Jeremiah chapter number 10 verses 1 through 16 have to do with the subject of
idolatry, graven images, molten images, false gods, and then verses 17 through
the end of the chapter we deal with some of the familiar themes of the book of
Jeremiah just about the fact that Jerusalem is going to be
destroyed, the children of Judah are going to be led away captive, the
Babylonians are coming, and Jeremiah expresses some of his own thoughts out
of his heart but in Jeremiah chapter 10 look at verse number 1 the Bible reads
hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you O house of Israel thus saith the
Lord learn not the way of the heathen and be not dismayed at the signs of
heaven for the heathen are dismayed at them. Now when the Bible says here not to
be dismayed at the signs of heaven
this has to do with what we would know today as astrology where different
zodiacs and different signs in the heavens where this particular sign is
rising and this one's descending and this one's passing through this and
people will actually try to determine the events of their lives based upon
these things. They'll look into the horoscope and it'll tell them well
because the heavenly bodies are doing x, y, and z this and that is going to happen
in your life so the Bible condemns that repeatedly this is one of the places
where he condemns that that we should not be dismayed at the signs of heaven
like oh no you know bad things are going to happen because you know this
particular zodiac told me that so we need to stay away from horoscopes and
astrology and all that stuff that's just a gateway into the occult and today
there are a lot of things that have made their way into our American culture that
are gateways to that which is satanic that which is demonic or occultic in
nature you know one of those things is yoga where you know people need to be
where a lot of people today are just being told this is just an exercise
program it's just you know and that's what I used to think because I didn't
know anything about you know it's just stretching it's exercise it's good for
you but this exercise quote-unquote of yoga it's not just that it has a bad
origin or something you know who knows where certain things came from but it's
just that the practice of yoga itself is a part of the false religion of Hinduism
it's part and parcel of that religion and when you take a yoga class and you
do these different the the poses one of the first poses that you learn has to do
with saluting the Sun you know and it's basically the Sun salutation and it has
to do with actually worshiping the heavenly bodies and it also has to do
with you know emptying yourself and they go through these processes in
transcendental meditation or in yoga meditation or Hinduism where they're
basically trying to reach higher levels of consciousness I believe all they're
doing is just inviting demons in and if you read up on Hindu meditation you'll
realize they are practicing with familiar spirits and they'll get in
these you know meditative states they get in these yoga poses and they you
know focus on their breathing and they clear their mind of anything else and
just focus on their breathing and breathing in breathing out and then you
know voices will come talk to them and and other spirits will come and
communicate with them that's what's going on with it and so don't get caught
up in this stay away from the Ouija board stay away from the astrology
section the horoscope stay away from the psychic palm reader stay away from yoga
you know these things even though they might seem like they're just fun and
innocent they are demonic and we don't want to open ourselves up to these type
of you know evil spirits and things I find it bizarre that they sell Ouija
boards in the section with the board games it's made by Milton Bradley next
to monopoly and what did it say 12 and up you know so you can start don't smoke
until you're 18 don't drink until you're 21 but you can start communicating with
demons at age 12 okay so we need to be wary of these things and especially of
astrology and things of that nature things that have to do with the occult
says in verse number three for the customs of the people are vain because
he had said at verse to learn not the way of the heathen because he's saying
the heathen are into astrology they're into these things now he begins to talk
about another heathen practice which is the practice of idolatry graven or
molten images this is a subject that I'm I've actually been wanting to preach a
sermon about and it just worked out great that Jeremiah 10 came up because I
was thinking on a Sunday I wanted to do a sermon about this because this is a
subject that is so misunderstood by so many people a lot of people they get
confused between literal idolatry and figurative idolatry or metaphorical
idolatry the Bible talks about both and I really want you to listen up tonight
because I want you to comprehend this truth it's so important that you get
this there are two types of idolatry there is a literal physical idolatry and
then there is a metaphorical idolatry or a figurative symbolic idolatry and the
reason I want to make this point is because people get so caught up in the
figurative definition that they forget the literal definition so today when we
talk about idolatry people have zero concept of the literal definition
because they're so focused on the secondary definition and I'm not saying
that the secondary definition doesn't matter but I'm saying we need to keep
both in mind there are two kinds of idolatry tonight idolatry number one is
when we have a literal physical graven or molten image and I'm going to explain
to you exactly what that entails and I'm going to show you from the Bible what
that entails but we're talking about the Buddha statue or the Hindu God statue
and it would include also graven images of Mary and the Saints and Jesus and I'm
going to go into all that it would include Mount Rushmore and the Jefferson
Memorial but let's we'll get into that in a moment that's a literal carved
image but then over here we have a secondary definition a metaphorical
figurative definition that has to do with worshiping something other than God
so if we worship anything other than God that is idolatry in a figurative sense
even though we don't have the literal graven image or literal molten image you
know we're still worshiping something other than God that's why the Bible says
covetousness is idolatry because God talks about people who worship money and
he calls that and worshiping Mammon the god of money and there are people who
live their lives only to make money so in a sense they're not even though
they're not committing a literal physical idolatry they're practicing
idolatry in a figurative sense so that's where we get this looser definition of
idolatry like covetousness is idolatry now worshiping the Sun worshiping the
moon or worshiping the stars would also be idolatry under that definition
figurative idolatry okay bowing down and worshiping anything other than the Lord
is idolatry but that doesn't make it a literal graven image two different
things but see because people are so caught up in the metaphorical definition
they think graven images are fine just as long as you're not saying that they're
God or worshiping them as God and they'll try to justify graven images but
actually just making a graven image is a sin in and of itself making one owning
one having one whether you worship it or not okay now let's look at this
chapter a little bit and then we'll go to some of the supporting passages and
Exodus Deuteronomy and elsewhere but let's keep reading here it says in verse
3 for the customs of the people are vain for one cut at the tree out of the
forest the work of the hands of the workmen with the axe they deck it with
silver and with gold they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it moved not
they are upright as the palm tree but speak not see these graven images these
owls they don't talk they must needs be born born's means carried because they
cannot go be not afraid of them for they cannot do evil neither also is it in
them to do good for as much as there is none like unto thee O Lord thou art
great and thy name is great in might who would not fear the O king of nations for
to thee to that appertain for as among all the wise men of the nations and in
their kingdoms there is none like unto thee but they are all together brutish
brutish means stupid they're all together brutish and foolish the stock
is a doctrine of vanities now what is the stock the stock is used elsewhere in
the Bible where he talks about bowing down to the stock of a tree now what I
want you to understand that a lot of people get confused here no one was
actually bowing down to the stock of the tree in its unfinished format they
didn't just take a tree stump and just start bowing down to a tree stump what
they did was they took a tree from the forest they cut it down and they bring
it in and the Bible says they work on it they fasten it with nails and they
plate it with gold plate it with silver they form it into an image like unto
man or like unto beasts or creeping things they have mouths but they speak
not they have ears but they hear not they have feet but they cannot go and
they that worship them are like unto them in what way he says that this idol
is a dumb idol he said it's brutish and foolish and he says if you worship it
you're foolish you're British they that worship them thank you they that worship
them are like unto them but people have become confused by this passage to the
point where they literally said a tree is a graven image a literal just a tree
like a literal tree that grows that's a graven image well here's thing do you
not know what the word graven means and and I'm just wondering maybe people
don't know because it's not I mean I'm not mad at you if you don't know because
it's not a word that we use in our modern vernacular but most people know
what engraving is right so when we put that and at the beginning of grave it
has to do with carving lettering or carving some kind of a picture into
something that's called an engraving okay so for example if I had some
wooden object and my name were carved into it then I would say it was engraved
with my name carved in okay so if we get rid of the end grave and we just say
grave it just means carve grave means carve everybody understand so a graven
image is a carved image so what we're doing is we're taking wood and carving
it into the shape of either man or beast or creeping thing remember Romans
one talks about they took the image of the uncorruptible God and they made it
into an image like unto corruptible man or an image like unto a beast or an
image like to creeping things so these are the things that people make graven
images of human beings or beasts or animals everybody follow so far then
there's the counterpart of the graven image which is known as the molten image
which molten comes from the word melt it means melted image and what that is
referring to is something that's made of metal that's not carved but rather it's
melted down and poured into a mold you know this is how they make the idols
over in India and over in Asia where they create these molds and then they
pour hot metal into them and then they basically will beat it with a hammer and
so forth now what the Bible is talking about here is a wooden carved image a
graven image and then they basically plate it in silver or gold that way they
don't have to spend all the money to have a solid gold idol or a solid silver
idol it's gold plated it's silver plated now look at the verse there in verse
number nine silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish okay now notice
that we're in one continuous flow here because in verse three it said for the
customs of the people are vain for one cutteth a tree out of the forest notice
the present tense because he's talking about a process that goes on continually
somebody cuts a tree out of the forest then silver plates are brought from
Tarshish okay gold from you fast so he's explaining the process of how these
idols are made they cut down a tree they fasten it they get these silver
plates they get the gold plates brought from Tarshish gold from you fast the
work of the workmen and of the hands of the founder so there are people involved
that are skilled laborers making these idols there's a workmen that does the
carving there's a founder who does the metal work that person is called a
founder they work in a foundry right you've heard that term and it says blue
and purple is their clothing they are all the work of cunning men now the word
cunning there means skillful in working with their hands the Bible used this
word elsewhere to talk about the people who built the tabernacle people that
worked on the temple that they were cunning workmen they were skilled at
what they did so again this is not talking about worshiping a tree because
a lot of people will say you know hey you know if you bring a Christmas tree
into your house or any house plant you're in violation of Jeremiah chapter
10 who's ever heard that before where people will pull out Jeremiah 10 and say
hey it's a Christmas tree the Bible says not to bring a tree into your house
false the Bible saying don't take a tree and get a cunning workmen to carve that
thing into an idol and if you actually get the context this whole thing is
about that type of idolatry from verses 1 through 16 he goes on and on about
they can't talk they can't hear I mean who in the world ever expected their
Christmas tree to talk to them or to go anywhere or to be in a living being that
they you know they didn't but again this is just a taking scripture out of
context and the prop you know look if people don't want to have a Christmas
tree no problem but here's the problem though it shows a total lack of
understanding of what a graven image is I mean these flat earthers they came at
me with this that the globe is a graven image now here's the thing if a circle
is it I mean to these people I guess like a square is a graven image a circle
is a graven image and another thing that people brought out is you know I was
preaching the other day about Babylon and I was pointing out the fact that
neither the Jews nor the Muslims worship before graven images they do not have
carved images they do not have molten images and people just freak out and
think that I'm defending these wicked really listen both Judaism and Islam are
wicked religions and the people who follow them are gonna split hell wide
open I'm not defending these religions I'm just pointing out the fact that
these two religions do not partake in the worship of graven images or molten
images and I specifically said they don't have idolatry in the literal sense
and I just get all these emails you're so wrong because they they bow down to a
giant cube there's a if a cube is a graven image then every building is a
graven image every pulpit every building every room no look is it wrong for them
to bow down and worship at a giant gamecube yes it's wrong because it's
wrong to worship anything except the Lord you know somebody said oh the
wailing wall is a graven image what then every wall is a graven it that doesn't
even make sense now listen you can worship the Sun moon and stars it's a
sin but that doesn't make the Sun a graven image people you can worship
money that doesn't make money a graven image okay now the coins with the faces
carved on them okay I can see that being a graven image but don't tell me
that a giant cube is a graven image now am I defending Islam of course not Islam
is a wicked really I've got plenty of sermons where I chew that religion up
and spit it out and preach super hard against both Judaism and Islam but it's
significant the fact that they don't have graven images because we're talking
about Babylon which is known as in the Bible the land of graven images and the
Bible goes on and on about the literal idolatry of Babylon in the sense of
molten and carved images okay and I was pointing out that these kind of
half-baked theories about Jerusalem or Mecca or these other places being
Babylon they don't hold water one of the thousand reasons is that they don't
partake of literal idolatry you will not find Jewish people bowing down to
statues and you will not find Muslims bowing down to statues it's that simple
do they bow down and and rock in front of a wall or in front of a gamecube or
face toward Mecca somebody said Mecca is a graven image I mean it's like look get
a dictionary people and look up the word graven and figure out what you're
talking about you know I mean I'm all you know I'm all for being corrected
when I'm wrong but don't come at me and tell me that a cube is a graven image
okay because a graven image is of man or beast man or beast okay see this right
here this is a this is a graven tree this is not man this is not beast the
building that we're in the door the door is not a an idol okay this pulpit is not
an idol why this guitar is not an idol why because they're not in the shape of
man or beast they're not male or female now look if you would at Exodus chapter
20 let's look up some scriptures on the graven image to understand this doctrine
now one of the Ten Commandments is thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image now let me just point out first of all that we don't just call it the Ten
Commandments as some sort of a matter of tradition but rather the Bible actually
uses the term Ten Commandments okay I'm going to read that for you it's in
Deuteronomy 10 4 I always remember this because it's like when you're on a radio
and you understood something you say 10 4 so that's how I remember that and he
wrote on the tables according to the first writing the Ten Commandments
everybody got that the Ten Commandments which the Lord spake unto you in the
mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly and the Lord
gave them unto me now in the Bible the Ten Commandments are laid out in Exodus
chapter 20 and there are ten of them and the second commandment is thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image verse number three has the first commandment
thou shalt have no other gods before me commandment number one commandment
number two thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 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 thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve
them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children under the third and fourth generation of them that hate me
so here we see that we are not to make them we're not to bow down to them nor
are we to serve them so it's a neither nor it's not don't do all three of these
at once it's don't make it don't bow down to it and don't serve it those are
three things if you're doing any one of those things to a graven image you're in
sin any of those three things those are the three things that are prohibited in
the second commandment now the Roman Catholic Church is the most guilty party
when it comes to graven images I mean you want to talk about idolatry and
molten images they are the kings of idolatry and so this is kind of an
inconvenient commandment for them because they make them and they bow down
to them that well we're not worshipping it you're bowing down to it hello and
then they also serve it how do they serve it they'll put incense in front of
it they'll light a candle to it you know and and serve it in that way so
they do all three of these things so they had to get rid of this out of the
Ten Commandments so therefore if you read the Catholic catechism their
version of the Ten Commandments this commandment is removed but here's the
problem when you remove the second commandment about thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image now you only have nine commandments and that's a
problem so here's how they fix that problem jump down if you would to verse
number 17 this is the tenth commandment it says thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's house thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife nor his man servant
nor his maid servant nor his ox nor his ass nor anything that is thy neighbors
so just like the graven image commandment had three sub points don't
make it don't bow down to it don't serve it this commandment has some sub
points to don't covet but what should you not covet your neighbor's house your
neighbor's wife anything that belongs to your neighbor it goes through a list
there so what the Catholics have done is divided the Ten Commandment the tenth
commandment in half because they have to get back up to the number 10 somehow you
know what do we do about that second commandment that we deleted so they cut
this one in half so you say well is there a separate commandment about not
coveting your neighbor's house no no they what they do is they take the one
about the wife because they think you know we could probably get away with
making that its own commandment don't let it bother you that it's the second
thing on the list but they'll take it out and they'll basically say okay so
verse 16 is commandment number nine thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbor oh no that's that's commandment eight for them right because
they don't have number two so they'll say well bearing false witness this
commandment eight and then they'll say well thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house that's number ten so we went from eight to ten then thou shalt not cover
thy neighbor's wife that's back number nine again and then thou shalt not covet
his manservant well now we're back on ten again now does that make any sense
to you do you really think that that's what God's trying to do here see God's
not the author of confusion but they in their zeal for their lying false pagan
wicked Church making the Word of God of none effect through their tradition have
just butchered the tenth commandment thou shalt not covet and tried pulled
one thing out of the list and put it by itself and said well this is its own
commandment thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife but the problem with
that is in the New Testament these commandments are simplified down to
just thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal
thou shalt not bear fallen with it false witness and thou shalt not covet just
thou shalt not covet in Romans 13 is how it's listed so God didn't say thou shalt
not covet thy neighbor's wife or anything else when he was doing the
short version everybody understand what I'm saying so again this is the total
fraud of the Catholic Church trying to hide their blatant pagan idolatry you
know why because they don't teach their people to read the Bible most Catholics
don't read the Bible they don't know what the Bible says but they know their
catechism so yeah if you read a Catholic Bible the second commandment still there
but it's not in the catechism it's been removed and the tenth commandment has
been split in two because they know that that's all the Catholics are getting is
that garbage catechism they're not actually getting the Word of God so
that's how they keep their people deceived now go over to Deuteronomy
chapter number four Deuteronomy chapter number four and this is a key scripture
that goes into a little more detail on the graven images and really explains
what God's talking about here and he explains part of the reason why we
should have no graven image because it's not just a sin to make a graven image of
a false God the Bible makes it clear that even if you make a graven image to
the true God you're committing sin there was a guy in the book of Judges named
Micah he had a graven image of the Lord you know but here's the thing how can you
have a graven image of the Lord when no one's ever seen the Lord he's got a
graven image unto Jehovah he's never seen Jehovah and that's what God spells
out here in Deuteronomy chapter number four verse 15 take ye therefore good
heat unto yourselves for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the
Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire look when I spoke to
you in the mount when I gave you those things you did not see any image all you
heard was a voice talking to you take heed unto that he's saying remember
that realize that pay attention to that and then the sentence continues in verse
16 lest meaning if you don't remember that this is what you might do lest you
corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image and then he explains what a graven
image is the similitude of any figure the likeness of male or female the
likeness of any beast that is on the earth the likeness of any winged fowl
that flyeth in the air the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground the
likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth so he gives
some examples saying look this is what I don't want you to make I don't want you
making any male or female images I don't want you making beasts I don't want you
making fish birds anything and then he has another thing that he says in verse
19 and lest thou so he's saying you didn't see any image in the mount so
there's two things to stay away from number one graven images of animals
number two he says the other way that they could corrupt themselves and lest
thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven and when thou see as the Sun and the moon
and the stars even all the hosts of heaven shouldest be driven to worship
them and serve them which the Lord thy God had divided unto all nations unto
the whole heaven so again God saying here don't look up at the Sun moon and
stars and worship them it's not that they're graven images it's just that
you're not supposed to worship anything except God that the worship the Lord
thy God and him only shalt thou serve no other gods before him and so the Bible
is real clear here that we should not have any graven or molten images and
it's amazing to me that in this passage he specifically brings up a bird and a
fish right and you know we've been on the Catholics and we ought to be on them
but evangelical Christians today have a molten image on the back of their car
it's always a bird or a fish right I mean if they want to have a symbol of
Christianity on the back of their car they have a molten fish or a molten bird
those are the two symbols right it's either the so-called Jesus fish or it is
the little dove like a Calvary Chapel style dove and they'll have that metal
dove emblem on the back of their car I'm against both it's a molten image of an
animal it's something that's prohibited in Scripture now you say well but the
fish is the symbol of Christianity no it isn't that's not biblical you know now
the Pope wears a hat that's shaped like a fish because he's the high priest of
Dagon the fish God because he's practicing Roman paganism and by the
way just to give you a clue this Sunday morning I've got a sermon coming up
about the Roman harlot Babylon Catholic Church and let me tell you something
they are so wicked and they have murdered so many people and this Sunday
morning I'm doing a sermon on the Catholic Inquisition something you never
hear about I mean I remember when I was in school they'd always just gloss it
over skip that chapter nobody's allowed to talk about it and even today they
justify it I mean where the Catholic Church for hundreds of years murdered
people burned them at the stake and tortured people for their faith and and
I mean they still justify it to this day that's the Sunday morning sermon I don't
want to get off on that so that's just a little advertisement to be here on
Sunday morning but anyway the point is though he's got all that weirdo stuff
that's a remnant of Roman religion and one of them is a is a hat that's shaped
like a fish now I don't need a fish symbol to represent the Lord Jesus
Christ I don't need a bird to represent the Holy Spirit you know when the Holy
Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove it's not saying that it looked like
a dove it's saying that it descended like a dove descends it descended as a
dove would descend okay in the sense that a dove lands a certain way or flies
her way so we should not have and you say well I'm not worshipping it but hold
on don't make it don't make it don't install it no fish no bird no statues
now look since people struggle to understand the term graven image or
molten image let me just help you by giving you the modern-day synonym here
would be statue all right statue you say well how do I know what's a molten image
and a graven image it's our modern word statue pretty much anything that we
would call today a statue okay is a graven image or a molten image but then
also certain things that we would not call a statue because things that are
very small we wouldn't really refer to as a statue little small molten images
like or a little Buddha around someone's neck obviously that's just a small
version of a statue or a molten image or graven image but statues are included
okay again you know a pulpit a giant cube these aren't statues a wall not a
statue should you worship it no and you know there are people who go in nature
and worship all kinds of things and stuff but that doesn't make them a
graven image but let me tell you something Mount Rushmore is idolatry it
is a gigantic graven image it is the it is the the similitude of male or female
and it is exalting man beyond what he ought to be exalted not only that the
Abraham Lincoln Memorial the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and here's the thing
we were just at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial just
weeks ago and it says right there engraved in stone at the Abraham Lincoln
Memorial this temple is dedicated yada yada yada this temple and it's shaped
like a Roman temple and instead of a pagan god they've got a giant statue of
Abraham Lincoln it's idolatry now also the college that I went to Bible College
to Hiles Anderson College has a molten image outside of its front door of Jack
Hiles now here's the thing I'm not blaming Jack Hiles on that because one
of his friends told me and I don't know if this is true but they told me that he
refused to have them put that image there and that's why they rolled it out
after he died and they lied about it and said that they made it after he died but
really all they did was just put some finishing touches on it after he died
and then claimed that they had just made it the reality was that from what I was
told by someone who is in that ministry told me they said I was there and they
wanted to put that statue there and he refused because he felt that it was
overboard you know whether that's true or not that's what I was told but the
bottom line is whether that's true or not whether he would have approved of
such a thing or not isn't really the point you put a statue of a Baptist
preacher at the front door that's idolatry that's a graven image and
sometimes pastors are lifted up and exalted more highly than they ought to
be yes we should be respectful to the pastor and give honor unto whom honor is
due but when you're making a graven image or a molten image of that man
that's overboard and there are a lot of other things that could be overboard as
well that's another sermon but the point is that we should stay away from
idolatry the little owl statue on the front porch I believe is idolatry it is
a graven image because think about the fact that a lot of our politicians go
and worship a giant owl statue in California at the Bohemian Grove
Moloch it's funny I used to go solely with brother Garrett a lot and he had
this thing where he told me he said I've never gotten anybody saved when they had
an owl statue did you ever did you ever get somebody saved at that he did he
finally got one saved that had the owl statue because he was trying to seize
like man he's like whenever there's an owl statue they always say no so he
finally got one person saved that had there's hope for those who have the owl
statue they might listen to the gospel it was just kind of a funny coincidence
but you know it was just like yeah you know they got that idol out there I
remember when I was growing up we had this little stone statue of what was it
was it an owl I can't believe I don't remember it's funny you know you start
forgetting things but it was some kind of a bird I think it was an owl but it
was like about this big and you know when I was growing up we'd watched the
Indiana Jones movie where he had the the little the little idol the pagan idol
you know so we would always play with this little owl or whatever and we would
pretend it was that idol from Indiana Jones you know we'd fill a little bag of
sand and be swapping it out and everything like that you know but but
here's the thing though but then I got older and I said to my mom I was like
mom this is idolatry you know he said and she said throw it away you know get
rid of it I said okay you know I throw it away so you know we you know sometimes
things slip in and and they might seem harmless but we should be aware of
idolatry and understand that God doesn't want us having statues and you say
well are you against decoration no I'm all for decorations but decorations
should not consist of carved or molten animals and human beings because of the
fact that it reeks of idolatry it's it's there's too much of a temptation there
or it's getting you used to idols to where then when you see idols they they
don't kind of take you aback and we're just so used to it because oh well yeah
I mean it's just just a statue I mean what's the difference between these
statues of the Saints and the Catholic Church and Mount Rushmore or the
Jefferson Memorial or Hiles Anderson College you know they got the molten
Jack Hiles there what's the difference well that's why we just need to discard
all of it and just stay away from that whole you know because the problem is
even if you say well come on that little owl bookend that you had that thing's
harmless but here's the thing though what's next you know you have to draw
the line somewhere to stay far away from idols and that's where we draw the
line where God drew the line don't make any carved image or melted image of an
animal or of a human being because in in Romans it talks about that to Romans
chapter 1 the image of man or beast both of them let's go back to Jeremiah
chapter 10 with that in mind Jeremiah chapter number 10 idolatry is what we're
talking about not not figurative idolatry that's a sin in and of itself
putting anything before God worshiping anything before God that's the first
commandment no other gods before him but then there's the literal graven molten
image that we need to be aware of in our personal lives and especially when it's
a religious object I mean you're gonna tell me that the Catholics don't worship
graven images they bow down to a carved image of Mary but then they say well
we're not worshiping but worship is defined as bowing down in the Bible
bowing down is worshiping but even if it's not okay you're not worshiping it
are you bowing down to it that's what the commandment actually said it didn't
even it said don't make them bow down to them or serve them so fine you want to
play some semantic game of well we're not really worse yeah but you're serving
it you're bowing down to it you're making it you're in violation of that
command oh yeah I forgot you guys deleted that from your doctrine it's
wicked and the Catholic Church is a pay I mean you walk in I don't understand
how anybody could walk into a Catholic Church and think that's anything to do
with with the New Testament all the the riches I mean whatever happened to
silver and gold have I none that's what Peter said and they think he's the first
Pope Peter said silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I unto you
in the name of Jesus Christ Nazareth you know arise and walk but they have more
riches and wealth than any other religion in this world and the Pope and
all of his you know Cardinals and bishops and priests they have all kinds
of treasures and wealth and the churches are these big palaces and
cathedrals and just unbelievable wealth there but they claim to be following a
man who didn't even have anywhere to put his head Jesus Christ you know the
Apostles what about Paul when he's in hunger and thirst and fasting and
nakedness they're just living high on the hog just total wealth total luxury
total decadence and then the sad thing is that evangelical Christians and
Baptists feel like they have to keep up with the Joneses down at the Catholic
Church so then they build their own palaces and cathedrals and and giant
buildings to try to somehow match all that jewelry all over that filthy
harlot the Catholic Church trying to look like the strange and promiscuous
filthy whore of Catholicism they try to dress up evangelical Christianity like
that by giving it a real fancy luxurious building never here I have somebody gave
me a fancy building I'd be like man this is too fancy don't give me don't come
at me with some fancy pulpit this is my pulpit it's ugly it's rough it's made
out of wood it's not some golden ornate fancy schmancy this building is alright
meeting in a strip mall hey we're gonna meet in a strip mall until Jesus comes
and you know what we're just gonna keep finding a bigger strip mall if you say
well I'm gonna keep going to faithful word and hopefully they'll get out of
the strip mall you're gonna be waiting a long time because we're just gonna move
into some grocery store building they're all they're big buildings in strip malls
until Jesus comes amen in a strip mall because I don't measure our church's
success by what kind of a cathedral we can build but the sad thing is that's
what the Baptists are saying about us you know as we preach the word and as we
win souls and turn this city upside down and everybody in this city knows who we
are but then they're still man in a strip mall I mean so what you want to
make fun of Jesus like still sleeping outside still don't have anywhere to lay
your head hey Peter you still don't have any silver and gold huh let's know the
dollars about to collapse you need to get into that stuff hey look it's not
about a building unless you're a Roman Catholic you want to be in a church that
has a fancy building go to the Roman Catholic Church down the street this
building is as fancy as we will ever have or ever need Jeremiah chapter 10
let's go into the next portion because the first portion had to do with
idolatry graven images the gold plating the silver plating said in verse 10 but
the Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King at
his wrath the earth shall tremble and the nation shall not be able to abide
his indignation thus shall you say unto them the gods that have not made the
heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under
these heavens he have made the earth by his power he have established the world
by his wisdom and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion and and this
is in contrast to the gods of the heathen that can't do anything they're
made up by man they're carved and melted by man's device when he out of this
voice there's a multitude of waters in the heavens and he caused that the
vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth he may get lightnings with rain
and bring it forth the wind out of his treasures every man is brutish in his
knowledge brutish again means stupid or foolish or ignorant every founder is
confounded by the graven image for the molten image is falsehood and there's no
breath in them their vanity and the work of errors in the time of their visitation
they shall perish the portion of Jacob is not like them for he is the former of
all things in Israel is the rod of his inheritance the Lord of hosts his name
then he kind of changes gears in verse 17 gather up thy wares out of the land
O inhabitant of the fortress for thus saith the Lord behold I will sling out
the inhabitants of the land at this once and will distress them that they may
find it so so again pretty much every chapter he just harps on that again how
the land is going to be destroyed verse 19 woe is me this is Jeremiah giving his
personal feelings here woe is me for my hurt my wound is grievous but I said
truly this is a grief and I must bear it my tabernacle is spoiled and all my
cords are broken my children are gone forth of me and they are not there is
none to stretch forth my tent anymore and to set up my curtains again the
tabernacle is referring to a tent that he lives in his shelter the cords have
to do with the cords that you use to install a tent verse 21 for the pastors
are become brutish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not
prosper and all their flocks shall be scattered now the pastors here the
shepherds of the flock he says they're stupid the pastors have become brutish
what does it mean to be brutish okay the best way to understand this word I keep
saying it just means stupid but just to give you a little more depth of the word
a brute when you think of someone being a brute maybe you might think of people
the way that they talked many decades ago and they you know maybe a woman
might say oh you brute you know who's that you know you know what I'm talking
about a brute is the type of guy that we would just call him like a big dumb
animal have you ever heard a guy be ridiculed as be all that guy's just kind
of a big dumb animal maybe a guy there was a jock in school and he wasn't
really that smart wasn't really an intellectual he's just kind of a brute
you picture somebody who's kind of big and strong but they're dumb and they
just kind of come busting in and don't really know how to act don't really know
how to have an intelligent conversation it's kind of a big dumb animal that's
what a brute is so the Bible is saying the pastors are become brutish meaning
that they don't have any intellect they're just stupid they're just dumb
there's no depth there he says and they've not sought the Lord so they're
not spiritual and they're not intellectual they're just all carnal
just a big dumb animal therefore they shall not prosper and all their flocks
shall be scattered what does it mean when it says their flocks shall be
scattered well if you think about our goal here at faith forward Baptist
Church is that the flock here would be preserved and not scattered and what I
mean by that is that we would want people to stay in church and if they
don't stay in church here then we would want them when they leave here to go be
a part of another fundamental Baptist Church that's teaching the Bible and
that's okay too everybody doesn't have to go here people live in all different
places and go to all different churches but we want the people that are in this
building tonight to continue in the faith and that five years from now you
would be found serving Christ you would be found in a Baptist Church you would
be still loving the Lord following the Lord reading your Bible doing soul
winning the flock being scattered is basically what you see where the the
people that are in attendance tonight if we were to find them five years from now
you know half of them are out of church or or they're going to some big liberal
mega fun sitter where they're just kind of dancing around and having a 20-minute
sermonette or whatever and they go to you know so-and-so the community church
that's just some big liberal fun center you know playground for spiritual babies
to go play on like a McDonald's fun land or something for the soul right the
McDonald's playground for the soul I mean the spiritual babes in Christ they
drive right by the steakhouse and mom and dad are thinking you know that
steakhouse looks pretty good we could probably get a really good meal there
but then the little brats yeah McDonald's I want the playground I want
the toy and then here's a we have these sniveling whining babes in Christ why
give me my toy where I want to go down the slide where I want to play the ball
it's like well son wouldn't you like this fine dining here's a five-star meal
yeah but over there I can spend my tokens and I can get all my little
tickets and and and get all my little trinkets where I turn in 5,000 tickets
and get you know something that's worth ten cents I can get a plastic ring but
this is what people are doing today spiritually they'll trade in the strong
meat of the word they'll trade in fine dining and five-star meals and they'll
go down the street to McDonald's Baptist Burger King Baptist you know
jack-in-the-box Baptist you know Pastor Ronald McDonald is over there for them
you know Pastor Sanders you know Colonel Pastor Sanders and and you know they go
to all this spiritual junk food because they get a toy because it's a fancy
building because they love the worship and who cares that the doctrines garbage
or actually in doctrines not garbage because there's no doctrine it's about a
spiritually nutritious for you as high fructose corn syrup I mean you ask these
people hey where do you go to church I go to HFCS go to HFCS you know that
yeah stands for you know high fructose corn syrup but they you know to them it
probably stands for like you know the Highlands high fructose yeah Highland
foot-heeled Christian you know
come on help me out we have to hunt we have 200 mines here what's the S stand
for you know yeah I go to the Heavenly Father's Christian sanctuary you know
you know but it's spiritually devoid of nutrition but it's but oh but the
pastor's so sweet yeah high fructose corn syrup sweet too so sweet I'll make
you sick you know when you get older you don't you don't really crave sweets as
much as little kids do it's called growing up and maturing but we have a
lot of spiritual babes in Christ that seek after and here's the thing if our
flock were to be scattered that would be where you'll end up in one of those
places or you'll just be totally out of church that's a scattering of the flock
now if people go to a different church that's still a doctrinally sound Baptist
Church that's not a scattering I mean that's that's good that's fine or if we
send out people to start churches are you just move because you make a
geographic move for whatever reason no problem but I'm telling you when the
pastors are brutish and they're not seeking the Lord that the flocks end up
getting scattered why because the stupid pastor doesn't teach deep doctrine and
then he creates a bunch of shallow Christians so that's why they're easily
tossed to and fro where they'll get caught up in the fun center or get
caught up in these other false churches and they'll be scattered from being a
Bible believing Baptist okay you see why do you keep saying Baptist
well because everybody else is teaching heresy like 99% of the time I mean look
don't sit there and say wow does it have to be Baptist look theoretically there
could be a church out there that's a great church that doesn't have Baptist
in the name and they are out there but guess what 99.9% of good churches have
Baptist in the name I mean you know yeah you can find a non-denom church that's
that's doctrinally sound it's out there it exists but do you really want to go
through the thousands of junky churches I mean that's like saying well there's a
healthy fast food out there you know okay but you'd have to go through a lot
of junk to find it okay and that's it look here's what I always tell people
even within being a Baptist there's a lot of junk out there even with about
but here's how I tell you when you go outside of Baptist it's a jungle out
there it's a jungle out there you might find something good but I'm telling you
it's rough out there just to find the eternal security of the believer and
just to find the King James Version good luck finding that in a community church
but I digress verse 22 behold the noise of the brute is come and a great
commotion out of the north country referring to Babylon to make the cities
of Judah desolate and a den of dragons Oh Lord I know that the way of man is
not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps Oh Lord
correct me but with judgment not in thine anger lest thou bring me to
nothing pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not and upon the
families that call not on thy name for they have eaten up Jacob and devoured
him and consumed him and have made his habitation desolate just one last
thought here in this chapter what he's saying here is he doesn't want God to
come down on him with the full force of his wrath he's explaining it's not in
man to direct his way what's he saying there everybody's a sinner we're all
made of clay we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God there's none
righteous no not one we're all gonna make mistakes and he says God I know I'm
gonna do wrong and I'm gonna need to be judged I'm gonna need to be punished but
God I want you to judge me but don't do it in anger Lord he's saying go easy on
me he doesn't want no chastisement in his life because we all need chastisement
in our life to keep us on the right track just like children need chastisement
from their parents but he's saying go easy on me God pour out the wrath on the
people that aren't even saved you know these these wicked people that are you
know invading us the Babylonians what about them you know pour out your wrath
and fury on the people that are destroying our nation but go easy on us
that are that are that are saved you know that are your people Lord what's he
doing he's just praying here just making supplication and just asking God to be
merciful unto him and he's admitting his fault admitting the faults of his people
but he's asking God for mercy in his judgment let's bow our heads and have a
word of prayer father thank you so much for this chapter Lord and I pray that we
would just get the main message of this chapter Lord which was about graven
images help us to realize that graven images are something that is sinful
whether we make them whether we bow down to them or whether we serve them Lord
help us to just avoid these things and just just stay away from that sin or
letting that sin creep into our lives Lord we've none of us has ever seen you
Lord none of us has ever seen any any legitimate image of you so help us not
to have any images that we cling to and say well this is Jesus or this is God
please just help everyone who's here Lord to be in church five years from now
ten years from now help the flock not to be scattered Lord but help us to teach
sound doctrine here and that we would all be rooted and grounded in the faith
with a deep foundation that we would not be tossed to and fro with every wind of
doctrine in Jesus name we pray amen