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Silver’s Negative Application – Part 4

Introduction

We are continuing today with the negative application of silver in the Word of God. We will see today, just how complete the success has been of those who have taken God’s gold and God’s silver, the doctrines of Christ, at turning those treasures of God’s Words into Babylonian gold and silver idols of the heart; false and deadly doctrines called “another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel.”

2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus [“another Jesus is another husband], whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel , which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Eze 16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men [false doctrines of men], and didst commit [spiritual] whoredom with them,

All false doctrines are built upon twisting the word of God.

Joe 3:5 Because ye [Tyre, a type of Babylon] have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: [Christ has been molded into “another Jesus”]

2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Babylon is full of idols crafted of our Lord’s own precious metals

We must never desire the silver or the gold of Babylons idols. “Graven images” are Bible-speak for “idols of the heart” (Eze 14:1-9). The fact that we are told not to desire the gold and silver and garments of Babylon, tells us that that is exactly what we have done.

Deu 7:25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold [that is] on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

“Lest you be snared therein” is another way of saying:

2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

2Jn 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine [“My gold and my silver], receive him not into your [spiritual] house [“lest you be snared therein”], neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

The gold and silver of Babylon is to be found everywhere:

Eze 27:12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.

What is the effect of desiring the gold and silver and garments of Babylon?

Jos 7:21 When I [Achan] saw among the spoils [of Jericho] a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they [are] hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

What did Joshua do with this forbidden gold and silver and this Babylonish garment?

Jos 7:24 And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
Jos 7:25 And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones [kill the false doctrine and then burn it up].
Jos 7:26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger . Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.

Our Lord will not long tolerate an adulterous wife. She provokes His “fierce anger.”

The wealth of the enemy is judged “in the day of the Lord.” We will all be tempted as Achan:

Zec 14:1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
Zec 14:2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Zec 14:3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

Zec 14:13 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
Zec 14:14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance. [Exactly what Achan found]

Isa 2:17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Isa 2:18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
Isa 2:19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
Isa 2:20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
Isa 2:21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
Isa 2:22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

Eze 7:19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it [their false doctrine] is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

The false doctrine of ‘the secret rapture’ will not keep our Lord from His preordained decision to “gather the tares first, and bind them in bundles to be burned.”

Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Isaiah 2:19-21 is the “sixth seal” earthquake of Revelation 6.

Rev 6:12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
Rev 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Rev 6:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev 6:15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

The sins of the idols of our hearts will find us out:

Isa 30:22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

Jer 6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.

These idols “made each man for himself to worship,” spiritually are false doctrines we place before the Word of God.

Isa 31:7 For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.

Isa 40:19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.

Isa 46:6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance , and hire a goldsmith [their minister]; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.

How an idol is constructed

We construct an idol when we learn the ways of the heathen:

Jer 10:2 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.
Jer 10:3 For the customs of the people are vain : for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
Jer 10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jer 10:5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also [is it] in them to do good.

We cover our sins with the word of God. All ‘idols of the heart” are covered in the words of God. “They are decked with silver and gold,” but they are still our own works:

Jer 10:9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.

The Babylonian image is made partly of precious metals:

Dan 2:32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

Hab 2:19 Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

Conclusion

Christ is valued as a slave who we want dead, while we consider the silver and gold of Babylon as worth dying for. That is the self-righteousness of the flesh. The determination of the flesh to earn its own salvation drives the flesh to construct its own Babylonian idols of the heart and to use God’s word and the record of Christ’s works to cover those “idols of the heart.”

Deu 7:25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Babylon within us cannot resist the gold, silver and precious stones of spiritual Babylon. There is no spirit or principle in Babylon:

Psa 115:4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

Psa 135:15 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

Isa 3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water [spiritual vision and the ability to see the things of the spirit].

The book of Daniel tells us that all of Babylon’s wealth will be destroyed and carried away “like the chaff of the summer… wind.”

Dan 2:35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Dan 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Dan 2:45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

We have all, in our turn and in our time, made and manufactured our own “idols of the heart,” and we have all done our part in making those “idols of the heart” so universally abundant. If we can acknowledge our guilt in this, then we are ready to begin to learn how we can acquire the true silver and gold of the truths of the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

In our next study we will begin to look at the positive application of silver in the Word of God.

[The next study in this series is here.]