The Second Commandment (Q54-57)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Connection: The Holiness of God means a lot of things for us as Christians. Tonight we are going to focus on the 2nd Word of the Decalogue, the 2nd Commandment, and how the Holiness of God shines through it and compels us to Engage in Holy Worship in God’s Holy Ways—not according to our preferences.
Nadab and Abihu—ever heard of them?; they were the children of Aaron the High Priest in the OT. But these two priests offered false worship, unauthorized worship, maybe even with right motives, but which brought death and judgment because they were not worshipping God in the right way—according to his commandments alone.
English Standard Version Chapter 10
10 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified
From this story we are warned about trying to worship God in ways that are unauthorized, that are not commanded by Him in Holy Scripture. God sets the terms for the Worship Service. Where is this grounded? In God’s character and moral will that is revealed in the Second Word of the Decalogue. Thus, my title for tonight is:
Theme: The Second Commandment (Q54-57)
Need: We saw last week that we are required to worship God alone; and tonight we will see that we also need to know the right way to worship God alone.
Worship is not conjured up by us according to our fancies, true worship is only that which God has prescribed for us in His Holy Word. We need to know what it is to worship God in spirit and in truth—not by human imagination or idolatry.
Purpose: To instruct the Church in the nature of True Worship; to Rebuke any forms of False-Worship; to Trust in Jesus Christ who is the Image of God; and to Serve Him in Spirit and in Truth for all of our days.
PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY
Q54. Which is the second commandment? A54. The second commandment is, 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 unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments (Ex. 20:4, 5, 6).
Q54. Which is the second commandment? A54. The second commandment is, 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 unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments (Ex. 20:4, 5, 6).
In this commandment we see the foundational principle of God’s moral law which drives toward this end or goal or purpose: God must be Worshipped in God’s Ways. God’s Moral Holiness requires that we Worship Him in Holiness—and only God can define what that means. Thus, any attempt to worship God by human craftiness or invention must be rejected as unacceptable to the living and true God. God must be Worshipped in God’s Ways.
This is shown by the commandment to not make a graven image of the divine nature, and to not make a graven image of any creature for the purpose of worship. In summary: We are not to worship God by Images, under any supposed visible representation of God’s invisible nature—why?—Because this is not God’s Prescribed Way of Worship!
This principle of the moral law is often called: The Regulative Principle of Worship. Here’s what it means according to the 1689 Baptist Confession:
The acceptable way of worshipping the true God, is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures (Ch. 22, Pa. 1).
God is Holy and must be Worshipped in Holiness. Jesus himself tells us this in John 4:24
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
We must worship him by the Holy Spirit, and with true affection in our spirit, and we must worship Him in truth—according to His revealed will, according to His regulations, according to His prescriptions. God must be worshipped in God’s ways. Dr. Waldron says this:
“The regulative principle of worship has primary reference to the worship of the church in its formal gatherings … It is specifically and primarily the sacred life of the church that is governed by the regulative principle. The church is holy in a sense that the rest of life is not (1 Tim. 3:15; Matt. 18:20). Thus, its government and worship are governed by the Word of God with a specificity that the rest of life is not (1 Tim. 3:14; Matt. 18:15-20; 2 Cor. 5:1-13).”
All of life is to be governed by the general rules and commandments of the Word of God, but in the Assembled Worship of God, we must come under its Specific Rules and Commandments. This of it like this:
The Husband and Father is the Head of the Household. If you are visiting a friends house, you are required, like always, to obey God’s general rules, to love God and to love your neighbour, but the moment you step inside the door of your friends house, who is the head of the house, you come under his specific requirements for how his household is run. If the Head of the house forbids you to wear a hat inside, you take off your hat (even if it was permissible to wear your hat outside). In a similar way, the church is the household of God, and Jesus is the Head, and when we meet together for Holy Worship we come under the Specific Requirements for Holy Worship.
Hear from the Apostle Paul writing to Pastor Timothy:
I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Because the Church of the Living God is the Household of God, we come under the Head of the Households specific regulations for His Holy Worship.
God must be Worshipped in God’s Ways. Practically speaking this is what this principle means. Whatever we have on our order of service as an element of worship we must ask: Where has God commanded that we do these things when we gather as the church for Holy Worship? Whatever is not commanded, is forbidden, in the Holy Worship of God.
If we include a time of dancing, movies, and painting in our Holy Worship, God says to us: Where have I required this of you? And we are guilty of the same sins as Nadab and Abihu. However, when we are not gathered for Holy Worship, dancing, movies, and painting are all good, beautiful, and God-honoring things to do as part of His good creation. But when we come to Worship we move from the realm of ordinary life, to holy and sacred ground.
I need to make one qualification. When we speak of the Order of Service being Regulated by God’s Commandments, we are speaking about how every element or part of worship must be commanded, not necessarily every circumstance or cultural expression. This means that God requires the preaching of his Word: but He doesn’t specify the size of the Pulpit. This means that God requires the Congregation to Assemble, but He does’t specify whether we use chairs or pews. This means that God requires that we worship in song, but He doesn’t specify whether we need to use instruments or not. These circumstances are left free for us to wisely discern, insofar as we are keeping the elements of worship regulated by God’s Holy Word for God’s Holy Worship.
The Lord said this to Israel of old: “When you come to appear before me, who has required [this of you]?” (Isa. 1:12). So too does he say to the Church: “When you come to appear before me, who has required [this of you]?
We must have the fear of God in our worship of God—so that if God were to appear and ask ‘who has required this [of you], we can confidently respond—because Lord, you have required this of us, and we go no farther than that.
This takes us to the explanation of the commandment in more specific details:
Q55. What is required in the second commandment? A55. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word (Deut. 32:46; Mt. 23:20; Acts 2:42).
Q55. What is required in the second commandment? A55. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word (Deut. 32:46; Mt. 23:20; Acts 2:42).
he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law.
When God gives commandments, as his creatures, and as his children, we are required to keep them absolutely pure, without tampering with them, but seeking to honour them, love them, cherish them, obey them, and delight in them. Like the Psalmist of old we ought to pray:
English Standard Version Psalm 119
111 Your testimonies are my heritage forever,
for they are the joy of my heart.
112 I incline my heart to perform your statutes
forever, to the end.
Oh God help us to cherish your law and commandments and ordinances of worship. Make them the joy of our hearts. Direct our hearts and empower them that we would perform your statues, not veering to the left or to the right, but keep us perfectly in your will, forever, to the end.
This means that we are required to positively receive and observe all of God’s ways of worship—and that we are to negatively flee from anything less. We are to keep the law, and we are to flee from sin.
When you are tempted to skip church, remind yourself—God has given us his statues, his ordinances, his law, and his ways of worship, and it is there that He has promised to meet and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us through the means of grace—let me not neglect such a glorious thing, let me not forsake such an awesome reality, of the blessings that God bestows in the Holy Worship of God.
Let’s now look at how God’s ways of worship were abused by the Pharisees, and how Jesus rebukes them:
So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
Here Jesus is combatting the Legalism and Vain-Worship of the Pharisees. The Pharisees had been adding to, and taking away from, the written Word of God and its regulations for Faith and Worship. They said you can swear by the altar but that you don’t really need to keep your oath b/c it’s just an alter. But God said if you make an oath that you must keep it! Listen to Numbers 30:2
If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
But the Pharisees were adding stipulations, and removing strictness, from God’s law about oaths and worship. They were doing two things that were breaking the second commandment: They were sinning against God’s command to only vow in the name of God, not by created things—and they were saying that you can be lax about your vows when they don’t involve the name of God.
Jesus comes and rebukes them for tinkering with the commandments of God relating to the Temple and Worship—He calls them back to Scripture and says: “whoever swears by the alter swears by it and everything on it!” (Matt. 23:20). You cannot escape your oaths! Even when you think your oath isn’t directly to God, but by the Altar—the Alter is Holy and God dwells there! You must fulfill them, and you cannot dodge them by messing with God’s Word and trying to find a way out of them.
God’s Word Regulates God’s Way of Worship—and Oath’s are a Solemn Part of Holy Worship. Just like when we make an oath-vow into Membership—it’s a part of Worship that must be kept pure according to God’s Word. Speaking of this, let’s look at Acts 2:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Here is the Apostolic Order of Church-Life and Church-Worship. Here is King Jesus giving us commands through the examples of his Representatives, the Apostles and their Holy-Spirit inspired Words, whom the church is being built upon. Here we see that Peter has given a sermon about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the order is: (1) Repent and Believe, (2) Be Baptized, (3) and Devote yourself to a Local Church, (4) Where the Holy Worship of God is conducted:
This Holy Worship primarily consists of: (1) Making a devoted vow into membership, (2) coming under the Apostle’s Teaching as the Word of God is preached and taught from, (3) living in the fellowship and communion of the saints, (4) to the Lord’s Supper, the breaking of bread, and (5) to the prayers of the church.
Here we see that the Word of God is front and center in the Worship of God. Here is my paraphrase of what Mark Dever says about the Bible and the Regulative Principle, it basically means that in our Holy Worship:
“We hear the Word, we pray the Word, we sing the Word, we see the Word, and we live the Word”
We corporately hear the Word read and preached, we pray the Word in our corporate prayers, we sing the Word in corporate singing, we see the Word in the corporate Sacraments, and we live the Word in corporate fellowship.
That is the heart-beat behind the second commandment and the regulative principle—letting the Word of God regulate, saturate, distill, and transform our lives in the Holy Worship of God. The 1689 again is so helpful here as a summary:
The reading of the Scriptures, preaching, and hearing the Word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord; as also the administration of baptism, and the Lord’s supper, are all parts of religious worship of God, to be performed in obedience to Him, with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear; moreover, solemn humiliation, with fastings, and thanksgivings, upon special occasions, ought to be used in an holy and religious manner.
Some would say: That’s restrictive!
To which I would respond: No, it’s actually freeing! You are freed from any snare and insecurity about not knowing how to worship properly, and from the fear of false worship. You’re also freed from the snare of legalistic restrictions that God has not given.
The second commandment frees you from all forms of false worship, gives you confidence in holy worship, and frees you to delight in God in the prescribed ways of God. You don’t need to wonder if God is going to strike you down like Nadab and Abihu, if you just stick to the regulations of God’s Holy Word for God’s Holy Worship—in Spirit and in Truth.
This takes us to the next question:
Q56. What is forbidden in the second commandment? A56. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images (Deut. 4:15-19; Ex. 32:5, 8), or any other way not appointed in his word (Deut. 12:31, 32).
Q56. What is forbidden in the second commandment? A56. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images (Deut. 4:15-19; Ex. 32:5, 8), or any other way not appointed in his word (Deut. 12:31, 32).
If you remember, the second commandment forbids making a graven image of God in his divine nature (which is invisible—meaning that all visible representations are false and abominations to God), and it forbids making an image of anything else in all of creation and bowing down to it as an act of worship to the Lord. Hear from Deut. 4:
“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
Moses gives us the Holy Spirit-inspired explanation of the second commandment here. Why are we not to worship God by images? Because we cannot see God in his divine nature and essence. God is invisible. When Israel was at Mount Sinai they did not see God—they saw no form of God on the day when Yahweh spoke to them at Mount Sinai. And because of this—they are required to not make an image of God for the purpose of worship. They cannot make an image of his divine nature, or make an image of anything in all creation to be used as an image of God in the Holy Worship of God.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that images of Jesus in his Humanity are forbidden—for Jesus in his humanity took upon himself visible form to bring us the revelation of God—He is doubly-the image of God. Paul says this about Jesus: Colossians:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
We cannot make images of God; but God can make an image of himself—and he did! Humans are made in the image of God—and Jesus became a human in the incarnation. Jesus is the image of God according to his divine nature; and Jesus is the image of God according to his human nature. RC Sproul says:
The Lord is invisible (1 Tim. 1:17), and so the divine image cannot be pictured. Yet Scripture allows for images that depict the humanity of Jesus as well as pictures of redemptive events and themes in our churches. These can be idolatrously abused, but the solution is not the disuse of images. Instead, the answer is the right use of beautiful art that bears witness to the loveliness of Christ.
The 2nd commandment is not forbidding all forms of religious art—but is forbidding making a graven image of God’s divine nature (which is impossible), and trying to worship God by images of any created reality.
Images of Jesus, depicting his humanity, are permitted as a testimony to the incarnation and Jesus becoming truly man while remaining truly God. However, these images must not be used as parts of worship, must not be bowed down to, and must not be venerated.
Thus, this commandment stands in direction contradiction to the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the East Orthodox Church, the Egyptian Coptic Church. These churches venerate images of the saints as a means of worshipping God—the very thing forbidden by the 2nd Commandment.
Like Rome today, what did Israel do right after God gave the Ten Commandments? They made a graven image of God’s divine nature and they tried to use it in the worship of God—breaking both points of the 2nd Word. Hear from Exodus 32:1-8
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ”
God said you shall have no other gods before me, and you make graven images and shall not worship me by graven images—and what does Israel do? That exact thing.
But here is the scariest part about the text. Aaron said that the golden calf would be used in a feast day to Yahweh. Meaning, they were still trying to worship the living God through this idol, through the graven image. Here is what we learn:
Even with the best of intentions and desires, false worship and the breaking of God’s regulations for worship, is a serious breach and sin against God’s moral law, against his Holy Character which brings God’s Holy Wrath and Judgment.
Mankind’s greatest issue is not that He doesn’t worship God, it’s that He tries to worship God in the wrong way—according to his own sinful schemes and agendas.
How do you evaluate a worship service? What are your main questions? Are these the first kind of questions you ask:
What style of music do they play? How long is the sermon? How long is the service? How many instruments do they use in worship? Do they use a screen or slides? Do they meet at 7 or 9 or 11 am? Do they meet all of my preferences?
It’s not that these questions are unimportant, it’s that they are our of emphasis if they are not first preceded by these kinds of questions:
Is Jesus Christ exalted at this church? Is the Triune God worshipped here? Is the Gospel preached every week? Is the whole counsel of God taught from? Is this church worshipping by God’s ways or by their own crafty ways? Is this church worshipping in the fear of God or in the fear of man? Is this church worshipping the living God in Spirit and in Truth? Is this church sticking whole heartedly to the sufficiency of the Scriptures or is their service primarily geared toward pragmatic methods and ways of worship that seem to work, rather than submitting to only what God has commanded of us in Holy Worship, in his Household, under the authority of Jesus Christ, his Word and Spirit, and to the glory of God the Father.
Are these the kind of questions that fill our minds in their supreme importance? That is going to reveal the status of your heart relating to the second commandment: either your striving to obey it, or your pride in disobeying it.
This commandment requires perfect worship of God alone, in the perfect ways of God alone.
If we are being honest, we will recognize that we fail to do this perfectly every single moment, of every single day, on every single week. And how does God respond to those who break his laws? He is the “holy, holy, holy” God (Isa. 6), who “by no means will clear the guilty” (Ex. 20). He is the infinitely glorious and almighty God whom we despise when we fail to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, in Public and in Private, in Church and in our Families.
After the Israelites made the golden calf, here is what God said: “And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them”.
And so does he say to us, that we are deserving of his judgment and wrath and punishment because we fail to worship him accordingly, inwardly and outwardly, according to his ways alone.
But Moses then intercedes for the people: But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people”
Moses the Mediator of the Old Covenant prayed and pleaded with God to turn from his wrath and to pour out mercy upon the people, according to his promises. Here is our hope. Like Moses, Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant prayed and pleased with God to turn from his wrath and to pour out mercy upon the church, according to his Gospel promises. Moses merely prayed—but Jesus also drank the wrath himself.
On the cross of Calvary God the Father in his absolute Justice and Fury laid upon Jesus Christ all of the sins of the elect, all of our false-worship, all of our lack of love, all of our pride and pragmatic sin, and Jesus drank it to the full, he drank the cup of God’s wrath, as his divine nature sustained him and strengthened him. In this finite amount of time Jesus satisfied the wrath of God against the infinite punishment due to us because of our failure to worship Him. And Jesus cried out: “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30). And thus it was, God was both “Just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ” (Rom. 3:26). Why? Because Jesus satisfied the wrath of God and secured the mercy of God—God did not clear the guilty, he slaughtered his own innocent Son as guilty, for us and for our salvation, to free us from the punishment due to us. Therefore we find grace, mercy, forgiveness, righteousness, justification, reconciliation, adoption, peace, hope, and eternal life in Jesus Christ. So trust in Him! Cast your soul upon the only One who bore the wrath to come for all those who believe. And as you are trusting in Him you are freed “from the fear of punishment” and free to “fear God as his beloved child, and redeemed one”. Not fearing the wrath of God in punishment, but fearing sinning against God because of his majesty, and because He is your Father. So when we worship God now in the fear of God—we do so because He is worthy of worship, and because as His saved children we want to live for Him and worship Him alone who has delivered from death, hell, Satan, and all evil. Praise be to God for Jesus Christ.
God is a jealous God who visits the iniquity of the fathers, unto three generations of those who hate me, because they follow in the footsteps of their sinful parents—but he “shows steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Ex. 20:6).
And in Christ, God is jealous of our love and devotion and worship—but if we are in Christ that is a holy jealousy for us, which leads to loving discipline and salvation, not to wrathful judging and punishment. In Christ, we are safe, and we are free, and we are loved—therefore let’s worship our jealous God who desires that his beloved children would worship Him alone by His Ways alone.
This leads to our last question:
Q57. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment? A57. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us (Ps. 45:2, 3, 6), his propriety in us (Ps. 45:11), and the zeal he hath to his own worship (Ex. 34:13, 14).
Q57. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment? A57. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us (Ps. 45:2, 3, 6), his propriety in us (Ps. 45:11), and the zeal he hath to his own worship (Ex. 34:13, 14).
and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him.
We are to worship God in the beauty of holiness, because He is the Sovereign King, because He loves us and desires our worship, and becuase of his zeal for his own worship and glory as the Most High God.
By the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit—our wayward hearts find their home as we worship our God in “spirit and in truth”, according to his holy ways of holy worship. Let this be your hearts desire—and let God bless you in this pursuit, by his Word and Spirit. Amen. Let’s recap:
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Q54. Which is the second commandment A54. The second commandment is, 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 unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments (Ex. 20:4, 5, 6).
Q55. What is required in the second commandment? A55. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word (Deut. 32:46; Mt. 23:20; Acts 2:42).
Q56. What is forbidden in the second commandment? A56. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images (Deut. 4:15-19; Ex. 32:5, 8), or any other way not appointed in his word (Deut. 7:31, 32).
Q57. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment? A57. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us (Ps. 45:2, 3, 6), his propriety in us (Ps. 45:11), and the zeal he hath to his own worship (Ex. 34:13, 14).
Amen, let’s pray.