No Graven Images
Exodus 20:4-6
Evening Service for 1/26/03
Introduction:
If you were to draw a picture of God, what would you draw? Would this display everything about God? What would be missing from your picture?
What would you think if I took that same picture and bowed down and worshipped it?
WBTU:
A. In Manila, Philippines they build god-houses that line the roadway. Sometimes behind these god houses are people’s homes that are poor and often wretched, but the god-houses are full of wealth and workmanship. Japan is much the same way.
B. In South America, along the highways they have set up monuments where people have driven off of a cliff to their death. Many times people will pray to these departed spirits. Very elaborate monuments.
C. In Bible times, people would set carve an image and make an idol and worship it as a god.
D. In Athens, Corinth and other major cities that the Apostle Paul visited, one is struck by the elaborate attention that generations past have poured out on their idols and nonexistent gods.
E. Isaiah 44:13-20- Isaiah is sarcastic about how they make idols.
F. Why did they do this? Mankind must worship something. God has made man with an instinct to seek Him, a craving for the divine.
G. (Rom 1:21 NIV) 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. (Rom 1:22 NIV) Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools (Rom 1:23 NIV) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Rom 1:24 NIV) Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. (Rom 1:25 NIV) They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
H. People do not like the image that the Bible paints of God so they exchanged the Biblical picture for another one that they liked. One that they could see and understand, one that allowed them to satisfy their sins.
I. First two of the Ten Commandments. The first commandment tells us that we are to have no other gods besides Jehovah; the second commandment tells us we are not to make any image. The first commandment tells us who must be worshipped; the second commandment tells us how He must be worshipped. The first commandment forbids all false gods. The second commandment forbids all false worship.
J. Man will worship the true God in the right way, or he will worship the true God in the wrong way, or he will worship a false god.
Thesis: In order to keep this commandment we must have…
For instances:
I. A Proper Conception of God
A. The reason that God forbids graven images is because they misrepresent Him. No one picture captures God.
B. (John 4:24 NIV) God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
C. A little girl was drawing a picture of God. Someone said, “Honey, you cannot do that. No one knows what God looks like.” She said, “They will when I get finished.”
D. (Isa 40:25 NIV) "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
E. Images or idols are bad pictures of God. No one likes a bad picture of himself. My family and pictures.
F. What is wrong with an image? It misrepresents God! It degrades God. It distorts our image of God.
G. Another reason for this command is that when someone worships an image he is worshipping the work of his own hands. It is a form of self-worship. Image worship humanizes God and makes man his own God!
H. People in Bible times simply would take a desire and make an idol and fulfill that desire while worshipping a “god.”
1. Apollo- God of youth- many people do everything within their power to stay youthful.
2. Mars- God of war- many people love violence and conflict; keep a constant state of war, state of conquest.
3. Bacchus- God of wine- The party time god.
4. Diana- Goddess of hunting- Many times people let their personal hobbies keep them away from God. No time for church but plenty of time for hobbies. They are worshipping Diana.
5. Venus- the Goddess of love- Our society worships this god daily. Virginity is ridiculed! Pornography, women chasing (locker room talks), bar hopping, make my body sexy.
6. Goddess of home- Vesta- Many people let family members keep them away from God. (Luke 14:26 NIV) "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.
7. God of money, God of trade.
8. God of work. Do anything for work.
9. God of celebrities. American Idol
10. God of sports, God of gladiators.
11. God of acceptance. Must be accepted at all costs.
12. God of leisure time. Can’t wait to get to the weekend.
13. God of religious rituals. Better not change the communion format. Better not make the communion trays silver instead of gold. Better not mess with this cross. Better not even suggest that we remove that picture of Jesus. Better not remove the organ.
14. Idolatry still exists. We do not make an idol and bow down to it, but we serve other gods and make our own idols by this many times. Human beings will have a god.
I. Hold on there! We are not worshipping these things. This is simply an aid to our worship. We have sense enough to know that this is not really God. This just reminds us of God.
J. Let me ask you a question. Ladies, suppose you suddenly open a door and there in a room is your husband with another woman in his arms and he is hugging and kissing her. You say to him, “What are you doing?” He says, “Oh, honey, let’s not jump to any false conclusions. I know that this looks bad, but let me explain what I was doing. She reminded me so much of you that I was just thinking of you. I had you in my mind the whole time. She simply was representing you.” How would you respond to that?
K. Exactly the same way that God responds. I am a jealous God.
L. Jealousy is not necessarily bad. When one athlete is jealous of another and tries to break her leg, this is envy and this is bad.
M. A husband does have a right to be jealous of his wife because he is her only husband. Anything that gets in the way of their relationship, of putting him first, can make a husband jealous and this is not necessarily bad. Can get out of hand, but a little jealousy is healthy.
N. God also wants the best of us, like a husband wife relationship. If anything gets in the way his anger is aroused. (Heb 12:28 NIV) Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, (Heb 12:29 NIV) for our "God is a consuming fire."
II. A persuasive communication of God.
A. The way we worship communicates what God is like. We teach when we worship. We teach our children by the way we worship.
B. Vs. 5
C. Children should not have to suffer for the sins of their parents. Children suffer if their daddy is an alcoholic, do they not? A child suffers if his daddy has been put in prison. This does not mean that the children are held guilty for the sins of their parents, but they suffer as a result of the sins of their parents.
D. Many times without God, they will fall back into the same patterns. Worshipping Bacchus, worshipping Mars.
E. King Uzziah offered fire on a sacrifice in the temple that was reserved for the priests. The Lord struck him with a disease in his feet that lead to his death. King Jotham, his son, refused to go into the temple because of what happened to his daddy. King Ahaz, his son, cared nothing about correct worship. He put up a pagan altar in the temple and even sacrificed a son in the fire. A steady progression!
F. If we worship the Lord our God in the wrong way we are saying something to those who watch us. The heart is so easily diverted from spiritual worship to a worldly worship that does not represent God at all.
III. A prayerful contemplation of God.
A. Positive. Vs. 6
B. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.
C. We must love God and keep his commandments.
D. Worship correctly.
E. Why is worship so important?
1. God desires it (John 4:23 NIV) Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
2. God deserves it. Worth ship. God is worth it. The reason we worship so poorly is because we have such a low estimation of God. He alone is worthy of our worship! (Rev 5:12 NIV) In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
3. God demands it. (Mat 4:10 NIV) Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ’Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’"
a. Worship and then service.
b. Primary task of the church is to worship. Love the Lord Your God…
c. Circle, being with worship and work our way out as Christians. However, we all worship something or someone.
Conclusion:
Ferris Beaulers Day Off. His best friend is Cameron Frye. Cameron hates his father because his father places everything before him. Ferris and Cameron and Ferris’s girlfriend ride around Chicago in Cameron’s dad’s favorite car all day playing hooky from school. In one of the final scenes Cameron is concerned about the miles they have put on his dad’s favorite car. This car is basically his dad’s idol. Ferris comes up with the idea of placing the car on jacks and running it in reverse to take off the miles. It doesn’t work. Cameron notices that it doesn’t work and so he goes on a tirade on how his dad is going to beat him and how he loves this car more than him. He gets so emotional that he begins to break and smash the car. In his outburst he doesn’t notice that the car is starting to come off of the jack. The car finally comes off of the jack and breaks through a glass window in the back of the garage and falls into a ravine. The car is completely ruined. At first Cameron is scared of his dad’s reaction, but as Ferris and his girlfriend are leaving, he sees this as a good thing. He is going to tell his dad how he feels. It is a relief to him. May all of us break down our idols so that we can worship the Lord with our all.
May we be like Gideon who broke down his father’s altar to Baal and then went on to do the Lord’s will.
