The Second Commandment – Idolatry

Thank you for leading our singing, Tyler, and we welcome everyone today, and we’re glad to have you with us, and we’re going to continue thinking this morning about the Ten Commandments. And we had thought about this past fall, and what occasioned it was that the state of Texas had passed a law, And that law mandated that if anyone gave a copy of the Ten Commandments and had to be formatted in a particular way to our local school systems, that those local school systems were then to put the Ten Commandments inside of each classroom.

And that is something that has been ongoing. Maybe you’ve heard about it in the news. There have been several school districts who have not done that because they’ve been sued, and so those lawsuits are going forward, but here in our local school district, they haven’t been a part of those lawsuits, and we gave copies of the Ten Commandments to our local middle school, and those had been put up in the local middle school here, and we appreciate the cooperation from the school system in doing that.

And that is something that we can continue to look at and continue to think about. And I noticed that was being discussed even on the national news this morning by one of our lawmakers in Austin, and they were talking about how that this particular bill had been passed.

And so I thought, well, let’s think a little bit about the Ten Commandments. They’re in the news, and that’s something that people are interested in, so let’s talk about the Ten Commandments. And we started with the first commandment, and it’s been a while since we talked about it, but we come back here today, and we’re going to be looking at the second commandment.

Now, in the Ten Commandments, we have two things going on, man’s relationship to God and man’s relationship to man. And those first commandments are about man’s relationship to God. And the Ten Commandments are found in Exodus chapter 20 and verses 1 through 17. And so you might just open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20 as we think about it here. And then as we look at those first commandments, the first four are about our relationship with God and honoring God as God and putting Him first within our lives and worshiping Him and remembering who He is.

And then the last six commandments are about our relationship with our fellow man and honoring our parents and treating other people correctly and then making sure that our hearts are right before God. And so as we think about those, we see that there’s a relationship then to the two greatest commandments, which are to love God and to love others, as Jesus pointed out in Matthew chapter 22 and verses 39 through 40.

And in thinking about those commandments, we’re going to look this morning at the second commandment and thinking about what it says. Now here it is, excuse me, Exodus chapter 20 and verse 4. 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 And so God wants, does not want us to put our loyalties in the wrong place and to make and to serve graven images or bow down to them because God, He says, He’s justified.

He’s jealous. That is, He’s jealous in a good way. He loves His people, and He wants His people to have a relationship with Him and no other God. And that’s something that we can make application of today as well.

Now, while the Ten Commandments are part of the Law of Moses, most of these Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament, and there’s something that we need to remember. The Spirit of all Ten Commandments is something that we can follow in the New Testament as well, while there’s one that we don’t observe anymore to honor the Sabbath day as the Sabbath was the seventh day, and we had a lesson on that not too long ago as to why we don’t keep the Sabbath anymore, but we do keep the Spirit of that commandment in that we come together on the first day of the week and we honor God in worship.

And so let’s think about this second commandment this morning as we think about the problem of idolatry, because that’s really what this second commandment is about. First of all, let’s note this, that idolatry is a reality. And it’s a reality today as much as it was a reality back then.

And when we think about the children of Israel coming out of the land of Egypt, where there were hundreds of idols, and even the Pharaoh himself was considered to be a God, and they were supposed to worship Him. And the 10 plagues then demonstrated God’s superiority over these false idols.

And as we think about the wandering in the land of Canaan, Canaan also, or wandering in the wilderness and then going to the land of Canaan, the land of Canaan also had hundreds of idols within it. Chief in their idolatry were the idols of Baal and Ashtoreth.

And we’ve found in archaeological discoveries these images that they were used and that they carved and that they became idols for people to worship and that polytheism dominated the religion of the day and idolatry was something even that the children of Israel participated in and making that golden calf while they were, when they came out of the land of Egypt, they couldn’t give it up.

But they were out of Egypt, but Egypt was still in them, and they had to change themselves to get away from idolatry. And so that golden calf represented a real problem that continued. And that idolatry continued to be a problem for the children of Israel, even up into the Babylonian captivity.

And idolatry was a problem in the New Testament as well. You remember the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 17 was in Athens, and while he waited in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw the city was given over to idols, and idols were still a problem even in the New Testament time.

When the church at Corinth was told, do not become idolaters, as those in the Old Testament did, and flee from idolatry, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 14. Well, what about today? Is idolatry still a problem in the religious world today? And of course, it is.

If you go into the Eastern countries, you can see there the idols that were put up for the Buddhism and for Hinduism. And when we think about idols, even in those who claim to be Christians, there are those who would worship idols among Christianity and bow down to them and do certain things to them, Such as images of Mary or perhaps this image of Peter over here on the right side. And you can’t see it too well, but his toes have been worn off here and they’re smooth. I can’t get the pointer to work. Oh, that’s right. The pointer doesn’t work with that screen. I forgot about that. But his toes are smooth over there. You can see his toes on the right side, but on the left side, they don’t have any toes left.

And why is that? Because people over the centuries coming up and kissing those toes and worshiping the statue of Peter there in Catholicism. And so those who recall themselves Christians even are heavily involved in idolatry even today. What did God say? Don’t make graven images. Don’t bow down to them. Don’t worship them. Don’t do that kind of thing.

But yet people have ignored that problem. And so idolatry is still a reality today. And the problem with idolatry is that it replaces God. It replaces God. God’s identity must be absolute and we need to understand that we don’t want to offer competition to God.

We want Him to be supreme. We want Him to be the first one and the foremost one within our lives always. Consider, if you would, the competition between Elijah, between God and the prophets of Baal and Mount Carmel in 1 Kings chapter 18 and verse 21.

Maybe you remember that and how that idolatry replaces God by undermining His authority there. And in that verse, 1 Kings chapter 18, verse 21, it says, Elijah came to all the people and said, How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow Him.

But the people answered Him not a word. You see, there’s a competition there. There’s a challenge there to the authority of God. And that’s what idols do. They challenge God’s authority. And how do they do that? Because an idol is something that man makes, and that man can make of it what he wills.

And you see, when man makes an idol, he can make that idol into anything he wants, whether it’s an idol of Buddha, or in Hinduism, Shiva, or whether it’s Mary, or whether it’s Peter. When you make those statues, you’re making them to do whatever you want to do with them, and you create them in your image.

They become what you want, not what God wants. And so they challenge the authority of God. Consider Joshua’s thoughts in Joshua 24, verses 14 and 15, there when they were about to enter into the land of Canaan, or after they had conquered the land of Canaan, sorry. Now therefore fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your father served, they were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. And what does Joshua say?

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And He put God in the place of supremacy and in the only place that God is as the one and only God that exists. And so idolatry challenges the authority of God, and we need to understand that. But idolatry also steals God’s glory.

And when we have idols within our life, we’re giving glory to something other than God. We have an obligation to glorify and to worship God alone. And maybe you remember this admonition by the angels to John in the book of Revelation when he fell down before them in Revelation 19.20 and Revelation 22.9.

They say, worship God. Don’t even worship angels as high as they are above the earth. Don’t even worship them. Worship God. God alone is the one who is worthy of worship and idols and other things don’t hold a candle to Him.

Remember what happened in Romans 1, verses 22 and 23. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. And so, man may have good intentions. They may say, well, we’re worshiping God through these images. That is false doctrine.

And they changed the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. That was the intention of Aaron when he made that golden calf. They were there to worship and honor the one true God through that golden calf.

But God said, no, that is not acceptable. God doesn’t share His glory with idols. Isaiah 42 and verse 8, “…I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images.” God doesn’t give His praise to carved images. We can’t worship God through carved images. And those who claim to do so today are wrong for doing that.

And so idolatry steals God’s glory. Idolatry erodes morality. Because like I mentioned earlier, when we make idols, we make them in our own image, basically. We turn them into whatever we want. And that becomes what we worship instead of God, who is above us and over us and who is in authority and who commands us instead of we commanding Him.

But you see, we can command the idols. And so that’s why people like idols, because they can make them into whatever they want them to be. And so idolatry erodes morality. In Judges 17 and 21, we see what happens when morality is eroded. It says, He says, “…every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” And that ultimately becomes what happens when we pursue idolatry. We just do what we want. And that’s the bottom line. It’s our will that comes into conflict with God. And as a result, we are the ones we begin to worship in that regard.

And so we learn what happens when idols take control in Romans chapter 1, verses 28 through 31. We just notice that passage that it all began with idolatry, and then what happened as a result? They did not retain God in their knowledge, and so they were given over to do things that were debased and not fitting, filled with all unrighteousness, Envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.

Wow, what a long list of sins and all of that. Why? Because they elevated idols and worshiped them instead of worshiping God. And so idolatry erodes morality. We see that idolatry takes many forms. And we may think, well, we don’t have those carved images here. We don’t worship those carved images. But you know, idolatry takes many forms. It can be an object fashioned by men’s hands, as in Deuteronomy 4, In verses 15 through 19 where God makes it clear that through Moses that they are not supposed to make those images of whether they be a likeness of male or female or any animal that’s in the earth or winged birds or anything that creeps on the ground or fish even.

Or even the heavens themselves looking up to the sun, moon, and stars and you feel driven to worship them and serve them. Don’t do that. That, God says, and so we are not to act in that way. They take many forms and there are a lot of different ways that people can worship idols and in Deuteronomy 27, verse 15, it says, talks about idols that are in the secret places.

The curse would be the man that makes a graven image or molten image or an abomination to the Lord in the work of the hands of the craftsmen and puts it in a secret place. Even our secret places can have idols. We may think, well, no one else sees what’s going on here, but God sees. And those secret places are another form of idolatry.

And Ezekiel 14, verse 3-4 talks about idols of the heart. Speak, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Thus saith the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel that setteth idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet. I, the Lord, will answer him that comes according to the multitude of his Idols. So we can even have idols of the heart, and we don’t want that either. So when we think about idolatry and the many forms of idolatry, we want to recognize that all of those forms are something that we need to eliminate from our lives.

In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 5, before we get to Matthew 6 and verse 33, the Apostle Paul says that covetousness is an idol. Covetousness is idolatry. So we can have an idol in our heart by sinning in our heart. And really, when it all comes down to it, the self is the ultimate idol that comes in competition with God.

And that’s something that we need to root out. Matthew 6, in verse 33. Here’s the priority. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. There is nothing that we need to put before God. God must come first within our life and all things and every other thing, whatever it might be.

And Jesus was talking about, you know, in Matthew chapter 6, things like food and clothing and shelter. If we put those things before God, they become idols. And that’s something we don’t want to do. Let’s remember that greatest commandment that Jesus discussed in Matthew chapter 22, verses 35 through 39.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. God must come first all the time and always, and let us not then make idols out of things of this world. We can’t serve two masters.

Matthew 6 and verse 24 tells us, because we will either love the one and hate the other or hold to the one and despise the other, you cannot serve God and mammon. Whatever it is that you pursue above God, that is something then that can become an idol.

Are there consequences to worshiping idol? Yes. Remember, in the commandment itself, God talks about those who make those images end up hating Him, and He will deal with them accordingly. We don’t want to be in the position of hating God because we are serving an idol.

And ultimately, in Revelation 21 and verse 8, it talks about how idolaters will find themselves in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, the ultimate end of those who put something above God. Let us understand that there are consequences to worshiping idols. And let’s not do it. Let’s remember that second commandment.

Let’s not make idols, whether they are carved images or whether they’re images that we have within our heart. Let’s not put anything above God. The second commandment still applies today within our lives, and that is something that we need to remember as we think about the problem of idolatry.

How about you this morning? Do you have an idol in your heart that needs to be expunged, that is to get it out of your life, to take it away? Maybe this morning you need prayer to help you to do that. We’d be happy to pray with you.

Or maybe you recognize that pursuing self as your idol hasn’t worked out very well and you need to turn to God through Jesus Christ and become a child of God and worship God only as the only one who is worthy and deserving of your worship.

How do you begin to do that? You’ve got to hear God’s Word and believe it. Repent of your sins, confess Jesus as Lord, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin. And when you’re baptized, you are saying, my old self is being crucified and buried, and it stays buried.

And you rise up to walk in a new life, and that is a new life in which God comes first in your life. Would you make that decision this morning to put God first? We can help you do that while together we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!