A Jealous God

Q: What does the Bible say about God's jealousy?

The Bible reveals that God is a jealous God, emphasizing His right to demand worship exclusively for Himself, as stated in Exodus 34:14. God's jealousy is depicted in Scripture as perfect and righteous. In Exodus 34:14, it is written, 'For thou shalt worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.' This jealousy is not like human jealousy, which can be sinful; rather, it is a holy and pure zeal for His own honor and glory. God's jealousy signifies His desire for His people to remain faithful to Him and not to divert their affections to false gods or idols. He cannot tolerate the compromise of His holiness and sovereignty, as seen throughout the biblical narrative where idolatry incites divine wrath.

Q: Why is God's jealousy important for Christians?

God's jealousy is essential for Christians as it underscores His holiness and sovereignty, calling believers to a faithful relationship with Him. Understanding God's jealousy is crucial for Christians because it reveals His unwavering commitment to His own glory and the purity of His covenant relationship with His people. God desires His followers to recognize the seriousness of worshiping Him alone and avoiding the lure of sin and idolatry. This jealousy acts as a protective measure, ensuring that believers stay aligned with His will and commands, fostering a relationship built on devotion and fidelity. It also serves as a reminder of our need to honor Him in our lives, positioning Him above all else, which is foundational to living a life that reflects His grace and truth. As stated in 1 Corinthians 10:14, 'Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.'

Q: How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

God's sovereignty is affirmed throughout Scripture, illustrating His absolute authority over creation and human affairs. The truth of God's sovereignty is deeply rooted in Scripture, which consistently portrays Him as the ultimate ruler of the universe. Passages such as Romans 9:21 affirm His right to do as He wills with His creation—'Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?' This sovereignty extends to His providential governance of all events in history, ensuring that His purposes are accomplished according to His divine plan. As believers, recognizing God's sovereignty allows us to trust in His providential care and understand that He is working all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). It invites a posture of humility and submission in our own lives, acknowledging that His ways are higher than ours.

Q: Why is God's glory significant for Christians?

God's glory is significant for Christians as it reflects His nature and the ultimate purpose of creation; all glory belongs to Him alone. The significance of God's glory for Christians cannot be overstated, as it encapsulates the essence of who God is and the purpose behind His creation. His glory is the manifestation of His holiness, power, and majesty—the qualities that set Him apart as the one true God. In Isaiah 42:8, God declares, 'My glory will I not give to another,' emphasizing that He alone is worthy of worship and reverence. Christians are called to reflect this glory in their lives, bringing honor to God through submission and obedience. As believers, recognizing the weight of God's glory compels us to live lives that magnify Him, pointing others to His greatness, as we understand that our ultimate fulfillment comes from glorifying Him rather than ourselves.

But I invite you to turn this
morning in your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 34. The
book of Exodus chapter 34. I'd like to read this morning
beginning with verse 10 and read down through verse 17. Exodus
chapter 34. And he said, Behold, I make a
covenant, before all thy people I will do marvels such as have
not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation, and all the
people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord, for
it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. Observe thou that
which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee
the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and
the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy
their altars, break down their images, and cut down their groves. For thou shalt worship no other
god For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a Jealous God. Lest thou make a covenant with
the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their
gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and
thou eat of his sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters
unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods,
and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods. Thou shalt
make thee no molten gods. I want to speak this morning
on verse 14. But thou shalt worship no other
god, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. May the Lord humble our hearts
before Him and enable us to receive the message this morning. Now,
jealousy in man is usually exercised in an evil manner, but it is
not in itself necessarily evil or sinful. Now, all thoughtful
people, I believe, will agree that there is surely such a thing
as virtuous jealousy. Certainly we learn from the Word
of God that there is such a thing as godly jealousy. Paul said in Corinthians 2 Corinthians
11 and 2, for I am jealous over you. Speaking to the believers
there in the church, he says, I'm jealous over you with godly
jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Now he had, Paul did,
an earnest and cautious and anxious concern for the holiness of the
Lord's living family. That the Lord Jesus Christ might
be honored in their lives, that they might be obedient to him,
faithful to him, that they would not turn out to be lovers of
the world and walk in the ways of the world. You remember James
spoke to the Lord's people and he said, you adulteresses and
adulterers, know ye not that friendship with the world is
enmity with God? And this is what Paul was talking
about. And let it be remembered then
that jealousy, like anger, you know the scripture says, be angry
and sin not. Scripture says, don't let the
sun go down on your anger. So jealousy like anger is not
evil and sinful in itself, or it could never be ascribed to
God. The Lord is a jealous God. His jealousy is pure and is a
holy flame. I invite you to turn with me
to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32 and hold your finger here
in Exodus 34 and listen here to a few verses. I say that the
jealousy of our God is a pure jealousy and it is a holy flame. Listen. In verse 16, Deuteronomy
32, they provoked him, that is God, they provoked him to jealousy
with strange gods. With abominations provoked they
him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils,
not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came
newly up, whom your fathers feared not. of the rock that begat thee,
thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when the Lord saw it, he
abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of
his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face
from them, I'll see what their end shall be, for they are a
very forward generation children in whom is no faith. They have
moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked
me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people. I will provoke them to anger
with a foolish nation. And as we go on to read here
in verse 22, it speaks of a fire that is kindled. He says, For
a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest
hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on
fire the foundation of the mountains. And I will keep mischief upon
them. I will heap mischief upon them.
and I will spend mine heirs upon them. They shall be burnt with
hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction.
I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them with the poison
of serpents of the dust. The sword without and terror
within shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the
suckling also with the man of gray hair. Speaking of the jealousy
and the wrath that is stirred up in the heart of God, concerning
the nation Israel and their rebellion in setting up false gods and
idols before him. The Song of Solomon chapter 8
and verse 6 says, Set me as a seal upon thine heart. has a seal
upon thine arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as
the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath
a most vehement flame." I tell you the jealousy of God is a
pure jealousy, it is a fire that rages in the heart of Almighty
God. And I think this morning as we
think about this, we can see that the word jealousy itself,
that it means for one to have this raging fire in his bosom
toward those that would in some way or another violate or dishonor
him by the setting up of these false gods. Now look in Proverbs
6, and I want to read beginning with verse 32. Proverbs chapter
6. And verse 32, we begin there,
and it says, But whoso commiteth adultery with a woman, lacketh
understanding. He that doeth it, destroyeth
his own soul. A wound in dishonor shall he
get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is
the rage of a man. Therefore, he will not spare
in the day of vengeance, he will not regard any ransom, neither
will he rest content, though thou give us many gifts. And
here in the book of Proverbs, the all-wise Solomon is setting
forth to us this truth about jealousy. And this will help
us to set the stage. It will help us to, as it were,
to lay the groundwork for what we're going to say about the
Lord's jealousy. Here he says that that man who
has suffered at the hands of the adulterer, his wife having
been taken, adultery having been committed. This man is full of
rage. The husband, the innocent party
is full of rage. Therefore he will not spare in
the day of vengeance. He will not spare in the day
of vengeance. Now the Bible says that vengeance
is mine, I'll repay, saith the Lord. Never avenge thyself. God's
people need to take heed to that. But those in the world who are
thus done wrong, and they are very jealous over what has happened
in their family, over what has happened to their wife or to
their husband, then they'll not spare in the day of vengeance.
And you read about it, you hear about it all the time where somebody
has taken their vengeance out on somebody who has committed
this awful sin that's mentioned in verse 32. And then verse 35
it says, he will not regard any ransom. In other words, you give
him what you want to give him, you're not going to satisfy his
rage. You're not going to satisfy his
jealousy. Neither will he rest content. He'll never be content. And this
is a picture of God in his jealousy as men bow down to other idols,
men bow down to idols and false gods. And he says he'll not regard
any ransom. It won't make any difference.
You can't buy him off because you can't in any way, if you
steal $100 from a man, maybe you can take him and give him
$150 and he'll shut up about it and not say anything more
about it. But if you commit adultery with his wife, Then, my friend,
this man is not going to regard any ransom. It won't make any
difference what you give him. He'll never be content. And this
is a picture of God when God Himself has been violated by
those who worship false gods. And it says that He'll not rest
content though thou givest many gifts. because you cannot give
a man back what you stole from him in the act of adultery. You can never give it back to
him regardless of what you do. And God is in that very position
when it comes to man and his idolatry in this world. Men have
robbed God of His glory and of His honor and of His deity, and
God does not take it lightly. The God of the Bible is a God
who will not regard any ransom, neither will He rest content,
though thou givest Him or offer Him many gifts. Wrath is cruel,
anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before jealousy,
the Word of God says. For all these reasons, The word
jealousy, I believe, is selected as some faint picture of that
tender regard which God has for his own deity, his own honor,
and his own supremacy, and the holy indignation which he feels
towards those who violate his laws, offend his majesty, and
impeach his character. This is the nearest idea that
we can come to as mere mortals of what the divine being really
feels when he sees his throne occupied by some false god that
has been made by a man and by his dignity insulted and his
glory usurped by others. Listen to these words of the
prophet Nahum in Nahum chapter 1 in verse 2. God is jealous,
and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. May our soul indeed be humble
before the Lord and tremble at his name. Now, I want to bring
out about five things this morning that I believe that the Lord
is exceedingly jealous over. And I think these things will
be very helpful to us to understand something about our God, and
maybe we'll get a fresh view this morning of the Lord. And
maybe we'll be able to honor Him and to worship Him as we
ought. First of all, let me say the
Lord is indeed jealous of his deity. In verse 14, he said,
For thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord whose name
is Jealous is a jealous God. Thou shalt worship no other God. Now when the law was given at
Mount Sinai, The second commandment, I believe, received force from
the divine jealousy. Listen to what the commandment
says. Thou shalt not make into 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
the Lord thy God is a jealous God. And I believe His jealousy
gave rise to that commandment and gave force to that commandment. Since He is the only God, the
Creator of heaven and earth, He cannot endure. God cannot
endure. There's a fire that burns within
Him. There's a rage in the heart of
God. He cannot endure that any creature
of His own hands or fiction of a creature's imagination should
be thrust into His throne and should wear His crown. Now, if
you're familiar with the Old Testament, many of these things
that we say will be commonplace to you. But if you're not, you
need to read and to study through the Old Testament. In the book
of Ezekiel, we find that the false god is described as the
image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy. The Lord said to
Jerusalem for turning from him to idols mine eyes shall not
spare, neither will I have pity upon thee, but I will recompense
your ways upon your head. God has a holy jealousy for his
own deity, his own godhood. He says, I am God alone and there
is no other. I am the only true and living
God. Now false gods, they can endure
the existence of other false gods. Dagon, we read out of 1
Samuel chapter 5 this morning. He can stand with Baal and Baal
with Ashtaroth because sea stone and wood and silver cannot be
moved to indignation. These are false gods made out
of the elements of the earth, and they can tolerate each other.
They can sit in the same room with each other, but because
God is the only living and true God, when they took the Ark,
which is a symbol of the presence of God, and set that Ark in the
room where old Agen was, What happened to old Dagan? Well,
Dagan, you know, he fell down. They come back in the next morning,
they set him back up. The next night he fell down and
broke himself. He was broken before the ark
of God because God would not tolerate being in the same room,
His presence, with a false god. And that's what the chapter there
that we read this morning is all about. Thus saith the Lord,
ye shall destroy their altars, ye break their images, and cut
down their groves. The idols he shall utterly abolish. God's people were to have nothing
to do with bowing before these gods. Now do you have sympathy
with God in this? Can you not put yourself in God's
place just for a moment and think a little bit about this? Suppose
that you had made the heaven and the earth and all the creatures
that inhabit them. How would you feel if those creatures
would set an image up that was made out of wood or brass or
gold or silver and say, these are the gods that made us, these
Give us life. How would you feel about that?
Well, what must be the Lord's? indignation against rebels when
they go so far as to set up a leak or to set up an onion or a beetle
or a frog Preferring to worship the fruit of their own gardens
or the vermin of their muddy rivers rather than to acknowledge
that God in whose hand their very breath is How would you
feel? Can you sympathize with God in
this? Is it right for Him to be jealous? Is it right for Him to have this
rage in His bosom? Is it right for Him to take vengeance
upon those who worship false gods? Men have changed, Romans
1 and 23, the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man. and the birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things." What an indictment against man,
his depravity. He is sunk so low that he changed
the glory of this incorruptible God into an image made like man,
like the corruptible man, made like a bird, four-footed beasts,
creeping things. That's man in his depravity.
That's man in his rebellion against God's commandment, who said,
Thou shalt not make any image. Thou shalt not bow down before
any false gods. Now, brother, sister, the whole
history of the human race seems to me to be a record of the wars
of the Lord against this awful sin of idolatry. This generation
is no better. This generation in which you
and I live is no better. It is just as idolatrous as any
generation that God Almighty ever had to put up with. Now,
God is, to a lot of people, custom. Whatever the custom is, that's
our God. Whatever the fashion is, that's
our God. Our business, that's our God. And you don't ever fool with
a man's business, because his business is his God in a lot
of instances. Pleasure. How many people have
made a God out of pleasure? They live for it. Amusement.
They gotta be amused all the time. They go from one thing
to another. That's their God. And then ambition. Oh, dare you say anything about
a man's ambition. Let it be whatever it will. It's
his God. And you better not make him an
orphan. You better not kill his God. Honor. Oh, we got to have
our honor. Whatever it cost, even if we
gotta rob God of His, we gotta have our honor, and not only
that, covetousness. The Bible says that covetousness
is idolatry, is idolatry. And yet this generation is some
of the most covetous people. They got more than most generations
have had, but yet they're the most covetous generation maybe
that ever lived on the face of this earth. You have said, these
be my gods. These be my gods. And the poet
said, his throne, a seat of dreadful wrath, girt with devouring flame. The Lord appears consuming fire
and jealous is his name. You better repent of your idolatry.
The God of the Bible is jealous over his deity. The fact that
he is the one God. of heaven and earth and you better
bow before him and humble yourself before this God. Now the second
thing that the Lord is jealous of, I believe, is His sovereignty. God is jealous of His sovereignty. God has a sovereign right to
do what He will. with his own. He has a sovereign
right to do what he will with his own creation. He has a sovereign
right in providence to do what he will day by day with the lives
of men. God can do what he will. He is
controlled by none. The potter has power over the
clay to fashion it according to his own good pleasure, to
make one vessel to honor and another unto dishonor, Romans
9 and 21. He has a right to issue commands
and he has done so. God has issued commandments in
His Holy Word. He had a right to do that. And
men are bound to obey Him. God has said, Thou shalt not,
Thou shalt not, this you must not do, and so on and so forth.
Man is bound to obey the God of the Bible because God is sovereign
and He has a right to tell you what to do and what not to do. But men revolt against His sovereignty,
and they will not obey Him. They deny that He is King of
kings and Lord of lords. They take counsel together, saying,
We'll break His bands in sunder, and we'll cast away His cords
from us. We will not have this God to
rule over us. There is no God for me. I will
not bow my knee to any God. Well, God is moved to jealousy
by these sins and will defend the rights of His crown against
all comers, for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all
gods. And He will, my friend, demand
of you obedience to His command. Now this reminds me of what the
God of the Bible hates. Now I say that the God of the
Bible hates S-I-N, sin. I do not think that this generation
knows anything about what sin really is. The Bible says that
sin is the transgression of the law of God. Really and truthfully
this morning, let me tell you that sin is the very raping of
God Almighty. It's what sin is. And when a
man sins, when a man stands in the face of God and tells God
that he's not going to do what he told him to do, that man,
my friend, he is going himself into the God business. He's challenging
God. He looks at God. God says, Thou
shalt not. He says, I will. He himself sets
himself up as his own sovereign and says, I'll do as I please.
about this matter, and I'll do what I please about that matter,
and about some other matter, and God says that's sin. God
says when you go against Him and against His mind as He's
revealed it in His Word, that is sin. And God hates sin, and
sin, my friend, is rebellion against God's sovereignty. And
then also I believe that God hates self-righteousness. Self-righteousness
is treason against God. We were all born sinners in this
world. And there's only one way. There's
only one way whereby a man can be made righteous before God.
The self-righteousness. I'm going to go on and I'm going
to establish my own righteousness. I'll take care of my own business. I'll take care of my own soul.
Man does not understand that he come into this world naked
as a newborn jaybird, not a thread to cover his shame before a thrice
holy God. A man is a sinner and God says
there's one way whereby you can be clothed, whereby you can be
clothed, your shame be put away. Your sin be put away. There's
one way whereby I can tolerate your presence and look at you
and receive you into my presence, and that is as you come to my
Son. My Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's my righteousness, and you'll bow to Him, accept Him, believe
on Him, trust Him, and when you do that, you're righteous in
my sight. But the sinner won't have it.
The sinner won't have it. He says, I'll cover my own shame.
I'll get me a fig leaf like old Adam in the garden. I'll do something.
I'll cover my own shame. God says, you'll go to hell.
Now, God is sovereign. And he said, this is the only
way you can approach me. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father
except he come by me. You must come through the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is sovereign. And he has
life. And he can give it to you. And
he will give it to you. But you go on about your own,
your own effort to save yourself, and you will die and go to hell,
as sure as I'm preaching to you. And the next thing that I believe
that God is jealous about, and that He hates, is false doctrine. False doctrine. Now, false doctrine
inasmuch as it touches God's sovereignty is always, I think,
an object of divine jealousy. It enrages the heart of God. Listen, especially the doctrine
of free will. Free will doctrine, I believe
God is jealous over his truth. He's sovereign, and his will
is a will that cannot be thwarted, and his will will not in any
way, shape, or form be subject to man's will. God has a will
and it's a free will. God can do as he will among the
inhabitants of this earth. And yet the doctrine of free
will, well what does it do? Well, the doctrine of free will,
why does God hate it? Why is God so jealous and enraged
against this doctrine of free will? Because it magnifies man
into God. It makes a God out of this corruptible
man, is what it does. It would nullify God's purpose.
The Armenian theologians very skillfully say that free will
is that God cannot carry out his purposes unless free will
bow or in some way or another assists God and men become willing. When men become willing, God
can do what he wants to do. It makes God's will a waiting
servant to the will of man and the whole covenant of grace depended
upon human action. denying election on the ground
of injustice. It holds God to be a debtor to
sinners, so that if He gives grace to one, He is bound to
give grace to all, you see, in the same way. It teaches that
the blood of Christ was shed equally for all men, and since
some are lost, this doctrine ascribes a difference to man's
own will, making the atonement a powerless thing until the will
of man gives it efficacy. This is blasphemy is what it
is. It's contrary to the teaching
of God's sovereignty. God is a sovereign and these
sentiments, these sentiments of men dilute the scriptural
description of man's depravity and it imputes a strength to
fallen man that he does not have. Romans chapter 5 and verse 6
says, when we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ
died for the ungodly, when we were without strength. That's
what it says. Sounds like to me that the sinner
is in no position to do all this that the Arminian theologians
tell us that they're capable of doing. We know that God is
sovereign and that man is unable to do what he thinks he can do. He's kind of like, but he really
thinks he's somebody, man does. I often tell this illustration
about the woodpecker on the side of a big oak tree. And he was
pecking away at that big oak tree, and there was a bolt of
lightning come out of the sky and split that oak tree right
down the middle, and it just fell over in two pieces. And
that woodpecker jumped back and said, my, look what I did. Look
what I did. And a lot of times a sinner's
the same way about salvation. Look what I've done. Look what
I've done. Well, the sinner, listen to me,
this false doctrine, this doctrine of free will says in effect that
it is of him that willeth and of him that runneth and not of
God that showeth mercy. God is sovereign in the salvation
of a sinner and he saves the sinner from the beginning to
the end. And mark it down that any doctrine which stands in
opposition to this statement of scripture, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, provokes God to anger and provokes him
to jealousy. I tremble, brother, sister, lest
I should utter one word of opposition to the sovereignty of God. God
has a right He has a right. He is God. He made heaven and
earth. He made everything in it, of
Him, through Him, to Him, of all things. To Him be glory. I tell you, He has a right. He
giveth no account of His matters, and He does what He will. None
can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou? Now, I
We, here in this congregation, believe that the free will heresy
assails the sovereignty of God and mars the glory of his dominion. And I don't want to hear any
more about it than what I have to hear. I don't want to listen
to it any more than what I have to listen to it. But we need
to take heed to ourself that we receive the truth which sets
God on high and lays the creature in the dust where he belongs.
The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Be this our joy. The Lord is our King. Let us
obey Him and defend to the death the crown rights of the King
of Kings, for He is a jealous God. Let us crown Him every day
by bowing to His sovereignty, bowing to His sovereignty. The
songwriter expressed it like this in these words. Listen to
it. Glory to the Eternal King, clad
in majesty supreme. Let all heavenly praises sing. Let all worlds His power proclaim. Oh, let my transported soul err
on His glory's gaze, ever yield to His control, ever sound His
lofty praise. Isn't that wonderful? It really
is. The Lord is jealous of His sovereignty. And so be mighty
careful. Be mighty careful when you're
talking. When you open your mouth, you be careful lest you infringe
upon the deity or the sovereignty of our God because he's a jealous
God. Number three, the Lord is jealous
of his glory. He's jealous of his glory. Now
God's glory is the result of his nature and his acts. Now I want you to get that. God's
glory is the result of His nature and His acts. And nobody else,
nobody can duplicate God's nature and God's acts. God is awesome
in wonder. God is almighty, all-powerful. None can have His glory. There is glory in the universe.
There is one, there is space in the universe for one glory. And that glory is God's glory. That's the only place there is.
My glory, Isaiah 42 and 80 says, will I not give to another? I'll
not give my glory to another. And no flesh, 1 Corinthians 1,
27 through 29, It says that no flesh should
glory in his presence. And so how very careful then
should we be if we be allowed to serve our God, if we be allowed
to do anything for the Lord and he be pleased to accept of our
doing that we may never congratulate ourselves in the presence of
God as if we did something that we were not enabled to do by
his pure grace. Now listen to me. You preached
well, said a friend to John Bunyan. John Bunyan said, you're too
late. You're too late. The devil told me that before
I left the pulpit. The devil told me that already.
Psalm 115 verse 1, Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory. God is very jealous about this. Let a believer once say, I am. And it just, listen, God very
soon will cause him to say, I am not. I am not. Listen to me. Jesus said, John 15, without
me you can do nothing. Paul said in Philippians 4 and
13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. We need to be careful, brother,
sister, about this vain glory. I invite you to turn with me
to Acts 12. Turn with me over in the New Testament to Acts
chapter 12. And I want to read here a scripture
that I think will will help us to see why we need to be very
careful about vainglory and about boasting in the presence of our
God. In the last part of chapter 12,
let's begin at verse 20. was highly displeased with them
of Tar and Sidon, but they came with one accord to him, and having
made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace,
because their country was nourished by the king's country. And upon
a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne,
and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout,
saying, It is the voice of a God, and not of man. And immediately
the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory. And he was eaten of worms, and
gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and
multiplied. Josephus tells us that that man
sat upon that throne and the worms began to crawl out of the
openings of his body and ate him alive right there as he sat
because he did not give God the glory. And the angel of God came
and destroyed him just like that. And the worms which ate Herod
when he gave not God the glory are ready for another meal, my
friend. And we need to be careful in our day and time. Beware of
vain glory, because God is a jealous God. How careful we must be to
walk humbly before the Lord. There's room, as we said, for
one glory only in the universe, and we must not be a rival of
His. We must not be seeking glory. And God usually, if He's going
to use a man to any degree, God usually will humble a man. He'll
break a man. He'll bring a man to where he
will not be able to lift up his head and usurp the throne of
God and receive the glory due unto God. And if not, God will
bring a man down in judgment if he dares to raise up his head
and act as if he deserves glory for something that God does.
Proud souls, let me say this, humble souls are always accepted
of God because they're not in God's way. They're not in God's
way. Proud souls are always rejected
because they are in God's way. Oh nothingness and vanity, puny
mortal, call man. Humble yourself and reverence
God alone. Worship God. Worship God. Now next, let us never misrepresent
in our preaching, in our teaching, and in our witnessing God, so
as to rob Him of His glory and His honor. How important this
is. Because, you know, we try to
bear a witness for His name. Be very careful. Be very careful. Don't you in any way, shape,
or form bring God down to a man. There's people in this generation,
preachers especially, who if they can't get a dollar for Jesus,
they'll take 50 cents. And if they can't get 50 cents,
they'll take a quarter. Whatever it is a man will give
for their Jesus, they'll sell him for whatever they can get.
out of him, and we're not that kind of people. We'll preach
him as he is, and men, if they have him, they'll have him as
he is, in his sovereignty, and in his grace, and in his power,
or they'll not have him. They'll not have him at our hands.
Now then, If any preacher shall preach of God so as to dishonor
him, God will be jealous against that man. Blind, dead preachers
preaching dead sermons to dead sinners. That characterizes this
generation. You run through a sieve. Now
you listen to what I'm saying here. You run through a sieve.
Everything that's being said this morning, even in this city
of Great Falls, run it through a sieve. And whatever it is that
these preachers are saying today that glorifies God truly, you
write it down on a piece of paper and I guarantee you can take
that piece of paper and you can wad it up and you can put it
in a thimble and it'll rattle in that thimble like a peanut
in a boxcar. I'm telling you the truth. I'm
telling you the truth. This generation is misrepresenting
God. You know I'm not lying on these preachers. I'm telling
you the truth about these preachers. But if you go and whatever is
said today that misrepresents God, you better have a whole
box of notebooks in order to be able to record all they got
to say that misrepresents the God of the Bible. I'm telling
you God is jealous of His glory. Thieves, I call them thieves,
stealing His glory. Any doctrine which does not give
all the honor to God that is due unto his name must provoke
him to anger and to jealousy. And let us say with Elijah of
old, I am very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. May our lives
and our conduct, our conversation, that word means behavior, as
well as what comes out of our mouth. Doctrine and our very
doctrine prove that we're jealous for him that we're jealous for
the Lord God of hosts and I want that every time we speak here
that every time we give a testimony that we'd be jealous for the
glory of the Lord God of hosts and every thought of pride that
might touch the glory of our gracious God. Oh, may it be put
to death. May it be crucified on the cross. We live before a jealous God,
and let's not forget that. Now, fourthly, and I don't know
about Clark, but the time is moving right along, and we don't
have much more time, but I'm just about finished. It won't
be long, so you bear with me. The Lord is jealous, I believe
very jealous, over his gospel, over his gospel. And I want you
to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and I'll quickly
here tell you what I believe this is talking about. And it's
these verses that I referred to earlier where Paul was saying,
I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have engaged
you to one husband, this one husband is Christ, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin in the day when the Lord comes
and you're to be married to him as the bride of Christ. when
you're to be married to him, that you be a chaste virgin,
in that, that your doctrine is pure, and your lives are pure
and holy, and you're faithful to God. But, in verse 3, he says,
but I fear, lest, by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve back
there in the Garden of Eden, through his subtlety, so your
minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. all he says there are those that
are coming through and they're coming before you and they're
preaching in your pulpit now listen to what this next verse
says for if he that cometh preacheth another jesus if a man that comes
through and he says I am as much an apostle as Paul and I have
a right to get in your pulpit and preach to you if he comes
and preaches another Jesus and Paul talked about this in Galatians
1 and he said there really isn't another Jesus but and there's
not another gospel but there's a perversion of the gospel And
whom you have not preached, whom we have not preached. Or if we
receive, you receive another spirit, which you have not received. They receive the Holy Spirit.
When Paul preached to them the true gospel, they received the
Holy Spirit. Or another gospel which you have
not accepted, you might well bear with him, and the rendering
here is not very good. what it really means is you bear
with him and you put up with him and you endure and you bear
what he's saying and Paul says I'm afraid of you because you
let these people come around preaching another Jesus and another
gospel and talking about another spirit and he said I'm jealous
over you with a godly jealousy, God feels just like I feel about
his gospel and we're jealous over you lest you be moved away
from the truth that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse
7 of that same chapter down. He says, because I have preached
to you the gospel of God. And then he says freely, in other
words he hadn't charged them for it. He said, I never charged
you for preaching the gospel to you, but I preached it to
you. And verse 10, as the truth of Christ is in me. Paul had
the truth of Christ, he knew the gospel, and he preached to
these people. But he said, you bear with those
that are preaching another gospel, preaching another Jesus. Now
you listen to me this morning. God is jealous over his gospel.
And we will not bear long, we will not endure long somebody
who comes into this church and mouths their ignorant nothings
about the gospel. We will not bear long with them. they'll be out the door, they
will not be in this pulpit. God is jealous of his gospel
and of his truth and his people are engaged to Christ and they
must not listen. If you listen to heresy and listen
to the perversions of the gospel over and over and that's the
reason why some of this radio trash you'd be better off if
you never turned it on and listening to it all the time because one
of these days Satan Somebody said, well, I'll never believe
that. Well, why you listen to it for?
Somebody said, well, you know, I just kind of like to listen,
see what they got to say. That's like a fellow going to
a garbage can and going through the garbage can trying to find
him something to eat, something good to eat. My friend, that's
not the thing to do. That's not the thing to do. And
I'll tell you something, you know, Eve, she was a good woman. She was created righteous. She
was a righteous woman. I'm not saying she was a godly
woman. I'm saying she was a righteous
woman. She had never sinned and she was righteous. but the day
come when the old devil came and he said now here here now
let me talk to you a little bit let me get you let me get you
informed here of the facts and so he set out you know to inform
her said god knows that when you eat this fruit he said don't
eat it but when you eat it you're going to be as wise as he is
And of course, you know, that appealed to her. She liked the
idea of getting an education, and she liked to be as smart
as God is. Most people would like to be. And so the devil
said, now you just eat this fruit. And so she did, and then she
gave it to her husband. The Bible says she was deceived,
but her husband he had his eyes wide open he knew what he was
doing he openly violated sinned against God by eating that fruit
in the garden and plunge the whole human race into sin by
doing so and I want to tell you something you want to watch Satan
and you want to watch him when he gets into some pious humble,
mealy-mouthed individual that gets into the church and gets
into the pulpit. He got nothing but a dish rag
for a backbone. He wouldn't preach the gospel
if he... He wouldn't preach it if he knows it, or if he knew
it, or if somebody had told him what it was. But he'll get up,
he'll take the pulpit, and he'll be glad to tell you what he knows. and he looks just as pious as
he can be and I want to read these verses to you here in the
same chapter and you listen to what these verses here have to
say in verse 15 no in verse 14 well let's back up to 13 might
as well for such are false apostles deceitful workers transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ and no marvel For Satan
himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it
is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. I'll tell you, Satan's got his
preachers. he's got his preachers but whenever they come on the
scene they don't look like that they've been sent by the devil
they don't look like they've ever been with the devil they
look like they're just as righteous as that old gray haired man that's
been in the pulpit before they just look like they're angels
of light but you watch them You watch them. You examine their
message. You look at it. God is jealous
over his gospel. And you let them kind of people
get in. First thing you know, you wake up some morning and
you say, you know, I really think that that old preacher used to
be there at that church, that I think he was just obsessed
with this sovereignty business. I think that he got carried away. I mean, we just kind of went
along with it because we knew he was getting up and getting
some years on him. We just kind of tolerate a little
bit. And I kind of think what so-and-so is saying is more for
this day and time. Don't you, honey? Don't you think
that? And the wife would say, well,
maybe so, maybe so. First thing, you know, then the
devil's got his man in the pulpit. he's got his man in the pulpit
and the gospel is out the window and the people the poor souls
of men that need to be comforted that needs good news for bad
men I mean a message that comes from the heart of God that tells
you what God has done for sinners in order to make them acceptable
in his sight that fella starts telling you you need to be doing
something for God and you need to get busy and give more and
do this and do that and do something else get busy and become doers
doers doers when the doing's been done and the true preacher
of the gospel is telling you that the doing has been done
Jesus did it all long ago he did it all the doing is finished
worship the Lord Jesus bow before him and receive the true gospel
Christ in his purity, in the purity of his doctrine, his true
gospel. And this generation has been
cursed! And the curse of God is on this
generation, its own religion! And you say, well, why can't
you find any preachers around anymore? And the truth is, is
that they're not around, and they're dying off, and there's
not very many of them, and there's not going to be very many more
of them. And I'll tell you what, this generation are going to
go out, there's going to be a famine, and there already is in this
world of the truth of God. There's our family. I'll tell
you, God sent a curse on this generation. May God Almighty
have mercy. Greatest blessing that God can
give to a community. is to plant a church there and
to put somebody there that will preach the gospel and he'll not
even take into consideration what his own family has to say
about it. Anybody, what they got to say
about it. He's honest with God and he'll tell the truth about
God and he'll not misrepresent God. He'll not rob him of his
glory. He'll tell the truth about God.
That's the greatest blessing a community will ever have, in
my humble opinion. Now lastly, and that is the Lord
is jealous over his own people. Jealous over his own people.
The Lord has been graciously pleased to say of his people,
I'm married. unto you. The covenant of grace
is a marriage covenant, and Christ's church is his spouse. It is here,
beloved, that God's jealousy becomes very evident many times. Men and women cannot be God's
favorites, and they are God's favorites if they're chosen of
God, washed in the blood, saved, without them becoming subjects
of his watchfulness. and of his jealousy. God knows
his sheep by name. God knows his people. The foundation
of God's standard is sure having this seal. The Lord knoweth them
that are his. Men and women cannot be God's
favorites without being the subjects of his watchfulness and of his
jealousy. That which might be looked over
in another, God will chasten. in a member of his own body. As a husband is jealous of his
wife's honor, so the Lord Jesus is much concerned for the purity
of his church." Well, what would he be jealous of? Somebody said,
well, if he's jealous of his people, what would he be jealous
of? Well, he'd be jealous of your love. Do you love him? Well, did he not choose you?
Did he not set his love upon you? If you love him, you love
him because he first loved you. Is that right? Okay, he set his
love upon you in old time. Did he not die and buy your soul
out of the slave market of sin by that cruel, agonizing death
of Calvary? Did he not purchase your soul?
My friend, my friend, he'll not allow you to live like you were
your own or to live like you was a part of this old world.
that you belong to it. He won't allow it. You see, he's
jealous over you and he'll have the love of your heart. He chose
you. Oh, rejoice in election. But
my friend, that puts you right under the eye of God. It's what
He does. God chose you. You say, God loves
me. If He loves you, He'll chase
you like you would one of your own children. Because you love
them. And you're concerned about them.
And God's going to look out after you. He's jealous over His family. He cannot endure that you should
love the world and the things of the world. His love is as
strong as death towards you. And therefore, He'll be as cruel
as the grave. He did, listen, He died rather
than He be in heaven and you not be there. He died. Listen to me. He was stripped
naked that He might clothe you with the garments of salvation.
I'm talking about Jesus. I'm talking about your love for
Him. He's jealous of your love. He bowed his face to shame and
spitting that he might lift you up to glory and honor. That's
what he did. He did that for you. His love
is as strong as death. He will be as cruel, he will
be as a cruel one towards you if you do not love him with all
your heart.

A Jealous God

What does the Bible say about God's jealousy?

Why is God's jealousy important for Christians?

How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

Why is God's glory significant for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

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A Jealous God

What does the Bible say about God's jealousy?

Why is God's jealousy important for Christians?

How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

Why is God's glory significant for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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