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If you do an Internet search for the Ten Commandments, one of the interesting things that pops up is the alternative to the Ten Commandments. There are atheists, secular humanists, scientists, even some Christians who have come up with a better Ten Commandments. A number of years ago, they did a survey. If there was a new Ten Commandments, who should write them? And the number one person who chose to do this survey of thousands of people was Oprah Winfrey. Because she could write a better Ten Commandments. So we live in this world in which more and more of the Ten Commandments are seen as basically ancient laws given by a mythical god. They have nothing to do with the world in which we live in. Well, of course, we started here a couple weeks ago a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments. And we went through the first commandment, which is, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me. And we went through and showed that that is the basis of all the commandments. God claims, I am the God, the God of Israel, so the God of this book, claims that he is the God and that he has the right to declare what is right and wrong, what is good and evil. And the Ten Commandments actually aren't just for the people of Israel, they are for all humanity, all mankind, because he is the God of all humanity. Now there is a response, as we went through, that we are supposed to have. If we actually understand that commandment, there is a human response, the human response is belief that he is the God, and also involves loyalty, trust, and obedience. So we went through the enormity of that simple command and what it actually means as we broke it down. Well, today we're going to talk about the Second Commandment. The Second Commandment actually involves how God then requires that he be respected and worshiped. He's declared himself in the First Commandment, I am the God, and you must respond to me, and you must be loyal to me, and you must trust me, and you must obey me. But the Second Commandment is all about how he says, I will be worshiped. Now, if you believe the First Command, then you realize he has the right to demand that. It was interesting as I went through various people's Ten Commandments, from Stephen Hawking's, I mean, everybody's come up with the New Ten Commandments. And one writer who would come up with a New Ten Commandment said, this is just so arrogant for this being to claim that he had to be worshiped. So he said the first four have to be thrown out entirely because they're just an expression of arrogance and a wow. Someday he's going to appear before this God. That should be an interesting meeting. That should be an interesting meeting. So let's look at that Second Commandment. Exodus 20. Because we don't really have to look at what it meant to ancient Israel, which we will, but what it should mean to us. Because this is an easy commandment for us to sort of ignore because, well, we're not involved in this. We don't see a lot of this, we think. So we just sort of, yeah, we know what that commandment is. But no, we can break this commandment too, especially in the spirit of the law. Exodus 20, verse 4. You shall not make for yourselves a carved image any likeness of anything that is inhabitable above, or that is in the earth, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Now I'm going to stop here because we'll come back to the rest of this commandment in a few minutes.
You do not have to make yourselves a carved image. Now some people have taken this to an extent that said, well, you shouldn't even take a photograph of anybody. You shouldn't even have a picture. Now the point here is this point where it says, you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. This has to do with worship. And it says, bow down and serve. Those are two very, very important, especially in Hebrew. Those are very important statements.
So why is it that God said we shouldn't do this? Okay, you can't make anything and use it in the aid of worship to Him. Well, there's a couple of reasons.
Now let's look at a couple of reasons. Then we'll expand it out into how we can break this law, not even not. The first one is, the first reason why God says not to do this is because God forbids the use of idols in the worship of Him because of His uniqueness. Let me show you something. Let's go to Deuteronomy 4. His uniqueness. We have a real problem when we understand how God has revealed Himself and then we're going to try to make something that will symbolize God.
You know, I've been to the Sistine Chapel. How many of you have been to the Sistine Chapel? Okay, how many of you have seen pictures of the Sistine Chapel? You know, at the whole big, the center point of the Sistine Chapel, the painting on the roof is God touching the hand, the figure of Adam. It's real dramatic. It is a dramatic painting until you realize, so that's what God is. Sort of an old looking, heavyset wrinkled guy. Is that how God wants us to think about Him when we pray?
Some of this old wrinkled heavyset guy, not too bad, but he's just sort of muscular, but he's reaching out and touching Adam. Is that how we're supposed to see God? How do you represent God when you understand the greatness of God? This is the first reason why idolatry is a major issue with God. It's easy for us in our tolerant society to say, well, this shouldn't be a big thing. Come on, so what? Well, you know, a picture of what God is supposed to be, or a little statue. Come on, what does that hurt? It helps us be able to visualize God. Let's look at what he told the ancient Israelites. This is in Deuteronomy 4, verse 11. And he's talking about what he gave of the Ten Commandments. So this is in the context of, remember when I gave you the Ten Commandments? Remember what it was like to be beneath that mountain? Remember, we talked about it last night. We talked about how it was shaking, and it was fire. I mean, there was a being on top of that mountain that was terrifying. When they heard his voice, they said to Moses, you go talk to him because he's going to kill us. His very presence was overwhelming. Let's pick it up in verse 11. So we're in the middle of this, what he's talking about here, reminding them of what it was like to be before Mount Sinai. Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, the mountain burned with fire, the mist of heaven, and darkness and cloud and thick darkness. He said, remember what that was like? These boiling clouds of darkness coming off this mountain and this thunder and this fire and how it was frightening to be in the presence of God. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form. You only heard a voice. So he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. The word commanded me at that time, this is Moses' writing, to teach you statutes and judgments that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess. Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form where the Lord spoke to you and heard about of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image of the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, and the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. Take heed, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the hosts of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them. Now, this is the same idea. We're going to create a representation of God so that we may worship it, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole of heaven as a heritage. Now, that's also a very important little comment that we can miss. Okay, so God says, don't worship the son of moon and stars to these ancient Israelites because, you know, I've given those to you. That's all He says.
I've given this to everyone. This is universal. This is why the Ten Commandments are universal, because God reveals Himself in very simple terms. I mean, Christianity, becoming Christlike, is a whole lot more than just keeping the Ten Commandments. But you got to start someplace. You got to have a foundation of the middle off of, and that's where we start with the Ten Commandments.
And so He says here, don't do this. Remember, God didn't let you see Him. You couldn't have handled it anyways. To see God as He is is something that we as human beings could not live and see. In fact, it's not what Moses was told. You can't look at me.
It'll kill you. Your mind cannot take seeing God in reality.
So we're going to create a little thing that sort of looks like it.
So the first reason is we're not allowed to try to make representation of God because He says, I'm bigger than anything you create, which is just made out of something I created. And it has to do with worship. You know, in English, when we use the word worship, what do we usually think of as a synonym? Praise. Praise and worship. We sing. We show thanks to God. You know, the Hebrew word for worship and praise are two totally different words. They're not related at all. Worship in Hebrew literally means to bow down. It means to get on your face, prospering before something or someone. This is what happened when kings would walk down the street to the ancient world. Everybody would fall on their face because if you didn't, you would die.
It has to do with total subjection. Worship. Worship. The content of worship in the Old Testament is total complete subjection. You're on your face. So we're talking about the worship of God. And that's why in the commandment, he says what? Bow down and serve.
Who do we bow down to and who do we serve? That is the real meaning of the Second Commandment. Who do we serve? Who are we accepting as master? Who do we bow down to?
So this is why he said you're not even to make an image of me, God said.
Because we are to bow down to God in his realizing that he is greater than anything we should have mentioned. The prophets talk about this. I mean, it's fascinating to go through the prophets, whether it's the major prophets or the minor prophets, and see what they say about idolatry. In fact, if you look at Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets, you will see that the number one thing that God condemns ancient Israel and ancient Judah for is idolatry. Over and over and over again. There's a place in Isaiah 40 where God inspires Isaiah to write, to whom will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare him to? There's the point is, how do you think you know what I am like?
Now we know we're made in the image of God, but God says, okay, only take that so far. I'm greater than that.
So God is very specific that how do we take the creator of the universe, who has all power, the God that knows all your thoughts, and my thoughts, and think about that, all of us, at the same time?
They can't even create a computer even remotely, that powerful. How does he process everything at the same time? Everybody, no matter what they are, no matter what language they speak, he understands, he knows, he hears. How does the all-powerful, all-ever-present God, what do we make him look like? And this is why idolatry is so serious if we try to make an image of God, because idolatry degrades the spiritual and awe-inspiring nature of God. It actually degrades it.
Idolatry, an attempt to make even the God of the Bible into an image is degrading to who he actually is. Look at John 4, because here we have in John 4, really, the essence of the Second Community of it in the New Testament. John 4, two verses that probably everybody here knows by heart. But it is the essence. Here is the New Covenant explanation of the Second Community. This is where the Second Community leads us to. John 4, verse 23, Jesus Christ said, But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father. Now, this isn't exactly the same word, because it's in Greek. That's the same concept. Worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. And here's why. God is spirit, and those who worship Him most worship in spirit and truth. To lower God down to a physical thing that we bow down to, to represent Him, is to degrade His nature. It is to degrade who He is. And He takes it very serious.
And that's why I find it interesting when I read the one article where the guy said, How arrogant, you know, how arrogant for this being to say, Oh, you can't make images of me. Wow. How arrogant do you think that you would come up with that concept?
So we understand that idolatry degrades the nature of God.
So then we take the second step. The second reason why is really so obvious also, is that when you make idols of gods that don't exist, it's a lie. It's a falsehood.
Those gods do not exist. And that's why throughout the Old Testament you will find in some of the prophets, a sarcasm about idolatry that is just overwhelming. A sarcasm because that's a piece of rock you're worshiping.
Oh, no, no, this represents my God. No, it doesn't. He doesn't exist.
So that's a piece of stone. So there's this ridicule of people who are believing that somehow this idol—and you know when people worship idols, they don't say that is the God. They say that represents the God or the goddess and therefore possesses special powers. The idol itself possesses special powers. It's very interesting how during the end of the Roman Empire many of the temples people would go in and witness amazing miracles.
And they're recorded how people go into these pagan temples and witness all these amazing miracles and the gods would talk to them and they would get answers. Well, they've discovered something. They've discovered actual sort of blueprint plans for some of the temples.
And the idols were machines. Some of them literally had holes in them and priests down below the idol so they could hear the person's prayer and did a little tomb that came up to the mouth of the idol and the priest would speak an answer to the person.
And some of them would move. Well, there's some guy cranking. You know, he's down below cranking it and it's moving. And many people believe there's real power in that. See, people believe the idols contain power. That the core of idolatry is superstition and magic. There is magic in the object. The object itself is magical because the god or the goddess works through the object. Look at Psalm. Let's go to Psalm 115. Because you're David writes about idolatry. Psalm 115.3. God wants us to worship in spirit and truth. The spirit of idolatry is the spirit of superstition and magic. And we're going to see a little bit. It's even worse than that.
Psalm 115.3. But our god is in heaven. Our god is in another realm. We don't see our god, but we believe in our god.
He does whatever he pleases. Now that's a very interesting statement that David makes here. Our god is not bound by physical laws. Our god does what he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of Mantaeus. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes, they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Dozes, they have, they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle. Feet, they have, but they do not walk. Doors, they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them. And so is everyone who trusted them. He says people who make idols and worship idols are blind and deaf and dead. That's quite a spiritual statement. You need that spiritually. Now people who worship idols are spiritually blind and deaf and dead. This leads us to something that we're... Well, before I go there, let me bring out another pointer. Why would people then be attracted to idolatry? Because idolatry is the core of all the unchristian and non-Jewish religion. That's the first religion. Why is it? Well, idolatry appeals to human beings for a number of reasons. The first is we need, we are designed to have a need for a spiritual connection to God. You are designed to have that. Now, if you don't have a spiritual connection to God, you still, we almost inherently believe there is another world out there. There's something that we're supposed to interact with. That spiritual need drives us. If we don't know the real God, we'll make up with God. We need God. So human beings cut off from God, we'll make up God's. It's what they do because they're driven to.
Because we want more than this life. So there's an attempt to fulfill this spiritual connection. But that's why idolatry is so filled with mysticism and secret knowledge and superstition. And it's all about feeling. It's all about feeling because they're trying to fulfill a spiritual need.
It is also an attempt to answer the unknown questions of nature.
How do we make sure the rains come every year?
You and I understand the science of things that, for most of humanity, they did understand the science of it. The ancient Egyptians actually believed that Pharaoh went to the sun god every year and caused the Nile River to flood so that it would deposit silt onto their fields so they could grow crops. They believed it. Something had to do it. So they believed that everything has an intelligence to it. Something has to do it. That's why people believe in astrology. The stars are wandering around telling you how to live. Where did that come from?
Ancient people believed that those were beings.
That those, the stars and the planets were beings. And when scientists, the earliest scientists, astrologers, or stardomers, begin to look at it and say, wait a minute, these things move in patterns. They said, see, it proves they are living beings. Because only living beings would move in patterns. So if we know when we were born, we'll know what the stars were like then, and we'll be able to figure out. They'll tell us how you're supposed to live. And you know, there's still people today. But get out, get the newspaper, or go online and read their horoscope every day. Why? Because those beings will tell me how to live. Now that's not what they say, but that's where it came from. That's where it came from. Those living beings will tell me how to live. That's all part of ideology. That's why you said, don't even look at those stars and try to make images out of that. But there's that need. Nature, we have to explain nature. So you worship nature. The nature must mother earth, which many duagers today believe actually is a goddess. Mother earth is a content. The earth must be alive. It produces life, explain how you put a seed in the ground, and it grows three months later. Explain that. Even with our science, we can't explain entirely how life is working. There's gaps in how they understand it. Well, if you lived 3,000 years ago, how do you explain it? There's some god making that happen. And if we make an idol to that god, he'll help us. And then we make and there'll be magic in the idol. It's interesting that when it comes to love and almost all, not all, but most pagan religions, it was a woman. It was a goddess.
So they would go to the goddess, and she would give them love.
They used gone to the gods. They didn't care much about it, but the goddesses did. So you begin to understand their need to fulfill a spiritual void, and that's what idolatry is.
Now also, many times idolatry really unleashed sexual freedom. One of the most amazing things about almost all pagan religions is the amount of sexual freedom that they allow, or they even provoked. Of course, the most obvious when we think about in the ancient times is in Ephesus and in Corinth, where they both had temple prostitutes. And everybody went to temple prostitutes, men and women. There were temple prostitutes in ancient Babylon. In fact, there was one point in Babylon's history where every woman as a, I can't remember which god it was, as a sacrifice of that god had to go sell herself at the temple as a prostitute for at least once in her life. And what went to do is that they'd wait until they were older, and the men would come up and buy the younger women. This is a description that we actually have from Herodotus, who was a Greek who traveled to Babylon, I think about 400 BC. He said, so the older women would sit there for days because you couldn't leave until you were chosen. And men would bid until they were able to get her for practically nothing.
So they learned to sell themselves young.
Sexual immorality was really unleashed in so much of idolatry. And also, it really is an attempt to control power. It is interesting that in how many idolatrous religions, if you do the right ritual before the statue, say the right words, do the right dance, that God has to do what you want.
I do the right rain dance. The God of rain will give me rain. He has to. I did the dance.
So there is an attempt to control what they cannot control. So idolatry reaches into the very core of human needs. It is incredibly emotional. An attempt to explain what is unexplainable. An attempt to tap into a spiritual need that they have. Now, I would dare say that none of you have alters to Zeus in your basements. You're not out worshiping gods and gods. But how can we break this conveyor that is not even known? Well, let's go back and let's look through what we've talked about. Let's bring out some points. How do people actually break this conveyor today? Well, the first one is still obvious is the use of any image that is used to represent God is unacceptable to God. Now, what I'm going to say next is not politically correct. What we have to understand is what the Bible teaches.
This would mean that Hinduism, Buddhism, most of the religions throughout much of the world are not simply different ways to get to the same God. That's becoming very popular in our society. All religions are just a different way to get to the same God. They are not.
And if you and I begin to go down that path, we are beginning to become idolatrous.
Because we're accepting idolatry as a path to God. So we have to be very careful about that concept. They are not acceptable to God. I want you to look at, you know, sometimes we don't look at God's emotional reaction to things. Now, fortunately, his emotions are under control. His emotions are, I think, was read in the sermonette. You know, God's anger doesn't last very long. Aren't you glad?
Because it's always under control. But he does express his emotions. Now, they're not like ours, and they're not chemically based. So I can't imagine God's emotions. They must be much more real than ours.
Let's go to Deuteronomy 7. I want you to look at instructions here to ancient Israel. And then I want you to look at how he told them to respond. Deuteronomy 7. Now, this is the Old Covenant. How much more should we respond to this if we have God's Spirit? Because God's Spirit was not poured out upon those people as it is in the church. Deuteronomy 7.25. He's talking about when they go into areas of Canaan and they have idols there. He says, you're going to go into places and there's going to be temples with idols. When you go into those temples, here's what you must do. You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them. In other words, he said you just melt down and destroy the gold, the silver, the precious stones. Because people put a lot, they would put a lot of water on them. They would put a lot of wealth into the creation of these temples and into the creation of these idols. He said you destroy it. You don't save part of it. You don't cut it up. You destroy all of it.
You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be stared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. The word abomination in Hebrew is incredibly powerful. It means to loathe something. It means detestable. I guess to put it in English, it's something that makes you absolutely sick. You hate it. It is a powerful word. Well, it means something that God loathes, something God detests. He says I detest when my created children make little statues with a human body and a bird head, I think he wanted the Egyptian gods, and say, oh, I'll go worship this.
He says I loathe that. I hate that.
God's emotions here, he's expressing them. He's telling them. This isn't just because I say, don't do that, but it's okay. This is absolutely detestable to God.
Because he says, how do I have a relationship with you when you're doing that?
How can you relate to me when you're relating to Baal?
I have to show you a picture. I did a sermon one time on Baal. I have to show you a picture of Baal. It is really the storm god. It's about a wimpy little thing you should ever see. You think a storm god would be a little bit more powerful than that.
They actually have statues of Baal that dug up.
He says, how could you relate to me? How can we have a relationship if that's how you see gods and ignore here the god? Notice verse 26. Dorsio, you bring an abomination into your house. He says, you can't, you don't bring statues into your house.
Lest you be doomed to destruction like it, you shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it isn't a cursed thing.
We can become so complacent with idolatry that we do not abhor it.
That's an interesting command. Those people are told, this should make you as disgusting as it makes me. Or as disgusted as it makes me.
This should make you as disgusted as it makes me. That's God's instruction to them.
Think about Paul. Paul's an interesting man because Paul was born into the Greek world, but he's a Jew. He's what we would call an Orthodox Jew, born into a Greek world, interacted with both the Greek world and the Jewish world.
What was it like for him to walk through Athens? Athens was the center of the intellectual center of the world. It was the philosophical center of the world. And every religion you could imagine was there. See, we don't realize what happened with the Roman Empire is that they took religions and mixed them all up. You could worship anything you wanted. It didn't matter.
I was surprised when we went to Pompeii that one of the buildings that survived is this wee little temple, not to the Roman gods, but to Isis and Egyptian gods. And there were people in Pompeii that went regularly to the little temple of Isis and worshiped her. So Paul now goes to Athens and sees all this idolatry. And look what it did to him. Acts 17 verse 16. 17-16.
Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. It overwhelmed him. Now, he didn't go around tearing down their idols. He didn't give big acts of violence. Okay, that's not what he did. He was motivated to go, though, to the place where all the philosophers and religious people collected and got up and said, I got a better message to you than this. He went and spoke the truth. He went and spoke the truth. When we don't have or we are complacent about idolatry, we have to be very careful because we can actually not be bothered by it.
This is not politically correct. And I don't I'm not saying this like I'm judging somebody to know the lake of fire. I'm just saying we have to look at sin and our lives we have to look at sin in the world. The worship of Mary and the statues of Mary and the saints is idolatry. It is. Just study what they do. Remember, we did a program on it and I think I even mentioned it here in a sermon where a poor Archbishop, Archbishop Sheed, he died. They wanted to make him a saint, but the Catholic Church can't make him a saint. And the reason why is there's two died. What is the church called? Diocese. There's two diocese that are fighting over his body. Now, you know why? If you have his body, there's magic in the body. And what they will do is cut him up in little pieces and send him around to different Catholic churches because under every altar in a Catholic church is a box. And the more pieces of saints you have in there, the more God will interact because the more those saints... because if you have his figure, oh, when she gets the canonized, he's already in heaven. But if you get his figure and he's made a saint and you pray with the figure there, he'll go to God for you. He'll intercede for you because you got his figure. That's modern Catholicism. And I don't think he'd add up. Don't just don't type in relics, Catholic relics and see what the Catholic church says. I mean, their own teaching. It is pure idolatry. It is magic. It is superstition. It is... it is against God. It's that simple.
You could go to Catholic churches. There's one in the... one of the cities in Rawls where there's the head of one of the women in a box and you pay a... you pay money and the light comes on and you look at her... her shriveled up head. Now, if you go to Rawls, her body's there because both wanted it and they couldn't figure out what to do. So you get the head and we get the body. This way she will pray for all of us. His idolatry at its purest form. It is absolute idolatry at its purest form.
They say, wow, you're upset over that. Yes, I am. Do I hate Catholics? No. Any more than Paul hated the pagans he was with. He ate with them, right? He preached to them.
But if that doesn't stir us, what is wrong with us? How we become complacent to idolatry.
How we become complacent to idolatry.
Now, another way we can actually commit idolatry and not realize it is that we mix paganism with the worship of God. Now, this gets down to where people say, okay, pagans sang songs so we shouldn't sing songs. There are certain Christians in the nominations that we'll even let a piano in the church because well, pagans had pianos and we shouldn't have pianos. The issue of the second commandment is, it's what you bow down to.
What you bow down to.
Paul dealt with this in the Corinthian church in great depth because the Corinthians were mainly Gentiles who committed the church. They were in the center of the Greek world, right in the middle of Greece, and they were about as superstitious of people as you can imagine. And they had mixed all kinds of pagan idolatrous practices into the church.
So let's go to 1 Corinthians 10 because this is a concept that actually you find in the Old Testament. But he said it so well here. I'm going to use the New Testament reference. You actually find this in the Old Testament, but not... he's just so dramatic in the way he says it.
He's talking to these people who are mixing paganism in with their worship of God, and he's talking about the Passover service. You know, there's another place here where he even talks about in this book or this letter. Hell, remember when Christ sat down that night with his disciples, he took the bread, he took the wine. He keeps taking them back to that Passover service.
In verse 14, he says, therefore my beloved flee from idolatry. Now why would he be telling of that?
Because they weren't. They weren't fleeing idolatry in the church.
I speak to you as wise men, judge for yourselves what I say. The couple blessing which we bless is not the communion of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break is it not the communion to the body of Christ. We, though many, are one bread and one body. We are all partaken of that one bread. Now his argument is, this is a really important argument to where he's going to go, is that when you take the bread and wine that symbolizes the blood and body of Christ shed for us, is that not communion with Christ? Are you not in a relationship with him? Because he's resurrected. So the participation in this ceremony isn't just a ritual. Participation in this ceremony is a relationship between you and Christ.
Okay, first point. Then he goes on, verse 18, observe Israel after the flesh, or not those who eat of the sacrifices for takers of the altar. In other words, the sacrifice, because look at ancient Israel, and the priest took these sacrifices and offered them to God, and certain of the sacrifices the priest with it set neat. He says, because why? It was part of that sacrifice was part of their relationship with God, and they actually received a blessing from God for doing it. So he's saying, the rituals, whether it be the New Testament rituals of bread and wine, or the Old Testament rituals of actually doing a sacrifice, were part of a personal relationship between the people and God. Then he goes on, he says, what am I saying then? That's a good question. What you're making here, Paul? Now remember, we started at the beginning of the thought. What is the thought he's dealing with? Idolatry. That's the thought. He says, what am I saying then? That an idol is anything or what is offered an idol is anything? He says, oh, come on. He could have said, remember what David said? They don't speak, they don't speak, they don't help. They're nothing. Remember what Isaiah said? Remember what Jeremiah, he could have quoted all kinds of Old Testament passages. He didn't, he did at many points. The idol itself is wood and stone and maybe some gold overlay. That's all it is. But he says, rather, that the things with the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. This is real important. Underneath all this useless idolatry is a power. There is a power to it. People who participate in it receive a power from it. But that power is not of God. When Paul says that Satan is the God of this world, he meant exactly that. He's the God of this world. And the religions that we see in this world are not worshiping God. They're worshiping Satan. They don't know it.
But underneath is a demonic power. You know, my son was in college. He took a comparative religion class. And he said, Dad, my assignment is I have to go to a Hindu temple. He said, would you go with me because I'm not going to go by myself. I said, okay. Because actually, I've always wanted to see the Hindu ceremony, worship ceremony. So we went in one night where they were having a ceremony.
We went in and walked around before anybody was there and looked at all the idols, you know, the elephant God and the one of the goddesses that has six or eight armors. Yeah. We looked at all of them. And we said, well, we would like to talk to the priest because the priest will walk around all these gowns and everything. And someone said, Oh, if you want to learn about Hinduism, now this is one of the parishioners, okay, don't talk to the priest. They don't really know anything. You have to talk to a philosopher.
Okay. So there's this old guy. I mean, he looked like 100 years old and he's sitting in a chair over on the wall asleep. Then what woke him up said, there's somebody here to talk to you.
So he took it to the side room. And he explained to us Hinduism. I said, Chris, this is great. When are you ever going to get some money to say a bona fide philosopher, you know, you wrote a book, you've done all these things, and he's going to teach you about Hindus.
So he taught him that the purpose of Hinduism is to discover the God that is within you. So you have to find the God that's in you. He said, now three of the greatest Hindus that ever lived was Buddha, which is interesting, because he's not a Hindu. Jesus is not Hindu. And Mother Teresa, he was not Hindu. He said, because all three of them discovered the God that was them. When Jesus said, I am God, discovered that God was, he was, there's a God within him. So he explained all this, my son's trying to write it down. It's like, you know, he, this is such crazy.
This is he's writing it down to him. I mean, it is crazy. This one, he's writing it all down. And finally he said, well, what do you do for a living? I said, I'm a Christian pastor. Well, the interview was shut down immediately. Although he was so old and decrepit, I did help him get back out to his chair. I thought he was going to fall down. He was trying to get away from you so quick. And I said, okay, come on, I'll get you back to your chair.
So I got him back to the chair. I couldn't help it. I should. I just told him to leave. So we set him down, and now they're having the ceremony. So we watched them perform all these sacrifices. Now, all the people came in and they were very dressed up, which most of them had clothing from India. It wasn't the Western style clothing. And they sat around on the floor, and some of them were eating, and the children were playing, and they were talking. It was incredibly festive. There was the power there. There was joy in the room.
As we watched, as they walked up to each god and goddess, because their sacrifices aren't animal sacrifices, because they're, they believe in the sacredness of all life. So, you know, there's a goddess, and they all walk up, and the priest, they throw flowers and vegetables in front of the goddess. And then they take jugs of milk and orange juice and pour all over.
You know, I guess it was orange juice, that's what it looked like. It was some kind of juice and milk and poured all over this goddess and threw vegetables on her. And they went from, you know, statue to statue. And I, I just watched as my son keeps pulling up. You know, he's just a grown man. He's in college, and he keeps pulling up. I'm watching. I'm watching, finally. He's just pulling up. Okay, so we walk outside. They're doing some kind of candlelight ceremony, and I look at all that.
We got the card. He said, Dad, there's deep enough lights. Yeah, we gotta get out of here.
I said, there's a power there, is there? He said, yeah. I said, yeah, that's what you're feeling. There's a power there. There is a power in idolatry. And that's why we have to be so careful. Now, we can't be, we can be careful to the point of absurdity. You know, oh, I'm sorry.
I can't, like I said, I can't, I can't bring an instrument in because some, some pagan religions use instruments. Oh, come on. David used instruments. Okay. So we can use instruments. We can use instruments. But think about the obvious things. Christmas, Easter, what are they?
You take some Christianity, and you take some idolatry, and you mix them together.
There's a real danger in that. And we can become complacent to that. The secret, the secretizing is what it says the word is used. It means the mixing of religions. And then my last point here is that, and this is really a whole other subject. Okay. I'm just leading up to this, so this is a whole other subject. And that is idolatry can be anything that we make more important than God. See, if you think about it, it's about worship. It's about who do I bow down to, or what do I bow down to? You know, the greatest danger you and I have is we're not going to run off and join, you know, worshiping Hindu gods. And you and I are not going to give our children bunnies and Easter eggs. Right? But do we worship at the feet of materialism? Do we worship at the feet of money? Do we worship at the feet of fame? Do we worship at the feet of, I can add a better house to my neighbor, or bigger car? What do we what do we worship? What do we bow down to? Do you worship at the feet of your work? So you sacrifice God and your family and all kinds of other things, just do your job because you like your job. What are we sacrificing our lives for? Now we're into the spiritual application of idolatry.
The spiritual application of idolatry. Remember what Jesus said? Oh, let's go there. I wasn't going to go there, but Matthew 6. Matthew 6, verse 19, because here he hit that really, the concept of what do you bow down to? And so this is a New Testament application of idolatry.
Part of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6, verse 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break into steel. Now he doesn't say, he's not saying, well, let your property go into decay. Don't take care of anything. Live like a bomb. That's what he's saying. He says, you're treasures. And he goes on to explain that. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break into steel. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What is it we serve?
He goes on, he says, the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? Verse 24. Now he just brings it in. He's talking and he's talking. He said, now let me make this, break this down to the central point of what I'm making. No man can serve. You can put worship in there.
No man can bow down to two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon or God and money. But let's just fill out anything you could put in there. Husbands, wife, children, people actually can worship their husband or their wife, or their children, to where they will please them instead of God. Which is, by the way, a real good way to destroy your relationship with your husband or wife or your children. Please tell them to please them instead of God.
That's a form of idolatry. Who do you serve?
Now we're really into the spirit of the law. Who do we serve? And you and I aren't in much danger of worshiping a sina, or any of the old canine gods and goddesses, or horrors of the ancient Egypt. We are in danger sometimes of worshiping the false values of our society to where we serve them instead of serving God.
Who do you serve? That is the great question of the Second Commandment.
You can bring the Second Commandment. Remember I said the first commandment comes down to are you loyal to God? The Second Commandment comes down to whom do you serve?
Who do you bow down to?
There is one last point here, and that is back in Exodus 20. Let's go back there. I said that was my last point. Oh no, when I get to the dash of all bear false witness, I'll have to repent. Exodus 20. I forgot. There is one last point here. I looked out of my notes, and I do have a last point.
That's one way to keep people going, though. And my last point is, you did that five or six times, and my last point is...
Remember I said in verse 5, I forgot about this, I ended in the middle of the verse. So let's look at the rest of the verse. Ryan the Lord your God, Imma Jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. I mean, that's an odd place to throw this statement in.
But what did he really say? He said, for those who don't worship me, their sins will be passed on to their children, and they will commit the same sins, because they'll teach them, and then they'll pass them on, and they'll pass them on. You know, four generations later, they'll still be doing the same things, and they'll be reaping the same consequences.
He says, but you worship me in the way that I wish to be worshiped. He said, a thousand generations later, you'll find some benefit.
There's a generational effect on obeying God. Now, that generational effect may end up in generations long after you're dead. You may not see it in the media generations, but there's a generational effect on our relationship with God. And so, he throws it. He says, well, that's an odd place to make this statement. It seems to have nothing to do with this commandment. Actually, it has everything to do with the first two commandments. I am the Lord your God. I'm all there is. Worship me in the way that I would be worshiped. And if you do, I will bless you, and I will be in your life, and you'll go on. You'll be passed on. Don't. And you just make the same mistakes over and over and over again. Running gets pretty simple, doesn't it?
We really break all this down. It gets very simple.
The second commandment is about what do you bow down to? Who do you worship? What do you worship? And who establishes the priorities in your life? You and I have been called to remove all idols from our lives. In the obvious sense of any false representations of God, that's why you'll see no crucifixes. We'll put up no crucifixes. We're not going to have pictures of God. We're not going to have a picture of the Sistine Chapel here. I mean, the painting, although it is an amazing painting. You know, we're not going to show that or have that as part of our worship service or even say that does not visualize God for us. Secondly, we have been called to get rid of the false gods and not mix idolatry into our worship. Because I've talked to so many people and said, so what? We know Easter isn't really Christian. We know that. But it's good.
Not if you read the second commandment. It's not good. And then also, it is that we need to reject the idolatry of materialism and fame and pleasure. Pleasure is an idol in our world. Fun, fun, fun. It's an idol. Pleasure at all costs. We are to reject those idols because you and I have been called. Now this really expands out. I'm like, any get where you should begin.
We have been called to worship God in spirit and truth.
Gary Petty is a 1978 graduate of Ambassador College with a BS in mass communications. He worked for six years in radio in Pennsylvania and Texas. He was ordained a minister in 1984 and has served congregations in Longview and Houston Texas; Rockford, Illinois; Janesville and Beloit, Wisconsin; and San Antonio, Austin and Waco, Texas. He presently pastors United Church of God congregations in Nashville, Murfreesboro and Jackson, Tennessee.
Gary says he's "excited to be a part of preaching the good news of God's Kingdom over the airwaves," and "trusts the material presented will make a helpful difference in people's lives, bringing them closer to a relationship with their heavenly Father."