Sunday, March 26, 2023 PM

AC? Is it not on? Do we need to turn it on? It's on heat. Do we need to turn it on cool?

What do you think about there? Yeah, that's good. Very good. No problem. Alright, well let's open our

Bibles and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5. And we're going to think about the meaning of the second commandment in light of the creation, in light of the covenants that God made throughout biblical history.

The second commandment in light of Jesus Christ. We've been looking at all of that thus far.

And now our task tonight is to consider the relevance of the second commandment in light of who

Jesus Christ is and how it is still significant for us today as we follow

Jesus Christ. So, Deuteronomy chapter 5. We're going to read the first and second commandment again.

Before we do, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time that you have given to us.

I pray that you would help us as we read your word, that you would help us to understand the meaning of the text and that we would rejoice in the truth of Jesus Christ.

It is in his name that we pray. Amen. Alright, Deuteronomy chapter 5, beginning in verse 1.

And Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which

I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. The Lord our

God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive.

The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.

I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the

Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire and you did not go up the mountain. He said,

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the

Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.

Okay, so just a reminder of the second commandment in its context, something that God specifically said to Israel in the covenant that he made with them.

Now, we've thought about the significance of idolatry given the created order, given that God is creator and everything else is creation, that we are made in God's image, that God promised to send forth his own son and we found him to be the image of the invisible

God. We see that God is not against images per se, but that having made us in his image, we were made not to be worshipped, but to worship.

And now we're thinking about the remaining significance. What is idolatry in light of Jesus Christ?

We are not called in the New Testament to keep the law. We are called to fulfill the law.

We're not trying to keep up with a list. We're following our Savior who is the end of the law unto righteousness for everyone who believes.

Now, idolatry is still wrong. But first, what is an idol? What is an idol?

What would be a good definition? What would we say an idol is? Okay, so we've got…

Okay, anything else you might think of how to describe an idol? Okay, something we value or worship?

This is… Yes, go ahead. Dwight, you were cooking on something, so go ahead. I don't want to interrupt you.

God is a jealous God, yes. And so I would think that anything… Now, this is the way that we tend to take a stab at idolatry.

And one of the reasons is, and this is good, that we instinctively see how closely related the first and second commandments are, right?

But this, if we take it to a very careful and precise meaning, this is how you break the first commandment, right?

Now, we often just immediately substitute the word

God, little g, little g God, for idol. That's not entirely wrong, correct?

I mean, when the children of Israel worshipped idols, what were they doing?

They were worshipping false gods. Their affections had been turned away from the one true

God to false gods, and that was evident as they were putting sacrifices out and bowing down before these blocks of wood, for these idols, correct?

But it is important to remember that when

Moses came down the mountain, he found Israel breaking the second commandment but not the first, right?

They were worshipping a graven image, calling it Yahweh, the one true

God. So they were not breaking the first commandment, but they were breaking the second. It's important to know that there is still a difference, there is still a distinction.

Our modern, the way that we, as Christians, we tend to just simply say that an idol is anything that takes the place of God.

And again, we understand there's a connection between the first and second commandment. But what is an idol, right?

What is an idol? So in the commandment, it says, it starts off by saying, do not make for yourself, right?

Do not make for yourself. And there was something in using the tools, using a crafting approach to create something in the likeness of anything in heaven or on earth or in the ocean, in the waters, anything above, around, or below, that then to worship that, right?

Then to worship that, to bow down before it, use it to venerate, use it for spiritual purposes.

So in particular, the idol is something that we craft, but it is very much in connection with false gods, right?

False gods. So that's important for us to think about because when we get to the

New Testament and we begin to learn what the scriptures have to tell us about idolatry in the

New Testament, it's important to keep that in mind. So let's read some passages together.

Colossians chapter 3 and 2 Corinthians 3. So Colossians 3, 2

Corinthians 3. We'll be going to both passages. So Colossians 3 is very helpful because it explains to us what

God has for us in terms of growing in godliness, all right? So that's the desire of every believer, of every

Christian, is to grow in godliness, to grow in holiness. And there's all kinds of artificial, fake ways that are sold under that heading, and Paul doesn't want the

Colossians to mess around with any of that. So he speaks against that in chapter 2, and then he gets down to what real godliness and real holiness is all about in chapter 3.

All right, so let's look at chapter 3 beginning in verse 1. If then you were raised with Christ.

Are you born again? Are you alive with Christ? Are you united to him through faith? Then you are raised with him.

Because he is raised, you are raised. Because he is alive, you're alive spiritually.

If this is the case, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

In other words, let him control your affections. That's where you should put your desires, upon Christ.

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

For you died, again, your union with Christ. You died to the old man, you died to sin.

For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

United with Christ, his death is our death, his life is our life, his glory is our glory.

Verse 5. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth.

The parts of your life that have no business being a part of you. Like Lazarus shedding the grave clothes.

This is what you put aside. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry.

Covetousness which is idolatry. We're going to come back to that. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

But now, you yourselves are to put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

For there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

So once again we are reminded that Jesus Christ is the image of the creator. He is the image of God.

And what is godliness? Well, it's looking like Jesus. It's growing up into who Christ is.

We've talked about how we resemble what we revere. And if you worship idols who have eyes that can't see, ears that can't hear, made up bodies who can't do anything, then we end up as dead as they are.

But if we worship Christ who is the resurrection and the life, what is the result of us glorying in Christ?

What is the result of us worshiping Christ? It's life. It's liveliness. It's true life.

Now let's come back to this phrase. Paul says covetousness is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry.

So the tenth commandment deals with covetousness. Now what is covetousness?

Covetousness is desiring that which is forbidden to you. It's pretty general. Desiring that which is forbidden to you.

In other words, there could be something really good, like a house, something really good, like an apple orchard.

Wow, those things are good. And you can look on those things as they look at that beautiful house and look at that attached apple orchard, and wow, what a picturesque, beautiful scene.

That's amazing. There's nothing wrong with that. But when you look at it and you're like, I can't believe that they get to live there and I don't.

Whoops. That's not yours, and you're desiring it and getting bitter and jealous and envious and so on because you don't have it.

So your desires are not being properly ordered.

They're disordered. And Paul says that covetousness and idolatry are connected.

Covetousness and idolatry are connected. How is that?

Well, it's very simple. In desiring something else, when our affections redirect us away from God, when our affections redirect us away from God and we begin to seek our satisfaction and our fulfillment in something other than God, you know what happens?

We begin crafting for ourselves an ultimate authority that agrees with us.

Right? In other words, you've heard people say,

Well, I like to think of God as… Really? Listen to how…

I like to think of God as…

Well, so you're not getting your input from the Scriptures. Maybe you're taking some ideas from the

Bible and then some ideas from your human experience, and I like to… So your affections, your desires are informing your version of God.

You are crafting for yourself an idea of God that accords with your disordered affections, your disordered desires.

That's why Paul says covetousness is idolatry. Second commandment, right? So the beginning of the commandments and the end of the commandments are connected.

Are connected. When you start off by proper worship of God and affection and desire to God, have no other gods before me, and then do not craft anything by which to worship me, and you get to the end and there's a two -part commandment talking about thou shalt not covet this or that or anything else that doesn't belong to you, you've come in a sense full circle to the same issues, to the same issues at heart.

So that's why covetousness is idolatry. Now, there is still a crafting that goes on, right?

There is a looking upon and desiring of something that doesn't belong to you, that is not rightly accorded to you, but you desire it so much that you begin to reconfigure

God, you begin to reconfigure ultimate authority to cohere with what you want even though it's forbidden to you.

That reconfiguring, that's the crafting of idols. You don't have to be a metalsmith, you don't have to be a woodworker to make idols, but the making of idols still exists.

And what happens is what you're doing in once your desires are disordered and you're having the wrong desires and then you begin to reconfigure ultimate authority, reconfigure

God to match that, that is called lying, right?

You're making stuff up. It doesn't accord with truth.

It accords with your desires, but your desires are wicked and deceitful.

The heart is deceitful. Who can know it? The Bible asks. And this is important because Paul says in 1

Corinthians 10, he says that the power behind idols is demons.

So 1 Corinthians 10, in verse 7, he says, do not become idolaters like the

Israelites of old. Verse 14, he says, therefore, my beloved, flee from my idolatry. He says in verse 19, he recognizes that idols are just chunks of wood, just chunks of metal, so what's the big deal?

But he says, what am I saying then? That an idol is anything or what is offered to idols is anything?

Verse 20, rather that the things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.

And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.

You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?

Which, again, was in the commandment about don't make idols. Don't use idols to worship

God. Because we live in the new covenant, let's just be clear about this.

Because we live in the new covenant, spiritual warfare is about truth, not territory.

Spiritual warfare is about truth, not territory. And if you're creating ideas about God that are untrue to match your evil desires, the power behind that is demonic.

Jesus said that Satan is the father of lies. So you can trace back all of the deceptions and lies back to the father of lies.

And so Paul is saying, I know that that block of wood is meaningless, is not really alive, and there's not some true

God of the moon who is sitting up there saying, hmm,

I really like that sacrifice. Ooh, that was lovely. That's not happening. That's ridiculous.

Paul knows that the priests of the temple come in and they dress up their little doll for the sacrifices of the day.

He knows they come in later and remove the food and take it and go eat it or resell it. He knows that's how it works.

It's not anything, but the deception, the lies of it all, that is a problem and to be avoided.

In 1 John 5, very last verse of 1

John, it's important to consider the context of all of 1

John. John has been contending for the truth of the incarnation, that God the

Son has taken upon human flesh and come into the world and that he is truly God and he is truly man.

And there are many who are trying to dispel that idea, twist that idea, teach false things about Christ.

And after contending for the faith time and time and time again and refuting all of the false teachers who would twist the truth of Jesus, he concludes, verse 21, 1

John 5, last word he says to them, little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Well, he spent the whole book and he never talked about people using silver and gold and wood to make little things to put on their mantle and bow down to.

So why is he bringing up idols now? Because he spent the whole book saying, do not buy in to these false ideas that people have crafted about who

Jesus Christ is. If you buy in to that, you are buying in to idolatry.

Because they wanted a Jesus that fit their model. Jesus today is the most, people are always creating idols of Jesus.

One of the most famous ones is the guy who's high on dope and he's like, if Jesus was here he'd be hanging with us, doing all our stuff.

Or the search for the historical Jesus where Protestant liberals got together and they cut up the

New Testament, cut up the Gospels and said, well, only about 11 % of what we have in the Gospels is what Jesus said and lo and behold it was the stuff they agreed with.

They made Jesus sound like a Protestant liberal. That's idolatry, it's crafting God to match our disordered affections.

Now this is important. Remember that the Ten Commandments are structured in a chiasm where there's concentric parallels moving in to the very heart of the matter.

Verse 6 which says, do not murder. Jesus said that Satan was a murderer from the beginning.

Idolatry is a matter of life and death. Those who worship idols and make idols become like them, dead.

False worship. But those who worship

Christ become like him. Last passage and we'll close. 2

Corinthians 3. And we'll begin in verse 18.

It says, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the

Lord. To embrace idolatry is death. Romans 1 .18

-32 talks about that. Who exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the images made incorruptible man.

And they begin to worship idols. They worship themselves. Their desires were for themselves and so they turned in on themselves.

And thus they break out into abominable passions which leads into homosexuality and lesbianism which leads into all of the rest of the abominations and the end thereof is death.

So idolatry is death but those who look upon Christ and desire Christ and have their affections for him, what is the outcome?

It's life. It's life. And that's what's at stake.

So when it comes to the second commandment, why are we not to craft that for ourselves?

Why are we not to have our own, as they say, Ikea God. I want to put him together in the way that I like.

I'm going to custom order God for me. What's the end thereof? It's death. We don't custom make

God. He custom made us. It's the total reverse. And so once we recognize that, we're not in the business of customizing

God. We confess God. We just agree with who he is and what he's already said that we may know life.

Okay, so that concludes our look at the second commandment. And then next time we have opportunity, we'll begin looking at the third commandment in its context.