Sunday Morning, December 6, 2020 AM

Need a Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning. We're glad that you can join us for worship and to just gather together and love on each other. A few announcements as we get started this morning. Come back this evening at 530 for our evening service, Christmas Choir, just a reminder.

There's rehearsal again tonight. Wednesday at 630 we'll have Bible study and prayer meeting. Again, TAG is on break until after the new year begins. And then looking ahead, Sunday December 20th we'll have communion in our morning service that morning and then in the evening at 530 we'll have our traditional carols and candlelight service as well.

Our fighter verse for this week comes from 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 51 and 52. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. You'll notice if you have your bulletin, one of the songs that we're going to be singing is actually in the bulletin.

So if you didn't get a bulletin on your way in, you might look out for that. These words will also be on the screen. Just a reminder as kind of the increase of COVID cases are going on, we want to try not to linger indoors as much as we can so once service is dismissed, go ahead and fellowship out on the porch outside.

And then I saw a ton of people already taking advantage of the Christmas mailbox, so if you have your Christmas cards you can save your postage and put those there at the back as well. All right, any other announcements before we get started this morning?

All right, well we're gonna have a time of prayer and.

Preparation and then after dad will open us in prayer. Lord God Almighty, we bow.

Before you this morning to give you glory, honor, and blessing in Jesus name. Help us this morning to fulfill the the call of the psalmist who said, oh come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

Thank you for caring for us, for gently leading us, for providing daily for us, not just in the physical needs that we have for food and clothing and shelter, but you have given us the Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Lord, in this season we are especially mindful of the great gift that was given because of love, the gift of Christ our Savior. So may we worship and bow down, Lord, at your feet for you are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise.

Help us to draw near with glad and sincere hearts and in full assurance of faith to the praise of the glorious name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Advent, the Call to Worship, and the Theme of Christ's Sufficiency

Well good morning. Today is the second Sunday of Advent and we have reached December of 2020 and you know that Jesus is enough. Jesus is enough. Jesus is enough. We need nothing else. Would you stand as we begin our service with our call of worship, call to worship.

This is from Psalm 90, from 56, 1 through 3. If you would read it with me, please. Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me all day long and attacker oppresses me all day long. For many attack me proudly.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Our songs are all out of your blue hymn though, but we're gonna start with 120, The Advent of Our God, and then 121, The Word Made Flesh, and then the song that's in your bulletin,.

No Other Name. This time I've stopped in the middle of a chapter so you might.

Have to stop me. Just throw something at me. Starting in verse 20, I'm gonna read through. The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion and rebuke, and all you undertake to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me.

The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until he has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with the fire heat and with the sword and with the blight and with mildew and they will pursue you until you perish.

The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze and the earth which is under you iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust. From heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will go out one way against them but you will flee seven ways before them and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Your carcasses will be food to the all the birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth and there will be no one to frighten them away. The Lord will smite you with boils of Egypt and with tremors and with the scab and with the itch from which you cannot be healed.

The Lord will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart and you will grope at noon as a blind man gropes in darkness and you will not prosper in your ways but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually with none to save you.

You shall betroth a woman but another man will violate her. You shall build a house but you will not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard but you will not eat its fruit. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes but you will not eat of it.

Your donkey shall be torn away from you and will not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies and you will have none to save you. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to other people while your eyes look on and yearn for them continually but there will be nothing you can do.

A people whom you have not known shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see.

The Lord will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils from which you cannot be healed for the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. The Lord will bring you and your King whom you have set to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known and there you shall serve other gods wood and stone.

You shall become a horror a proverb and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you. You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little for the locusts will consume it.

You shall plant and cultivate vineyards but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worm will devour them. You shall have all of trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil for your olives will drop off.

You shall have sons and daughters but they will not be yours for they will go into captivity. The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher but you will go down lower and lower.

He shall lend to you but you will not lend to him. He shall be the head and you will be the tail. Rather grim. Let's pray. Lord we thank you for your son and the blessing that it is to be part of your family.

Lord I thank you for this congregation and the blessing that they've been to me personally into my family. Just thank you for today that we can gather and worship you with others. Pray Lord that we would take full advantage of this time.

Pray for those among us who are sick and not feeling well. I just pray Lord that you would enable them to use this time to draw closer to you with no other distractions. Just pray Lord for Michael as he comes that you would bless the words of his mouth the words that you've said on his heart.

Just give him continued boldness to speak the truth of the Lord to us. Just bless our time here today in Christ's name. You can be seated.

Christmas Hymns and the Joy of Advent Worship

Well the other reason I like December is we get to sing Christmas hymns and songs and these are standards that I hope you've grown up with. If you haven't now's the time to grow up with it. So we're gonna sing Hark the Herald Angels all three verses.

Oh little town of Bethlehem the first and the fourth.

And joy to the world all four. So you sing out from the heart. On our time.

Father we do thank you that as our good and heavenly Father that you have gathered us here today. You know that what we need and we need this this word your word more than our necessary food. You have made us in your image so that as you mediate your goodness through us you will manifest your glory in us.

Our lives are designed by you and we are to be directed toward you and we thank you for Jesus Christ our Savior and our Sovereign who redeems us from sin who brings us out of the dominion of sin and darkness and brings us into your kingdom.

We may praise you and glorify you as we ought. I thank you for the praise is offered up today the joy it is to gather together and confess our faith in Christ and our joy in you. I pray now as we look at your word and as we consider the truth of this text she would fill us with your Holy Spirit so that what is spoken to us here what we read here would be driven deeply into our lives deeply into our hearts and she would have your way in us that we would be the amen on earth of your will declared in heaven.

We look to you and ask for these graces and do so only in the name of Jesus Christ the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen. Let's open our Bibles and turn to Psalm 115. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through reading verses 1 through 18 in a moment we'll be paying attention to verses 4 through 8 this morning.

Some of you are wondering why we're not looking at a classic Christmas text because it is already the second Advent Sunday we're in December and so on but I guarantee you this is a Christmas text so you just hold on and I'm working on the other one and and it won't be a classic Christmas text I either but it'll still be a Christmas text.

Okay so let's look at this passage today especially verses 4 through 8 of Psalm 115. We are to praise the Lord who is our help and our shield. We are to praise the Lord our help and our shield. Psalm 115 is part of the great Hallel the great hymn that the Jews would sing in and around Passover praising the Lord.

These are Psalms which teach us the very fundamentals of praise. What it means to worship God. What does he want to be worshipped for how would he like to be worshipped. He's the one who gets to set the agenda and so we have to pay attention.

I mean we are made for worship. We're made in God's image. Worship is our number one duty and so here we have instruction here we have example. Here we have direction. It is so helpful to us. And this morning I think it'll be a true blessing to prepare our minds for this Advent season to direct us to the wonders of the gift that God has given us in his son Jesus Christ.

Well if you'd stand with me I'm going to read Psalm 115 for us and let us hear this psalm of praise. This hallelujah to the Lord. This is the word of the Lord not to us O Lord not to us but to your name.

Give glory because of your loving-kindness because of your truth. Why should the nations say where now is their God. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold.

The work of man's hands. They have mouths but they cannot speak. They have eyes but they cannot see. They have ears but they cannot hear. They have noses but they cannot smell. They have hands but they cannot feel.

They have feet but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them. Everyone who trusts in them. Oh Israel trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield.

Oh house of Aaron trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield. Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel.

He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord. The small together with the great may the Lord give you increase you and your children. May you be blessed to the Lord maker of heaven and earth.

Heavens are the heavens of the Lord but the earth he is given to the sons of men. The dead do not praise the Lord. Nor do any who go down into silence. But as for us we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever.

Praise the Lord. This is the Word of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated as a family. We have been reading through some of the Christmas passages in the Bible and there are a lot of them. And you know how fast I like to go.

So we are just now done with Genesis and we're hoping to make it to the Gospels before Advent actually arrives. But there's a lot of Christmas passages in the Bible and one of the ones that we know as a classic comes from Isaiah 9.

And you'll recognize it when I read verses 1 2. But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish in earlier times he treated the land of Zebulun in the land of Naphtali with contempt but later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles.

And this is the part that's really familiar. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land the light will shine on them now. That's a Christmas passage. It's a promise of the Messiah.

It's a it's a promise of a light coming into a world of darkness. That's just chock-full of Christmas themes isn't it. And we see the fulfillment of that passage especially in Matthew chapter 4 when Jesus is in his ministry and preaching the gospel to the Gentiles of Galilee.

It showcases his power as he declares the advent of his kingdom. But but this language of light light coming into darkness that that is also attached to his birth his initial advent. And we read about this in John chapter 1.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him and apart from him nothing has come into being. That has come into being in him was life.

Listen to this. And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Some translations say overwhelm it. So this light cannot be contained or overcome.

There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him. He was not the light but he came to testify about the light. There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man.

There is no light for men unless they have the light of Christ. There is no light for men unless they have the light of Christ. What a gift God has given that he sent his only begotten Son into the world.

Without the light of Advent without the light of the incarnation without the light of the Messiah. There is nothing left but the pagan darkness of idolatry. It's one or the other. Read Romans 1. There is the truth and then there is the lie.

Two options. We have the light of Christ or we have the darkness of pagan idolatry. So we're to praise the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our help and our shield. He is our clarifying and revealing help. He is our living and our true shield.

He's the one who delivers us from idols. He is the one who defends us against deceit. Now despair. Despair is the number one symptom of paganism. Despair is the number one symptom of paganism. Everyone's about symptoms these days.

Aren't they kind of symptoms do you have. That doesn't sound good time. Somebody coughs. Everybody kind of gets a little nervous. I'll tell you the number one symptom of this year has not been the cough and it has not been a fever.

Number one symptom of this year has been despair. But he's afraid hopeless calling it the end. Everything's bad and it's going south. Despair has been the number one symptom of this year. And it's been on full display.

And it shows us what kind of a pagan culture in which we live. Despair is the number one symptom of paganism. And we're going to see that in our text today. No hope. Now we want to trust in the Lord as our help and our shield.

We want to give him praise accordingly if you want to trust the Lord as your help and shield like this psalm calls us to do the starting point for that living confidently with the Lord as your help. The Lord is your shield.

The way you start that is by praising him accordingly he's worthy of that kind of praise. He indeed is our help. He is indeed is our shield. And we in verses 1 through 3 last time we talked about the exaltation of our God.

Our God is in the heavens. He does what he pleases. And now we're going to look at the excoriation of other gods. If you're wondering about the word excoriation it begins with an E and it fits with my other four points.

And it means it means mercilessly going after someone with a serrated edge in your words. And that's what happens in this text. The pagans notice in verses 1 through 3 the pagans project. The pagans project.

They mock the believers. They say where now is your God. We talked about that mockery from Sennacherib and that mockery from Nebuchadnezzar. Where now is your God. They say this is a classic mockery of the pagans against the believers.

But they are but they are projecting their mockery is actually their own condemnation. They are the real fools because they don't worship the one true God. They worship other things. They worship things that were made after their own dead imagination.

Things that are of no help and things that lead to death. Which is why despair is the number one symptom of idolatry of paganism. Their idols we read their idols are silver and gold. This is the origin of the gods of men.

Their idols are silver and gold the work of man's hands. And so that's why the pagans project they don't want to deal with the reality of what they worship. So they projected on believers. They mock God.

They say where now is your God. That is the perfect question to ask them. And that is so perfectly suited to ask pagans. To ask idolaters where now are your gods. Oh I suppose the answer is something along the following.

Where now are your gods. I suppose wherever you last put them down right wherever you left them behind wherever they got put or they still are. Unless someone stole them you better go check right. Where now are your gods.

That's the question to ask the pagans. You see this is an utter contrast. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases he is. He is exalted he is enthroned. Nobody put him there. He's he's always been there and he does all that he pleases.

He is active alive and powerful. Now where your gods. Where your gods. Now listen to this principle cuz we're gonna come back to it. Hosea chapter 8. Verse 6 lays down this principle. A craftsman made it so it is not God that's easy enough to remember.

But it really needs to be remembered and it really needs to be applied. A craftsman made it so it is not God. Hosea 8 6. Now why is this important for us. Now it's like you know we don't live in a culture.

We're walking around and we see images of animals or images of hideous looking creatures set up in little shrines at at the crossroads about you know at the intersections of our of our of our streets or in the in the mall.

We're not walking by you know little shrines that people have left all sorts of junk around. Now some cultures have that. But like do we really have that. Listen first John 5 21 little children guard yourselves from idols.

First John 5 21 little children guard yourselves from idols. Because they don't show up in that form. Only it's not. It's not just about those hideous little statues. It was strange looking pictures and their shrines and everything else.

Little children guard yourselves from idols. If a craftsman made it it is not God. If a man makes something either with his mind or his hands it is not worth worshiping. Man is limited by his resources by his money his imagination his skill his strength.

If he ever carves out a crude figure from wood or constructs an ideal God in his mind. Either way he's breaking the first and second Commandments making another God in order to worship it another God besides the one true God.

Now all these gods are fundamentally the same name. Of course they function differently in terms of how they're expressed and how their worship. I mean the God of of the Quran is different than the God of Hillsong.

But they're both invented by men. They're both invented by men. If you if you believe in a God that is essentially described to you only through the personal experiences of others. Or if you believe in a God based on the ideals that you personally find most attractive you're worshipping a false God.

You're making God in your image rather than worshipping the God who made you and his. This is the great and atrocious sin of men that we are serial idolaters. Now the origin of the gods of men is what they are the work of man's hands as their idols are silver and gold.

And if a craftsman made it it is not God. We shouldn't be worshipping it. And so the the idea is that we would reject all the gods of men that we would repent from for manufacturing gods to suit our fancy.

But the true God is revealed through his word unfailingly. So repenting from idolatry involves us learning who the real God is from Scripture. And he has plainly revealed himself here. He knows we're little children.

He knows our frame. He didn't put it far out of reach. Depend on him. The origin of the gods of men verse 4. But notice the uselessness of the gods of men in verses 5 through 7. The uselessness of the gods of men.

They have mouths but they cannot speak. They have eyes what they cannot see. They have ears but they cannot hear. They have noses but they cannot smell. They have hands but they cannot feel. They have feet but they cannot walk.

They cannot make a sound with their throat. So what are these. Are they gods. Or are they action figures. Are they gods or are they toys. Well toys indeed all possessions can easily be made gods by their owners.

But these gods are not really toys. Ultimately they are demonic deceptions. So Paul says these idols. These gods are demonic deceptions. And ancient idols were as hideous hideous as their modern counterparts.

Look it up in a Bible dictionary or a Bible encyclopedia. Look look it up online. Find some pictures of Baal and Asherah and Molech and Chemosh. Find some pictures of the of the of the gods of the Greeks and the Romans.

They're hideous. Look at the look at the idols and the gods of the Hindus. They're all hideous. And the modern counterparts are as well. They represent power. They stand in for life forces. But they are actually bottomless cisterns of despair.

That's what these things are. They are bottomless cisterns of despair. Why. Because we see their limitations. They have the appearance of life but none of their benefits. They have the promise of life but never deliver.

They cannot answer our questions. They cannot relay to us wisdom. Their mouths are dead. They cannot see our devoted attention. They cannot see our struggles in life. They their eyes are dead. They cannot hear our petitions.

They cannot smell the incense we offer. Their ears and noses are dead. They cannot receive the gifts we give. Nor that can they give anything to us. They cannot collect our tears in a bottle or write down all of our days in a book because their hands are dead.

They do not move to our aid. They cannot even groan. Their feet and throats are dead. Their mouths eyes ears noses hands feet and throats are dead. Utterly dead. They have never lived in the least. Thus they are utterly useless.

They cannot tell us of the origin of the universe. They cannot see the end from the beginning. They are dead. They cannot deliver us from the wrath of the Holy God. They are dead. They cannot recreate the world in righteousness and bestow eternal life on the innumerable multitude.

The craft of men is dead. However the Son of God is alive. The Son of God is alive conceived by the miraculous generation of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The full and complete human nature of Jesus was united in eternal hypostatic union with the full and complete divine nature of the second person of the Godhead God the Son.

He is Emmanuel. He is God with us. The gods lay all around us. They are dead rocks upon which the ghost ships of humanity are breaking apart. But into this night Christ has come the light of the world born of Mary.

And look at the infant the hope of the world. His mouth moves and sucks his eyes are all for his mother. His nose and his ears are small. But hearing hearing the the busy night around him smelling that special odor of the feed trough his hands open close a grasp.

Mary's robe scratches face his feet kick his throat is full of sounds cooing to crying. Real and full sinless humanity united with real and full saving divinity. The Christ child the unblemished lamb of God were to worship him Christ our King.

May this be a season that we lay off the idols and worship our Savior. And so let's get very specific. Let's be very concrete about this. Let's take aim at the bullseye and not pretend like we don't know what is going on in our world today.

Let's not play around and apply the scripture loosely and indefinitely. Let's apply the scripture rightly. For the word pierces to the heart of the matter. The idol of science is dead. The idol of science is dead.

It has never even lived. It is the state religion. It is the patron God of our nation. It is the imperial cult. But it is a worship of death by the dead. Consider it this way. It cannot mediate life through invention.

It cannot heal us through medicine. It offers no enlightenment through experiment nor unity through dogma. Gaia Asclepius Athena Apollos every every demonic shade of this wretched religion. Environmentalism positivism pharmaceutical ism materialism.

Their priests and their priestesses are powerful. Their devotees are numerous their temples richly adorned their sacrifices abundant and their voice the immoral compass of our world. Have you noticed that the mercies of the wicked are cruel.

The mercies of the wicked are cruel. The God of science the idol of science is dead. And that's mercies are cruel. Why are abortion and euthanasia gender fluidity and the ritual transvestite cutting of the flesh.

Why is the quarantining of the healthy and the blind trust at every new medical policy and potion. Why are these all the dogma of the day. Why are these things ratified enforced and deified in the name of science.

It's true. Because it's science. It's authoritative. Because it's science you must obey because it's science. Why is also the fear of sickness and the dread of death so thick upon our land. Why is despair the number one symptom of our culture.

Because the dead God of science has been praised and honored and glorified as our help and our shield. Dearly beloved. It is not our help and it is not our shield. Medical advancements are are welcome.

Medicine is a tool. And and you know the tools of today are a lot better than tools of yesterday. I watched videos of people using the tools from 200 years ago trying to chop down a tree. And then I watch people using tools today.

The tools of today chopping down a tree. And boy the tools of the day are so much better. You know some people have an affinity for the old tools and that's kind of cool. You know how to use the old tools.

New tools are are nice to have. Medical advancements are welcome. Medicine is a tool but it is listen severely limited and thoroughly flawed medicine. Science is severely limited. It is thoroughly flawed.

How do we know that. Remember the principle Hosea 8 6. A craftsman made it so it is not God. God is flawless. God is unlimited. Man is flawed thoroughly. Man is limited severely. How much more the stuff he makes it is useful.

Science and medicine are very useful. Listen. As a faulty means in sovereign hands. As a faulty means in sovereign hands. But it is absolutely useless as a God. Science cannot deliver you from death or from men or from slavery or from snares.

Science cannot heal the world cannot undo depravity cannot save you from even such a disease like kovat 19. If we cannot trust God when the tree is green and the tree is green still in our country the tree is green.

Not saying it's awesome. I'm saying the tree is green. If we can't trust when the tree is green what are we going to do when it's dry. I encourage you as we have been talking for half a year now or more take your precautions according to your liberty in Jesus Christ.

But and and do so. And we don't condemn each other. Wear your mask. Don't wear your mask. Distance. Don't distance. Do what you need to do in your liberty in Jesus Christ. Make sure of your conviction.

Amen and amen. But it is not fitting for the bride of Christ to whore after other gods. And science is dead. It is not worth worshiping. And the reason why we need this warning and the reason why we need to rightly and deeply and carefully apply this truth about false gods is because of the results.

The results that come about from worshiping idols. Look at verse 8. Those who make them will become like them. Everyone who trusts in them. Oh the idol maker and the idol worshipper will become like the idol.

Useless useless those who make dead gods. Those who trust dead gods have nowhere to progress but into the deadness. How does Romans 3 put it. Their mouths are full of deceitful poison. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Their noses crave no righteous odor. Their hands do no good not even a little. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways in the way of peace. They have not known. Their throat is nothing but an open tomb.

The entrance to a deep and spiritual death. Those who worship these dead gods become like them. We must all repent of exchanging the truth of God for the lie. We must turn away from worshiping the creature rather than the Creator who's blessed forever.

Amen. What's. What's the result if we do not turn away. Listen. You have people in your life who believe that science is going to save them. Turn them away from that. Something may help you. God may use a faulty means to in the sovereign hands to help you.

And he may answer some prayers through that praise. Be to God. But it's not gonna save you. Only God can save you. Only Christ can save you. What is the end result. And I'm gonna read this awful scene.

But I want you to see it from the scripture. What happens when somebody worship makes and then worships false gods. I want you to see the harrowing picture straight from the scripture. Isaiah 44 18 to 20.

This is the conclusion of a story of a man who goes and chops down a tree cut up the wood half of it. He builds a fire to cook his meal with half of it he carves it into an idol that he can worship same tree.

This is what it says. Isaiah 44 18 to 20. They do not know nor do they understand. For he capital H God. This is judgment. He has smeared over their eyes so they cannot so that they cannot see. And their hearts that they cannot comprehend.

No one recalls. Nor is there knowledge or understanding to say. I have burned half of it in the fire. And I've also baked bread over it. Baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it and then I make the rest of it into an abomination.

I fall down before a block of wood. He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself. He cannot deliver himself. Nor say. Is there not a lie in my.

Right hand wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and.

Unrighteousness of men suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And how it is. How is it that his wrath is revealed. He turns them over to a turns them over to their sin turns them over to a reprobate mind.

So you will become like that which you worship. You will become like that which you worship now. That warning is not to be dismissed or underestimated in the least in even in the passage there in Isaiah it's clearly stated.

He worships a block of wood. And then what does he become like. He's as dense as a block of wood. You will become like that which you worship. And if you worship something that is dead and cannot help.

And that's why despair rolls off you. This warning should be taken actually in its fullest and most hope-filled sense. When we worship what we worship we become like so when we worship the Lord. When we worship Christ revealed in this word.