(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So you're there in Deuteronomy chapter 5, and really I just wanted to read that because that is the retelling of the Ten Commandments. So you normally go to Exodus chapter 20 for that, but we're going through the commandments one by one. Last week we did the first commandment, which is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me, or thou shalt have none other gods before me, as we see here. Same thing. So we're going to do the second commandment this afternoon. This afternoon is thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. And what I want to get across here is that it's actually thou shalt not make any graven image and bow down thyself unto them. You're in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 8, and just know that this is all one sentence from verse 8 to verse 10. And the reason I mention this is because there's more, like I said last week, there's more thou shalt nots than ten. So you have to know that some of these are combined into the same commandment. If you get down to the end of thou shalt not covet, it's like thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. So obviously that's all talking about thou shalt not covet. And so just to kind of get that confusion out of there. Some of them are very simple, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal. Those are pretty simple to know that those are single commandments there. But Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 8 here, notice what it says. It says thou shalt not make 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 waters beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. So that's all one statement, that's all one sentence, okay? And the reason I say it is because what I'm going to get into, go to Leviticus chapter 19, and I preached on this before, but I don't believe that every graven image is inherently an idol, okay? And I'm going to get into my reasoning why, but I'll say this, any graven image that is known to be a religious graven image is going to be an idol, okay? So like, Buddha, for example, you know, that's an idol, okay? Now if you have it in your house, I would say, why do you have that in your house, right? You say, well I'm not bowing down to it, well, it's still, that's a graven image that is worshiped by people, okay? And so when it comes to like graven images, I'm going to be getting into the idea of that, what makes them a graven image is that people worship and burn incense and bow down to them, but we're not going to have, I'm not going to have a Buddha in my house, I'm not going to have a Krishna or whatever, those ones for like Hinduism, we're not going to have any of that garbage around, you know, I don't want false gods in my house, you know? But what I'm going to be getting into is that your little girl's like wooden, you know, giraffe or something like that, you know, or, you know, like wooden, you know, dinosaur or something like that, and you're like, well, it's a graven image. And what I'm going to get into is the fact that it has to be coupled with worship, meaning that, you know, it's not just that it's graven, though that's a part of this commandment, because we just got done with thou shalt have no other gods, right? So that's dealing with the fact that you're dealing with gods that, you know, obviously it's kind of an invisible thing, okay? So it's hitting on that. This is more tangible, okay? So it's dealing with having gods that are like literal like pieces of material, okay? Or associating the god with this piece of material, okay? Now in Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 4, notice what it says, it says, turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God. So when it's talking about graven images and bowing gas, what is it talking about? Like physical molten gods, right? It's talking about a physical god, you know? Now it's silly that anybody would think that like this inanimate object is like a god, right? I mean on the surface, I know we're believers and we're looking at this through believers' eyes, but just honestly, you see this like statue and you're like, it's a god, you know, and if I pray to it, it's going to do something for me. It's really silly. It's really just kind of foolish, because it is, but that's what he's talking about here with this commandment. Now go to Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 1, Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 1. And I know people have different opinions, people have different, like they'll hold a little more conservative on this or less conservative on this when it comes to what they consider to be an idol, and ultimately you have to, you know, be fully persuaded in your own mind what you believe to be an idol and what you believe to be wrong in this commandment. I do think there's some doubtful disputations, if you will, as far as what you think would cross the line there, okay? And so, because I'll say this, people could like literally worship anything and then you'd be like, well can I, you know, like let's say there's people that literally worship us kind of car, right? You know, like well I can't have that car because there's people out there that worship that car, you know what I mean? Like you can get into that kind of silliness where it's like, well that's really stupid, you know? And I'll say this, any mainstream religion, you know, that's well known, I'm not gonna touch it, okay? And that even counts, I'll count even like old school mainstream religions, like Roman mythology, Greek mythology, right, those were, those used to be like a mainstream type of religion. I'm not gonna have, you know, Poseidon or Zeus or like things like that. Not because I'm afraid I'm gonna bow down and worship him, but you know what, there are millions of people died and went to hell believing in that stupidity and I don't want anything like that around me, okay? So that's kind of my logic behind it. But in Leviticus 26 verse 1 here, notice what it says, it says, ye shall make ye, or make you no idols nor graven image, nor rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up an image of stone in your land to bow down unto it, for I am the Lord your God. So just over and over again, and I just wanted to show you this because it's repeated over and over again, Leviticus talks about it, obviously you read Deuteronomy, that's repeating what was said in Exodus, and throughout the Old Testament you're gonna see them worshipping other gods, making these groves and idols and worshipping other gods, it's something that's very prevalent, and in the New Testament it's prevalent as far as dealing with that even with the churches in Asia, they were dealing with eating things sacrificed unto idols and different things like that. And you say, well, you know, honor thy father and mother, and when you go down this list, let's say from commandment number 5 down to 10, those are repeated like verbatim in the New Testament, right? But thou shalt have no other gods, thou shalt not make any graven image, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, that's not like repeated verbatim like in the New Testament as far as that goes, but it's explicitly commanded, you know, like love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy, you know, right? And this is flee idolatry, you know, and it's like talking, like all the epistles they're talking about to keep yourselves from idols, to, you know, flee this, and then what did Jesus say? Swear not at all, right? So you think about like taking the name of the Lord in vain and like vowing things that you shouldn't vow, right? Like I swear to God is what people will say, which I believe is taking the name of the Lord in vain because you're swearing about something that you say, well, it's meaningless, well then you're using it in vain, right? You're calling out to Him in vain. This isn't a sermon on that, but what I'm saying is that that stuff is taught explicitly even though that commandment is not like explicitly said in the New Testament, but that being said as idols is still going to be an issue, and it's going to be an issue at the very end too. But go to Revelation Chapter 9, and I just want to show you that, that idolatry is still going to be a thing. This is not something that just went away. It's like people that believe that demon possession is like not here anymore, you know, like it's like all that went away. Where? Where did you see that? I see it in the New Testament with Paul like rebuking unclean spirits and all that, and I see unclean spirits mentioned in Revelation 19. So and the same thing with idolatry is that it's still going on, okay? And Revelation Chapter 9 and verse 20 here, notice what it says. It says, and the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk. Neither repent today of their murderers nor of their sorceries nor of their fornication nor of their thefts. Okay, so it's basically saying, you know, all these plagues came upon them, and they would not repent of that. They're still worshiping these idols, and the Bible also, and I hit this last week, so I don't want to really get into it this week, but the fact is that when they're worshiping these idols or these other gods, they're worshiping devils, okay? They're worshiping unclean spirits, they're worshiping the devil in a lot of these cases, and so it's not a matter of like, well, they have their god, and we have our god. No, we have the god, and they have devils, okay? That's how you equate it there. Now go to Daniel Chapter 5, Daniel Chapter 5, and the thing that I want to see here is that in Revelation Chapter 9, did you see the material? Gold, silver, brass, stone, wood, okay? And in some places, you'll just see silver and gold. Some places, you'll just see gold, and what I want to get across here is that I don't believe it's about the material, okay, that makes a graven image, okay? I believe you could have a graven image of plastic, okay? You could have a molten, I mean, literally like your, the plastic's molten, and you pour it into a mold, and then it's like, boom, you have a Buddha that's plastic. Would you say that a Buddha over here that's plastic and a Buddha that's gold is any less an idol, okay? And the reason I say that, and you say you're being silly with the material, okay, well how about your baby dolls, okay? The reason I bring this up is because I've had many questions about this, okay? I've had many questions, I know I've preached on this before, but I've had many questions about this, like, I've had people send me messages saying, hey, do I need to throw out all my kids' toys, okay, because, you know, they're graven images, they're molten images, and all that. Now I always put a preface on there, like, you need to be fully persuaded about this, okay, because if anything is not of faith, then it's sin, right, meaning that if you literally think that's an idol, then you need to get rid of it, okay? So if you're not convinced, after what I show you here, that things could be like a graven or molten image that's not an idol, then you need to get rid of all graven or molten images that are around you, or you're sinning because you're doing it not by faith, and you're doubting, right, that's a doubtful disputation. But my point with that is that I don't believe it's about material, I think he's giving a list of materials, but I don't think it's all-inclusive, right, because plastic is a synthetic material, by the way, okay, so it's not like, I don't think they had plastic items back then, you know, it's something that later on became, you know, a material that's being used. It didn't mention glass, okay, what about glass objects? Say, well, it mentions stone, and technically, glass is sand that's molten into a shape, okay, so we can get into the weeds with all this stuff, but really, it doesn't really matter about what material it is, and that's the reason that I want to get into this. Now, Daniel chapter 5 is dealing with Belshazzar, who, the straw that broke the camel's back is that he was worshipping these other gods, and he was not only worshipping these other gods, but he was drinking out of God's vessels, like the vessels that were from the house of God, and he was drinking out of them to praise other gods, okay, notice what it says here in Daniel chapter 5, verse 22. And now his son, O Belshazzar, has not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords and thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine in them, and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. And I love how it just keeps saying, it's like, they can't see, they can't hear, they can't know, they can't walk, right, they're inanimate objects, and you almost look at this and be like, you can imagine God's like, what are you doing, right, like why in the world would you think that this object that you made, right, that you made, and it goes back to Moses like right after he gives these commandments, right, actually he's going up to get them written on the ten tables of stone, and when he comes down, they make a golden calf, and they say, this is the God that brought us out of the land of Egypt, and it's just baffling to you because you're like, it's like the emperor's new clothes, have you ever heard that phrase before, the emperor's new clothes, okay, and the idea is that the emperor's naked, but everybody's saying, listen, he's wearing new clothing, and everybody is just trying to like, you have to all be in on it, right, you have to all be like, yeah, he's wearing new clothes, don't you see his new clothes, and it takes that one person to speak up and be like, no, he's naked, he's not wearing any clothes, and that's what it comes down to, it's like they're all in this delusional land, and then someone's got to be like, what are you talking about, you just made it, if you just made it today, how in the world did it bring us out of the land of Egypt, and so idolatry is stupidity, okay, it's on another level of just stupidity in my opinion, and I can imagine just how God has to feel that they would look at this inanimate object that they made, it's not like they just found it somewhere, right, that would make more sense to be like, well, I found it here, it dropped from Jupiter, right, you know, you have the image that dropped from Jupiter they talk about, and Ephesus and all that, but they even like admit, even in that passage, that they made it, you know, their craftsmanship is in jeopardy, they're talking about, why, because they're making all these idols, okay, so the idea though is that, you know, it's made of all these materials, but I don't think that the material is, you know, the idea of why it's inherently evil, okay, I think he's just given you a list of things, because those are precious metals, okay, because let's be honest, who here has seen a plastic Buddha or a plastic idol that people are really holding up with reverence, right, it's always like something that's plated in gold, has all these jewels, and it's supposed to look magnificent, right, so that's why that's the list, because that's, let's just be honest, that's where the idols are going to be, right, but go to Exodus chapter 25, and what I want to show you is I want to show you that there are items or graven images that God told Moses to make that weren't inherently an idol, okay, and so I want to get to that, I just want to prove this point, and the reason I'm proving this point is because, I don't want you to throw out all your kids' toys, because obviously I think that we need to understand what is the second commandment talking about, okay, and when you understand it, it doesn't just say thou shalt not make any graven image, period, okay, it says thou shalt not make any graven image, and thou shalt not bow down and worship it, okay, that's all coupled together, and so, you know, it's not smart to be making graven images that's going to be made for that, okay, or to have that around in general, but in Exodus chapter 25, so mind you, Exodus 20, 10 commandments, Exodus 25, we're going to see that God tells Moses to make cherubims out of gold, okay, which are animals, okay, they're living creatures, they are beasts, okay, the word animal is not used in the Bible, but the word beast is used, or living creature, okay, and that commandment, remember the commandment said anything that's in heaven, that's in the earth, that's under the earth, it's basically saying anything, right, that's an all-encompassing way to say whatever it is, don't make a graven image of it, okay, and don't bow down to it, notice in verse 18, so Exodus chapter 25 verse 18, it says, and thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work, shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat, and make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy seat, shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof, and cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one toward to another, toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be, okay, now you say faces, well cherubims, each cherubim has four faces, go to Ezekiel chapter 10, Ezekiel chapter 10, and I know I preached on the cherubims, the seraphims, and all that stuff, but what's going on here, well when he made the Ark of the Covenant, you've all seen Indiana Jones, right, but it's not that out of the ordinary, right, you had these two winged creatures that were like covering the middle that didn't have anything on it, right, you know, but I was a big Indiana Jones fan, the Ark of the Covenant, you know, the raiders of the last Ark, and they found the Ark of the Covenant, what was on top of it, it's supposed to be two cherubims that are facing each other, okay, now I'm not saying that thing's accurate, okay, it's Hollywood, but that being said, that's what he's talking about in Exodus chapter 25, is that on top of the Ark, he made these two cherubims that were supposed to be covering the mercy seat, now the mercy seat was what Jesus ultimately was going to be sprinkling in heaven, but this is where the high priest would come in every year with the blood of bulls and of goats, and they would sprinkle the mercy seat that was on the Ark of the Covenant, okay, so this is a very important item, but the idea though is that he made these, and then Ezekiel chapter 10, it tells us about what cherubims look like, in verse 14 it says, and everyone had four faces, the first face was the face of a cherub, another place calls it the face of an ox, so really it's the face of an ox, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third face, the face of a lion, and the fourth face, the face of an eagle, and the cherubims were lifted up, this is the living creature that I saw by the river of Kebar, okay, so it's a living creature, in the New Testament when it talks about the seraphims, it calls them beasts, okay, another way to say animal, okay, but they have four faces, that means that when he made these cherubims, they had a face of a man, the face of an ox, the face of an eagle, and the face of a lion, okay, now he just got done saying don't make unto thee any craven images, you'll see the same thing happen when we go to thou shalt not kill, and then later on in Exodus, he'll say thou shalt kill, and he's talking about, you know, capital punishment, and different things like that, okay, so you got to take it all as a whole, and, or this wouldn't make sense, now another thing that he tells Moses to make is the brazen serpent, now go to Numbers chapter 21, Numbers chapter 21, Numbers chapter 21, Numbers chapter 21, in verse four there, Numbers chapter 21, verse four, it says, and they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom, and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way, and the people spake against God and against Moses, wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loathes with this light bread, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died, therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee, pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us, and Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live, and Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Now this is, not only first of all God told him to do this, but this is mentioned in John chapter three, you know, as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life, okay. So this serpent pictures the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and the fact that he's taking sin, and look and live, right. You know, we have that song, look and live, my brother live, well this idea of looking to the serpent, and living, all this stuff parallels there. Now, I don't believe the serpent was wrong here, because God told him to do it, but it became wrong. Later on, go to second Kings chapter 18, second Kings chapter 18. So here's a case where God told him to make this image, but then they turned it into an idol, okay. So this is where, this is one of those examples where I believe, I don't think it's inherently wrong to have this brazen serpent, because obviously God told him to do it, but they ended up turning it into an idol that they worshipped, okay. So in second Kings chapter 18, notice what it says in verse three, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and break the images, and cut down the groves, and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it in the hushed hand. Okay, so you see what happened here, is that Moses made his brazen serpent, you know, it saved a lot of people because they looked to it, God basically said look unto this serpent and you'll live, okay. And then later on, they took the serpent, this is Hezekiah by the way, that's doing this, basically this serpent had been there for a long time and they ended up turning it into an idol, okay. And they turned it into an idol, they're burning incense to it, and he called it in the hushed hand, but what did Hezekiah do? He broke it in pieces, okay. So there's an idea, there's a place where a graven image is turned into an idol, and I also want to show you that the temple itself had cherry beams and different things in it that were graven in it, okay. And the reason I point this out is because this is God's house, this is, you know, something that He told them to do. Go to 1 Kings chapter 6, 1 Kings chapter 6, and then I'm going to be getting into, so the reason I point this stuff out is because I just want you to know that hey, you know, I personally believe that if your child has, you know, a wooden, you know, giraffe or a wooden this or that, then it's not wrong. Now if you're bowing down and burning incense to it, that's wrong, okay. You know, if you're superstitious over things, right, like a rabbit's foot or different things like that, then yeah, that's wrong, okay, because you're holding that up as if it's something when it's nothing, okay. And so, but if it's just like a toy or something like that, I don't believe it's wrong. But again, this is something where you have to be fully persuaded in your own mind, okay. So if you look at this and you say well, I think these are just exceptions, but I think everything else, you know, like every graven image is wrong except for the cases where God said to do it, okay. And that's fine. You can hold that ground. I'm not against you. I don't personally take that stance, okay. But in 1 Kings chapter 6 here, dealing with the temple that Solomon built, notice what it says in verse 22. It says, in the whole house, he overlaid with gold. Until he had finished all the house, also the whole altar that was by the oracle, he overlaid with gold. And within the oracle, he made two cherubims of all of tree, even ten cubits high. And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub. From the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits. And it goes into this whole thing as far as this cherubims. It says in verse 27, he set the cherubims within the inner house. It says in verse 29, and he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers within and without. In the floor of the house, he overlaid with gold within and without. So this is a pretty magnificent house, right. I mean, good night, the floors are gold. But all I have to say is that there's carvings, not only, so you had the two cherubims that were on the Ark of the Covenant, right, that were going to be in the house of God. But then he made these two cherubims that overshadowed where the Ark of the Covenant was at, okay. Which kind of, which makes sense if you think about this. When you look at the cherubims, how many were there? There were four, right. So you have four that are literally on top of the Ark of the Covenant, and then you have two, you had two that were over top of the Covenant, and then you had two that were covering that. And obviously we know that Satan was the cherub that covereth, right. So he was the fifth, but he obviously fell. So, but we see four cherubims and four cherubims ultimately in the house of God. Then also in chapter seven, so First King chapter seven, it says in verse 23, and he made a molten sea, 10 cubits from the brim to the other. It was round about, round all about, and his height was five cubits and a line of 30 cubits decompassed it round about. Notice in verse 25, it stood upon 12 oxen, three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east, and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinders parts were inward. Okay, so basically these oxen that were there, okay. It talks about in verse 29, and on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubims, and upon the ledges there were, there was a base above and beneath the lions and oxen were certain additions made of thin work. Okay, so just throughout the house of God you see these different images and different molten images and carvings and all that stuff that's going on. You say this, okay, well that's Solomon's temple though. It didn't say thus saith the Lord, make this. Okay, so granted it doesn't say that about Solomon's, but in Ezekiel chapter 41, Ezekiel chapter 41, and this is thus saith the Lord. Okay, now I personally believe Ezekiel, at the end of Ezekiel you see all these dimensions and stuff about the city. I believe this is talking about the city and the temple that was coming after their captivity. Okay, so that would be like the second temple, because if you think about it when Haggai and the Amaya and Ezra, when they were building this they needed something to go off of, right, and I believe they were going off of Ezekiel. Okay, and if you think about the timeline of Ezekiel, Ezekiel's in that captivity, right. He starts off, the book starts off with him being so many years into the captivity, and I believe he's basically, God's giving the blueprint for the house that's built in Haggai's day and Ezra's day and in the Amaya's day. Does that make sense? So that's what I believe that's talking about. Some people believe it's talking about the third temple. I think it could be. I think that the Antichrist and the Jews could use that, you know, to make the third temple. That's another sermon for another day, but it's talking about oblations and sacrifices in there, so I don't believe this is talking about like what we should be doing is building a temple. Okay, I think this is talking about they're still in the Old Testament and this is the temple in Ezekiel chapter 41 and on that Jesus is going to be standing in, right. This is the temple that was in Jesus' day, okay. So notice what it says in verse one there. It says in Ezekiel chapter 41 verse one, it says, afterward he brought me to the temple and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle. Now the reason I read that first verse is because chapter 40 is talking about like the wall and the city and chapter 41 is talking about the actual temple, okay. So for sake of time I'm not going through all the details of the temple here, but look at verse 15. Verse 15, it says, and he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side and hundred cubits with the inner temple and the porches of the court. The door posts and narrow windows and the galleries roundabout on their three stories over against the door sealed with wood roundabout and from the ground up to the windows and the windows were covered to the above or I'm sorry to that above the door even unto the inner house and without and by all the wall roundabout within and without by measure. So we're just talking about dimensions what's all there it's three stories and I believe what's going on there is that there's these chambers so you kind of have a high ceiling and then you have like these three chambers but then there's like this center portion where it's all high up all that stuff not that important for what I'm talking about right here but notice what it says in verse 18 and it was made with cherubims and palm trees so that the palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub and every cherub had two faces so that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side in the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side it was made through all the house roundabout from the ground up to above the door were cherubims and palm trees made on the wall of the temple so these cherubims are made also in that temple as well okay so basically the temple that Jesus stood in I believe there was these images of cherubims okay and if you can remember this is where you know it says you know make everything and after the fashion that I said when I was on the mound right that's what God said to Moses that's what they did there and so this is why I believe that you know it's not necessarily just because it's a graven image isn't inherently wrong but if you bow down and worship it so then they start bow down and worshiping cherubims and obviously that's an idol okay and that's wicked and that's breaking the second commandment but if you want if you say well I think that's just an exception that's fine okay that's fine if you want to take that that stance that well I think those are all exceptions unless thus that the Lord make this graven image I believe all graven images are wrong that's fine I don't personally take that stance I believe that it needs to be something that's being worshipped or burning incense to it and stuff like that now let's get into Catholics and Orthodox so this is okay so you say why are you bringing that up well they literally have a different set of ten commandments okay and what they do is they try to hide this second commandment okay they try to hide it and they basically put put no other gods before me and graven image and they put that all into one to basically don't have any other gods before me and he's like well how do they have 10 then right wouldn't there be just nine well what they do is they take the last commandment thou shall not covet and they say well that's two different commandments thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife and thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house two different commandments stupidity right yeah so yeah it doesn't make sense that you would cut that off and that you know why it doesn't make sense because we read Deuteronomy five when you look at Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy five you'll see that it's out of order right and one place will be like thou shall not desire thy neighbor's life and in the other place it'll have that afterwards right so it'll put them in out of order you'll be like why did it do that probably because of that right there you know it's like God knew that the Catholic church is going to try to put these like as separate commandments so which one is a Catholic church you know which covet is nine and ten right because Deuteronomy puts them in different orders okay but here's how they get out of it okay they'll say well we you know we're not about we're not worshiping these idols you know they don't say idols they'll say we're not worshiping these images or these statues we're venerating them right we're venerating them so you know a lot of times you're just like well you know it's worshiping but here's the thing look up the word venerate if you look it up in dictionary dictionary.com you'll find that venerate or veneration means to regard or treat with reverence okay okay well that's bad enough but if you look at the etymology you know what it says to reverence worship right literally etymology of venerate is to worship so you know what they're like we are venerating that that means worship what are you talking about okay so even the word they're trying to use to try to cop out of it but here's the thing I've been to Catholic church okay I've been there I know that they have an image of Mary holding a baby okay now obviously that's not Mary and that's not Jesus right but it's supposedly supposed to be the virgin holding the baby Jesus right and they have all these candles set up and then they have this thing that you kneel on and what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to light a candle and do a prayer and pray towards that saying you know like the hail Mary or something like that now what definition of worship are you talking about because to me that is worshiping you're on your knees you're burning a candle onto this image and that's not the only thing right I mean they have images of Joseph and Mary and Jesus you know on the cross and all this stuff it's blasphemous because there's no way that that actually is Jesus I'll say this I don't know what Jesus looked like but I know he didn't look like that you know I can guarantee that they didn't look like that but the idea though is that they'll try to like wiggle out of it but this goes for Catholics and Orthodox okay and don't think that the Orthodox like the Greek Orthodox or these other Russian Orthodox that they're saved because you saw like brother Nathaniel online like rebuking the Jews okay some of you know what I'm talking about but there's like this I don't know if he's Russian or like I think he's Russian Orthodox or something like that but he's got a YouTube channel and he's like rebuking the Jews and all this other stuff and you're like get him man but at the same time you're like this guy's this guy's an Orthodox right this guy's not saved and he's like worshiping idols and all this other stuff and but all I have to say is that you know there's a big problem there and where do they get that from well it's called the Roman Catholic Church for a reason okay it stemmed from Rome which had Roman gods now the Romans they borrowed everything from the Greeks okay and just to give you a little history lesson but the Greeks were very advanced when it came to literature when it came to philosophy and when the Romans took over the Greeks they basically adopted all that okay they would have Greek tutors so this is why the lingua franca in in Jesus's day was Greek because every Roman still most Romans knew Greek because they were brought up under Greek speaking people to learn Greek mythology and to learn Greek literature and Greek philosophy okay so that stuff just kind of went over into Roman mythology and if you look at all the the gods in Rome and in in Greek Greece they're all the same they just have different names they literally they all have the the god of the sea the god of the underworld you know and I don't I always mix them up because I don't care right but you know which one is it Apollos or Zeus you know which one's the Greek one you know you're like I saw Hercules I know which one it is but but the idea is though that that they basically just borrowed them all okay now that being said the Roman Catholic Church what did they do they substituted the Roman gods for saints and so you know Jesus is like Zeus or the father's like Zeus I'm not sure you know and but then they have like something for Mary they have something for you know like they have the saint of the animals they have the saint of the sea and the saint of this saying that and you're supposed to pray to those people you say oh they don't teach that I went to Catholic Church I remember people literally telling me you need to pray to this saint if you're sick so you know who you who you selling a bill of goods to you know you're like well that was yours okay I guess that one Catholic Church in West Virginia was teaching some weird stuff but that's just nowhere else right no one else teaches that but yet every Catholic person I run into says the same thing you know brother Anthony grew up Catholic and it'll be testified the same things we laugh about it because we all know about all different things because listen the Catholic Church is all basically scripted and they're all preaching the same things it's all coming it's funneling down from you know the Vatican pretty much okay so that all I have to say is that Catholicism is guilty of idol worship they're guilty of this second commandment hardcore orthodoxy the same way and listen you know what America adopted a lot of this garbage if you go down to Washington D.C. you'll see like some Poseidon things and you'll see these other goddesses and gods that they're like putting up on that they're making these graven images too and you know what it's all garbage and you know what people can be idols too you know I think I talked about this last week about like you know how they did that with Jack Hyles right they made this image to you know Jack Hyles I don't want images of anybody you know that I would look up to okay you know like Moses or Elijah first of all you don't know what he looks like right it's always going to be this like you know the big long beard you know and you know he's holding the 10 commandments that's how you know it's Moses right but the idea though is that all that prompts to is that hey I need to reverence this image I need to venerate this image or there's superstition okay because people are like oh you know they want to take down this image I don't give a rip they want to take down that image okay I'm not superstitious over it you know now obviously is our as our country the people that want to tear it down are they wicked of course they're wicked you know a bunch of they want to murder babies and you know they have no idea why they're tearing it down they hate the bible whatever it is obviously they're wicked they want to do it but in the end that's doesn't mean anything to me right I didn't ask to put that image up and God didn't ask to put that image up so you know what if they tear down all the statues in America I don't give a rip okay and you know what that may not be popular today in the Republican ticket you know like oh we need to keep all this I don't care you know if they want to keep Stonewall Jackson up that's fine but I'll say this you know it shouldn't be out of state people and it shouldn't be these people that don't know what they're talking about just you know like man bun coming out there screaming about masks determining what you know we do in this area I'll say that much at least but idolatry you know what idolatry I hit this last week um go to Colossians chapter 3 Colossians chapter 3 idolatry isn't just something with graven images this can obviously be with people any object people worship the sun right and it actually in the bible I don't have it in my notes here but it talks about not to worship the host of heaven you know the sun moon and stars and people do that right they worship that type of stuff um now are the sun moon and stars inherently evil are they you know a graven image that should never be there no god made them obviously but people worship them therefore they're idols and you know it's it's against the commandment Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5 it says mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry and so this is where I think where it hits home is covetousness okay you know what is covetousness it's it's desiring something that doesn't belong to you okay and what that what that does is that it becomes covetousness will make material things you're gone okay and so cars can be that way houses can be that way uh you know I don't know like what what are what are what do people like you know the different things that people would want boats um I don't want a boat I want a friend that has a boat because I don't have to deal with the boat okay but if anybody wants to have a boat I'm all for you having a boat just invite me out to the lake when you're going out on that boat okay but all I say is that obviously material things can be idols people can be idols good night the celebrities out in the world and uh you know who would I don't know who would want to have them as like idols but um but you know people worship the feet that these people walk on and that is wickedness um the bible says in first samuel 15 I read this last week in verse 23 says stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry okay so that that I believe is talking about like okay if you're looking at a commandment in the bible and you're like I don't want to do it I don't agree with it and you're just stubborn about it I believe what you're doing is putting your own will and your own thought process in place of god like you're basically making yourself an idol against god okay um and then we talk about women okay women could be idols okay so um and this you know talking you know not that we have young men in the room right now but you know young single men that that are are looking to marry one day the idea of basically women taking up your whole life okay and ladies this can happen with men you know is that that's all you care about that's all you think about is that right there and there's nothing wrong ladies if you're if you're wanting to get married one day to be thinking about that and and men there's nothing wrong if you want to get married one day to be thinking about that but that should never just completely uh encompass your life to where that's all you're thinking about that's all you're working towards because obviously then you're putting god in on the back burner okay and I want to read this to you you know uh go to proverbs 31 proverbs 31 dealing with solomon solomon dealt with idols at the end of his life but it wasn't because solomon was just like man I was missing out on this idol stuff you know you know what's this what's this stuff with just one god and no idols right he didn't just wake up one day to be like man I want some idols no it was women right he married a bunch of women that were not saved that were of these other countries that have all these other gods okay so ultimately I believe solomon basically was just appeasing women okay he was appeasing his multiple wives that he had and it was wickedness but notice what it says in first king chapter I'm sorry you're in proverbs 31 but in first kings 11 verse 4 it says for it came to pass when solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not perfect with the god of his father or I'm sorry with the lord his god as was the heart of david his father so it's basically saying you know in his old age his wives turned away his heart isn't that what he said in deuteronomy 17 when he says don't multiple multiply wives unto you and the reasoning for that was is that they'll turn away your heart from god and that's exactly what happened with solomon but in proverbs 31 and verse three lemuel's mother warned him about this in verse three it says give not thy strength on the women nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings okay and I know I preached on this a little bit when I was dealing with um you know wives and and husbands and stuff like that the idea that um you know husbands you know you just want to please your wife well that's all fine and good you know being married and I kind of talked about that threefold cord on like how you kind of have to give up a little bit of strength of your own to be married and to be in that in that situation but you don't want to make it to where it's like that's all you do right you're just pleasing your wife that's what your life is about is pleasing your wife same thing lady is about pleasing your husband it should not just be all about pleasing your husband but pleasing god and obviously pleasing your husband so that you guys can work together and serve god now this is where I believe it gets real for us as far as the future is concerned uh go to uh go to daniel chapter 11 daniel chapter 11 dealing with the antichrist okay the pivotal point in revelation the pivotal point in end times prophecy has to do with an idol okay so you say well you know that graven image thing you know that idol stuff that doesn't really apply to us here in america does it well I could show you many places with stubbornness covetousness and all the stuff that people are doing that are making people idols that definitely applies to america but I'm talking about the physical idol that's made of some kind of substance that people are going to bow down and worship that is going to be the pivotal point in end times prophecy and I already read to you in revelation chapter 9 where it says that they repented not to worship devils and idols and all that stuff that's made of all this stuff okay but in daniel chapter 11 verse 36 it says this it says and the king shall do according to his will and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak marvelous things against the god of gods and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished for that that is determined shall be done neither shall he regard the god of his fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any god for he shall magnify himself above all now this is the verse right here in verse 37 where people say well I think he's a queer well he's obviously reprobate so he could be whatever right you know but I don't believe that's what this is stating okay meaning that he just likes men okay I believe in in context what are you talking about that he's not regarding any type of god okay and it says nor the desire of women okay insert solomon in there right what did he do he regarded the desire of women which was what other gods okay and I believe it's also saying that the anti-christ is not going to give his strength unto women okay that means that the anti-christ is going to be strong okay does that make sense meaning that he said if you want to basically if you want to be a strong leader don't give your power unto women okay the anti-christ is going to be a foe to be reckoned with okay he's not going to be tossed to and fro with what the desires of women are does that make sense like he is literally going to exalt himself above every god besides satan himself okay so it's just kind of showing the mindset of the anti-christ and go to second thessalonians chapter two because it shows you where this happens at second thessalonians chapter two but the pivotal point is the abomination of desolation that is the pivotal point that's where I'm going to show you where jesus says you know when you see this then you know okay and what's going on at that point well in daniel chapter 11 he's talking about how he's going to you know exalt himself or magnify himself above every god and second thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 1 it says now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our lord jesus christ and by our gathering together unto him talking about the day lord the rapture right verse 2 that you be not soon shaken in mine or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of christ is at hand so what is he saying he's saying don't be troubled to think that the day of christ is at hand meaning that it's right here okay this can happen at any moment verse verse three let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed so there's two things that have to happen right there has to be a falling away and that man of sin has to be revealed and this is how he's going to reveal himself verse four who who's the who son of perdition the man of sin who opposes and exalted himself above all that is called god or that is worshiped so that he has god sitting in the temple of god showing himself that he is god this is the pivotal point this is when you know remember what did he say it's not at hand because that day is not going to come until this happens falling away and the man of sin be revealed you know what that means is that after that happens guess what it's at hand that's what it's saying it's not saying that the day of christ will never be at hand because that wouldn't make any sense right one day is going to be at hand okay but it's basically saying that this has to happen first and he's going to show himself that he is god and what does he do in that temple when he says that he is god go to revelation chapter 13 revelation chapter 13 and verse 13 so in revelation 13 before verse 13 here you see the same thing mentioned with the anti-christ on how he's going to blaspheme god and his his tabernacle and he's going to make war with the saints but notice what happens in verse 13 and this is talking about the false prophet right the false prophet is talking about it says and he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had had power to do in the sight of the beast saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast here we go we're gonna have an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed and he caused it all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their hand or in their foreheads and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the beast of the number or the number of his name here's wisdom let him that him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man and his number is six hundred threescore and six or six six six which you can see on any monster that's out there in the store today staff staff with the monster ring no but but all I say is that what are we dealing with here is that the the Antichrist ascends up out of Obama's pit right he he's killed he ascends up out of Obama's pit he goes into the temple and he's sitting there as God he's saying I'm God and he's sitting in the temple saying that he is God then the false prophet comes in with all these signs and wonders and says hey we need to make an image to him and that this image is not only it's going to speak right so it's basically going to be an image it's not just going to be like an inanimate object that doesn't speak but there's going to be some kind of supernatural devilish work going on here where this thing could actually talk okay and basically and it talks about the image itself causing the people to die okay but notice that it's about them that worship the beast okay it doesn't say that well you know you just you know you're afraid and you're recanting Christ okay no you have to worship the beast okay which is impossible for a believer to do okay because if it were possible he would deceive the very elect which means it's not possible but this culminates to what's the vocal point of what Jesus is getting across as far as what we're going to know when are we going to know that we are there right it's at the doors go to matthew chapter 24 matthew chapter 24 i believe this is the abomination desolation so revelation 7 13 when you're dealing with this image that's made unto the beast this is the ultimate idol in the bible okay and if you think about it isn't the tribulation the ultimate tribulation which is the world has never seen isn't this going to be the ultimate day of the lord which the world has never seen isn't this going to be the ultimate wrath of god which the world has never seen then this is going to be the ultimate idol that the world has ever seen this idol is going to destroy people okay literally you know there's a given power to destroy people right okay but in matthew chapter 24 and verse 15 it says when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by daniel the prophet stand in the holy place whoso readeth let him understand then let them which be in judea flee into the mountains so notice what is he making a standing image okay and you'll see that in other places in the bible it's talking about idols it'd be like don't make them to you a graven image or a standing image okay mark chapter 13 says the same thing pretty much verse 14 says but when ye shall see the abomination desolation spoken of by daniel the prophet standing where it ought not let him that readeth understand and let them that be in judea flee flee to the mountains okay so i believe this is end times this is something that hasn't happened yet that there's going to be a temple and that this is the end game you know this is where the anti-christ is saying he's god and the false prophet is putting an image an idol in the house of god and says you need to worship this or you'll die or you can't buy or sell okay this is the ultimate idol so the second commandment is as valid today as it was back then okay and so it's not going away it's not like well we're in the new testament we don't deal with idols anymore well obviously there's still cultures that deal with idols look at hinduism and look how many people are in hinduism it's huge right you're billions and billions of people in there right billions i guess not billions of billions right there's eight billion people in there that's right but you're dealing with over a billion i believe that are hindus and it's like islam is it's like almost it's it's like 1.8 billion and the only reason christianity is like the the most percentage is because catholics are in that group and like i said catholics are guilty of the idolatry just like the hindus are okay and i came out of catholic church okay so i understand i never looked at that as if it was an idol right i never really understood to be honest with you um of why you're doing it but you know what there's ignorance in there okay just because you're doing something here and it doesn't mean it's we're not wrong okay so you know idol you know making graven images bowing down to them that is still wrong today i don't believe that every graven image is inherently an idol but i'll say this if there is a graven image that's associated with a religion you need to stay away from that okay don't have that garbage around you okay i'm not gonna listen i'm not gonna have i'm not even gonna have like these different images just to be like oh here's what represents all these different religions you know like in my office i'm like well here's what the buddha has and this is what this person has i don't want that garbage in my office right i'm gonna crown grind that garbage to powder okay if i could take every image of buddha every image of all these different gods from hinduism and all those different gods that are out there and the bathmat you know as well you know it's the satanic uh idol that they have if i can grind them all the powder i would but they're out there but i don't believe you should have any of that okay i don't care if you aren't bound down and washing them those i don't think that should be around your house it shouldn't be anywhere near you um you know what we should be simple concerning evil when it comes to that type of stuff um but when it comes to like your kids toys ornaments stuff like that um if it's not associated with a religion that people are worshiping it i don't believe it's wrong now if you have a proclivity to bow down and worship it then don't have it okay um but uh you know i don't think i ever had a proclivity to bow down and worship my ninja turtles or my dinosaurs or anything like that when i was a kid and some of those were wooden some of those were different materials and stuff like that so i don't believe that those were inherently wrong i don't believe it's wrong for our kids to have those things now if it becomes superstitious then yes you know if you're like i this is my lucky now i'm talking now listen kid toddlers are different okay toddlers have their little blankie they have their little stuffed animal that they have to have next to them that is not what i'm talking about i'm talking about adults that literally say i can't i have to have this with me or it's bad luck right you know you've heard all that the the superstition of like well you knocked over salt you need to throw it over your your uh your shoulder you walked underneath a ladder you broke a thing i almost would i would like to do a performance for you where i literally dump out salt like this walk underneath the ladder break a mirror and like burn a rabbit's foot i don't know i don't know what else there is out there that's like superstitious but you know what i don't give a rip about that you know as far as all these you know like i can't walk through the same i can't go out the same door i came in and it's like all these weird like ocd things that people have you know that's just superstition but uh but that's the second commandment lord willing we're going through all the commandments as the weeks go on here so that's not what the word of prayer the father we thank you today and thank you for your word and lord just praise you to help us to not have any idols in our lives and lord just to worship you and lord to uh to know that hey you know these these even these physical idols are still out there today and that it will play a big part in the very end and so it needs to be preached against to not be worshiping these graven images that are out there not to have them near us and the church building here or anything like that and lord we love you and pray all this in jesus christ's name amen