The Lord governs His people by His Law, which includes every Word in His Holy Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.  Recall that Jesus and the apostles taught from the Old Testament Law.  The New Testament did not exist at the time of their ministries and would not exist until around 90 A.D. when John codified the books and letters of the prophets and apostles.  Recall also that the New Testament Church was founded on the writings of the prophets and apostles (Eph. 2:20).  Law entails restriction of actions and prescription of actions–a Truth that many religious people reject.

“Legalism!”  This is a word any church member who determines to embrace the Lord’s strict Law and reject the church’s more liberal doctrines will hear.  The accusation will not come from the unchurched, but rather from the churched, especially pastors, evangelists, etc.  Two local pastors responded to a newspaper article I wrote in which I stressed strict obedience to God’s Sabbath Law, which He calls “My holy day” (Isa. 58:13).  One accused me of having “fallen from grace.”  The other invited me to visit his church so that I could “get saved.”  My sin?  My insistence on church people’s obedience to God’s Ten Commandment Law which was supposedly “nailed to the cross.”  This in spite of Christ’s saying that He did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it” (Mat. 5:17), in spite of the Apostle Paul’s statement that “the Law is holy, just and good,” (Rom. 7:12), in spite of Christ’s statements that, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15); “If you (disciples) will have (eternal) life, obey My commandments” (Mat. 19:17), “If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and (therefore) abide in His love” (Jn. 15:10), in spite of Paul’s statement that only the doers of the Law will remain justified (Rom. 2:13), in spite of his saying that he would not have known what sin was but for the Law (Rom. &:7), in spite of God saying that He would write the Law in the hearts of those in the New Testament Church (Jer. 31:31-31/Heb. 8:8-13, noting that, having done so, the old sacrificial law would be done away with (nailed to the cross), in spite of the Apostle James’ statement that those who only hear the Law but refuse to obey it are deceiving themselves (1:22), in spite of the Prophet Isaiah saying that the Messiah would come to earth to “magnify the Law and make it holy (again)”–41:22, in spite of God defining sin as “the transgression of the Law” (1 Jn. 3:4).

GOD IS A LEGALIST.  HE RULES HIS TRUE SAINTS BY HIS LAW.  I am astonished by the fact that the same people who zealously embrace Isaiah 53:1-6 vehemently reject Isaiah 58:13.  Did he tell the Truth in chapter 53 and lie in chapter 58?  Could Satan have something to do with this phenomenon?  Could flirting with an idol cause such scriptural confusion in modern men?

But, some will point out, did not Paul say that an idol is nothing?  Indeed he did.  But he warned us about the spirit behind the idol.  A television set is nothing more than a piece of furniture.  But there is a spirit behind it that can and does send his messages into the minds of its victims.  I read a statement by the pastor of a large church who said that “God turns on my television for me.”  I do not doubt that.  However, that god is the god of the earth (2 Cor. 4:4).  I once read that the average 18-year-old has spent the equivalent of 6 years watching television and 4 months in church.  And this was several years ago.  With the advent of cell phones, etc., one takes Satan’s weapon of mass deception with him–everywhere.  I find that people are as hooked on their little idol as they are their big idol.  I have seen people in the gym lifting a weight with one hand while holding their idol with the other.  I was rear-ended a few years back by someone texting or sexting.  The driver’s obsession resulted in his totaling the school car I was driving and earning me a goodly amount of money.  God has such a delightful sense of humor.

Jesus stated that we must symbolically drink of His blood.  The Apostle Paul’s ominous warning still rings true: “You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; you cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and the table of devils” (I Cor. 10:21).  He asks, “Do we provoke the Lord to Jealousy?” (I Cor. 10:22).  He was referring to having “fellowship with idols” and drinking the cup of the devil.  We must choose whom we will honor and obey.  The two deities involved do not mix.  Read 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1.

Jeremiah delivered a scathing rebuke to religious leaders who flirted with idols: “The priests asked not, ‘Where is the Lord?’  And they that handle the Law (teachers) do not know Me (God).  The pastors also transgressed against Me and the (false) prophets who prophesied by Baal walked after things (idols) that do not profit” (2:8).

Honest Bible students will note that television encompasses all three temptations Satan introduced to mankind.  Scripture tells us to, “Love not the world, neither the things of the world.  If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world: THE LUST OF THE FLESH, THE LUST OF THE EYES AND THE PRIDE OF LIFE are not of the Father, but are of the world.  The world will pass away, along with the lust of it, but HE WHO DOES THE WILL OF GOD WILL LIVE FOREVER.”  Notice that it is not the pillar of the church, or the pastor, or the teacher, or the evangelist, or the missionary, or the lay person with a drawer full of perfect attendance pens who will live forever.  That honor will come only to the one who obeys the Word of God.  Knowing the hearts of men, Jesus lamented that “few” would enter His strait gate (very restrictive church) and walk His narrow (strictly defined and enforced) way that leads to the Kingdom of God.  Idol embracers will not make the cut, if, that is, we can take Jesus at His Word.  L.J.