A Form of Godliness pt 1

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us on the program today. We're delighted to have your company. And just as we start our program, let's just bow for a word of prayer. Gracious Father in Heaven, we just commit this program to you. We just commit ourselves to you, including our listener. We just pray for your Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds and bless us in our study. Here's our prayer in Jesus name, amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Braedan, what are we talking about today on this program? SPEAKER D So our programs are this is part one. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D We're going to do a part two after this. And it's the topic. A form of Godliness. That's the title that we're running with. SPEAKER C But Godliness is a good thing, isn't it? SPEAKER D Absolutely it is. SPEAKER C Okay, and A Form of Godliness, could that be good or bad or is that bad? SPEAKER D Well, we're going to be looking at it in the negative sense. There's a sense about it that's not good. And we're actually going to start our study in the book of Two Timothy, which is where we get the title of this presentation from. One of the blessings that we have from Scripture is that God peels back the curtain of the future and gives a warning to his church about conditions and situations are going to happen in the future so the church can be prepared for it. And according to every prophecy that has been given about the future, it says that the world will get worse before it gets better and that even in the church itself, things will get worse before it gets better. You've got Paul and John and the other apostles saying that there will be a falling away. That happens first. SPEAKER C Yes. In two, thessalonians chapter two, it talks about the falling away coming first. The word are falling away. There, of course, apostasia in the Greek, which means an apostasy. And then that then enables within the church a man of sin to be revealed, a son of Are. SPEAKER D It's interesting, there's enough enemies outside the church, but it becomes very, very clear that it's going to be problems, serious problems inside the church. In fact, Paul said that there would be people who would rise up amongst the church like wolves in sheep's clothing, who would draw people away from Christ. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And so this is a frightening reality that Paul predicts, is that there's going to be serious problems inside the church. Now, in two Timothy, chapter three, we find a prediction of the conditions. When we read through these conditions, we think it's simply describing the world, but he's actually describing the condition of things inside the church just before Jesus comes. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And if we start in chapter three, in verse one, it says this, but know this, that in the last days, perilous or dangerous times will come. SPEAKER C Okay. So that's clearly a prophecy talking about the future. SPEAKER D So in the last days, perilous times, dangerous times, terrible times will come. It says the reason for men will be lovers of themselves. That's interesting. The first thing that's mentioned is in this dangerous time, why is it so dangerous? Because people will be lovers of themselves. SPEAKER C Wow. So quite often people talk about self esteem, and you can't love others unless you love yourself. But here we see that the challenge about the perils of the last days is that one of the things that will be prominent is that people will have a big love for themselves, which will dominate any love they have for anybody else. SPEAKER D That's right. It's me first. Me first, me first. That's the spirit. It goes on to say that they're not only lovers of themselves, they are lovers of money. SPEAKER C I think we're living in that time right now. SPEAKER D It's interesting. Right. Jesus actually says the love of money is the root of all evil. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D Money's just a neutral thing. It's just a piece of material with value attached to it. But it's the love of money, this inordinate desire for gain and power and all that kind of stuff, that's the real problem we've got. So we've got this group of people who are lovers of themselves, lovers of money boasters. SPEAKER C Okay. So they like, persuading people about their good deeds and how great they are and the skills and abilities that they have, or even their looks or that's right. Their possessions. SPEAKER D So they're boasters. It says that they're proud, they're blasphemers, they're disobedient to parents. Interesting. It says that they're unthankful, so they're not grateful for the things that others or God does for them. They kind of like have a spirit of self entitlement. They're not thankful. It says they're unholy. So they're not living a character like Christ's. It says that they are unloving. Unforgiving. SPEAKER C So it's interesting how they use the word unloving. Paul used that there. He just said that there's love there. There's love for themselves and there's love for money. But yet at the same time that you can't classify them as loving people, they are unloving people. SPEAKER D That's a really good observation. SPEAKER C So there's a contrast between loving yourself and then being unloving. You can be both at the same time. When you love yourself more than you love anybody else, or love yourself more than you love God, you're actually unloving. Because if you lack love for others, it will not be expressed in a loving attitude towards others, in what you say and what you do and how you interact with others and look after their welfare as well. SPEAKER D Interesting observation. It says that they're unforgiving the forgiveness that God extends to us. He is calling us to then pass on to others. But here's a group of people who are not extending forgiveness to other people. They're holding the grudges, they're holding the resentment. It says that they're slanderers these people that it's describing here. Think it's okay to slander someone's character, to smear someone's character and to take people down. Character assassination. SPEAKER C So that could be just passing on a rumor that you don't even know it's true or not. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C And even if it's true, perhaps a rumor shouldn't be passed on. SPEAKER D That's right. It says without self control self control is such an important part of the Christian life. SPEAKER C So in other words, they're out of control. SPEAKER D They're out of control. SPEAKER C So they're actually a slave without self control. They're slaves to their own appetites. So this could be any kind of appetite. One of the fruits of the spirit, I think it's the last one mentioned. The first one, funny enough, the fruit of the spirit in Galatians, chapter five. The first one I'd mentioned is love. The last one that's mentioned is temperance in the King James or in the new King James. Self control. SPEAKER D Just going back to your observation before. It says they love themselves. They love themselves. But it says here they've got no self control. And those things go hand in hand. This self love me first, me first, me first is often accompanied with self indulgence, self indulgence and a lack of self control. There's no self denial. There's no putting myself last for the benefit of someone else. It's me first, me first, me first. SPEAKER C Right. SPEAKER D And we've got a few more things here. It says brutal. I would hate for that word to be used to describe me, brutal. SPEAKER C Brutality is like I associate aggression with that. SPEAKER D Aggression and violence in just a diabolical love for violence. Brutal. He says despises of good. Interesting. SPEAKER C So good is even evil spoken of and evil thought of in regards to this despisers of good. SPEAKER D If you despise something, it's just you loathe it and you hate it. And to be a despiser of good is someone who dislikes good and laughs at good, mocks at good, and just is all roundedly opposed to good goodness. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER D It says that they're traitors. So the loyalties, lack of loyalty. Headstrong. SPEAKER C Okay, so that's stubborn, pig headed, I mean, quite often that's celebrated, isn't it? Headstrong. So he just has a strong will. SPEAKER D It's interesting. SPEAKER C Headstrong. Yeah. SPEAKER D It says haughty, proud and arrogant. SPEAKER C Proud and arrogant. Yeah. So that comes almost part of that boasting that comes from haughtiness, doesn't it. SPEAKER D It is, yeah. And then we're getting to the end here. It says lovers of pleasure. SPEAKER C Okay, so they love. There's a love, but it's not one that's loving. SPEAKER D That's right. So it says lovers of pleasure rather, or in the King James, it says more than lovers of God. SPEAKER C Wow. Okay. So they have other gods before them. They don't love God with their whole heart, soul, mind and strength. SPEAKER D That's right. Pleasure or the pursuit of pleasure takes a higher priority than their pursuit of God. Experiencing pleasure is a far greater priority than experiencing a relationship with God. Then it goes on to say, having a form of Godliness, but denying its power. SPEAKER C Now, that blows my mind when you see that having a form of Godliness, because all these descriptors you gave here weren't flattering at all. They are quite evil descriptors. And like you're saying, if some of those were to be applied to us, maybe people can live with lovers on themselves because of their concept about self esteem, which I think sometimes majority cases is probably not biblically correct. That's misunderstood. But when it gets to being brutal, being headstrong well, headstrong people say, okay, yeah, I'm a little bit headstrong, but they don't think of it in very bad terms. But all these other things being traitors and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, but then saying they have a form of Godliness. So we're not talking about someone that's blatantly heathen or blatantly an atheist here that totally rejects God. These are people you would find in the church because they have a form of Godliness. That blows my mind, because yeah, this. SPEAKER D Whole idea of a form of Godliness, it's all about the externals. And if you look up the concept of formalism in the dictionary, it talks about a strict observance to religious ceremonies or traditions a very strict observance to ceremonies or traditions in the religious world. And so they have a form of Godliness. In some sense, they think themselves godly. In some sense, they think themselves in harmony with God, but they do not have something. It's called the power. They do not have the power of God. They have something on the outside, but they lack something on the inside. SPEAKER C So they deny the power. I think the word power there is Dunamis power again, which is obviously the power of God in the gospel. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C So they lack the power of God in the gospel. So they've gone down this route of formalism, which is dead formalism, because it hasn't got the spirit of God to make it alive. But when Paul talks about this, does he have a framework in his time that will help people understand what he's talking about here? Because he's predicting this for the future. But was there something within that sphere of time that would have given him an idea regarding what he was speaking of here? Because I'm just looking at Jesus words in Matthew and I think Matthew chapter 15, he's talking about God's commandments and the need to honor his father and his mother and that and he talks about the commandments of God and how they've actually undermined God's commandments by their traditions. And he actually says that's hypocrisy interesting. And then we read in verse eight, it says that these people draw near to me with their mouth. So that's drawing near to God in worship. And they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. So the heart's not in it. So it's formalism. It's not a living kind of worship. SPEAKER D I think this is really just, again, another situation of the same thing that the Apostle Paul is predicting. You've got people who with their mouth, they will declare that they are on the Lord's side. With their mouth, they will profess to be followers of God. But it says here that their hearts are far from God, and so they're at a distance, but they profess to be right up close. They claim to be a follower of Jesus, but their very heart, their very nature, their very character tells a very, very different story. And yet throughout Scripture, I'm just trying to think of the verse, but God says, yet they seek me daily. I think that's Hosea 58 at the beginning. Yes, they seek me daily as someone who wants to know my ways. But their actual, their hearts are far from me, yet they seek me daily. And so there's this contradiction of wanting to be up close and personal in one sense, but very far off in another sense. And so the Apostle Paul is predicting a time where there will be in Christianity, in the faith world, such a depravity of life, such a depravity of experience, yet all the while claiming to be close to God. Now for the apostle Paul. He would have seen this in the context of his own people, Israel. And looking at the history, there's been a tendency from the very days of the beginning of Scripture for people to lose sight of the reason why they do things, to lose sight of the spirit of worship and just get caught up in all of the ceremonies and all the rituals and all the externals and lose sight of the most important things. SPEAKER C That's true. And that's that personal relationship and personal connection with God. And you can actually get distracted by it. We just go through the ceremonies. Perhaps you haven't been so spiritual that week. We haven't spent time with the Lord in prayer or whatever it may be. And we can imperceptibly, actually lose our way in a spiritual sense just because of the pace of life and because we get busy and we don't make our first priorities, the right priorities. What happens is we get up in the morning, we're running a little bit late, we slept in a little bit. God doesn't have first place in our life at that time because we don't have the time for it. We haven't been deliberate in spending time with God in prayer and in devotions first thing. And before you know it, your week is so busy, before you know your month is so busy and your year could be so busy, and then God has second place. And that can quite easily happen. SPEAKER D But it's easy to turn up to. SPEAKER C Church, though, very easy to go through the traditions that we are accustomed to, to go through, to go and worship. But it could be a dry, dead formalism. And I'm just looking at even Ezekiel, chapter 33. In verse 31, God says to Ezekiel, so they that is Israel. So they come to you as a people do, they sit before you as my people. They hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Here we can see it's an heart issue. Again, interesting, the lips say something, but the heart is somewhere else. Then in verse 32, indeed, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. For they hear your words but they do not do them. So here we can see the heart's not in it. The actions are in it, but they ignore what is being said. It sounds lovely. And then they go home and they do their own thing. It says they hear the words but they do not do them. SPEAKER D I find it so interesting. He says your voice is like a lovely song to them, this picture of these people just sitting down and having a listen to him and it's just they're happy to sit down and listen. SPEAKER C Maybe the music in the worship service is brilliant. SPEAKER D That's right. They're happy to sit there and listen. They're happy to take it all in, but it never hits the heart. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER D And they're happy to come and sit down, they're happy to come to the temple, they're happy to bring a lamb from time to time and go through the they're happy to pay this particular tax, they're happy to pay this offering to the temple and their hearts are missing the point. And I've actually just opened up to Isaiah 58 just to read it. This particular chapter starts in a way that's quite confronting. It says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. So God is calling for his people to cry out a judgment against his people because of their transgression. And yet verse two, it says, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching God. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen. Why have we afflicted our souls? And you take no notice? This is such an interesting thing. God is saying, my people are transgressors. Tell them, tell them that they've got serious problems, he says, but the problem is they think it's all fine. SPEAKER C They don't know they've got a problem. SPEAKER D They don't know they've got a problem. They seek me daily, they love learning about me, but they don't let it come to their hearts what I like there. SPEAKER C And it just makes so much sense. It says, and they delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness. But the inference is there. They're not doing righteousness. They may be pursuing righteousness to a certain extent through formalism and adhering to the tenets of their worship, but really, the heart is still not in it. And as I look at this, I wonder if it's something that's going to in the future. If it was something it was in the Old Testament, as if it was something it was in Jesus day, where it says, in vain they worship me, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. If it was an Old Testament thing, if it wasn't in Jesus day, if it's something that's going to be in the future, what causes people to walk away from true and genuine worship that God establishes and then find themselves in this difficult circumstance? Even to the point, as you read in Isaiah 58, where people do not know that. Can I quote from the 7th Church in Revelation? Revelation, chapter three, from verse 14 onwards, that they are wretched, miserable, poor, blonde and naked. That's what they state, but they say they don't know they are. So that's the environment we find ourselves in, because we believe we're living in the time period of that 7th Church. That was the case in Jesus day and it was the case for Israel. If we look at Isaiah now, Isaiah is written to Israel or to Judah. It's Judah specifically, isn't it? SPEAKER D That's right, that's right, yeah. Now, I've actually got in the book of Amos a message that was written to the nation of Israel. So the ten northern tribes, right. And just to answer your question, you were asking, how does this happen? How does a people that were blessed so much by God, how do they just degrade down to just this dry drudgery of formalism in their experience with God? God actually said this in verse 21 of Amos five. I hate, I despise your feast days. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D And I do not savor your sacred assemblies, though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. What is so interesting about this is that God asked for all of those things. He was the one who appointed the feast days. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D He was the one who established the sacrificial system and the Sanctuary Services and everything that happened there. But now he's saying, I despise it, I don't want it. It's making me sick to see you doing all these different things. And the question is, well, God, you set these things up, so what's the problem? SPEAKER C That's right, yeah. Aren't we doing fulfilling your requirements? How can you not like God? SPEAKER D You asked us to do these things. What are you upset about? The reason why God had to establish these things in the first place was because of the sin of humanity. And the reason why the Sanctuary Service was established was for the removal of sin and the restoration of human beings to a relationship with God. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And here we have a group of people who are living in rebellion against God, violating the Commandments on a day to day basis, hurting one another, abusing, committing fraud, all these different things, and then they just turn up and think that they can just offer an animal and it all going to be good. SPEAKER C It's almost like in a confessional approach where you sin, you think, oh, well, I've got an exit. All I need to do is take that lamb, or I need to go and buy a lamb at the temple and I just sacrifice it and it's all wiped out. SPEAKER D No problem. It's interesting that God gives what he really wants. This is his desire. He says, but let justice that is a life based on principle, according to the standards of God's character. He says, but let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. He's wanting to open a fountain of purity and goodness, and he wants that to be what he sees in the land. He wants the nation of Israel to be a fountain that is just flowing out the goodness and justice of God to the world, revealing to the world the character of God and the way that they live their lives and interact with one another. But whileever they just forge ahead and just barge ahead in their sins and just treating people terribly fronting up to the Sanctuary Service becomes meaningless. And so the very thing that God asked them to do, god says, It just makes me sick that you're doing it because you're doing it and your heart's far from me. Your heart's far from me. SPEAKER C Wow. And what I see there in verse 23, also of Amos Five, is that take away from me the noise of your songs. So if your heart is not in the worship, even the songs can be something that God despises. SPEAKER D Interesting. SPEAKER C I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. I remember years ago, I was part of a youth planning group who used to plan vespas for the weekend for the young people. And one of the things that they always used to emphasize is that we want all our musicians who are up the front leading out on the music to be converted. In other words, people who have a relationship with the Lord. If they were not there because they loved the Lord and their heart was in it, they were concerned that all you'll end up with is a display and a production and there will be too much emphasis placed on their abilities rather than bringing honor and glory to God. And I think those principles still applied, certainly did here in Amos. And I'm just wondering, we look at God ordaining this worship service and then he says, I don't like it. Why is that? Because God is a personable God. He wants a one on one relationship with each one of us. If it just dries up with mere formalism, people think they have a relationship with God and God says, no, that's not the relationship I've given you. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C This whole act of worship is to be an act of relationship and homage to God and gratefulness and love. But when you take that all away, all you have is the appearance of it. But it's fake. Basically, you are merely an actor in a play. This is not real life. It's sort of like a dress rehearsal for something that's not going to work out too well. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Yeah. And we look at the book of the Old Testament. We look at Deuteronomy, we look at the Book of Judges in there. It's very clear to me that God wants people to be aware of their history. How God, for example, led Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land by miracles, by signs and wonders. That is to remind them of God's creative power, but also to demonstrate his love that he's here to redeem and to save and to give people peace and hope. And he wants to prosper them in a spiritual sense, but he will prosper them physically if they can be trusted with those wealth, if they don't get distracted by it. And so we see that they got to repeat the history over and over. For those who have not gone through the experiences. They can be reminded of the experiences of God and his power so that they, in their personal connection with God, can see that they connected to someone who's powerful that everything he asks us to do, he will actually enable us to do. So we don't have to rely on ourselves. Now, in the Book of Judges, so this is now Judges. Straight after the book of Joshua they've entered the promised land. Now, what happens is, at that time Joshua passes away and all those who had seen it says even the elders who had outlived Joshua and had seen the great works of the Lord which he had done. This is in Judges, chapter two, verse seven, they had also passed away. And then it says in verse ten, it says, then all that generation had been gathered to their fathers. In other words, they've died. Another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the works which he had done for Israel. It says then. So in other words, they forget God. And this is deliberate ignorance basically, because they weren't totally unaware, because up to the point when the last of those have died, they were still relatively faithful. It says then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baal. So they started becoming like the nations around them and Baal is just another name for Lord. So they started incorporating within their worship things which were pagan. That's right, yeah. So they started introducing and incorporating in their worship pagan things while they were saying they were paying homage to God. SPEAKER D And yet still fronting up to the sanctuary, still doing all the different things. SPEAKER C That's right. Matter of fact, it got so bad, if you go and look at Ezekiel, I think it's Ezekiel chapter eight. They actually have women weeping there for tamus. And they even have the 24 priests worshipping the rising sun. That's how bad it got. But they're still in the temple, they still claim to be worshipping God, but they're incorporating all these cultural things which they've been influenced by the people around about them. SPEAKER D That's so interesting. In John chapter four, we have a beautiful message from Jesus. He was speaking to the woman of Samaria that he met at the well. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And she was asking our fathers worship on this mountain, Samaria, Mount Gerizim, and the Jews worship on Mount Moriah, which is the best place to worship. And she's trying to work out how to rightly serve and worship God. Verse 21, jesus said to her woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship. For salvation is of the Jews, but the hour is coming. And now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. SPEAKER C Amen. So the important aspects of worship is to worship God, who is spirit, who is our Creator, who is our Redeemer and is our Sustainer, to worship God in spirit and in truth. So truth obviously based on the word of God, sanctify them by their truth. Thy word is truth, Jesus said. And then worshipping in spirit is that we need to be born from above through the Holy Spirit so that we have that living connection with God. And then our worship through Jesus Christ will be acceptable in the sight of God. Dear listener, we pray that God will bless you. In your worship of God as well. May it be a heart response to all the good things that God has done for us and continues to do for us. Until next time, god bless. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.