Last week we spent time worshipping our awesome God. I trust that you continued worshipping throughout the week, every time you looked up at the sky but most importantly every time you spent time in God’s word, you gave him praise. When the Israelites were confessing their sins in Nehemiah they started by saying Nehemiah 9:5 “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” The creator of this amazing universe loves us so much that he made a way to Him but we must believe that He is God alone and there is no other. 1 Kings 8:23 “Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 14:23 “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” The creator of the universe cares deeply for us but we must obey his word. Solomon was told 1 Kings 6:11 “The Lord came to Solomon: 12 “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. 13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.” So when we look up we are reminded of God’s amazing love for us.
Today we want to look at worshipping God alone. You won’t keep the commandments of a God you do not believe in or trust or have faith in. Just look at how many have added and deleted scripture just to make themselves out to be God. You see they really don’t believe God is God alone. If they did they wouldn’t desecrate scripture the way they do. I was watching some unbelievably ignorant videos of people telling other people something completely different than what scripture is saying and people believe them. Why? Because they do not believe that God is God and God alone. Now it is not just the fools who think they are knowledgeable. If we do not trust God in everything, we do the same. Every time we replace the bible with knowledge from men and women, we are ignoring the truth of God’s word.
Believing that God is God alone changes everything. This means we trust him always. We live this life knowing that he has a plan for us and we have nothing to fear. So no matter what we are up against we heed God’s command to Joshua when he said Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” This is a promise. Deuteronomy 9:3 “But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.” Deuteronomy 31:8 “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
There is an amazing story of victory that is described three times in Kings Chronicles and Isaiah. Sennacherib king of Assyria was now attacking Judah and now was coming against Jerusalem. Nothing could stop Him. The king sends his messenger to mock them. 2 Kings 18:31 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?” satan is always trying to get us to turn away from our God. He is always trying to get us to stop believing in God alone. Remember that he will send his messengers with the same message. You see how he changes God’s word around. Choose life and not death. God says choose life and prosperity not death and destruction. The king of Assyria cannot offer that.
So they went to Isaiah and said 2 Kings 19:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.” Little does the church know it but this is our cry and should be all of our cries but yet we lay in desolation because the church refuses to call upon the Lord for deliverance due to the deception in the church. Yet there is a remnant that will survive because the sun rose today and the promise to David will stand no matter what is going on around us. Isaiah then responds 2 Kings 19:6 “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’” But then the King of Assyria responds.10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
Then we come to this amazing prayer that Hezekiah prays. 2 Kings 19:14 “Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. 17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 19 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.” This is the God we serve and this should also be our prayer. We too can hold on to these verses because of the promise to David.
Isaiah prophesies about the fall of Sennacherib. 30 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. 31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. 4 I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.” When Hannah prayed she said 1 Samuel 2:1 “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. 2 “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” David said, “47 “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! 48 He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me, 49 who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from a violent man you rescued me. 50 Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name. 51 “He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.”
Once we understand that God alone is God, we will truly praise him. Deuteronomy 32:39 “See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.” When Elijah spoke to the people he said 1 Kings 18:21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.” They actually did not know. Many of us think we know but do we really? Even though Job was a man of God, after his suffering he said Job 42:5 “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” So Elijah continued and said “The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” After taunting the prophets of Baal “36 at the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”
We should also be praying this pray and asking God to reveal himself. “Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.” Will you proclaim; the Lord He is God, He is God. Is God’s word enough? For most it isn’t, that’s why they allow it to be changed and desecrated. That's why most Christians are looking for other sources of knowledge other than the word of God. We must know for sure and that is between you and God. Take the time to make sure. This is what happened to Naaman who was a commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. 9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” 11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. 13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. 15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.”
We too must come to terms with whom it is we serve. Many say they serve a risen savior but is it really Jesus they serve or the figment of someone’s imagination who does not believe in God alone. They think he is a weak and powerless God, so they go ahead and do things themselves and for themselves. Saul lost everything because he refuses to wait on God and obey his word. Today we have people changing and manipulating scripture to promote their sinful ways. They change the word of God to glorify themselves. Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” This happens all the time in church and millions are being led astray. We are not waiting for this to happen as it already has. So many do not agree with the word of God and therefore God is no longer God alone. They even despise His word. Psalm 106:24 “Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise. 25 They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 36:15 “The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. When we despise God’s word we cannot stand against our enemies. 1 Corinthians 6:11 Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men (Romans 1 tells us that includes women also) 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.“ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” This is what is available to all who believe God’s truth. When we bow before God, we are saying You are God alone and there is no other. Then we had better live that way. If you are bowing but do not believe, you are a hypocrite. So just going to church does not make you a believer as so many believe today. Most are robbing God as Malachi tells us and are offering lame sacrifices. Nor does getting dunked on a Sunday make you filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said if you love me obey my commandments. Unfortunately many who have been baptized just got wet and that’s all and they continue to live in deception with no power. Romans 1:28 “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Not only did they receive a depraved mind, 2 Thessalonians 2:10 “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
When we do not believe God and God alone, we open ourselves to deception, delusion and a depraved mind from false teaching. We must stand on the word of God and none other. Colossians 2:6 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” Remember as you were taught does not mean from men and women who have modified the word of God. 2 Kings 17:15 “They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.” but as Paul said 1 Thessalonians 1:4 “For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.” 1 Thessalonians 2:13 “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone.
Our walk in faith to the one true God is summed up in 1 John 5:18 “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” If we do not follow God’s word and believe God and God alone we will not be safe and the enemy will advance against us we have seen in the desolate church. Today will you hold fast to God’s word and say He is God Alone!
2 Kings 5:15 “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.” The question is can we say this with Naaman?
