their faith in Him) in His Son Jesus Christ and His finished works on the cross, and wrote each of their names, in the past tense, in the Lamb’s Book of Life (LBL). (Rev. 3:5)
The LBL is a complete list of all those who have been given to Jesus Christ by God the Father, and have eternal life, as well as those who will be saved not yet born into this world. This is why when you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ preached, you were drawn to and placed in the hands of Christ; as God had already written your name in the LBL before the foundations of the world! (John 6:37) The following Scripture references witness the Lamb’s Book of Life/Book of Life. (Php. 4:3, Rev.13:8, 17:8, 20:15, 21:10, & 21:27) The names written in the LBL can never be erased!
Further, The Holy One, God alone, predestinated every believer in Jesus Christ to be: (1) Conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (to be a new creature in Christ having the Spirit of the Life and Mind of Jesus Christ, and to receive a glorified body like Jesus’s body); (2) Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, (3) Called and named holy and blameless and accepted in the beloved, (4) Created in Christ to abound in doing the miraculous good works of God, and (5) Recipients of the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
To all of this I say as the Psalmist wrote:
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. (Ps.145:3)
Behold the greatness and goodness of God in the following Scriptures, and in them give God praise for His Holiness toward you.
Romans 8:29-30
29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
See Ephesians 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
See Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Also see Titus 1:2
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
As “guarantee” for all these great and mighty works of God before the world was founded, God slayed His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, and established His Kingdom in eternity. Reference the following Scriptures, respectively from Revelation 13:8 and Matthew 25:34.

Revelation 13:8

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the beast), whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.

Jesus says in Matthew 25:34: "Then the King [Jesus Christ] will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

God determined and performed all of these wonderful things for us long before He created the world, Lucifer (turned Satan), and mankind on earth. Thus, only God knows the Divine Will, Purpose, and Plan for all human beings; and more specifically for your life. It is God alone who has established the moral compass for all human life. God alone has set the eternal standard for what is good, acceptable, and perfect in His sight!

Apart from God, no human being can know nor experience the order of God for life. For any person to decide to follow any other course in life, other than the way God has prescribed, only leads to highways of mediocrity, sorrow, and ultimately death! (Prov.14:12)
God’s Holiness, therefore, distances itself from the His most cherished creation on earth, mankind. Even though mankind is created in the image and likeness of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Ghost. (Gen.1:26-27) The Holiness of God distinguishes God, as God, and reveals how we as human beings are not. God is the only being that cannot be tempted with evil. (James 1:13) The Holiness of God communicates His divine sovereignty and flawless purity, His overwhelming right to rule, and His spotless character. Whereas, the morality established by mankind in the world pails and falls far short of God’s morality, because mankind is not, nor ever will be omniscient. Man’s wisdom is folly to God. (I Cor. 3:19)
God’s Absolute Moral Purity (Holiness) sets the standard and difference between right and wrong, good and bad behavior, and truth and a lie.

God Revealed His Holiness to Mankind through the Word of God

God who is love, longs for mankind to understand and know of His Holiness; for those of a humble and contrite heart. As such, God has given to us the Bible (The Word of God) that communicates His principals for living in His Holiness. Like neon lights flashing into darkness, God’s Word shines bright and tells of His Holiness.

The clear example of this is God’s mouth-to-mouth communication of His Holiness with Moses to the children of Israel. Remember when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and told him to go to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of bondage. (Ex.3:10)

In response, Moses said to God:
Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is his name? Then what shall I tell them? (Ex. 3:13)

God said to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” (Ex. 3:14).

“I AM” is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency, self-existence, and immediate presence. God’s existence is not contingent upon anyone else. His plans are not contingent upon any circumstances. In this announcement to Moses God promises that He will be what He will be; that is, He will be the “eternally constant God.” He stands, ever-present and unchangeable, completely sufficient in Himself to do what He wills to do, and to accomplish what He wills to accomplish. (Omniscient, Omnipresent, & Omnipotent)

This is true of God for all time, but it was especially the exact message Moses and the children of Israel needed in their bondage; a people in slavery to Egypt for 400-years and could see no way out. “I AM” was promising to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians, and they could count on Him to do it!

Further, when God identified Himself to Moses as I AM THAT I AM, He was saying, no matter when or where, He is there. This is strikingly similar to the Revelation of Jesus Christ that the Apostle John received on the Isle of Patmos, (I will have much to say about this later in the Series.)

But as I close for today, the key point I want to emphasize and carry forward is that when we open the Bible and read God’s standards for living, compared to how we as born-again Christians are living, there is a wide-golf between. Most Christians have conformed to the world’s system and fallen in love with the things of this world, which has carried them away into the insidious practice of idolatry. We do not understand how dangerous idolatry is to our relationship with God. It carries us far away from His Holiness!

We must sound the alarm within the body of Christ that its high-time we bow down before God in Christ Jesus and worship in the beauty of Holiness (God’s Morality). We must never forget, nor take for granted Our God, the Holy God, who created everything for His glory.

To live in God’s Morality, we must button-down all the hatches, close all the doors, windows, seal up every crack in our way of thinking and living; to rid ourselves of idolatry to serve the only True and Living God.

For the next two weeks, the Lord willing, we will talk about the “Pathology of Idolatry.” You do not want to miss this. Amen for the preaching of His Word, give God glory and praise in this place!

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