What is right and wrong? Part 2

"You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Good evening! we are in this series “What is right and wrong? This is second part!

As study these 10 commandments I want you to understand that the ten commandments are divided into two section.

Commandments 1-4, deals with our relationship with God and the last 6 deals with our relationship with others.

Last week we talked about the first commandment, You shall have on other gods before me.

Tonight, we are going to talked about commandment 2.

Commandment 2:

"You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.

You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject Me.

But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love Me and obey My commands.

I talked to you last Wednesday night about putting no other gods before Him. If Jesus is not number 1 in your life and there’s a breakdown in the first commandment then you are probably going to end up doing what God tells you not to do in the second commandment of making image that you bow down to or serve.

"You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse His name.

I talked to you last Wednesday night about putting no other gods before Him. If Jesus is not number 1 in your life and there’s a breakdown in the first commandment then you are probably going to end up doing what God tells you not to do in the second commandment of making image that you bow down to or serve.

You might be thinking now you are saying a carved image. I can’t remember the last time I bowed down before another god.

Well, it is more easily done than you may think. But in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus. Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten commandments he left Aaron in charge.

When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. "Come on," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt."

When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. "Come on," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt."

Where is this great Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt?

How easy it is when we been waiting for God gives us the answer and we have prayed and prayed and believe and believe. We have waited on the Lord and we have waited on the Lord. Nothing.

How easy it is to replace God for the answer we want instead of THE ANSWER, which is God.

How easy it is to get the spirit of Aaron on us and not stand and believe and wait.

But instead we replace it with another God, The golden Calf.

Our answer, which was their answer, the god of their past. One that they craved out.

So Aaron said, "Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me."

All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.

Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, "O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!"

Look what they did, gather up the supply, melted it down and molded it into the shape of a calf.

In other words, they craved out their god. They immediately started worship their god, “ O Israel, there are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”

It was back to the god of their past, in Egypt.

And this is the way we do if we are not careful, our craved image is for us the answer that the world supply instead of waiting for the answer God will sent.

For us the answer that the world supply instead of waiting for the answer God will sent.

Now check this out:

Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, "Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD!"

They were saying, we are going to bow down before it tomorrow and make it a festival to the Lord.

They wrapped it in some spiritual jargon. They were acting like they were not actually worshiping the calf instead we are just dance around the calf naked. That is exactly what they did.

They also were playing the game that we are not worshiping this calf, we are not, we will wait!

But there is Moses who is up on the mountain getting the commandments written by the finger of God.

God tells him to get down the hill. Moses who is coming down with Joshua hears all this noise.

There is Moses holding the commandments that start with “Have no other gods before me, Have no graven images.

And He sees the people having an orgy around a golden calf.

But here comes the excuse making:

And I would say that this excuse should have been in the excuse hall of fame. Kinda like the dog ate my homework, or we missed church because we lost our kid’s turtle in the house and could not find it.

Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, "What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?"

"Don't get so upset, my lord," Aaron replied. "You yourself know how evil these people are.

They said to me, 'Make us gods who will lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.'

So I told them, 'Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.' When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!"

Look at the excuses:

a. You yourself know how evil these people are. (blame it on other people)

b. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses. (Moses)

c. I simply threw it into the fire and out came this calf.

Aaron was saying what else were we to do but strip off our clothes and worship it.

The way they justified it was by saying we are going to do this for the Lord.

Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, "Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD!"

Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord.

Now this is what I want to suggest to you also.

The golden calf was their second idol. Moses was the first one.

We must give credit to Moses in this one thing. Moses was one who godly living and personal integrity kept 2 1/2 million people from full idolatry.

As long as Moses was around they didn’t do it. They respected him. but when he left, it fell apart.

Sometimes we can make idols or gods out of people that the Lord uses in our lives. Someone who is very spiritual.Someone who helped lead us to Christ.

Moses was a godly man. He was one who represented God to them. When he left, they said the spirituality of Moses was too high for us.

Someone we look up to. Then one day we find out they are human like we are. They do something very human. They mess up.They fall short. They sin. They are inconsistent.

He is a little holier than us. we want spirituality but we want it on our term. we want God but we want the world.

Tell the story about Billy.

Even good things can be turn into a craving God.

We must focus on one God, the only true God.

"You must serve only the LORD your God. If you do, I will bless you with food and water, and I will protect you from illness.