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God Made In Man’s Images of Heads, Hearts And Hands (24th Oct 2020)

INTRODUCTION:

The first commandment can be summarized as God and God alone. The Ten Commandments are the standard for life and faith and it is trans-time, transcultural and transcontinental but is also part of the covenant of Israel as God’s people. The first commandment deals with Yahweh as God and God alone, and the second on how He should be worshipped. “An idol is that which our mind cling on to and our heart rely on” Susannah Wesley, mother of Charles & John Wesley.

“That to which your heart clings is your god. Whatever a man loves, that is his god. For he carries it in his heart; he goes about with it night and day; he sleeps and wakes with it, be it what it may—wealth or self, pleasure or renown.” Martin Luther.

“The ultimate idol factory is the human heart. We who write are as prone to idolatry as anyone, for there is no defense against idolatry in abstract orthodoxy alone” Os Guinness.

GK Chesterton once said: “when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.” We do not just eliminate God; we erect God-substitutes in His place. Idolatry is an attempt to use God for man’s purposes, rather than to give oneself to God’s service.” CFD Moule.

All of us had been idol worshippers at one time or other in our life. “My sin was this, that not in him but in his creatures—myself and others—I sought for pleasures, honors, and truths, and so fell headlong into sorrows, confusions, errors.” Augustine of Hippo.

“Man’s mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain. Every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols” John Calvin. “Idolatry may not involve explicit denials of God’s existence or character. It may well come in the form of an over attachment to something that is in itself, perfectly good. The crucial warning is this: As soon as our loyalty to anything leads us to disobey God, we are in danger of making it an idol.” Os Guinness.

I. PROHIBITIONS AGAINST IDOLATRY (20:4-6, 22, 23)

First commandment forbids the existence of other gods, and this second commandment forbids the making of other gods or God in man’s image. The first can be broken unconsciously whereas the second can be broken consciously. This commandment deals with the issue of power—the rites, incantations and chanting associated with idols.

Idolatry is unreasonable, unacceptable and unforgiveable:

Idolatry is part of the sinful nature (Galatians. 5:19-21, Colossians 3:5).

Idolatry is what the pagans practise (I Peter 4:3)

The Bible description of idolatry:

  1. Idols made of heads, hearts and hands. Could be made of gold, silver, bronze, brass, stone, porcelain or glass. Yet it could be something that replaces God in our hearts.
  2. Idols are powerless—they cannot save themselves (Isaiah 44:15-18).
  3. Idols are useless—they cannot do anything (Jeremiah 10:5).
  4. Idols make man become what he made (Psalm 115:4-8).

II. FALSE GODS OF OUR TIMES

  1. Atheism—No God, worships only self
  2. Polytheism—Many gods
  3. Pantheism—All is God.
  4. Panentheism—God is in the universe

“You don’t have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them. Whatever you love more than God is your idol.” DL Moody.

III. IDOLATRY INSULTS GOD

  1. Man cannot see God the Almighty
  2. God who’s far greater cannot be contained in any vessel
  3. God deserves our first, our best and our all.
  4. Idols are the dwelling place of evil.
  5. Idols deceive us, and eventually disappoint and disillusion us.

IV. IDOLATRY BRINGS DIVINE PUNISHMENT (Exodus 20:5)

V. GOD’S GENEROUS LOVING KINDNESS (Exodus 20:6)

LESSONS TO LEARN AND TO OBEY:

Idolatry is the central problem of faith. It is an abomination to God. “There is nothing so abominable in the eyes of God and of men as idolatry, whereby men render to the creature that honor which is due only to the Creator.” Blasé Pascal

  1. Covenant to love God wholeheartedly
    Matthew 22:37, 38
  2. Children, keep yourselves from idols (I John 5:21)
    Flee from idolatry (I Corinthians 10:14)
  3. Circumcise your hearts (Deuteronomy 30:6)
    “The dearest idol I have known,
    Whatever that idol be,
    Help me tear it from thy throne,
    And worship only thee.”
    William Cowper
  4. Creator God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth (John 4:24)

There is a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts, which nothing and no one can fill except God and
God alone.

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