No Graven Images

Text: Exodus 20:4-6

Introduction:

· Many kids ask, “What does God look like?”

· In the first command we saw that there is but One God, and it is to be our first priority to worship and honor Him with our lives. This second command seems to be very similar to the first. But, this command speaks of how we are to worship Him. It tells us not to try to create Him in our likeness. Where the first command warned against worshipping a false god, this command warns us against worshipping the True God in a false manner.

I. The Requirements of this Command.

A. Don't create material images of God.

1. The word in Greek for idol means: to "cast a shadow."

2. The Hebrew word for "graven" literally means: "to hammer out."

B. This command forbids the making of images to use in worship of God.

C. Some O.T. examples of idol worship.

1. The Israelites at Sinai

a) The people convinced Aaron to fashion a golden calf.

b) This was a god like the Egyptians had worshipped.

(Ex. 32:5-6) "And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, to morrow is a feast to the lord. {6} and they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play."

2. The Bronze Snake only a symbol (Num. 21)

(2 Ki. 18:4) "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan."

3. Gideon’s ephod: they attached some supernatural power to it because of Gideon

"And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house." (Ju. 8:27)

D. Moses warned the nation of Israel concerning the worship of idols before they were to enter into the promised land.

(Deu. 4:15-16) "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves ... Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,"

II. The Reason for this Commandment.

A. Idols limit our concept of who God is.

1. In His nature: He is alive, personal.

2. In His action: He is almighty.

(Ex. 20:5a) "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the lord thy God am a jealous God..."

B. They limit our concept of where God is.

(Ps. 139:7-10) "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? {8} if I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. {9} if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; {10} even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."

1. God is not confined to buildings!

2. God is not confined to objects!

C. The worship of idols also leads to judgment.

Ex. 20:5b-6 "...I the lord thy god am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; {6} and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."

III. Our Response to this Commandment.

A. "Clean house " on the idols in your life.

(1 Co. 12:2) "Ye know that ye were gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led."

(Ps. 115:8) "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them."

(Jer. 2:5) "Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?"

B. Worship God only.

1. Worship means: give my highest love and devotion.

(Ro. 1:25) "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."

2. The only image that we are to worship is Christ.

(Col. 1:15) "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:"

(Heb. 1:1-3) "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, {2} hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; {3} who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high;"

(John 1:18) "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him." (John 10:30) "I and my father are one."

(John 14:9) "Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the father; and how sayest thou then, show us the father?" (2 Co. 4:6) "for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

3. God gave us His image in His Son, we are to worship Him and Him alone!

C. The only acceptable worship is in Spirit and in Truth.

"God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24)