Instruments of Worship

Only He Is Worthy of Our Worship | Ep. 2

• Casey • Episode 2

Share episode

Send Casey a text!!

There are many idols in the classical music world that strive to rob us of our worship to the only True God.  Be encouraged today by the story of Moses in Exodus 33:17-33 and Exodus 34:1-8 where He gets to see God's glory and God's mercy on full display.  THIS is the God we worship, and He is the only one truly worthy of our Worship! 

To help engage our hearts in greater worship to Him, check out these different types of songs that relate to this episode.   

- Open The Eyes of My Heart Lord
- Give Us Clean Hands
- No One
- You Are The Lord
- Here It Is (I Worship You)
- Here I Am To Worship 
- Worthy of Worship
- Awesome God

Make sure to check back every Monday for another episode of Instruments of Worship!  Thanks so much!

Thanks so much for listening! Make sure to check back every Monday for a new episode!

Follow us on Instagram!

Check out more episodes on Buzzsprout and on Youtube!

SPEAKER_00:

Hi friends, my name is Casey Rankenberger and I am so excited to welcome you to the Instruments of Worship podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to equipping and encouraging classical musicians to lift high the name of Jesus with their lives and with their instruments. Today we are going to be taking a look at an example of a person's worship in the Bible and that person is Moses. So let's get into it. Before we begin today, I just kind of wanted to make a little bit of a PSA just about the importance of God's word. And I know maybe some of you have grown up listening, knowing, studying. the word of God, but maybe some of you haven't. And maybe some of you have struggled to see the importance of why read the Bible? It was written so long ago. Does it really apply today? Does God really still speak through that? All those sorts of things. And I just thought it would be worthwhile to say that I believe that the Bible is so important and is such a lifeline to even me, as I told you kind of in my testimony last week of how it was what I needed for every day. The truths that I knew I could hold on to, things that I knew to be true about God and what his word said. And although it was written down by human authors, God is the one who inspired it. He is the true author of everything that is in the Bible. In 2 Timothy 3, 16, it says, It's useful for everything that we need. It is through God's word that he lays out his plan to redeem and restore a sinful people to be his children. That's incredible. It's also through his word that he shows us who he is. He wants us to know him. He wants to be known. It's through his word that he shows us how we are to respond to who he is, to salvation. It's how he directs us in the way that we should go. It guides us. It shows us how we can pursue him. In Psalms 119, verse 103, it says,"'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.'" The Bible is one of the main ways that God communicates with us. We get to hear from God, know him more intimately and love him more deeply because of the things that are contained within the scriptures. So all that said, I would love to do more episodes looking at places throughout the Bible where people worship. And I know I said that last week, but I wanted to clarify not so that we can lift up the worshiper, but so that we can lift up the one that they worship. Maybe you're a classical musician and you don't feel like you know God very well. And it's like, how are you supposed to worship someone that you don't know? And You can't. You're right. I hope that we will get to study and learn more about who God is so that we can greater worship him. The more we know about him, absolutely the more that we will want to worship him. But it can be hard if we just start at the worship spot, but don't backtrack and get to know the Lord a little bit. It can be really hard to know who we are worshiping and why it's so glorious to worship him. So our first example of worship today comes from the end of Exodus 33 and the beginning of Exodus chapter 34. When we get a look into Moses's time with God up on Mount Sinai. In this example, we see Moses worshiping God for the vastness of his glory, but also the vastness of his mercy, both on full display. You may think, oh, God's glory is intimidating to you. Maybe it's inspiring and awesome to you. I don't know, but. His glory and his mercy, sometimes that may not seem, they may seem in contradiction to one another, but I promise you they're not. And we're going to see that today, that he is fully glorious and fully merciful. And those two things work hand in hand and they're beautiful fit together. So first I wanted to give you a little context. So If you're not familiar, the Israelites are God's chosen people who were enslaved in Egypt. This is kind of where we're picking up. God used Moses. He was a man that was imperfect, but God used him to lead and deliver the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. After that, they immediately worshiped God. God had done saved them. So they worshiped him and they said, then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord. I will sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider, he is buried into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him. My father's God and I will extol him. I think that already is like a beautiful example of worship. Just lifting him high for what he has done, what he had saved them from, how amazing he was. And it was, it was through song. Isn't that beautiful? That is a part of worship is through song. They were singing that to him. Time and time again, the Lord provided and sustained them while they then wandered in the wilderness. They had been released from Egypt, but they had nowhere yet to land. So they were just wandering around. Three months later, after they were out of Egypt, they camped at the base of a mountain called Mount Sinai. And God used this place to communicate with Moses his plans for his people, which was that they would be his people and he would be their God, that they would be set apart from the world and In a blaze of glory, God consecrated this by giving Moses the Ten Commandments, which became the law that the Israelites tried to follow. So that was how they were going to be set apart from the world. in exodus 31 18 it says when he which was who was god had finished speaking with him upon mount sinai he gave moses the two tablets of the testimony tablets of stone written by the finger of god i think that's so cool i love that last line written by the finger of god it just shows how he was there personally and a part of giving Moses those 10 commandments. This was a huge deal. In the meantime, all the Israelites were still waiting for Moses, waiting for God as that all was going on on Mount Sinai at the base of the mountain. And they grew impatient and wanted something tangible to worship. And this is the dun, dun, dun of the story. This is where it goes bad. So they grew impatient and they wanted something to worship. So naturally, as one would, they just piled all their gold jewelry together, melted Belted all their earrings down and made an idol. And much less an idol of a calf. A golden calf to worship. They literally just, after all God had done for them, they were like... We're impatient. We need something to worship now. And they replaced God with something else. I think that's very telling of the nature of man, how we want things now, especially nowadays when we're so instant gratification. We want what we want when we want it. We were made to worship, but we were made to worship God, the only one who is worthy of our worship. And yet we replace God. That with all these little, little gods that become idols and become very enticing to give all our love, our attention, our thoughts to. So we are always worshiping something. Never fool yourself that you are neutral. Maybe you don't worship God, but you don't worship anything. That's not true. We all worship something. And even for believers, it's so hard to keep God the one thing that we're worshiping. So watch your impatience. We all have to. There are seasons of longing where we're waiting and it seems very arduous. And a lot of trials can go on in those periods. They're not easy. But those are the periods when idols may come and creep in and be very tempting to become our little G gods, to be very tempting to worship and give our lives to. So just take a hint from the Israelites. We all can that. And patience can be a very fruitful place for idols to creep in. Again, worship can be singing. But worship also is what do we give our attention to? What do we give our affection to, our love and our thoughts towards? Kind of as I said earlier, what does our heart love most? And we can worship so many things that become so much bigger to us than the Lord. And that's not good. It's not a healthy place for us to be in. It's not what the Lord intended for our worship. So maybe ask yourself, could it be music? Could it be yourself? Could it be comfort, success, wealth, your job, your validation? I don't know. Maybe it's your phone or it could be any number of things. But could these things have... taken a hold of your heart in a way that the Lord did not want. Even if they're good things, have they become ultimate things that you're chasing after more than you are the Lord? So we're going to be talking about what the Bible has to say about idols. We're going to look at a couple passages and it may be helpful to try to think of what is something that you may be idolizing? What is something that you may be worshiping that isn't the Lord right now as we go through these passages? We're first going to start looking at Habakkuk. I know some people grew up calling it Habakkuk. I always grew up calling it Habakkuk, but to each his own. Habakkuk 2, starting in verse 18, it says, What prophet is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image a teacher of falsehood, for its maker trusts in his own handiwork? It's crazy because these idols, they were created by God. someone who was created by god there was no life source within these idols themselves any man who made an idol obviously god made that man and so there was no divinity there was no power or holiness in their creation it was all just man-made so you compare an idol who is made by a man to no big deal the creator of the universe who was never created, he even created all of us, it's kind of hard to compare apples to apples. It's, I think, not even worth comparing. Then that, the next part of that verse 18, it says, when he fashioned speechless idols. So the idols can't even talk. And God, we see throughout the Bible, God the Father speaking to his people. Jesus, fully God, but fully man, came and lived along his disciples, lived along the people of that time, and preached. His words had so much power. The Holy Spirit still speaks to us today while Jesus is now in heaven. But these idols, they can't talk. They have nothing to contribute to the conversation. Verse 19 says, And that is your teacher? It's like, can you hear the sarcasm? He's trying to communicate. These things are lifeless. There's no life or power in them at all. But scripture tells us that Jesus is the light of life, that he is a source of all life, and that following him brings life. You've got that compared to an idol who's made out of wood or stone and just sits there. Then in the second part of that verse says, behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath inside of it at all. That these things, maybe they look beautiful. They look Isaiah 2 describes the future of idols and it says in verse 18,"...the idols will completely vanish, idols will never last, and that is their sure future." So the things that we may hold on to today, they won't last. And if what we worship isn't God, it's not worthy of our worship. It's not worthy of our life's attention, affection, and love. Another passage that talks about idols is Isaiah 46, 1-9. A little context, it talks about Baal and Nabal. And those are both two Babylonian gods slash idols. It says, So the Babylonian Empire was huge. But it didn't last. Cyrus exiled them, took it over. And my study Bible, the commentary was written by John MacArthur. And he says, when Cyrus came, even the gods were taken into exile. These idols couldn't save themselves from being laid down on the back of beasts and hauled away, let alone save the people who worshipped them. So it just goes to show that, again, they were just tossed into a pile that went into exile when Cyrus came. They had no power to save themselves. Starting in verse three, this is God speaking. He's talking to his people who he has carried from the womb when they were babies to their dying day. So it says, listen to me, O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you who have been born by me from birth and have been carried from the womb, even to your old age, I will be the same. And even to your granular I will bear you I have done it and I will carry you and I will bear you and I will deliver you Aren't those beautiful promises that even we can hold on to? That he will bear us, that he will deliver us, that he will be the same, that he will carry us. Nothing else in this world can sustain us and deliver us like he can. So why would we look anywhere else but to him? In verse five, then he says, to whom would you liken me and make my equal and compare me that we would be alike? Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh silver on the scale, hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god. they bow down and indeed they worship it they lift it upon the shoulder and carry it they set it in its place and it stands there it doesn't move from its place the one may cry to it it cannot answer it cannot deliver him from his distress How sad is that, that people who are hurting, they have legitimate cries, legitimate burdens, and they cry to these idols and it just stands there staring at them. It can't do anything. And these people are looking to them for hope, but they don't realize that they're looking in all the wrong places, that the only one who will deliver them is God. How silly does it sound that you're... These verses are comparing the God of the universe to something made of melted down silver and gold. Melted down earrings and necklaces. When you're in distress, turn to the God who can deliver you. He can. Idols cannot. They will never fulfill you like the Lord can. They cannot save. There is no power in them to save. In verses 8 to 9, it says, Remember this and be assured. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past. I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is no one like me. We can't let all these things vying for our attention grab us and try to distract us and deceive us into believing that they are God, that they are worth our worship. They're not. I love to finish out this segment. Psalm 97 7 says, Those who worship idols are disgraced. And I feel like that's kind of a mic drop moment. So we'll leave it there. Okay, so heading to Exodus 33 now, a passage where we get to see God's full glory and God's full mercy on display. Backtracking to the golden calf situation, Moses absolutely flipped out. He erupted when he discovered the golden calf, so much so that he literally broke the Ten Commandments. What? That's crazy. In Exodus 32, 19, it describes, It came about as soon as Moses came near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses's anger burned and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. Moses has to go back up the mountain, intercede for his people, and he's got to face God again. Can you imagine that? Imagine what he was feeling. Obviously, he was frustrated. Obviously, he was angry. He's probably so embarrassed. Oh my goodness, I can't believe these people did this. Like God has delivered us from so much. What is he going to say? He's feeling probably so alone like Are you kidding, guys? Like, I leave for a couple days and you can't keep it together? Like, feeling so much pressure on himself to lead this people well. He probably feels like he's the only one faithful to the Lord. Like, everybody else has kind of deserted him and gone a different direction. He feels angry and frustrated that the people's legitimate sin. He feels discouraged and weary, though. Like, how is he going to continue on? How can he present these Ten Commandments to a people that just went and built? melted their earrings down and made a golden calf. How is that going to go? He's probably got all of this swirling in his head. Just imagine all the emotion, all the thoughts. And this is what God says to him. In verse 14, he says, It's just beautiful. This is our God. He could have kind of ripped Moses a new one for breaking the Ten Commandments for... the sin of the Israelite people. But he said, I will never leave you. I'll be with you. I will give you rest. Rest from his crazy. Can you imagine that? Track up the emotion, all the things that he was feeling inside. And then God says, my presence will go with you. I will give you rest. God is so good. He knows exactly what we need to hear. He knows our hurts. He knows our desires, our stresses, everything. Nothing is a surprise to him. Here he is promising his presence to Moses and the people who literally just replaced him with a ridiculous golden statue. He finishes out in verse 17. The Lord says to Moses, I will also do this thing which I have spoken to you, which was he was going to be with him. For you have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name. I love how he finishes out with that, that the God of the universe knew Moses and the God of the universe knows us. What an immense privilege that we get to be known and experience the glorious presence of the king of the universe. And too often I can miss the presence of God because I just bulldoze through a day and experience I just have to stick to my schedule and that's all I'm worried about. That's sometimes how I roll and I want to be careful that I don't miss the extreme privilege that it is to be in the glorious presence of the king of the universe. In verse 18, Moses already in awe, he says, It's like Moses is saying, I just want you to keep going. Keep speaking. It's so amazing. Moses wanted the Lord's presence and he wanted to see the Lord's glory. And God gave him both. In verses 19 through 20, God said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on who I will show compassion. And he said, you cannot see my face for no man can see my face and live. So he promised that he would pass before Moses, that he would show him his glory. And I can just imagine that. God being like, oh, you have little and weary faith. I will tell you the greatness of who I really am. And this is not because of your own righteousness, but because I am choosing to have compassion on you. When it says, I will show compassion on who I will show compassion on. He didn't have to, but he chose to show compassion on Moses and to be gracious to him, to encourage him in this way. He said, nobody can see me and live. And he's going to protect Moses from that. But he wanted to encourage him by giving him a little bit of a glimpse of his greatness and glory. So God makes this plan in verse 21 through 23. It says, Then the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand there on the rock. So the plan is that God is going to show him his glory, that he will come down personally, pass by, but Moses is going to be tucked away, protected in this little sliver of a rock, and God's going to personally put his hand behind him to protect him, and then he'll take his hand away And then Moses can look at his back, but he can't look at his face because it's too glorious. What's so exciting is there will be a day when we get to see Jesus face to face. Moving on to chapter 34, more of God's plan says, Now the Lord said to Moses, cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you shattered. Now, this is where I think we start to see God's forgiveness in this situation. This was a huge deal. Moses literally shattered the Ten Commandments. He didn't even have the decency to set them down gently before throwing a fit. He just downright shattered what God had given him, these sacred tablets. But can you imagine Moses in hindsight, like walking up that mountain being, I can't believe I broke the Ten Commandments. What is God going to do? But we see that God forgives and restores what moses destroyed god was going to remake it says in verses two to four so be ready by morning and come up in the morning to mount sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain no man is to come up with you nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of the mountain so he cut out the two stone tablets like the former ones and moses rose up early in the morning and went up to mount sinai as the lord had commanded him and he took two stone tablets in his hand moses obeyed he was repentant god is in the business of forgiving repentant hearts we see god make the covenant again with moses if you want to leave read for yourself in verses 10 and on but first he has to keep his promise to moses that he would himself make his glory pass before him and that he would proclaim his name the name of the lord before moses also so with moses carefully tucked away in the cleft of the rock god protecting him Verse five, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. Moses can't help but just cry out, Lord. And Lord in this passage is all capitalized. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, which means Yahweh. And this is what God called himself when he first made his covenant with Abraham. So Yahweh keeps his promises as we see him doing in this section two. But Yahweh is also used when God speaks of his relationship with his people. This is a very personal name. Those who know him and are in covenant relationship with him. And we see that here also. He descended in the cloud and stood there with him. Verses 6-7 then is him fulfilling his promise of proclaiming the name of the Lord before Moses. It says, Compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. How beautiful that that's what God wants to tell Moses about himself. I want to go through each of these a little bit to define them a little bit more. Compassionate or merciful, depends what translation you prefer. But It means he withholds the punishment we deserve and he is caring and forgiving, gracious. He extends grace to us. He's kind and he shows favor to us. Slow to anger. Unlike myself many times, unlike us, unlike Moses, God is slow to anger and his anger is always righteous. Ours is so sinful and selfish, but God's anger is perfect. He is abounding in loving kindness. Loving kindness is steadfast love, unending, fully satisfying, sacrificial care and love for thousands. Our love that we experience between other peoples in this world, it may be great, but it is still so flawed. I think we can all agree with that. But God's love is perfect. Also says he is abounding in faithfulness and truth. He is steadfast. There is no deception in him or impurity or falsehood. He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. When we are obstinate, prone to wander we are so out of line we are bent towards selfishness and evil we are full of pride and when we know what's right to do and yet we still don't do it he's forgiving of that it's crazy but to keep going after he says that he says yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished he is holy righteous and perfect therefore he cannot tolerate sin it would be unjust unrighteous for him to tolerate sin as a holy and perfect god he holds those accountable who are guilty of sin and don't repent so who are the guilty that he won't leave unpunished Romans 3.23 says, We are all guilty. John Piper's definition of sin is anything that comes out of a heart that does not value and love God above all else. That's a high bar and that's how far we fall short. None of us can say that we've fulfilled that. Is he the one thing that our soul longs for, lives for, loves, gives attention to? Or do we worship idols in our life? Do we worship idols like the Israelites did? All of us fall short of this holy standard. We probably idolize perfectionism, pleasing other people, love and validation from others, success, sometimes busyness, money, status, friends, phones, comfort, music, talents, teachers, conductors. You could put any sort of thing in there. But there is hope that God made a way that we don't have to be guilty anymore, that he sent his son Jesus into the world to save us from our sins, that he shed his blood to cover us so that we would be considered not guilty. And that we don't have to take that punishment. Jesus already took the punishment for us. So for the repentant, those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, those who turn to God in humility, dependent, asking him for forgiveness, he will pour it in abundant supply. That's the first part of this verse. That for the repentant, he forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Of course. But for the unrepentant, he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. I am so thankful for Jesus that the blood of Jesus covers me and that no matter my shortcomings still to this day, his grace covers me that I, my position before the Lord is not guilty. I am no longer guilty before the Lord and deserving of his punishment. Jesus has taken my place. This is why he is worthy of our worship compared to these worthless idols. This is a quote from Tim Keller. It says, God is the only thing that we worship that will actually satisfy us when we get to him and forgive us when we fail him. Every other God will fail you and you'll hate yourself for it forever. We will fail God. There's no doubt about it. We do it every day. Once you're saved, it's still a constant struggle, but there is constant forgiveness for those who are in Christ and he is so satisfying. Tim Keller continues on, have no power of life. They have no deity. They have no holiness. They are lifeless. They can't even speak. They look nice, but they're decaying on the inside. How amazing is it that we get to have the hope of who Jesus is? So I just want to encourage us all at the end of the day to rest in the gospel, that there is nothing that we could do to earn his love. It's all by grace. And Moses shows us the proper response to all of this. In verse 8, it says, Moses made haste to bow low towards the earth and worship. And that's our proper response. Unlike all the other faith gods that grasp our attention and our heart's affections, Yahweh is the only God worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our hearts, our lives, our obedience, and for us to humbly and joyfully lift him high in all things. He wants everyone to come to him in repentance, but still some will reject him. And that's why we as classical musicians, for those of us who believe in Jesus, have an immense opportunity to share the hope of Jesus with the other musicians around us who don't know him. God longs to see the classical music world repent and turn to him. He longs for our stand partners, our teachers, our colleagues, the judges of our competitions, our students, our conductors, our managers, all to stop worshiping music and to worship him instead, the king of the universe and the only one true God. So I just want to encourage you to watch out for the false gods our hearts and our lives are tempted to worship in the classical music world. There are many. Only he can save and only he is truly worthy of our worship. If you are a classical musician who isn't really sure how you can start worshiping him, I would encourage you to turn to the Bible. Get to know who he is. I would also encourage you that worship music is a great way to turn our hearts in praise to him. Maybe you know the Lord and you just feel far from him. Sing those worship songs out loud. Believe those words in your heart and it will start to transform you into seeing him greater and seeing our situations and ourselves smaller and the things that we idolize as not worthy to be compared to him. Thanks so much again for just spending time out of your day with me today. If you like the direction that this podcast is headed in, feel free to follow this channel so that you will never miss a new episode. I pray that this was an encouragement to you today and that we can see God greater and worship Him for who He is. He is the only one truly worthy of our worship.