The Ten Commandments Part 5
Scriptures: Exodus 20:4-6; Romans 1:21-25; 2 Timothy 3:1-5
This is part five of my series on the Ten Commandment. This morning we will continue our examination of the second commandment as found in Exodus 20:4-6. It says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Last week we looked at the definitions for “idol” and for “worship”. We saw that the word “idol” means to “idolize” something or someone. It is defined as “an object of adoration (somebody or something greatly admired or loved often to excess).” It is also defined as “an object worshiped (e.g. a statue or carved image).” To idolize means to “admire fanatically or to worship something or someone as an idol.” We also looked at the definition of the word “worship” which is defined as “revere, reverence, adore; to honor and admire profoundly and respectfully; an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity; reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.” Worship is a verb; it is an action. It is something that we choose to do. Worship starts in and comes from the heart.
As we looked at those definitions last week I reminded you that how we choose to spend our time is a good indicator of who we truly idolize and worship. The example I used last week was the amount of time we spend at church on Sunday compared to the amount of time we spend watching football on Sunday, Monday and Thursday during football season. If time is an indicator, some people worship football more than the Lord. I also gave the example of the TV show American Idol or whatever “your thing” is. Many people schedule their time around that TV program or those other things that are most important to them. I asked if we schedule time around Bible study or spending time alone with God. Whether it is American Idol, football or whatever “our thing” is, we all have things that we might be placing before the Lord which creates within our actions idol worship. This morning we’re going to close the loop on what it means to worship something or someone other than God. Please turn to Romans chapter one where Paul addresses idol worship.
Romans 1:21-25 says, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” What we see here is man becoming his own standard for what is right and what is wrong. When we keep this passage in context, the “creature” that is worshipped rather than God is twofold. First and foremost it is the person who knew God’s expectations but ignored them so that they could live in the lusts that the imaginations of their minds had created. Remember Paul said that “they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and….” Man was listed in addition to the other creatures. So not only did man worship other creatures, he worshipped himself. If we were to continue reading this passage, we would see that it was the improper, unnatural and ungodly use of the human body that was being worshipped. And we see this in other passages in First Corinthians and Galatians.
The devil is very good at his job. He’s turned the human race, Christians included, into pleasure seekers. And we see this clearly in Second Timothy 3:1-5; “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, (Now listen this next part very, very carefully) lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding a form of godliness.” This is serious. Paul is not talking about sinners here. He’s talking about members of the church being this way! He may be talking about some of us. At the time Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, Timothy was the pastor of the largest church in recorded history. In verse fourteen Paul tells Timothy “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” (2 Timothy 1:14) What was treasure Paul was talking about? It was the gospel that had been entrusted to him in order to lead the people under his responsibility. We are living in a time when the form of godliness looks so good and so inviting that it is leading Christians away from true godliness. Satan always has a counterfeit of the genuineness of God! Remember last week I talked about the Beyoncé Mass and how the pastor of the host church said that Beyoncé was a better theologian than many pastors and priests in the church today? That’s an example of a form of godliness and it’s coming from the pulpit. We have to get back to true godliness and true holiness. We have to get back to the place where the things we see and hear will either stand or crumble on what the Bible says. The Bible has to be our standard because man’s standard, man’s ways, have only one outcome – an eternity in the lake of fire. Consider what Paul wrote in Galatians chapter five.
Galatians 5:16-21 says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” That word idolatry means to have excessive love or adoration for someone or something. Do you see where this is going? Verse seventeen says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. Why? So that we will not do those things that we want to do! Do you see this? The Spirit is attempting to do the very thing that we do not want: stopping us from doing things the way we want to do them. There is a real battle going on within us!
For those of you who may not realize this, we cannot worship God any old way that pleases us. True worship is the worship that pleases Him, not us! We have to be careful. And let me remind you once again: Paul is writing to the church. What he describes in these verses are happening in the church right now. And it’s so sad that the Body of Christ, Christians, are not heeding God’s warning – that those who practice what Paul has written “will not inherit the kingdom of God”. New Light, there are a lot Christians who are living this way but believe they are going to Heaven. They are deceived. I’ve told you several times from this pulpit that “once saved always saved” is not supported by scripture. We see this again here in Galatians. And the point we also need to see is this: the reason some Christians will miss heaven is because they are choosing to idolize themselves and do what they want to do rather than bow the knee to the Lord. Have you ever noticed how people credit God when it’s something they want to do? If I want to purchase something I do not need then God must be leading me that way. If there is something that I do not want to do, then God must not be leading me to do it for surely if He really wanted me to do that thing then I would know it. Are you seeing this? When we place ourselves and what we want before Him, we are truly worshipping ourselves. This is especially true when we profess that He is the reason for why we do or don’t do something.
Let me remind you of some things we just read that if you don’t stop and repent of you will not make to Heaven. While I know many people choose to interpret Scripture in such a manner that pleases them and makes it easier for others to accept, I want to just take what is captured here at face value. So if we take what Paul says at face value and we believe it, then if what we are doing causes enmity, division, disputes, or clichés and we don’t repent, we are going to the lake of fire. If what we are doing causes strife and jealousy and we don’t repent, we are going to the lake of fire. If we often have uncontrolled fits of rage and anger and we don’t repent, we are going to the lake of fire. And if we are one who drinks so much that we get drunk and this is not an occasional thing and we don’t repent, we are going to the lake of fire. What Paul is describing here are all things we choose to do because our desires are more important than God’s desires. And when we idolize ourselves and become #1 in our lives, then we are idolizing and worshiping ourselves right into the lake of fire. I know some of you may be thinking what the purpose of grace is if everything will send us to the lake of fire. Well let me tell you. Grace comes into effect when repentance is genuine. Grace covers a multitude of sin when the sin is repented from. Grace says “this will not be held against you” when you are truly sorry and does your best not to be a repeat offended. However, grace does not apply to the unrepentant, unremorseful, and those doing it their way and then demanding that God extend grace to them because they deserve it! Grace will cover everything we have done when we repent and STOP doing them.
I want to close with one final Scripture that I think will put all of this into perspective for us as it relates to idolatry and worship. Throughout this message I have pointed you to the fact that today we are very capable of worshipping idols which includes other people, ourselves and things. What I want you to see with this final Scriptural reference is how the Bible correlates idolatry with how we are choosing to live our lives. I truly hope to hit this nail on the head and drive it home. Turn to Colossians chapter three. Colossians 3:4-5 says, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” Christ has been revealed and we, as Christians, are supposed to know Him. Knowing Christ means that in our mortal bodies we are dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires and greed. Now get this, Paul says that all of these things amounts to what? Idolatry!
I will leave you with this to chew on. Our worship of idols is not just about our bowing to a statue, image or having excessive adoration and love for someone else. For Christians today, the main idol we must contend with is that idol we see when we look in the mirror. The people of the earth have not changed since the beginning. We continue to worship ourselves. We worship our abilities, our looks, our wealth, everything about us, and we are only offended by this form of worship when we see it displayed in the lives of others. Yes we can see the vainness in others. We can see how others might be worshiping themselves, but it’s hard to see it in ourselves. As I close this morning I want to leave you with this mental picture.
Remember last week I asked you to look at the Planet Fitness commercial of the mirror man? For those of you unfamiliar with Planet Fitness, they advertise their gym as a “judgment free” place to work out (exercise). They do not have a lot of mirrors so you can stare at yourself while you are exercising as a lot of gyms do. In this one commercial with the “mirror guy” he is working out and staring at himself while explaining why he would never go to Planet Fitness to work out. He says, “I need to be looking at me, looking at me, looking at me; looking at you to see if you’re looking at me.” Then he adds that Planet Fitness does not have enough mirrors. If you have seen that commercial that is what I want you to visualize as you think of self- worship. This is what I believe God sees in us sometimes when we are testifying to His goodness all the while living our lives the way we want to live. We praise Him with our lips while we are thinking about what we will be doing as soon as Church is over. We claim to walk in His power while we cheat on our taxes or sneak that look at that attractive person in front of us. We give God the glory but we can never walk by a mirror without checking ourselves out to see how “good” we look. Are you getting this? People spend a lot of money to get other people to look at them, especially when their self-esteem is attached to their physical looks. This is all about self-worship in a physical sense. But it goes much deeper. Our worship of self starts in our hearts and that’s where it must be addressed.
Jesus said, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”
All of us are faced with the opportunity to worship something or someone other than God. The problem is that we do not acknowledge or believe that we are worshipping something/someone other than God. We do not call it worship. We do not think our actions are excessive. We do not believe that taking great care of me and my accomplishments might be another form of worship. What I am asking of you this morning is to consider your choices. How do you choose to spend your time doing other things versus the things of God? What percentage of your time do you spend thinking about God and worshipping Him versus thinking about yourself and worshipping yourself through the choices you make? If you truly do this, you will have your answers. Remember, worship starts in and comes from the heart!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
