INSIGHT
 
When the Israelites were camped at the base of Mt. Sinai, they waited for Moses to come back to them...

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."Exo 32:1

As people who have finite knowledge we are quick to stray from that which we do not understand. We want things that are easily categorized, easily understood, packageable. We are used to packaging the uncontainable, predicting the unpredictable and trivializing the sublime. What we do to our God is not far from what the Israelites did that day at Mt. Sinai. They did not understand God, or what Moses wanted to do and so their trust and faith waned...

He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your godsa, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."Exo 32:4

Although initially we might assume that Aaron clearly lost his mind and violated the first commandment, a closer look at what they did reveals to us that this is not the case.

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD."Exo 32:5

You see, when Aaron called the people to a festival to the Lord, he used God’s covenant name, YAHWEH. He wasn’t just celebrating a feast to an image of a God, but he was telling the people that the golden calf was an image of the God of Israel! They couldn’t handle the vastness and sublime nature of God; they couldn’t comprehend God’s holiness and love. They wanted something predictable, packageable, explainable and visual. They wanted to be able to see their god, touch their god and understand their god. We are the same! Anytime we attempt to define God according to our understanding, we are worshipping an idol, not the God of the Bible. God has revealed Himself to us not so much so that we can understand Him, but to believe Him and trust Him in all that He does and says. To want to represent Him or His Word with anything other than the Bible’s teachings applied to our life is against God’s will.

a or "This is your god..."
The Heart of God: The Second Commandment
Trivializing the Sublime

Key Text: Exodus 20:4-5a

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..."

Theme:

In both Hebrew and Greek the word jealousy refers to "single-minded devotion" to an object. In neither has good or bad connotations. The jealousy of the Lord is much nobler than the jealous love of a man and his wife. God is not jealous of His people but for them. He desires to bless, not punish. God’s jealousy for His covenant people reveals His zeal to bless and elevate those who have declared Him their God, according to His first command. He seeks to honor His name among them. To seek Him out in any other way, shape or form that is not in keeping with His Word is to philander with the Divine. And, you see, this prevents you from benefiting of the Divine Plan.

Application:

Here are some practical suggestions:

1. Get to know your Lord. Don’t be satisfied with just knowing about Him, get to know Him! Study His Word!
2. Don’t settle for substitutes. Is there something missing in your life? Is there an emptiness? Then you really haven’t pulled out all the stops! Fill yourself with the Holy Spirit! Accept NO substitutes!
3. Be dazzled by God! Begin each day with a prayer to be in sync with the Spirit. Let God amaze you by what He accomplishes through your devotion to Him. Be thankful and content with everything!
4. Develop a godly fear! Be aware that God is really with you and that He has saved you! Make Him the focus and center of your everyday activities!

May the Lord richly bless you!

 

Sermon Outline


Trivializing the Sublime

Introduction: Last Week

1. The first commandment deals with the object of our worship, YAHWEY, and Him only

2. It is the principal command to observe
a. Pride makes a god of self
b. Covetousness makes a god of money (greed)
c. Sensuality makes a god of the stomach

3. Violation of this dares God to His face

I. Second Commandment: Teaching on Worship

Exodus 20:4

A. The Prohibition: No Images of God!!!

1. Idolatry reduces God to the physical (John 4:24)-- God is not to be defined in terrestrial terms-- He is not definable; He is an indefinite spirit

2. Idolatry makes the truth of God into a lie (Rom 1:25)--An image is a teacher of lies (Hab 2:18)--It insinuates God having a body

3. Idolatry equates God with man (Isa. 55:8-9)--His ways are not our ways--Denominationalism and superstitions make God an idol:
a. Mormonism--teaches existence of other gods
b. Astrology--Star worship
c. Psychic Network--Mind worship

B. The Reasons For This Prohibition Ex. 20:5-6

1. Idolatry is a form of disloyalty (He is a jealous God)

2. Idolatry destroys morality--It belittles the Word of God--It teaches others to do same (it’s passed down)

3. It brings about punishment

Conclusion: Keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21)

Colossians 3:2-6:

1. The Focus: Set your minds on the Spirit

2. The Reminder: You have died in Christ

3. The Hope: You will be with Him

4. The Life: Keep yourself from idols (the flesh)

5. The Warning: God will come
Small Group Study

Warm-up:

Is God an idea to you, or is He the Almighty being? What has made you think of God as an idea? What has made you want to make Him predictable and measurable?

See To It Exodus 32:5-7

1. After sacrificing and worshipping their false image of God, what did the people do?

2. When you study God’s Word, or return from a worship service, are you quick to forget the ordinances of God?

3. What is it that keeps you from becoming immoral? Are rules and regulations enough? See Colossians 2:2-23

Seeing It Closer Romans 1:21-25

1. What two things precipitated the downfall of the people being spoken of here?

2. What actions showed the foolishness and darkness of these people’s hearts?

3. Is verse 23 just talking about making physical statues and images of God, or can this be referring also to worshipping the One True God under some false form or methodology?

4. Can verse 25 be talking about serving self and other people because of selfish ambition? Could it be talking about serving out of convenience, rather than serving Jesus? See Colossians 3:17

5. What then, was the cause of the downfall of morality in these people and in the Israelites we read about in Exodus chapter 32?

Getting To It:

When religion slides from the sublime to the trivial, the first thing to go is moral restraint. Pray that we, as the bride of Christ, may remain faithful and steadfast in our devotion to the Lord.

This week's Quiet Times:

Trivializing the Sublime...

MONDAY

As we learned last week, the first commandment has to do with discipleship. It demands that we give our wholehearted allegiance to the Lord. The second commandment warns us against worshipping the One True God under some false pretense or methodologies. Remember Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-14? Would Naaman have been blessed by God if he would have pursued his own form of obeying the Lord? When was it that God’s blessing was fulfilled in Naaman’s life? In the same way, you too have to abandon your own ideologies about the Lord and worship Him according to His Word. Write Jeremiah 13:10 on an index card and memorize it.

TUESDAY

Many seek to worship God in a way that would appease their conscience. They seek to be justified by tangible actions and rule following rather than by the promise of God. Read Matthew 7:21-27. These verses clearly teach the importance of relying of the Words of Jesus ONLY for a true worship of the Lord. Did the people in verses 22-23 feel justified by the actions they had done? Did the people in verse 22 feel justified by just declaring Jesus vocally? What are you trying to do, or appear to do, in order to justify yourself? Do you seek the approval of other people, like your Mom and Dad? Are you seeking the approval of brothers or sisters in the church? Are you just going by what seems right to you? See Proverbs 14:12. Write this passage on an index card and memorize it.

WEDNESDAY

The Pharisees were people that had reduced God’s religion to rule-keeping, a form of idolatry that is still very common in many professed "Christians". Read Matthew 23:16-28. Why were the Pharisees called hypocrites? Do you think that they believed they were worshipping God? What did they substitute God for? What did they substitute devotion for? Whose approval were they looking for? How did they reduce God’s grace to the trivial? How is this rule-keeping idolatry? What were they focusing on in verses 16-22? Instead of using their means of worship to seek out the Lord, they treated the means as the end itself. They worshipped the objects instead of their Creator. They have lost connection with the Lord (Colossians 2:18-19). What does it mean when Jesus says they are straining gnats and swallowing camels? Do you think they forgot the reasons why the were doing all those things in the first place? Also notice what this rule-keeping produced¾ hypocrisy. Write Galatians 5:4 on an index card and memorize it.

THURSDAY

Yesterday we say how the Pharisees, in their search for truth, got distracted by religion! Is it possibly for religion to get in the way of knowing Jesus? Of course! Our minds are continuously seeking satisfaction and understanding. We’re always seeking to package and define the truth of God. What we need to train ourselves to do is to let the Lord always define our parameters by His Word. Throughout the ages, many so-called Christian churches have even attempted to define their faith by establishing creeds, confessions and charters. People have sought God in statues that cry, wells that grant wishes and churches that physically heal the body. Jesus confided in the Samaritan woman that any such form of worship where the focus is attached to some material object is not the worship that the Lord seeks. Read John 4:20-25. What kind of worship were the Samaritans and the Jews used to? Was their worship attached to sacred objects and rituals? What about the New Covenant? How is the New Covenant different? What time was that which Jesus was speaking of in verse 23? Don’t we sometimes place some superstition on crosses that we carry or symbols we want to identify with? What kind of mentality does that reveal? What should our focus be on? Write Jonah 2:8 on an index card and memorize it.

FRIDAY

As a result of paying attention to anything other than Jesus, our minds can turn towards idolatry. The second command has given us a lot of insight into God’s spiritual nature and holiness. Nothing that we can reproduce here on Earth can even compare or be in the same sentence as God’s holiness and vastness. Yet, many continue worshipping according to their misunderstanding instead of according to godly wisdom from the Scriptures. If you didn’t get a chance to do the Wednesday Discussion, use those questions and the Scripture reading to see what idolatry brings to the idolater. Isn’t it awesome what we’ve been learning about God’s nature as we examine His commands!!?? Write John 4:24 on an index card and memorize it.