The Scarecrow Cross and the Golden Calf.
The Scarecrow Cross••••
“There Is No Right Way to Worship a Golden Calf”
Text: 2 Timothy 3:5; Jeremiah 10:5; Exodus 32; 1 Corinthians 3:12–15; John 4:24
Brethren, there is a great deception in the land.
A form stands in many pulpits, wears the garments of holiness, gestures like Christ, and yet—it has no power. No breath. No life.
It’s the Scarecrow Cross—an image of religion that looks the part but cannot save.
It wears robes, but it has no righteousness.
Its arms are outstretched like our Savior’s, but they’ve never borne a nail.
It’s propped up, but never lifted up.
It is stuffed with straw, not filled with the Spirit.
2 Timothy 3:5
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
There is a real cross—and there is a Scarecrow Cross. One saves. One burns.
I. A Cross That Cannot Save
The scarecrow is a religious form without redemption.
It’s made of wood, hay, and stubble—exactly the things God says will burn up when tested by fire:
1 Corinthians 3:12–13
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Every man’s work shall be made manifest… the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
Nobody guards a scarecrow.
If it blows over, you build another.
If it rots, you toss it aside.
Because it was never sacred—it was only ever a tool to scare crows and protect corn, not save souls.
It is religion designed to look threatening but has no blood, no burden, no brokenness.
Jeremiah 10:5
They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go.
They have to be carried—they don’t carry you.
They look the part—but they’re dead.
They wear a costume straw hat not a Crown of Thorns. Their hands adorned with gloves and rings not pierced with nails.
And yet many today have embraced the scarecrow instead of the Savior.
They follow a gospel that offers pleasure without purity, grace without the cross, and Jesus without judgment.
II. The Golden Calf Still Makes men dance!
Look at the charismatic Chaos
Look at the whirling dervishes!
see the dead religions of the world in their chaos and flagellations and shouting and parading about in gheir in their nakedness
and for what … just another version of the Golden Calf or a Scarecrow Jesus
This deception isn’t new.
When Moses went up the mount to receive the Law, the people grew restless.
Exodus 32:1
Up, make us gods, which shall go before us…
Aaron told them to bring their gold—earrings from both men and women.
(What were men doing with earrings in the wilderness?)
He melted the gold and fashioned a calf.
And then he lied to Moses:
Exodus 32:24
Then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.
But Exodus 32:4 says he fashioned it with a graving tool.
He made it. Deliberately.
And worse—he gave it God’s Name:
Exodus 32:5
Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.
They called the calf Jehovah.
They stripped their clothes.
They danced. They shouted. They played.
It was emotional.
It was powerful.
It was an abomination.
Exodus 32:17–18
There is a noise of war in the camp.
Moses said: It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery… but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
Not all singing is sanctified.
Exodus 32:6
The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
They called it worship.
But God called it corruption.
Moses broke the tablets.
He burned the calf, ground it to powder, and made them drink it.
And he said:
Exodus 32:26
“Who is on the LORD’s side?”
Guess what, folks? There is no right way to worship a golden calf.
You can polish it.
You can call it “the LORD.”
You can hold revival around it.
But it’s still a golden calf.
And if your church has replaced the blood-stained cross with a scarecrow dressed like Jesus, it is idolatry with a steeple.
John 4:24
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Jesus said “I am the way the Truth and the Life and no man cometh unto tbe the Father but by me! John14:6
III. The True Cross , that “old Rugged Cross so dispised disposed by the world” Still Saves
The Scarecrow Cross is not the real one.
The real cross is blood stained.
It’s not carried by others for you—it must be carried by you.
Luke 9:23
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Jesus was not propped up—He was nailed down.
He was not dressed in robes—He hung naked in shame.
He was not a puppet for religious theater—He was a sacrifice for sin.
1 Peter 2:24
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree…
There is still one cross that saves.
Only one name under heaven.
Only one Gospel—not the popes’, not the charismatics’, not the profiteers’—
But Christ crucified, buried, and risen again.
Call to Decision
Psalm 90:12
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
To the lost:
You’ve stared at a lifeless religion long enough.
Come to the cross and See Jesus who saves.
Remember he said” Unless you believe that I am he Ye ahall shall die in your sins!”
To the backslider:
Have you been kneeling at a scarecrow?
Tear it down. Burn it. Come home.
To the faithful:
Don’t be discouraged. The scarecrow might draw the crowds,
But the real cross and the real Jesus still raises the dead.
1 Corinthians 1:18
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
There is no right way to worship a golden calf.
But there is one way to be saved—by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Preach the cross. Live the cross. Take up your cross.
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Amen.