The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1943-10-08
REVERENCE FOR GOD

LESSON TExT-Exodus 20:3-7: Matthew
A:10: SO; John 4:23 "a.
GOLDEN TEXT-God is a Spirit: and they
that worship him must worship him in spirit
and In truth.-John aga.
The first three commandments
bring man into the presence Of God,
where he is taught how to worship
God in spirit and in truth.
"The first commandment (Exod.
20:3) bids US worship God exclusive
ly; the second wv. 4-6) bids us
worship Him spiritually. The first
commandment forbids US to wor-
ship false gods; the second forbids
us to worship the true God under
false forms" (Farrar). The third
commandment ". y indicates that
true worship will deal reverently
with the name of God.
Israel had lived among the Egyp-
tians, a people known for their wor-
ship of images, and were about to
enter into Canaan where there were
many false gods. The Lord was
therefore careful not only to forbid
the worship of other gods, but also
to forbid the making Of images Of
any kind, whether they represented
the many gods of heathendom, or
were attempts to symbolic the true
God.
I. The Command to Worship
(Exod. 20:3-7).
God first claims the entire devo-
ton of man. If He is Jehovah, the
Lord God, it is obvious that there
can be no other god before Him. He
is personal God ". q with whom
it is possible for man to have fellow
ship. He must come first in our
thought and our love.
The second commandment ex-
pressly forbids idolatry in any form.
The injunction is twofold. ~ Men
are forbidden to make any material
likeness which to them represents a
being to be worshiped. It matters
not whether it be an image or what
men believe God to be like, or the
image of an angelic being, a heav-
emily body, in fact, anything that
is in the heaven above" or on the
earth-such as man or animal; or
under the water-such as fish. (2)
If such objects have been made Ell
Their by ourselves or others we may
not bow down to them, nor render
any service to them. Let us all ex-
anime our religious ceremonies and
practices in the light of Gods COM
mandment.
Observe that obedience to this
command brings rich blessing to
thousands" ". g., whereas disobe-
dience is a curse not only to the
man who disobeys, but also to his
descendants.
The careless, vain or irreverent
use of Gods name is forbidden ".
y. How common that practice is
today, even among Christian people.
If we do not actually use His name,
we use some slang expression which
stands for His name.
Now we turn to two passages from
the Gospel of Matthew to see how
Jesus practiced these command
ments.
III. The Example Of Christ (Matt.
4:10; soy.
To the temptation of Satan, offer
ing rich reward for an act of wor-
ship to himself, Jesus gave prompt
and effective reply by quoting Deu-
teronomy 6:13. Thus He gave His
approval to the command that all
our worship and service is to be
given to God.
This spirit shows itself in the rev.
erent devotion Of the prayer (6:9)
which Jesus taught His disciples.
The name of God is to be hallowed-
that is, to be regarded as holy. No
one set higher example of that
than our Lord. Himself God, He
was obedient to the Father, even
unto death, always doing those
things which pleased Him and hon
ored His name John 1923; Phil.
2:8).
iii. The Manner of True Worship
(John 4:23, 24).
God is to be worshipec in spirit
and in truth, not in dead Journalism
or by empty ritual. There must be
reality in such devotion.
One would suppose that a truth SO
obvious and vital would long since
have completely saturated the life
Of the church as well as of the in
dividual believer. "God is a Spirit,
and they that worship him must wor-
ship him in spirit and in truth"
Even today, countless men and
women still believe that worship has
something to do with place wv. 20,
21) or race ". '22) or some other
external device or formula. What a
pity, when the gracious and delight
full way to worship is through per-
sonal spiritual communion between
God and man.
Deadening Journalism is not our
only enemy. There is the powerless
preachment of modernism-and in
all honesty must we not admit that
even some so-called fundamentalism