645. The Ten Commandments - #2 - You Shall not Make for Yourself a Carved Image - September 20, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:41] Through this particular podcast I asked this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Proverbs 20, beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:51] Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler and whoever is let us stray by it is not wise. The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion, whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life.

[00:01:08] It is honorable for a man to stop striving since any fool can start a quarrel. The lazy man will not plow because of winter. He will beg during harvest and have nothing.

[00:01:23] Council in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man.

[00:01:39] The righteous man walks in his integrity, his children are blessed after him, a king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes.

[00:01:54] Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin. Diverse waits and diverse measures they are both alike and abomination to the Lord.

[00:02:09] Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right. The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both. Do not love sleep, less you come to poverty, open your eyes and you will be satisfied with bread.

[00:02:30] It is good for nothing, cries the buyer, but when he has gone his way, then he boasts. There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

[00:02:46] Take the garment of one who is surety for a stranger and hold it as a pledge when it is for a seductress.

[00:02:55] Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel. Plans are established by counsel, by wise counsel wage war.

[00:03:11] He who goes about as a tale bearer reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips. Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness.

[00:03:30] An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed at the end. Do not say I will recompense evil, wait for the Lord and he will save you.

[00:03:45] Divers waits are an abomination to the Lord and dison his scales are not good. A man's steps are of the Lord, how then can a man understand his own way?

[00:04:00] It is a snare for a man to devote rationally something as holy and afterward to reconsider his bowels. A wise king sits out the wicked and brings the threshing wheel over them. The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.

[00:04:25] Mercy and truth preserved the king, and by loving kindness he upholds his throne. The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head.

[00:04:40] Blows that hurt cleanse away evil as do stripes the inner depths of the heart.

[00:04:49] Friends today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 7, and proper 20 verse 7 says this, the righteous man walks in his integrity, his children are blessed after him.

[00:05:05] Friends, we will come and revisit that verse prior to closing today. What I'd like to do at this point is to continue the study which I began on last Friday's podcast.

[00:05:20] And the Lord has told me he would like for me to go over the ten commandments. And so last Friday, and that would be episode number 640, I went over the commandment number one, and that is to put no other God before him.

[00:05:40] Now, the second commandment is very similar to that except we're not talking about a God here. We are talking about an idol.

[00:05:51] And what I'd like to do is simply to review the entire ten commandments. I'd like to get them in your heart. I'd like for you to ponder them as we go over our lesson today.

[00:06:05] So what I'd like to do is begin in the book of Exodus chapter 20 where we discuss the ten commandments, and I am going to begin in verse 2.

[00:06:18] I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And now in verse 3 we begin the ten commandments. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image.

[00:06:39] Any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.

[00:06:54] For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.

[00:07:09] But showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. Now friends that is a very long commandment, and there's a lot of specifics and I'm going to break those down a bit.

[00:07:25] But let's go on to the third commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

[00:07:40] Number four, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God in it. You shall do no work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is

[00:08:10] with in your gates. For in six days the Lord may the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

[00:08:28] Commandment number five is found in verse 12. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

[00:08:42] Now we begin the five commandments that basically are based on our flesh and the sinfulness of man. Let's go to command that number six, you shall not murder.

[00:08:57] Number seven, you shall not commit adultery. Number eight, you shall not steal. Number nine, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[00:09:12] And finally, commandment number ten. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

[00:09:22] Nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbors.

[00:09:35] Now friends as I'm going over each one of these, I'm already thinking in advance for the scriptures that I will go along with this.

[00:09:48] But today it's vitally important that we understand that we are to have no carved images or any likeness of anything that isn't heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath.

[00:10:06] Or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

[00:10:17] Friends, this is key. A lot of times we do things in our life not thinking about the repercussions of how God feels about it.

[00:10:28] Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,

[00:10:38] but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.

[00:10:45] And friends, that is all God wants. He understands that there are going to be people who hate him, but even when we hate him, he shows mercy on us.

[00:11:00] And he's going to love you, whether you follow his commandments or not. But whether we follow his commandments or not does not affect God, but it does affect us.

[00:11:16] So friends, the first point I'd like to go over today is you shall not make for yourself a carved image.

[00:11:24] So what I'd like to do is I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible and I'd like to go over the commentary found for verse 4.

[00:11:35] It says not make a carved image. People's in the ancient world produced many kinds of idols, images, and other substitutes for God.

[00:11:48] Israel was forbidden to do this from the beginning. They could not make anything that would detract from the exclusive worship of the living God.

[00:12:00] However, the prohibition of fashioning images was not an injunction against every kind of art.

[00:12:10] Now friends, what I am going to do today is a little bit different. What I'm going to do is go over three scripture passages.

[00:12:22] Now the first one is a simple verse found in the book of Proverbs.

[00:12:28] And I want you to listen to each one of these three things I'm going to go over with you.

[00:12:36] And I want you to ponder these. I want you to think about how these fit into your life and how you feel about these three verses.

[00:12:50] So the first one is Proverbs 2519. It says confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.

[00:13:08] Now friends, I believe many of us in our life are like a bad tooth and we have a foot out of joint.

[00:13:21] Now what do I mean when I say that? Well, if we have a bad tooth, how is that going to affect our life?

[00:13:30] Well, if we have a bad tooth, we are going to have to watch how we bite down on our food.

[00:13:39] And if we are eating a piece of meat and it's a little bit tough, that's going to hurt. So then we need to figure out, well, how am I going to chew this differently without having it touch that particular tooth?

[00:13:56] Let's think about a foot out of joint.

[00:14:01] Friends, if you've ever hurt your foot or your ankle and we depend on our feet to take us from place to place throughout the day throughout the week.

[00:14:12] I mean, we're always counting on our feet to be there for us.

[00:14:16] What happens if you have a foot out of joint?

[00:14:23] And if you have a foot out of joint, you're going to have to be careful with how you walk.

[00:14:29] I want you to think about that. Oh my gosh, this really hurts. I have to be careful. So you may limp a little bit.

[00:14:37] And friends, I believe that we can make an analogy with this verse and our lives. Many times the things we do, please God, and many times the things we do probably don't please God.

[00:14:55] I want you to think about that.

[00:14:56] Now, the next passage of scripture that I'd like to go over is found in the Book of James.

[00:15:03] And we are in chapter one and I'm going to go over four verses beginning in verse 22.

[00:15:09] I want to listen to these carefully.

[00:15:13] But be doers of the word and not hears only deceiving yourselves.

[00:15:20] For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his face in a mirror.

[00:15:31] For he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

[00:15:39] But he looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it.

[00:15:47] And is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does.

[00:15:58] So friends, my second point I'd like to bring up today is be doers of the word and not hears only.

[00:16:08] Now let me take a step back for a minute and go back to our commandment of the day, and that we're not to have any idols.

[00:16:17] And friends, I'm going to confess that even after becoming a Christian, I have had idols in my life.

[00:16:26] I didn't think about them as idols. I really didn't, but one of the idols that I used to have is college football or professional football.

[00:16:38] And let's look at what the definition of an idol is.

[00:16:42] It's anything that we place before our relationship with God.

[00:16:49] I want you to think about that. If all you do on a Saturday is watch five hours of football, maybe a game and a half of football, and spend five hours watching college football,

[00:17:04] and you're enjoying yourself, you're having a few drinks. And you know, you don't think anything of it.

[00:17:12] But for those five hours, you could have been reaching out to God. You could have been in prayer.

[00:17:21] And that is an idol. I placed it before God.

[00:17:28] And if hell comes on Sunday, oh my gosh, my favorite team. I favor team. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to watch this not giving any thought to whether God wants you to watch that game or not.

[00:17:41] Now, I know I'm sitting there thinking and you're probably going, oh my gosh, this guy's overboard. Well, am I?

[00:17:48] Have you placed that in a position to be an idol? Let me tell you about another one.

[00:17:54] Golf used to be an idol of mine. I used to play golf twice a week in the summers. I might play three times a week, and I usually play by myself because I felt to play with other people.

[00:18:12] It detracted me and I was being very selfish and in a way when I think about it now, I'm going to go, oh my gosh, it's one of the most important things I do.

[00:18:23] It's play golf, play golf, play golf. I've got to play golf, play golf, play golf.

[00:18:28] Friends, my attitude towards golf has changed. God actually told me you need to stop playing so much golf.

[00:18:36] Stop making golf and idol.

[00:18:40] And friends, I know it's real easy, real easy to say. I don't have any idols. I go to church. Well, yes, maybe you do good at church.

[00:18:50] And that's great. But what do you have in your life that you're placing before your relationship with God?

[00:19:02] Let's go to another passage of Scripture to detail this point for you.

[00:19:07] I'm going to go to the third chapter of Revelation, and this passage of Scripture is entitled The Luke Warme Church.

[00:19:16] I'm going to read eight verses out of the third chapter of Revelation, beginning in verse 14.

[00:19:24] What I want you to do is that's why I'm reading these verses. I want you to think about where you're at in this process.

[00:19:32] And to the angel of the church of the Leo D.C. and right, these things says the amen, the faithful and true witness.

[00:19:42] This is Jesus, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

[00:19:56] So then, because you are Luke Warme and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

[00:20:06] Because you say, I am rich. Have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

[00:20:22] I counsel you to buy from me, gold, refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be cloth, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed

[00:20:38] and annoying your eyes with eyes south that you may see. As many as I love, I, rebuk, and chasin. This is Jesus's promise to us.

[00:20:52] If he loves us, he will rebuk and chasin us. Listen to this, therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

[00:21:08] If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and die with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne.

[00:21:25] As I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. And friends, that's where Jesus is today. On the throne, in heaven next to his Heavenly Father God, where are you at in this process?

[00:21:44] So my third and final point is this, I will vomit you out of my mouth. I want you to think about that. And my call to action today is very simple. Do you knowingly have things that you put before your relationship with God?

[00:22:09] And if you know of things, what I ask is that you pray to God and repent. And ask God what it is in your life that he would like for you to lay at the altar and put aside for good.

[00:22:29] Before we close, let's look at our verse today, proper twenty beginning in verse seven. The righteous man walks in his integrity. I love this verse.

[00:22:43] Friends, we are to be righteous. We are to walk with integrity. But I love the second part of that verse. His children are blessed after him.

[00:22:56] Friends, I want my children to be blessed. I want my grandchildren to be blessed. And soon I may be having great grandchildren, not in the two distant future.

[00:23:10] My oldest grandchild is now 19 and just began her college experience. She's 19. My desire and hope is that she meets someone in college. Hopefully falls in love and hopefully gets married and starts having kids.

[00:23:28] My second oldest grandchild is 17 now in a senior in high school. And hopefully I'm talking, you know, I don't want to rush them. I don't even suggest that I do rush them. But I'm hoping that in the next 10 years.

[00:23:43] Each of these will fall in love, get married and hopefully begin having children. Friends, I'm young. I am just 67 years old now. I had that and some of you listening may go, wow, 67 is old and maybe to you. I am.

[00:24:00] But I have every intention of living to a hundred years old. I don't believe in getting sick. I never get sick. I'll take any medications and just keep myself and good health.

[00:24:11] But friends, what I'd like to do is I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:24:21] If there's anyone listening today, you've never taken that step. I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today and I'll keep it simple.

[00:24:29] Father God, I recognize that I am a sinner and indeed of a Savior. Jesus, I believe that you are that Savior. I believe that you are the Son of God. You came to earth and died on a cross for me.

[00:24:43] And when you did that, all of my sins have been forgiven. Jesus I will be forever grateful to you for forgiving me of my sins and yet I still need your help.

[00:24:55] I ask that you come into my heart. I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life. I make you my Lord and Savior. Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:25:09] The Lord make its face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:25:19] Friends, this is the weekend. I pray that you go out with your spouse. Take your kids along with you. Have a nice family outing. Let them know how much God loves them and how much you love them. And I will see you back on Monday as we further explore wisdom.

[00:25:39] Thank you.