What is an Idol? An idol is anything created (physical, mental, or - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

I Commandment

• Worship the Right God

• Do not worship false

gods.

II Commandment

• Worship the Right God

Rightly

• Do not falsely worship

God.

What is an Idol?

An idol is anything created (physical, mental, or spiritual) that is intended to mediate the presence and power of the Triune God whereby it draws the affection and volition of the worshipper.

Outline

• The Instruction: God is Central
• The Foundation: God is Jealous
• The Retribution: God is Just
• The Devotion: God is Merciful

The Command: God is Central

• Idolatry in Israel
• Exodus 32:1-10
• “Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. But Jehu did not

turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin—that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan.” (2 Kings 10:28–29, ESV)

The Command: God is Central

“Hence we may infer, that the human mind is,
 so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.” John Calvin

The Command: God is Central

• Idolatry in the Church
• Idols of the Hand

The Command: God is Central

The Second Commandment forbids the use of art as mediating the presence and power of God so that people assign to it special devotion.

The Command: God is Central

• Idolatry in the Church
• Idols of the Hand
• Idols of the Heart

The Command: God is Central

• The Problem with Idols
• Idols Deafen Our Ears

The Command: God is Central

“We now learn to listen with our eyes and think with our feelings…We are meant to see through the eye, with the conscience; when we start seeing with the eye devoid of the conscience, all kinds of belief can invade your imagination.” Ravi Zacharias
 Cultural Relativism and the Emasculation of Truth

The Command: God is Central

“This preferring of the verbal over the visual goes right into our understanding of the authority of Scripture and into the centrality of preaching. These is a loss of confidence in the power of the Word that seems to affect so many pulpits and so many preachers.” Albert Mohler, Words from the Fire

The Command: God is Central

• The Problem with Idols
• Idols Deafen Our Ears

The Command: God is Central

• The Problem with Idols
• Idols Distort God
• Distant…Impersonal…Indifferent

The Command: God is Central

• The Problem with Idols
• Idols Deceive Ourselves

The Foundation: God is Jealous

• The foundation for the command is that God

is jealous for the worship that is his alone.

The Retribution: God is Just

• God is just to punish sin in all times.

The Devotion: God is Merciful

• Devote yourself to God’s Son
• Devote yourself to God’s presence
• Devote your self to God’s compassion
• Devote yourself to God’s Word