WEBVTT
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Today's reading is from Exodus twenty, verses one through six.
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And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
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You shall have no other gods before me.
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You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water underneath the earth.
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You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
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This is the word of the Lord.
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Thanks be to God.
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All right.
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Good morning.
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It's great to see you all this morning.
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You made it in past the uh earth that was just removed from the front of the church.
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We used to there used to be earth there.
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Now there's not.
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There's nothing to stand on.
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It just gives way beneath your feet.
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So thanks for uh joining us.
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It's great to gather together with you all.
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My name is James Rathman.
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I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.
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And we are moving it today into the second commandment as we're having a fall in the Ten Commandments, uh, which is gonna be great.
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Falls, you know, during sweeps week, you gotta hit your numbers.
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So we're gonna do uh the Ten Commandments.
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Greatest hits.
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Let's pray.
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Holy Father, we praise you for your word to us.
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Lord, that you have not hidden yourself from us, but you have revealed yourself to us in your word, so that we might know who you are, and we can say true things about you, that we can hold fast to your promises, Lord.
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Lord, there are often times in our lives where all we have left are your promises.
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But Lord, that is to have all that we need.
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It's to have the whole world is to have your promises, Lord.
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I pray that you would teach our, uh you would teach us to fix our eyes on your word.
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Fix our eyes on your promises.
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That we would turn to the things not that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, because the unseen things are eternal.
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And Lord, we pray that you would help us to see the eternal work that you are doing.
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Lord, our eyes are surrounded by distractions and uh uh competition vying for our attention.
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Lord, we behold things that we should not behold, and we confess that to you.
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Lord, our hearts we desire, Lord, that we would behold you in the way that you tell us to, so that we might be formed into your image, Lord.
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We lift this up in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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So the first commandment is about the object of our worship.
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First commandment is you shall have no other gods before me.
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The second commandment is about the manner of our worship.
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That is, how is it that we are to come to God in worship?
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We are to have no other gods before him, of course, and we are not to worship other gods, but also God is concerned with how it is that we come to worship him.
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And so, most simply put, the second commandment is that we are not to worship the true God by manner of images.
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We're not to worship the true God by the manner of images.
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We're not to have portrayals of God.
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That's uh, God doesn't like that.
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It's his second commandment.
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Thanks for being with us this morning.
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And we will worship together next week as well.
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So let's look at it.
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Why is this commandment there?
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Why is that a commandment?
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Why is that top ten?
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Doesn't it feel like that wouldn't be in the top 10?
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Not making images to worship God or not worshiping God by manner of images?
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Uh would you I don't know if I'd put that in the top 10, but here it is, right off the bat, number two.
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So it must be very important.
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Why is that commandment here?
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And how is it that we are to follow this commandment?
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You may be even thinking as you hear this commandment, yes, this is a relevant commandment for the ancient nation, for the ancient Israelites just coming out of Israel, or just coming out of Egypt, excuse me, and they're surrounded by an idolatrous people that are, you know, sort of backwards, not modern, contemporary, cosmopolitan people like we are.
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We know that the worship of idols like that, and like setting up statues in your home or having images that you would uh uh venerate, that sort of thing, we know that this is an archaic way of living, and uh so we wouldn't do that anyway, right?
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Right?
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Uh so it may seem relevant to them, but I I hope to demonstrate that during this uh uh sermon that this is this is very relevant for us.
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Because it has to do with how our hearts are formed to honor God, and how our hearts are formed by honoring God.
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And how prone we are, how prone our hearts are to self-deception in our worship.
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That's one of the key things that are revealed to us in the second commandment, that we are prone to self-deception in our worship.
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So let's first look at what this commandment is.
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So in Exodus 24 through five, it says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or 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.
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You shall not bow down to them or serve them.
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So, don't make for yourself a carved image.
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During the uh time of confession that we had this morning, did any of you repent of the idol, the household God that you made earlier this week?
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It's okay.
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You can you don't have to say it.
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You confess it to the Lord, it's forgiven.
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You're not to make a carved image or likeness of anything that is in heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
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This is the threefold tier of creation.
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This is the this is a the biblical way of saying any creature anywhere, this is the whole of creation.
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This is the same three three-tiered structure of the ark.
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We'll see Moses make three trips up the mountain in sort of a three-tiered way.
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We'll see the temple has a three-tiered structure, the tabernacle has a three-tiered structure, the temple has a three-tiered structure.
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This is a demonstration of the whole of creation.
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You are not to look anywhere in creation and create an image of that thing.
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Now, on first reading, and especially in our own plain English, doesn't it sound like this commandment is you can't make representations of anything?
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If you're to just read it, it sounds like no representational art.
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And there are some traditions that have that.
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Um, Islam does not allow the creation of any representational art.
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So that's why they just have it's all geometric shapes and stuff.
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It's very trippy.
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And uh a very uh flourished script.
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They have very flourished script in uh Islamic art and architecture.
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Um there's uh non-representation uh modernist art is non-representational.
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Um have you been to the Clifford Still Museum?
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The Clifford Still Museum is uh is downtown, it's beautiful architecturally, and uh it shows um if you're rich enough, you can get away with anything.
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You can trick the you can trick the plebes into looking at just about anything.
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And I've gone and done it and stood before just a red square and thought, wow, whoa.
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This guy was good.
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So that's what it's a monument to in art, which is important to have downtown.
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So I recommend uh weekend there, take the kids.
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They don't like that, by the way.
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Which can make it more fun.
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But this is not a commandment against representational art.
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That's not what it's a commandment of.
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In fact, it can't be a commandment against the making of any representational art, because later, uh in just uh, you know, a couple chapters from now, God will instruct Moses on top of the Ark of the Covenant, you are to make uh two cherubim.
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And these two cherubim are to have wings that touch one another and that'll be made out of gold.
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And you guys have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know exactly what it looks like.
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And there's uh this uh, but that's a representation, right?
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That's uh of something in the heavens.
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And so this doesn't mean that you aren't to make representations of things that are in the heavens or things that are in the earth.
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Uh it doesn't mean that they can't be around during worship.
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How could it?
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How could it?
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What it means is that you are not to it, but what we what we need to see is that the the language here is that the language of carved image is a word that is uniquely tied throughout the scripture in all of its uses in the scripture to objects to which your worship is dedicated.
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Idolatrous objects, objects which you behold in a worshipful manner, which even you consider as these these are supporting your worship.
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So these are uh uh that is what the word carved image means uh throughout the scriptures.
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That's how it's translated.
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And the word likeness is really just like just uh uh uh is the word for form or the the shape of something or impression of something.
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Uh it is it is like how we are in the image of God.
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We are in the likeness of God.
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That's what it means to be a person, to be in the image and likeness of God.
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So this doesn't mean no images generally.
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This is particularly for no images of God for your worship.
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That is the heart of this commandment.
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But you might think, well, of course, I'm not going to make an image of a lizard and then go worship the lizard god.
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I'm not going to make an image of a serpent and then go worship the serpent god.
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I I'm I I know from the first commandment that I'm not to have any other gods before me.
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And so how could I take this image of another god and worship that God?
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That's already, isn't that already taken care of in the first commandment?
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So is the comm is the second commandment, I guess the question is, is the second commandment adding anything to the first commandment?
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Or is it just another way of saying you are to have no other gods before me?
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Well, it it must be because it's there, so it's saying something.
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What this really fundamentally comes down to is that this is not merely a commandment which says we are not to worship other gods by means of statues and in these pagan traditions and these pagan fashions.
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It means that we are not to worship the true God by the means of images.
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We are not to worship our God by the means of images.
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That's the prohibition of the second commandment.
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And we can see this because we see sort of narratively how the second commandment unfolds uh in just several chap several chapters from now, 12, I guess, in Exodus chapter 32, with the golden calf incident.
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And the golden calf is perfectly demonstrating to us what uh the breaking of the second commandment looks like for the people of God.
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It looks like this in um Exodus 32, what happens is Moses goes is called up onto the mountain to meet with God, and he's meeting with God on the mountain, and he's there for 40 days.
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And while he's there for 40 days, the rest of the nation of Israel is gathered together at the foot of the mountain, at the foot of Mount Horeb.
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And it's taking way too long.
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Have you ever sent anybody somewhere and then it takes them 40 days?
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It's too long.
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And so they're sitting at the foot of the mountain and they're thinking to themselves, where is Moses?
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We don't know where he is.
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We don't have any spiritual leadership, we don't have any way of holding together as a people.
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And they're likely, you know, you can imagine factions or things are starting to form and the questions of who Moses is.
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They're saying we have to put something above us that we can reverence so that we can be held together as a people.
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We can have a sense of who we are and what it means to be us instead of just like sojourning mountain folks.
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You know, at the end of uh Burning Man, do you know what they all do?
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At the end of Burning Man?
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You guys know what I'm talking about?
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Yeah, we've all seen the news.
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There's uh at the end of Burning Man, they've there's a giant man and they burn it.
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And the reason that you have to do that when you're all gathered together in the desert with no reason to be there is because if there's nothing for you to look at and behold and revere and reverence, you will all turn on one another.
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And it will be a terrible catastrophe, and there will be no sense of party there.
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And so they have they this is a group of people gathered together in the desert, about to turn on one another, and they say, we have to have something that we hoist above us that that we we can form ourselves as a people into the image of.
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I hope nobody important goes to that Burning Man festival.
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Nobody that controls, I don't know, our our media or something like that.
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That would be terrible to find out.
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So they say to Aaron, make us gods who shall go before us.
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They turn to Aaron and they say, Make us gods who will go before us.
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This is the request at their impatience.
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Make us gods who will go before us.
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Then that's what Aaron does.
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Aaron collects the gold that they plum that they plundered from the Egyptians, and he melts down the gold, and he fashions it into the shape of a calf.
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So they have a golden calf.
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And he presents it to the people, and the people's response is in Exodus 32, verse 4, it says, And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
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And then they hold a feast to Yahweh.
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And there's dancing and revelry, and it looks just like any pagan feast that you would find among any of the Canaanites around them.
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But notice what they're doing.
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They create this image, the golden calf, and who what is the image?
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They say, These are the gods who brought you out of Egypt.
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Now, there's a bit of a translational thing going on because God is plural, but the plurality of God is baked into his name in Elohim, and so there's I think the translators are being a little um, they're not wanting to say this is the this that they're referring to God, but but they are referring to God.
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They're referring to the true God, Yahweh.
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And that's why after this, they have a feast to Yahweh at the base in the worship of the golden calf.
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So they say, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
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So notice what they are doing.
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They are not worshiping another God.
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They are worshiping the true God by means of the golden calf.
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That's the sin.
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That's the sin.
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That they said, our God, who's not here right now, in a I can look at him sense, we're gonna make it so that he is.
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So, what does the golden calf get you?
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There are some benefits to the golden calf when your God is with your mediator on the mountain and you're alone with your friends.
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Here are the benefits of making a golden calf.
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First, it satisfies your impatience.
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Moses would be coming down, they could not wait for Moses to come down.
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They had to have God manifest to them in a tangible way that they could not wait.
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It satisfies their impatience.
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Secondly, when God spoke to them at Sinai, he was very, very scary.
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When God spoke to the people at Sinai, it was terrifying.
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And they came to Moses after he spoke to them at Sinai, and they said, never let that happen again.
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We don't want God, God can talk to you, you can tell us.
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We don't want to hear directly from God again.
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It's too terrifying.
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Third, uh, the golden calf.
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Oh, yeah, this is what's the benefit?
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The golden calf, not scary, even exciting, shiny.
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You know, and it's kind of, you get to raise, they got to raise their flag for the first time in a long time.
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They're the herders in Egypt, you want to be looked down upon.
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You'd be a herder in Egypt.
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You know the old saying, you look guys like a herder in Egypt.
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That's how they felt for like 400 years among these people.
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And as they move out, now what can they raise?
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A golden calf.
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You know, finally Goshen, the land of Goshen, gets some representation out here.
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This feels good.
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And we can say, This is our God who conquered Egypt.
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So they get this binding together.
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Third, what is the golden calf?
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The golden calf is mute.
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The golden calf can make no demands on the people.
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We're in the midst of the Ten Commandments.
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These are demands being made upon us.
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The golden calf makes no demands on you.
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You know, and we don't like it when God makes demands upon us.
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Even when we have a sense of it in our conscience, we would like to we would like to put something in the way of our conscience, so there's something between us and it, so that it gets silenced again.
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A golden calf can do that.
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Because we can say, I'm not hearing from it right now.
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Let's just praise it and celebrate as we see fit.
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Fourth, the golden calf is comprehensible.
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The golden calf can be looked at and understood.
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It has a particular place, a particular form.
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All of this can be grasped and understood and rallied around.
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:33.599
So the golden calf, we can see the revering of it, the reverencing of it, even though they are saying this is merely a they might say perhaps, yes, this is a means by which we are worshiping God, in their reverencing of it, they are offering a distortion of who the true God is.
00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:36.480
Is the true God mute?
00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:37.839
He is not mute.
00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:39.119
They have just heard him.
00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:42.720
Is the true God reducible to this place at this time?
00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:45.039
He is not reducible like that.
00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:54.480
Is the true God manifesting himself to them right now in a way that is uh, we could say, shiny and majestic.
00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:55.519
He's not.
00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:58.480
He's with Moses on the mountain.
00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:01.759
Is he operating according to their timeline and in their way?
00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:02.880
He is not.
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:11.680
What he's doing is he's doing things like living in the heavens, doing as he pleases, which is also what he's doing right now.
00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:14.319
That's what our God is like.
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:36.000
So when they are worshiping him as the golden calf, we must see that there's this there's this sense, and of course, this is about the manner of their worship and the wrongness of their coming to him, but what's being shown to us is that you you can't violate the second commandment without also violating the first commandment.
00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:38.480
They are so linked.
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:47.759
Because the very manner of worship, by worshiping the golden calf, is exposing this distortion in who they think God is.
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:59.759
Many people have said that the reason, the main reason that God cannot be worshipped by means of images, is because God is invisible.
00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:03.279
And therefore cannot be seen in a truthful way.
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:06.240
He cannot be imaged.
00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:08.160
God cannot be imaged.
00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:11.440
But that isn't the case.
00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:12.960
That's not true.
00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:14.640
Because God is imaged.
00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:16.480
God images himself.
00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:20.400
We are in the image of God.
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:22.240
God can be imaged.
00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:31.279
The invisibility of God is not that there is never a circumstance in which God can be seen.
00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:35.359
Isaiah is called up into the throne room of God.
00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:39.279
Jacob says that he has seen God face to face.
00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:51.839
And of course, Jesus says, Do you not know, Peter, that if you have seen me, you have seen the Father?
00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:55.519
So what is the invisibility of God then?
00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:07.359
It does not mean that there is no such thing as that we should not think of the invisibility of God on a limit on God's ability to be seen.
00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:15.039
You know, an invisible thing, if you could imagine being invisible, have you guys ever seen a movie about an invisible person?
00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:21.920
So the plot points of this movie are I'm invisible, cool, fun.
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:26.000
And then later on, they're like, I'm invisible, not as much fun anymore.
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:30.079
I'd like to be seen by some people that I that I want to be seen by.
00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:33.839
See, that type of invisibility is a constraint.
00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:36.559
They can't make themselves seen.
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:40.880
This is not the invisibility when theologians refer to God as invisible.
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:44.799
It is not that God is like, oh man, I wish I could just manifest myself to these people.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:46.640
And then they would see me and they would know me.
00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:48.960
That is not what it means.
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:52.559
What it means is that he is not like us.
00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:57.119
You can't be invisible.
00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:00.079
You can't be unseen.
00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:06.720
You are trapped in, you are trapped in visibility.
00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:11.759
You're stuck in it, I can tell from here.
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:13.920
By looking at all of you.
00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:20.480
God is not trapped in his invisibility, nor is he trapped in his visibility.
00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:24.559
The Lord is the Lord of light, and he can manifest himself as he pleases.
00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:27.039
And when he does that, they are truthful things.
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:28.559
It is truthful.
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:33.200
The manifestation that God and he, when he chooses to do that, it is truthful.
00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:37.519
But what that means is that God is not discoverable.
00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:43.680
It is not that you can you can go look around in the highest heavens.
00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:51.200
You can look around the whole of the earth, you can plumb the depths of the sea, and you will not find him there.
00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:59.599
You know the famous Russian astronaut that goes up into the heavens for the first time, goes up into space for the first time, and he says, I've ascended to heaven and God is not here.
00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:04.559
Well, if God wanted to show himself to him then, would not have been a problem.
00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:07.039
Would not have been a problem.
00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:24.000
So when we think of God as, so it all that to say that the sense that the invisibility of God, because he can't be manifest, is the reason that we can't depict him, I think that that is false.
00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:27.440
And it's not the way that the scriptures talk about it.
00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:36.400
The way that the scriptures talk about seeing God is not that it can't be done because he's invisible, so there's no sense in looking.
00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:37.759
That's not what it's like.
00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:43.599
The scriptures talk about is you can't see God and live.
00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:47.119
That's the way the scriptures talk about it.
00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:51.920
That if you see God, you will die.
00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:56.960
You will die from his glorious presence.
00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:08.400
That you in your sin before him, you in your unholiness and uncleanness, if you behold the face of God, you will die.
00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:12.960
That's why Jacob names the place where he wrestles God.
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:15.279
He names it face of God.
00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:21.039
And he names that because he says, I have seen, I have seen the face of God and lived.
00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:24.799
And he's thinking to himself, how can this be?
00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:32.640
Or Samson's parents, when they see the angel of the Lord and they say, We have seen the angel of the Lord, we will surely die.
00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:41.440
Or Isaiah heaps the condemnation upon himself when he beholds the presence of the Lord.
00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:45.359
This is what the presence of the Lord means.
00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:47.839
Why is it that you can't see the Lord?
00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:50.319
Why is it that you can't behold the Lord?
00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:57.119
It's because if you see the Lord, you in your sin will die.
00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:02.240
This is the emphasis of the text.
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:08.319
And so, why is it that we are not to worship God by manner of images?
00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:10.559
Well, do you see the trick here?
00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:12.160
Do you see what that trick is?
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:18.480
It's saying there is, I can look at God and live.
00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:21.519
That's what it's saying.
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:27.359
I can look at God on my terms and live.
00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:31.839
It's a distortion of the whole story, but you can see the seduction of it.
00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:34.720
I can look at God on my terms and live.
00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:39.279
We are worshiping God as though he can be seen on our terms.
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:49.519
That is a fundamental denial of his glorious transcendence, what his glory means for us, and a fundamental denial of our fallen state before him.
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:58.000
That if we were to come into his presence and behold him, that we in our sin would die in beholding him.
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:04.960
And so to image him is to distort the whole picture of the gospel.
00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:08.319
It's to distort the reality of our state.
00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:18.720
It is to take him and make him a creaturely type of thing, a creaturely type of glory, which is no threat to us.
00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:21.519
There's no danger in approaching him.
00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:38.160
What we want in our flesh, we want the God who we want a God that we can possess, a God that dwells where we place him, that shows up on our terms.
00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:50.240
We don't want the God that when we approach him, the depth of our sin is truthfully exposed by his holiness.
00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:52.640
That's not the type of God we want.
00:28:53.920 --> 00:29:02.400
We want the type of God that we can approach and worship on our terms, in our manner, in our way.
00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:14.720
Not the God who is radically above us, totally transcends us, and then on his terms makes himself known to us.
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:21.279
You see, this is the difference, this is the heart level difference, and this is why God places it in his Ten Commandments.
00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:37.920
It is the heart level difference of a God which we attain to, or a God which must come to us, who must condescend to our level, who must see our humiliation before him and come to us still.
00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:43.200
It is even a hiding of his grace towards us.
00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:50.079
Because fundamentally, what we are doing then is we are worshiping a creation of our own minds.
00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:54.319
It is so hard.
00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:59.039
One of the hardest things to do in our faith is to worship God as He is.
00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:01.279
That's what the second commandment is about.
00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:04.079
That we worship God as He is.
00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:16.319
Now, I wake up every morning and I have to often, by the scriptures, wrestle my mind back into a position of understanding who God is.
00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:22.799
And it's it's often because I am thinking of him as worse than he is.
00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.240
Which, of course, it's it's not like I'm at.
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:28.960
I just thought of that.
00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:34.480
As though I could comprehend God who is better than he is.
00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:37.440
Anselm of Canterbury would have something to say about that.
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:40.640
There's there I can't comprehend that.
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:51.039
But there's a there's a uh, and so what I have to come to terms with is I'll find myself hiding from prayer or hiding from him in prayer.
00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:53.839
Who am I treating him like he is like?
00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:56.799
I'm treating him like he is cruel.
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:00.000
I'm treating him like he is disinterested.
00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:09.920
I'm treating him like he is he is waiting in the wings, looking for my mistakes, looking for something that he might hold against me or hold over me.
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:12.960
This is not how he has revealed himself to us.
00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:17.920
This is not how he discloses himself to us in the scriptures.
00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:22.240
Our God is gracious, patient.
00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:25.680
He promises that he cares.
00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:34.799
He has already given his own son and demonstrated the depth of grace and love towards us in this manner.
00:31:35.039 --> 00:31:43.359
And so when I'm worshiping him, then if I come to God according to my own imaginations of God, I'm coming to something less glorious.
00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:45.680
And I'm either I'm doing one of two things.
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:54.319
I'm I'm coming to something that needs, that I can just walk up to and control and approach in any manner that I would like.
00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:57.920
And then that is not the true God.
00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:03.759
And I'm approaching him as a false version of myself, not a sinner saved by grace.
00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:07.599
Not someone who has that this is like, how do we approach God?
00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:12.240
You know, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to my cross to the cross I cling.
00:32:12.400 --> 00:32:23.039
This approach of God, according to my own imaginations, is I've got stuff for you, and this will be sufficient for you to that I might be reconciled to you.
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:24.799
This is foolish.
00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:28.240
And I will not approach God in that way.
00:32:28.559 --> 00:32:30.880
Or I will not approach him at all.
00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:38.240
I will hide because I might have a sense or an understanding of how radically glorious and transcendent he is.
00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:47.599
And this will flash the humiliation of who I really am and the condemnation of who I really am onto myself, and I will have a clarity of that.
00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:52.240
And in my clarity of that, I will think: how could I possibly approach this God?
00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:54.160
I just need to hide from him.
00:32:54.559 --> 00:32:56.160
I just need to hide out from him.
00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:03.759
Maybe I can hide out from him for a long enough time so that I might be, I might not come under, come under the terrible condemnation.
00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:05.359
But that is a false God.
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:07.599
That is not the true God.
00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:17.279
The true God is the one who is so glorious and so transcendent, so holy that if I were to behold him, I would die.
00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:40.960
But in his holiness and righteousness, he is seen fit to save me by his grace and by his love, even to the uttermost of sacrifice of his son on the cross, so that I might come to him in full confidence that he will see me and receive me in the fullness of grace.
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:42.799
That's the true God.
00:33:44.960 --> 00:34:04.720
If I create a mediator, even an image that must go between me and him, I am either wrestling him down from his glory into something that can be contained and constrained, or I am minimizing the depth of need that I have.
00:34:06.640 --> 00:34:16.800
And I am raising myself up to the type of thing that can that can constrain God to a place that I desire him to be.
00:34:19.440 --> 00:34:38.800
So that is why this commandment and what we see in Exodus 32 with the golden calf and with our own worship of the worshiping of God according to our own imaginations, rather than his revealing himself to us in his word.
00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:42.880
You can see it it blocks out the gospel.
00:34:44.800 --> 00:34:50.400
It blocks out the truth of his glory, the depth of our need, and the wonder of his grace.
00:34:52.480 --> 00:35:07.199
Now, what this command is grounded in, because why not make this command more complicated for us preachers, is in Exodus 20, 5 through 6, it says, You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
00:35:08.719 --> 00:35:12.960
This command, the importance of this command, is grounded in the jealousy of God.
00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:24.239
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
00:35:24.559 --> 00:35:27.679
This command is grounded in the jealousy of God.
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:35.519
You should not worship him by means of created images, because God is a jealous God.
00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:39.280
Now, right off the bat, we hear that and we think God is a jealous God.
00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:42.559
That doesn't seem fitting for God.
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:49.280
That he would that he would be considered that feels like a like a human thing that we do.
00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:57.199
But what happens is, is we can confuse the concepts of jealousy and the concepts of envy in our minds.
00:35:57.440 --> 00:35:59.119
These are not the same thing.
00:36:00.960 --> 00:36:08.480
Envy you can think of, or covetousness, which we'll get to at the end of uh the Ten Commandments, it's the tenth one.
00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:11.840
Uh so until then, you know.
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:13.840
Covet all you want.
00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:15.840
No, that's not not true.
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:17.840
I'm not writing them as I go.
00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:20.239
So, anyway.
00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:25.360
The uh covetousness is that you can think of it as like a two-party game.
00:36:25.760 --> 00:36:29.840
There's the thing that you want and don't have, and then there's you.
00:36:30.320 --> 00:36:33.679
So you see the thing you want and don't have, and then you just want it.
00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:34.800
You have that thing.
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:37.440
Jealousy is like a three-party game.
00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:48.079
There's the the thing that you that you want, and positively, positive jealousy, which is what God has, there's there's the thing that is yours.
00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:50.880
The thing that's yours.
00:36:52.559 --> 00:36:56.800
And then there's the thing, and then there's the rival.
00:36:57.679 --> 00:36:59.679
It's more of like a three-party game.
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:02.079
The rival to that thing's affections.
00:37:04.719 --> 00:37:08.239
For God to be jealous, we could say, of his name.
00:37:08.559 --> 00:37:11.360
God to be jealous of for his glory.
00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:16.239
For God to be jealous for his people.
00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:19.760
This is right and good.
00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:26.960
Because there are rivals for the glory of God that fill our lives.
00:37:27.440 --> 00:37:32.639
And God says, I don't want you to be taken by those because you're mine.
00:37:33.760 --> 00:37:35.039
You are mine.
00:37:37.119 --> 00:37:44.000
You know, you could imagine that, you could imagine a husband who is not jealous for his wife.
00:37:44.719 --> 00:37:55.679
You know, like uh and and so the this lack of jealousy of this wife, it actually manifests as just a it it's truly just a lack of love.
00:37:55.840 --> 00:37:57.440
I don't care what she does.
00:37:57.679 --> 00:38:21.840
You know, there's there's this sort of thing, it's probably like Burning Man mainstreaming in our culture, which is uh a language around relationships that's developing as sort of like the you know, from the margins, the polyamorous version of relationships comes into a normal, ordinary vernacular.
00:38:23.440 --> 00:38:31.440
And a lot of that language is you should not be cultivating jealousy over your partner.
00:38:32.079 --> 00:38:35.840
That's just your ego, and that needs to be put to death.
00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:47.920
We should have no sense of commitment or of possessiveness for our uh wives or husbands or in relationships like that.
00:38:48.400 --> 00:38:51.280
Now, this is a wicked, wicked lie.
00:38:53.679 --> 00:38:59.440
Imagine a man who is allowing his home to be invaded.
00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:06.719
And as his home is invaded, he says, Well, you know, either they have it or I have it.
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:10.400
And what's the difference between them having it or us having it?
00:39:10.719 --> 00:39:12.719
Anybody can have anything, right?
00:39:13.199 --> 00:39:17.679
And so we'll just leave and go somewhere else, and I'll take my family, and then they can have it.
00:39:17.920 --> 00:39:20.079
You would think, that's bad.
00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:25.760
You're a bad man, is what you should think of that, if you were to see something like that.
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:30.000
And the reason is because they were not jealous of what was theirs.
00:39:30.719 --> 00:39:36.000
And because they were not jealous of what was theirs, they were unable to demonstrate a loving commitment.
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:41.920
They were unable to demonstrate loving protection over the thing which is theirs.
00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:47.440
Imagine your children feeling like you are not jealous of them.
00:39:49.119 --> 00:39:56.880
That you are not jealous for that for their affection, for their love, that they are interchangeable, that they could be anyone.
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:03.920
You know, they they would think of their parent is barely even their parent at that point.
00:40:04.239 --> 00:40:05.920
There's no love to them.
00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:10.079
But why do we love our children?
00:40:10.239 --> 00:40:20.480
You know, we we love our children like when we're when we when we love our children, we're not looking at them and thinking like, oh man.
00:40:21.039 --> 00:40:28.960
Like when all the kids are playing soccer out on the field out there, you're not walking out like, I wonder which one's the best soccer player.
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:32.880
That one's gonna get my love as the parents.
00:40:32.960 --> 00:40:35.039
You know, it's not the way you're thinking about it.
00:40:35.599 --> 00:40:42.880
You're you're walking out and and you're you're seeing your kid, and your kid could be the worst soccer player out there.
00:40:43.199 --> 00:40:44.480
Could be the very worst one.
00:40:44.559 --> 00:40:46.000
You know, you know who it is.
00:40:47.039 --> 00:40:48.559
I mean, there is one.
00:40:50.960 --> 00:40:59.679
And when you see the worst soccer player out there, the parent of that child looks out and says, mine.
00:41:02.239 --> 00:41:04.000
Why do you love that kid?
00:41:04.559 --> 00:41:05.519
They're mine.
00:41:06.559 --> 00:41:07.519
They're mine.
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:09.760
That's love.
00:41:11.679 --> 00:41:14.480
So what is God's jealousy?
00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:21.039
He looks at his people, us as his people, and he says, mine.
00:41:23.039 --> 00:41:26.880
Don't give your affection to another.
00:41:27.599 --> 00:41:30.400
Give your affection to me.
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:37.840
And we think, well, it's not really giving affection, it's just it's just beholding.
00:41:39.119 --> 00:41:41.519
It's just looking at and beholding.
00:41:42.800 --> 00:41:54.239
And God says, you're so prone to self-deception, you're so prone to worshiping the creation rather than the creator, you have to guard your eyes to look towards the unseen.
00:41:54.639 --> 00:42:04.079
This is the way that you we can see this play out as Moses offers us a greater interpretation of this of this passage in Deuteronomy 4.
00:42:04.559 --> 00:42:17.519
Starting in Deuteronomy 4.15, it says, Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully, since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire.
00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:27.679
Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female.
00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:34.480
Watch yourselves very carefully that you don't make an image or likeness that you would give your worship to.
00:42:34.639 --> 00:42:38.639
Why do you what what's the reason that he gives for this commandment?
00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:43.039
It's because at Sinai you saw no form.
00:42:45.199 --> 00:42:46.800
That's the reason.
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:53.199
At Sinai, when you were at Mount Horeb, Sinai wilderness, Mount Horeb, when you were there, you saw no form.
00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:56.559
Therefore, don't make a form.
00:42:57.360 --> 00:42:58.880
Don't make a form of God.
00:42:59.039 --> 00:43:21.519
And what they should be thinking as they remember Sinai and they remember how terrible it was, and how horrifying it was, how terrific it was in the old sense of the word, that they look at Sinai and they remember, yes, there was the fire, there was the smoke, there was the trumpet sounds, the voice of thunder, there were the lightning strikes, but we didn't see the form of God.
00:43:23.280 --> 00:43:32.559
And what they should think, if they're thinking biblically about this, when they think we didn't see the form of God, they should think we lived.
00:43:35.199 --> 00:43:39.119
We encountered God and we lived.
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:45.199
Because we didn't see his form, who can see God and live?
00:43:45.440 --> 00:43:48.159
So Moses continues, Deuteronomy four nineteen.
00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:59.760
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.
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:05.440
Things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
00:44:05.679 --> 00:44:06.719
What is he concerned about?
00:44:06.880 --> 00:44:12.400
He's concerned that you walk up and you look at the stars and you start worshiping the stars.
00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:14.559
This is not that crazy.
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:19.440
Egypt, the Egyptians walk out and they say they worshiped the sun.
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:21.519
And the sun does a lot of things.
00:44:21.679 --> 00:44:23.119
It tells me when to wake up.
00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:25.360
It's part of why we're here, why we're meeting now.
00:44:25.440 --> 00:44:28.159
The sun rules a lot of things.
00:44:31.360 --> 00:44:33.760
And they would look up at those and be taken in by them.
00:44:33.840 --> 00:44:41.920
And why is he can't why is God concerned about them being drawn away and bowing down to the objects in creation?
00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:52.400
Well, he says here, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
00:44:53.519 --> 00:44:55.199
You know who the stars belong to?
00:44:55.360 --> 00:44:57.679
You know who the sun is allotted to?
00:44:58.159 --> 00:44:59.199
Everybody.
00:45:00.079 --> 00:45:01.119
Everyone.
00:45:02.079 --> 00:45:04.719
That's why God doesn't want you worshiping them.
00:45:06.239 --> 00:45:16.480
Because to worship things that have been allotted to everyone is to say, God doesn't look at me and say mine.
00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:21.119
It's to say he looks at everybody.
00:45:21.679 --> 00:45:23.920
He looks at everybody in the same way.
00:45:25.599 --> 00:45:27.519
That's not what God does.
00:45:28.159 --> 00:45:31.199
God's saying, I didn't rescue the Egyptians.
00:45:32.320 --> 00:45:34.719
I didn't rescue the world.
00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:37.440
I rescued you.
00:45:38.400 --> 00:45:39.760
You're my people.
00:45:40.800 --> 00:45:42.960
Don't act like you're normal people.
00:45:43.760 --> 00:45:44.800
You're not.
00:45:45.199 --> 00:45:47.280
You can't be anymore.
00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:52.239
Don't act like you can get to God in the same way that everybody can get to God.
00:45:52.480 --> 00:45:53.599
You can't.
00:45:53.920 --> 00:45:55.760
It's never been the case.
00:45:56.079 --> 00:46:02.159
I had to come to you, and I did, and I look at you and say, mine.
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:07.119
Now, when you look at me, you say, My God.
00:46:07.679 --> 00:46:09.280
This is my God.
00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:15.519
Do you see the stakes of the relationship that's being developed here?
00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:17.360
How these are all at stake?
00:46:17.519 --> 00:46:31.599
In Deuteronomy 4.20, it says, But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to a people, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:36.480
God is the one who he does the rescue to make you a people.
00:46:38.400 --> 00:46:42.320
This is the personal nature of God's salvation.
00:46:43.599 --> 00:46:46.159
It is not a generic salvation.
00:46:46.480 --> 00:46:52.800
He says, Don't worship the things which have been allotted to everybody.
00:46:53.760 --> 00:46:55.679
Because I rescued you.
00:46:56.800 --> 00:46:59.679
I saw you when you were weak.
00:47:02.719 --> 00:47:12.079
The worship of God by means of images means that we are worshiping a God that we can behold on our terms and live.
00:47:12.960 --> 00:47:16.880
What we worship, that means that we are.
00:47:17.199 --> 00:47:18.719
Now here's the danger of that.
00:47:18.880 --> 00:47:31.440
There's obviously that this is a misin- this is uh misunderstanding the transcendence of God, misunderstanding the requirement of our salvation, because it raises us higher than we ought to be.
00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:41.280
But it also deforms our hearts, so that we become the types of things that can't worship the true God.
00:47:42.639 --> 00:47:54.960
In Psalm 115, verses 7 through 8, it's describing the idols, and it says, They have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat.
00:47:55.199 --> 00:47:59.920
Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.
00:48:00.239 --> 00:48:06.000
What's the big deal of beholding if we know in our minds that this isn't the real thing?
00:48:07.280 --> 00:48:12.480
Well, we know that there are places in our life where that's simply not it doesn't it doesn't matter.
00:48:16.400 --> 00:48:24.559
You know, do you think that there is there's anything that you could behold, let's say, on your computer or your phone?
00:48:24.960 --> 00:48:28.559
Or you'd say, well, I know it's not real, so it doesn't matter.
00:48:29.840 --> 00:48:36.079
And that your heart might be preserved because of that type of self-deception.
00:48:36.239 --> 00:48:37.519
We all we all know.
00:48:38.159 --> 00:48:39.920
Of course that's not the case.
00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:45.440
What happens is those things that we behold, we become like them.
00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:53.360
The things that we submit ourselves to, they they we we start to act like them.
00:48:55.519 --> 00:49:03.119
You know, this is why like I don't want this to become like a phone bad TED talk, because we know.
00:49:06.559 --> 00:49:15.760
But consider what it is that we behold and submit ourselves to, rather than turning to the Lord our God.
00:49:19.440 --> 00:49:27.440
The means by which we approach him, we become like them.
00:49:28.480 --> 00:49:32.400
This is the truth of worship, this is the wonder of worship.
00:49:32.719 --> 00:49:35.360
You become what you behold.
00:49:38.239 --> 00:49:40.480
You become what you behold.
00:49:42.159 --> 00:49:44.719
We are meant to behold God.
00:49:45.760 --> 00:49:47.599
Well, how do we do that?
00:49:48.960 --> 00:49:50.639
How do we behold God?
00:49:50.960 --> 00:50:05.519
You know, John he describes in um the beginning of his letter that we saw in 1 John, him whom we have seen with our eyes, him whom we have touched, him whom we have beheld.
00:50:07.280 --> 00:50:12.639
God has manifest himself to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:50:15.599 --> 00:50:24.719
John, we have the testimony of eyewitness, that the one in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, he was seen.
00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:27.679
And John beheld him.
00:50:29.920 --> 00:50:32.960
Right now, where is Jesus?
00:50:34.239 --> 00:50:38.719
He is at the right hand of the Father in the heavens.
00:50:39.519 --> 00:50:44.079
We might say, we might be here when our Lord is up there.
00:50:44.719 --> 00:50:50.239
We might be down here and we would say, Impatiently, I want to see him.
00:50:51.760 --> 00:50:54.320
Now is not the time for us to see him.
00:50:55.039 --> 00:50:58.719
Now is not the time for us to behold his form.
00:50:59.519 --> 00:51:00.719
He's not here.
00:51:01.440 --> 00:51:04.079
We should not be impatient at the mountain.
00:51:04.320 --> 00:51:13.599
And yet, this is where the scriptures start to look forward, and yet he is here.
00:51:15.760 --> 00:51:18.800
Before his ascension, he promised that he would be with us always.
00:51:18.960 --> 00:51:21.679
He promised that he would return in the same way that he came.
00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:24.559
So it means we look forward to his return.
00:51:24.800 --> 00:51:28.719
What is beholding God fine, what is beholding God finally about?
00:51:29.039 --> 00:51:30.400
Well, we we get a glimpse of this.
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:36.960
Consider 2 Corinthians 3.18, uh, which is not on the, it's not on the slides.
00:51:37.199 --> 00:51:37.840
We don't have this one.
00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:38.960
We have 4.18.
00:51:39.039 --> 00:51:39.519
I'll get there.
00:51:39.679 --> 00:51:52.480
In 3.18 it says, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
00:51:52.800 --> 00:51:55.760
For this comes from the Lord who is spirit.
00:51:56.079 --> 00:52:03.920
When we behold the Lord, we are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next.
00:52:04.239 --> 00:52:16.079
When we finally see God, when we behold him face to face, we will be made perfect by beholding him.
00:52:17.679 --> 00:52:19.920
But that's not where we are today.
00:52:21.199 --> 00:52:24.639
Today we behold him by the eyes of faith.
00:52:24.880 --> 00:52:31.440
And that's why throughout the New Testament, you see, looking at God is about, is about the end.
00:52:31.679 --> 00:52:34.320
It's about the final consummation of all things.
00:52:34.480 --> 00:52:38.159
Beholding God is what we look forward to doing.
00:52:38.880 --> 00:52:47.360
When we behold him now by our eyes, where we have the impatience of the of the Sinai wilderness.
00:52:48.800 --> 00:52:52.159
And we degrade God by worship in that manner.
00:52:53.599 --> 00:52:59.119
But right now we are called to be patient like they are and look forward to the day when we will behold him.
00:52:59.360 --> 00:53:01.280
And now we behold him like this.
00:53:01.360 --> 00:53:07.760
And in 2 Corinthians 4.18, it says, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
00:53:08.239 --> 00:53:13.199
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
00:53:13.440 --> 00:53:15.599
The New Testament is full of language like this.
00:53:15.920 --> 00:53:18.800
We look to what is unseen.
00:53:19.519 --> 00:53:20.800
Sounds paradoxical.
00:53:21.039 --> 00:53:25.599
You don't look, you looking, looking is an eye type of thing, the way I do it.
00:53:25.920 --> 00:53:28.239
And things that are unseen, there's nothing there.
00:53:28.320 --> 00:53:29.519
So what are we doing?
00:53:29.679 --> 00:53:33.440
We're beholding by the eyes of faith.
00:53:34.159 --> 00:53:36.639
We're beholding him in his word.
00:53:37.039 --> 00:53:40.719
We're receiving his presence by the Spirit.
00:53:41.280 --> 00:53:44.000
And it is not a totally invisible task.
00:53:45.039 --> 00:53:49.679
In Hebrews 11, 27, this is attributed to Moses, this very type of faith.
00:53:49.760 --> 00:54:00.159
It says, by faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
00:54:00.480 --> 00:54:02.880
This is what our lives are like now.
00:54:03.280 --> 00:54:08.159
We hold fast to him who is invisible by faith.
00:54:08.639 --> 00:54:16.079
And in receiving him by faith, what we are saying is he is not a God who I can wrestle to the ground.
00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:20.559
He is not a God that I can attain to by my own strength.
00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:29.599
He is a God that I am humiliated before and is wildly transcendent, but because of his graciousness and love, he has saved me in his son.
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:36.639
And I receive that salvation now by faith, by the fullness of faith.
00:54:36.960 --> 00:54:44.480
You see how to violate this commandment is a threat to the core of the wonderful truths that we hold.
00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:49.440
The glory of God, our salvation by faith alone.
00:54:49.599 --> 00:54:51.440
That's what's held together in this.
00:54:52.880 --> 00:54:59.760
And so the appropriate place to end a sermon on the second commandment is by turning to the Lord's Supper.
00:55:01.360 --> 00:55:06.719
Because in the Lord's Supper, we are given something that is seen, it is visible.
00:55:06.960 --> 00:55:15.280
And in it, we have the promise of the Lord's presence, that the Lord promises to attend his supper.
00:55:15.360 --> 00:55:18.159
And how is the Lord present in it?
00:55:18.719 --> 00:55:23.119
We would not say that the Lord is the bread, that the Lord is the wine.
00:55:23.760 --> 00:55:28.000
This is to wrestle him down when we know where his body is.
00:55:28.239 --> 00:55:29.519
There's no question.
00:55:29.840 --> 00:55:31.360
He's in the heavens.
00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:46.000
But the Lord gives us this as a visible word, the Lord's Supper as a visible word, so that we might look and see with longing and trust that by faith the Lord spiritually attends this.
00:55:46.800 --> 00:55:51.679
He is really here and really here by the Spirit.
00:55:52.320 --> 00:55:55.840
Oh, how our hearts need to be strengthened in this.
00:55:56.639 --> 00:56:05.599
Because you will encounter issues this week, and you will need to be able to trust that the Lord is really with me now.
00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:08.159
And you will look out into the world.
00:56:08.320 --> 00:56:11.519
You will look at your bank account and say, Is he with me?
00:56:11.840 --> 00:56:15.199
You will look at your job prospects and say, is he with me?
00:56:15.440 --> 00:56:22.960
You will look at the difficulties that you are facing in your family, and with all the things that you can see, you will say, Is he with me?
00:56:23.199 --> 00:56:26.239
And what you must look to is the thing that is unseen.
00:56:27.199 --> 00:56:28.400
His promises.
00:56:28.880 --> 00:56:31.760
And you will hold to those by faith in his word.
00:56:32.159 --> 00:56:42.159
And by faith in his word, that he, where you will say, He promised to be with me, he looks at me and says, mine, he's jealous for me, he holds fast to me.
00:56:42.320 --> 00:56:46.239
Then you hold fast to those promises by faith in his word.
00:56:46.639 --> 00:56:54.079
And you will see that he is there, that he meets you in it, that this God is with you.
00:56:55.599 --> 00:56:58.159
So we come to him as he calls us to come to him.
00:56:58.719 --> 00:57:03.840
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11, he says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.
00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:12.320
That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.
00:57:12.559 --> 00:57:14.559
Do this in remembrance of me.
00:57:14.800 --> 00:57:20.320
In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
00:57:20.559 --> 00:57:23.679
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
00:57:23.920 --> 00:57:30.320
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
00:57:30.639 --> 00:57:31.360
There's a warning.
00:57:31.440 --> 00:57:39.199
He says, Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
00:57:39.840 --> 00:57:44.639
Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
00:57:44.880 --> 00:57:50.559
For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
00:57:50.800 --> 00:57:54.960
That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
00:57:55.360 --> 00:57:59.280
But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
00:57:59.599 --> 00:58:06.159
For when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
00:58:06.639 --> 00:58:13.519
And the night before he was betrayed, the Lord took the bread and he broke it, and he said, This is my body, which is for you.
00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:16.000
You can look at it and see it.
00:58:16.239 --> 00:58:20.079
We can know what it means, that it is spiritually attended.
00:58:21.280 --> 00:58:30.480
He took the cup and he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
00:58:32.079 --> 00:58:35.119
And we can drink this, we can taste it.
00:58:35.440 --> 00:58:45.920
We can taste and see that the Lord is good as we look forward to the day when we will behold him by sight.
00:58:46.400 --> 00:58:50.159
And in beholding him by sight, we will be made perfect.
00:58:50.719 --> 00:58:54.320
And now we trust by faith in his word.
00:58:55.039 --> 00:59:02.079
Things that I cannot test and prove, the spiritual significance of this bread and this wine.
00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:19.440
I receive it by faith in his promises and will be nourished by it, strengthened by it, because here's the wonder, the full wonder of what it means that we cannot worship the Lord by images.
00:59:19.599 --> 00:59:21.199
We cannot create images.
00:59:21.599 --> 00:59:46.559
It is that a God who is so wildly transcendent as that took on flesh, went to the cross on our behalf, died, was raised again, so that we might be brought into the fullness of his glory, cleansed, so that we might behold and live the true God.
00:59:46.880 --> 00:59:48.719
Behold the true God and live.
00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:50.559
Let's pray.
00:59:50.800 --> 00:59:53.760
Holy Father, I pray that you would bless this holy communion.
00:59:54.079 --> 01:00:06.320
Lord, that these passages which feel complicated and and uh Oh Father, I pray that you would give us wisdom to understand and apply your word.
01:00:07.440 --> 01:00:17.039
That we might be a people founded on and in love with with your word, Lord, and that we might receive this visible word of your holy sacrament.
01:00:17.280 --> 01:00:24.400
And that you would we would receive by faith the promise to nourish us through it and to remember your death until you come.
01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:26.320
Come, Lord Jesus.
01:00:26.559 --> 01:00:28.880
We lift this up in Jesus' name, amen.
00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:07.200
Today's reading is from Exodus twenty, verses one through six.
00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:15.039
And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:17.679
You shall have no other gods before me.
00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:29.760
You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water underneath the earth.
00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:51.759
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:53.200
This is the word of the Lord.
00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:54.799
Thanks be to God.
00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:02.159
All right.
00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:03.200
Good morning.
00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:06.159
It's great to see you all this morning.
00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:11.680
You made it in past the uh earth that was just removed from the front of the church.
00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:14.159
We used to there used to be earth there.
00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:15.359
Now there's not.
00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:16.400
There's nothing to stand on.
00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:18.000
It just gives way beneath your feet.
00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:19.920
So thanks for uh joining us.
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:21.280
It's great to gather together with you all.
00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:22.480
My name is James Rathman.
00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.120
I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.
00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:33.200
And we are moving it today into the second commandment as we're having a fall in the Ten Commandments, uh, which is gonna be great.
00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:37.599
Falls, you know, during sweeps week, you gotta hit your numbers.
00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.920
So we're gonna do uh the Ten Commandments.
00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:41.280
Greatest hits.
00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:42.719
Let's pray.
00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:48.959
Holy Father, we praise you for your word to us.
00:01:49.680 --> 00:02:02.719
Lord, that you have not hidden yourself from us, but you have revealed yourself to us in your word, so that we might know who you are, and we can say true things about you, that we can hold fast to your promises, Lord.
00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:07.599
Lord, there are often times in our lives where all we have left are your promises.
00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:10.319
But Lord, that is to have all that we need.
00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:14.080
It's to have the whole world is to have your promises, Lord.
00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:21.120
I pray that you would teach our, uh you would teach us to fix our eyes on your word.
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Fix our eyes on your promises.
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That we would turn to the things not that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, because the unseen things are eternal.
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And Lord, we pray that you would help us to see the eternal work that you are doing.
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Lord, our eyes are surrounded by distractions and uh uh competition vying for our attention.
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Lord, we behold things that we should not behold, and we confess that to you.
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Lord, our hearts we desire, Lord, that we would behold you in the way that you tell us to, so that we might be formed into your image, Lord.
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We lift this up in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:12.960
So the first commandment is about the object of our worship.
00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:16.319
First commandment is you shall have no other gods before me.
00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:19.919
The second commandment is about the manner of our worship.
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That is, how is it that we are to come to God in worship?
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We are to have no other gods before him, of course, and we are not to worship other gods, but also God is concerned with how it is that we come to worship him.
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And so, most simply put, the second commandment is that we are not to worship the true God by manner of images.
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We're not to worship the true God by the manner of images.
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We're not to have portrayals of God.
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That's uh, God doesn't like that.
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It's his second commandment.
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Thanks for being with us this morning.
00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:07.360
And we will worship together next week as well.
00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:08.960
So let's look at it.
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Why is this commandment there?
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Why is that a commandment?
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Why is that top ten?
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Doesn't it feel like that wouldn't be in the top 10?
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Not making images to worship God or not worshiping God by manner of images?
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Uh would you I don't know if I'd put that in the top 10, but here it is, right off the bat, number two.
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So it must be very important.
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Why is that commandment here?
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And how is it that we are to follow this commandment?
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You may be even thinking as you hear this commandment, yes, this is a relevant commandment for the ancient nation, for the ancient Israelites just coming out of Israel, or just coming out of Egypt, excuse me, and they're surrounded by an idolatrous people that are, you know, sort of backwards, not modern, contemporary, cosmopolitan people like we are.
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We know that the worship of idols like that, and like setting up statues in your home or having images that you would uh uh venerate, that sort of thing, we know that this is an archaic way of living, and uh so we wouldn't do that anyway, right?
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Right?
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Uh so it may seem relevant to them, but I I hope to demonstrate that during this uh uh sermon that this is this is very relevant for us.
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Because it has to do with how our hearts are formed to honor God, and how our hearts are formed by honoring God.
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And how prone we are, how prone our hearts are to self-deception in our worship.
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That's one of the key things that are revealed to us in the second commandment, that we are prone to self-deception in our worship.
00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.680
So let's first look at what this commandment is.
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So in Exodus 24 through five, it says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or 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.
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You shall not bow down to them or serve them.
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So, don't make for yourself a carved image.
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During the uh time of confession that we had this morning, did any of you repent of the idol, the household God that you made earlier this week?
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It's okay.
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You can you don't have to say it.
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You confess it to the Lord, it's forgiven.
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You're not to make a carved image or likeness of anything that is in heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
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This is the threefold tier of creation.
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This is the this is a the biblical way of saying any creature anywhere, this is the whole of creation.
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This is the same three three-tiered structure of the ark.
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We'll see Moses make three trips up the mountain in sort of a three-tiered way.
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We'll see the temple has a three-tiered structure, the tabernacle has a three-tiered structure, the temple has a three-tiered structure.
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This is a demonstration of the whole of creation.
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You are not to look anywhere in creation and create an image of that thing.
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Now, on first reading, and especially in our own plain English, doesn't it sound like this commandment is you can't make representations of anything?
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If you're to just read it, it sounds like no representational art.
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And there are some traditions that have that.
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Um, Islam does not allow the creation of any representational art.
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So that's why they just have it's all geometric shapes and stuff.
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It's very trippy.
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And uh a very uh flourished script.
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They have very flourished script in uh Islamic art and architecture.
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Um there's uh non-representation uh modernist art is non-representational.
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Um have you been to the Clifford Still Museum?
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The Clifford Still Museum is uh is downtown, it's beautiful architecturally, and uh it shows um if you're rich enough, you can get away with anything.
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You can trick the you can trick the plebes into looking at just about anything.
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And I've gone and done it and stood before just a red square and thought, wow, whoa.
00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:29.199
This guy was good.
00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:33.600
So that's what it's a monument to in art, which is important to have downtown.
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So I recommend uh weekend there, take the kids.
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They don't like that, by the way.
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Which can make it more fun.
00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:46.559
But this is not a commandment against representational art.
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That's not what it's a commandment of.
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In fact, it can't be a commandment against the making of any representational art, because later, uh in just uh, you know, a couple chapters from now, God will instruct Moses on top of the Ark of the Covenant, you are to make uh two cherubim.
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And these two cherubim are to have wings that touch one another and that'll be made out of gold.
00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:09.840
And you guys have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know exactly what it looks like.
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.159
And there's uh this uh, but that's a representation, right?
00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:16.480
That's uh of something in the heavens.
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And so this doesn't mean that you aren't to make representations of things that are in the heavens or things that are in the earth.
00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:27.200
Uh it doesn't mean that they can't be around during worship.
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How could it?
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How could it?
00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:59.200
What it means is that you are not to it, but what we what we need to see is that the the language here is that the language of carved image is a word that is uniquely tied throughout the scripture in all of its uses in the scripture to objects to which your worship is dedicated.
00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:12.240
Idolatrous objects, objects which you behold in a worshipful manner, which even you consider as these these are supporting your worship.
00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:21.039
So these are uh uh that is what the word carved image means uh throughout the scriptures.
00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:22.480
That's how it's translated.
00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:34.320
And the word likeness is really just like just uh uh uh is the word for form or the the shape of something or impression of something.
00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:39.120
Uh it is it is like how we are in the image of God.
00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.519
We are in the likeness of God.
00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:46.879
That's what it means to be a person, to be in the image and likeness of God.
00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:50.080
So this doesn't mean no images generally.
00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:58.000
This is particularly for no images of God for your worship.
00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:01.039
That is the heart of this commandment.
00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:11.039
But you might think, well, of course, I'm not going to make an image of a lizard and then go worship the lizard god.
00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:14.879
I'm not going to make an image of a serpent and then go worship the serpent god.
00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:22.159
I I'm I I know from the first commandment that I'm not to have any other gods before me.
00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:28.080
And so how could I take this image of another god and worship that God?
00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:32.159
That's already, isn't that already taken care of in the first commandment?
00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:39.440
So is the comm is the second commandment, I guess the question is, is the second commandment adding anything to the first commandment?
00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:43.840
Or is it just another way of saying you are to have no other gods before me?
00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:48.080
Well, it it must be because it's there, so it's saying something.
00:11:48.639 --> 00:12:04.080
What this really fundamentally comes down to is that this is not merely a commandment which says we are not to worship other gods by means of statues and in these pagan traditions and these pagan fashions.
00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:09.759
It means that we are not to worship the true God by the means of images.
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We are not to worship our God by the means of images.
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That's the prohibition of the second commandment.
00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:32.000
And we can see this because we see sort of narratively how the second commandment unfolds uh in just several chap several chapters from now, 12, I guess, in Exodus chapter 32, with the golden calf incident.
00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:40.480
And the golden calf is perfectly demonstrating to us what uh the breaking of the second commandment looks like for the people of God.
00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:52.320
It looks like this in um Exodus 32, what happens is Moses goes is called up onto the mountain to meet with God, and he's meeting with God on the mountain, and he's there for 40 days.
00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:59.679
And while he's there for 40 days, the rest of the nation of Israel is gathered together at the foot of the mountain, at the foot of Mount Horeb.
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And it's taking way too long.
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Have you ever sent anybody somewhere and then it takes them 40 days?
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It's too long.
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And so they're sitting at the foot of the mountain and they're thinking to themselves, where is Moses?
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We don't know where he is.
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We don't have any spiritual leadership, we don't have any way of holding together as a people.
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And they're likely, you know, you can imagine factions or things are starting to form and the questions of who Moses is.
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They're saying we have to put something above us that we can reverence so that we can be held together as a people.
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We can have a sense of who we are and what it means to be us instead of just like sojourning mountain folks.
00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:43.200
You know, at the end of uh Burning Man, do you know what they all do?
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At the end of Burning Man?
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You guys know what I'm talking about?
00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:48.879
Yeah, we've all seen the news.
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There's uh at the end of Burning Man, they've there's a giant man and they burn it.
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And the reason that you have to do that when you're all gathered together in the desert with no reason to be there is because if there's nothing for you to look at and behold and revere and reverence, you will all turn on one another.
00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:12.480
And it will be a terrible catastrophe, and there will be no sense of party there.
00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:30.480
And so they have they this is a group of people gathered together in the desert, about to turn on one another, and they say, we have to have something that we hoist above us that that we we can form ourselves as a people into the image of.
00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:35.919
I hope nobody important goes to that Burning Man festival.
00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:42.159
Nobody that controls, I don't know, our our media or something like that.
00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:43.840
That would be terrible to find out.
00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:53.120
So they say to Aaron, make us gods who shall go before us.
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They turn to Aaron and they say, Make us gods who will go before us.
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This is the request at their impatience.
00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:03.679
Make us gods who will go before us.
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Then that's what Aaron does.
00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:16.480
Aaron collects the gold that they plum that they plundered from the Egyptians, and he melts down the gold, and he fashions it into the shape of a calf.
00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:18.559
So they have a golden calf.
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And he presents it to the people, and the people's response is in Exodus 32, verse 4, it says, And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:36.879
And then they hold a feast to Yahweh.
00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:46.000
And there's dancing and revelry, and it looks just like any pagan feast that you would find among any of the Canaanites around them.
00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:48.879
But notice what they're doing.
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They create this image, the golden calf, and who what is the image?
00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:59.360
They say, These are the gods who brought you out of Egypt.
00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:19.759
Now, there's a bit of a translational thing going on because God is plural, but the plurality of God is baked into his name in Elohim, and so there's I think the translators are being a little um, they're not wanting to say this is the this that they're referring to God, but but they are referring to God.
00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:23.440
They're referring to the true God, Yahweh.
00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:30.320
And that's why after this, they have a feast to Yahweh at the base in the worship of the golden calf.
00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:36.960
So they say, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.039
So notice what they are doing.
00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:43.039
They are not worshiping another God.
00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:50.399
They are worshiping the true God by means of the golden calf.
00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:52.080
That's the sin.
00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:55.120
That's the sin.
00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:07.279
That they said, our God, who's not here right now, in a I can look at him sense, we're gonna make it so that he is.
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:11.680
So, what does the golden calf get you?
00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:20.000
There are some benefits to the golden calf when your God is with your mediator on the mountain and you're alone with your friends.
00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:23.039
Here are the benefits of making a golden calf.
00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:26.799
First, it satisfies your impatience.
00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:33.920
Moses would be coming down, they could not wait for Moses to come down.
00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:44.720
They had to have God manifest to them in a tangible way that they could not wait.
00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:47.920
It satisfies their impatience.
00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:56.079
Secondly, when God spoke to them at Sinai, he was very, very scary.
00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:01.839
When God spoke to the people at Sinai, it was terrifying.
00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:08.480
And they came to Moses after he spoke to them at Sinai, and they said, never let that happen again.
00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:12.079
We don't want God, God can talk to you, you can tell us.
00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:14.480
We don't want to hear directly from God again.
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:16.160
It's too terrifying.
00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:20.240
Third, uh, the golden calf.
00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:21.759
Oh, yeah, this is what's the benefit?
00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:27.039
The golden calf, not scary, even exciting, shiny.
00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:34.400
You know, and it's kind of, you get to raise, they got to raise their flag for the first time in a long time.
00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:39.039
They're the herders in Egypt, you want to be looked down upon.
00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:40.400
You'd be a herder in Egypt.
00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.839
You know the old saying, you look guys like a herder in Egypt.
00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:48.400
That's how they felt for like 400 years among these people.
00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:52.240
And as they move out, now what can they raise?
00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:53.839
A golden calf.
00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:59.279
You know, finally Goshen, the land of Goshen, gets some representation out here.
00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:01.119
This feels good.
00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:04.720
And we can say, This is our God who conquered Egypt.
00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:10.559
So they get this binding together.
00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:12.000
Third, what is the golden calf?
00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:13.680
The golden calf is mute.
00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:17.920
The golden calf can make no demands on the people.
00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:20.319
We're in the midst of the Ten Commandments.
00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:22.400
These are demands being made upon us.
00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:25.039
The golden calf makes no demands on you.
00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.720
You know, and we don't like it when God makes demands upon us.
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:40.720
Even when we have a sense of it in our conscience, we would like to we would like to put something in the way of our conscience, so there's something between us and it, so that it gets silenced again.
00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:42.880
A golden calf can do that.
00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:46.400
Because we can say, I'm not hearing from it right now.
00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:50.240
Let's just praise it and celebrate as we see fit.
00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:54.400
Fourth, the golden calf is comprehensible.
00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:58.880
The golden calf can be looked at and understood.
00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:03.599
It has a particular place, a particular form.
00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:10.079
All of this can be grasped and understood and rallied around.
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:33.599
So the golden calf, we can see the revering of it, the reverencing of it, even though they are saying this is merely a they might say perhaps, yes, this is a means by which we are worshiping God, in their reverencing of it, they are offering a distortion of who the true God is.
00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:36.480
Is the true God mute?
00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:37.839
He is not mute.
00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:39.119
They have just heard him.
00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:42.720
Is the true God reducible to this place at this time?
00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:45.039
He is not reducible like that.
00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:54.480
Is the true God manifesting himself to them right now in a way that is uh, we could say, shiny and majestic.
00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:55.519
He's not.
00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:58.480
He's with Moses on the mountain.
00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:01.759
Is he operating according to their timeline and in their way?
00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:02.880
He is not.
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:11.680
What he's doing is he's doing things like living in the heavens, doing as he pleases, which is also what he's doing right now.
00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:14.319
That's what our God is like.
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:36.000
So when they are worshiping him as the golden calf, we must see that there's this there's this sense, and of course, this is about the manner of their worship and the wrongness of their coming to him, but what's being shown to us is that you you can't violate the second commandment without also violating the first commandment.
00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:38.480
They are so linked.
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:47.759
Because the very manner of worship, by worshiping the golden calf, is exposing this distortion in who they think God is.
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:59.759
Many people have said that the reason, the main reason that God cannot be worshipped by means of images, is because God is invisible.
00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:03.279
And therefore cannot be seen in a truthful way.
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:06.240
He cannot be imaged.
00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:08.160
God cannot be imaged.
00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:11.440
But that isn't the case.
00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:12.960
That's not true.
00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:14.640
Because God is imaged.
00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:16.480
God images himself.
00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:20.400
We are in the image of God.
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:22.240
God can be imaged.
00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:31.279
The invisibility of God is not that there is never a circumstance in which God can be seen.
00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:35.359
Isaiah is called up into the throne room of God.
00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:39.279
Jacob says that he has seen God face to face.
00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:51.839
And of course, Jesus says, Do you not know, Peter, that if you have seen me, you have seen the Father?
00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:55.519
So what is the invisibility of God then?
00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:07.359
It does not mean that there is no such thing as that we should not think of the invisibility of God on a limit on God's ability to be seen.
00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:15.039
You know, an invisible thing, if you could imagine being invisible, have you guys ever seen a movie about an invisible person?
00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:21.920
So the plot points of this movie are I'm invisible, cool, fun.
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:26.000
And then later on, they're like, I'm invisible, not as much fun anymore.
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:30.079
I'd like to be seen by some people that I that I want to be seen by.
00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:33.839
See, that type of invisibility is a constraint.
00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:36.559
They can't make themselves seen.
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:40.880
This is not the invisibility when theologians refer to God as invisible.
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:44.799
It is not that God is like, oh man, I wish I could just manifest myself to these people.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:46.640
And then they would see me and they would know me.
00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:48.960
That is not what it means.
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:52.559
What it means is that he is not like us.
00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:57.119
You can't be invisible.
00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:00.079
You can't be unseen.
00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:06.720
You are trapped in, you are trapped in visibility.
00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:11.759
You're stuck in it, I can tell from here.
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:13.920
By looking at all of you.
00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:20.480
God is not trapped in his invisibility, nor is he trapped in his visibility.
00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:24.559
The Lord is the Lord of light, and he can manifest himself as he pleases.
00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:27.039
And when he does that, they are truthful things.
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:28.559
It is truthful.
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:33.200
The manifestation that God and he, when he chooses to do that, it is truthful.
00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:37.519
But what that means is that God is not discoverable.
00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:43.680
It is not that you can you can go look around in the highest heavens.
00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:51.200
You can look around the whole of the earth, you can plumb the depths of the sea, and you will not find him there.
00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:59.599
You know the famous Russian astronaut that goes up into the heavens for the first time, goes up into space for the first time, and he says, I've ascended to heaven and God is not here.
00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:04.559
Well, if God wanted to show himself to him then, would not have been a problem.
00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:07.039
Would not have been a problem.
00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:24.000
So when we think of God as, so it all that to say that the sense that the invisibility of God, because he can't be manifest, is the reason that we can't depict him, I think that that is false.
00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:27.440
And it's not the way that the scriptures talk about it.
00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:36.400
The way that the scriptures talk about seeing God is not that it can't be done because he's invisible, so there's no sense in looking.
00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:37.759
That's not what it's like.
00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:43.599
The scriptures talk about is you can't see God and live.
00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:47.119
That's the way the scriptures talk about it.
00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:51.920
That if you see God, you will die.
00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:56.960
You will die from his glorious presence.
00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:08.400
That you in your sin before him, you in your unholiness and uncleanness, if you behold the face of God, you will die.
00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:12.960
That's why Jacob names the place where he wrestles God.
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:15.279
He names it face of God.
00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:21.039
And he names that because he says, I have seen, I have seen the face of God and lived.
00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:24.799
And he's thinking to himself, how can this be?
00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:32.640
Or Samson's parents, when they see the angel of the Lord and they say, We have seen the angel of the Lord, we will surely die.
00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:41.440
Or Isaiah heaps the condemnation upon himself when he beholds the presence of the Lord.
00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:45.359
This is what the presence of the Lord means.
00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:47.839
Why is it that you can't see the Lord?
00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:50.319
Why is it that you can't behold the Lord?
00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:57.119
It's because if you see the Lord, you in your sin will die.
00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:02.240
This is the emphasis of the text.
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:08.319
And so, why is it that we are not to worship God by manner of images?
00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:10.559
Well, do you see the trick here?
00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:12.160
Do you see what that trick is?
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:18.480
It's saying there is, I can look at God and live.
00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:21.519
That's what it's saying.
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:27.359
I can look at God on my terms and live.
00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:31.839
It's a distortion of the whole story, but you can see the seduction of it.
00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:34.720
I can look at God on my terms and live.
00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:39.279
We are worshiping God as though he can be seen on our terms.
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:49.519
That is a fundamental denial of his glorious transcendence, what his glory means for us, and a fundamental denial of our fallen state before him.
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:58.000
That if we were to come into his presence and behold him, that we in our sin would die in beholding him.
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:04.960
And so to image him is to distort the whole picture of the gospel.
00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:08.319
It's to distort the reality of our state.
00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:18.720
It is to take him and make him a creaturely type of thing, a creaturely type of glory, which is no threat to us.
00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:21.519
There's no danger in approaching him.
00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:38.160
What we want in our flesh, we want the God who we want a God that we can possess, a God that dwells where we place him, that shows up on our terms.
00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:50.240
We don't want the God that when we approach him, the depth of our sin is truthfully exposed by his holiness.
00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:52.640
That's not the type of God we want.
00:28:53.920 --> 00:29:02.400
We want the type of God that we can approach and worship on our terms, in our manner, in our way.
00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:14.720
Not the God who is radically above us, totally transcends us, and then on his terms makes himself known to us.
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:21.279
You see, this is the difference, this is the heart level difference, and this is why God places it in his Ten Commandments.
00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:37.920
It is the heart level difference of a God which we attain to, or a God which must come to us, who must condescend to our level, who must see our humiliation before him and come to us still.
00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:43.200
It is even a hiding of his grace towards us.
00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:50.079
Because fundamentally, what we are doing then is we are worshiping a creation of our own minds.
00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:54.319
It is so hard.
00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:59.039
One of the hardest things to do in our faith is to worship God as He is.
00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:01.279
That's what the second commandment is about.
00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:04.079
That we worship God as He is.
00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:16.319
Now, I wake up every morning and I have to often, by the scriptures, wrestle my mind back into a position of understanding who God is.
00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:22.799
And it's it's often because I am thinking of him as worse than he is.
00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.240
Which, of course, it's it's not like I'm at.
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:28.960
I just thought of that.
00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:34.480
As though I could comprehend God who is better than he is.
00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:37.440
Anselm of Canterbury would have something to say about that.
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:40.640
There's there I can't comprehend that.
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:51.039
But there's a there's a uh, and so what I have to come to terms with is I'll find myself hiding from prayer or hiding from him in prayer.
00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:53.839
Who am I treating him like he is like?
00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:56.799
I'm treating him like he is cruel.
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:00.000
I'm treating him like he is disinterested.
00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:09.920
I'm treating him like he is he is waiting in the wings, looking for my mistakes, looking for something that he might hold against me or hold over me.
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:12.960
This is not how he has revealed himself to us.
00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:17.920
This is not how he discloses himself to us in the scriptures.
00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:22.240
Our God is gracious, patient.
00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:25.680
He promises that he cares.
00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:34.799
He has already given his own son and demonstrated the depth of grace and love towards us in this manner.
00:31:35.039 --> 00:31:43.359
And so when I'm worshiping him, then if I come to God according to my own imaginations of God, I'm coming to something less glorious.
00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:45.680
And I'm either I'm doing one of two things.
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:54.319
I'm I'm coming to something that needs, that I can just walk up to and control and approach in any manner that I would like.
00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:57.920
And then that is not the true God.
00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:03.759
And I'm approaching him as a false version of myself, not a sinner saved by grace.
00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:07.599
Not someone who has that this is like, how do we approach God?
00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:12.240
You know, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to my cross to the cross I cling.
00:32:12.400 --> 00:32:23.039
This approach of God, according to my own imaginations, is I've got stuff for you, and this will be sufficient for you to that I might be reconciled to you.
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:24.799
This is foolish.
00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:28.240
And I will not approach God in that way.
00:32:28.559 --> 00:32:30.880
Or I will not approach him at all.
00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:38.240
I will hide because I might have a sense or an understanding of how radically glorious and transcendent he is.
00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:47.599
And this will flash the humiliation of who I really am and the condemnation of who I really am onto myself, and I will have a clarity of that.
00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:52.240
And in my clarity of that, I will think: how could I possibly approach this God?
00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:54.160
I just need to hide from him.
00:32:54.559 --> 00:32:56.160
I just need to hide out from him.
00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:03.759
Maybe I can hide out from him for a long enough time so that I might be, I might not come under, come under the terrible condemnation.
00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:05.359
But that is a false God.
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:07.599
That is not the true God.
00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:17.279
The true God is the one who is so glorious and so transcendent, so holy that if I were to behold him, I would die.
00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:40.960
But in his holiness and righteousness, he is seen fit to save me by his grace and by his love, even to the uttermost of sacrifice of his son on the cross, so that I might come to him in full confidence that he will see me and receive me in the fullness of grace.
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:42.799
That's the true God.
00:33:44.960 --> 00:34:04.720
If I create a mediator, even an image that must go between me and him, I am either wrestling him down from his glory into something that can be contained and constrained, or I am minimizing the depth of need that I have.
00:34:06.640 --> 00:34:16.800
And I am raising myself up to the type of thing that can that can constrain God to a place that I desire him to be.
00:34:19.440 --> 00:34:38.800
So that is why this commandment and what we see in Exodus 32 with the golden calf and with our own worship of the worshiping of God according to our own imaginations, rather than his revealing himself to us in his word.
00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:42.880
You can see it it blocks out the gospel.
00:34:44.800 --> 00:34:50.400
It blocks out the truth of his glory, the depth of our need, and the wonder of his grace.
00:34:52.480 --> 00:35:07.199
Now, what this command is grounded in, because why not make this command more complicated for us preachers, is in Exodus 20, 5 through 6, it says, You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
00:35:08.719 --> 00:35:12.960
This command, the importance of this command, is grounded in the jealousy of God.
00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:24.239
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
00:35:24.559 --> 00:35:27.679
This command is grounded in the jealousy of God.
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:35.519
You should not worship him by means of created images, because God is a jealous God.
00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:39.280
Now, right off the bat, we hear that and we think God is a jealous God.
00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:42.559
That doesn't seem fitting for God.
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:49.280
That he would that he would be considered that feels like a like a human thing that we do.
00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:57.199
But what happens is, is we can confuse the concepts of jealousy and the concepts of envy in our minds.
00:35:57.440 --> 00:35:59.119
These are not the same thing.
00:36:00.960 --> 00:36:08.480
Envy you can think of, or covetousness, which we'll get to at the end of uh the Ten Commandments, it's the tenth one.
00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:11.840
Uh so until then, you know.
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:13.840
Covet all you want.
00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:15.840
No, that's not not true.
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:17.840
I'm not writing them as I go.
00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:20.239
So, anyway.
00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:25.360
The uh covetousness is that you can think of it as like a two-party game.
00:36:25.760 --> 00:36:29.840
There's the thing that you want and don't have, and then there's you.
00:36:30.320 --> 00:36:33.679
So you see the thing you want and don't have, and then you just want it.
00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:34.800
You have that thing.
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:37.440
Jealousy is like a three-party game.
00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:48.079
There's the the thing that you that you want, and positively, positive jealousy, which is what God has, there's there's the thing that is yours.
00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:50.880
The thing that's yours.
00:36:52.559 --> 00:36:56.800
And then there's the thing, and then there's the rival.
00:36:57.679 --> 00:36:59.679
It's more of like a three-party game.
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:02.079
The rival to that thing's affections.
00:37:04.719 --> 00:37:08.239
For God to be jealous, we could say, of his name.
00:37:08.559 --> 00:37:11.360
God to be jealous of for his glory.
00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:16.239
For God to be jealous for his people.
00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:19.760
This is right and good.
00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:26.960
Because there are rivals for the glory of God that fill our lives.
00:37:27.440 --> 00:37:32.639
And God says, I don't want you to be taken by those because you're mine.
00:37:33.760 --> 00:37:35.039
You are mine.
00:37:37.119 --> 00:37:44.000
You know, you could imagine that, you could imagine a husband who is not jealous for his wife.
00:37:44.719 --> 00:37:55.679
You know, like uh and and so the this lack of jealousy of this wife, it actually manifests as just a it it's truly just a lack of love.
00:37:55.840 --> 00:37:57.440
I don't care what she does.
00:37:57.679 --> 00:38:21.840
You know, there's there's this sort of thing, it's probably like Burning Man mainstreaming in our culture, which is uh a language around relationships that's developing as sort of like the you know, from the margins, the polyamorous version of relationships comes into a normal, ordinary vernacular.
00:38:23.440 --> 00:38:31.440
And a lot of that language is you should not be cultivating jealousy over your partner.
00:38:32.079 --> 00:38:35.840
That's just your ego, and that needs to be put to death.
00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:47.920
We should have no sense of commitment or of possessiveness for our uh wives or husbands or in relationships like that.
00:38:48.400 --> 00:38:51.280
Now, this is a wicked, wicked lie.
00:38:53.679 --> 00:38:59.440
Imagine a man who is allowing his home to be invaded.
00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:06.719
And as his home is invaded, he says, Well, you know, either they have it or I have it.
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:10.400
And what's the difference between them having it or us having it?
00:39:10.719 --> 00:39:12.719
Anybody can have anything, right?
00:39:13.199 --> 00:39:17.679
And so we'll just leave and go somewhere else, and I'll take my family, and then they can have it.
00:39:17.920 --> 00:39:20.079
You would think, that's bad.
00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:25.760
You're a bad man, is what you should think of that, if you were to see something like that.
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:30.000
And the reason is because they were not jealous of what was theirs.
00:39:30.719 --> 00:39:36.000
And because they were not jealous of what was theirs, they were unable to demonstrate a loving commitment.
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:41.920
They were unable to demonstrate loving protection over the thing which is theirs.
00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:47.440
Imagine your children feeling like you are not jealous of them.
00:39:49.119 --> 00:39:56.880
That you are not jealous for that for their affection, for their love, that they are interchangeable, that they could be anyone.
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:03.920
You know, they they would think of their parent is barely even their parent at that point.
00:40:04.239 --> 00:40:05.920
There's no love to them.
00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:10.079
But why do we love our children?
00:40:10.239 --> 00:40:20.480
You know, we we love our children like when we're when we when we love our children, we're not looking at them and thinking like, oh man.
00:40:21.039 --> 00:40:28.960
Like when all the kids are playing soccer out on the field out there, you're not walking out like, I wonder which one's the best soccer player.
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:32.880
That one's gonna get my love as the parents.
00:40:32.960 --> 00:40:35.039
You know, it's not the way you're thinking about it.
00:40:35.599 --> 00:40:42.880
You're you're walking out and and you're you're seeing your kid, and your kid could be the worst soccer player out there.
00:40:43.199 --> 00:40:44.480
Could be the very worst one.
00:40:44.559 --> 00:40:46.000
You know, you know who it is.
00:40:47.039 --> 00:40:48.559
I mean, there is one.
00:40:50.960 --> 00:40:59.679
And when you see the worst soccer player out there, the parent of that child looks out and says, mine.
00:41:02.239 --> 00:41:04.000
Why do you love that kid?
00:41:04.559 --> 00:41:05.519
They're mine.
00:41:06.559 --> 00:41:07.519
They're mine.
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:09.760
That's love.
00:41:11.679 --> 00:41:14.480
So what is God's jealousy?
00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:21.039
He looks at his people, us as his people, and he says, mine.
00:41:23.039 --> 00:41:26.880
Don't give your affection to another.
00:41:27.599 --> 00:41:30.400
Give your affection to me.
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:37.840
And we think, well, it's not really giving affection, it's just it's just beholding.
00:41:39.119 --> 00:41:41.519
It's just looking at and beholding.
00:41:42.800 --> 00:41:54.239
And God says, you're so prone to self-deception, you're so prone to worshiping the creation rather than the creator, you have to guard your eyes to look towards the unseen.
00:41:54.639 --> 00:42:04.079
This is the way that you we can see this play out as Moses offers us a greater interpretation of this of this passage in Deuteronomy 4.
00:42:04.559 --> 00:42:17.519
Starting in Deuteronomy 4.15, it says, Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully, since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire.
00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:27.679
Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female.
00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:34.480
Watch yourselves very carefully that you don't make an image or likeness that you would give your worship to.
00:42:34.639 --> 00:42:38.639
Why do you what what's the reason that he gives for this commandment?
00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:43.039
It's because at Sinai you saw no form.
00:42:45.199 --> 00:42:46.800
That's the reason.
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:53.199
At Sinai, when you were at Mount Horeb, Sinai wilderness, Mount Horeb, when you were there, you saw no form.
00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:56.559
Therefore, don't make a form.
00:42:57.360 --> 00:42:58.880
Don't make a form of God.
00:42:59.039 --> 00:43:21.519
And what they should be thinking as they remember Sinai and they remember how terrible it was, and how horrifying it was, how terrific it was in the old sense of the word, that they look at Sinai and they remember, yes, there was the fire, there was the smoke, there was the trumpet sounds, the voice of thunder, there were the lightning strikes, but we didn't see the form of God.
00:43:23.280 --> 00:43:32.559
And what they should think, if they're thinking biblically about this, when they think we didn't see the form of God, they should think we lived.
00:43:35.199 --> 00:43:39.119
We encountered God and we lived.
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:45.199
Because we didn't see his form, who can see God and live?
00:43:45.440 --> 00:43:48.159
So Moses continues, Deuteronomy four nineteen.
00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:59.760
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.
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:05.440
Things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
00:44:05.679 --> 00:44:06.719
What is he concerned about?
00:44:06.880 --> 00:44:12.400
He's concerned that you walk up and you look at the stars and you start worshiping the stars.
00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:14.559
This is not that crazy.
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:19.440
Egypt, the Egyptians walk out and they say they worshiped the sun.
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:21.519
And the sun does a lot of things.
00:44:21.679 --> 00:44:23.119
It tells me when to wake up.
00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:25.360
It's part of why we're here, why we're meeting now.
00:44:25.440 --> 00:44:28.159
The sun rules a lot of things.
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And they would look up at those and be taken in by them.
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And why is he can't why is God concerned about them being drawn away and bowing down to the objects in creation?
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Well, he says here, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
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You know who the stars belong to?
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You know who the sun is allotted to?
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Everybody.
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Everyone.
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That's why God doesn't want you worshiping them.
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Because to worship things that have been allotted to everyone is to say, God doesn't look at me and say mine.
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It's to say he looks at everybody.
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He looks at everybody in the same way.
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That's not what God does.
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God's saying, I didn't rescue the Egyptians.
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I didn't rescue the world.
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I rescued you.
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You're my people.
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Don't act like you're normal people.
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You're not.
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You can't be anymore.
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Don't act like you can get to God in the same way that everybody can get to God.
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You can't.
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It's never been the case.
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I had to come to you, and I did, and I look at you and say, mine.
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Now, when you look at me, you say, My God.
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This is my God.
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Do you see the stakes of the relationship that's being developed here?
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How these are all at stake?
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In Deuteronomy 4.20, it says, But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to a people, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
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God is the one who he does the rescue to make you a people.
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This is the personal nature of God's salvation.
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It is not a generic salvation.
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He says, Don't worship the things which have been allotted to everybody.
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Because I rescued you.
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I saw you when you were weak.
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The worship of God by means of images means that we are worshiping a God that we can behold on our terms and live.
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What we worship, that means that we are.
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Now here's the danger of that.
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There's obviously that this is a misin- this is uh misunderstanding the transcendence of God, misunderstanding the requirement of our salvation, because it raises us higher than we ought to be.
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But it also deforms our hearts, so that we become the types of things that can't worship the true God.
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In Psalm 115, verses 7 through 8, it's describing the idols, and it says, They have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat.
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Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.
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What's the big deal of beholding if we know in our minds that this isn't the real thing?
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Well, we know that there are places in our life where that's simply not it doesn't it doesn't matter.
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You know, do you think that there is there's anything that you could behold, let's say, on your computer or your phone?
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Or you'd say, well, I know it's not real, so it doesn't matter.
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And that your heart might be preserved because of that type of self-deception.
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We all we all know.
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Of course that's not the case.
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What happens is those things that we behold, we become like them.
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The things that we submit ourselves to, they they we we start to act like them.
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You know, this is why like I don't want this to become like a phone bad TED talk, because we know.
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But consider what it is that we behold and submit ourselves to, rather than turning to the Lord our God.
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The means by which we approach him, we become like them.
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This is the truth of worship, this is the wonder of worship.
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You become what you behold.
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You become what you behold.
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We are meant to behold God.
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Well, how do we do that?
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How do we behold God?
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You know, John he describes in um the beginning of his letter that we saw in 1 John, him whom we have seen with our eyes, him whom we have touched, him whom we have beheld.
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God has manifest himself to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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John, we have the testimony of eyewitness, that the one in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, he was seen.
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And John beheld him.
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Right now, where is Jesus?
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He is at the right hand of the Father in the heavens.
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We might say, we might be here when our Lord is up there.
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We might be down here and we would say, Impatiently, I want to see him.
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Now is not the time for us to see him.
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Now is not the time for us to behold his form.
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He's not here.
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We should not be impatient at the mountain.
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And yet, this is where the scriptures start to look forward, and yet he is here.
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Before his ascension, he promised that he would be with us always.
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He promised that he would return in the same way that he came.
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So it means we look forward to his return.
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What is beholding God fine, what is beholding God finally about?
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Well, we we get a glimpse of this.
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Consider 2 Corinthians 3.18, uh, which is not on the, it's not on the slides.
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We don't have this one.
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We have 4.18.
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I'll get there.
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In 3.18 it says, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
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For this comes from the Lord who is spirit.
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When we behold the Lord, we are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next.
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When we finally see God, when we behold him face to face, we will be made perfect by beholding him.
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But that's not where we are today.
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Today we behold him by the eyes of faith.
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And that's why throughout the New Testament, you see, looking at God is about, is about the end.
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It's about the final consummation of all things.
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Beholding God is what we look forward to doing.
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When we behold him now by our eyes, where we have the impatience of the of the Sinai wilderness.
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And we degrade God by worship in that manner.
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But right now we are called to be patient like they are and look forward to the day when we will behold him.
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And now we behold him like this.
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And in 2 Corinthians 4.18, it says, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
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For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
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The New Testament is full of language like this.
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We look to what is unseen.
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Sounds paradoxical.
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You don't look, you looking, looking is an eye type of thing, the way I do it.
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And things that are unseen, there's nothing there.
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So what are we doing?
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We're beholding by the eyes of faith.
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We're beholding him in his word.
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We're receiving his presence by the Spirit.
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And it is not a totally invisible task.
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In Hebrews 11, 27, this is attributed to Moses, this very type of faith.
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It says, by faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
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This is what our lives are like now.
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We hold fast to him who is invisible by faith.
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And in receiving him by faith, what we are saying is he is not a God who I can wrestle to the ground.
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He is not a God that I can attain to by my own strength.
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He is a God that I am humiliated before and is wildly transcendent, but because of his graciousness and love, he has saved me in his son.
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And I receive that salvation now by faith, by the fullness of faith.
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You see how to violate this commandment is a threat to the core of the wonderful truths that we hold.
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The glory of God, our salvation by faith alone.
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That's what's held together in this.
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And so the appropriate place to end a sermon on the second commandment is by turning to the Lord's Supper.
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Because in the Lord's Supper, we are given something that is seen, it is visible.
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And in it, we have the promise of the Lord's presence, that the Lord promises to attend his supper.
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And how is the Lord present in it?
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We would not say that the Lord is the bread, that the Lord is the wine.
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This is to wrestle him down when we know where his body is.
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There's no question.
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He's in the heavens.
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But the Lord gives us this as a visible word, the Lord's Supper as a visible word, so that we might look and see with longing and trust that by faith the Lord spiritually attends this.
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He is really here and really here by the Spirit.
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Oh, how our hearts need to be strengthened in this.
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Because you will encounter issues this week, and you will need to be able to trust that the Lord is really with me now.
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And you will look out into the world.
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You will look at your bank account and say, Is he with me?
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You will look at your job prospects and say, is he with me?
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You will look at the difficulties that you are facing in your family, and with all the things that you can see, you will say, Is he with me?
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And what you must look to is the thing that is unseen.
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His promises.
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And you will hold to those by faith in his word.
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And by faith in his word, that he, where you will say, He promised to be with me, he looks at me and says, mine, he's jealous for me, he holds fast to me.
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Then you hold fast to those promises by faith in his word.
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And you will see that he is there, that he meets you in it, that this God is with you.
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So we come to him as he calls us to come to him.
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Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11, he says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.
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That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.
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Do this in remembrance of me.
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In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
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Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
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For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
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There's a warning.
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He says, Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
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Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
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For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
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That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
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But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
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For when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
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And the night before he was betrayed, the Lord took the bread and he broke it, and he said, This is my body, which is for you.
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You can look at it and see it.
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We can know what it means, that it is spiritually attended.
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He took the cup and he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
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And we can drink this, we can taste it.
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We can taste and see that the Lord is good as we look forward to the day when we will behold him by sight.
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And in beholding him by sight, we will be made perfect.
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And now we trust by faith in his word.
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Things that I cannot test and prove, the spiritual significance of this bread and this wine.
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I receive it by faith in his promises and will be nourished by it, strengthened by it, because here's the wonder, the full wonder of what it means that we cannot worship the Lord by images.
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We cannot create images.
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It is that a God who is so wildly transcendent as that took on flesh, went to the cross on our behalf, died, was raised again, so that we might be brought into the fullness of his glory, cleansed, so that we might behold and live the true God.
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Behold the true God and live.
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Let's pray.
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Holy Father, I pray that you would bless this holy communion.
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Lord, that these passages which feel complicated and and uh Oh Father, I pray that you would give us wisdom to understand and apply your word.
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That we might be a people founded on and in love with with your word, Lord, and that we might receive this visible word of your holy sacrament.
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And that you would we would receive by faith the promise to nourish us through it and to remember your death until you come.
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Come, Lord Jesus.
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We lift this up in Jesus' name, amen.
