Your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 5 Deuteronomy chapter 5 we're taking up the second commandment this evening verses 8 to 10 But I'll begin reading in Deuteronomy 5 at verse 6 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage you shall have no other gods before me and You shall not make for yourself a carved image, 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. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words, the Lord spoke to all your assembly in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness with a loud voice. And he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you again for the written word of the living God. We thank you for this declaration of of who you are vis-a-vis the law of God. And I pray that you would cause us now to receive with thankful hearts your word. May your Holy Spirit be at work in each one of our hearts and minds, that you would internalize these things, that we would hold fast to them, and that we would not violate transgress or lack conformity unto this written law of the living and true God. We know we're not saved by our law-keeping. We're saved by grace through faith in Jesus. But Jesus points us to the law and prays that you would sanctify us by your truth, your word is truth. So God help us to internalize these things and help us to walk in careful obedience to these things by the presence and the power of your Holy Spirit. Again, forgive us for having transgressed and forgive us for not always having the proper mindset with reference to the worship of the true and living God. Forgive us and cleanse us in that precious blood of the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his most blessed name. Amen. Well, the first two commandments go together. The first commandment defines for us the God that we are to worship, and the second commandment specifies the manner in which we are to worship. Watson says, in the first commandment, worshiping a false god is forbidden. In this, the second commandment, worshiping the true God in a false manner. It is simply unacceptable to worship the true God in a way not prescribed by God. God is the law giver. God is the sovereign. God is the authority. He doesn't judge us based on our good intentions or by our zeal, but rather by our obedience to his written word. We're not supposed to be innovators with reference to worship. We're not supposed to be creative. We're supposed to be obedient to the voice of the living and the true God. As we look at this particular commandment, we'll look first at the positive aspect of the commandment, secondly, the prohibition of the commandment, and then thirdly, the reason given for the commandment. But with reference to the positive aspect, there is an emphasis here on true worship. Worship is something we were created by God to do. God made us to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever. But in Adam, we died, and therefore we didn't, or we don't, worship God aright. So God in redemption brings us to Himself through the blood of the Lord Jesus, through the gospel of our salvation, and then He puts it in us to worship Him. That is our desire. And there is that emphasis here in the first and second commandment on true worship. You've already seen it in the Pentateuch. You see it in Deuteronomy chapter 4. You see it as well in Deuteronomy chapter 12. The emphasis on a central sanctuary in Israel's religious life was to prohibit or prevent them from going after the idols. In other words, if there was one place where they were supposed to go, a sanctioned place, an authorized place given by Yahweh, then that would hopefully prevent them from going a-whoring from God. So there is this emphasis with reference to true worship, and these two commandments evidence that. As well, we mentioned this morning, we typically call this day Reformation Sunday. I realize that the 31st is on Thursday, but this is the closest Lord's Day. So 502 years ago, officially, the Protestant Reformation was launched, and one of the areas that they were very, very concerned with was on worship, because much of Roman Catholicism had degenerated. It wasn't worship, it was rather idolatry. For those of you who have not been brought up in a Roman Catholic situation, some of that may be lost on you, but their central aspect of worship is an act of idolatry. In what we call the Lord's Supper, they call the Eucharist. And in their Eucharist, which Eucharist isn't a bad way to refer to it, other than it sort of reeks of Romanism, but that's not a bad word to refer to it as. But in their view, they are turning the bread and the wine into the actual body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then at a particular point in the ceremony, the priest lifts that, the altar boy rings bells, and then the people in the pew are supposed to worship that host that has been lifted. That's idolatry. He then takes the cup. In the same process, he pronounces the words of consecration, the words of change, the hocus-pocus, literally, and then he lifts that cup, the altar boy rings the bell, and then the faithful are supposed to worship. So that is an act of worshiping the creature. We're not called in Scripture to worship the bread and the wine. We're called in Scripture to use those tangible elements to remind us of our Lord's death and to shed blood on behalf of sinners. So the Reformation emphasis on true worship was very conspicuous. But not only do we see in these first two commandments an emphasis on true worship, we see an emphasis, especially in the second commandment, on the regulation of true worship. The regulation of true worship. And that has yielded a Protestant principle called the regulated principle of worship. In other words, when we gather together to worship the true and the living God, what's supposed to inform our conduct? Is it the prevailing opinions of man? Is it the cultural norms? Is it man's innate desire to be entertained and to be wowed and wooed? No, it's the word of the living God. You see that emphasis in Deuteronomy chapter 12 at verse 32. God, through Moses, says, whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it nor take away from it. We are to do what God has commanded in his word. We are forbidden, or rather we are to abstain from what is forbidden, but we're also to abstain from what is not commanded. This is what the regulative principle of worship is. We do what God tells us to do. It's a very simple principle, but unfortunately we have departed from this in a whole host of ways. You see this codified in the New Testament. Hebrews 12, 28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably. Who defines what acceptable worship is? Do you define that? Do I define that? No, God defines that in his word. We are to worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And then the apostle indicates for our God, is a consuming fire. That comes straight from Deuteronomy 4.24. So there is a consistency between the Testaments in terms of worship. There is a bit of difference. The worship practices of Old Covenant Israel look different. They were more carnal in nature. They were more associated with temple. There was the use of incense. There was sacrifice. All those sorts of things. But they were prescribed or commanded by God. In New Covenant worship, it's a lot simpler. In New Covenant worship, there's not that sort of external emphasis that you find in the Old Covenant people of God. As Terry Johnson says, to put it simply, in worship we pray the Bible, sing the Bible, read the Bible, and preach and see the Bible in the sacraments. I think that's a great description of the regulative principle of worship. You see this principle in 1 Timothy chapter 3 as well. The apostle writes to Timothy, and he says, these things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. You see, Paul doesn't say, Timothy, do whatever you feel led to do. Timothy, take a pole from the community there in Ephesus and find out what it is that would make them happy. You survey the neighborhood, you provide them with options. When they tick the boxes, you form the worship service after that desire. No, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Positively, our confession of faith highlights this principle when it says, but the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will. And I don't think that should be a principle that we have any difficulty with or any problem with. What does Paul say in 1 Timothy 3? The Church of God is the household of God. If it's His house, He certainly gets to call the shots in terms of conduct that is carried out in His house. We simply don't have the right to jettison what He has commanded and substitute in its place those things which are pleasing to the flesh. That is not our prerogative. That is not our right. In sum, with reference to the positive aspect of the commandment, one more. Quote from Benjamin Keech, he says, whatsoever we do in the worship of God, we must see we have a command from God to warrant our practice. And also we must not add to, nor diminish from, nor alter anything. If we do, God will not hold us guiltless. So there's a lot involved in this second commandment. And it is quite intriguing to me how many times in the church and how many times among individual Christians, we insist upon obedience to the sixth commandment. We don't want murder. We insist upon obedience to the seventh commandment. We don't want sexual perversion. How often we insist on those second table laws and we neglect wholesale how we're supposed to worship God and the fact that he has instituted a particular day for that worship. You see, the first table is binding on us as well, and we need to take that seriously. In fact, if we get the first table wrong, the second table is probably not going to go very well either. How we think about God, how we relate to God, how we worship God will affect our horizontal relationships. If we belittle Him, if we demean Him, if we blur the distinction between Creator and creature, we're probably not going to be well fit and equipped to actually be in the service of others on a horizontal level. So that's the positive aspect, an emphasis on true worship and the regulation of true worship. When you look at the commandment, he says in verse 8, you shall not make for yourself a carved image. 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. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them." So that is the regulation of acceptable worship with reference to the true and living God. Now, secondly, in terms of the prohibition, there's two. You're not supposed to make idols, and you're not supposed to worship idols. You're not supposed to make idols and you're not supposed to worship idols. Now, I want to draw out four lines of evidence or four sort of substantiating or corroborating statements with reference to the making of idols. In the first place, we have to note the qualification. Verse 8 says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image, 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, this does not prohibit all art. There are those who take this particular commandment and say any sort of representation of anything in heaven, of anything under the water, any sort of a picture to have a beluga whale. would be to violate this particular commandment. That's simply not the case. If you look at old covenant worship and the specifications with reference to the priesthood and with reference to the Ark of the Covenant, there were images. There was art. But it wasn't to be abused. It wasn't to be prostituted. It wasn't to be utilized in a manner that was inconsistent with the commandment. The priest's garment pictured pomegranates. That's a creature. That's something that they actually had to fabricate. to put on the priest's garments. The mercy seat in the Ark of the Covenant had two cherubim of gold on either end. God specifies, with reference to Moses and those Israelites that had been bitten by the fiery serpents, that he was to build that brazen serpent to erect it in the wilderness so that everybody who would look to it would live. But you see, even that good thing was later prostituted and utilized as an object of worship. I believe it was under Hezekiah, 2 Kings chapter 18. The people of Israel had turned that good thing into something bad by worshiping it. This text speaks to making carved images or the likeness of anything as representations of God or aids in the worship of God. So, it's not a prohibition against all art, it is rather a prohibition against anything that would represent God or anything that would be utilized in the worship of God. Is that everybody with me? You're tracking, good. Now, go to Deuteronomy chapter 4 for just a moment because this emphasis comes out there very clearly as well. Deuteronomy 4 at verse 15. Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire. Lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air. the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the hosts of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be his people and inheritance as you are this day. Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me for your sakes and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. But I must die in this land. I must not cross over the Jordan, but you shall cross over and possess that good land. Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." So the prohibition involved in the commandment with reference to the making of idols speaks to making anything that represents God or aids in the worship of God. Now, secondly, let's explain that a little bit. The first commandment forbids the worship of Moloch. The first commandment forbids the worship of Asherah. The first commandment forbids the worship of Baal. The first commandment forbids the worship of ourselves. The first commandment forbids the worship of money. You shall have no other gods before me. That's the emphasis in the first commandment. describing to us who we are to worship. The second commandment forbids making an idol to represent the true God. And there are instances of that. You remember in Exodus chapter 32, when Moses tarried from coming down the mountain, the people converged upon Aaron, And Aaron had them give him their gold items. He melts it down. He fashions a calf and he says, this is your God who led you out of the land of Egypt. Now, they didn't probably actually believe that was Yahweh, but they used that image to represent Yahweh. And they used that image in an expression of religious worship. That's what the second commandment forbids. worshipping the true God in a false manner, offering up strange fire to Yahweh, doing that which He has not commanded, engaging in the sorts of things that may obtain for the entertainment of people, but not for the worship of the true and living God. The point, idolatry is worshipping false gods or an attempt to worship the true God falsely. John Calvin says, to sum up, he wholly calls us back and withdraws us from petty carnal observances which our stupid minds, crassly conceiving of God, are wont to devise. Turretin says it is impossible and wicked to represent God by an image. It is to try and capture the infinite and make it into something that is finite, to take something that is omnipotent or rather omnipresent and localize it. It is an essentially an attempt to strip God of His glory and of His majesty and to domesticate him and tame him and to put him under our control. It is a wicked violation and the church needs to think seriously about the first and the second commandments. Obviously, we oppose abortion. Obviously, we oppose adultery. Obviously, we oppose that. We need to start opposing strange fire offered up to the living God. We need to start opposing the violation of the fourth commandment vis-a-vis remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. These are moral laws as well. This is a revelation of who God is as well. And while we want to certainly maintain law and order with reference to second table offenses, we need to preserve law and order with reference to first table offenses. So much of what passes for worship is simply not. So much of what passes for the people of God gathering before God and worshiping him. It actually amazes me that God doesn't send fire out and consume a whole host of people the way that he does with Nadab and Abihu. Nadab and Abihu offered up strange fire unto the Lord, and the Lord sent fire down from heaven and consumed them, not their offering. We've got all manner of violation with reference to the regulative principle of worship going on unchecked. unchallenged today. We don't even think or ever even ask the question, what is it that God demands when it comes to worship? Now, there's a difference in terms of the regulative principle of worship, say, between our church and the Netherlands Reformed Church and the Free Reformed Church and the RCNA. I understand, but that's an intramural debate. At least all of us have asked the question, who determines what we do in the worship of the living and true God? Now, one communion may say psalms only, one may say no musical instruments. That's debates that we should have. I'm all for that. But at least the Reformed are singing off the same page in terms of what is called the regulative principle of worship. And we need to emphasize that, brethren. And that's what this commandment calls us to. Now, thirdly, in terms of the making of idols, there is a theological rationale behind this. I've already alluded to it. The doctrine of God, or what we call theology proper, demands the rejection of visible representations. Theology proper demands the rejection of visible representations. Again, Calvin says, the first part of the commandment restrains our license from daring to subject God, who is incomprehensible. Never forget that. We confess that in our Second London Baptist Confession of 1689. We confess with the church as a whole that God is incomprehensible. That doesn't mean we can't know anything about God. God in His grace has given us 31,000 propositions in the Old and the New Testaments. He has shown us much about Himself. But when it says that He's incomprehensible, we can't fully explore the divine essence. We will never get to the point where we have exhausted our study of God. We will never get to the point, say it's in 50 million years after we're in eternity, which there's no 50 million years when you're in eternity. Some of this is difficult to even conceptualize when you're talking about eternity. But just say for a moment, if we're there 50 million years, it's not going to be the case where we say, oh, now I know everything there is to know about God. That is an impossibility. His essence is known or comprehended by none but himself. And so in idolatry, this is what we're attempting to do. We're attempting to take the incomprehensible God and make him perfectly comprehensible to us. So back to Calvin. The first part of the commandment restrains our license from daring to subject God, who is incomprehensible, to our sense perceptions or to represent him by any form. What does Jesus teach us concerning God's being in John 4? God is spirit. The children's version of the shorter catechism says, can you see God? No, but he can always see me. Does God have a body like men? No, he does not have a body like men. God is spirit. We need to understand and appreciate that. So to try to capture that spirit and put it in a calf is to denigrate the doctrine of who God is. Ursinus says, One of the reasons why the second commandment is there, from the nature of God. God is incorporeal. That means He's without body. Whenever you hear that word, He is incorporeal, simply means He doesn't have a body. He is incorporeal and infinite. It is impossible, therefore, that He should be expressed or represented by an image which is corporeal and finite. The opposite of incorporeal and infinite is corporeal and finite without detracting from his divine majesty. So when we ask the question, why the second commandment? Because God is concerned with the way that creatures approach him and the way that creatures worship him. But God is also concerned for his own glory. And when you try to capture God and put him in an image, you are doing great disservice to who God is. Look at the prophet Isaiah for just a moment. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40 highlights the glory of God, the majesty and excellency of God. Much of what the prophet is going to do in the ensuing chapters is basically attack idolatry. He is going to show the futility of idolatry. He's going to show just how terrible it is. Why? Because his contemporaries were engaged in it. This is why the prophets preached against certain sins, is because the people were engaging in certain sins. The prophets functioned as God's prosecuting attorney. They would come on behalf of God, and they would sue the people. They would tell the people, here's your crime, here's your sin, here's your violation of the Ten Commandments, of the Decalogue, of of the moral law of God, you need to repent and you need to believe. You need to get your act together as it were. And so he is going to launch a great polemic on idolatry. But in chapter 40, he sets forth the glory, the majesty and the power of God Almighty. Notice in verse 12, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord or as his counselor has taught him? With whom did he take counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? See what he's saying? You don't have. The wherewithal or the ability or the position of superiority to put God subject to man. God is God. God is glorious. Notice in verse 18, to whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? The workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth useless." What's he saying? You idolaters in Israel, you idolaters that are aping the pagans around you, you idolaters that are following these heathen, worshiping their sticks and stones. Haven't you contemplated theology proper? Haven't you considered the doctrine of God? Haven't you considered his supremacy, his sovereignty, his majesty, his excellency and his glory? How are you going to try and domesticate him? How are you going to try to tame him? How are you going to try to take him who is incorporeal and infinite and make him corporeal and finite? That is a great sin against the living and the true God. Again, brethren, I think the church needs reformation in this particular area. As much as we want to maintain the second table, we need to be about this first table. Turn to Romans chapter one as well. Romans chapter one. Passages obviously dealing with idolatry, but you get what they're saying concerning the supremacy of God. This is why it is futile. This is why it is wrong. This is one of the reasons why idolatry is universally condemned in the scripture. Because it's an attempt to take God off His throne and put Him in a position where we can manage Him. Put Him in a position where we can tame Him. Put Him in a position where He is subject to us or subordinate to us. It's intriguing. God made us in His image, and ever since the fall, we have been desperately seeking to reform Him into our image. We don't like the supremacy, the sovereignty, the majesty of God, so we try to tame Him. We try to localize Him. We try to make Him more palatable for godless sinners. Notice in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. One of the commentators, one of the theologians, I think it may have been Perkins, discusses how Rome does exactly that. Rome does precisely what verse 23 tells us the heathen nations around Israel were doing. It says, they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. There is Roman Catholic art which depicts God as an old man with a long beard. In that same picture, there's a sheep, a lamb, which is to image Jesus Christ, and then, of course, a dove, which is to image the Holy Spirit. We're not supposed to do that. We're not supposed to try to represent the living and the true God, and that brings us to the fourth observation under making idols, its application to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the argument goes, we're not docetists. Docetists denied the physicality of Jesus. They say he only appeared to be a man. He wasn't really a man. He was sort of a phantom. He was sort of ethereal. He was there, but he wasn't really a man because they were gnostic in nature, which meant they denied the goodness of the physical. I don't want to get too much down that road, but some will say, well, we have to image Jesus or picture Jesus to some degree or other, because we're not docetists. He was a real man. But we need to understand what scripture says concerning this particular application of the second commandment to our Lord Jesus Christ. In the first place, the second commandment unequivocally forbids making any likeness to represent deity. It does that. You shall not make. You shall not try to capture God in an image. You shall not try to represent deity. The Westminster Larger Catechism 109, with reference to this commandment, says the making any representation of God of all or any of the three persons. Now, this next point, I want to say carefully, I want to say it gingerly, but I think it needs to be said. What does scripture emphasize with reference to Jesus' physical appearance? It pretty much underscores, again, I don't want to be called a heretic here, but his unattractiveness. He has no form or comeliness that we should look upon him. He didn't walk around with the halo and the beautiful flowing garment. He didn't have that sort of a thing. If you walked by him in the street, you wouldn't say, wow, that's a particularly handsome man. Maybe he's the second person of the Trinity. You just wouldn't have done that. The prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 53, tells us, he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. Turn to John 8 for just a moment. Again, I don't want to spend a moment or sermon on Jesus as an unattractive man. That's not the point. The point is, is that the scriptures do not highlight the physicality of Jesus as something that we ought to stand in awe of or bow down before. He was given a body. by God for the work of mediation. That is undeniable. But with reference to that body, with reference to that physical appearance, he has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. There's nothing in it. And you know, you've got to be honest. If you've seen pictures of Jesus, and I'm not endorsing this, I'm preaching against it, but typically the pictures reflect the theology of the one who makes the picture. You've got sad, pathetic Jesus that has been painted in Roman Catholic art over the centuries. You've got jacked and ripped Jesus that the Watchtower Society shows us. There's a picture of Jesus coming out of the water after his baptism, the water's glistening on him, his hair is perfect, he's got big guns. That is not the emphasis in scripture. That is not what we're supposed to highlight or focus on. And in John 8, I want us to consider something interesting here. Verse 54, Jesus is in dialogue, heated dialogue, confrontation, really, with the religious leaders of his time. Verse 54, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Beautiful statement, isn't it? Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Jesus Christ, my day, and he saw it and was glad. Now notice their response in verse 57. Then the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old. And have you seen Abraham? Now that's an intriguing statement. There was a time many years ago, I had the privilege of teaching some young kids. And when I first met these young kids, I said, you know, just kind of trying to break the ice and build a rapport or whatever. I said, how old do you think I am? And I was probably 30, 35 at the time. And oh, 55, 60. I thought, wow, I'm not aging very well, am I? Jesus is 30, 31, 32, 33 at this point. You're not yet 50 years old. I mean, as a man of sorrows and one acquainted with grief, perhaps he wasn't jacked Jesus that the watchtower society presents. I'm not suggesting he's sad, pathetic Jesus that the Roman Catholic Church presents either. He was a normal, ordinary man when he traversed the streets in Israel. And then thirdly, The Bible highlights his unique person. You cannot capture this by image. We know that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. We know that he did assume our humanity with all the essential properties and the common infirmities thereof. Had we lived in Israel in the first century, we would have seen him. But to try and picture him now, we are going to picture half a Jesus, not a whole Jesus. Our confession of faith in chapter eight, paragraph two, tells us what we call the hypostatic union. It tells us so that two whole Perfect and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. See, when we try to picture Jesus or make a statue of Jesus, at best we get half of Jesus. But even then, it's not because we don't know what he looked like. He had no form or comeliness. When we see him, we don't desire him. There's nothing about him that says, hey, we should make a picture. We should make a statue. We should bow down to it. We should use it in our religious worship. Thomas Watson makes this observation at this point. He says, it is Christ's Godhead united to his manhood that makes him to be Christ. You don't get half of Christ. You don't get half of Jesus. He came down for us men and for our salvation. There is a hypostatic union, the two natures in the one person. But at best, when we make an image or when we make a picture, we are depicting but one of the natures, the physical, the human. He says, therefore, to picture his manhood when we cannot picture his Godhead is a sin because we make him to be but half Christ. We separate what God is joined. We leave out that which is the chief thing, which makes him to be Christ. You can't do that. Now, the argument goes as well, well, there are ignorant people, people that can't read, people that can't follow sermons, people that need pictures. You look at our particular generation, it's image-based. Isn't it intriguing that we've gone from Facebook to Twitter and now Instagram? I mean, we don't write anymore. We just click a picture and post it on there. What better medium for this visually driven age than to picture Jesus to try to win the masses? absolutely positively wrong. It is a violation of the second commandment. We are rather supposed to instruct people and teach people and tell people what the truth of the scripture says. If they are slow, if they are ignorant, if they are not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, then we slow down We use small words and we teach them. We don't show them images and pictures because those images and pictures are a violation and a transgression of the law of God. The ends do not justify the means. Well, we're going to do whatever it takes to reach the centers for Jesus, the Jesus film, the passion of the Christ. Look at how many people will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as a result. It's wrong. If God says don't make images that depict deity, we're not supposed to do it, even if it allegedly works. That is an argument from pragmatism, not an argument rooted and grounded in the Word of the living and true God. We simply do not have the prerogative to reformulate the commandment to fit this visual age. Do you realize that in the first century, there was a lot of media as well? Not Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, but drama and mimes and plays and all those sorts of things. Wouldn't it have been the best way for a drama team to go out and take the stage and enact the passion of Jesus to win sinners? No. In the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through what? The foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. What's the argument from Deuteronomy 4? When you were at Horeb, you saw no form. You heard the voice of God. Our religion is word-based, it is revelatory in nature, it is God-speaking, it is God-disclosing, it is God-manifesting, it is God-revealing. He doesn't do that through pictures, he doesn't do that through sculpture, he doesn't do that through art. Well, then we hear in the context of the discussion, well, what will the artists in our church do? Let them paint pictures of birds, as long as they don't call it God. Let them paint landscapes. Let them sculpt political heroes, as long as they don't bow down. Maybe that's not the best one, but we have to give them an outlet. And if their gift or their skill set is in painting, well, we should use that for the glory of God. There's a second commandment that tells us not to. It's like that discussion on women preaching. Brethren, they're not supposed to preach. It's that easy. 1 Timothy 2. I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. Period. Full stop. Why are we having this debate? Why is it even an issue? Why is MacArthur railed at? when he tells Beth Moore to go home. She should go home. She should make her husband a sandwich once she gets home. That is far preferable than to preach the word of the living God if God has forbidden it. The ends do not justify the means. We have to pursue the means with the God-wrought means that he has given. Brethren, we are simply not allowed to do this. But intriguingly, this is precisely not but, and this is precisely what scripture says. Turn to Galatians 3. Speaking about images of Jesus being common books for the people that are ignorant, those images being helpful for those who perhaps are not able to follow discourse and logic and reason and all that sort of thing. Brethren, it's imperative that preachers, pastors, evangelists, speak to their audience in the manner in which they can receive that. I realize some of this stuff, at times, goes over the head. But the task of a preacher is to put the hay out there so everybody can eat, at the lowest level, at the highest level. But the median should be reached. It should be sort of in the middle, where everybody gets a bit of the hay, everybody gets a bit of the scratch, everybody gets a bit of the food that is offered for that. But in terms of this argument, well, they need images. visual people need to see these things. Look at Galatians 3.1. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? Paul doesn't mean through the Jesus film. Paul doesn't mean through the film The Passion of the Christ. He doesn't mean through Bible series on whatever network happens to be showing it. It's through preaching. It is the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is His life, His death, His resurrection that is clearly portrayed before your eyes through the preaching of the gospel. I think there's a lot of responsibility on hearers to think properly as they receive the Word of God. But I also think there's a great deal of responsibility on preachers' exegetical skill to lead out of the text what the Spirit intended, but as well to make it consistent, logically formatted, such that persons can receive that. When you think about the Apostle Paul preaching to people, More often than not, he was preaching to people who were not as smart as him. Paul was a brilliant man. Saul of Tarsus was a very accomplished man. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was a man that knew the Old Testament scripture inside and out. And yet he comes to these villages, he comes to these small cities, he comes to people that don't have his level, his skill, his ability. So what does he do? He clearly portrays Christ crucified to them in preaching that they can understand, that they can get their minds wrapped around. Again, I think there's a lot of emphasis with reference to the responsibility of preachers to make the Word of God plain. to make it such that persons can understand it. Perkins says, the image also of the cross and Christ crucified ought to be abolished out of churches as the brazen serpent was. He then goes on to say, if any man yet be desirous of images, he may have at hand the preaching of the gospel, a lively image of Christ crucified. See, they didn't turn to, well, we've got to have images, we've got to have pictures, we've got to have stories, we've got to have flannel grass, we've got to do all this stuff to try to reach the ignorant among us. No, they preach. They preach Christ and Him crucified. Or Sinus again says, God will have His people taught, not by dumb images, but by the lively preaching of His word. Neither does faith come from the sight of images, but by the hearing of the word of God. So that's the first part of the prohibition. We are not going to finish the sermon tonight. The Lord willing, we're going to wrap it up in about five minutes and we'll revisit the second commandment in two weeks time because, God willing, next Sunday night we will have the supper. But in terms of The prohibition, you're not supposed to make idols, you're not supposed to obviously worship idols. It necessarily follows that if we are prohibited from making idols, we certainly may not worship idols. It also follows that if someone else makes the idols, we're not supposed to worship the idols. Remember that instance when the kingdom was divided. You had the northern tribes and the southern tribes. And Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, reckoned that if the people of the north go down to Jerusalem to worship at feast time, they may stay there. And so what does Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, do? He takes gold, and he fashions two calves, and he says, these are your gods who led you out of the house of Egypt. He fabricated, he manufactured, he made these gods to maintain political control and a religious hold upon the people in the north. Well, if somebody does that, we are not supposed to bow down to that. We are to guard against and not engage. Think Daniel at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, that big image that was constructed in the plains of Dura, probably the likeness of Nebuchadnezzar, probably a great big statue of Nebuchadnezzar. Commentators disagree, perhaps. Some say no. Others say yes. I'm of the mindset that it was. So what does Daniel do? Well, I'm subject to this civil authority. I need to bow down. to that image on the plains of Dura. No, we do not do that. Now, the Catholics are interesting. The Roman Catholics are interesting because they say this. Images are in common use in the Catholic Church. Again, if you were not brought up this way, it's probably hard to even quantify in your mind, but it is. I mean, it's all over the place. Everywhere you go, it's just, yeah, it's offensive. Images are in common use in the Catholic Church. The object of images is to set Christ, the Virgin, and the saints before our eyes. We do not worship the images themselves, the honor which we give these objects being referred to the persons whom they represent. We don't worship the actual image of Jesus. We worship Jesus, but this sort of aids us, or this sort of assists us. Interestingly, the very numbering of the Ten Commandments in the Catholic Bible differs from the way that we number them. They obliterate the Second Commandment. I mean, they don't take it out of there. They add it to the First Commandment, and then they split the Tenth Commandment, so you don't have Commandment number one, who do we worship? And commandment two, how do we worship? They sort of fold the two into one, and then they split the tent. So the numbering certainly is tilted in their favor, because there's not a direct prohibition vis-a-vis a commandment speaking or forbidding, rather, the manufacture of images. Turnitin, I think, answers this very well. He says, with reference to, I worship not this visible thing, but the divinity dwelling there invisibly. He says, neither would the Israelites have been idolaters to the golden calf, which they did not supposed to be God. For who can believe them to have been so stupid as to believe the work of their own hands? to be that of God who had led them out of Egypt. They intended merely to form for themselves a representation of Him that they might worship the true God in this image. That's the answer to that sort of tactic. Well, it's not the image, it's the divinity behind the image. Well, then why was God angry with the Israelites? Because Jeroboam, or rather Aaron specifically, called that golden calf, this is Yahweh, your God. That's precisely what they were doing. It is a violation of the second commandment. And may God grant us grace to see the importance of the first, the God that we are to worship, and the importance of the second, the way that we are to worship that God. Well, in conclusion, just a couple of things and then we'll close. First, the sin of idol-making. The sin of idol-making, in the first place, it obscures the glory of Almighty God. It really does make the invisible visible. It makes the incomprehensible comprehensible. It makes the omnipresent localized. It makes the spiritual physical. It is a rejection of the principle that Paul lays down in 2 Corinthians 5, We walk by faith, not by sight. I guess when you have no faith, you need images. When you have no faith, you need statues. When you have no faith, you need those things. And that's why Roman Catholicism, not every single one, but certainly some, have that emphasis in their worship. Secondly, the image misleads man. Think about that argument that I dealt with earlier, that Christ is set before the Galatians, before their eyes, through preaching, not through images. If we go with images, they're gonna be bad teachers. Turn to the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 10. Jeremiah 10 verse 6, in as much as there is none like you, O Lord, you are great and your name is great in might, who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you, but They are altogether dull-hearted and foolish. A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. It is not an effective communicator of the truth of who God is. So, idol-making obscures the glory of Almighty God. Idol-making misleads men. Thirdly, idol-making provokes the wrath of God Almighty. When we get to the reasons for the commandment, There are three. Who God is. He's a jealous God. And then there's a threat. He threatens to punish and judge those who engage in this activity. So to make idols is to provoke the wrath and fury of Almighty God. And then the image maker attempts, as we have said, to try and domesticate, to try and tame, ultimately to try and recreate God in man's image. Well, hopefully this will be an encouragement to us to guard our hearts and our minds with reference to worship, that as we enter into this place, it's not the case that we do whatever it is that we want. It's not the time of the judges when there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. I mean, to see some of modern evangelicalism and some of Pentecostalism and charismaticism, it feels like that. It feels like there is no God or there's no king because everyone's doing what is right in their own eyes. That is simply not our prerogative. Our prerogative, our duty, our responsibility is to worship God in the way that God has defined for us. The Reformed have called that the regulative principle of worship, it's a wonderful thing. We do nothing more, we do nothing less, and we do nothing else than what God has commanded in terms of worship. Now, ultimately, the way to God is not by having a proper understanding of the second commandment, though that's imperative. We should have a proper understanding of the commandment. The way to God is Jesus Christ. The way of salvation is faith in Christ. The way of salvation is looked at by Jesus in an analogous way with that serpent lifted up in the wilderness. As long as they utilized it for the purposes that God gave it, it was blessed and it was wonderful. When they were bit and they looked at that brazen serpent, They lived. Jesus says, just as that serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. What's the implication? Those who look, those who believe, those will live. So if you are not a believer here tonight, I exhort and encourage you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe on him, and then to worship God as God commands in his word. Well, let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for the clarity.