Sunday, March 12, 2023 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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All right. Well, good evening. We're going to go ahead and get started with our study tonight as we return to the second commandment in its biblical context.

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All right. So let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the night. We thank you for the opportunity to spend time together, to encourage one another and to show the love of Christ to each other.

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I pray a blessing upon the choir as they sing your praises and practice and prepare to give you glory and encourage us.

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Thank you for their service. And we pray now that you would help us as we read your word to understand it from the perspective of Jesus Christ.

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And it is in his name that we pray. Amen. Okay. So we continue in our study of the

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Ten Commandments, which are ten words about Christ as he is the end of the law unto righteousness for all who believe.

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He is the fulfillment of it. So now we're looking at the second commandment. And last time we considered how it was that the

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Ten Commandments are in reflection of the image of God, how they deal with the same issues.

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Again, when we're looking about a definition of a redemptive covenant, such as the ones that God made with Noah, with Abraham, with Israel, with David in the

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New Covenant, the ones that are listed for us in the scriptures, it is a restoring and revealing relationship that the

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Creator formalizes with man. It's a restoring relationship because it harkens back to what was lost in the

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Garden of Eden. It's a revealing relationship because it looks forward to what is gained in Christ. It's a relationship that God formalizes by promises and signs and there's worship and sacrifices and those kinds of things.

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And it's a relationship between the Creator and those he has made in his own image. Because every one of those covenants, either the one with Noah or Abraham or Israel or David or the

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New Covenant, are all dealing with issues pertaining to the image of God. Now, that's especially important when we think about the second commandment, which says that we are to not make for ourselves any graven image to bow down and worship it.

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And there is a great concern about idolatry in the scriptures. Very often, idolatry is connected to worshiping other gods entirely.

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Sometimes, idolatry is not the same as breaking the first commandment, as we saw when they made the golden calf and said, hey, here's

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Yahweh, worship him through this image. So, in this regard, we have a need to review what does it mean to be made in God's image.

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And all of this is from Genesis chapters 1 through 3. But when God speaks about those he makes in his image, he blesses mankind and he says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

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He makes them male and female, he created them, and he blesses them and he says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

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And so, unlike any other creature, unlike the monkeys and unlike the angels, God makes those in his image, mankind, in a relationship where we are to love

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God supremely, love others rightly, and steward the creation in righteousness, to have dominion over the order in a right way.

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And everybody who's made in God's image is wearing that uniform, whether they recognize it or not.

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And that's why sin is described as falling short of the glory of God, meaning we're wearing the uniform of the image of God.

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And sin is falling short of that, meaning I'm breaking the uniform code. I'm sinning against the one who made me in his image, to love him supremely, love others rightly, and steward the creation responsibly.

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Now, being relational in all of these vectors means that it's a mediating type of thing.

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When we think about mediation, what are we mediating?

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We find ourselves in positions of authority. We find ourselves in positions where others are looking to us.

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What authority are we mediating other than that of God? Fathers, husbands, magistrates, elders, deacons, people in authority.

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We're to mediate God's authority, not our own. I'm not in any kind of authority in and of myself because of who

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I am. We are to be mediating not only God's authority, but also

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God's holiness. We are called priests in Christ. What kind of holiness are we mediating? Not our own.

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We are to take up many prophetic tasks as those made in God's image. Remember, not only does

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Adam mediate authority in the garden, naming things and claiming things, not only does he mediate holiness and setting apart things, but he mediates

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God's truth. He tells Eve what God said to him. Of all the trees we may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we may not eat.

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In the day that we eat of it, we will surely die. This was a message that God gave to Adam before he was created. So, Adam gives that to Eve.

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He's mediating God's truth, not his own truth, God's truth. And then wisdom.

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If we know anything about the scriptures, we know how essential wisdom is, not our own wisdom, not the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom of God.

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So, what does it mean to be made in God's image? We are relational mediating servants. As a servant, we do not define ourselves.

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I don't own me, so I don't get to classify me. I don't get to reclassify me.

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So, we're God's servants, and how did he make us? He made us body and soul as a whole.

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It is unnatural for the soul to be divorced from the body. Death is not plan A. Death is not natural.

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For the soul to be departed from the body is unnatural, which is why heaven is not the end for the believer.

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You go to heaven, it's not the end. There's a resurrection coming so that the soul is reunited with the body, just like our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Also, those who are made in God's image are made lingual.

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As soon as God made Adam, he's talking to him. Right? What do we see about those made in God's image at the

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Tower of Babel? They're all in conversation. As soon as he changes their language, however, they can no longer cooperate.

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Why? Because everything in terms of rationality and morality and all the rest of it is dependent upon the words we speak.

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And if we can't understand each other's words, well, we can't get along. Hence, different languages have different cultures.

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Right? So, when we're made in God's image, we're made relational, mediating servants. We're made body and soul.

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We're made lingual. Those made in God's image are made for God's word. We're made lingual to talk.

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And we're made male and female. Right?

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And God defines that. Right? Because I don't own me. I don't get to define that.

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God defines that. Now, these have everything to do with this.

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Recognizing that we're a body and soul matters how we present ourselves to God, how we relate to one another, and how we take care of everything, beginning with our own bodies.

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Right? Proper stewardship of our own bodies. Also, being lingual, it matters what words we have for God, about God, and to God, to one another, and how we define everything around us.

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How we describe it. Correct? Male and female, he created them. He said it wasn't good for the man to be alone, but he made a wife for Adam to be his help meat in what task?

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In being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth and subduing it. So, when we think about the definition of what it means to be made in God's image,

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Genesis chapters 1 and 2, and by contrast, chapter 3, because we see what happens when there's a fallout, we see what it means to be made in the image of God, that we're relational, mediating servants.

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Now, this is important when it comes to the second commandment, because it says that we're not to make graven images whereby which to worship

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God or any other God. We observe that God himself is not against images.

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He made an image. He made us in his image, not to be worshiped, but as worshipers.

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We are made worshipers, where we gather up everything that we are, and in proper relationship, worship the one who's made us, which is why the worship switch is hardwired on, and doesn't matter who we are, where we're from, or what we believe, all of us are always worshiping.

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We're always inhaling worth and exhaling worship all the time, and we can never turn that off, so it matters.

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Now, when we get to the second commandment, again, we've quoted it. We've talked about it.

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We've talked about it in the life of Noah. We've talked about it in the life of Abraham in regards to that covenant that God made with him, but we're back to the covenant that God made with Israel.

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Idolatry in the people of Israel. How'd it go? Pretty bad.

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Didn't do a really good job. Let's think about how that manifests. Now, we have a little section for God's covenant with Noah in Genesis.

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We have a larger section of God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis, and then we have a massive chunk of material about God's covenant with Israel.

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We get more space, more narrative space, a bigger tapestry on which God is showing who he is and what his purposes are, ultimately fulfilled in his son

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Jesus Christ. As we consider Israel's failure in this regard, let's think about one passage out of Psalm 115.

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Psalm 115, and we're going to read verses 1 through 8, and we're going to see from the mouth of a worshiper, acknowledging

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God's perspective, what is idolatry? What is it all about, and what does it do?

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Psalm 115, verses 1 through 8. Now, think about this primary relationship of what it means to be made in the image of God, to love him supremely.

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Look how he starts. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory.

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Now, that doesn't usually end up on the prayer list on Wednesday nights. This is the psalmist saying, here's my request, that you would not give glory to us, to our name, but that you would give glory to yourself.

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That is a preeminent expression of those made in God's image, a right expression, to your name give glory.

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This is my desire, that you give glory to your own name. Why? Because of your mercy, because of your truth, and we see the desire of the psalmist is over against the pagan denials of God.

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Why should the Gentiles or the Go 'im, the nations, why should the nations say, so where is their

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God? If things don't go well enough, if things go bad, if it looks like the answers to prayer aren't coming fast enough, if it looks like the people of God are not ascendant, but dependent, and in submission to their enemies.

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So the psalmist is saying, don't let the nation say that you are absent.

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Don't let them question your glory. Please give glory to yourself. Make it manifest and known that you are

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God and God alone. Here's the answer he gives to the nations. The psalmist says, our

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God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. This is good news, especially since, as we consider the character of God, everything he pleases is right.

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Everything he pleases is good. Everything he pleases is holy. Everything he pleases is true.

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Our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Now, that is extremely different than the gods of the nations, the gods of the peoples.

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Because the gods that are invented by the nations, the gods that are invented by the pagans, are those that are there to do whatever their worshipers please.

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Because they're all able to be manipulated. I know the secret way.

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I know the proper formula. I know how to manipulate the god of fertility, or the god of the storms, or the god of the river, or the moon god, or the sun god, to do what

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I want them to do. But, the one true God is in heaven, doing whatever he pleases.

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In contrast, in contrast, verse four, their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

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Think about what does it mean? To be made in God's image means that we are the work of his hands.

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Right? See, the God we worship, we're his workmanship, created for worship to him.

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But, their gods are their workmanship. They make gods in their image, while the true

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God has made us in his image. You see what's going on? So, what's wrong with that?

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What's wrong with having a statue to venerate and to connect with God? What's wrong with having some sort of totem through which we can connect with God?

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Well, here's the problem. Verse five, they have mouths, but they do not speak.

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Eyes they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear.

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Noses they have, but they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle.

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Feet they have, but they do not walk. Nor do they mutter through their throat.

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So, they have all of the appearances of life. Notice that those who have made their gods in their own image have put the things that they have on them.

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Oh, we've got mouths, we'll give our God a mouth. We have eyes, we'll give our idols some eyeballs.

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We have ears, so we'll slap some ears on the side of this hideous thing. But, what's wrong?

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These gods, these idols do not speak, do not see, do not hear, do not smell, do not handle, do not walk.

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They don't even make the smallest sound. What does that mean?

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If you come upon something that has the appearance, the external appearance of life, but no evidence of life, meaning here's something with eyes, and mouth, and ears, a nose, and feet, and hands, but it ain't moving.

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What would you call that? Dead. That's right.

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Dead. So, they make gods in their own image.

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Only problem is the gods that they make are dead. Now, notice verse 8.

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Those who make them are like them, so is everyone who trusts in them, everyone who fears them, everyone who worships them.

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So, those who are breaking the second commandment, the psalmist is pointing out, those who are making idols that are dead, and they make them, and they worship them, they're just like the idols, they're dead.

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When you worship dead things, you end up dead. Spiritually dead.

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Right? What's the problem? What is the nature of spiritual death? Well, it's very simple. Somebody who is not spiritually alive has the following problems.

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Those who have not been born again have the following problems. They have mouths, but they never speak anything true.

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They have eyes, but they can't see what it is that God is revealing.

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They have ears, but they cannot hear the truth of the Word of God. They don't understand those things that Jesus said, so on and so forth.

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They have all of the elements of life, but they're not really alive. And so, there is this warning about idolatry.

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And we think about the corporate life of Israel, the corporate life of Israel. And we think about the expressions of my servant in Isaiah 40 and following.

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And when we read through there, we have several expressions where the title servant, remember that being made in the image of God means that we're a relational mediating servant.

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And Israel is God's servant. Corporately, they are to be living the life which expresses the image of God.

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After all, that's what the Ten Commandments were all about, and that's the summation of that covenant he made with Israel. So, they're supposed to be displaying to the nations what does it mean that we're made in God's image, that there's one true

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God. And here is what true life is all about. However, when they worship idols, they become pretty useless.

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And God says, Is there anyone so deaf as my servant? Lowercase s.

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Is there anyone so blind as my servant? Lowercase s. Wow, what a useless servant

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I've got on my hands. Why is that? Because they have become idolatrous. They're not mediating his authority in the world.

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They're not mediating his holiness in the world. They're not mediating his truth in the world. They're not mediating his wisdom in the world. They're just not.

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They're not loving God supremely. They're not loving each other rightly. And they're sure not stewarding the creation responsibly, especially when they turn bits and objects of the creation order into things that they bow down to and worship.

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But our God is in the heavens doing whatever he pleases, says the remnant that groans at all of the tragedies happening around them in the life of Israel.

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God says in Isaiah 10, My hand has founded the kingdoms of the idols.

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Here are these nations full of idols, and they have no idea that God is the one who has established them and formed them.

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Our God is in the heavens. He does what he pleases. They don't acknowledge it. They don't recognize it. Let's go to Isaiah 44.

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Isaiah has a lot of interesting genres of literature in it.

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There are prophecies, there are songs, there's apocalyptic material, there's historical narrative, there are letters, and then there are cartoons.

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Isaiah is one of the best cartoonists. The best cartoonist in the Bible is Solomon. He makes the best cartoons.

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Usually they're two -liners, sometimes four -liners. He does a great job. Isaiah is a good cartoonist as well.

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Isaiah 44, beginning in verse 9, Those who make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things shall not profit.

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They are their own witnesses. They neither see nor know that they may be ashamed.

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In other words, they're so far gone into their cult -like way of thinking that they say things and they lack completely self -awareness of how ludicrous they are.

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You may have noticed that from time to time in recent years. Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing?

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Good question. Surely all his companions would be ashamed, and the workmen, they are mere men.

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Let them be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall fear they shall be ashamed together.

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So now we start a survey, whirling around the different workplaces in Jerusalem.

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The blacksmith, look at the blacksmith. With the tongs, works one in the coals, works an idol in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms.

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Even so, he is hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint.

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Here's this guy beating away on this idol, on this metal thing, and he's getting weaker and weaker and weaker.

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He's useless. If somebody walked into his shop and was planning to steal from him, he would have no strength to defend himself.

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He's about to fall over faint because he forgot to drink water. Here he is laboring at making his god.

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It's absurd and it's godly to laugh at absurdity. He who sits in the heavens laughs.

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This is absurdity. This is meant to be laughed at. The craftsman stretches out his rule.

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He marks one out with chalk, he fashions it with a plane, he marks it out with the compass, and he makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.

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So, the carpenter is making a man out of out of wood, and then he fashions it out, and then what does it do?

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It collects dust. It sits around in the house. Now, there are some men who sit around in the house and never go out and do anything.

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What's worse than that? Worshipping a physical representation of that. It's absurd.

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He cuts down cedars for himself and takes the cypress and the oak. He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.

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He plants a pine and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some of it and warm himself.

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Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread. So, he cuts down the pine, right? So, the pine is planted, the rain nourishes it, meaning

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God grows up this big old pine tree. They cut it down, and he starts chopping it up, and he uses the wood to warm himself because he gets cold, and he uses it to bake bread.

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Verse 15 continues, Indeed, he makes a god and worships it. He makes a carved image and falls down to it.

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Just in case you think that this might be absurd, let's just press into that absurdity a little bit more, Isaiah says.

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Just in case you missed it, he says, verse 16, He burns half of it in the fire.

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With his half, he eats meat. He roasts the roast and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, Ah, I am warm.

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I have seen the fire. And the rest of it, he makes into a god.

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His carved image, he falls down before and worships it, prays to it, and says,

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Deliver me, for you are my God. You see the cartoon? It's pretty absurd.

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What goes on here? Do you remember what Psalm 115 said about the nature of the idols that are made in the image of the one who is crafting it?

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They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear. Those who make them become like them. Those who trust in them become like them.

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This is not simply the passive result of them getting things wrong.

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This is the active judgment of God. Verse 18, They do not know nor understand, for He has shut their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot understand.

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Who does it? God does it. It's the judgment. Romans chapter 1, verses 18 and following, that's exactly what that is describing.

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Now what goes on there? Here is one who is created in his image, who is made for the expressed and joyful and wonderful purpose of beholding his creator and everything his creator has said about who he is made in his image.

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All of that means, and here is his opportunity to say to his creator, amen. But he instead, in the sinfulness of his heart, he creates a

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God out of a chunk of wood that is blind and deaf and dead and says, you're my everything.

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And God from heaven says, amen. So you shall be deaf, so you shall be blind.

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This is your judgment. No one considers in his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,

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I have burned half of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it.

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And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?

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He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside and he cannot, he cannot deliver his soul nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand?

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He cannot. He is unable. But God is able. God is able.

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You know, the disciples sometimes got a little frustrated with Jesus when he would say things. And one time they got really frustrated.

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They said, well, then who can be saved? Good question. Jesus says, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

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Right. So praise God for the grace of his salvation. We'll continue on next time and think about how the king in the life of Israel had a pivotal function when it came to the adherence to or disobedience to the second commandment.

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All right. So that's our plan. All right. Just a second.

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We have something special. You want to come help us sing the doxology?

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I'm getting reinforcements to sing doxology. My voice is going out. Let's close.