THE IDEAL GOD
Text: Exodus 20:1 thru 6
There is a Bible story (found in the book of II Kings) that illustrates for us what can happen when the people of God look for (or try to create) THE IDEAL GOD. The story is about a very young king, named Hezekiah, and how he brought the backsliden nation of Israel back into right standing “in the sight of the Lord.”
In II Kings 18:4, we find that King Hezekiah,
“..removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made…”
This is what it took for the chosen people of God to once again be in God’s favor.
They “…cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent.”
Likewise – this is what it will take for God’s people to find favor with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Here in America, we are not a generation of people who make it a habit to carve gods out of wood or stone. After all, we Americans consider ourselves too civilized to ever do something like that.
You may be thinking – “People may do things like that in the “eastern mystic religions” with Confucius or Buddha, but not here in this civilized country. After all, we live in the 21st Century.”
I would suggest that (today) modern man certainly knows how to look for, find and worship the false gods of this world without having to use a hammer or chisel.
Our culture, here in the good ole’ USA, has learned how to –
· Make for itself “carved images”
· Serve and worship the false gods
The only difference for people living in the 21st century is that we are much more civilized in how they carve out their false gods and images. We do it with dignity.
Man never seems to have to look very far to find himself a false god to worship.
Ideally, most people would rather other people think good things about them.
We have our idols, and we also make sure we make a good appearance.
I hope I don’t sound too cynical this morning but herein lies the reason why 80% of Americans consider themselves to be spiritual and in right standing with God, and yet only 10 to 15% of them worship the Lord in the House of God on a regular basis.
We need to identify our spiritual weaknesses if we ever hope to see our country turn around. Amen?
I believe the problem our culture has, here in the USA, is that most of America has not found their IDEAL GOD.
No doubt America is searching for more spirituality, but what concerns me is what exactly they are looking for.
Are they looking for THE IDEAL GOD?
What complicates this even further is that Modern-day Christianity is part of the problem. We may not be doing our best.
There are many Christians who –
q Do not realize it but they also are looking for THE IDEAL GOD to worship, exalt and pray to.
q Are good people with good intentions that may or may not attend church on a regular basis.
q Need to reprioritize what and Who they believe in.
q Admittedly do not understand all there is to know about their Christian faith, so (instead) they develop their own perspective and beliefs.
Many people who are searching –
q Have become “Idealist looking for THE IDEAL GOD.
q Are looking for something (or some god) to fit in with their own perspectives and beliefs. The god they are looking for must (however) that fit their lifestyle, likes and dislikes.
q Do not see the purpose in surrendering their lives to the Lord God Jehovah, the only true God of mankind and this universe.
In these days of uncertainty, America must once again reaffirm itself to the overwhelming Truth of God’s Word. The Truth I am speaking of is that there really is only one real God for man to worship.
He is the –
q God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
q The One Who will not accept anyone who is carving out their own religion out of convenience or an individual’s ideology.
q The One and only True God.
Why is this so important?
I am saying all of this because there are many people today who are attracted to the ideology of what they term as the “God of love”.
This is a very common ideology.
But this viewpoint of an IDEAL GOD –
1. Poses a threat against Christianity and God’s plan of salvation and redemption.
2. Blatantly rejects the Truth we must surrender to the God Whom the Bible declares as the God of wrath and judgment.
The problem with having THE IDEAL GOD that the world is trying to carve out is that it only wants to here about forbearance, and not the forgiveness of our sins.
Modern man wants to carve out a god who will forbear (that is, put up, or tolerate) a lifestyle of promiscuity, disobedience, rebellion and mediocrity.
The message of repentance and forgiveness (that Jesus spoke of) doesn’t seem to fit the image that many people have carved out of God.
Again, I would just simply say that God has not changed His mind about the First or the Second Commandment.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,
At the first of this message, I referred to the great King of Judah, King Hezekiah, and how he had to destroy image of the serpent that Moses had given to the nation of Israel. What is so interesting about that image of a serpent is that God spoke to Moses and told him to put that serpent on a pole so that all of Israel could see it when they needed healing and forgiveness.
(You can read about his in Numbers 21.)
How did this happen? At one time, the brass serpent had become a symbol of God’s healing power.
On many occasions, Israel would look to see this symbol as it pointed towards God whenever they needed healing.
But later this same symbol of healing took on the form of a cult god that the children of Israel worshipped.
The point is this. Don’t miss this.
The bronze serpent replaced the relationship the nation of Israel had with the One and only true God.
So Hezekiah had to destroy it!
Israel had become too dependent on the bronze Serpent, and lost their relationship with Father God. Instead of the Serpent pointing them to God it began to point them away from God!
Worshipping the serpent was only the beginning of their problems. Over many many years, Israel continued to learn how to substitute the One True God with many other images of wood and gold.
They became more and more defiant to the Second Commandment. They carved more images and symbols to worship, rather than worshipping God.
By the time Jesus came to earth (by way of the manger in Bethlehem) to save the nation of Israel from their sins, they had become very focused on these carved symbols and images.
The result was this. They didn’t see why they needed Jesus as their Savior.
In essence, the nation of Israel –
· Rejected Jesus as the Son of God.
· Already had their carved images to worship.
· Already had their IDEAL GOD.
· Looked at the physical Son of God face to face,
· Listened to His voice and what He told them,
· Did not need or want Him to be their Savior.
You see after many years of carving out their own religion, the children of God decided that Jesus did not match their image of God that they had created.
The Nation of Israel had their image and their own idea of what God was like. And so they willingly and foolishly rejected Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The children of God were so confused with their own images and ideas that they couldn’t see Jesus as their Messiah. Jesus was not the Messiah they had imagined and carved out in their mind!
In their minds, the Messiah they wanted was not the Messiah the Bible said He would be. They had allowed themselves to become blinded with idol worship.
Listen carefully.
There are many people today that suffer from the same problem the children of God had when Jesus came to them.
That is, they don’t mind worshipping a God that allows them to live in sin (or do as they please), but they don’t want to accept the God of the Bible that would confront and convict them of their sin.
False gods made of stone and wood will slowly destroy one generation at a time.
Allow me to show you just a few of the carved images being worshipped today.
1. First, this Christian nation has allowed entertainment to posses the fragile and innocent minds of our children.
I am not opposed to innocent entertainment of any kind, but we must be more protective of what we, and our children are watching.
2. Secondly, there seems to be an enormous interest in the occult, witchcraft, and the demonic in video games. The video shelves at the store are filled with games you can play on the X-Box and Play Station II. Nearly all of them are filled with ungodly behavior such as violence, partial nudity, and incantations of all sorts.
Question:
Can America not see the threat the world of entertainment has against our being a godly nation who will stand up for our Christians values and morals?
Do the Ten Commandments not have an impact on what we decide to do with our time or how we live our lives?
Are we speaking and living the commandments of God to our children?
This Second Commandment is important because idolatry has such a sneaky way of getting into our homes, and into our children, and into our children’s children.
Idols can and will destroy your children’s view of God. Notice carefully the message found in last part of verse 5 of our text:
For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Strong words from a God Who will not tolerate the breaking of any of His commandments. If we ignore this commandment, it will have it’s affect on our children and our children’s children.
Close:
Allow me to illustrate. In the Bible, there was a story of a father and a son and a grandson. King David was the father.
Solomon was the son. Solomon had a great respect for God because his father, David, had a great respect for God.
But later in Solomon’s life, he began to worship idols and developed a casual respect of God.
Later, Solomon had a servant.
His name was Jereboam.
Some Bible Scholars have even suggested that Jerobaoam was the son of Solomon, and the grandson to David.
Son or servant, it doesn’t matter, but Solomon had an influence on Jereboam’s life.
Jeroboam was appointed by Solomon to become king of Israel. Jereboam was a backsliden king who reintroduced the nation of Israel to the worship of idols.
I don’t have time to tell you the long result of idol worship that went on hundreds of years after the reign of Jereboam, but the destruction is obvious.
Here is what we must know:
Our idol worship, our living for our IDEAL GOD will cost ourselves, and our families a great deal.
Here is what we must do:
1. We must be obedient to the One True God, the Lord God Jehovah.
2. We must not decide for ourselves what our IDEAL GOD is to be like.
3. We must follow and obey each of His commands.
Before Moses ever came down from the mountain with the stone tablets, the Israelites had already made themselves an idol. If it wasn’t so easy a command for them to keep, could it be that we are weak in this area too?
