The Nature and Danger of Contemporary Idolatry

today I'm back in Exodus and we are studying the Ten Commandments so today I'm going to do part of the second commandment they're the implications of the prohibition of images in idols are so profound and they've been important throughout church history and they're still important today the issues are still on the table there's still a battle about what place icons can have in fact as they're being abused and misused and brought back into the evangelical church so I'm going to lay out for you why God is forbidding the use of images in worship and show you from the Old Testament Scriptures that these images are not neutral they're very powerful they're very dangerous and there's a good reason why God has forbidden the use of images let me first give you an overview so you know where I'm going here god forbids idols specifically images Moses then preaches a sermon on the topic of idols and images in Deuteronomy chapter 4 the people by the way I'm going to go there and show you Moses a sermon on this the people have not seen God's form we're told their idols often represent the hosts of heaven I'm going to show you that this hosts of heaven is not just about planets and stars but it's about spirit beings that are in heavenlies the hosts of heaven have been allotted by God to the pagan nations that's a very interesting phenomena and when Israel rebels she is warned that she'll be turned over to the hosts of heaven and that's not a good place to be Israel was Yahweh's but if she rebelled she'll be turned over to the same forces that are down eating the pagan nations let's go to our text in Exodus 20 and I have just four and in part of five so the rest of this talks about some generational curses and visiting iniquities to the third of our generation so I'm going to preach that next week this week we'll do images next week I'll explain that what it means when it says the iniquities are visited to the third and fourth generation let's look at our past as you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness and what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth you shall now worship them or serve them the first commandment was about the proper object of worship God himself alone is to be worshiped and served the second commandment is about the mode of worship God will not allow himself to be served through images there's no image to be made of Yahweh and there is no image to be used to worship Yahweh and there's no image that can mediate between God and man and this heaven above or earth beneath or water under the earth would give a comprehensive prohibition wherever you might think you find something that would be a valid image it's not it's not the prohibition of having any possible images at whatsoever because they actually had images in the tabernacle in fact there were images in the temple of oxen and so on but what's prohibited is the mode the mode of worship is the issue the mode of worship and so no one can take make themselves an object and say this object is my way of coming to God or mediates God to me or so on and we're not to have any of those now in the ancient Near East these idols had to do as a seeing the presence of the deity thus represented so if the idol is sitting on your table you're saying that this Idol represents whatever deity that I'm worshipping and sometimes the idols presence was to entice favor from a deity but God speaks words and this is going to be a big contrast for us to pay attention to the uniqueness of God is that he reveals himself through his words God came on Sinai and spoke the thing as I've been saying the thing that keeps us from becoming pagan is the Word of God God has given us his word and human beings by default if not acted upon by God's grace will always be pagan we have pagan inclinations they are always there they're always right at the doorstep and all you have to do is bring away the restraint of the word and paganism happens our nation is more pagan now than it probably ever has been people have images they have these angels and they have they want to have spirituality there's not mediated to them through God or his Word or through Jesus Christ and as I said several times recently the reason for that is because the Word of God is not taught in the churches and the less the Word of God is taught the more we become pagan our kids become Pig and we become big and that just happens because that's the way the whole world is pagan but God gave us the word now the images are how the pagans serve their deities now there's other things here that that I'm not going to turn to all of these that are prohibitions that show how serious God is about no idols no gods no images do not mention their names Exodus 23 13 do not practice divination Deuteronomy 18 I've talked about that before that's how the pagans try it contact their deities in order to get information there to destroy their places of worship Deuteronomy 12 - and they're not to make an image to represent Yahweh that is strictly forbidden you cannot do this and we'll see that they actually did do that while Moses was still up on syenite now notice in of the very first part of verse 5 of Exodus 20 you should not worship them or serve them so this explains what's being forbidden okay I read an article about this a few weeks ago as I was anticipating I'd be preaching from the 10 commandments and I wanted to know what's prohibited and what isn't for a Christian there's been a debate in church history about whether it's forbidden for us to have pictures of Jesus or for example can you have a children's Bible with pictures in it and some groups have had said no you can't even have that but we read a very well-written article that says no that's not the intent and could a picture of Jesus be an idol yes it could and this particular author that I was reading told a story that he heard from somebody else who had a picture of Jesus in his room and the picture of Jesus had was painted so that Jesus had kind of a demure expression on his face sort of like the Mona Lisa type thing okay and this guy said that's how he got his answers you know he said he he'd pray and then he'd look at the picture of Jesus and if it looked like Jesus was smiling then that meant Jesus approved of what he was asking and if he looked at the picture and Jesus was frowning then it was a bad thing and so he was actually using a picture of Jesus for divination that's divination now if that's what's going on that is idolatry and as forbidden okay but if there's an illustration and a children's by a Bible of Zacchaeus in the tree and Jesus tell him to come down it's not intended to mediate between God and man it's not intended to be the presence of the of the god of Jesus and so forth but just be aware of this humans want to be pagan it's their nature and we'll we'll take just about anything and try to turn it into a tool for divination if we're not careful even the pages of the Bible you know throw and throw up throw up the Bible and it lands on the floor pick it up and whatever page that's what God is trying to tell you know it's the words that are the Word of God the tabernacle had images and so on let me give you an example from the Bible that you've probably heard of I'm not gonna turn to all these things so I have a lot to preach here today remember are they made the brazen serpent Moses made the brazen serpent and when he held it up the people were healed when they looked at it well later in their history it tells us in the Bible that Hezekiah destroyed that serpent because they'd kept it around and they were using it as an idol okay so that's that shows you something at one point the brazen serpent was valid because it was ordained by God and it brought healing to them I mean it was a type of Christ Jesus said as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so well the Son of Man be lit up but then they took it and they were offering incense to us and to become an idol and Hezekiah had to destroy it so you can see that there's a intent to worship or serve or mediate a deity that's forbidden now let's go back to Deuteronomy 4 and learn some things from Moses sermon about the second commandment about images Deuteronomy 4:15 so watch yourself carefully since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Orab for the midst of the fire no that's what we've been preaching out from Exodus they didn't see any form now it's amazing how biblical scholars that are very very brilliant people get things wrong because they just don't read or that I don't know what happens but I've read I don't know how many scholars say their reason they can't have an image of Yahweh is because Yahweh has no form he's invisible he spirit and he can't make an image of his spirits so that's why it's not even possible that's not what it says in the Bible and I'm gonna show you that now I realized that ontologically that means as an order of being God is omnipresent invisible and spirit in his ultimate essence and being but when when Yahweh came and appeared to Moses he did have this very form to Munna that's used here in verse 15 and we're gonna see that in numbers 12 and verse 8 look at numbers 12 and verse 8 and we're going to see that that's not the reason for the prohibition the lack of a form the reason was that God did not want them to make one they did not want them to make a form here's what it says now this was when Moses Authority was challenged and here's what God says numbers 12 eight in defense of Moses with him I speak mouth to mouth even openly not in dark sayings and he be holds the form to Munda same word he be holds the form of the Lord Yahweh why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant against Moses now this is really interesting Moses alone nobody else Moses alone beheld the form of Yahweh it it says that the burning bush that the angel of the Lord came and whatever for that was whatever have a Fiat theophany some people think the pre-incarnate christ but whatever moses was there and he saw a form and moses was the one who received the law Moses is the one who was the mediator who spoke for God and Moses is the one who gave the rules about what prophets should be listened to and what not to listen to now I'm gonna show you something that's very interesting because Moses saw Moses is the mediator and he speaks for God look at 1 John 1:1 this now makes sense to me why the Apostles had to have seen the resurrected Christ Moses saw Yahweh the Apostles saw the resurrected Christ what did John say here what was from the beginning what we have heard well we have seen with our eyes what we've looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life so we haven't seen the resurrected Christ but we believe in him but we believe based on the words of his apostles who speak for God we believe in Christ because Christ came they witnessed him speaking they heard him they touched him he was tangibly in the flesh incarnate God and they those apostles gave us his words so that we can believe the gospel of Jesus Christ now that's the very first verse in first John the very last verse in first John says guard yourself from idols the issue is this are we going to believe the words of the Apostles who did see Christ or are we going to try to create some sort of a unmediated contact point okay are we going to get a statue of Jesus and get down before it and I think that he hears us because we're in front of this image that's the pagan temptation idols are always sitting right around the door waiting to pop back up into the church think about it Moses saw the form Moses mediated the word the Apostles saw the resurrected Christ the Apostles gave us the word of Christ they speak for God back to our sermon that is Moses is sermon Deuteronomy 416-218 then he gives a list of things that are prohibited specifically so that you do not act corruptly okay remember now you saw no form but you heard words so so do not a couple and make roughly and make a graven image for yourself in the form there's that same word again of any figure the likeness of male or female the likeness of any animal that is on the earth the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground and the likeness of any fishes in the water below the earth now all of these categories are come right out of Genesis 1 all right and what this idolatry is is as a major role reversal if you remember Genesis 1 God created in these days created created created created and then onion trace man and and man and woman are creating the image of God and they're given dominion over all the other created things idolatry is a role reversal because the man and woman were to be submitted to God and as God's representatives on the earth they are dove have dominion over the other creatures and beings when they make idols and worship these things they're rejecting the god who's over them they're rejecting their role as having dominion over these things and they're putting themselves under the created order and they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator yeah that's Romans 1 there's Romans 1 so they give it over to reprobation when they do that there were they're worshipping the creature rather than the Creator so it's forbidden now this goes a step further and this is where it really gets interesting okay so now we know we can't make a form of Yahweh because they didn't see if they but the Heavy's words and moses saw most gave us the words can they have the form of any of these things that God created on the earth and now it goes beyond that and beware unless you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the Sun and the moon and the stars all the hosts of heaven and be drawn away and worship them and serve them those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven now this is another one it was interesting that the scholars they don't know what to do with this verse so they take that and try to say well it's a good thing because the peoples are able to enjoy the stars in the Sun and so on but that's not what is talking about okay it's more interesting than that and it's a lot more literal than that first thing we need to do is to determine who the hosts of heaven are and I say who now what who is this host of heaven and why would God a lot the hosts of heaven to the pagans let's go to Deuteronomy 29 26 about this allotment and then we're gonna go into first Kings 22 to Narada me 29 26 and when they went and served other gods like the hosts of heaven and worshiped them gods whom they have not known and whom he had not allotted to them alright so God alots the hosts of heaven to the pagans but not to Israel and what we're going to see is that Israel is specifically God Yahweh's allotment Yahweh rules directly over Israel through her representatives prophets priests and kings the pagans are under the hosts of heaven let's go on what's this host of heaven well I can prove to you right here from 1 Kings 20 to 19 to 22 that these are beings these are spirit beings because it tells us right here this was the story about Messiah who was the true prophet and then the four hundred false prophets who had been deceiving Ahab and mkhaya says this therefore verse 19 hear the word of the Lord I saw the Lord Yahweh sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right and on his left and the Lord said who will entice a hab to go up and fall at ramoth-gilead and one said this while another said that now these are personalities beings that are speaking then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said I will entice him and if you know the story he said I'll be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets and that'll get him to do it so the hosts of heaven are spiritual entities fallen was because this one offered to be a lying spirit and God cannot lie and the holy angels are not going to lie so this is a fallen being a fallen spirit being that's part of this host of heaven that had been allotted to the pagans and this one was going to come and be a lying spirit so there are spare beings that I looked up the phrase you can do this if you have a computer concordance look up for yourself the phrase hosts of heaven and you can find every mention in the Bible and there's not one place where it unambiguously has to be interpreted just as stars and galaxies but there are many places where it has to be interpreted as spirit beings so I'm suggesting that the Bible is telling us that the hosts of heaven are spirits fallen ones of some sort spiritual entities and that they've been allotted by God over the pagan nations and I believe that these are the stoical and Ephesians or the principalities and powers that are talked about in the New Testament under which the nations exist now let's go to another passage hang on to your hat this gives even more interesting I didn't realize when I started writing this sermon where it was going to take me but once I found this host of heaven thing and this allotment and apportionment and so on all the lights start coming on now here's the passage Deuteronomy 32 8 and 9 about which there's a translation issue the Masoretic text says the sons of Israel but the older texts and such as were found in Qumran that are far far older than the Masoretic text and a Septuagint which was translated before the time of Christ from Hebrew text have this as the sons of God let's read it the most high gave the nation's their inheritance now this is the allotment to the nation's right when did this happen let me stop right there when it is sample well this happened after Genesis 10 and 11 when you have the table of Nations there's there was 70 nations and they're given an inheritance or an allotment okay when he separated the sons of man he set the boundaries of the people's according to the number of the sons of God Septuagint Qumran reading there's a document on our website written by a dr. Michael Heizer about this verse it's 27 page document with detailed theological in textual arguments proving that this is the correct reading and what some of the implications of it are I've met dr. Heiser when I was out at a think-tank in California and he's one of the top scholars there works for the Logos Bible Software he's a brilliant scholar in the biblical languages you can go to our website under reference links go under sermons reference links and you can read the document there from dr. Heiser proving that sons of God is the correct reading and and then what are the implications of that that I'm preaching to you today then it says in verse 9 for the Lord's portion now notice the difference there's the people's the boundary of the peoples within the Lord's for Yahweh's portion is his people Jacob is the allotment of his inheritance so what Deuteronomy is telling us if we just want to read it literally for what it says here is that all the pagan nations are under the sons of God which by the way I'll show you who they are there they're also these same spirit beings they're under the pagan under these stoical to heaven israel is directly under Yahweh himself now Yahweh's the has authority over all right and he sets up the rulers be they spiritual or practical and he has total authority over all things but as you can see from the earlier passage in 1 Kings 22 he was working through these yeah through this host of heaven to bring about things that happen so the portion that God kept for himself is Israel the land in the people there the Lord's there uniquely to the Lord's let's go on let's look at this sons of the sons of God who the sons of God and what are we talking about here let's look at Jobe another place where the curtain is pulled back and we get to see into the throne room how God is managing his own universe job 1 in verse 6 now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh and Satan came among them so again we have spirit beings in this heavenly Council who could include evil ones - Satan is here and God is dealing with these spirits about what's gonna happen on the face of the earth are you still following me I think people go this is this is maybe not what you expected when we're gonna talk about you but you probably thought I was going to be talking about statues of Mary well I might do that too but as a matter of fact there's this worldview that I'm laying out here that has taught all the way from Genesis to Revelation they just explained in a New Testament it's just that we don't tend to take things literally but this is the way it is okay now let me let's go to what another passage in Deuteronomy then I'm going to talk about this a little bit here is a discussion about how the pagans worship their God Deuteronomy 32 16 and 17 they made him jealous with strange gods with abominations they provoked him to anger they sacrificed to demons who were not God to gods whom they have not known no gods who came late lately whom he fathers did not dread so here it says that pagan idolatry is more than the idea that the idol is a piece of wood although it's that macht for being that in Jeremiah and Isaiah but any pagan that has an idol believes the idol represents the deity or mediates the deity or if I his favor in the eyes of the deity the idol actually is just a touchstone to get you somewhere else okay because it says here in fact Paul says this and in first Corinthians as well that they're sacrificing two demons there are wicked spirit beings that literally exist that are called the hosts of heaven that the idol represents so the pagans have their idols and the pig is then put under the allotment of these wicked beings under Yahweh and Israel cannot have idols it's not that the pagans should it's just the way they are okay but but Israel cannot have these idols because Israel's directly under Yahweh and they didn't see his form they heard his words and the Bible says words are more important than images they say a picture is worth a thousand words is a lie absolutely it's a lie you know why because words convey rational content and you can you can interpret an image however you see fit okay so God gave Israel something special something unique God came to them God spoke to them and they didn't see a form but they heard words so they have it way better the pagans don't know what they're worshiping there they're in the dark they're in the fog they're put up their idols and they bow before them and they think there's a DD but they can't and there is but they don't know what it is or where it comes from and they don't know if they have favor in the eyes of the deity or disfavor their pagans we have the word we have God he's ruling over us and if we can't serve Him without a visual image to mediate us to God than we're pagans that's the issue okay so these are demons they're real they're out there they're not imaginary beings now look at 2 Kings 1716 which tells what happened when they first sub God and I'm gonna give you a world view for under the Old Covenant what it was like to King 1716 and they first took all the commandments now what were the commandments the words they're called ten words they don't want to hear God's words they're tired of it they first took all the commandments of the Lord Yahweh their God and made for themselves molding images even to Cavs and made an Astra and were worshipped all the hosts of heaven they had become pagan the idols represent the hosts of heaven the hosts of heaven are demons and wicked spear beings that were allotted to the nations now this explains so much think about it now very carefully think about this how could you be saved under the Old Covenant did you not have to go to Israel and obey God's law and dwell with the Israelites you had to become a proselyte to be saved if you were going to be faithful to Yahweh that's where you had to go why because Yahweh ruled over Israel the land and her people the rest of the world out there is allotted to the demons and if you stay in their situation you're under their gods you have to get out of it but something changed when the new covenant came but you know this as this worldview that I'm laying out here for you it really shows you how important and how unique Israel is Israel was Yahweh's own allotment and when Israel forsook God he said this I'm turning you over to the hosts of heaven in other words you're going to become pagans and see how you like it being under pagan kings and the pagan kings are under demons crisp alleys and powers of darkness they're under those and that's what you're going to get if you want the idols that's fine you're over to the pagans you're not mine look at this in a New Testament this one just blew me away this this week I barely got my sermon done because I got so excited study you know I went all the way into Saturday before I was still working on my sermon on Saturday because the studying was so fun this is Steven preaching to Israel recounting their history and bringing them up face to face with Messiah and they ended up murdering him but look at what Steven said in the New Testament to Israel but God turned away that was from their fathers and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven he delivered him over to serve the host of heaven in other words he says okay now you're pagan you don't want Yahweh you don't want to obey my law you don't want to do things my way you want to have images and idols then you've got put yourself away from my allotment Yahweh's alot in Israel and now you go over to the pagans and you get to serve the host of heaven and you don't like that as it is written in the book of the prophets it was not to me that you offered victims and sacrifices forty years it wasn't not to me it was not to me you offered victims of sacrifice forty years in the wilderness was it a house of Israel what they did was they got kicked out and turned over to the hosts of heaven a bad place to be you don't want to be under the hosts of heaven now if you putting this together with last week I just told you last week how to get out from under the hosts of heaven remember last week's sermon you turn to Christ and you get out from under Satan and you have citizenship in heaven and you're under the lordship of Christ that's how you get out of it you're going to Israel won't do it now you know what that won't work until the Millenium because the the land has not yet restored under Messiah and so the hosts of heaven are there to Deuteronomy 4:19 in back to our sermon and Deuteronomy 4 ok back to back to the Moses 19b in 20 all the hosts of heaven and be drawn away and worship them and served them those which the larger God has allotted there's our word again to all the peoples under the whole earth but the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace from Egypt to be a people for his own possession so they were in Egypt and there they were under the demons they were under the gods and the plagues as I preached when we went through that were a Yahweh defeating one God after another after another that they used to worship in Egypt be it the frogs or the Nile or whatever God Yahweh was defeating their gods and then taking Israel because they were because of the promise he had made to Abraham and and defeated the army and brought them out and brought them to himself brought them through the Red Sea brought him the manna brought him to Sinai God comes down on Sinai God speaks to them and takes them to be his people his possession and if they make idols if they make images they're saying to Yahweh we'd rather live like the Egyptians we'd rather be under the demons than have a loving God who's revealed himself and spoke words and married us saying I will be your God and you will be my people apostasy is that bad and we're warned about it in the book of Hebrews so they're his then he says in his sermon so watch yourselves lest you forget the Covenant of Yahweh your God the Lord which he made with you and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you for the Lord your God is a consuming fire a jealous God and if that's familiar to you is because you read the book of Hebrews it's quoted and he 12:29 Hebrews is a warning against apostasy in idolatry and so the author of Hebrews brings to the mind what God had said to the old covenant people when he warned him against apostasy in idolatry this is a solemn warning and why is this reiterated so often why is this emphasized so strongly why do the prophets again and again preach on this why because this is a fatal thing to go over to the gods and to have the idols why do people want them they want them today why do people want them because the idol and we're going to see this in our application the idol is something they can tangibly have in their hand it's something they can see and the idol doesn't rebuke them no you put that little Idol on there you know you get your statue or your Idol or your deity and you put it on your dresser and when you get up the idols not gonna say all right don't take the Lord's name in vain today don't cheat on your wife don't steal don't covet no I don't don't say that fact the people idols they do all those things and they enjoy it the idols more tangible the idol has no moral content in the end there'll be an idol that speaks and I'll be the worst of them all I did that a while back as a application point that'll be the worst one let's go to some applications and implications God is unseen and offers his words not any image we must be we're being like the pagans who use images whether mental ones or tangible ones to access the spirit world we must avoid unbelief that leads to idolatry let's go the Exodus here I'm going to do an application right out of the Exodus because this was what happened okay God warned them against having images no no image you didn't see a form you heard the words listen to my words don't make an image but what do they do and why did they do it look at this X is 30 to 1 now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain the people assembled about Aaron and said to him come makers of God now why did they do that well because Moses was no longer visible they couldn't see the form of Yahweh only Moses did that Moses mediated his words Moses spoke for God he's on the mountain and so they don't have anything tangible though they don't have Moses and they don't have a form so they want a form they want something tangible they don't want a worship but unseen God they need tangibility so here's what they do come make us a God who will go before us answer this Moses the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt we don't know what has become of him see this is the same issue in the book of Hebrews did you know that this is exactly what Hebrews is about we're making plans God willing to do a radio series through the book of Hebrews and pray for us that we'll have time to do that the reason we're talking about it is I think that the book of Hebrews is the most applicable book to the evangelical church today the book of Hebrews is a warning against apostasy and we're living in the age of apostasy and we better know what that book means and what it tells us in Hebrews is that the reason they were going to apostasy is from Christ was because he had gone up into heaven and they couldn't see him Moses went up on the Mount that couldn't see him they'e pasta sized unbelievers have to have a tangible representation of their deity believers will believe even when they don't see come make us again we're weird where'd he go I don't see any Moses he's not telling us any more words let's just have our own God so what did he do so he took the gold from their hand fashioned it with a grading tool and made it into a molten calf and and they said look at what they said this is your God o Israel who brought you up from the land of Egypt now what are they seeing they're seeing the golden calf represents Yahweh let the golden calf be your visible tangible representation because you can't see Moses and you never did see Yahweh so here it is this is Yahweh that's who they'd had to think of whose poo brought him out of Egypt Yahweh so here he is here's your Yahweh then what did they do once they had a tangible God who doesn't speak what do they do they had a party they they had a raucous party they did what everybody wanted to do because they're no longer restrained by the Word of God what do you think will happen to our churches in America once we're not restrained by the Word of God well we'll do what they did have a party do whatever we want that's what will happen now Paul made used to that in the New Testament in 1 corinthians 10:6 is 7 he talks about the ex is 32 event so it's kind of a segue here he quotes them well we just saw an exodus now these things happened to them as examples for us why so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved they wanted a tangible deity that they made and they controlled the invisible god of the whole universe was in heaven is an awesome God he's a consuming fire and he's to be feared the object on my mantle if I get mad at it I can bust it I've maintained control over the deity did not create evil things as they crave do not be idolatrous now we think well that would only apply to people who lived in pagan times when everybody had iost no one applies today and some of them were as it was written the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play I debated a pastor not on this topic but this particular pastor says that he can go into an altered state of consciousness that Jesus appears to his mind and that this Jesus in his mind speaks to him and that this Jesus takes him time traveling into the past and that this Jesus that comes to his mind allows him to talk to dead ancestors I'm not making that up now because as mental is it okay no because you have the same problem you have a mediation this one as soon as the image becomes a mediator of some sort or a touch spot for for your religious activity you have an idol okay so that's ventilatory whether it's a piece of stoner of the thing in our mind is still idolatry so we have a reference here warning not to do that in revelation 13 14 and 15 there's going to be an image that speaks and everybody in the world it's not sealed by God well worship it sort of Hebrews I got a I have to go in Hebrews and I can't preach this sermon without going into Hebrews what is let's think about again Hebrews as a warning against apostasy I think there's five specific warnings in Hebrews against apostasy how does Hebrews begin Hebrews 1 1 and 2 God who spoke to the fathers in many portions many ways has in these last days spoken to us in his son and so on Hebrews begins with this statement God spoke were and if you don't believe those words you're going to go somewhere else when people don't want the word they want the idol whether it's Idol of money and Idol agreed or a literal pagan Idol and in the 21st century that's the ones they're really going big now people want to contact the spirit world through some means all right so it starts out with the word but what does it warned us about here for yet in a very little while he who is coming will come will not delay but my righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him Jesus is the high priest he's seated at the right hand of God he's in heaven he's not visible but we believe in him and if we're not satisfied with an invisible God who speaks words who spoke words we'll make a golden calf let me tell you about Jesus when I'm talking about Jesus I'm not just talking about in a world a person who started world religion I'm talking about God who existed as God and with God from all eternity who came into human history born of a virgin and lived a sinless life who did miracles to tell everybody to prove to everybody who he claimed to be which is God incarnate Jesus died for sins and Hebrews says once for all once for all because God's wrath was directed against our sin and his blood was shed and if we believed in him that blood washes away our sins cleanse our conscience from dead works and a verse God's wrath that's propitiated vs. God's wrath against our sin he was he rose on the third day bodily and but they appeared to witnesses that's these apostles I was telling about he sent it into heaven and he's going to be there until he comes back and he will come he's coming again bodily either the reward us if we've been bullied leaving him or destroy us if were his enemy the way to avoid that destruction is to repent and believe the gospel turned to him believe in Him we don't need the pagan idols we don't need all the stuff that culture offers we don't need to watch secular talk shows to hear about pagan spirituality we need the gospel we need Jesus Christ turn to Him and then for those of you who have believed him and are saved and do know him let his word penetrate your hearts let us be people of the book people of the word so that we don't fall into the temptations that are engulfing our entire society Church included that's the warning Hebrews 11:1 we need to avoid unbelief absolutely that's the problem unbelief unbelief will always lead to idolatry the pagans have been allotted the hosts of heaven according to dharana me when Jesus was rejected by Israel and it says in the Bible this Jerusalem will be trodden underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled that hasn't happened yet so everybody in the whole world is under the hosts of heaven everybody and as I preached last week the only way to get out from there is repent and believe the gospel and then you have citizenship in heaven and you can obey secular authorities and you don't have to worry about the principalities and powers because you're seated with Christ and Everly's far above them it's good it's good to go to Israel but it won't get you away from the hosts of heaven yeah wait till the Millenium and we'll be different so why does it's a phase of the faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen that is the issue that faith is the entire issue that's going to keep us from idolatry now in the case of the Jewish people that were written to by the author of Hebrews they were going back to things under the Old Covenant that one time valid and that's called apostasy how much worse is that to go back to something that was never valid all right and what made them go back because Jesus is in heaven it's just um Golden Calf all over again we don't see Moses we can't see the mediator you say we have mediator I don't see any mediator he's in heaven but we can go to the temple and there's the high priest in his glorious garb we can even talk to him and the blood that he sheds at Passover is tangible we can see it it's real how do I know Jesus's blood was shed once for all I can't see it oh I know we'll dream up something like transubstantiation so you can see the blood uh-huh absolutely I could have reached this whole sermon just about church history and I an idolatry but I thought that had more impact to see at the heart what it's all about so then you can see why it shows up in church history it shows up because the pagan people who call themselves Christian don't want to believe they want to make a tangible deity that they can put on their shelf do you believe do you believe you know one more slide you may have seen it if you came to faith at wrist I'm just putting this up here I hope it shocks you this here Christianity today supposedly the flagship evangelical magazine has a picture on the cover of an evangelical digging up Catholic icons and the article that's represented by the picture on the cover says that this is a good thing they'll work that evangelicals are going back to Rome and that's where we need to go if you look at this you see vivid demonstration of what happens when we prefer images and icons over God's Word this happens because we rejected this the Bible we don't want to believe what it says we can't believe and if Jesus is in heaven because we can't see him we can't believe in the unseen God has revealed himself in his word we want an icon we want our own we're going to have a prayer labyrinth we're going to have practices that we learn from the monks and so on the editor says these this ancient church and it's idolatry cap he doesn't say that that's my comment captivated notice what it says here I have it in red the evangelical imagination there's the problem right there we have them we want to go by our imagination not what God said the false prophets of Jeremiah prophesied from their own imagination you know if people imagined that it would be nice to pay to be able to get down in front of this little crucifix or this little statue of Mary and feel closer to God why do you why do people do that why would anybody bow down in front of us to ask you to marry and say all this stuff they know the statute is not Mary but it makes them feel closer to the queen of Helen they're doing it because they don't believe see if we quit believing then we go by our imagination and we go by our feeling and just coming to church and hear a preacher teach straight out of the Bible this the self the lord here's what he said well that doesn't tickle my imagination so where do we go go back to the masters go back to Rome beloved I don't know what's going to happen I think the days are short but we don't know we're here we're here on this in this world at this time of history and what we desperately need as long as we're here is for a movement of some sort of churches whether it's organized or unorganized we need the word to be taught we need a taught in every church we need to talk to our children we need to talk to our neighbors and if we if we're not going to do that if the Word of God is not going to rest on us we're going to have the golden calf every time it will pop up but Aaron said just popped up look there's the calf I guess I guess that's how we got out of Egypt went from the frogs to the calf dear was I I hope you share my passion about this and we've got to get the Word of God out and to that end we're putting material on our website where I my goal is that by the time we're done with this they will have a website that will teach the Bible to anybody in the world and they won't have to be pagan so let's let's pray Heavenly Father we you've just been merciful to us to take us out from under the hosts of heaven and put us under Israel's Messiah with citizenship in heaven thank you for doing that Lord and we're so concerned about our movement and where things have gone and how people don't see the dangers of where they're going the MS boldest lar to proclaim your word may your Holy Spirit fill us that we may be like Peter was filled with the spirit and he boldly proclaimed your word may that be true for us and may we help our children and our relatives and our neighbors to get out of this miserable paganism that's engulfing us on every side and we thank you for helping us do our part to preach the word lord in jesus name amen please stand for the benediction I think if I can find Jude there it is I thought Judah would be appropriate let me read a little bit of Judah and I'll give you the benediction certainly with verse 17 but you beloved ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus don't swear he points to words remember the worst fokin by the Apostles that they were saying to you in the last days there surely Bacher's following after their ungodly lusts these are the ones who cause division worldly minded devoid of the spirit but you beloved building yourself up on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Spirit keep yourselves in the love of God waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life and have mercy on some who are doubting say there's unbelief is the issue save others snatching them out of the fire and then some have mercy with fear hating even the garment polluted by the flesh now all the benediction now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory Majesty Dominion and authority before all time now and forever amen god bless you have a wonderful Sunday

Channel: Critical Issues Commentary

Views: 2,109

Rating: 4.8461537 out of 5

Keywords: Idolatry, Bob DeWaay, CIC, Critical Issues Commentary, Second Commandment, Bible Teaching, Sermons, Host of Heaven

Id: sewtQ0kzfQ8

Length: 56min 33sec (3393 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 29 2016