Idolatry

2024-02-11

Sermon: Our Consuming Fire

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MAN, that was a GOOD SERMON!

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This is one of those passages: Man, that was a good passage!

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So far in chapter 4, Moses reminds Israel why they ought not carve any images based on past history…

In this passage, Moses tells them what will happen if they do.

We move from looking at the past to looking towards the future…

Such an overwhelming emphasis on idolatry:

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Borrow language from Dorothy Sayers:

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“Don’t take my Thusness, and put it in a thisness.”

Us Replacing God God Re-Placing Us Our Forgetfulness God’s Remembrance

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Looking for God in all the Wrong Places

Two Lests=WARNINGS‌

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“Beware: Lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.

v. 23: “the form of anything…”

v.25: “the form of anything…”

First Feature: “Any” “Anything”:

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All KINDS: ANY FIGURE, ANY FIGURE, ANY ANIMAL, ANY WINGED BIRD, ANYTHING THAT CREEPS, ANY FISH

v. form of anything

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7x for each day of the week: Don’t make anything at any time!

Second Feature: 4 Nouns for Idol

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Carved Image/Idol: Resembling Humans

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Form: Any physical manifestation of YHWH

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Image: 5x “divine image, icon, statue”

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Likeness: Of any human or animal

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No Debate:

Carpenter: “I didn’t make an idol, I made a form.”

Blacksmith: “I didn’t make a form, I made a likeness.”

Zero wiggle room

19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

Different emphasis:

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Look up and start to wonder: “Well, if I can’t make god down here, maybe I can worship things up there… they’re at least transcendent… otherworldly… just take already created things I don’t yet understand, and make them god?”

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Notice the order of things:

CLICK

BACKWARDS

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Last thing God created was humanity: Pinnacle of Creation: Image Bearers of God

First thing God created was the sun, moon, and stars.

Order of animals are out of order.

CONFUSING

vv.17-18

the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, (6th)

the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air (5th)

the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, (6th)

the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. (5th)

Idolatry=backwards thinking and disorder

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What does that lead to?

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Leads to Genesis 1:2:  “The earth was without form and void.”

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Toho Vabohu: Empty. Confused.

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God created ex nihilo…

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This activity of putting God in creation leads to nowhere. Literally nothingness!

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Backwards thinking!

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“We may not be tempted to represent God in wood or stone, but like the Israelites we are constantly tempted to think that we can contain and limit God.” Craigie

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We don’t form God, God forms us:

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Conversion: God Finding Us in the Wrong Place

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20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.

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So Poetic

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Kid: Pioneer Village: Backsmith

Pounding pressure

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Branson Missouri, “Silver Dollar City”: Glass blowers

Prick and prod

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God calls Egypt an Iron Furnace!

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Steal: God takes them out of that melted clump of uselessness, and hammers us to shape. Pounding us into something useful, and alive……

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Glass: Blowing life into our lungs, he snips, and pricks, and pushes and prods

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God forms us, we don’t form him!

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“You take something alive, and put me into it. That road leads to tohu vabohu.”

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“I take something dead, and shape you through it. That road leads to redemption, and to the Promised Land!”

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Through Christ, this is our story!

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Romans 5:10 “For if while we were enemies [note, we weren’t just in a spiritually dead condition in Egypt, we were Egypt, shaking one fist at God while forming other idols with the other] we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

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God takes us out of the Fiery Furnace.

Misery out of sin to molded into Christ

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Now, once you’re a Christians, the reality is formation never end!

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Lest you act corruptly.

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Lest you look up.

FUTURE WARNINGS

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Third Lest: Lest you forget, and lest you act corruptly

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Sanctification: Journey of Forgetfulness

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23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

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v.25: Lest you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything…

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God is a consuming Fire:

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Out of the frying pan, into the fire: From Bad to Worse

From Misery to redemption

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He pulls us out of the fire of Egypt, but He himself is also a consuming fire.

He will burn with Jealousy and He will deal with their temptation with idolatry:

Moses Preaches:

If they do forget and act corruptly by making images, then NOTICE:

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v. 26: “I call heaven an earth to witness against you.”

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Moses doesn’t use earth and heaven as idols, but as witnesses AGAINST THEM.

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v. 27: “Lord will scatter you… the Lord will drive you…

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And then the Lord will allow them to give in to their temptations:

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v. 28: There you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, now hear, not eat, nor smell…

Romans 1:24: Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

To understand this passage, is to understand the human condition!

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WE WILL FAIL, and WE DESERVE PUNISHMENT.

And that’s exactly the point!

This future hypothetical was inevitable

Incredible Hope for the Christian:

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Romans 3:23–25 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

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Punishment for our idolatry, for making our own formations, images, idols, and likenesses

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God sent Jesus

God sent the exact imprint of himself to appease his Jealous Anger!

To live as redeemed doesn’t mean the temptation to go backwards isn’t still there!

You can worship Jesus as the Redeemer and forget his covenant of grace.

These verses are a stark warning for Christians: YOU ARE A REDEEMED PEOPLE, BUT DO NOT FORGET THE COVENANT.

DON’T GO BACK TO YOU DEFAULT POSITION OF IDOL CREATION‌

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Perseverance: A God Who Remembers‌

Even IF all these things happen, guess what, I’ll still forgive you…

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29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

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Repentance is needed for the Redeemed

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WHEN YOU HAVE MADE AN IDOL OVER AN ADDICTION.

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WHEN you have formed an image of God that caters to your own likeness.

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WHEN you have competing allegiances…

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WHEN you push God away further and further away.

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WHEN you’re actively pushing God out of your life.

Do not fear: God will not leave you or destroy you… WHY? HE WILL NOT FORGET THE COVENANT!

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God of Second Chance

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Remember these words: “For the LORD YOUR GOD IS A MERCIFUL GOD. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.”

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You may carve images, but God carved a covenant much stronger.

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You may push God away, but His Jealousy will overpower.

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You may feel unredeemable, but God’s mercy is more.

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You may feel like you’ve left HIM, but THIS HERE SAYS THAT HE WILL NOT LEAVE YOU!

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Passage on a God of second chances!

We worship a God who does NOT forget!

We worship a Jealous God, but that Jealousy is simply a burning to be in a loving relationship with you!

Simple Truth: God desires your full attention:

Do you struggle with God replacement?

Some of us need to be called out of Egypt.

Some of us need to stay more focused on Jesus.

God is a God of grace and love, worthy of our full attention. God is merciful, who runs to His rebellious sons and adorns them royalty. He will, like the Story of the Prodigal Son, prepare a feast for your return.

Our God is Holy, who purifies our being like a Goldsmith removing the impurities that float to the surface in crucible. Our God never forgets when you do. When you get distracted. When you turn your attention away for a while. When you are grieving, lost, or feeling abandoned, our God will never leave you… He will never forget his covenant promises He made to you.

This passage is filled with warnings and consequences. But Jesus took on those consequences, even your future ones.

Because from today to next week, we will forget, BUT HE WILL REMEMBER. WE STILL STRAY, BUT HE WILL NOT LEAVE YOU.

As you walk out of these doors today, I want you to impress upon you what the Lord is saying to us this morning from this passage:

Hebrews 12:2: Fix your eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

This past week I talked to a dear friend. Known him for 18 years.

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He has spent the last 200 days in the hospital.

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And he doesn’t want anything to do with God right now. He says he’s in purgatory. In no-man’s land.

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He said, I’ll leave the motivational speaking to Joni Erickson Tada. For me, I’m just stuck in, “Why this?”

NO AMOUNT OF REBELLION, or DISTRACTION, WILL SEPARATE YOU FROM THE LOVE OF GOD!

Romans 8:38-39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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This passage gives me hope: HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU!

CONCLUSION:

Where are you at in this journey?

If you’re stuck looking for God in all the wrong places… If you forget your duty to follow Jesus:

Still searching for fulfillment, to scratch that sin itch on a regular basis. If you place created things above the Creator…

Remember what God remembers! GOD WILL NOT FORGET:

Encouragement:

Philippians 1:6: And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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