I hope you will follow along
with me in the book of Exodus this morning, the book of Exodus
chapter 20, or at least listen carefully as I read from God's
word, God's law. Exodus chapter 20, I read the
first four verses. God spake all these words, saying,
I am the Lord thy God. which have brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, thou shalt
have no other gods before me. 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. Now, the whole world right now
is taken up with a Hollywood movie, a production, which goes
by the title of The Passion of the Christ. It was made by a
Hollywood actor and director named Mel Gibson, of which most
of you are familiar, I'm sure. This is being hailed by every
religious leader practically and denomination in America as
one of the greatest things to come along in religion. It's
being hailed by most as a great tool that will be used for the
conversion of many. But here's what I have to say
to you. I'm going to tell you what I
told our congregation recently. I advise them not to go see that
film. And I'll give you several reasons
why. I know this goes against modern thought, and the tide
goes against the tide, but I believe this is true to God's Word. Number one reason why we should
avoid something like that is God's Word denounces and forbids
all imagery of God, all images of God Almighty. This is what
I just read to you from the book of Exodus. It's also in Deuteronomy
5 verse 8. Now shalt not, this is the second
of the commandments, now shalt not make unto thee any graven
image. Now a graven image is something
that's engraved on leather or metal or wood. That is, it's
a picture of something or a statue or a sculpture or a symbol of
anything. In heaven, he says, thou shalt
not make any likeness of anything that is in heaven above. He didn't
say the heavens as in the skies, but in heaven above. That means celestial or spiritual
being. Now, who is in heaven? God is. The Lord Jesus Christ
is. He said, Thou shalt not make
any image, any image or likeness of anything in heaven above or
in the earth beneath. Listen to me carefully, people.
The word imagination has the root word image in it. The word imagination comes from
the word image. An image is something you conjure
up, or imagination is an image that you've conjured up in your
mind. You've used your imagination
to conjure up some image or picture of something or someone. Now
listen, there is no physical description of Jesus Christ in
God's Word. Did you hear that? There is no
physical description of Jesus Christ in God's words, save the
one in Revelation 1, which is an allegory of his person, his
character, his power, his glory. But there is no physical description.
For that matter, Isaiah 53 says that when we see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. He had no form or comeliness. He was not in his physical body. The Lord Jesus was not a handsome
man to look at. And without fail, you will see
these images, these made up, these imaginary pictures or depictions
of Jesus as some Caucasian fellow who's quite handsome. There is
no description of Jesus Christ in the Scripture. He did not
have long hair, people. God's Word, 1 Corinthians 11,
verse 14, says it's a shame for man to have long hair. Where
did they come up with that? He did not have long hair. It's a shame. Someone says, well,
he was a Nazarite. No, he wasn't. A Nazarite was
of the tribe of Levi. Christ didn't come from Levi.
He came from the tribe of Judah. He's a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. He's not a Levitical priest.
He didn't have long hair. Scripture says it's a shame.
Let me ask you something. Let's say somebody says, well,
just symbolic, just some fellow that bears a resemblance of Jesus
so we can think about him. Do you put up a picture of some
person who just merely resembles your father or mother on your
wall? Well, how ridiculous. How ridiculous. But number one, the reason why
this is wrong is because God denounces it as idolatry. Any imagery of God Almighty. God is spirit, the Lord said. God is spirit. And they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. I hope you will turn with me
to Luke chapter 16. In the Gospel of Luke chapter
16, God is spirit. He must be worshiped in spirit.
I ask my people all the time, what do you think of? What comes
to your mind when you think of the Lord Jesus Christ? Across
the board, they'll tell you nothing. There's no picture that comes
in their mind. And that's good, because God is spirit. God whom
no man hath seen. God is spirit. They that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And what God's
people think of when they think of the Lord Jesus Christ is they
think of God's Word, the depiction of the Lord in God's Word, that
is, His character, His work, His glory, and so forth. We will
see Him someday as He is. But until then, God denounces
all imagery of Him. God is to be worshiped in spirit
and in truth, that is. There's only one way to worship
God, the only one way God is known, and that is through His
Word, His truth, God's Word. Listen to this, what our Lord
said. You may know the story of the rich man in hell and Lazarus. Well, the rich man who was in
hell asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to his brothers on earth
that he might warn them that they wouldn't come to this place.
Now listen to what the Lord says. He says, In verse 29, Abraham
said unto them, said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And the rich
man said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from
the dead, they will repent. If they see something fantastic,
if they see something that really makes an impression on them,
if they see something, they'll believe. If they see, they'll
believe. No, ma'am. No, sir. Seeing is
not believing. Things that are seeing are temporal.
Faith that we not walk not by sight. Faith is seeing. Verse 31, He said unto him, If
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded
that one rose from the dead. If God's Word is not good enough
for this generation, Then there's nothing more for them. Nothing
will make an impression upon them. Listen to me, here's another
reason. Salvation, the work of salvation
is repentance toward God. It's God Almighty through the
preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the word, causing
a person to repent toward God and have faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And repentance is over sin. It's
not feeling sorry for Jesus. It's not being emotionally moved
over the sufferings of a man. No, sir, it's not feeling sentiment,
but it's sin against God Almighty. It's being convicted of your
sin by the word of God. Sin against God is being convicted
of unbelief, of ingratitude, of thanklessness, not sentiment
over some man's sufferings. Beside, the sufferings of Christ
cannot be adequately depicted. Religion does not tell you, something
this movie will not tell you, why Jesus Christ died. Who killed
Jesus Christ? Who was it that killed him? There's
a big furor over that. The Jews are angry about it.
I don't know why, because they killed him. Yet, scripture says
that the Gentiles killed him also, Herod Pontius Pilate and
Acts chapter 4 says both Herod, Pontius Pilate, all the people,
the Gentiles, Jews, they all killed him. But ultimately, Scripture
says, Isaiah 53, 10, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. They did. Men with wicked hands
took and crucified the Lord of glory, but Peter at Pentecost
said, You did what God determined before to be done. God Almighty
killed His Son. This is something that will not
be seen in any movie, nor is it going to be told from the
average pulpit. God killed Jesus Christ. God made His soul an offering
for sin unto Himself. Why? Because God is holy. God is just. God will punish
sin. What is seen at Calvary is God's
absolute holiness. and hatred of sin, how he punishes
sin. And when it was found upon his
son, he killed him. God killed his own son. Religion
won't tell you that. No movie will certainly show
you that. And Christ's true sufferings,
listen people, the true sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot
be conveyed or portrayed. His true sufferings were soul
sufferings. Scripture says God made His soul
an offering for sin. Soul sufferings of Jesus Christ,
being separated from God as a sin substitute for His people. And
even His physical agonies, folks, even the physical agonies of
the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be adequately conveyed or portrayed. And it dishonors Him for someone
to pretend to do so. It dishonors Him. They wouldn't
allow it to be shown on the big screen, the true sufferings that
Christ went through. He hung there naked, folks. He
didn't have a loincloth on him. He was naked. Why? Because that's
a picture of man being naked before the eyes of Almighty God,
exposed before the all-seeing, holy, sovereign eye of God Almighty,
exposed for all the world to see His sin and Christ hung there
naked. He looked like a bloody piece
of meat. They cannot accurately depict
that. And it is blasphemy for a mere
mortal man to play God, for a mere mortal man. Dare any man pretend
to be the Lord Jesus Christ? How dare him? Dare we encourage
someone to do so? Dare we promote them? Dare we
pay their salary? Psalm 50, God said in Psalm 50
to the wicked, and I doubt that this fellow who nobody has a
fear of God could dare play the part. That goes all the way down
to these little pageants and plays that churches so-called
put on during Christmas. A man couldn't fear God and try
to play the part of the Lord Jesus Christ. God said in Psalm
50, He said, who are you to take my words upon your filthy lips. And that which is highly esteemed,
lastly, a reason for not taking part in this, is that which is
highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God Almighty.
Count on it, folks. Whatever the world esteems as
right and good, whatever the world is flocking to see is dead
wrong, and God hates it. Hollywood's the same outfit that
made a movie years ago about Jesus having an affair with Mary
Magdalene, folk. Same outfit. I warn you, I warn
you, don't take part in what this idolatrous world is taking
part in. Fear God. Listen to His Word. Until next Sunday, may God make
it so. Amen.