The 2nd Commandment of Exodus

Well, we're going to talk about the second commandment. In this discussion, we'll go down much the same path that the young people are going through over here, so we'll hear that again as well. I think that that would really fit in, in terms of our talking to our young people about these things and being reminded about it ourselves. Let's go to Deuteronomy 5 to begin with here in the study of the second commandment. In Deuteronomy 5 over here in verse 4, if you notice over here, it says, the eternal talk with you, speaking of Israel during the time of dealing with them and giving them the commandments, talk with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.

So God was right there and He gave them His commandments, the Ten Commandments. And who was it? Ted Koppel said that when Moses came down to the mountain, they were not ten suggestions, but they were ten commandments. And over in Acts 7 verse 53, it says that the commandments were given by the administration of angels, that it was through angels that this was given. But we know it was God who spoke the words that people ran from and fled from it. Let's go to Exodus chapter 20 here to talk about the Decalogue itself. Exodus chapter 20, and here beginning in verse 4, it says, For you shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

It says, You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, the Eternal your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Him or hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

And so God promises, by the way, His mercy to those who love Him and keep His commandments, that obey His commandments, and by the way, all of His commandments. In the New Testament, we find that the commandments are interlocked with one another.

They're like a chain. You break one of the links of the chain, you break it all. And oftentimes, it's very, very true that when you violate one law, you do violate many of the laws of God, the Ten Commandments. So it's not just one commandment we break when we break one. We break a number of commandments in the process. But God promises to us, brethren, if we have a desire to keep His words, to obey His commandments, that He will show us incredible mercy and blessings.

In the New Testament, by the way, the Apostle John wrote this. I'll just write it, note it here for you. You can write it down if you want. In 1 John 5, verse 21, little children keep yourselves from idols. Basically, the Roman world was surrounded by idols. They had idols everywhere. My wife and I traveled to Thailand, by the way, and that is a place of many, many idols. Of course, you would expect that, wouldn't you? They say there in Bangkok, by the way, if you throw a beer bottle over your shoulder, you'll hit a watt or a temple. There's so many of them around there. And of course, you shouldn't be drinking in Bangkok anyway.

But anyway, certainly it's true. Every place you went, there was what they call a watt, which is, of course, the temple for the Taiwanese. But during John's time, idolatry was a fact of life, as a way of life. It was all around them. Imagine, again, people intermingling with each other all the time and bringing up about idols that they were maybe praying to or whatever. You know, sometimes people, by the way, combine the Second Commandment to the First Commandment. They think that the Second one is not, or the First one is not distinct so much from the First one.

But how about that, brethren? Do we combine the Second Commandment with the First Commandment? Well, actually, the Bible is, I think, very clear that there is a First Commandment that talks about there is no other God but God. And then the Second Commandment has to do with the worship of images of God. But let's notice here in verse 3 of Exodus chapter 3 here, Exodus 20 in verse 3, I should say, here's the First Commandment.

You shall have no other gods before me. You know, God thundered from atop Mount Sinai. And also, if you wanted to couple that with Deuteronomy 5 verse 7, God says again, no other gods before Him. And some translations say, before my face. God does not want any, again, other gods before His face.

The First Commandment deals with who we worship. And there is no other God that we worship. And the Second Commandment deals with how we worship God. And this Commandment, brethren, teaches us how we are to think about God, how we are to look upon God. And often people want to worship something visible with images of what they think that God looks like.

It's like it's amazing, again, the idol worship that we saw when we were in Thailand. We went to one particular what that was located on top of a very, you know, high hill. You almost had a heart attack going up the stairs to this this what. It's a wonder the monks could even get up there, you know. But, you know, they look, they're probably stronger than they look. You know, the monks that at least that were serving on top of that, that particular hill mountain is a better description of it. And in that what. But one thing I noticed, and I had not ever really seen this before, we were walking around, you know, in the in the temple itself. It was a tourist attraction. And there was a man that was on his knees as we walked by before a jade Buddha. And I mean, he was pouring his heart out. I don't know what had happened to this man. But he was laying things on the right before the jade Buddha, which was about this tall. And anyway, he was just very much in earnest with it. But I had never seen anybody worship an idol in my life to that degree. I've been in, you know, Catholic churches and seen that sort of thing. But I've never seen anybody kneel down and actually pray to an idol. But that was what he was doing. But God commands us not to do such a thing. But oftentimes people, again, want to worship something they can see. And hence, people have crosses, you know, they have have different amulets that they consider very sacred. And because it helps them to envision God according to what they would say. You know, some people worship the nature or the physical universe. You know, the pagans of old were dismayed by the signs of heaven. You know, and remember what Jeremiah 10 says, that we ought not be dismayed by the signs of heaven. We, you know, we're not into horoscopes and thinking somehow that when we get out of bed in the morning, you got to read your horoscope. You know, maybe you'll get run over by a car or something. You know, if you don't pay attention to what the horoscope says. You know, I've read horoscopes about my particular date of birth, by the way, as a comedy thing, what they usually say. And if you ever read, you know, what they say, it could be said about anybody.

And but there's some people that, again, will not get out of bed until they read their horoscope.

Native Americans worship the earth and the sky and the things of nature. I remember I had a friend of mine that got married and he had a Native American woman who came in and performed this ceremony for the marriage. And, you know, that was one of those those prayers that she said I could not say amen to. In the prayer she was talking about how that, you know, she says we look to the north and it was the bear god or something. And to the west or the east was the eagle.

And to, you know, to the other way was another animal of some sort.

But this was a part of the marriage ceremony. I thought, man, I don't know whether you're going to be married when this is over or not. You know, because I have no idea what she was saying.

But it was sort of a New Age type of approach, you know, that she was a part of, I think. But the Native Americans tend to, again, they worship the earth and the sky and the things of nature. Frankly, the Egyptians were that way. You know, they worship the sun and the moon and animals. Interestingly, that often the Egyptian gods were combined with animal and man. You know, you had maybe the face of an animal of some sort and you had the feet of a man, you know, the arms of a man. I noticed also that they have as well a bird. The bird is more something that is a part intermingled with their gods that they have as well. You might have like the face with a beak and then with arms, regular arms and legs of a man. So it's kind of interesting what, in fact, some cultures have done, but it's interesting that Egypt and the Native Americans had much the same approach in terms of combination of animal and man. But, brother, there's only the one true god.

There are gods, little G-O-D-S, that I believe are connected with demonism.

And I'll tell you a story a little bit about that. You know, when we were over in Thailand, Mr. Sexton, who was one of our guides over there and helped us a lot when we were there, Leon Sexton, some of you may know about him, but he has a little school over in Chiang Mai area. And anyway, the school, he brings kids down, you know, from northern Thailand and he teaches them English or it teaches them computer training. And he tries to slip in some spiritual instruction into it. We were able to go to one of his services and he had, you know, some of these young boys leading songs and they get something as far as what is said in services. And of course, Mr. Sexton's one that gives the sermon. So they have to be there to listen to him in order to be taught about computers and English and stuff. So he's got them really as a captive audience there, but they were like 20 or 25 that he had in his school. But he took us around, but he was friends, by the way, with the king and queen of Thailand, King Budapal that recently died, you know, in his old age. But he would go in and he would be able to talk to the king and the queen. And anyway, he was telling a story about how that they were going to dedicate a new barge to the gods of Thailand, and there are multiple gods there. And he talked about how the king was going to step on to this new barge and it would be dedicated. And he said that the minute that the king stepped on to this new barge, that the rain just came down in sheets.

And, you know, as though the god that was of the other barge, that was the old barge, was upset.

And so he caused it to rain. But Leon Sexton was telling me, because he saw it, as soon as the king stepped foot on this barge, it started raining like cats and dogs. And all the way across, you know, the river in Bangkok, it rained. And as soon as he stepped off of the barge, it stopped raining. But Leon was telling me this story. He says to show how that some of these pagan gods actually have demonism behind them. And I believe that is so. A lot of the pagan gods, you know, have a demon of some sort, because they want to be god. But they're little G-O-D-S. They're not really gods. They're simply fallen angels. But, you know, and so they have in Thailand a lot of, a lot of, again, idol worship that takes place. We, of course, worship the only true god that exists stone-ile is nothing. And praying to it, obviously, is not going to get you anything.

But over in 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1 in verse 8, you might turn over to 1 Peter 1 in verse 8, Peter makes a statement over here about God to show us the God we worship. In 1 Peter chapter 1 in verse 8, he says, For if these things are yours abound, I'm sorry, I'm in chapter, the second Peter here, 1 verse 8.

Speaking of God, it says, Whom have ye not seen you love?

Though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

So though we have not seen God, we love Him. And even though we have not seen Him, we believe in Him, and we rejoice, you know, as Peter was saying here. So the second commandment, brethren, tells us God doesn't want us to make images we think represent Him or any other God, for that matter.

He just does not want it. Now, why is this commandment important to us? Well, brethren, it's important to know that no statue, no image, no amulet can fairly represent the God of the Bible. Can't represent God's power.

Let's notice over here in Daniel chapter 7 about God.

You know, if we had a, maybe a discussion, we used to do this, and I'd like to do this a little bit later on, where we can break up and have tables in the back, and we can discuss this at the table.

That maybe each table would come up with a description of what they think God is like.

And maybe have someone then report what their table said. I would hope that it would all be similar, that all of us would say the same similar thing about God. But how would you describe God?

We could have everyone here go around and, you know, do that. Tell us what you think God, a great attribute of God is. And we'd have, you know, 150, 200 different answers, wouldn't we? What God is like. Would we then describe God with, you know, 150, 200 answers? No, we would not.

We could not contain Him in the words that we speak. Our words are inadequate. But chapter 7 of Daniel, and here in verse 9, chapter 7 and verse 9, Daniel says, it says, I watched till thrones were put in place, and the ancient of days was seated.

Again, here we were given a description of God.

His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool, and His throne was a fiery flame, His wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him.

A thousand thousands ministered to Him. That's a million angels. Imagine, this is a big place.

A million angels, ten thousand times ten thousand, stood before Him. That's a hundred million. And it says, the books were open. The court was seated, and the books were open. This is the God, brethren, and we worship. This is the God we worship.

Daniel does a lovely job in describing this, what he saw, but it doesn't really tell us a lot, does it? You don't have a lot here. We're not given a lot in terms of a description of God. How would you describe Him? Notice going on, verse 13, I was watching a night vision, Behold one like the Son of Man.

Coming with the clouds of heaven, He came to the Ancient of Days. Two beings talking about here.

And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him were given dominion, glory, and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

So if you were to describe God, how would you do it?

We simply could not and cannot do it. In fact, nothing could do God justice.

You know, the First Commandment shows us, brethren, that God is all-powerful. We know that God is omniscient, all-knowing. In fact, He has the capacity to be omnipresent as well.

So there's nothing, brethren, men can do, man can do, to describe or represent Him.

You know, we wouldn't see God as a living God, in fact, if we had some sort of statue that represented Him. But God is a living God.

You know, He is, if we try to represent Him in the form of a statue or a picture, then He would be totally inadequate. The Second Commandment reminds us, brethren, God is far, far greater than anything we can see or that we can imagine. Nothing is equal to Him.

In fact, there is no one in heaven or earth equal to the Father in heaven, except His Son who is like Him, the express image of Him as the Bible brings out.

God is utterly unique. And, of course, the problem that Lucifer made is he had the idea that somehow He could match God, but He could not do it. He is no match for God at all.

God does whatever He will, and nobody says, what are you doing?

God can do whatever He wants, whatever He desires. You know, I am very thankful that God is the God of mercy. He can give you a lot of leeway, doesn't He? He's probably given you and me a lot of leeway that we don't deserve. He's given us the opportunity to change, and He does want us to change. So, nothing is equal to Him, brethren. God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. That's how He wants us to worship Him. He wants us to worship Him in our hearts, in our minds, and it takes faith, which is believing in something that you can't see. That's what it says in Hebrews 11.1. That's what faith is. Believing is something you can't see.

Your evidence is the faith and belief you have that exists.

In your life, if you've been going God's way for a while, you've seen His hand in your life many times. Now, why does God say He does not want us to use images to represent Him or His creation? Okay. Let's go to Romans. Romans over here. Romans 1. Romans 1.

I want you to think about, as we go through this Bible study, I want you to think about situations where, in fact, the Second Commandment were violated and how it resulted. But here in Romans chapter 1, in verse 21, notice here, speaking of the world and society we live in, it says, because although they knew God, speaking again of the world, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools.

And changed the glory, it says, of the incorruptible God in the image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. So this is what man has done. Now, how many of you have been to the Vatican before? A few of you have been over to the Vatican.

Some of you may or may not have had a tour of the whole facility. I did not, personally, but I saw a lot of it when we were there. There is a room that we did go through, that Jonah and I went through when we were there. And it is devoted entirely to nothing but idols of religions that have been inculcated into the Catholic Church. You know, they secretize religions and they bring them in, but this is the room where they put all the idols. And I'll tell you what, I have never felt more eerie when I walk through that room than I have ever felt. There was something there that was very powerful. And I think it was certainly demonic forces that were there. Of course, maybe in St. Peter's Cathedral itself, but it seemed that room, particularly, had an impact on me. It's one of those things where your knees get weakened. You know, your strength begins to diminish a little bit in it. But this is what the world has done to God, the Almighty God. They made God into idols. Like I say, I think that there are demons behind it as well. So going on here, it says, therefore God gave them up, verse 24, to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Like again, the Native Americans, you know, worshiping nature, basically. What do they call the earth? Gaia? The earth is like a mother. You know, we call it the mother earth, but it's worshipped, so that the deities actually fit females. You know, it's a female deity that they worship. So God gave us ways, brethren, to know He is all-powerful, even though we can't see Him. In Romans 20 tells us, 1-20 tells us that. Notice in verse 20 here, for since the creation, that's been since again you and I have been alive, and when Adam and Eve was created, and before, for since the creation of the world, it says, His invisible attributes, God's invisible attributes, are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

So, you know, God says you could look at His creation, and He could see how powerful God is.

You know, it's like the fellow I was telling you that was a leading evolutionist who believed in evolution. You know, when he looked on a molecular cellular level, he could see that it had to be a designer. There had to be a God.

Anthony Fly, I think his name was. And anyway, he came to realize there had to be a first cause. There had to be something that brought this into existence. You know, it's all, you know, you tune that electron microscope, and you see all these things inside of a cell working almost like God has set up a highway system inside the cell. You've got these little bitty trucks that are moving around and moving things around and unloading things. And, you know, I guess you've got the little people in there that are, no, I'm just kidding about that. But we could see by the creation, the intricate creation. There was one book I read one time that talked about how, in fact, that with what man does, you know, you can take the most polished surface, and if you tune like an electron microscope to it, you see all the imperfections. But the book said that if you look into the God's creation, it gets even more fantastic. It gets more intricate and more beautiful, and it's so fantastic that it is mind-boggling. That's the difference between what man does and what God does. And we can see the power of God by just looking at the physical creation that is about whether we're looking on, you know, the molecular level or the macro level. You know, looking at the huge, you know, stars in, you know, the distance across the universe that we know about.

Was 14 billion light years across? 100 million light years or, you know, 100 million, I think, light years across the Milky Way? Or 100,000? I'm sorry, I got that wrong. But, you know, 100,000 light years across just our galaxy alone. And we're a small galaxy.

Andromeda is close by. It's a larger galaxy than we are.

So it says, for the sense of the creation of the world, his invisible attributes can be clearly seen. Not just seen, but clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. And also, brethren, we can know the power of God by what God does for us individually. Answered prayer in his intervention when we obey his laws and keep his commandments and statues and his great blessing. In fact, when God began to work with ancient Israel, he said, look, if you obey me, you know, I'm going to bless you when you go out, and I'm going to bless you when you come in. In other words, God said, I'm going to be with you the whole time. I'm going to give you rain and deuces, and I'm going to make your enemies, you know, if one of you chases a thousand, you know, they'll be afraid of you.

You know, God was saying, I was going to be with you. But there again, if you don't, you know, worship me as the true God, then you're going to face all these curses that are going to happen. So we can know God and his power by what God has done for us. Now, think about the United States. How have we come to the great wealth that we have? It's because of the ingenuity of the American people, you know, how smart we are, how intelligent we are. I don't think so.

There's a whole lot more smart people in China than are in the United States. I mean, for crying out loud, if you're one in a million genius in China, there's a million of them over there. A million geniuses like Einstein. So it's not just that. It's not that. It's God's blessing in what God has done for us. And of course, despite that, we have not worshiped God.

It's like in the letter I sent to you, you know, without a doubt, the United States and Britain have done wonderful things in the world. We have been a great blessing to the world in a lot of ways. And other nations look to the United States. One nation that is that way is Egypt. Egypt needs, in fact, the aid it gets from the United States. It needs support of the United States as well. Other nations do as well. And we've been there to help them. You know, and it's wonderful that we have had that kind of wealth as a people. But you know what they hate the most is the way we live.

And by that I mean we export the filth and the pornography and the way of life that is contrary to God's law, even on a base level. You know, that's what they hate.

You know, although I had to say this when my wife and I were in Egypt, they want the Americans to come. They want them to be there.

They want me to come back and tell you to come. Now, I would not recommend it, quite frankly, right now. But of course, the fact of terrorism, which is increasing in Egypt and elsewhere, but they want Americans to be there. I thought it was so funny. When we were on the Giza Plateau, we were among the few Americans there, by the way, on the Giza Plateau when my wife and I were there in last November, as a matter of fact, right after the downing of the jet that was shot down. That's when we went to Egypt, of all things. And by the way, Mr. Scriber said, don't go.

But, you know, I'd already booked the tickets and paid the hotel. And I asked my wife, do you want to go for it? And she said, yes, we're glad we went. We really are. And when we got on the plane and landed in Cairo, we were thankful because we were just thankful we were not in San Bernardino, where the terrorist attack took place.

You know, and we were thankful we were not in Paris. So, you know, we didn't have anything happen to us the whole time. And I walked all over Cairo. I mean, I looked at everything by myself, actually. Didn't worry about anything. But, you know, they want, again, Americans to come. America's done a great deal of service for them over there. Unfortunately, now they're turning to Russia. And if we don't do more about it, and I think Mr. Trump is probably going to do something about it, as we're going to do something about the Philippines there, we could lose some of these people. So, God promised, though, Israel, look, you obey me, I'm going to bless you.

And look, you know, we have been able to help so many nations with the wealth that God has given to us. But, on the contrary to that, we've not been a people of morality, have we? And that's what's going to catch up with us, where God's going to take away the blessings of Abraham. Because we certainly don't deserve them based upon how we live.

And then, well, where will we be? Where will we be?

Though God gives us, brethren, basic descriptions of Himself, there is no picture or statue of Him that could show us as He really is. In Isaiah 42 and verse 8, it says, I am the Lord, that is my name. In my glory, I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. So, God does not want carved images. He does not want images at all to represent Him.

Let's go to Isaiah chapter 40 over here. Isaiah chapter 40. God does tell us about Himself, how great He is, how powerful He is.

Of course, we wouldn't know it, would we, unless He described it to us.

And then, it's hard for us to really grasp the kind of power He has. Imagine a God that is able to create the universe. Things both seen and unseen. We wouldn't even understood that, by the way, until our modern times when we started talking about dark matter. They're saying, by the way, that dark matter may very well go to 40 billion light years away. So, we talk about 12, 13, 14 billion light years. That's what we see. But it may be far beyond that, than we can even imagine. But our God created that. And how would we even think about trying to do a graven image to represent Him? But chapter 40 here in verse 18, notice again what it says here, to whom then will you liken God? You know, does He look like a fish god? You like it was for Dagon? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? The workman molds an image, the goldsmith over-spreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Have you not been told from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits upon the circle of the earth. And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. That's what God does. So no image could do Him justice. And the one, by the way, that did the physical creation was Jesus Christ Himself. So no physical representation of even Jesus. So nothing could do that.

God says not to make a picture, not to make an image, to use any form to worship Him. And God is greater, brethren, than you and I can even remotely imagine.

It's not possible for us to draw a picture or carve a statue that looks like God because no one has ever even seen the face of God. You couldn't look upon the face of God, or you'd be dead. But we don't know, in fact, this is exact facial likeness either do. Even though man is made in the likeness of God, we don't even know what his face looks like.

We know God is not in the form of an animal, though. We do know that because He's in the form of an ant. Because man is made in His image. We know He's not a fish or a bird like the Dagon, that the Philistines worship. And by the way, their God, remember, was toppled over in the presence of the Ark. But, you know, the workmen try to make it so it doesn't fall over.

But that one fell over, you know. And of course, it spooked the Philistines.

They began to realize what they were messing with.

But, brethren, we show love to God by not making a statue or picture of Him and bowing down to worship an object as if it were God. That's the kind of love God wants us to have for Him.

God said if we bow down to worship a carved statue, that in fact it is an act of disrespect to Him. There are no other gods before Him. And He's told not to use images and imagery because it dishonors Him, because God is not, again, at all like that. Let's go back over to Exodus 20. Again, when the Decalogue was given here and God thundered Himself from atop Mount Sinai, of course He had rescued Israel, which was a tremendous miracle in itself. He had freed a slave people from Egypt. He'd take them out of the house of bondage and He'd made them free. What God ever did that? There has not been any God that has done that. Only God has done that. There is not one example of that in the history of the world that any other false God ever delivered to people the way God delivered Israel. Nothing compares to that. I guess Israel forgot about that when they turned to their stick and their stone idols. They forgot about who rescued them and who brought them out of Egypt. But notice going on here in Exodus 20 verse 5, and you shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. You don't serve a false God, an image. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. God is jealous. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. In other words, God's blessing would not be on people if they rejected Him to the third or fourth generation. I wonder in His statements of that, that God may even wait to call someone from that family for that length of time. But on the other hand, He goes on to say here, but showing mercy, verse 6, to thousands. He doesn't say millions, by the way, here. Thousands, because there aren't very many. To those who love Me and keep My commandments. You know, we are the precious few, the people of God's flock.

God says in another translation, I will not share my affection or your affection with any other God. God is a jealous God. And brethren, while this says that we should not have an image of anything or pretend it as a God, you know, it means God does not want us making images of things or pretend in any way, shape, or form that anything is Him, or even of Him, an image of Him, because He is a jealous God. Now, I ask you about examples where the Second Commandment was violated, and we'll talk about that in a few minutes, but let's understand today, although you're not going to go, usually, to as in some nations, like Buddha and Hinduism, where they've got all kinds of gods, you know, in the Hindu religion, a million gods, in fact, in the Hindu religion, and maybe that's a low number, and other religions as well. You're not going to find that in the United States so much, but one thing you will find, brethren, in the United States is that the people had their gods. I remember before God called me, my god was my 1959 VW Beetle. I wish I had kept that Beetle, by the way. A Beetle, if you don't know what it is, it's a Volkswagen. It would be worth the fortune if I had it today. But you know how God took my god away from me? My brother wrecked it. And it was like it crumpled up like one of those Coke cans, you know, that you take and you squeeze it together. But my dad was very loving, by the way.

He actually helped to repair it, and I was able to drive it again, but it was never the same. It was like a man who had been off to the war and he came back with a broken leg. That was where the VW was afterwards. But in our world, we do have gods, don't we?

In our world, in the United States, I said we're full of materialistic things. We were affluent. We have people have a god, made a god out of pleasure.

I tried to watch the news, by the way, before coming over here to services.

And I flipped it on, and I went on all of the major networks, every one of them. I wanted to see if anything was happening in the world. I don't want to be caught flat-footed with you, by the way. I don't know what's going on in the world with things, and things happen overnight. You don't know what happened. But every one of them, by the way, had a ball game on it.

Football. A football game. Every one of them. Even looked at Fox 10, by the way, had a game on it. No news whatsoever. People are addicted to pleasure.

You know, in this world, they really are. Pleasure is like a drug.

There's a need always to do something that's fun.

And, you know, that can start as something that's legitimate, but, you know, it always can be carried to a wrong end result. You know, it can take your time. If you're just addicted to fun all the time, it could take your money. It could take your energy, your devotion, so that you're not able to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, God's way of life. So people have, again, a God of pleasure. They also have a God made a God out of possessions, the things that people have. You know, the cars, the houses, the, you know, many of you remember old Robin Leech, you know, lifestyles of the rich and famous. And if you ever saw his program, he was on Saturday night, and you'd go look and see what mansion some movie star lived in. You know, Mr. So-and-so lives in this great mansion of a hundred thousand square feet. He never sees his wife. She lives at the other end. But anyway, people are get, you know, stuff dominates their life.

Brother, do we put money and things first, or do we put God first? Because, you see, we can make possessions of God, put it ahead of the one true God.

How about the God of me first? You've got to take care of me.

It's like, Mr. Armstrong used to talk about how that I don't care about you, I care about me.

You know, trying to sort of lift ourselves up. You know, we can make a God out of ourselves.

I must be pampered. I must be taken care of.

My needs. You know, when the world, when people think that the world revolves around them, you know, it's like, I hear about you and I hear about other people, but what about me?

What about me? Like, I remember that I had a friend of mine at Ambassador College, used to sing a song. He was, it was, of course, comedy when he was singing it. You know, the world, the song, What the World Needs Now is Love, Love, Love. He changed it. What the world needs now is me, me, me.

And his name is Larry, good friend of mine. And he wasn't serious about that. He was just talking about the way the world is, what the world needs is me.

And, you know, of course, they have to be the ones on top all the time. They have to be the ones that are the winners. They have to be the ones that are the, you know, up front.

The God of me first. How about the God of my own life? My own life is the most important thing.

The only thing that occupies our mind is our own life. I guess it's the same as me first, huh?

We get so busy about ourselves and pampering ourselves that, you know, we have no relationship with God. You know, you can make your own self, you know, sort of a monument to your creativity.

You know, some women and, frankly, some men as well, you know, are so concerned about their appearance. And they've had plastic surgery so many times that their navel is on the back of their head, you know. People can be so addicted to themselves, you know. Reminds me of, you know, Marcel Ledbitter was talking to, you know, his buddy Jerry and he said, he said, he said, Jerry, I have just found a cure for baldness. And Jerry said, well, how is that? And he said, he said, well, he says, have you really found a cure? And he said, yeah, sure have. He said, he said, what you do, what you do is you take some alum juice and you take some persimmon juice and you take, you know, some lemon juice and you stir it up, you know, make it into a sieve and you put it on your head, the top of your head. And Jerry says, now, does that grow hair on top of your head? Marcel, he said, no, sir. But he says, it draws the sideburns right up to the top. So, so you can again be addicted to that kind of thing. I hope you don't try the alum persimmon juice solution. But we can be occupied with ourselves. Now, I mentioned, can you think of examples in the Bible where the second command was violated? Anybody here?

I ask you to be thinking about this. Can you think from, you know, in the Old Testament, particularly, examples where idol worship occurred and God? Yes. When Moses went up. The golden calf. Right. Did things turn out good for?

Didn't turn out so well. Did for Israel? You know, God almost wiped Israel out because of that. It gives an idea, you know, of what God thinks about idols. How about other cases? Anybody else? Yes. David? I, when Samuel's two sons were doing something strange in the temple and then they were destroying the gospel. You're talking about Aaron's sons? No. Oh, Eli's sons. Hopnay and Phineas? What did they do in that case? That's a good topic. What did the Hopnay and Phineas want to do when the Philistines attacked? Okay. Anybody?

You remember when the Philistines attacked? They said, let's go get the Ark of the Covenant.

And in fact, I don't know, I may have the Scripture written down here. Let's go over here to, if I can find it, yeah, 1 Samuel chapter 4. Again, be thinking of other situations like where the idols were worshipped and how it turned out for them. In fact, there's another situation that came in conjunction with this that applied to the Philistines. But here in 1 Samuel 4 and verse 3, you know, so Hopnay and Phineas, when the Philistines looked like they were going to come against Israel, said, let's go get the Ark. Here in verse 3, 1 Samuel, it says, And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies. Not that God was going to save them, but that the Ark was going to save them. Because they forget who was sitting between the caribim on the Ark. And that was God. Of course, symbolically sits between the caribim in heaven. What was the result, by the way, of this bright idea to go get the Ark? Anybody remember the story? Yes.

The Ark of the Covenant was captured. What happened to Hopnay and Phineas?

They were killed, weren't they? What happened to Eli when he heard the Ark had been captured?

He was a very big man. He fell over backwards and broke his neck. He died. Didn't turn out too well, did it? What happened, by the way, to the Philistines when they got the Ark of the Covenant? Anybody remember? Say again.

You remember they were spent with all kinds of curses? And one of them was called, they had emeralds. Something you probably need preparation age for. So this is what happens when in the Bible we see these examples. How about another example? Just quickly, another example of idol worship. Yes, Mrs. Owens? Say again. Multiple wives? And how so? Would you describe what you mean by that? More interested in the pleasure of God than you thought? Oh yeah, I see what you're saying. In other words, the God of pleasure. Very good. Yes, that certainly is a distinct aspect of idol worship. Any other? There's several that are big, really big. In the Bible. Yes?

I'm not able to hear you up here. Okay, number's 25. Okay.

Now there is one I'm not going to tell you, because you can come up with it yourself. There were three young men. In that case, there was a second commandment. Okay. Now where is this? Verse 1.

So number 24, verse 1, and when Balaam saw that please the Lord to bless her that he did not. Say, am I reading the right place? Verse 5. Oh, 25. I'm sorry. I can hear you now, but.

So Balaam rose and departed to return to his place. Verse 25. Or is in chapter 25.

Well, I think numbers 20, numbers 1, 25? Am I hearing? Okay, we're in the book of Numbers, right?

All right. I got you now. Okay, let's read chapter 26, verse 1.

I'm just kidding. Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit a harlotry with the women of Moab. And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So definitely a second commandment violation. Did it turn out well for them? You know, it's like the, who is it? The one guy on television that says, how'd that work out for you? You know, but didn't work out very well for the Israelites, did it? You know, God punished them for what they did. That was the goal, of course, to get them to commit sin with a Moabite. So, okay, I told you about the, there's about three friends.

Wasn't the second commandment there a problem? Who are we talking about? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Let's go to Daniel 3. Daniel chapter 3. We won't go through the whole story, obviously. We'd be here all day. But, I guess we could keep preaching until people start falling out. At least we'd be following an example of the Bible, huh? And maybe God would allow us to do a resurrection, huh? In Daniel 3 and down in verse 15.

We know that Nebuchadnezzar basically made a rule that, you know, you hear that you could not worship any other God. And three friends, you know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we're not willing to worship a false God, a false image. But in verse 15 it says, And if you are ready, at the time you hear, Nebuchadnezzar said, the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp, the lyre, and the sultry, and the symphony, with all the kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made good. But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately in the midst of the burning fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? And what did the three friends say? They said, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this. If this is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand. Okay. It's pretty bold on the part of these young men, but they had faith in God. Basically, they were willing to die, or God would deliver them. So again, this, when faced with the Second Commandment, they did not violate it. They stood fast and very firm.

There are other cases in the Bible that we could look at, and I would encourage you, by the way, just go through, maybe discuss this as a family, or do a personal study of it. Look at the number of places in the Bible where the Second Commandment comes into question. No, the Apostle Paul, by the way, himself dealt in an idol-oriented world. Diana worship was one of those things that was very prevalent in the time of Paul, and he had a number of things that happened with regard to the idol worshipers of his time. One time, in fact, he put one particular city out of business, because he cast a demon out, such that a woman was not able to work in conjunction with their false idol industry. They basically rose up in arms against the Apostle Paul. But when someone obeys the commandment, God blesses that person. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The principle, brethren, is this. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, in verse 14, on down to verse 22, Paul had to work with, again, people that were surrounded by idolatry.

In so many ways. But in verse 14 of chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians, it says, Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. Flee it.

And if you understood, again, that behind some of these idols there are demonic forces that are there.

I speak as to wise men, judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessings, would you bless, talking about the Passover. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which you break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body. For we all partake of that one bread. Of course, that one bread is Jesus Christ.

Observe Israel after the flesh. Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What am I saying then? That an idol is anything? Or what is offered an idol is anything? No, it's not. That's not the situation Paul is talking about. The idol is nothing. The sticker of the stone idol is nothing. The sacrifice, quite frankly, is nothing.

As he's talking about here. But he says, rather, verse 20, that the things with the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons.

And not to God. And do not want you to have fellowship with demons, he said.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, that is, partake of the Passover, and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table, and of the table of demons. Or do you provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? And so his message, brethren, is don't violate the second commandment.

You know, we don't have a need for images, you know, for emblems. You know, we don't have a need for a picture of Christ. So every time I go up to the Northern Arizona congregation there in this SDA, they got a picture of Jesus. You know, and there, I always joke with the people up there, when did Christ sit for that? That, you know, when was he photographed on that?

But it's what people imagine Christ looked like. Of course, they imagine him with long hair, and he put lipstick on him. He looked like a pretty good-looking woman, you know?

But this is the way Paul thought about these things.

And we see, of course, the influence of idolatry in the world, brethren. But God wants us to have this mentality about his laws, about his commandments, about God. Who God and what God is. God is omnipotent. He is omnipresent. He is all-powerful. And no image, no image at all, could contain God. This isn't possible. Well, that's all for the Bible study. It is ten after five. And I'll tell you, can I ask you this? I would like, if we could, the next Bible study we do, I would like to have a Q&A session. So please give your questions to one of the elders, and we'll pool them together. And we'll have all the elders up here answering questions in the Q&A session. So we'd like to do that in January, if possible. Do we have another study in January, by the way? Usually it's once a month, right? Okay. Well, let's plan to do that. I'll remind you about it, but let's do Q&A next time. But write them up, and we'll have a little time to look at them and discuss them. Thank you. So the Bible study is adjourned.