WEBVTT 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:18.559 Well, good morning. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:25.679 Today is Sunday, August sixteenth, two thousand and fifteen. 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:27.920 And God is still on the throne. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:29.600 He was all last week. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:33.840 He is today, and he will be in the week ahead. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:36.960 God is good. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:39.280 God is gracious. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:40.799 God is patient. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:42.799 God is merciful. 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:44.399 God is holy. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:46.320 And God is in control. 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:59.280 He is the only one who does exactly as he pleases, and the only one of whom it can be said what he pleases is always and only good. 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:03.520 That's the God that we serve. 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:17.760 I'd like to ask you to open your Bible and turn with me, if you would, to Exodus chapter 20, verses 4 through 6. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:30.079 As you know, we are looking at the tender commandments, the tender words or messages from God to us. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:33.760 Please turn in your Bible and follow along as I read. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.120 Reading from the ESV, you may have a different version. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:41.439 There's that Bible in the pew in front of you, page 61, I believe. 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:44.799 And uh let's pay attention to what God said. 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:57.840 And God spoke all these words, saying, and I'm beginning in verse one, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:00.879 You shall have no other gods before me. 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:14.879 You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:40.719 You shall not bow down to them and serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, but showing steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:50.159 To kind of get us uh thinking a little bit this morning, I'd like to ask a question. 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.560 How do you like to think about God? 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:58.879 How do you like to think about God and how do you not like to think about God? 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:06.240 Uh if we had the time and we don't, I would ask you to fill in the blank and we'd sit around and we'd kind of share with one another. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:08.000 But just think that through for a minute. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:11.439 How do you like to think about God? 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:16.639 There may be certain aspects of God that is particularly significant or precious to you. 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:22.800 You may love the phrase Abba Father, that intimate, personal, paternal relationship. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:28.800 You may be impressed with the concept of the good shepherd who leads us beside the still waters. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:34.080 You might like to think about God as the creator and the sustainer of all that is. 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:43.599 You might like to think about God who says to us, Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more, says both to us. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:51.360 You might like to think about the God who is the great I am, and we've worshipped and thought about various aspects of God. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.639 And how do you like to think about God? 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.000 These are actually not good questions. 00:03:58.159 --> 00:03:59.919 I think you'll see what I mean. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:03.039 How do you not like to think about God? 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:10.080 What is there about God that you tend not to focus on, that tends to disturb you, that tends to bother you? 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:15.919 I don't like to think about God as being judgmental or jealous, perhaps. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:26.959 I don't like to think about God who at sometimes has instructed his people to destroy cities and peoples and tribes, what we would call ethnic cleansing. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:29.839 I don't like to think about God that way, quite frankly. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:35.759 I don't like to think about God perhaps as someone who demands obedience, submission. 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:37.839 What an awful thing. 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:42.720 What that does in my heart is the same thing that does in your heart. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:44.399 I don't like to be told what to do. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:47.600 I don't like to have to obey somebody else. 00:04:47.839 --> 00:05:00.800 I don't like to think about God who is controlling, who is superintending, or horror of horrors, predestining, determining it ahead of time the things that happen. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:11.920 Now the fact of the matter is that all of these things that we've talked about are aspects of biblical truth about God, some of which we're drawn to, some of which we want to push away. 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:16.000 I said, these aren't really the right questions. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:24.879 So I'm pulling a fast one on you in a certain sense this morning, because this is not the way we are to approach God. 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:28.000 I like this about God, and I don't like that about God. 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:32.879 We are not to create a God of our own liking, a God of our own making. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:36.560 We are not to imagine a God that we agree with. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:43.199 We are to worship and serve the God that is, not the God that we want him to be. 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:49.040 And that's what the second of the tender commandments is all about. 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:57.120 Worship God just as he truly is, not just as you want him to be. 00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:05.279 Worship God as he truly is, not just as you want him to be. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:16.560 I hope if you don't get anything else out of our time together, that uh you will be able to be focusing on that. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:24.480 So let's just walk through and think about the second of the tender commandments. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:34.879 Tender because God kindly, generously, graciously, with benevolence, with our best interest at heart says, do this and don't do that. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:36.959 This is the way life works. 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:41.120 That's the way that seems good to a man, but the end of that is death. 00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:43.279 Go this way, don't go that way. 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:47.439 Tenderly, he says, do this and don't do that. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:53.439 So we're talking about the second of the tender commandments. 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:56.720 But how do you count to ten? 00:06:57.519 --> 00:06:59.680 Now, that may seem like a foolish question. 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:02.079 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:10.800 What I'm really asking is, how do we understand these ten words from God, the decalogue, the ten words? 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:12.480 How do we divide them up? 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:22.639 And you may be surprised to find out that there are different traditions, different groups who see ten different commands here. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:49.839 Most uh Jewish scholars, and we are the heirs of the revelation that God has given to the Jews, most Jewish scholars focus on the idea of ten words or messages, rightly so, and often consider the first word, what we would call the first commandments, uh to be I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavely, full stop. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:54.720 That's the first word from God, as many Jewish people would understand it. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:57.040 So then what happens to the rest? 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:00.800 Do they come up with eleven? 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:02.399 Uh no. 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:10.639 The second commandment, as it's understood in many Jewish circles, is verses 3 through 6. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:16.079 You shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything. 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:19.120 And actually, that that could make sense. 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:21.279 But they come up with 10. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:30.560 In many Roman Catholic and in some Lutheran traditions, they number the Ten Commandments differently. 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:45.279 They consider the first commandment to be verses 1 through 6, and then in order to get to 10, they divide up what verse 17 into two separate commands. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:09:00.960 And that's not a silly way of doing things, but it's just actually interesting to say, because how we divide these up helps or puts us in a direction of understanding what God is really saying there. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:07.200 The vast majority of Protestants and of evangelicals agree with me, which always makes me feel good. 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:10.240 Actually, I agree with them. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:13.120 Wisdom far beyond what I have. 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:31.279 And I go through this not to give you a lesson in hermeneutics, the study of interpretation, or history or something, but to just make clear that at least the way I'm sharing with you about the tender commandments. 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:37.039 The first of the tender commandments that we saw last week has to do with the priority of God. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.440 You shall have no other gods before me. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:42.399 There is no one else in your life who is to be number one. 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:44.000 It's a question of priority. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:50.320 And we said God must have the first place, and everything else has some other place. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:57.759 God is number one, and everyone, everything else in our life falls under there in some other way. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:00.240 The priority of God in our lives. 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:09.120 Whereas what we're looking at today deals really with the issue of idolatry, of worshiping and serving God. 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:16.159 Both the form of our worship and the object of our worship. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:25.679 There are two dangers for us worshiping the wrong God or worshiping the right God in the wrong way. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:33.200 And both of those are enveloped in the verses that we have read, verses four through six. 00:10:34.639 --> 00:10:41.279 Now, we may think that idolatry is not a big deal to us, and we would be wrong. 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:44.559 But we're not focusing particularly on idolatry. 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.039 We think of idolatry in certain ways. 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:57.360 But I want you to understand that idolatry really is a big deal to God, and that it really is a problem for us. 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:14.240 Lots of ways we could look at that, but it's just interesting to note that in the in the Old Testament in particular, there are 14 different words for our one-word idolatry. 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:21.840 And that may be coincidental, but actually our vocabulary expresses how we see the world. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:26.480 We learned that as uh Jane and I as we went overseas and learned other languages. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:37.360 The fact that there are 14 separate words for idolatry, and we just have one measly little word that we don't think has much to do with us, is a reflection of the way we see the world. 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:42.559 And the fact that there's many words for idolatry reflects how God sees the world. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:45.519 We uh lived, as you know, for many years overseas. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:56.080 We learned Flemish or Dutch, we are fluent in Dutch, and it's very interesting how many different terms there are in the Dutch language for a canal. 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:57.360 A canal. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:05.679 Uh we just have basically one word for a canal, but in Dutch it's a sloot or gracht or a canal or a bake or a strom. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:07.360 They have many words for rain. 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:12.000 Reichen, stortrechen, rechen by, uh, moltreichen. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:17.360 Now, if you've ever been to the Low Countries, you know there's lots of canals and there's lots of rain. 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:21.840 And it's a big part of the way they see the world, and their vocabulary is rich. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:28.399 God's vocabulary is rich when it comes to our dollar tree, and ours is impoverished. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:34.559 And that says something about us, and it says something about God. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:37.519 Uh we have many words for diets. 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:40.960 That's apparently pretty important to us. 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:46.480 The Atkins diet, South Beach diet, Scarsdale dialet, Ornish dialet, cabot soup diet, Dr. 00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:51.519 Phil's diet, lemonade dialet, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and list goes on and on and on. 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:54.240 And apparently dieting is very important to us. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:56.559 We have a rich vocabulary in that. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:04.639 And all I really want to say is that this issue of the second commandment is very important to God. 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:09.440 And we need to get in touch with how God views idolatry. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:18.480 Lord willing, we'll simply walk through these verses and I'll try to apply them for us. 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:23.279 Uh Exodus chapter 20, verse 4. 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:30.240 Uh, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything. 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:31.440 Did you hear that? 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:40.000 A carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:41.360 You shall not do that. 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:48.559 Any carved likeness or image of anything above, here, and below. 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:55.440 Um and he just says, don't do it. 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:59.679 And I'd like to try to unpack that and see what that means for us. 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:03.759 Now, the focus here is on physical idols. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:18.559 The term that he's using here is a carved image, a fashioned image, uh, something that we make, in this case with our hands, something that becomes our God. 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:25.200 Exodus 34, verse 17 says, You shall not make cast images, molten images. 00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:27.200 This says carved images. 00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:34.000 Uh Leviticus 26, 1, don't make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourself. 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:39.840 Don't place a carved stone in your land to bow before it, for I am the Lord your God, and goes on. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:46.240 Now, there's more to idols than just that, but what's the problem with that? 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:51.120 Um, again, let's try to understand this. 00:14:51.360 --> 00:15:18.960 Those who have thought hard and long from a biblical perspective about the problem with images and physical representations of God have done some helpful thinking, and in effect, they're saying the problem is that any physical representation of God is also a misrepresentation of God, because there's things about God that are lacking in any particular physical expression of that. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:23.919 Any image, any painting, any statue, any whatever. 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:35.360 I'd like you to make note of and perhaps turn to Acts 17, uh, where we will see this really pretty clearly. 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:46.960 In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul is in the city of Athens and he's talking about what is all around them, and that is uh images and uh and idols. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:16:00.320 And so in Acts 17, verse 24, um he says, uh, starting verse 22, Paul standing in the middle of the Areopagus says, Men of Adams, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:07.679 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, uh I found many idols. 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:09.360 And he goes on, verse 24. 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:17.679 The God who made the world and everything in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.720 God does not live here in this building. 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:23.200 God lives in the temple of our hearts. 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:26.399 This is not a holy place in that regard. 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:29.200 It may be very meaningful, but this is not. 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:31.279 This is not the temple of God. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:33.279 Our hearts are the temple of God. 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:42.000 He doesn't live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:47.039 Um, for he himself gives to all life breath and everything. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:17:10.559 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live, and he goes on, and he says down in verse 29 uh being then God's offspring, we ought not to think of the divine being as like gold or silver or stone or an image born by art and the imagination of man. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:16.720 When we do, we're misrepresenting something important about God. 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:27.920 Uh Isaiah chapter 40, we're not going to turn to it, but if you're taking notes, that would be a good reference to go and look up because almost the whole chapter is given over of what? 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:29.119 Do you not know? 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:30.480 Have you not heard? 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:31.920 That's not our God. 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:33.920 Our God is up here. 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:36.240 We have this great and glorious God. 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:40.160 And no physical representation of God does God justice. 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:42.559 And God says, stay away from it. 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.680 He says to us, stay away from it. 00:17:46.799 --> 00:18:02.559 Uh Romans chapter one, uh, very important at many, many different levels, uh, but uh touches clearly on this matter of um how we view God and how we represent God. 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:11.039 Chapter 1, verse 18, where we read, for the wrath of God is re that's one of those things I don't like to think about God as, about you. 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:21.200 The wrath of God, the Bible is very casual about it, very uh not casual, very uh ready uh to see God as he is, not just as we want him to be. 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:30.480 The wrath of God is revealed among heaven uh from heaven against all unrighteousness of godliness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:34.400 For what can be known about God is plain, for he has shown it to them. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:41.920 The invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since creation. 00:18:42.240 --> 00:19:07.200 For all the verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:22.640 Um the problem uh with idols is that they inherently veil God's glory and leave out certain aspects of uh who God really is. 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:25.839 And God says uh don't do that. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:28.640 They dishonor and they mislead. 00:19:28.799 --> 00:19:31.200 That's what's behind all of this. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:35.680 We do not have a God of our own making. 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:42.240 Now we're not inclined to form little statues and set them around places and bow down and worship them. 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:53.200 But my friends, the guy in the mirror and the person in your mirror is inclined to want a God that we want, not the God that is. 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:55.680 And you may say, oh no, not me. 00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:59.440 Um I would urge you to reflect on that. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:00.880 What do you not like? 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.960 How do you not like to think about God that is revealed in Scripture? 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:07.519 This is speaking to us as well. 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:16.559 Uh Deuteronomy 20, verse 5, the first part of verse 5, let's look at that. 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:22.799 Um we read, You shall not bow down to them or serve them. 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:25.440 Uh very interesting. 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:27.039 We'll look at the rest in a minute. 00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:33.519 But what he's talking about here is there is a danger as we worship. 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:40.559 Things that are given to us or useful as helps or aids to worship. 00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:54.960 If we're not careful, they become, or they tend to become, an object of worship, where we get focused on the means to worship rather than the end of worship, which is God Himself. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:58.880 Uh this has been a problem throughout all time. 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:04.799 Uh certainly in the history of the Christian church, we see all kinds of realities there. 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:07.680 Church liturgies, which are meant to help. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:12.400 And if, and we have a church liturgy here, by the way, we just don't call it that. 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:14.640 But we have a certain way that we do things. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:16.960 We always do it pretty much the same way. 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:18.319 That's our liturgy. 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:21.359 But there's a reason for that that's actually thought through. 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:28.559 Patrick and the pastors, we we talk about that, we think about that, we interact with the elders about that. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:31.759 There's a certain reason why we but we have our own liturgy. 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:38.079 And if we're not careful, uh that gets in the way of worshiping God. 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:43.440 Um, church architecture, uh, cathedrals. 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:49.359 I don't know if you've had the opportunity to be in a great and glorious cathedral in Europe. 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:52.960 I find it a wonderfully horrible experience. 00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:59.440 It's horrible because I look at the stuff around and I start getting angry and I think about the second commandment. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:14.000 And yet at the same time, that very structure, especially these beautiful Gothic cathedrals where you're just drawn to look up, all of the lines go up, and that's very intentional. 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:18.400 They were designed that way to make you look up and see God. 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:36.319 But if we're not careful, the buildings that we're in become something which, instead of just being a means to an end, if we're not careful, we worship and serve the buildings rather than the buildings serving the reason what we're here for. 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:38.640 It's just a danger for all of us. 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:40.079 Or icons. 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:49.440 I have a good friend whose son is a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:59.359 And I don't know what you know about Orthodoxy, but they use icons, pictures of the saints, pictures, not the saints necessarily, pictures of the church fathers. 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:11.200 And these are they're intended as a way of showing respect for those who have gone before, those from whom we have learned, but they become something more than that. 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:16.000 So icons become something that one bows down to and kisses. 00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:36.559 Now, I don't know what's going on in the minds of an Orthodox believer, but uh somehow or another I think there's a problem there uh with a means towards worship uh becoming the focus rather than it simply being a means to a greater end. 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:39.359 Uh crucifixes, same kind of thing. 00:23:39.519 --> 00:24:06.240 If I uh had brought in here a large crucifix, not an empty cross, but a crucifix with a picture of Christ uh or a statue of Christ on it, and perhaps with blood or red dripping down, or if I brought in here and set up a bunch of icons around, and you came in this morning, uh, you would probably need to find yourself another pastor pretty quick, uh, because you would have all kinds of problems, and probably rightfully so. 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:11.519 Um so aids to worship get in the way. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:17.680 But I want to I want to look at a biblical example that is of incredible significance for us. 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:23.680 I want to look, turn, if you would, please, to Numbers chapter 21. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:27.119 Numbers 21. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.839 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:33.759 Do you ever have to do that as you're turning the Bible? 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:34.480 Go through. 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:35.839 I do it all the time. 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:38.400 I was just flipping through here and I saw Ezekiel. 00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:43.599 Now is Numbers before or after Ezekiel, and then Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers? 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:45.440 Okay, now I can find numbers. 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:55.279 A very important passage of Numbers 21 verses 4 through 9. 00:24:55.359 --> 00:24:56.960 Yeah, I got the right text up there. 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:01.519 Here we have Israel in the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:05.839 They were impatient, they were stiff-necked, they were rebellious. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:15.680 So, verse 4 from Mount Hor, they set out by the way of the sea to go around to the land of Eden, and the people became impatient on the way, and the people spoke against God and against Moses. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:17.680 Why have you done this to us? 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:20.640 You ever hear yourself, God, why are you doing this to me? 00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:25.759 And then they give their complaints there's no food, there's no water, we loathe this worthless food. 00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:29.759 So God gave them something to help them. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:36.319 He gave them an aid to see him and to see some important things about himself. 00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:44.640 Then, verse 6, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:47.839 That's another picture of God I'm not really excited about. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:49.519 It just happens to be there. 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:51.759 But there's a purpose for this. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:58.079 And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, we have spoken against the Lord and against you. 00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:01.359 Pray to the Lord that He will take away the serpents for us. 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:10.160 Often, not always, but often the trials in our lives are to shake us up, to get us in tune with what God is trying to do and say. 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:16.799 Sometimes we're so stubborn or so cold-hearted or hard-hearted that it takes great adversity. 00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:19.680 Now that's not the only reason we experience it. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:21.759 But that's what was happening here. 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:23.680 And so this was God's purpose. 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:35.119 And the Lord said to Moses, verse 8, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, so a serpent of bronze, actually, and everyone who has bitten when he sees it shall live. 00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:39.119 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the pole. 00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:44.960 And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. 00:26:45.279 --> 00:26:51.519 Now, you may scratch your head and say, What in the world is this all about? 00:26:52.720 --> 00:27:07.599 You might tend to dismiss it unless you've read John chapter 3, where Jesus says, just as the bronze serpent in the wilderness was lifted up on a pole, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up. 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:10.079 Turn to him, repent, and turn to him. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:11.519 And he's saying that to us. 00:27:11.680 --> 00:27:17.839 Turn to him, for that is the way of salvation and life. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:26.319 But what in the world does this have to do with the second tender commandment? 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:33.680 And I want you to turn, if you would, please, to 2 Kings, Samuel Kings and Chronicles. 00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:36.960 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:43.440 Turn to 2 Kings chapter 18, verse 4. 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:48.480 This is now hundreds of years later, the time of young King Hezekiah. 00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:50.240 There was a revival going on. 00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:53.279 Hezekiah had a personal spiritual renewal. 00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:58.720 He was a young king, and so he implemented certain things in the nation. 00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:20.880 Verse 4, he, Hezekiah, removed the high places, those were altars, and broke the pillars, those were objects of sacred worship that had come from the pagan people around them, cut down the ashtraith, which were actually despicable images, and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. 00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:22.799 The connection with the bronze serpent. 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:32.240 And listen, for until those days when Hezekiah got rid of them, the people of Israel had made offerings to it. 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:41.839 So this aid to worship that was given by God, this help that was designed for good, became an object of worship. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:48.240 The aid to worship, if we're not careful, becomes an object to worship. 00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:51.039 The means become the ends. 00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:56.400 And we have to ask ourselves what bronze serpents there may be in our lives. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:28:59.039 Several things we could say. 00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:02.400 I'm going to try to limit it to this in this connection. 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:04.640 We're doing, dealing with a lot more. 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:12.400 When we're talking about idolatry, it's not just carved images, it's not just physical representations. 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:20.480 It's not just what we normally think about as idols, but these aids to worship. 00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:23.920 Sorry, I hit the wrong button there. 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:30.000 There are any number of verses in the New Testament that say, what is idolatry? 00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:32.400 Well, idolatry is covetousness. 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:34.799 Idolatry is chasing after mammon. 00:29:35.119 --> 00:29:37.119 Idolatry is sexual addiction. 00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:39.200 Idolatry is arrogance. 00:29:39.440 --> 00:29:48.880 Idolatry is when anything, anything, good things, some of those are good things, they become our focus. 00:29:49.119 --> 00:29:50.559 They control us. 00:29:50.960 --> 00:30:03.200 So that we're consumed with these things, like chasing after wealth or success or finding the right girlfriend or boyfriend or finding how to get rid of the wife you've got. 00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:05.519 I mean, you know, there's all kinds of things. 00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:17.759 But things become our focus that must not become our focus, because they become, in the biblical sense of the word, idolatry. 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:37.119 If being greedy is idolatry, then being arrogant is idolatry, then being controlling, overly controlling is idolatry, then having a rotten attitude most of the time, so that the people who see you coming groan when they see you coming. 00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:39.920 You're consumed by all kinds of other things. 00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:44.960 And you and I deal with the issue of idolatry. 00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:56.480 When we give ourselves over to anything other than God, it has a tendency to become the controlling force in our life and become an idol. 00:30:56.880 --> 00:30:59.519 Idolatry is a big deal. 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:07.359 Well, let's go on a little bit further and let's look at the second half of verse 5 and verse 6. 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:10.480 Because he's already said, you shall not bow down or worship them. 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:34.079 And then he says, For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandment. 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:50.960 What I want to say is do we cannot look at these verses and underestimate the importance of this issue, because it goes to the very person of God, the heart of God, and the passion of God. 00:31:52.720 --> 00:32:01.839 We tend to approach idolatry with a great distance, that's not me, and God is trying to say, it's you, it's me, we have problems here, folks. 00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:05.200 Go this way, don't go that way. 00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:16.000 Now, if you've taken on the challenge that I've given, and several of you have let me know that you're working on memorizing, you're working on applying, you're working on coming prepared. 00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:27.359 If you came to this passage this morning not cold, but had kind of thought it through, uh, there would be probably issues that would be a little bit problematic. 00:32:27.519 --> 00:32:32.319 And I hope you said, I wonder what that means. 00:32:32.480 --> 00:32:35.759 Boy, I hope Walt will help me figure that out. 00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:42.880 Uh so as we expose the scripture, there's things that are perplexing to us, and I don't have it all figured out. 00:32:43.039 --> 00:32:52.960 Um, but part of my job as an expositor is to bring the truth to light and help us understand what it means and help us then know how to apply it. 00:32:53.200 --> 00:33:06.000 So, one of those things that is a little bit problematic for us is this idea of God visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children to the second and third generation. 00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:10.960 If you don't have a problem with that, I don't think you have a pulse this morning. 00:33:11.200 --> 00:33:13.440 Um what does that mean? 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:17.920 What in the world uh does that mean? 00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:24.720 Um, well, I don't think it probably means what we're afraid it means. 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:38.480 And it's not because I'm trying to duck out from under it, but as we look carefully at this passage, I want to direct your attention to Ezekiel chapter 18. 00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:49.519 And we're not going to have time to look at the whole passage, but Ezekiel 18, verse 20 is extremely important for us. 00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:55.839 Uh Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, uh, Daniel. 00:33:56.079 --> 00:34:03.279 Uh Ezekiel chapter 18, uh, verses 19 and 20. 00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:14.960 The whole chapter, the whole chapter is arguing that you are responsible for your own sin, and you are not responsible for the sin of others. 00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:17.280 You are not responsible for your parents' sin. 00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:24.159 It's a whole chapter saying to us, what we're afraid of in the second commandment may not be what he's saying. 00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:39.440 But verses 18 and 19 of Ezekiel chapter 18, um, verses 19 and 20, you say, Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of his father? 00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:41.840 Now we're jumping into a whole line of thought. 00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:48.400 When the son has done as what is right and just and has been careful to observe all my statues, he shall surely surely live. 00:34:48.559 --> 00:34:49.280 Verse 20. 00:34:49.519 --> 00:34:52.719 But the soul who sins shall die. 00:34:53.280 --> 00:35:00.000 It's the one who is sinful, who is under the judgment of God and the punishment of God. 00:35:00.239 --> 00:35:07.440 The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, or the father suffer for the iniquity of the Son. 00:35:07.840 --> 00:35:10.400 So that couldn't be more clear. 00:35:10.719 --> 00:35:12.480 We have these two passages. 00:35:12.719 --> 00:35:14.000 What do we do with those? 00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:16.800 Well, a basic principle for Bible study. 00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:24.960 When you come across something that is difficult to understand, look to a clear passage and see if there's a way. 00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:28.800 Let the clear things interpret the difficult things. 00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:29.840 Basic principle. 00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:31.920 It doesn't solve everything. 00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:44.239 But what I want to say here is we have a whole chapter that is saying it's not the case that the son bears the punishment and the guilt of the father. 00:35:46.320 --> 00:35:57.840 What I really do believe that the scriptures teach is that no one bears the guilt and punishment of sin of another except for one. 00:35:59.360 --> 00:36:11.519 There is one person with a capital O, there is one who bears the punishment and the guilt for your sin and for mine, and that's Jesus. 00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:31.599 You will not bear the punishment and sin of another person, but you will bear the guilt and the punishment of sin for your own sins unless you cast them on Jesus, the one who died on our behalf, who bore the punishment instead of us. 00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:34.960 There is death for sin. 00:36:35.679 --> 00:36:44.639 The good news is that that death doesn't have to be ours, that that was poured out on Jesus. 00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:54.000 And so we repent, we turn, we turn away from our sin, and we turn to God, and we respond in faith, and we believe. 00:36:54.239 --> 00:37:00.559 And our guilt and our punishment, which we do richly deserve, is placed on Him. 00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:06.000 And we are free, free, free, thank God, free at last. 00:37:06.480 --> 00:37:07.920 That's the gospel. 00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:13.039 Now, the scripture is filled with that. 00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:15.840 So what do we do? 00:37:17.039 --> 00:37:19.360 I think we need to understand something. 00:37:19.599 --> 00:37:28.639 In the world of the Bible, we are not just individual islands where what we do has no impact on anyone else. 00:37:28.960 --> 00:37:33.280 We tend to view ourselves in the world individualistically. 00:37:33.440 --> 00:37:38.159 The Eastern mindset tends to view people organically and as a group. 00:37:38.480 --> 00:37:47.440 So the point is what we do does greatly impact for good or ill those around us. 00:37:47.599 --> 00:37:59.280 It's like throwing a pebble in a pond, and that pebble goes kerplop, and there's this increasing series of concentric circles that goes out. 00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:04.639 A pebble does not land in a still pond without a ripple effect. 00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:17.920 Well, we have a whole boulder that is crashing down in the water, and the waves of our sin and of our righteousness and of our uh the good things that we do, they impact other people. 00:38:18.079 --> 00:38:22.800 And there's no clearer example of this than in the home and with your spouse. 00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:27.119 Your sin has impact on those who are closest to you. 00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:29.920 That's the first concentric outgoing circle. 00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:31.360 That's just the way it works. 00:38:31.519 --> 00:38:36.000 What we do, how we live, impacts those around us. 00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:47.679 Parents either be encouraged or be dismayed because the way we live as parents has a dramatic impact on our kids. 00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:53.360 We set patterns for them, and we are setting patterns for everyone around us. 00:38:53.519 --> 00:39:00.320 People are watching how we live and how we worship and who we are. 00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:04.239 The whole issue of child dedication. 00:39:04.400 --> 00:39:13.119 Uh what we're really saying with child dedication is that as parents, we desperately need God's help because otherwise we are totally going to screw this thing up. 00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:16.559 Because how we raise them will have an impact on them. 00:39:16.800 --> 00:39:22.159 That's a different matter than the punishment of our sins. 00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:26.239 Uh how we live impacts others. 00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:32.480 A jealous God, I don't have time to go through that, but jealousy is a love word. 00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:34.639 It's a love word. 00:39:35.360 --> 00:39:38.639 Jane and I have been married for 46 years. 00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:55.519 If she came into my office and saw pictures of other women on the bulletin board and maybe repeated pictures of a particular woman, or maybe found in my material something of the tender words that another woman had given to me, would she have reason to be jealous? 00:39:55.760 --> 00:39:59.920 Absolutely, because we have a special relationship and a special love. 00:40:00.159 --> 00:40:04.000 Jealousy only functions in the concept of love. 00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:06.559 God is a jealous God. 00:40:06.800 --> 00:40:10.400 He loves us and we are to be set aside for him. 00:40:10.800 --> 00:40:14.480 And when we're not, we're committing spiritual adultery. 00:40:14.639 --> 00:40:18.880 We're whoring around when we should be focused on God. 00:40:19.039 --> 00:40:21.280 And God is a jealous God. 00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:29.199 We need to embrace who God is, not how we want him to be. 00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:36.960 All right, three simple thoughts of application, and I'd like you to sit here for another two hours and we will get through this. 00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:44.800 First of all, I just want to say don't make mental images of God. 00:40:44.960 --> 00:40:47.360 Just think about it in your own devotional life. 00:40:47.519 --> 00:40:55.840 If you tend to try to make a picture of God because it's helpful for you, I would say just don't do it. 00:40:55.920 --> 00:40:58.320 I really think that's what the second commandment is all about. 00:40:58.480 --> 00:41:19.519 Because whatever picture of Christ that you have, whether it's the traditional picture of Christ where he's got this uh be whatever, uh, a blessed view, look on his face and the long curly hair and a sunbeam coming down on him, or whether it's the more contemporary uh Hooks picture of Christ, he's kind of a cleaned up hippie. 00:41:19.679 --> 00:41:22.480 Um, you know, don't go there. 00:41:22.639 --> 00:41:24.239 That's not Jesus. 00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:26.000 That's not Jesus. 00:41:26.239 --> 00:41:29.280 We get distracted, it's not helpful for us. 00:41:29.599 --> 00:41:34.400 It hides much of who God is and it misleads us. 00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:50.480 Jesus is our example, and he is the image of the invisible God, and everything we know about Jesus is true, but not everything that is true of God the Father is revealed in Jesus at the time of the incarnation. 00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:53.039 There's just more to it than that. 00:41:53.599 --> 00:42:07.280 But I would just say the pictures that we have of Christ, the pictures in the Sunday school rooms, whatever, and I'm not telling you Sunday school teachers what to do or not to do, I'm just saying there's dangers here. 00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:17.840 But if you find in your own devotional life that you're kind of screwing up images to help you, they're hurting you. 00:42:18.239 --> 00:42:19.280 Don't go there. 00:42:20.079 --> 00:42:27.360