If we want to fully possess Christ as the good land, we need to flee from idolatry; we need to see what is the principle of the golden-calf idol and refuse to have anything in our heart that we love more than the Lord, and we need to have the enjoyment of the Lord with no form of worldly amusement and entertainment. Amen!
On the positive side, we want to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ and possess Him as the reality of the good land.
On the negative side, there are principles that we see in the Old Testament with the children of Israel which should be a warning to us in our Christian life today.
One of these principles is the matter of having a heart of unbelief.
Satan, God’s enemy and our enemy, is working tirelessly and continually to wear us out and cause us to think that it is impossible for us to enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ.
The people of Israel reached the border with the good land of Canaan, but ten out of twelve spies brought an evil report, and that caused the people to have an evil heart of unbelief.
The land was right there, within their reach, and they were just about to enter in, for God promised them the land; however, they did not believe, and so they died in the wilderness and their children entered into the good land. Oh, Lord!
Our unbelief toward the Lord concerning His word, and His promises, is a rebellion against Him.
We may think that we’re realistic and practical, for we have so many weaknesses, failures, and mistakes, that it seems impossible – humanly speaking – for us to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ.
But God is not after our being practical and realistic; He wants to infuse us with Himself as our faith so that He may believe in us and He may do everything in us and for us. Amen!
If we have an evil heart of unbelief, we will murmur and be discontented, even as the children of Israel were.
They murmured very much against God and against Moses.
They had mutterings, grumblings, and complaining, and each one of them murmured in their tent. Oh, Lord.
Many times we may not murmur out loudly in the church life or before the saints, but at home, in “our tent”, we may murmur, for we may be discontented with the church life or with some of the saints.
May the Lord save us from murmurings and complaining, and may all our murmuring be turned into praising!
Whenever we sense we’re about to murmur, we need to turn our murmuring into praising.
In this way, the enemies and problems become our food, and the Lord has a way to gain us more.
See the Principle of Idolatry and Flee from Idolatry to Enjoying Christ and Worshipping God
If we as believers in Christ are going to fully possess and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, the apostle Paul says that we must flee from idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14); here he was referring to the children of Israel’s idolatry in worshipping the golden calf (Exo. 32:1-6).
Paul applied the children of Israel’s worshipping the golden calf to the New Testament believers; we need to flee from idolatry.
We should not think that we don’t have an idol and we’re immune from this.
The golden calf was an idol made by God’s redeemed people.
They made the calf and stood up to play – thus indulging in revelry or boisterous merrymaking.
To have an idol in our heart is to have anything within us that we love more than the Lord and that replaces the Lord in our life (Ezek. 14:3).
As genuine children of God, we need to be on the alert to guard ourselves against idols (1 John 5:21), from all the substitutes and replacements of Christ in our life.
When we speak of idols, we don’t mean merely the outward idols, the idols that people have as big statues in temples and they bow down before them; in Ezek. 14:3 we are told that people have idols in their hearts.
We can have idols in our hearts, even though we are genuine children of God.
We need to be on the alert to guard ourselves from idols and flee from idolatry.
We must be warned by the principle of the golden-calf idol, an idol made by God’s redeemed people to make them an idolatrous camp (1 Cor. 10:5-7).
Today in the Roman Catholic Church we see many idols, including statues that they say represent Jesus, Mary, and others from the Bible.
Also, many genuine Christians have pictures of Jesus praying or something like that in their house; these are all idols. Oh, Lord Jesus!
When it comes to idolatry, there are five main principles; we need to see the principle of idolatry and flee from idolatry today.
First, self-beautification leads to idolatry (Exo. 32:1-4; 33:5-6; Gen. 35:1-4).
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, God did something miraculous: He put something in the Egyptians to give them gold and all kinds of possessions, which later were used to build the tabernacle.
However, before this gold could become part of the tabernacle, the people of Israel used it to beautify themselves, both the males and the females.
And then later Aaron made a golden calf idol with these earrings and nose rings of gold. Self-beautification eventually leads to idolatry.
Our only beauty is God Himself, and He is beautifying the church as the house of His beauty so that He may be beautified (Isa. 60:7, 19, 21; Eph. 5:26-27).
In the expression of our self, there is division, but in the corporate expression of God, the divine glory, there is oneness (John 17:22-24).
Our work is our living, and we should glorify and express God on earth, not to beautify ourselves or seek to be beautiful apart from God (v. 4; 1 Cor. 10:31; Isa. 43:7).
In our speaking to others and in the church life we should not seek our own glory by preaching ourselves; rather, we should preach Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as slaves to serve the believers (John 7:17; 2 Cor. 4:5).
God is our beauty. We should enjoy God and be filled with God.
We should simply enjoy the Lord in His word and allow Him to beautify us and make us the house of His beauty.
The second principle of idolatry is Satan’s usurping what God has given us in order to make it a waste (Exo. 11:2-3; 12:35-36; 25:2-8; 35:4-9).
Idolatry is our abusing what God has given us and not using God’s gifts, both material and spiritual, for God’s purpose.
We see this in the fact that the gold given to the children of Israel by God through the Egyptians before their exodus from Egypt was to be used for the building of the tabernacle.
However, before the gold could be used for God’s purpose, it was usurped by Satan and used by God’s people to make an idol. Oh, Lord!
We need to pray that the Lord would save us from misusing the gifts He gave us and from self-beautifying ourselves.
We need to flee from idolatry in any of its forms.
When Moses saw the golden calf and what the people were doing, he was so appalled that he threw down the tablets of stones inscribed by God’s own hands and broke them.
Today it is easy for those who are gifted among us to have their gifts usurped by the enemy for his purpose and for idolatry in its subtle forms.
May we flee from idolatry and serve God and worship Him in simplicity, one with the Lord.
It is good to pray to the Lord and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, we love You! We love only You, and we worship only You. We refuse to be usurped by Satan for his purposes. We worship only You and nothing else. Oh Lord, all the things You gave us, all the abilities and skills You put in us, we want to use them for Your purpose, for the building up of the church. We do not want to be usurped by the enemy and be drawn into idolatry. We want to flee from idolatry and beware of idols. May nothing take Your place in all our heart. Oh Lord, we thank You for Your gifts; we want these gifts to be used in resurrection for the building up of the church. Amen, Lord, we come to You to enjoy You in Your word and be beautified by You to be the house of Your beauty for Your corporate expression on the earth! Oh Lord, our work on earth is our living to glorify, to express God on earth! We want to flee from idolatry and worship only God, loving God and enjoying God!
Idolatry is the Worship of the Things we Enjoy, but the Enjoyment of God is not a Form of Worldly Amusement and Entertainment
One of the most striking things related to the matter of idolatry is entertainment and amusement.
In Exo. 32:6, 18-19 we see that the people of Israel didn’t just make a golden calf which they call their god, but they sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to dance and have a party.
Idolatry is the worship of the things we enjoy, the worship of amusement and entertainment. Wow!
This cannot be more true today. All the TV shows, movies, and media are focused on one thing: entertainment. All the social media and all the social media networks are focused on entertaining people.
Even in the church life, there may be a way to turn the enjoyment of Christ into something that is entertaining, something that is entertaining people and is fun. Oh, Lord Jesus!
God does indeed want to be our amusement and entertainment, and He wants to give us to drink of the rivers of His pleasures (Psa. 36:8-9), but we cannot make the enjoyment of the Lord a form of worldly amusement and entertainment.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery the Lord is bringing us back to the enjoyment of Christ; this enjoyment of Christ, however, is in spirit, is pure, and has nothing to do with worldly entertainment and amusement.
Sadly to say, if we consider the situation among Christians today, there’s a clear desire for entertainment and amusement.
It is actually difficult to find a so-called church service that does not have some sort of entertainment to attract people.
If there’s no entertainment, people don’t come. Oh, Lord!
People like to go to church to be entertained. This is the principle of the golden calf. People worship what they enjoy, their entertainment and amusement.
They may say that they do this in the name of the Lord, but they use worldly means, music, drama, and many things that are not purely of the Lord and for His glory.
When Moses came down from the mountain with Joshua and the people were worshipping the golden calf, they heard the noise from the camp and Joshua thought that is a sound of war.
Moses, however, knew it was the sound of idolatrous people having a party; it was neither the sound of defeat nor the sound of triumph but the sound of singing coming from the idolatrous people.
Their singing was a form of entertainment; it was not part of their holy worship of the Lord.
When we exercise our spirit to sing to the Lord, we worship Him and enjoy Him; however, when we bring in worldly means, entertainment, and amusement, our sound is that of idolatrous people making a noise.
We need to flee idolatry in all its forms, and especially we need to flee idolatry that is in our worship to God.
We don’t need to be religious or formal, but we need to sing to the Lord with our spirit.
We sing to Him with our spirit and with our mind.
Paul warns the Corinthians in this way: “Neither become idolaters, as some of them did; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play” (1 Cor. 10:7; Exo. 32:6)
C. A. Coates, a Bible expositor, said that they sported; especially during the weekend, people care only for eating, drinking, and sporting.
When we come together with the saints and sing the holy hymns, we need to have a reverent attitude toward the Lord and not turn the hymns into something that is “fun”.
To play is to frolic, to joke, and to act, perform, or speak with little seriousness; to play is to behave playfully and uninhibitedly, and it is to engage in hilarity, that is, in high-spirited fun. Oh, Lord.
We may pray-read the Word of God with some young ones or new ones, and we may want to “make it fun”; we should resist the temptation of turning our pray-reading into something amusing or entertaining.
May we flee from idolatry. May we mean business with the Lord and not fall into the snare of the enemy.
May we enjoy the Lord in a pure way, with no amusement or entertainment, and may we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and worship Him in spirit.
May the Lord save us from any idolatry and may we see the principle of idolatry to run away from it in all its forms.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to enjoy You in a pure way. We want to have the enjoyment of the Lord with no form of worldly amusement and entertainment. Amen, Lord, save us from being playful or joking when we enjoy You. Save us from joking or acting, performing or speaking with little seriousness when we come to Your word and when we enjoy You in the meetings. Save us, dear Lord Jesus, from engaging in hilarity or high-spirited fun in the church life. May You be our only enjoyment in our spirit. May we flee from idolatry in all its forms and stay away from the principle of idolatry. Oh Lord, we want to worship You in spirit and in truthfulness. We want to drink of You as the living water and drink deeply from the river of Your pleasures! Amen, Lord, with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we see light! You are our enjoyment, our amusement, and our entertainment!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus (msgs. 173-177) by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 2, entitled, Inheriting the All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land by Taking Heed to His Words of Advice and Warnings and by Receiving His Renewed Training to Have Our Inner Man Renewed Day by Day.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– Like Abraham, we also live in a rebellious and idolatrous society. In the midst of such godlessness, God desires a group of people to stand as a testimony for Him on earth… read more via, Living to Him.
– Modern Idols, article via, Conversant Faith.
– Inheriting the All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land by Taking Heed to His Words of Advice and Warnings and by Receiving His Renewed Training to Have Our Inner Man Renewed Day by Day, via, The Church in Chennai.
– Matters Related to Idols Needing to Be Dealt with Thoroughly, a portion via, New Believers Series: Terminating the Past #2, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee.
– Receiving All Believers but Not Different Teachings, article via, Shepherding Words.
– Guarding ourselves from idols, a portion from, Living in the Spirit, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
– Nothing Abominable in New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog. - Hymns on this topic:
– Idols once they won thee, charmed thee, / Lovely things of time and sense; / Gilded thus does sin disarm thee, / Honeyed lest thou turn thee thence. / What has stripped the seeming beauty / From the idols of the earth? / Not a sense of right or duty, / But the sight of peerless worth. (Hymns #437 stanzas 2-3)
– Tell me not of earthly pleasures, / Tempt me not with sordid gain; / Mock me not with earth’s illusions, / Vex me not with honors vain. / I am weaned from sinful idols; / I am henceforth not my own; / I have giv’n my heart to Jesus, / I belong to Him alone. / I am not my own, / I am not my own. / I belong to Jesus, / And I am not my own. (Hymns #452 stanza 1 and chorus)
– He all my griefs has taken, and all my sorrows borne; / In temptation He’s my strong and mighty tower; / I’ve all for Him forsaken, and all my idols torn / From my heart, and now He keeps me by His power. (Hymns #210 stanza 2)
About aGodMan
Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1837-1838, by Witness Lee
New Believers Series: Terminating the Past #2, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee
Amen, dear brother, if we want to possess Christ as the good land, we need to flee from idolatry.
Anything that replaces Christ in us and we love more than Him is an idol.
Self-beatification leads to idolatry.
Satan seeks to usurp what God put in us and gave us to use them for his purpose, which is to waste them, instead of these being useful to God in resurrection for God’s building.
I was enlightened by brother Eds’ speaking and I came across in today’s outline the reminder:
Amen. Save us from idolatry Lord. We want to enjoy you every day.
Dear brother, we must flee idolatry – any substitute or replacement of Christ, learning the lessons of the children of Israel.
Self-beautification, whether relating to our literal appearance or our preaching of ourselves and not Christ for our glory is an idol.
Whatever God has given us – both materially and spiritually should be for God’s building, as the gold from Egypt was for the building of the Tabernacle.
Amen, brother. Today’s culture promotes self-beautification.
We have a spirit that has the power to go against the worldly trend of idolatry & falsehoods.
Our beauty is to put on Christ and only Christ.
We need to be captivated by the treasure in our earthen vessel so that we will not wish to serve anyone/anything else.
Our God has given us many things to worship & glorify Him.
May we not permit the enemy to usurp & waste these things.
Praise The Lord! 😃🙌🙋🏽
https://youtu.be/GwxPDVWtY5k?si=peGUIZBup3-kVikr
Amen, dear brother.
Today’s culture promotes self-beautification. The Lord gave the children of Israel a commandment concerning ornaments. He ordered them to take them off because self-beautification leads to idolatry. The principle of an idol is self-beautification. Idolatry is Satan’s usurping of what God has given us. When the children of Israel left Egypt, they took the Egyptians’ gold with them for building up the Tabernacle. Satan came in to usurp the gold and used it to make an idol, a golden calf.
Self beautification, Satan usurp what God has given us and entertainment are all identified as forms of idolatry.
It reveals to me how easily idols can find a path into our lives.
Ps. 27:14 Wait for Jehovah :/ Be strong and let your heart be encouraged/ yes, Wait for Jehovah.
Lord, we need no idols only You – our best love the gladness of our heart.
Our Lord and Saviour as given us an invitation to trust Him, to be still and to Wait while He work behind the scenes in our life.
and yes the Lord reminded us that “eye” has not scene and the ears has not heard, neither has it come up in the hearts of man, the things the Lord has prepared for those who love Him.
How wonderful it is to walk in holiness when we turn to our spirit, Aamen!
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
Youtube:
https://youtu.be/3xDmQROGu20
Rumble:
https://rumble.com/v4on3xe-know-the-principle-of-idolatry-and-flee-from-idolatry.html
4/4/24 Inheriting the All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land by Taking Heed to His Words… and by Receiving His Renewed Training… (Week 2, Day 4)
“If We are Going to Fully Possess Christ as the Good Land, the Apostle Paul Says that We Must” Flee from Idolatry”, Referring to the Children of Israel’s Idolatry in Worshipping the Golden Calf” (Part 2) Principles of Idolatry
Another principles of idolatry are:
4.) Pretense of Worshipping the true God (Exo 32:4-6; 1Kings 12:26-30; Mat 4:8-11; John 4:22-24) ~ Every idolater pretends to be worshipping the true God. Exodus 32:4 says, “And they said, This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Exodus 32:5 says that when Aaron saw this, “he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, A feast to Jehovah—tomorrow!” The next morning they rose up early and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings (v. 6). The offerings and the way of worship were proper, but the object of worship was wrong.
The children of Israel had changed the object of their worship from the true God Himself to an idol. “They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory to the likeness of an ox that eateth grass” (Psa. 106:19-20). Jehovah God was their glory, but they changed their glory to an ox that eats grass.
This is very similar to what is described in Romans 1:23: “And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.” Nevertheless, every idol worshipper claims that the idol he worships is the true God.
5.) Mixture of worship (Exo 32:4-6, 21-24; 1Cor 3:12) ~ This principle can be applied to today’s Christians. Many Christians worship a calf, but they think that they are worshipping the Lord Jesus or the true God. Actually what they are worshipping is their enjoyment. Much of today’s Christian worship is a matter of sitting down to eat and drink and rising up to sport, sing, and dance around a certain kind of enjoyment, around a golden calf.
Seemingly, the children of Israel were worshipping God at the foot of the mountain according to the proper way, but actually, the object of worship was wrong; they were worshipping an idol, the golden calf. Their worship was, in reality, a mixture.
Moses was an experienced person for he knew what God loves and what He hates. Moses and God were, not only, intimate friends, but also they were associates, partners, and companions. Moses was truly one with God; he knows what is in God’s mind. God’s feelings were his feeling, and God’s way was his way. God was never angry but approved of Moses’ reactions upon knowing that the children of Israel made a golden calf and worshipped it as an idol. What Moses did were also God’s reaction upon learning of their idol worship.
When Moses came down from the mountain and saw that the children of Israel had made a golden calf and worship it with merriment, he cast the Tablets of Commandment out of his two hands and shattered them before the eyes of the children of Israel (Deu 9:17). And because the camp of the children of Israel had become idolatrous, Moses pitch his tent outside the camp, which became the Tent of Meeting (Exo 33:7). Because God’s presence was at the entrance of the tent, whenever His people met with Him, the tent was also called the Tent of God.
John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” We must be clear that God is Spirit and He does not dwell in carved or painted images in order to be worship. God has created us with a human spirit and He wants us to worship Him by our human spirit.
To worship in spirit is to worship in our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. When we worship in such a spirit, the Holy Spirit worships together with our spirit. To worship in reality is to worship in Christ as the reality. Whether we pray, preach the gospel, give messages, or carry out other services, Christ must be the reality. Apart from Christ, there is no reality.
4/3/24 Inheriting the All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land by Taking Heed to His Words… and by Receiving His Renewed Training… (Week 2, Day 3)
“If We are Going to Fully Possess Christ as the Good Land, the Apostle Paul Says that We Must “Flee from Idolatry”, Referring to the Children of Israel’s Idolatry in Worshipping the Golden Calf” (Part 1) Principles of Idolatry
In Exodus 32 we have two scenes: one on the mountain and the other at the foot of the mountain. The scene on the mountain was wonderful. Here the design of the tabernacle and its furniture was given to Moses. It may have been that while God was inscribing the law on the tablets of stone with His finger, Aaron and his helpers were making the golden calf at the foot of the mountain. In the scene at the top of the mountain, the inscribing of the law was taking place. But in the scene at the foot of the mountain, the fashioning of an idol was taking place. The comparison here is very significant.
The situation of God’s people today can be compared to that of the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. The Lord Jesus has gone into the heavens, where He is today. In the heavens the Lord reveals the design concerning God’s dwelling place on earth. In the Old Testament Moses was on the mount. But according to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus is now in the heavens.
While Moses was tarrying on the mountain, God’s people began to worship the golden-calf idol. In principle, the situation is the same today among Christians. What is happening on earth among Christians while the Lord Jesus is tarrying in the heavens? Golden calves are being fashioned and worshipped by God’s people. The situation at the time of Exodus 32 and the situation among God’s people today are very similar. In fact, today’s situation is almost a copy of what happened in the Old Testament.
The Apostle Paul warned us that if we are going to fully possess Christ as the Good Land, we must “flee from idolatry ” (1Cor 10:14), referring to the children of Israel’s idolatry in worshipping the golden calf (Exo 32:1-6). An idol in our heart is anything within us that we love more than the Lord and that replaces the Lord in our life (Eze 14:3). As genuine children of the genuine God, we need to be on the alert to guard ourselves from idols (1John 5:21), from all the situations and replacements of Christ in our life.
Idolatry involves the following principles:
1.) Self-beautification (Exo 32:1-4; 33:5-6; Gen 35:1-4) ~ Before the children of Israel made the idol of the golden calf, idols were already present among them in a different form, in the form of self-beautification. The wives, the sons, and the daughters of the children of Israel wore gold rings in their ears for the purpose of self-beautification. Here we see the principle that self-beautification is the preliminary form of an idol. Before the gold became the calf, it already existed in the idolatrous form of self-beautification. In the sight of God, self-beautification is an idol.
2.) Satan’s usurpation of what God has given us (Gen 11:2-3; 12:35-36; 25:2-8; 35:4-9) ~ In Exodus 32 the children of Israel wasted much of the gold that had been given to them by God. Before the children of Israel left Egypt, God caused the Egyptians to give the children of Israel gold and other precious things. This gold was to be used for building up the tabernacle. The tabernacle required a large quantity of gold to overlay the standing boards. But before this gold was used for the building up of God’s dwelling place, Satan came in to usurp the gold and wasted it to make an idol, the golden calf.
3.) Worship of the things we enjoy the worship of amusement and entertainment (Exo 32:6; 18-19; Psa 36:8-9) ~ A calf is not for labor but for enjoyment, in particular, for eating. Both in the Old Testament and in the New, a calf was used to feed guests. In Genesis 18, Abraham had a fatted calf prepared for his guests, and in the parable in Luke 15, the father had the fatted calf killed when the prodigal son came home. A calf, therefore, signifies enjoyment. The ones who beautified themselves in Exodus 32 liked enjoyment. Enjoyment was their idol. Likewise, many people today worship a calf; that is, they worship their enjoyment.