Okay, we're going to try to bring
a message this evening from 2 Kings chapter 17. Now, I'm not going
to go back and refer to every verse there because it's quite
lengthy, 41 verses, but we will look at a few. Now, I'm taking
the title for the message from what we see that is taught in
this chapter, 2 Kings 17. And here is the title and subject
of the message. What is true worship? What is true worship? Or what is or what constitutes
true religion? Now, there's a lot of religion
in our day, and there has been for a long time. Is our worship
in spirit and in truth? As we read from John chapter
4, the Father seeketh such to worship Him in spirit and in
truth. Not, you can't worship in spirit,
And you cannot worship in the spirit apart from the truth. Is our religion true religion
or that which is false? If it's not true, it's false. And if it's false, our religion
is nothing but idolatry. You see, the Lord, when he saves
us, he delivers us from our former idolatry, and that's all of us
by nature. If it's false and false religion,
it's nothing but idolatry. These who were brought into the
land of Samaria, these were transplanted from Assyria by the king of Assyria. And it said there that they feared
Jehovah, that is, they were afraid of him because of the judgment
that he had sent upon them in that land, but yet they served
their own gods. Quite a contradiction, is it
not? There can be no true worship of the true living God apart
from the way the Lord has prescribed to approach Him. And we know
the Lord Jesus Christ, He is that way. He is that truth. He is that life. What a contrast
between true worship and that which is false. You cannot practiced
as these people tried to do, to fear the Lord in some sense,
and then serve your idol. If you truly fear the Lord in
reverence and truth, you will depart from all idolatry. So these nations, verse 41, they
feared the Lord, but they served their graven images. Verse 30,
2 So they feared the LORD, and
made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places,
which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
3 They feared the LORD, that is, they were afraid of him,
but yet they serve their own gods." Look at verse 34. "...Unto this day do they, after
the former manners, they fear not the Lord." Not in a true
sense. "...Neither do they, after the
statutes, or their ordinances, or the law, commandment, which
the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel."
Now, many people in our day, and you might think, some think
that I'm too harsh and hard and critical on that which is false. Many people in our day do exactly
the same thing. They have much religion. They
have all sorts of religious manner, custom, ceremony, and tradition,
don't they? But no truth. No truth is being
declared. And consequently, there's no
worship going on. Or the gospel of Christ is denied.
There's no worship of a true and living God. And all you have
left is idolatry. Idolatry. Now, hold your place
here and find Matthew 15. You remember how hard and harsh
the Lord Jesus Christ was toward those most self-righteous Pharisees? Matthew 15. Matthew 15, look
at verse 7. He said, You hypocrites, well
did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draw nigh to me with
their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. But in vain they do worship Me,
teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. That's why the Lord was
so hard and harsh upon them. They had all the ceremony, they
had all the talk, they had all the religious dress, but the
Lord looked on their heart. He said, that which is highly
esteemed among men is nothing but an abomination in the sight
of God. Do you remember that? Luke 16,
15. You or they would justify yourself
before men, but God knows your heart. That which is highly esteemed
among men is nothing but idolatry. The Lord said to those religious
Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil. He's a liar. He's a liar from the beginning
and you believe his lie. You think your salvation depends
on you. Now we've been looking at the
kings of Judah for the last few weeks. Now we go back and see
what is going on in Israel or in Samaria. Both kings both the
king in Judah, Ahaz, we talked about him last week, how we introduced
a foreign altar to sacrifice upon, and here Hosea in Samaria,
both did not honor the Lord Jehovah, but continued in the way of idolatry,
and the Lord sent judgment on both Israel and upon Judah. It says there in verse six, the
ninth year of Hosea, the king of Assyria invaded for three
years and the Lord used them, the Syrian army. He raised up
a Syrian army, a pagan enemy Syrian army and sent them into
the land of Samaria to judge those ten tribes of Israel. The Lord in verse 7 down through
verse 12, the Lord gives valid reasons why He did that. Verse 7, it was so, 2 Kings 17,
7, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their
God, which had brought them up out of the land under the hand
of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods." And he
lays out a list of nothing but open, gross, base, idolatry,
where they forsook the Lord. Verse 12, they served idols where
the Lord had said unto them, you shall not do this thing. But notice how long-suffering
the Lord is. Look at verse 13. The Lord testified
against them. He sent them prophet after prophet
after prophet against Judah by all the prophets and all the
seers, saying, Turn ye against Israel and against Judah. Turn
ye from your evil ways. Keep my commandments, my statute,
according to all the law which I have commanded your father,
which I have sent to you by my servant the prophet, notwithstanding
they would not hear. Now the Lord sent them, you think
about the prophets that were there in Israel and in Judah,
Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Amos, Micah, all these prophets of
God who all bear testimony to the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. To him give all the prophets
witness, Hosea, Amos, Micah, they all declared the gospel,
yet they would not hear. They would not believe. They
rejected all. Look at verse 15. They rejected
his statutes, his covenant, that he made with their fathers, and
the testimonies which he testified against them, they followed vanity,
they became vain, they went after the heathen that were round about
them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they shall
not do like them, and they left all, verse 16, you see it? They
left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made
them molten images, And here's these two calves that keep coming
up, those two calves that Jeroboam introduced, you remember, and
Dan and Bethel? And made a grove and worshiped all the host of
heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, but not the God who created
all things. And they served Baal. The Lord
has a valid case against them. They're guilty. They're guilty. It says in verse 18, the Lord
was very angry. with Israel and removed them
out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe
of Judah. But Judah also, they did not keep the commandments
of the Lord either. The Lord was very angry with
them and with Judah as well. We're gonna see how the book
of 2 Kings ends. You know how it ends? It ends
with the destruction of Jerusalem and it ends with Judah being
carried away into Babylonian captivity for 70 years. well
as it says there in verse 23 until the Lord removed Israel
out of his sight and As he had said by all his servants the
prophets So was Israel carried away out of their own land to
Assyria unto this day Those in Samaria never came back They
were transplanted by a replacement people. The king of Assyria,
verse 24 down through verse 33, the king of Assyria brought his
own people from Assyria into this country of Israel to inhabit
the land of Samaria. And the people brought their
religion and pagan gods with them. And the Lord sent, as it
says in verse 25, they feared not the Lord, therefore the Lord
sent lions among them. He sent judgment among them too.
Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, verse 26, saying,
you've got to do something about this. The lions are eating us
up. The nations which thou hast removed and placed in the city
of Samaria know not the manner of the God of the land. Therefore
he sent lions among them. Behold, they slay them, because
they know not the manner. They were ignorant of a true
and living God, weren't they? They didn't have any idea. who
the true and living God would have been pagan all their lives. The king of Assyria commanded,
saying, Carry back one of the priests whom he brought from
thence, and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them
all the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests
whom they carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and
taught them how they should fear the Lord." Now what an impossible
task. Here's a whole countryside full
of pagans, immigrants, illegals, have been brought in and they're
nothing but gross base idolaters. And here this priest comes back,
the priest of God, to try to teach the people. The king Messerius
sent one of the captured priests back to Bethel to teach the pagan
people how to fear the Lord. Now what caught my attention
was here about what he says here about Bethel, verse 28. Then one of the priests whom
they carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, in
Bethel. You know what, you remember from
Genesis In the book of Genesis chapter 28, Bethel was where
the Lord met Jacob and blessed him. It was in Bethel that Jacob
had that vision of that ladder that reached from the earth and
to the heavens, and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon it, and that's a picture of Christ in the gospel. And
the Lord blessed Jacob there, and Jacob said he called Bethel,
which means he called the place Bethel, which means house of
God. House of God. Now it's reduced
to a place of idolatry, filled with pagans. But what a sad day. What a sad day. Howbeit it says
in verse 29, Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put
them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had
made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. A strange, strange place here. The nations brought their own
idols with them, and I counted out here eight different gods.
We call that type of idolatry polytheistic, that is, many gods. True believers are monotheistic. We worship the one true and living
God. A strange mixture went on here. It says, they feared the Lord,
they gave some acknowledgment to the Lord, but went on in their
idolatry. Now they didn't truly fear Him,
did they? Or they would not have continued.
You remember the description of both Jews and Gentiles, we
all have sinned, there is no fear of God before their eyes?
Isn't that just by nature? The true fear of the Lord is
beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy is understanding.
Now listen, you cannot worship the Lord our God apart from true
holy reverence and knowledge of a true and living God and
faith in Him. There's no worship. He's just
playing games. Hebrews 11 said, but without
faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God
must believe that He is and that He is rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. Must believe that He is. Many
people in our religious day have many similar things in their
way of false worship, the way they seek acceptance with God,
based upon their doings, don't they? Based upon their works.
Now I'll give you a good example of that. I was reading in our
local paper, it was either Friday or Saturday, there's a preacher
that's been putting an article in there at least once a week,
and I just look over it And Glantz, he usually has some kind of cute
story and then tries to make some kind of gospel application. But he had an article about going
to heaven and missing hell. Going to heaven and missing hell. Now, isn't that what most people
in religion are all interested about? Going to heaven and missing
hell. And here's what he said. And
this is what most people think and believe because they're ignorant
of God. Here's what he said, and most
people would look at that and say, man, that's right. That's
right. Now listen to what he said. If we live for Jesus, we'll
go to heaven. Now you think about that. You
think what's being said there. If we live for Jesus, if we live
for Jesus, we'll go to heaven. You know what I say? That's nothing
but idolatry. That's nothing but idolatry.
You know what it is? It's a worship of self. It's
a worship of self. If we, if I live for Jesus, That
is nothing but salvation by works. Salvation by works is idolatry. If salvation depends on you,
the way you live, you have no need for Christ to come and die
for your sin. Do you? You see, the gospel is,
He lives for us. It's not we're going to go to
heaven because we live for Jesus. No, He lives for us. He lives
for us. He intercedes for us. Religion
becomes idolatry if it all depends upon you rather than Christ. You see, Christ is all. He's
going to have all the glory and anything apart from that is idolatry. Now your family, my family, or
everybody else that doesn't know the true gospel of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ is nothing but idolatry. Let's call it what
it is. Salvation depends upon the sinner
is nothing but idolatry. The apostle Paul described it
this way. They have another gospel Another
Jesus and another Christ and another spirit. He said, you
better stick with me. There's just one gospel. There's
just one Lord. There's just one way. And that's
Christ. Now, I said all that to get to
this place. I want us to consider the Lord's
description of true religion and true worship. It's found
here in this chapter. Did you notice it? Look at the
last part of verse 34, verse 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39. True
religion, first of all, true religion and true worship begins
with Almighty God. Look what it says in the last
part of verse 34. The law and the commandment which
the Lord commanded the children of Jacob whom He named Israel,
with whom the Lord made a covenant." You see, it all begins with Him.
The Lord chose Abraham and those in his loins, his spiritual seat,
whom He named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant,
and charged them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor
bow yourself to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them.
So number one, true religion and true worship begins with
Almighty God. The gospel we studied in Romans
1 is the gospel of God, isn't it? It's all about our eternal
God. The Lord our God made an eternal
covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you notice that word there,
with whom the Lord had made a covenant? God, our God, is a covenant God.
Do you know that word in Scripture is used over 300 times? Our God
is a covenant God. An eternal covenant of grace
made with the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of peace that brought
again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect and give you
peace and salvation. In which the Lord chose Christ
to be our surety, our mediator, our representative, our advocate.
In which the Lord chose a people unto salvation and sent the Lord
Jesus Christ to accomplish their salvation. The Lord loved and
chose Jacob. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Now you remember the story of
Jacob. You remember his name? What it means? Cheat. He cheated
his brother. Jacob was a sublinter. He was
a rascal. He was a mama's boy. Esau was
a hunter. A mighty man. But God chose Jacob,
loved Jacob because of that eternal covenant. And in Genesis chapter
32, when the Lord confronted him and asked him, what's your
name? Remember? Jacob. He said, you're no longer
going to be called Jacob. Your name is going to be Israel.
You see what it says there? Whom he named Israel. Remember
what Israel means? Genesis 32, 28. Thy name shall
be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For thou hath power with
God and with men, and hath prevailed. You know that's our name. By
nature, Jacob. By grace, Israel. I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. because his compassions do not
fail. We shall not perish. Our Lord
said, All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me, and those
that come to me I will in no wise cast out. So true religion
and true worship begin with Almighty God. Salvation is of the Lord. Secondly, true religion and true
worship is by the deliverance of the Lord. Salvation is of
the Lord. Did you notice that? Secondly,
The Lord made a covenant and charged them, saying, You shall
not fear the God, nor bow yourself to them, nor serve them. Here's
the reason why. That sacrifice, the most sacrifice
to them. You see, true worship and true
religion is by the Lord's deliverance. Verse 36, but the Lord who brought
you up out of the land of Egypt. Now, How many times in Scripture
does the Lord remind us of those people who were in bondage for
430 years, and the Lord with His mighty arm brought them out,
delivered them through the Red Sea, and that is brought up over
and over and over again to show us and remind us that our deliverance
is by the deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord who
brought you up out of the land of Egypt, the land of idolatry.
He did it with great power, with His stretched out arm. And Him
shall you fear, Him shall you worship, Him shall you do sacrifice
unto. You remember in Exodus chapter
14, when the children of Israel were up against the Red Sea,
Pharaoh and his army was behind them, mountains on both sides,
and here's the Red Sea. The people began to complain,
and they were fearful. And the Lord spoke through Moses
and said, Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You remember what happened? The
sea parted, and they walked through on dry ground to the other side. Fear not, stand still, see the
salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today. You see,
we only believe the gospel of God by the working of His mighty
power. We don't naturally understand
the gospel. He must deliver us out of the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God, dear Son. That's
what He does. And that causes us to fear Him
with a holy reverence, and it causes us to worship Him, and
it causes us to do sacrifice unto Him. Now, because of the everlasting
covenant of grace, because of the Lord's mighty deliverance
in our heart, you see, Christ is our deliverer. Romans 11,
29. And so, all Israel shall be saved,
as it is written, there shall come out of Zion capital D, the
Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this
is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. Now, four things right here in verse
36. Him shall you fear, him shall
you worship, him shall you do sacrifice, In verse 37, and you
shall observe the law and do forevermore. That sums up true
worship. Him shall you fear. This is that
reverential fear of the Lord, a high and holy respect for His
glorious character. Holy and reverent is His name. Isaiah got a glimpse of that.
cried out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Him shall
you fear. God's a jealous God. We're to
fear God only. And this is that reverential,
holy fear of who He is, of all that involved in the sovereignty
of God, the holiness of God, the eternality of God. The second
thing It stems from that that he says here, Him shall you fear,
and Him shall you worship. Him shall you worship. That's why I read John chapter
4. The Father seeketh such to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. Boy, I'd like to do that. I'd
like to be able to worship the Lord as He ought to be worshipped. to truly reverence His holy name,
and to honor Him, and to worship Him in my heart before the Lord
God Almighty. And then it says thirdly, to
Him, notice it's Him shall you fear, Him shall you worship,
and Him shall you do sacrifice. You see, it's unto the Lord,
isn't it? Him shall you do sacrifice. We bring the sacrifices of praise
and thanksgiving, giving him all honor and glory, honoring
the great blood sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ has made for
us. Peter called them spiritual sacrifices
as unto the Lord. Giving him all the honor, praise,
and glory. And then fourthly, you shall
observe the law and do forevermore. You mean we're to absorb the
law and do forevermore? Exactly. In Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ, we have honored the law and every precept by
His obedience and by His faithfulness. His faithfulness unto the law
is our righteousness before God. Think about that. He said, I
didn't come to destroy the law, I came to honor it. Paul asked
this question in Romans 3. Do we make void the law of God
through faith? God forbid. We establish it. We honor it in Christ Jesus. Not only all the penalty, the
precepts of the law, but all the penalty of the law is satisfied
in Christ. The law says the guilty must
die in Christ. We're dead. The law has no more
claim on us. You know why? Dead. What's your position on the law?
Dead. Dead to the law through the body of Christ. That's right.
He redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us. Verse 38, last thing. And the covenant, the covenant
that I made with you." Remember David said, God had made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and assured this
is all my hope and all my salvation. That covenant that I made with
you, you'll not forget it. It's not written in stone, it's
written on our heart. Neither shall you fear other
gods, but the Lord your God you shall fear Him, and He shall
deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies." And He has.
Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. We shall not forget the covenant
of the Lord's grace and mercy in Christ. And that covenant
language, you remember what it says? Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah 32,
I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they
will persevere because we're kept by the power of God. But the Lord who brought you
up out of the land of Egypt with great power, stretched out on,
him shall you fear, him shall you worship, him shall you do
sacrifice. You shall observe and do forevermore
that which he has commanded us. and that covenant. Isn't that
good? That's one of those nuggets in that gold mine of God's truth,
God's truth.