A Holy Worship
Deuteronomy: Changing Times and Our Unchanging God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 41:17
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A Holy Worship
A Holy Worship
“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.
You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.
You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.
But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go,
and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.
And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,
for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.
But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,
then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord.
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.
Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see,
but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.
Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present,
but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.
Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
“When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire.
If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.
Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.
Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose,
and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat.
Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
Let’s Pray.
If you’ll remember, Moses is giving a sermon. He’s communicating the law of the Lord through the ten commandments. Last week, we finished the last section on the first commandment, and now we’re branching into the second commandment. Do you remember which one that is?
Well, let’s read it again.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved 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.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The second commandment is about worship of the Lord.
Specifically, he instructs Israel not to make any carved image of God or likeness of God’s creatures in the earth. Why? Because he knows they’ll face idolatry. God knows that’s what all the other nations of the earth at the time are worshipping, because they turned to worship the creature rather than the creator. And in order to preserve the covenant relationship between the Lord and his own people, they must refrain from following the same path. They must maintain a holy worship.
And a large chunk of our passage today deals with that holy worship, specifically where the worship is to take place and in what way, and addressing questions that may come up. While in the wilderness, Israel was used to worshipping at the tabernacle. This was easy to do, since the people didn’t yet have their own land and they were, for the most part, grouped together. But now, as they cross over into the land, they’re going to spread out further and further. What will happen to the worship of the Lord then? Well, the Lord is going to show them the right place for worship.
And with that comes further instruction regarding sacrificing animals and eating meat and pouring the blood on the ground. Why is this so important? Well, Israel has been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They haven’t had to be sustained with protein from meat, since the Lord has been sustaining them with manna. So when that blessing of manna ends and the people turn to meat to eat, what happens then? The Lord provides specific instructions regarding it, that they are able to partake of it in their own land. look at verse 15
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.
He says you can go on and eat the meat in the land.
And this is all fine and good, except for the fact that animals are used in the sacrificial worship system that the Lord set in place. Animals, as created by God and filled with the life that he gives him, are supposed to be treated with respect, and their life is to be taken seriously.
Verse 16:
Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
Blood is Life
The sanctity of blood in the practice of sacrificial worship- In towns and cities, meat could be eaten but the blood was to be poured on the ground. This is different than an offering at the Tabernacle/Temple worship. There, the blood was to be offered to the Lord at the altar. Thus, the blood was used in the burnt offering, but not the meat. Why is that?
Well, the whole sacrificial system is highly symbolic. The price for sin is death, which can only be overcome with life, unblemished and unstained. The life of the animals covered over the people of Israel until the ultimate sacrifice, the human blood of Jesus Christ pure and unstained, could ultimately account for sins.
So why is this instruction included under the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourselves any graven image?”.
Think about the cultural context for a moment: the other nations of the earth dedicated themselves to serving the created order rather than the creator. They exalted animals, be they ox or owl or falcon or lion, and set them up on pedestals having made graven images. To these creatures they bowed down and worshipped. But what does the standard of scripture set up?
Scripture sets up a system where all animals owe their life and sustenance to God. God gives life, he also takes it away. Just as God created from the dust of the earth the same lifeblood shall be returned to it. The life, the blood, within the animals points to the glory of God. Therefore rather than worshipping the creature, Israel is to worship the creator and indeed their very own sacrificial system places the right order of the creation under the Creator.
And there’s a distinction between the meat that they eat in their towns and villages and the meat they are to bring to the Lord and dedicate to him. The meat which they bring to the temple is to be dedicated before him and eaten in his presence. And not just meat, but any offering that is dedicated unto the Lord. Look at verses 17- 18
You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present,
but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.
Part of God’s worship system involved food, and part of the food offering was supposed to be allotted to the Levites. If you remember, the Levites have no land. As priests, they are to be upheld and sustained through the worship system, including the offering of food. That’s why we have the specific instruction in verse 19:
Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
All of the food, all of the animals and the fruit of the land and the land itself, are tied into the worship of the Lord.
Which is why we see in verse 26 specific instructions for a location where the Lord will be worshipped.
But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose,
Any dedicated offering to the Lord was not to be eaten within the towns, but at the location the Lord would establish as a dedicated place of worship.
I think this represents the heart of worship behind the act: when you dedicate something to the Lord, you do not corrupt it. What you offer to the Lord is his. The holy things, the set apart, the dedicated things which are due from you, shall be given to him alone.
The Temple — Lord’s chosen place with his people
Verse 10:
But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,
then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord.
Once peace had arrived from all Israel’s enemies, then the Lord’s place of worship would be established. Why did it take so long for this to happen? Initial disobedience … chasing after other gods, taking up idols that were there and being led into false worship.
There are accounts of many places of worship of other gods being demolished by Israel. But there were also pockets that Israel had not fully driven out. These enemies became a “thorn in the side” of Israel, as declared by the Lord because of their unfaithfulness to follow his commands. So all the time of the judges, all the way to the establishment of the first two kings of Israel, there were enemies that harassed the people.
And this continued until the faithfulness of David and that generation, and then to Solomon.
It’s important to note here that the Lord knew Israel would chase after idolatry, despite his warnings. The worship of the Lord and the location, which the people were to search out, would be neglected. And yet, he brought about the fulfillment of his promises, even though it happened some 480 years. Once Israel had completed his first command to drive the people out and to remove idolatry from the land.
Think of how deadly disobeying the second commandment is, if indeed it took close to 500 years to undo the damage done.
Which is why next week we’ll have the warning again specifically against idols, like the one that we see in verse 3.
But for this week, we see the worship of the Lord through animals, meat, and blood.
So why these specific instructions regarding animals and sacrifices and blood? Well, it all points toward a form of holy worship.
Holy Worship
The instructions for Israel’s form of worship was holy, distinct and different from the surrounding nations. All worship was to be centered upon the Lord of the land, showing all were subject to one Lord. “Hear O Israel, the Lord is one.”
What an amazing and incredible thing.
Application:
Jesus did not come to abolish the law and the commandments, but to fulfill them. So how do we as the people of God live according to the second commandment as it is fulfilled by Christ? If we want to follow after the Lord, what is the holy form of worship which he has set forward for us?
Right worship of the Lord means that we live as his image-bearers in the earth.
So firstly, living as an image bearer of God means that you dedicate your entire self.
1. Dedicate the Entire Self
1. Dedicate the Entire Self
For Israel, the required dedication came through sacrificial offerings.
and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.
Our offering is not a burnt offering to cover over our sins. No, we already have that. Rather, our offering is our entire selves, as we have been purchased and redeemed by the blood of Christ.
This is a guiding principle for us as Christians. Paul writes to us, of our form of worship:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Worship, for the Christian, is distinctly different than the Old Testament. Rather than dedicate other things to worship the Lord, we are merely required to offer up ourselves.
There’s a lot of instruction in scripture for us as Christians in how we are to do that. Each of those topics could cover an entire sermon series. In fact, the first Christian works produced apart from the scriptures were on Christian living and the application of scripture to life. But the best encouragement I could give you right now would be to read God’s instruction through his word for yourself.
The rest of Romans chapter 12 and the following chapters detail instructions for the church, how they as members are to live lives of worship to the Lord.
We just covered a passage in Hebrews 13:1-19 in our Wednesday night Bible study that detailed many ways in which Christians are to live rightly as God’s image bearers in the earth.
And there’s much to say on Christian living, but I want to make this point clear:
Through Christ, we become restored as the image-bearers of God. We display his glory, as we were made to display.
For the Christian, Right living means fulfillment of the second commandment.
“You shall not make for yourselves any carved images” because God himself made man to be his image in the earth. Our worship of the Lord is not like that of the Israelites, who needed a temple and animals and a sacrificial system because of the threat of sin to the covenant of the Lord. Rather, our covenant remains steadfast and sure because of the blood of the Lamb. The communion we take together is a reminder that our sin has been wiped away and the Lord’s promise is secure, and that the Son who died on the cross purchased us through that blood … that now your body is not your own, but it belongs to the Lord and is to be dedicated to him in worship.
And worship of the Lord requires the entirety of yourself.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
When we use our bodies for good and we live in the way which the Lord created us, living in God-honoring relationships, not defiling the marriage bed or living in adultery, having compassion on those in need, seeking out those who are lost, so on and so forth .... when we use our bodies for good, we are displaying the Love of the Lord in the world and shining as the light in the darkness.
But if you think selfishly, that your body belongs to yourself so you can do with it whatever you want to do … you’ll find that your own passions begin to dominate your life. And our passions aren’t always pure, are they?
The warning given to the Israelites was not not assume the worship of the nations around them:
You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.
You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.
For us as Christians, our form of worship is not what the world worships- giving in to the passions and desires of the heart. Setting up ourselves in the place of God, or finding other substitutes for him.
Instead, the worship of the Lord is to live as those who are filled with the Spirit.
As soon as you set aside the worship of God in your body, and you push aside the Holy Spirit dwelling within you and you pursue false gods, you leave the worship of the one true God. It is true that the one true God will never leave you, but you can dampen the outflow of the Spirit in your life. We are given this warning:
Do not quench the Spirit.
If our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, then we should by all means allow the worship of God to continue, through our works by doing the good which the Lord designed for us to do, and also through the worship of our emotions. If we suppress our emotions of joy, peace, love, zeal, desire for the Lord, and reverential fear, we aren’t living as the image-bearers of God and right worshippers of the Lord. If we set up too many rules in our life and we build up walls that constrict our movement and give no room for the spontaneity and leading of God the Spirit in our life, we are quenching the Spirit and hindering what we have been instructed to do as worshippers of the Lord.
While the worship in the service of the Lord is to be orderly, it does not forbid prophecies or acts of the Spirit, or loud “Amen!”’s or shouts for joy. Christians are instructed to give room for such acts of God in the outworking of the Christian life, as we draw near to the Lord and he gives us something for the benefit of the body of Christ.
All of the self must be dedicated to the Lord, from deeds to desires. Actions to emotions. That is our form of spiritual worship.
What does the Lord require of you? Some of you might know this one .... Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Worship of the Lord was never about sacrifices. Worship of the Lord was about the dedication of yourself to Him and His cause. So ensure that you are dedicating yourself, all of yourself, to the Lord.
That’s our first point.
Secondly,
To know how to live as an image bearer of God assumes that you know God. That means you need to spend time with him.
2. Seek Time with God
2. Seek Time with God
The more you learn about who God is and you lean into him, he will reveal his nature to you, showing you an example of how to live and guiding you into good works.
The Lord is deep, like a vast ocean. We must take time to seek out who God is.
But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go,
Israel was to seek out the place of the Lord’s worship. Reading through the account of scripture, this was something that they failed to do until the rule of David, and then Solomon.
But for us, as Christians, that place of worship is here, within the self and the self’s relationship with the Lord. To seek out the Lord means to foster that relationship between you and God.
Jesus said “Draw near to me and I will draw near to you.” If we are the branches to the vine, it means that we cannot have any innate good on our own. There is no way to be an image bearer of God if we ourselves are distant from him.
Part of this process means setting aside time in your schedule to be with God. I recommend doing this at least in the morning and in the evening, as they are bookends to the day which give you time to hone in on your purpose. Once you have these routines down, you’ll find that drawing near to the Lord throughout the day comes more naturally.
And sometimes its important to set safeguards in your life so that you remember to spend time with the Lord. For me, every time I go into work at Starbucks, I arrive 30 minutes early. I take that time to read a Bible passage, meditate upon it, and spend some time in prayer with the Lord. But it takes that trigger of going into Starbucks and having time when sitting down for my habit to activate, and then to spend time with Him.
And we have to ensure its not just a formula, that if we attend things or do things enough times it will sink in. No, time spent with the Lord has to be quality time.
Remember the words of James? Beware lest you treat the word of God like a mirror that you come to, see yourself in, and then turn away and immediately forget what you looked like. When we come to God, he reveals who we are as he made us to live, pointing out our flaws and errors but also showing the healing correction which he has done to our souls. But if we immediately turn aside and forget what we just learned in our time with the Lord, that time spent with him will have been for nothing.
So make sure you get the most out of your time with him. When you come to Church, ensure that you are delving deeply into the body of Christ, exercising your spiritual gifts and speaking into each others’ lives. Ensure that you are digging deep into the scriptures and are applying the word of God to your heart. It would be easy just to hear the words of the Lord spoken to us and to let them have no impact. It would be like if it rained and the soil were too hard so that the rain couldn’t sink in, and it just flowed off the top. We don’t want to be like that hard soil when the water of the Lord comes to fulfill the thirsty desires of our soul. Rather, we must be absorbent soil that absorbs each and every ounce of goodness that the Lord provides.
It’s not always easy to spend time with the Lord because we fight with our sin nature each and every day.
On those days when you wake up and you brush aside the feeling you have to draw near to the Lord, either because of busyness or because of your own sin nature, you push away the one guiding light in your life. In those moments you are shoving aside the purpose for which you were created. And I don’t know about you, but for me those are usually the days I struggle the most. Why? Because you haven’t drawn near to God.
It takes effort to seek the Lord, but spending time with him, worshipping him in Spirit and in truth in your communion with him, is rewarding. You’ll find that good works come more naturally to you. Withholding your sharp tongue and exercising disciple will come well. Reigning in your anger and your pride and your selfishness will be natural, as the drawing near to the Lord becomes more and more evident in the outflow of your life.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I could go on and on about Christian worship, and how we were made to worship corporately as one body, or how to use our spiritual giftedness. But those sermons have already been taught and will be taught again. But for today, I leave you with these two simple points regarding the right worship of the Lord, the Lord’s requirement for you-
To Dedicate your Entire Self
To Seek time with the Lord
Let us continue to worship the Lord in our holy service as priests and ministers in his kingdom, both inside this building and outside of it, by drawing near to the Lord through personal heartfelt relationship made possible through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray. (pray)
In the words of the Spirit himself,
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
We are dismissed. Thank you.