E1 - The Forgotten Jealousy Of God - How God’s Jealousy Is Provoked

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learn from God's Word together. If you would like more

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pastors, please visit us at keylifefellow-ship.com.

If you have your Bibles, if you would turn to Exodus and the

34th chapter of Exodus. Now I know this is not the norm,

right? When we finish something, we

usually go to a book, right? But I'm going to take some

liberty for just a a little while.

I, I took a little liberty and preached a series entitled There

is one Gospel and we've covered what the true gospel is and what

it's not. Unfortunately, we see more of

what it's not than what it really is in, in the church

today that we live in and the culture that we live in now.

But I'm going to also just extend that liberty just for a

little while longer before I go verse 1 of chapter 1 of whatever

it is that God wants us to do next.

And I want to speak to something that has been on my heart now

for several months, if not longer than that, but really

intensely for for several months.

And let me give you a little background to Exodus 34 and

where we're going to pick up today, because we're only going

to look at one verse, which one verse mentions something that we

don't talk about a whole lot. In fact, in in racking my brain

to try to remember, I don't think that I've ever set in a

sermon about this particular subject.

But that will all change after today for many of us.

But to give you a little backdrop, when we look at Exodus

and we know in chapter 20 that the Lord gave to Moses the

Decalogue, which we know the Decalogue has the Ten

Commandments where he revealed his perfect standard to to his

people through giving them the 1st 10 commandments of the law

and then the subsequential 613 commands that go along with

that. And as we kind of Fast forward

just to kind of give you a family over from chapter 32 to

chapter 34, some interesting things happen.

And I want to give you the brief synopsis of this.

I just want to encourage you go read this when you have an

opportunity. But what happens there in in

chapter 32 is Moses returns from Sinai.

We know he went up to Sinai. He received the commands from

the Lord. He received the entirety of the

law. And we know now in 32, he

returns from Mount Sinai. He's coming down off the

mountain only to find that God's people are worshipping an idol

that they talked Aaron into crafting and fashioning together

for them. This idol was taken from

earrings and jewelry that they had, and it was then placed in a

fire where it was molten and then shaped and formed into a

golden calf of all things. And they began to worship this

golden calf. In fact, in chapter 32, verse 4,

as they begin to give the glory that belongs to the Lord for

rescuing them out of their slavery in Egypt to this

inanimate golden calf that they had gotten Aaron to craft

together for them. Moses, as we know the story

goes, in his anger he throws the tablets of the 10 commandments

on the ground and they break. And then we know that Moses.

Then takes the calf and he melts the calf and and then destroys

it because he didn't want the Hebrew people to continue to

give glory to something that was not God at all.

It was simply just a man made idol.

And we know that that idol that was made by man stems all the

way back to Satan. Satan desiring to have worship

over the fact that God deserves our worship.

So Moses breaks the tablets, he melts the golden calf, and then

he instructs the Levites to take out the sword and to slay 3000

people who participated in this idolatry.

Then we know after this that God strikes the people with a

plague. But God, in his grace and His

mercy, instructs Moses to get two more tablets together.

He takes those. Tablets and God then inscribes

again, etches on those tablets to 10 commandments again, so

that they could have the table of the law before them, he

instructs Moses. That they're about to go into a

land that is inundated with paganism and idolatry.

In fact, that's one of the reasons that God gave this land

to the people that Moses was leading.

And he let them know that they are prone to this idolatry if

they're not careful. Now we come to this verse that

we're going to look at today, verse 14 of chapter 34.

And it says this. Just simply do not worship any

other God. And we know that He has already

given them this command. Have no other gods before me and

don't make for yourself any idols.

But he reiterates this in verse 14 of 34.

He says do not worship any other God, for the Lord whose name is

jealous is a jealous. God, let's pray to God the

Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you, thanking you for

your word. Lord, as we have seen already

unveiled in one verse today that You are a jealous God, as we

attempt to learn what exactly this means, Lord, give us

insight through Your Word by Your Spirit.

Teach us who You really are according to Your Word, not

according to what we think or that we would see.

And we would understand that You are a jealous God, and

rightfully so, that we would refrain in our lives from

provoking or arousing Your jealousy.

And we would refrain in our lives from any activity or any

idolatry. It would attempt to steal your

glory. Thank you, Lord, for loving us

with such a powerful love, love that would do anything to rescue

your children. Because of the love that you

have for us, may we be forever indebted to that love, or it

comes from you. We are indebted to you.

We pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.

And so we see from that one verse that God is a jealous God.

Now I know that's oftentimes in our thinking, a rather confusing

statement, but I want you to understand that it is a

forgotten. Truth.

It's a forgotten truth and that has great implication for the

believer. And I want us to remember that

truth. In fact, I'm going to take the

next several. Weeks.

And what we're going to look at is the forgotten jealousy of

God. Today we will be looking at how

God's jealousy is provoked, right?

Because when you hear that God is jealous, I know my first

instinct is to say I don't want to provoke his jealousy because

I want to honor him and I want to love him and I want to

respect him for who he is. When we talk about the jealousy

of God, there's some things that we really need to have clarity

on. And so let's.

Begin with some of those things before we get into our message

today, the things that we need to know concerning God's

jealousy. First, I want you to see this

that God's jealousy is completely different from.

Ours because when we're jealous, usually it's because of

selfishness or envy or covetousness.

But when God is jealous, it is completely pure and it is

completely holy and it is completely right, and it's

completely pure and holy and right because everything that

God is and everything that God does is completely holy and pure

and right. And so when we say that God is a

jealous God, we're not bringing some accusation against him that

has some kind of negative context.

We're saying that God is jealous because the word of God says

that he's jealous, and rightfully so.

He's worthy to be jealous. In fact, he is that faithful

husband who is forever faithful to his bride, and he is worthy

of being jealous when his bride is to stray away from him.

We know that to be true in our lives, right?

A husband who has been completely faithful to his

bride, only to have his bride stray away and become unfaithful

to someone else. None of us would get upset if

that husband was stricken with jealousy.

We would say what He has every right to be what jealous.

And so I want you to see today that God has every right to be

jealous. God's jealousy is not based, as

ours would be, on envy or insecurity, right?

God is not jealous because he's afraid that some other idol is

going to take his place. No one's going to take his

place. He is sovereign God over all.

He is God Almighty. He is supreme, whether you

recognize that or whether you don't.

He's not afraid of losing his position.

So God's not provoked to jealousy just because he's

insecure and he's not envious of a position that is given to

someone else. He knows who he is.

He's right. And his jealousy.

Jealousy is not based on envy or insecurity, but instead I want

you to follow this. His jealousy is based upon his

pure and perfect love that He has for his people.

I want to stop and to think about that for a second.

That God would ever be jealous of a dirty, filthy, wretched

center such as Kirk Hall. But yet it is in His jealous

love that he did pursue me, that he could redeem me and wash me

and cleanse me. And so when we talk about the

jealousy of God, we have to understand that it's based on

that pure and that perfect love that He has, because his love,

because he is pure and perfect, can't be anything other than

pure and perfect. Now I I know nothing of this

kind of love because the love that I love with is not pure and

perfect because it's flawed by my humanity.

But God's love is not flawed at all, and his jealousy is not

flawed at all because it is driven by that pure and that

perfect love. God's jealousy, in fact, is

toward His covenant people. Why?

Due to a covenantal love. He has promised to love them and

will always love them and as a result of His people offering

themselves to other things or other idols or other.

Person instead of the one true God, He is then provoked to holy

jealousy and rightly so. Ji Packer.

And I'm just going to give a little spoiler to you ladies who

are reading the book entitled Knowing God by Ji Packer and

going through that Bible study together.

You're going to get to this in the 17th chapter.

I know most of you don't remember anything that I say by

the time you get to your car, but hopefully you will remember

this when you get to it. In the 17th chapter of Knowing

God by Ji Packer, he is going to say it like this.

He says God's jealousy is not a compound of frustration, envy,

and spite, as human jealousy so often is.

Isn't that true? That's why we're jealous.

God's is not like that. But it appears instead as a

literally praiseworthy zeal to preserve something supremely

precious. What Packer is saying this is

God's love reveals that that he is preserving that which is

precious to him. In his jealousy, it is showing

to us just how much he really loves us and how precious we are

to Him. As his covenantal people.

So when we think about this. Let us understand is that God's

jealousy is the reason that he's rescued us from our sin.

God's jealousy is the reason that He rescues those who he has

a foreknown, those who He has intimately loved in eternity

past. You do a little word study on

foreknown and you will find out that His foreknowledge is His

eternal love for His covenant people.

It is that jealous love He has foreknown us with causes Him to

elect us from among the unbelievers.

So if you're here and you're in Christ today, know this that He

chose you from among the unbelievers from even out of

your own unbelief. And the reason that he did this

is because he was jealous for you with a holy and right

jealous love, not allowing you to continue to bow down and to

worship idols of the past or or immorality and sin in your life.

But rescuing that you from those things and church is high time

that we learn to be. Thankful for the jealousy of

God, because it's in His jealousy that we really do see

His full extent of His love, that He would no longer tolerate

us committing spiritual adultery with anything or anyone else.

But He sent His only begotten Son to this earth to demonstrate

His great love for us, just as Romans 58 tells us that He

demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we were still

sinners, chasing after the things of this world, whoring

after immorality, He demonstrated his love for us in

that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Oh, you see the extent of God's jealousy for His covenantal

people. And in the weeks to come, I will

describe for you and hopefully teach you more about what it

means to be loved with that covenantal love from God.

I just know that it's real and that it does exist.

And so our intentions as His bride, what a faithful groom we

have. When you stop and you think

about that for just a moment, how many times you've been

unfaithful to the Lord only to have Him continually be faithful

to you simply because He has made a covenant to do so.

You think about that for any amount of time.

And surely you will come to this conclusion that I don't want to

do anything to provoke or to arouse the jealousy of the lover

of my soul. And if I am doing anything that

provokes or arouses the jealousy of the lover of my soul, I am

going to return unto Him, and I'm going to confess my wrong,

and I'm going to repent of my wrong and bow at His feet and

thank Him once again for His love and His faithfulness that

He continually gives me that I do not and could not ever

deserve. So today as we take this one

particular verse that discloses for us along with many others

but one thing that they all have in common.

When we see the jealousy of the Lord mention, it is because His

people are offering themselves to things that they should not

offer themselves to be that idols or sexual immorality.

What are the distractions of this world?

So when we think about the jealousy of God, I begin here

with with looking at how God's jealousy is provoked.

Because for me, that's the first question that I want to ask.

Because I see how great this love is that he lavished upon

me, that I should be called a son, a child of God.

And the last thing that any of us who are truly in Christ

should ever want to do is to provoke that jealousy.

As we see the Israelites throughout history provoking his

jealousy. Over and over and over and over.

Again, and suffering the consequences therein.

Let it search out the truth today and to see how we could

potentially and possibly and maybe actively are provoking the

jealousy of God in our lives. We start with the first point

today. God's jealousy is provoked.

When we offer ourselves to idolatry over and over and over

again, we see God's people prone to idolatry.

In fact, John Calvin in his institute said this.

He said the human heart is a perpetual idol factory.

Yeah, that means just that. In our wickedness, we are

constantly coming up with ways to stray away from God and to

chase after false little G gods, and it is who we are by nature.

Oftentimes we read the accounts of of God's people in the Old

Testament and we think to ourselves, how in the world

could they stray away so much from a God who did so much from

them, has been so faithful to them, and has showered His love

upon them over and over and over again.

And we look at them without analyzing ourselves and

recognizing that we do the same thing, that we have the

propensity to chase after idols that are not God.

So how do you know we have this propensity?

Go back to the 10 commandments, Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

We see them there for the first time.

What does God? Say you shall have no other gods

before me. You know what God was doing.

He was graciously letting you know that if you're not careful,

you're going to put something in the place of God.

He goes on and he says this, You shall not make for yourself an

idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth

beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them

or worship them. He says, don't have anything in

my place, and don't make for yourself some tangible thing

that you call God. And of course, we know just a

few chapters after he told the people this the first time, here

they were. Doing it just as unfortunately

we find ourselves doing sometimes, he says.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord

your God, am a jealous God. He reiterates that term.

Punishing the children for the sin of their fathers to the 3rd

and the 4th generation of those who hate me, but showing love to

1000 generations of those who love me and who keep my

commands. What are the specific commands

that he's talking about here? He's commanding them to refrain

from idols. He's commanding them to refrain

from making anything in their life and putting it in the

position of God. He said, well, we don't do that.

You think that you don't do that?

John Calvin goes on to say in his Institutes in regard to

Exodus chapter 20, he says the purpose of.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

This command is that the Lord's will alone be preeminent among

His people and to exercise complete authority over them.

He calls himself jealous because he cannot bear a partner.

God is not going to share you with your idols, He is not going

to share you with anything or anyone else.

And we all know in our sick, deranged society that we live

in, there are many people who they claim to have an open

marriage. That is where a husband and a

wife, they have been legally married and made a covenant with

one another. They are legal by the laws of

the state. But they say this, yes, we are

legally married and yes, we're going to stay married because,

you know, divorces are pretty expensive, but let's just have

an open marriage. You sleep around with who you

want to sleep around with, and I'll sleep around with who I

want to sleep around with. And everything will just be OK.

Well, the problem with that is everything won't be OK, but I

use that illustration. To teach you this, God will not

accept an open marriage from any of us.

He did not send His only begotten Son to this earth.

To die, to rescue sinners so that they can then whore after

the things of this world. We offer ourselves to idols more

often than we would probably willingly admit.

What does it look like? What is it when we offer

ourselves to idols? Well, you write this down.

When we offer ourselves to idols, we are committing

spiritual adultery. How many times in Scripture do

we see that beautiful picture of God being our husband and we

being his bride? And again, he's not going to

accept an open marriage. He expects loyalty from us.

He expects faithfulness from us, and when we are not faithful and

we are not loyal to Him, chasing after whatever idol it may be,

we commit spiritual adultery and there's no if ands or buts about

it. Many of you would say, well I

would never commit adultery against my spouse, yet you were

constantly committing adultery against the Creator who made

you. You're committing that adultery

by chasing after the things that your flesh loves.

Fact in Hosea the entire book of Hosea is written so that we can

understand God's feelings about his people chasing after idols

committing spiritual adultery against him.

In fact, he tells Hosea to do the unthinkable.

In Hosea chapter one verse 2, he says this when the Lord began to

speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, go take to yourself

an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness because the

and is guilty of the vilest adultery and departing from the

Lord. He says, I want you to

experience what I experienced from my people, the whole land

committing spiritual adultery against me constantly.

And so that you'll know what this is like, Jose, so that you

can communicate this effectively, you take an

adulterous wife unto yourself. That's what we do when we chase

after other idols, isn't it? We commit spiritual adultery

against God. I know what you ask, Pastor.

I don't bow down to a graven image and I've never had a

golden calf. But can I say this to you?

When we give to something or to someone else, what belongs to

God isn't that worship? Couldn't we all agree that

that's worship, giving what belongs to God to someone or

something else? And so we could commit adultery

spiritually like this, giving our time to something or someone

else? It's interesting that we live in

a time where nobody has time, and they especially don't have

time for God. What a sad testament when we

don't have time for God. What a sad testament when we

have time to do everything under the sun.

But we can't find time to commune with God in his word, to

commune with God in prayer, to commune with God on the Lord's

Day with other believers. We simply don't have time.

The truth be told is you're giving your time away to your

mistress. Whatever that may be, whatever's

consuming all of your time, How about this?

Your talents. You use your talents for

everything under the sun. You'll use your talents to make

money. You'll use your talents to gain

friends. You'll use your talents to gain

acceptance. But are you using your talents

for the glory of the Lord? If you're not, you're giving to

someone or something or belongs to God, who do you think blessed

you with those talents and why do you think that He blessed you

with those talents? He didn't bless you with those

talents so that you can use them on your lovers outside of Him.

He bunched you with those talents so that you can bring

Him glory by using your talents for Him.

How about your energy, right? We all need more of that.

There's energy drinks, man. You're going to the store.

You can't even find a good old Coca-Cola anymore because all

the shelves are stacked with energy drinks.

Everybody's looking for more energy.

It's because you're giving your energy to things that don't

matter, giving your energy to things that are fleeting.

I can promise you this, if you're giving your energy to the

Lord, He will give you the strength to endure.

About our resources, resources that we give to idols, the idols

that we've created in our mind. It's true.

Whatever we offer ourselves to, it is an idol in our lives.

Whether you want to accept that or whether you don't, God's Word

is very clear about that. In fact, in.

Deuteronomy 32 verse 16 it says this.

Deuteronomy 32:16

They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him

with their detestable idols. You want to know what provokes

God's jealousy? You want to know what provokes

God to righteous anger toward His people When you offer

yourself to idols, giving him or it what belongs to God and God

alone? When we offer our worship to

lesser things, right Our devotion to temporal or our

earthly pursuits. But you know what I'm talking

about American Dreamers. You're all here.

You're in a country where it's easy to do right, to follow the

idol of the American dream. We all fall into that trap at

some point in time. Let me make this known.

It's a trap. That trap is driven your desire

for more. And so you devote yourself to

temporal or earthly pursuits, only giving God what's leftover

at the end. What a sad day when professing

Christians are only giving God what's leftover at the end of

the day. Oh, if you're not completely

exhausted, you're not completely worn out, you're not completely

spent on chasing after all the endeavors of the world, you

might give God some time, but if not, maybe tomorrow.

We're content in His church. Unfortunately, today, giving him

leftovers. I want to help all of you out.

Guys not interested in your leftovers?

He's not interested in your leftovers at all because he

knows exactly what they are. In fact, that offering is not

acceptable. You've already offered your

yourself to everything under the sun, and whatever you have

leftover, you're just going to toss it to God.

Ask Cain how that worked out for him.

And so we provoke God's jealousy continually by offering

ourselves to idolatry. And Paul says it like this in

Romans chapter 12, verse 11. In fact, he's instructing a

Romans 12:11

group of people who are inundated with paganism and

idolatry, he says in verse 11 of chapter 12.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer

your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to

God. This is your spiritual act of.

Worship. What's he saying?

Offer your entire selves to God. This is true worship where we do

just what Jesus said, we deny ourselves.

What percentage should we deny pastor 100%?

We should deny 100% of ourselves giving ourselves as an offering

unto the Lord. The sad thing is we live in a

church age and a church culture where no one is is instructing

you and no one is encouraging. You to give all of yourself to

the Lord. I long for the day where there's

a group of believers who are giving everything to the Lord,

loving Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and

loving their neighbor as themselves.

Fulfilling. The law of Christ offering

themselves as living sacrifices. Or may we stop committing

spiritual adultery, acting as if it is an idolatry?

So we commit these acts of idolatry, offering ourselves to

idols by committing spiritual adultery, but also when we're

controlled by senseless passions, driven by things of

the flesh, controlled by those things that are not God.

You know what those things are? We.

Have to ask ourselves what do we love most?

Because the things that we love most can quickly become idols in

our lives, can't they? How about your family?

Seen many a family make their children idols and worship them.

I've seen moms do their entire identity as being a mom.

Godly moms, listen to me. Don't let your identity be being

a mom. Let it be Christ and you

identify yourself with Christ and then your children are going

to see that and you are going to leave a lasting impact upon

their lives. Dads, stop worshipping your

children, living your life through them, through all their

sporting events, through all the things that they do.

You're leading them into self worship.

Stop it, live for Christ, let Christ be pre eminent in your

life. And see your children as a

blessing that come from the hand of God.

And pray that God gives you the wisdom to be a good steward, not

making them an idol for you to worship, spending all of your

time and all of your resources, all of your money, trying to

make these little sinners happy. Teach them about where true

happiness, true joy is found, and it's found in Christ alone.

And you teach them that by your example.

How about finances? Offering ourselves to idols

means that we're controlled. By senseless fashions such as

our finances, Right? You're you're more concerned

with the stock market than you are the return of Jesus Christ.

May we cease to be distracted by the idol of finances in this

world that we live in. The whole reason that you exist

is to make money. Ma'am, Sir, listen to me.

At that point, this has become an idol to you.

See it for what it is. You're worshipping the almighty

dollar. You're offering yourself to an

idol. In doing so, you are provoking

the jealousy of the God who loves you and who sent His Son

to rescue you from this world of chaos and sin.

Well, how about the idol of friendships or relationships,

right? Some of you.

You come to church because this is where your friends are.

Please cease to think like that today.

It's great that we have friends. It's great that we have

Christian fellowship. God has given us those things.

But if you'll go back with me into time, into the Old

Testament, God gave the people at one time a pole with a

serpent on it, so that if they were bit by a snake, they would

then be healed from that snake bite.

But where the people erred, here's what happened.

They began to worship the pole with the serpent on it, and some

of you worship your friendships. You come on a Sunday morning not

to exalt God, not to lift Him up, not to bow down and to

humble yourself before Him, but to visit with your.

Friends and it's high time we take back these institute's.

They call themselves churches, but are nothing more than a

social gathering, a Country Club.

We return to worshipping and honoring the one true and living

God with every fiber of our being.

About your future plans and Speaking of your senseless

passions, right? You're planning for the future,

right? What you're going to do when you

retire? I wish I could give you the list

of all the people who had those plans, never got to enjoy.

Not one single one of them. They did in opposition to what

James said. They counted on tomorrow, when

tomorrow is no guarantee and tomorrow never came.

Oh, let us worship the Lord with all of our intensity and all of

our fervor while we still have today, because tomorrow is not

guaranteed. So many people are following the

idol of their future plans, storing up treasures on earth

that you can't take with you and you're not guaranteed to ever

possess, when you could be inundated with worship toward

the one true God who's worthy of all that worship, experiencing

that communion with Him, not distracted by these things.

Instead, we offered ourselves to idolatry, being controlled by

our senseless passions. So it brings us to a question,

what's your passion? What drives you?

Why do you wake up every morning?

Do you wake up every morning for one of these things that I've

mentioned? How do you see every day as a

blessing for God, a blessing that He has given you for His

glory straight from His hand? Lord, you've blessed me with

another day. Let me obediently serve you and

worship you with this day because I'm not guaranteed the

next. I wish that God's people would

understand the seriousness of this.

And whatever you're passionate about, it's really what you

worship. Some of you are passionate about

sports. Some of you are passionate about

finances. Some of you are passionate about

your families. Some of you are passionate about

all your entertainment and all the things that this world could

throw at you with little passion at all concerning the Lord.

You've been distracted. You've been distracted with

covetousness, lust, greed. And can I insert here that greed

in the New Testament is called idolatry?

It's not called that by accident.

In fact, in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 5, here's what Paul says.

Ephesians 5:5

He says for all of this you can be sure no immoral, impure or

greedy person such a man is an idolater, has any inheritance in

the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

He says your greed is a mark of your idolatry.

You're offering yourselves to your greed, proving that you

don't understand the love of God at all.

In fact, in Luke chapter 12 verse 15, it says then he said

Luke 12:15

to them, Speaking of Jesus, watch out be on your guard

against all kinds of greed. Why?

Because a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his

possessions. But yet we live in a country.

That is so retail driven trying to talk you into something all

the time that you have to have. Know everything you have to

have. God will provide for you.

Stop chasing after your greedy desires.

Because your greed is an indicator that you are offering

yourself to an idol and that idol is called greed and it

arouses and it provokes God's jealousy.

That's why Paul says Corinthians and 1st Corinthians chapter 10

verse 14, he says flee from idolatry, flee from anything

that distracts you from giving God what belongs to God.

Flee from anything that causes you to offer yourself to

anything or anyone who is not God.

And as humans, yes, we are prone to this.

Stop thinking that idolatry is just some Old Testament thing

that doesn't happen any longer. You are constantly being drawn

to be distracted by things. I won't harp on it, but I will

mention it again. You have an electronic device

that is distracting you constantly in your pocket or in

your hand most of the day. You say, well, pastor, are you

preaching against cell phones? Absolutely not.

But I am preaching against idolatry, and the Saints of old

join with me and they agree because the word of God has

spoken on idolatry. It provokes God's jealousy.

That's why John says in his first epistle, chapter 5, verse

21, he says, dear children, keep yourselves from idol.

What is an idol again? Anything that takes your

attention away from God. Anything that distracts you,

it's when you give something to someone else that rightfully

belongs to God. And you, ma'am, you Sir, who

professed to be purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ,

you are not your own. You were bought with the price.

Therefore he says, honor God with your body.

Everything you have belongs to him.

Give it all. To him.

And when you're not giving it all to him, you're giving it to

something else. And at that point in time, you

were offering yourselves to idols.

Be very aware of this, because when we offer ourselves to

idolatry, we provoke God's jealousy.

Secondly, God's jealousy is provoked when we offer ourselves

to iniquity, to any and every type of sin.

And I want you to go here with me in your mind and in your

heart for just a moment. Oh, to think and to contemplate

this. That God loved me so much that

he sent his only begotten Son to die on a cross, a brutal and

horrific death, to ransom me, to pay my sin debt, to wash me and

cleanse me of all of my my defilements.

To free me from the wrath of God that I deserved, and placed it

upon the very back of Jesus the Christ, and then for me to only

then turn and return to the life of.

Sin and filth that he saved me from.

Doesn't he have the right to be jealous?

Doesn't he have the right to be provoked in that jealousy?

To think that he offered so much to express his love for us, and

then in return we constantly find ourselves offering

ourselves back to iniquity again, falling back into the

same thing that Jesus died. For you to be freed from You

offer yourself to iniquity, provoking God's jealousy.

You offer yourself to iniquity. When you watch this, write it.

Down so that you will know. Return to the filth, Jesus.

Rescued you from. And if anyone would be honest in

this room, you would agree with me that when Jesus rescued me,

he rescued me from the mud and the mire.

He rescued me from the filthiest of filth.

If you're in Christ, He did the same for you.

Oh, you weren't probably as bad as you could have been, but you

were bad. And you were completely bad.

In fact, you were totally depraved when he rescued you.

And he rescued you from your filth.

Not so that you can then use Grace as some cheap excuse to go

live in the filth again. He rescued us and He made us

clean so that we would not return to that filth.

What does that look like? We we return to our filth when

we revisit our old sinful habits.

Oh, there's no need to hide under the chair, because I know

that there has to be someone here who is revisiting their old

sinful habits, those things that Jesus freed you from.

Through His death, His burial, His resurrection, expressing to

you just how much God really does love you and in return you

slap Christ in the face and you go back and you pick up those

things that he freed you from and how can it be?

In fact, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 22 says you were taught

Ephesians 4:22

with regard to your former way of life.

Why don't you love how the life of sin was always talked about

in past tense in the New Testament, your former way of

life, He says to put off the old self, which is being corrupted

by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your

minds and to put on the new self created to be like God and

through righteousness and. Holiness, He gives no room there

to return back to that which he has rescued you from.

Your old, filthy, sinful habits. Leave them where they belong.

They belong in the past, in fact.

We know the scripture says to lay aside every weight and sin

that so easily entangles us to get rid of that thing, let it

go, not revisit our old sinful habits, offering ourselves to

iniquity, provoking the jealousy of God.

How about when we recklessly offer ourselves to sin, right?

Well, we just don't care all just this one time, I'm just

going to indulge. And many a man who one time

indulged and it cost him his entire life.

We run into sin recklessly. Oh, I'm saved, and I know I'm

saved, and I know that I'm going to heaven because I know Christ.

So just this. One time what I'm going to do is

I'm going to offer myself recklessly to sin.

What a shame that is because we see that it's very prevalent

isn't in the lives of those who profess to know Christ.

Romans chapter 6 Paul says this. He says in the same way, count

Romans 6 · chapter mention

yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that

you obey its evil desires. What is he telling us here?

That if we give sin an inch, it's going to take a mile?

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of

wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who

have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of

your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.

You know what he's saying. Don't dabble in sin any longer.

Don't give one inch to your sin. Because before you know it, as

many of you would testify, that sin is back in the driver's seat

in your life, controlling you. You're bowing down.

You're offering yourself to that, even against your own

redeemed will, because you recklessly offered yourself to

sin once again. When you offer yourself to

iniquity, provoking the wrath of God, when you return to the

filth that Jesus rescued you from, revisiting your old sinful

habits, recklessly offering yourself to sin.

And when you resemble the ungodly in your behavior and in

your life. I would to God that Christians

would see how important it is that we don't resemble this

world any longer, not in the language that we use, not in the

places that we go, not in the substances that we partake in.

That we reflect God in every area of our life resembling the

one who bought us. Is that not what His Word

teaches us? That those He foreknew He did

also predestined to conform to the image of His Son?

I find myself asking this question quite often.

If we were conformed, or we were destined to be conformed to the

image of His Son, why do so many professing Christians look like

the. World.

Why do they resemble the ungodly?

Why could you put the two right next to each other most of the

time, with maybe the exception on a Sunday because you come to

church because your Mama told you to?

But why can we set them side by side most of the time?

There's so many of you in the so-called church offering

yourselves to iniquity resembling the ungodly and your

life. First Thessalonians chapter 4,

1 Thessalonians 4:3

verse 3 says it is God's will that you should be sanctified,

that you should avoid sexual immorality.

Sexual immorality, the sin that he is addressing specifically

here, but it would encompass all sin.

He said that each of you should learn to control his own body in

a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate

lust like the heathen. What is he saying?

The heathen just whatever their, their flesh lusted after, they

just ran and they didn't, he says.

And that is that in this matter no one should wrong his brother

or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all

such sins, as we've already told you and warned you.

He says there's going to be consequences for you who profess

Christ and who behave like the world.

Please understand that the author of Hebrews is very clear

that whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he chastens

with a rod. And if you were without

discipline, you don't belong to Him.

I tell people quite frequently when I talk about the discipline

of God, I tell him this. I'm so thankful for God's

discipline. It reveals to me His jealous

love for me. But it reveals.

To me, that I am his son. I have faced the Lord's

discipline on so many occasions that I know this.

I know I am His because He won't let me be anything else.

And if you, ma'am or Sir, can live any way that you want to

live and still profess Christ, I want to help you.

That is a hollow profession because the Lord has promised to

discipline those who belong to Him.

And if you are truly in Christ, you belong to Him.

And so if you can do whatever in the world you want to do, you

can look like the world, act like the world.

There's no conviction, There's no discipline that comes upon

your life. You can do all the things that

the world does. You are the world.

Without exception, you're not truly in Christ.

Because if you're in Christ, His jealous love would pursue you.

His jealous love would discipline you.

He would not let you continue to resemble the ungodly.

He has freed you from looking like this world in your life.

These people not only returned to the filth that Jesus rescued

them from, offering themselves to iniquity, provoking God's

jealousy, they refuse to die to their sinful desires and the

cravings of the flesh. What are they doing?

They're neglecting to mortify their sin.

As Christians, we all know this. We have the same sinful desires

that we once have, right? She's thankful that in Christ

there is now another option, and that option is to die to the sin

and the desire of your flesh and is to live unto Christ empowered

by the Holy Spirit. Galatians 516 says that if I

walk in the Spirit, I will not fulfill the lust of my flesh.

It doesn't say that I won't have them.

I won't fulfill them. But what I have to do is I have

to mortify my sin at every occasion.

And I can't speak for you, but I can speak for me.

That's multiple times daily. Then I have to literally kill my

sin that craves the things of the flesh.

I have to mortify just as Paul says in Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

He says in verse 3, for you died and your life is now hidden in

Christ, in God, with Christ, in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also

appear with him in glory. Amen.

I'm thankful for that. But now he tells me my

responsibility as I wait for that.

Watch us put to death. Mortify.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly

nature. He's going to give us a list

sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed,

which is idolatry. He says because of these, the

wrath of God is coming. He's saying you have been freed

from the wrath of God, therefore you do not need to participate

in the things that bring God's wrath upon this earth.

You've been bought. You've been purchased.

Stop refusing to die to your sinful desires and your cravings

of the flesh simply because, well, I'm just a human and

you're true. You are just a human.

You are a human if you are in Christ, who is now indwelt by

the power of the Holy Spirit, the same power of the Holy

Spirit. It's the same Spirit that Christ

walked in while He was here on this earth and He lived a

righteous and perfect life before men.

Mortify your flesh. Walk in the perfect life that

Jesus Christ has made for you to walk in his very own life.

Is that not what Paul said? Your life is hidden in him.

Problem with the American churches.

You still think you have your life.

If you think you have your life, your life is not hidden in

Christ. Because if your life is hidden

in Christ, when Christ appears, your life will appear with him.

That's why we look for that day. Until then, we mortify our flesh

long for what we one day will be in our glorified state because

of Christ. Some refused to die to their

sinful desires and the cravings of their flesh offering

themselves to iniquity, even though they professed Christ

only provoking his wrath, subjecting themselves to sins

potential control. Again, as we've already seen in

Romans 6, Paul talks about, but also forgetting the sacrifice of

our blessed Savior. I think this is where we often

jump off the track. We forget what Christ has done

for US. First Peter chapter 2 verse 24

1 Peter 2:24

says he himself Speaking of Christ bore our sins in his own

body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for

righteousness. Paul simply telling us this, or

Peter, excuse me, simply telling us this, that when we think of

Christ and the fact that He bore our sins on the cross, that

ought to be motivation for us to mortify and to die to our sins

and to live for righteousness because of the love that He

displayed for us in rescuing us on the cross.

But often times we let that just go to the very back of our mind

instead of every day rising from our sleep and saying, Lord

Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice that you made.

Thank you for rescuing me from me, bearing my sin and my shame

on the tree, so that I can now live a life of righteousness

unto God for His glory. Teach me to do this by the power

of your Spirit as I walk with you.

So God's jealousy is provoked and we offer ourselves to

iniquity. When we choose sin over

holiness, we provoke God's jealousy, rightly so.

Shouldn't He be jealous and His faithfulness to us?

We continually run after unfaithfulness to Him.

Thirdly, you'll be happy to know.

Lastly, today God's jealousy is provoked when we offer ourselves

to pay attention to this not often talked about any longer in

the church. God's jealousy is provoked when

we offer ourselves to inconsistency.

You said Kirk, what do you mean inconsistency?

I mean, if we're going to understand.

This that we. Have to turn our attention to

Revelation chapter 3 where we see the church at Laodicea.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Mentioned the church at Laodicea there in Revelation chapter 3.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Heard from Jesus himself. And he proclaimed to them just

how unacceptable inconsistency and indifference toward Christ

really is. In fact, the term lukewarm was

used. You're very familiar with this

term. What does this mean?

It means that they were inconsistent.

He said you're neither hot nor cold.

He said I would rather you be hot or cold, but you're neither.

You're waver back and forth. You're inconsistent in every

area of your life. And he calls them to repentance

for their inconsistency. No, I know we live in a church

age, in a church culture where no one calls the church to

repent of inconsistency. That change is here now because

inconsistency has become an idol in the church.

We're. One way on Sunday, then we're

another way the other days of the week.

In fact, we're so inconsistent that our.

Unbelieving friends don't see any difference between them and

us other than we give up our Sunday to come to church because

you're right there partying with them.

You're right there, you're drinking with them, you're right

there, you're laughing at all their filthy jokes.

Fact probably given giving them new ones to tell at their next

encounter. And we're OK with it.

We're. OK with being inconsistent, but

let me tell you this God is not OK with it.

In fact, it provokes his jealousy.

The God who has loved you to the extent that He has loved you

too, and yet you were inconsistent toward Him.

When we go back to the ministry of Elijah in First Kings chapter

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

18, he addresses God's people for their inconsistency.

They were wavering. Watch how he says this in verse

21. Elijah went out before the

people and said how long will you waver between two opinions?

He says if the Lord is God, Callaway.

If he's God, follow him, but if if Baal is God, follow him.

But the people said nothing. They didn't respond because they

knew they had been caught in their inconsistency because

there were times when they were worshipping the one true God.

And then the next time that you would see them, they were

worshipping Baal. And Elijah had enough of it and

God had had enough of it because God was provoked in his jealousy

that he sent Elijah to deliver this message.

And he's telling them to stop wavering between two opinion.

If God is the one true God and Jesus Christ is the one true

Savior, live like it, act like it, love like it, serve like it.

But if your God is really the gods of this world, who are no

gods at all, then serve the world, partake of the world,

indulge in the world, and receive the world's reward in

hell. But pick a lane.

Choose which one you are in. Because inconsistency provokes

God's jealousy, He will not put up with it.

In fact, Joshua and his ministry in leading the.

Israelites. He calls the Israelites to do

just that. Pick a lane.

In fact, Joshua 24 verse 14, he says this now fear the Lord and

Joshua 24:14

serve him with all faithfulness, not part faithfulness, not

Sunday morning faithfulness. He said with all faithfulness.

He said be faithful in every area of your life.

Throw away the gods your forefathers worship beyond the

river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

Now watch this. He gives them another option, he

says. But if serving the Lord seems

undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you

will serve, whether the gods of your forefathers, whether the

gods your forefathers served beyond the river, or the gods of

the Amorites, and whose land you are living.

And he takes a stand, he says, But As for me and my household,

we will serve Yahweh, we will serve the Lord.

What is Joshua? Doing there, he's calling the

people of God out and he's simply saying this.

Choose which side you are really on.

Stop going back and forth and back and forth.

One day you're worshipping the gods of the Amorites, the next.

Day you're worshipping Yahweh. This does not work.

It doesn't work for us either, because just as they are God's

covenantal people, so are we. And our covenant is in the

precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's time that we

become consistent in our worship toward Him and our service

toward Him. God is not pleased with our

inconsistency. When we are inconsistent, we

offer ourselves to that inconsistency instead of

offering ourselves to God. How do we do this?

What does this look like in a practical sense so that we

understand it? Pay close attention to this.

We offer ourselves to inconsistency by wavering an

allegiance. We waver an allegiance between

the world and God and His church.

We partly embrace God and His Kingdom, and we partly embrace

the things of this world. We can't really make up our mind

for sure. James addresses this in James

James 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4. He doesn't in a rather bold

fashion to which I appreciate. He says in verse 4 of chapter 4,

you adulterous people. That's what he calls them, you

adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship

with the world is hatred toward God?

Anyone who? Chooses to be a friend of the

world. Becomes an enemy of God.

Church, please listen to that warning.

Please. We are only going to be warned

of that so many times in our lifetime.

Heed that warning. Some of you are offering

yourselves an inconsistency. One day you're offering yourself

to the world. One day you're offering yourself

to God. Probably just this day because

it's Sunday and that's what you've been raised in the South

to do. But in doing that, your

inconsistency is provoking and arousing the very jealousy of

God. You waver to and fro, partnering

with the world on one day and partnering with the church on

another. Second Corinthians 6 Paul speaks

of this. He says in verse 14, Do not be

yoked together with unbelievers. That's not talking about just

marriage church. Sadly, that's the only time some

seem to use this. He's talking about everything.

He says do not be yoked together with unbelievers.

What do righteousness and wickedness have in common?

He's going to give you rhetoricals and they're all no

or nothing. Have nothing in common.

What fellowship can light have with darkness?

None. What harmony is there between

Christ and Blount? No.

Harmony at all? What does a believer have in

common with an unbeliever? Nothing, he said.

Well, I'm a believer and I have lots in common with my lost

friends. You better check yourself.

You better check yourself because you're claiming to be

light and saying that you have something in common with the

darkness, and God's Word says that is impossible.

Your inconsistency is seen very clearly just by that simple

statement that you made. Wavering an allegiance between

the world and God, partnering with the world, participating

with the world, drinking from the cup of the world.

Paul speaks of this in First Corinthians chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Talking to the believers there at Corinth, he says you cannot

drink the cup of the Lord. What was he talking about?

You can't observe the Lord's Supper on a Sunday.

Recognizing the very blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of the

New Covenant and then turn around on Monday and drink from

the cup of demons. You can have a part in both the

Lord's table and the table of demons.

He said your fellowship can't be with Christ and Satan at the

same time. This inconsistency is

impossible. He says.

Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy?

Yes, that question. Isn't it interesting that he

borrows that term from the Old Testament?

Are we trying to arouse his jealousy?

Not only are you trying to arouse his jealousy, you are

arousing his jealousy as we arouse.

Him to jealousy when we're inconsistent in our lives

wavering in our allegiance being double minded as James warns

about in James chapter 1 to verse 8.

James 1 · chapter mention

What does he say? He says a.

Double minded man is unstable in all he does.

When you're inconsistent, it reveals your double mindedness.

Your double mindedness. Reveals who you truly are.

So we offer ourselves to inconsistency when we are

wavering in allegiance, but also when we're wavering in

affection, inconsistent in our love for God.

I'll say it in a way that you can understand it.

We're married to Jesus, but we still sometimes date the world.

We're married to Jesus and we know that, but by His precious

blood we are in a covenant. Sometimes we still date the

world. And why would He not be provoked

to jealousy when He faithfully rescued you from your sin, the

wrath that was to come upon you, putting you in the right

position with your Creator, putting you in that marriage

covenant with Himself, only for you to then turn and still want

to date the world? First John chapter 2 verse 15,

1 John 2:15

Speaking of our affections for the world, John says this do not

love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him

for everything in the world. The cravings of sinful man, the

lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does

comes not from the Father, but from the world.

The world and its desires passed away, but the man who does the

will of God lives forever. Church, it's time we stop

wavering in our affection, offering ourselves to

inconsistency, saying that we love Jesus, but showing that we

love the world. Because you can say that you

love Jesus all you want, but if you're not showing it, no one is

buying it. But haven't we embraced that in

our time? Oh, as long as you say you love

Jesus, it really doesn't matter how you live.

Oh, it matters because how you were living in your

inconsistency is provoking the jealousy of God.

And it's high time that you recognize that.

In fact, it's high time that you repent of that.

It's it's time that you get honest about that.

You approach the stone of grace that you may find mercy and

grace even this very day, because it's Jesus by His love

that He chose us out of this world.

Why do we continue to waver in our affection for the world that

He chose us out of? Is that what He said in John 15

John 15:19

verse 19? That He chose us out of the

world? Well, if He chose you out of the

world, and how did he do it? By demonstrating his love for

you on the cross. If he chose you out of this

world, why are you still inconsistently dabbling in it?

Do you like the thought of provoking the jealousy of God?

I don't have time today to tell you what happens when the

Israelites provoke his jealousy over and over and over again.

Please know this, you will not provoke his jealousy as one of

his covenantal people without there being a consequence that

comes from it. Many are wavering in their

allegiance and in their affection, proving their

inconsistency, pursuing the temporal things of this earth

instead of the eternal things of God.

That's why Paul tells the Colossians to set their minds on

things above, not on earthly thing.

Why? Because these earthly things are

fleeting, yet we spend so much time investing in them.

God's jealousy is provoked when we offer ourselves to

inconsistency. His jealousy is provoked when we

offer ourselves to iniquity. His jealousy is provoked when we

offer ourselves to idolatry. God has every right to be

jealous, doesn't He? We offer ourselves to these

things. We waver in our allegiance when

we waver in our affections. We bow to idle.

We cave to sin is every right to be jealous?

Oh, I say these things to you because we are going to begin a

study looking at God's jealousy in great detail.

But I told you when I began to study the topic, I said, you

know. One thing that I have learned

about God's jealousy, though I've only just scratched the

surface. One thing that I have learned is

I don't want to arouse and provoke His jealousy.

And I want the people who have been placed under my care to

know exactly how we can do this. I don't come to you today to

browbeat you a scripture to be harsh to you.

I come to just tell you the truth.

God is a jealous God. I encourage you to serve him as

the jealous God that he is because the fact that God is

jealous ought to call some things to happen in our lives.

Write these things down and I'll close this up.

For those of you who thought three points meant a shorter

sermon, you were sadly wrong. The fact that God is a jealous

God should cause you to release any affections for this world.

If you're in Christ, you are holding on to love for something

in this world. This day.

God will convict you and show you to release that thing.

It does not belong in your life. God's jealousy oughta calls you

to release that thing immediately, to confess it, to

repent of it knowing that He is faithful and just, to forgive

you of all of your sin when you confess it.

Secondly, and I'll cause you to repent of any and all

unfaithfulness that you were committing with idols.

Oh, I don't have time to tell you how many different kinds of

idols we could have. If you have an idol in your

life, I know this. And if you're a believer, the

Holy Spirit has convicted you specifically that this thing is

an idol in your life. I don't have to harp on that.

By now you know what it is. Repent of it.

Call it exactly what God says that it is.

Stop wavering. Thirdly, realize the depths of

God's love for His elect. And when I think about the

jealousy of God, it thrills my heart.

It thrills my heart. Many of you will leave and you

will say, man, that was hard. It's not hard at all.

This is true love. This is a loving message that

God would jealously pursue His people.

Now I'm so thankful for that, that He has loved me again and

again and again and will always love me with that jealous love.

Because I am His, He has made a covenant with me.

I'm secured by that jealous love.

Realize the depths of that love. Why?

Because in realizing the depths of that love, I'm going to

encourage you to respond with a deeper love for Him.

Thank you God, that You won't let me be what I used to be.

Thank you God, You have rescued me from myself and from my sin.

Thank you, God, that Your love holds me secure forever.

And lastly, refuse to offer yourself to anyone or anything

other than to the Lord. I told you when I started every

time that we see God's jealousy provoked in Scripture, it is

because it's people are offering themselves to something other

than God in some way, shape or form.

Church, may we stop offering ourselves to anyone or anything

other than the Lord, giving Him what belongs to Him, and that is

all of US. He purchased us by His precious

blood. He owns us and we need to live

like we realize that. To the unbeliever, I pray today

as God opens your eyes to your need for a Savior, oh, that He

would by His grace and His mercy, open your eyes to see

your need, the fact that you're a Sinner, you are in need of a

Savior. And that Savior who loves

sinners came to this earth. He died on a cross bearing the

wrath and the punishment that belonged to sinners.

He rose again on the third day so that you can receive new

life, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life.

In the heaven was God. Oh, I pray today you would trust

in this Jesus who came and who died.

You would trust in Him as Lord, forsaking yourself, repenting of

your sin, believing in Christ and Christ alone.

O may He unveil the depths of His jealous love for you today.

May He rescue you by that love. Let's pray together, Father, in

the name of Jesus, we come to you thinking you and you are a

jealous God, and rightfully so. And we bow our entire lives to

our God who will not tolerate His people offering themselves

to anyone or anything else. Lord, I pray that we hear and

that we heed the seriousness of this message.

That if need be, we repent and confess sin in our life that has

provoked your jealousy. God, I pray for the soul who's

here does not know Christ. I ask Lord, that you would show

them mercy today by graciously offering your Son as the

payment, the atonement for their sin, that today they would

believe on Christ and be saved. And we'll give you all the glory

for it in Jesus name, Amen. You've been listening to Key

Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry podcast.

Join us each week for more teaching from God's Word.