Graven Mistakes (Part 2 of 2)

Music playing There have been many times in the history of man when the work of a sculptor or an artist has been laid aside because the monarch whom the artist was seeking to portray judged that the had highlighted one aspect to the detriment of others, and thus the monarch said, This image is singularly unhelpful. And so the artist who had done his best with the sculptor is sent packing with his little sculptor, because the king or the queen said, It doesn't do me justice. Don't come here with that crummy painting.

I look far better than that. Now, the fact may be, in relationship to earthly monarchs, that that may not have been the case. Some of them, if their renditions of them are anywhere close to accurate, they needed merciful painters, merciful portrait painters.

But nevertheless, many of these artisans were thrown out because the monarch said, It doesn't do me justice. Not true, necessarily, but in God's case, always true. There is no statue that could ever be erected. There is no painting that could ever be painted. There is nothing that could be done to visibly express God that would do anything other than diminish our view of God. I mean, it is impossible to conceive of something greater than God. Therefore, anything of which we conceive is going to be inevitably less than God. Therefore, something that is less than God to portray God is going to diminish our understanding of the God that we're trying to portray.

I mean, it's a dead-end street. It's stupidity. It's idolatry. And it is ultimately blasphemy. That's why, you see, in Exodus chapter 32, after Moses goes off on the trip and Aaron stays with the folks and says to them, You know, why don't you cash in your earrings and your stuff, and we'll make ourselves a little … a little representation of God here, presumably Aaron wasn't starting off in seeking to violate the first commandment. There's no way that he started off by saying, Now, we're not going to worship the true God. No, he was committed to worshiping the true God. But he thought it'd be a smart idea, responding to the agitations of people around him, to put together this little shrine deal where you had this calf. And they would make it of gold, and it would involve sacrifice, and that seems appealing.

It's going to cost the people something they're going to give on themselves, and then we'll make this little deal, and we'll put it on a statue, and then we'll come to it. He wasn't trying to violate commandment one, but he was violating commandment two. You can't worship the correct God incorrectly. And that's what he started to do. So the calf spoke of power, and maybe he wanted to say to the people, This is a powerful little calf, and it reminds us that we have a powerful God. But what did the calf also speak to the people of? Sexual impurity. So now the people couldn't look at the calf and think about power without looking at the calf and thinking about impurity. So now they had a problem. God has no impurity.

He is all power. But the conception of the calf makes man think diversely concerning this, and consequently, his worship is inadequate and is in violation of that which God has said should take place. In the same way today, loved ones, any kind of images that we create, whether they be crucifixes or anything else, I cannot depict God in all of his fullness. I was in a church in Chicago this week.

I went in just for a moment or two. I was thinking along these lines, and I stood for a moment and watched in this context as people gravitated to material representations of deity. Now, I don't for a moment question the individual's zeal. Nor do I even question, at this point, why it is that somebody determined that that would be good to do. Because what they're actually seeking to do is to make God more real, more imminent to the people. And their logic is, if we can only represent him in this way and bring him here, then the people will be able to get to him.

That can't be bad. But the issue is, what is it or to whom is it that they get? You see, because a Jesus on a cross speaks to us of his suffering but does not speak to us of his power and of his victory and of his glory. A Jesus on a cross is a Jesus on a cross, and thereby limits him by manifesting him in that way to the pathos of all that that scene represents. But Jesus is not on the cross, right? So why would we leave him on a cross? Because we want to depict him at the right hand of the Father on high. That's where the great artwork of the Sistine Chapels has at least tried to take it up and beyond so that the transcendence of God may be revealed.

But still, the people gravitate to those things. It depicts his suffering, but it obscures his victory. It obscures his joy and his power and his glory. The image is unworthy because of what it fails to display.

It is not unworthy insofar as it displays a truth, but it cannot encapsulate truth. And how did Christ determine that we'd be remembered? By people hanging crosses round their necks?

No. Do this in remembrance of me. He recognized that it was important for people to have a point of identification, to have a place of meeting. He said, When you break bread, remember that my body was broken for you.

When you drink wine, you remember that my blood was shed for you. But not in the machinations and imaginations of the minds of men and women, even with two thousand years of religious history driving the boat. So what do we learn? We learn that the establishing of images and shrines and statues create a dishonoring of God.

Secondly, that they create the potential for misdirecting men. If you study carefully Exodus 32, you'll see that this is the case. They created a calf—I'm sure that they weren't wrong in their beginning, at least conceptually.

They probably thought that it was a good idea, they were probably wrong that it was a good idea, but nevertheless, their motivation was right. But you go through Exodus 32, and what do you find? You find that when people begin wrong in their worship, they will end wrong in their lives.

Soon as they began to worship at the calf, they got into all kinds of pagan practices which were contrary to what God was really like. And somebody would have said, Hey, it doesn't matter if you have a little shrine. Yes, it does matter, because look what happened. People say, It doesn't really matter how you conceive of God.

Yes, it does. How one generation conceives of God has implications for the generation to follow. When a culture, when a society, when a people begin to devalue God and exalt humanity, begin to devalue deity and exalt the creations of men, then that culture is in deep trouble, and loved ones, that's where our culture is this morning. That's why we're in the situation in which we find ourselves.

Oh, you're not gonna find this in Time magazine or in US News and World Report. Every explanation of why we are the way we are is largely in response to a very secular view of history. But listen to what the Bible says about why we are the way we are. Romans chapter 1. Men, although they knew God, didn't glorify him as God—this is verse 21—and they didn't give thanks to him.

Okay? So they got up in the morning, and they went around as if they made everything. They got up in the morning, and they never gave thanks to God, they never thanked God for their food, they never bowed and said, God, I thank you for my food. Most people don't.

Why? Because they don't actually think that God gave them their food. They don't get up in the morning and thank God for their health and strength. They think they just have health and strength.

And that then leads to something else. Then they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. They thought they were really bright, verse 22, but they were actually really stupid.

And because they were, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Now, what could be possibly harmful about the film Free Willy? Well, probably not a lot. But any perceptive individual going to watch that movie understands just exactly what's going on there. Even when you set aside the Indian incantations that took place, the little boy finds out that it's gonna have a big impact, so now we got a God who's a different God that we're gonna include in the thing. The big deal has to do with the whale, and poor old whale.

And it's a completely secular view of man. Now, should we look after whales? Yeah, that's not in question.

I don't like them swimming around up the road here any more than anyone else does. But the point is that the whole of man has shifted in its thinking. We're still aborting babies. Millions of them, created in the image of God, with a soul.

What's going on? Well, you see, they broke the second commandment. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. And so God says, That's the way you want it.

That's the way you'll have it. God gave them up. God took his hands off them. He said, You want to live like that?

Watch what happens. And they gave themselves over in sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. The whole idea of the commandment, You shall not commit adultery, got thrown right out the door, along with the second commandment. They said, We don't care about this. People don't care any more about whether they're married and have children or not married or whatever.

The whole culture is in total collapse. And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. They said, God didn't say that.

This is what we think. And they worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. And so God says, Is that the way you want it? He gave them over again. He gave them over to shameful lusts. And so women became lesbians, and men became homosexuals. And God said, And that's not enough?

And he gave them over again? Loved ones, if you just live your life with your eyes open and your Bible on your lap, it's not hard to see that the inviolable commands of God, when contravened, do not simply impinge upon an individual's life and character but the effect of family, the effect of nation, the effect of whole culture. And that is where we are.

And I understand how unbelievably stupid it sounds to stand up and say, Loved ones, there's a big issue here, and it's commandment number two. We got it wrong. We started to worship ourselves and our own creations, and we ceased the worship of God. And when we do, men are misdirected. It's a psychological fact that if we entertain a lie long enough, we can eventually come to regard it as a truth. So if we have a mental or a metal or a wooden or a stone image of God, we will eventually come to think of God as the image represents him.

And that is a graven mistake. You see, when we make an image of God, what we're doing is taking our thoughts of God from a human source rather than from God himself. This, in our age, is a little more difficult to pinpoint. I think it speaks to things that we might not immediately notice. Some of the images that we have are not static, but they are dynamic. In a tele-video age, many of our images are a lot more fast-moving. Neil Postman points this out in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, when he says that today we must look to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, as a metaphor of our national character and aspiration. It's symbol a thirty-foot-high cardboard picture of a slot machine and a chorus girl. For Las Vegas is a city entirely devoted to the idea of entertainment, and as such proclaims the spirit of a culture in which all public discourse increasingly takes the form of entertainment.

Why? Because we are capitulating to the spirit of our age. We are driven by the God of entertainment. Well, you say, What are you on about, Al?

Well, here's the deal. If we live long enough in a culture that is on the verge of amusing itself to death, what do you think's going to happen in the church? What do you think is happening in the church? People come to church and they say, Hey, amuse me. Amuse me. Tickle me.

Cajole me. Don't tell me about a transcendent God. I don't like that. I want a we God. I want my God. I want a God I can control. I want a God I can manipulate.

I don't want this God. And so, in my line of work, the great temptation is, Are you gonna amuse them today? Are you gonna give them what they want?

Are you gonna tell them what they need? And some of you are embarrassed when you bring your friends. Because your friends, they're like, they're sitting on this gigantic prong with a huge pin cushion. And you hear me talking, and they're going, Ooh, ah!

Ooh, ah! And you go for coffee. He's really quite nice.

Come and meet him at coffee. He's not such a bad guy, you know. He's, I don't know, he had a bad morning, you know. He's just, oh, you sell the good.

Don't, I mean, when I'm bad, I'm bad. But if we're talking about the Word of God, don't sell it short. This is the Word of God. I'm not an entertainer.

This isn't entertainment tonight. Okay, let me wrap this up. What does this teach me about my relationship with God? Well, God says, I'm not like any of your images, but I am like this.

Like what? He says, well, I'm a jealous God. A jealous God?

Yeah. What does that mean? It simply means the same way that I'm a jealous husband.

What does that mean? It means I'm not gonna share my wife with anybody. That's what God means. I'm a jealous God.

I'm not gonna share you with anyone. I'm a just God. If you sin against me and turn your back on me, then there will be punishment which will go through the generations. The sins of fifty years ago are manifest today in our culture. Bad decisions of yesterday we live with today. The sins of today we will pass on to our children and our grandchildren.

It's cause and effect. I'm a just God, but I'm a gracious God. Yes, there is implication to sin for those who hate me, but I show love to a thousand generations of those who love me and those who keep my commandments. He declares his mercy to those who follow after him. Well, says somebody, you know, I'm really gonna have to think this out.

And I hope so. Because, you said, I thought that, first of all, these little places that I was sitting aren't much of a problem, and now you're telling me they might be. And secondly, because I like to imagine God, and you're telling me that I shouldn't. Well, I'm not telling you that you shouldn't.

I'm just trying to understand this second commandment. Imagination can really mess us up. Richard Foster, who's written very helpfully—it doesn't do such a good job on this question. Let me quote him, and I'm gonna use this just to draw things to a conclusion. Richard Foster, in celebrating the disciplines of the Christian life, encourages his readers, quotes, In your imagination allow your spiritual body, shining with light, to rise out of your physical body.

As an evangelical writer, first of all, I don't know what that means. I don't know about you. Have you got a spiritual body? We just got a body, right? We have a spirit, but we don't have a spiritual body. So how are we gonna get it out of here?

I don't know. And, he says, let it go up through the clouds and into the stratosphere, deeper and deeper into outer space, until there is nothing except the warm presence of the eternal Creator. See, Foster's gonna say, We're not gonna get down in front of this little shrine. We're not gonna put one of these in here. We don't believe in that.

That breaks the second commandment. What we're gonna do is, we're doing the E.T. trip on this. We're going outer space.

We're gonna get one of those bicycles, my spiritual body is gonna get pedaling up. That's how I imagine it when I imagine it. It's like when his friend goes, you know, Why don't we just get beamed up? And the kid says, Don't be crazy.

This is reality. As he cycles his bicycle up and away from those people, what is this stuff? What's the quest, loved ones? I'll tell you what the quest is. In the heart of man there is a longing to get close to God.

Okay? God creates within your heart a searching for him. That may be why you're here today.

You couldn't articulate it necessarily, but somewhere deep inside of you, you know that you want to get close. Somebody told you you could get close over here, and you went there, but God never materialized, and you have a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't localized. Somebody else told you that if you just imagined him and went into the stratosphere, that would be it. And you've been in all manner of stratospheres, and you're no closer. So is there an answer?

Yeah. Colossians 2, 9. For the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form Jesus, and we are complete in him. He has drawn close to us in the person of his Son, so that all of our encounters with him would be there. And how would we know of this Jesus but in this book? And anything and anyone that encourages us to worship the correct God incorrectly is a great detriment to spiritual life and progress.

Therefore, I encourage you to think these things out. Jesus said, This is life eternal, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Jesus said, He who has seen me has seen the Father.

What a tragedy. To embrace a picture and to miss the person. To sit at a shrine and to miss the Savior. To worship a statue and feel to know Christ. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg.

Please keep listening. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer. We are learning that God reveals himself to us through his creation, in his Word, and in his Son. And we dishonor God when we look for him in anything else. That's why at Truth for Life we're committed to teaching God's Word daily with clarity, even when the lessons are convicting, like our current study of the Ten Commandments. Our prayer is that God will work through these daily messages to bring unbelievers to saving faith and to strengthen the faith of existing believers, so they can stand firm against things like idolatry and false teaching. This is our mission at Truth for Life. And if that sounds like a mission with which you resonate, we invite you to join with a group of fellow listeners we call Truth Partners, who come alongside us through prayer and monthly giving. When you sign up to become a Truth Partner, you join the team that brings biblically sound teaching to listeners all around the world.

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You may have heard me talking about today's recommendation. It's Alistair's book, Pathway to Freedom, How God's Laws Guide Our Lives. This is the perfect way to expand your study of the Ten Commandments. Alistair looks closely at each of the commandments, dedicating a chapter to each one. This book will help you more fully understand the scope of God's instructions and how his law relates to your life.

Request the book Pathway to Freedom when you sign up to be a Truth Partner at truthforlife.org slash truthpartner or ask for a copy when you make a one-time donation at truthforlife.org slash donate. Now here is Alistair to close with prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank you for the way that your Word speaks with such clarity, challenging even the prevailing misconceptions of our day, the things that filter into our minds even within the framework of church, the silly ideas we tolerate, the things we embrace that diminish your glory and misdirect men. Grant that as we think these things through, the Spirit of God may work within our hearts, calling those of us who long to know God, to meet him at the one place that he is determined to keep all of his appointments, namely on that Judean hillside where he bore our sins in his body on the tree. And now may grace and mercy and peace from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be the abiding portion of all who believe today and forevermore. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Names are important. Ever looked up the meaning of your name? Well tomorrow we find out why God's name is so holy and why it shouldn't be flippantly tossed around or used as profanity. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.