Well, you can turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter five, continuing through the 10 commandments, we're in the second part of the second commandment. So our focus is chapter five, verses eight to 10. We saw the positive aspect of the commandment, the emphasis on true worship and the regulation of true worship. And then we saw the prohibitions of the commandment. It was twofold, the making of idols and the worship of idols. Tonight we'll take up the reasons given for the second commandment. But I'll read the section just to get it in front of us, so beginning in chapter 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. 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, but 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 field, or his 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, thank you for the law of God. It does reflect, or it does tell us what kind of a God you are, a God of absolute holiness, a God of righteousness, a God of justice. And I pray that you'd help us to internalize these things and help us, God, to frame our hearts aright and our conduct aright, not according to what we think, but according to what you have revealed to us. Again, fill us with your Holy Spirit, give us understanding into these things, and help us, Lord God, to never engage in this wicked conduct or practice of idolatry. And we pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. In the first commandment, we have a prohibition against worshiping a false god. In the second commandment, we have a prohibition against worshiping the true God in a false way. So commandment one calls us to worship the true and living God. Commandment two calls us to worship the true and living God in a way authorized by God. When it comes to worship, God is not for us innovating, God is not for us creating, God is not for us doing anything other than obeying Him. And as I said, the positive aspect of the commandment emphasizes to us that worship is a reality, but the way that we worship is as well a reality. We need to be mindful of that. In terms of the prohibition, we're not supposed to make idols and we're certainly not supposed to bow down to or serve idols or worship idols. Now, as I said, tonight we'll look at the reasons for the second commandment. And there are three of them. The first is the consideration of theology proper. The second is a threat of punishment. And the third is the promise of mercy. You see how the text moves in that direction. 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 there's the prohibition. Don't make idols, don't worship idols, and now the reason comes. Verse 9 in the middle, the Lord your God. That's a consideration of theology proper. Am I a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me? So that's the threat of punishment. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation, and then the promise of mercy is there at the end. in verse 10, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. So those are the reasons built in to the second commandment as to why we are prohibited from making or worshiping an idol. So let's look first at this consideration of theology proper. God says, I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. In the first place, He is our covenant Lord. Remember that chapter 5, verse 6 is the preface to the commandments. And in verse 6, God identifies Himself as Yahweh, your covenant God. I am the one who has redeemed you. Remember the situation that obtained for the children of Israel. They were in bondage. They were in slavery. They were in Egypt for a long period of time, and the Lord comes powerfully to redeem them from that place. And so a consideration of who God is, Covenant Lord, the Yahweh of Israel, that ought to affect us in such a way that we respond to him with appropriate worship and with appropriate adoration. Now the attempt to image God is an affront to him. When he says, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, that indicates that it is in fact something that he despises and something that he detests. I quoted Ersinus two weeks ago. He says, with reference to God, how offensive it is to make an image. He says, God is incorporeal and infinite. It is impossible, therefore, that he should be expressed or represented by an image which is corporeal and finite without detracting from his divine majesty. When we try to picture or to image God, we are explicitly taking him down and trying to conceptualize him in a way that is appropriate in our minds. It really is an attempt to recreate God in our image, to recreate God in a way that is absolutely positively unthinkable with reference to the divine majesty. So by virtue of the fact that he is the Lord our God, notice that personal pronoun, I am the Lord, your God. As a result of that relationship that we have, as a result of that relationship of union that we have, don't make for yourself an idol. But then he goes on to identify himself as a jealous God. I want to spend just a couple of moments here. This is theology proper. When I say theology, it simply means the study of God. When we say theology proper, it focuses specifically on who God is. And when the Bible tells us that God is a jealous God, we need to put our thinking caps on for just a moment and realize that this is an expression accommodated to us. Jealousy is a passion. It's not always a wicked passion. It's a passion, however. It suggests movement from one state to another. Now we know from scripture that God is unchangeable. We know from scripture that God is impassable. We know from scripture there's no shadow of turning, there's no variant with reference to God. I, the Lord, in Malachi 3, 6, he says, I, the Lord, do not change. So when you see this language applied to God, that he is jealous, it's applied in several other instances in the Old Testament, we ought to understand it as what's called an improper predication. Now before you tune out, just pay attention for a moment. There are things that are applied to God that are accommodations. And this aspect of jealousy is one of them. God doesn't move from one state to another. God doesn't have affections. God doesn't have any passions. God doesn't react. God isn't the sort of God that we are, the sort of creatures that we are. So it's what's called an improper predication. That means it's improperly predicated of God that He's jealous. But it does teach us something concerning the truth of who God is. I think what we're supposed to understand when it says that God is a jealous God, we're supposed to understand something of His righteousness and of His justice. In fact, let me just quote two brothers in the past that can help us with this. Ezekiel Hopkins says, this jealousy is not to be ascribed unto God as if there were properly any such weak and disturbing passion in Him, but only by way of accommodation and similitude, speaking after the manner of men. There are instances in the Bible where we see this take place. When the Bible tells us that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, none of us ever, I hope, thinks of a bunch of little eyes coming from God and sort of scurrying about in the earth. When God says, I'm going to demonstrate my powerful or I'm going to bear my mighty right arm, God is spirit. He doesn't have a body like men. We call that sort of language anthropomorphism. It's the ascription of bodily parts to God. We know he doesn't have eyes, we know he doesn't have hands, we know he doesn't have feet, because God is spirit. But those things demonstrate or accommodate themselves to us. We think of the mighty right arm. We think of, you know, an 18 or 19 inch bicep. We think of strength and power. And that's what's supposed to be understood when God manifests or demonstrates the might of his right arm. Well, the same thing with passions. When the Bible says in Ezekiel 6, when God says to the nation of Judah, he says, you've broke my heart. Well, that is a manner or speaking in the manner of men. It is an accommodation for us to see the grief that Israel has caused by her sin unto our great God. But it's not to suggest that these passions are a part of God. It's an improper predication. In the language of Ezekiel Hopkins, it's speaking after the manner of men, just like to say that God has eyes or to say that God has an arm. It's the same to say that God is jealous. It's not the case that He's given to these fits and changes the way that we are, but it does convey to us, in the manner of men, something concerning God. He's righteous, He's just, and He has no truck whatsoever with idolatry. Listen to Spurgeon. Spurgeon says, Not that God is jealous so as to bring him down to the likeness of men. See, whenever you talk about God, you've got to talk about God in a God-authorized way. And if the Bible uses these sorts of things, this speaking in the manner of men, it's good for us to understand that, it's good for us to recognize that, and it's good for us so that we don't bring God down to our level. This is language of accommodation. Back to Spurgeon, not that God is jealous so as to bring him down to the likeness of men, but that this is the nearest idea we can form of what the divine being feels. And then he says, if it be right to use even that word toward him. Now, you have to understand what Spurgeon is doing. When we talk about God, brethren, we're talking about somebody, something, some object, I don't mean to sound belittling, something outside of our chain of being. As I've said oftentimes, we have this concept that God is man writ large. We have this concept that God is just a better version of man, and that's absolutely positively not the case. God is the creator. He alone occupies that genus or that species, and we are creature. There is a vast chasm between us, and there is a great distinction. So in our talk about God, we need to use the talk that the Bible calls us to, and to understand the way that we are to engage in such discussion. So he says, this is the nearest idea we can form of what the divine being feels, if it be right to use even that word toward it, this idea of feeling. So again, that's not how God is. feelings on Thursday that he didn't have on Friday. The doctrine of divine impassibility tells us that's not the case. He's not given to any increase, any diminishment. There's nothing whether external or internal that moves God to a different spot or to a different position or to a different place. He goes on to say, This is how we understand what he feels when he beholds his throne occupied by false gods, his dignity insulted, and his glory usurped by others. We cannot speak of God except by using figures drawn from his works or our own emotions. We ought, however, when we use the images to caution ourselves and those who listen to us against the idea that the infinite mind is really to be compassed and described by any metaphors, however lofty, or language, however weighty. In other words, when we talk about God, we need to make sure that we understand that we're talking about God. We're not talking about a super version of man. He then says, we might not have ventured to use the word jealousy in connection with the Most High, but as we find it so many times in Scripture, let us with solemn awe survey this mysterious display of the divine mind. So this aspect of God's jealousy, again, it's speaking in the manner of man, but the truth that it reveals to us is God's righteousness, God's justice, and God's desire for the glory of His name. And the reality, as He says through the prophet Isaiah, I will not give my glory to another. I will not share my glory with another. Now, as we consider this improper predication, this speaking in the manner of men, jealousy suggests a great deal to us. As I said, jealousy is not always wicked. In fact, when your husbands are jealous of your honor, ladies, that is a good, consistent image-bearing of God. Now, it can degenerate and evolve into something sinful, something obsessive, and something vile and wretched. But every man in here ought to be jealous of his wife's dignity and honor. Every wife here ought to be jealous of their husband's dignity and honor. All of us should be jealous at the thought of an encroachment in that closest of covenantal bonds. It's not the case that it's godly to not be jealous. It's godly to be jealous. It images God in this aspect of justice and righteousness, so long as it doesn't degenerate into sin. In fact, turn to the book of Proverbs for just a moment as we illustrate this particular figure of speech that God uses to highlight the seriousness of the crime of idolatry. And if you happen to miss everything that I was saying just in that last few minutes about improper predication, I should put the context. We've dealt with that sort of stuff in our church. We've dealt with the concept of theology proper. We were a part of an association that had to deal with the doctrine of divine impassibility through Sunday school and through sermons and through a whole host of things. We tried to educate persons with reference to the proper and improper way, no pun intended, of speaking about God. So that's kind of the context. If you're interested or curious more about that improper predication, just give me a call or email or see me afterwards. But in Proverbs 6.30, we see something of this jealousy. On a human level, now again, the jealousy of God has some parallel with the jealousy of a husband. Not exact, because husbands and their jealousy aren't always righteous and pure, but the jealousy of God has some analogy or parallel with the jealousy of a husband. A husband who loves his wife is jealous of her attention to him alone. Again, I think this is all very self-evident, but this is the means by which God argues in the second commandment. Proverbs 6, 30. People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving. Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold. He may have to give up all the substance of his house. Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding. He who does so destroys his own soul. Wounds and dishonor he will get, and his reproach will not be wiped away. For jealousy is a husband's fury, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will accept no recompense, nor will he be appeased, though you give many gifts." Notice in verse 33, wounds and dishonor he will get. Where does he get that? From the offended husband, because the husband's jealousy has been compromised, because this man has entered into that covenant bond, and he has dissolved it. Of course the man is angry. Of course that justice and that righteousness is going to be revealed. Notice Solomon doesn't say, and how dare him ever do that? No, this is sort of a no-brainer. In God's world, if somebody steals, they have to pay back. If somebody engages in adultery, they're going to get whatever they've got coming to them, because jealousy is a husband's fury. Then I want to quote John Gill here. He says, and issues in dreadful scenes oftentimes among men. And as a man that has reason to be jealous of his wife, and especially if he takes her and the adulterer in the fact, it often costs them both their lives, being so enraged at such an insult upon him and such a violation of the marriage bed. And thus the great Jehovah, the God of Israel, their head and husband, is represented in order to deter from idolatry or spiritual adultery than which nothing could be more provoking to him. Now, as I've said, there's a lot of sins covered in the Bible. There's a lot of sins condemned in the Bible. But one that comes up frequently and often, and with a special hatred by God, is idolatry. Having another god before him, or having him and attempting to worship him in a false way. See, I think we all get the first commandment. I think if you ask any Christian, what's the first commandment demand? The first commandment demands that we worship the true and living God. It's the second one that we wanna spin. It's the second one that we wanna modify. It's the second one that we wanna say, well, it really doesn't matter if we introduce this into the public worship of God. It most certainly does matter and God has prescribed such in the second commandment. So we need to make sure that we're not only worshiping the true and living God, but we're worshiping the true and living God in the correct manner. The second reason for the commandment is the threat of punishment. Going back to Deuteronomy 5, he says, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. And then he says, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. Now, this convention is used in several places. We see it in the parallel in Exodus chapter 20, we see it in Exodus 34, 7, Numbers 14, and then in Jeremiah 32. This idea of visiting the iniquity of those generations and then rewarding with mercy the other generations. Now, this text is intriguing because it oftentimes is associated with what we'll call a transgenerational curse. Now, perhaps you've never met these people. They typically are in charismatic churches or Pentecostal churches or some sort of fringe element of the Christian church. They have this concept or this doctrine of a transgenerational curse. that if your fathers or your forefathers did horrible things, then basically the wrath and fury and curse of God is still on you. And they invoke this particular passage as the proof text. I mean, isn't that what God says? Look at what he says, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. You see what he's saying there? That's a transgenerational curse. It's not a transgenerational curse. I think the emphasis is that when children observe their idolatrous parents worshiping idols, then more often than not, children imitate, children ape, children follow that particular train, and they too worship idols. In fact, just so you can see that this doesn't teach a transgenerational curse, just in the event that you happen to meet these people, you can turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 24. Deuteronomy chapter 24. just so we can see that this doesn't teach a transgenerational curse that abides on persons for the sins of their fathers. Imagine getting a great big dose of that. Imagine somebody telling you, well, you know, bad things are gonna continue to happen to you because of your dad, because of your grandpa, and because of your great grandpa. Tough, too bad for you. That's a pretty discouraging place to be, isn't it? When you cannot fix things because your parents were terrible, Is that really what God is teaching in this particular instance? Well, in the first place, with reference to civil or criminal activity, this principle does not hold. Look at 2416. Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own sin. Very simple, isn't it? You're not going to be executed because your father is a murderer. You're not going to be executed because your father is a bank robber. You're not going to be executed because your father is a terrible specimen of a human being. In the principle of civil jurisprudence, this does not obtain. It's not the case that sons are punished for the crimes of their parents. You see a real-life illustration of this in the book of 2 Kings. Amaziah executes those who had conspired to murder his father, but he doesn't execute their children. He only executes them in fulfillment of this particular text. And then turn to Ezekiel chapter 18, just to show that this does not deal with a transgenerational curse. Try to show what it does deal with and how grave the situation is. In Ezekiel 18, you've got to remember the prophet Ezekiel and the particular timeframe. What's happening at the time that Ezekiel is prophesying is the Babylonian captivity. The Babylonians, along with Nebuchadnezzar, or rather under Nebuchadnezzar, had marched upon the city of Jerusalem. They had destroyed the city, they had destroyed the temple, and they had taken many Judahites away into captivity into Babylon. And now in Ezekiel chapter 18, the people of Judah are complaining. as they were often want to do. And if you look at Ezekiel 18 verse 1, the word of the Lord came to me again saying, what do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge? See what's happening in Judah? They're saying, we're in this mess because of our fathers. We're in this mess because of our grandfathers. We're in this mess because of those who ate sour grapes, but the children's teeth are the ones that are set on edge. Now this would be a great place for God, through the prophet Ezekiel, to highlight the reality of transgenerational curse. You see, he does just the opposite. He tells them that that's not the case. You are not being punished here in Babylon because of the sins of your fathers. You are being punished because of your own sins, too. You're not guiltless. You're not innocent. You're not a group of people that only ever did what the Lord God had commanded. You have violated and transgressed the covenant just as well as they did. And then he gives several illustrations of this, but after, having given the principle in verse four. Verse four, he says, behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the father, as well as the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins shall die. That's the principle. The soul who sins shall die. So those that were dying in Judah at the time couldn't blame their fathers, but it was their sin. And then in verses five to nine, he says, if a man is just and does what he's supposed to do, everything's great. He then says in verses 10 to 13, if that man, that righteous man begets a son who is a robber or a shedder of blood or any of these things, then that son will be punished. And then in verses 14 to 17, he says, if however, a godless man, a wicked man begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done and considers, but does not do likewise, And God essentially says, I have no beef with him. The soul that sins dies. But when it comes to this principle with reference to idolatry, again, I think it's imitation. If we as fathers, if we as mothers bow down to something that isn't the true and living God, we are teaching our children that. And when they ape or imitate that and they rise up, they will be visited with God's punishment and judgment. That's what's happening in this text. Calvin says, but when God declares that he will cast back the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of the children, he does not mean that he will take vengeance on poor wretches who have never deserved anything of the sort, but that he is at liberty to punish the crimes of the fathers upon their children and descendants with the provision that they too may be justly punished as being imitators of their fathers. That's What's happening? Not a transgenerational curse. You know, my grandfather and great-grandfather served Baal, but I so want to serve Yahweh. Well, you can't because you're under the curse. That is unbiblical. That is faulty. That does not accurately reflect the emphasis in the second commandment. Stuart, a modern commentator, says, this oft-repeated theme speaks of God's determination to punish successive generations for committing the same sins they learned from their parents. So going back to the commandment, let us draw out two practical applications. First, as parents, we bear a great responsibility to teach our kids of the true and living God. That's the identified object of worship according to the scripture. It is Yahweh of Israel. through the Lord Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. That triune God who is from everlasting to everlasting, that triune God who made the world, who governs the world, that God who redeems his elect out of the world, that's the God we need to teach to our children. But as well, we need to teach them to worship that true and living God in the right way. God is not approving of those sorts of things that are according to the imaginations of men, according to the suggestions of Satan, according to what we think He might like. No, we are authorized to do that which God commands in the public worship of God. We are not authorized to do that which He doesn't command. We're not authorized to even do that, which He doesn't forbid. He doesn't forbid us setting a fire right here and warm it. We don't do it. It's not commanded. We're called to read the Word. We're called to preach the Word. We're called to pray the Word. We're called to see the Word and the sacraments. We're called to be about the Word. This is God's emphasis in Deuteronomy 4. You saw no form. You saw no shape, you saw no object. This is why the prohibition against idolatry, but you heard the voice of Yahweh, your God. So the first emphasis or application at this point is that we as parents bear quite a responsibility in teaching our children the true and saving religion. Teach them theology proper, teach them how to worship that true and living God. But a second observation or application at this point is look at what God says in this text. In the second commandment, he says, 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. You see what God says in terms of idolatry. You see what God says in terms of worshiping the true God in a false manner. Not only are you not being innovative and creative in a way that God is pleased with, but you are actually hating Him. This is an expression of detestation. False worship in the presence of the true God is an act of hatred on the part of the creature to it. That's not a mistake. That's what God says. That's his sort of indictment on the situation, to those who hate me. to exchange the true and living God for that which is created, or to worship the true and living God in a manner that we find approvable, but not that God authorizes, is an act of hatred against the living and the true God. Now, I just want to show a couple of illustrations of those who reaped judgment as a result of the way they worshiped. Probably the most popular is Leviticus chapter 10. Leviticus chapter 10, popular, familiar probably is a better way to say it. I doubt we're all popularly celebrating the death of Nadab and Abihu, but we're certainly familiar with it. But if you remember the situation in Leviticus 10, it follows Leviticus 1 to 9. I know that's some pretty cutting-edge exegesis. It's like, you know, six o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, but there's a reason for that. In Leviticus chapters 1 to 9, Israel is taught how to approach a holy God. See, that's the problem that we see between Exodus and Leviticus. The end of Exodus, God, the Shekinah glory, comes down on the tabernacle. The glory of God descends and it's present at the tabernacle. No one in Israel can go into that tabernacle, not even Moses. And of the lot, Moses is the godliest. You see, Exodus ends with this problem. God is in the midst of his people, but his people can't approach him. now enters the book of Leviticus. How do we get from this place of God dwelling in the midst of us for us to be able to now meet with him? And so Leviticus 1-9 is detailed legislation on how to approach this God. There's a whole series of sacrifices. There's a whole way prescribed on how Israel is to come before this holy God. And so in Leviticus 1 to 9, they get this detailed legislation. At the end of chapter 9, they put it into practice, and then God sends fire down to consume their sacrifice. Notice, in chapter 9, at verse 22, then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out, excuse me, and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces." I don't think it was a shout of terror. I think it was a shout of joy, a shout of thanksgiving, a shout of rejoicing because God had consumed their sacrifice and it was a blessed time of worship. They followed the prescription that God gave. in Leviticus 1 to 9, how they were to approach God, God shows His approbation and receives their sacrifice. And then chapter 10, verse 1. Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. You have to get this. You have to hear it when I say God doesn't want innovation, He doesn't want creativity, He wants obedience. Not just in the Old Covenant, but in the New Covenant as well. These things I write to you so that if I'm delayed, you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, the church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. That's in 1 Timothy 3.15. In Hebrews 12, we need to come to God in an acceptable manner. Well, who defines an acceptable manner? Do we let sinners? Well, for sinners, they might say an acceptable manner is about a 20-minute service. Because I like to go to the lake on Sunday after church, and I like to go have some dinner at White Spot. I like to have my day sort of tailored around my needs and my desires. So if we let sinners pick out how worship is going to be, I guarantee you it's probably not going to be preaching on theology proper, on the jealousy of God, on improper predication, who God is and how God wants to be worshipped. We want to do things that please us. And yet, when we find in the Scripture, we are to do that which God commands. And that is conspicuous, which he had not commanded them. Verse 2 says, So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them. and they died before the Lord, and Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke, saying, by those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy, and before all the people, I must be glorified." I think that'd be a good text to reflect upon on a Sunday morning. When we come into the house of the living God, it is to have dealings with this living God. And we need to treat Him as holy. We need to regard Him with the dignity that the Bible demands. And then one other passage, just to show the punishment of God on those who violate His worship ordinance. Turn to 1 Samuel 13. 1 Samuel chapter 13. I mean, we could trace through the history of Israel. There was a lot of violations at this very point, but just a couple to show some temporal judgment that fell upon those who distorted the very worship of God Most High. In 1 Samuel 13, Saul is the king, and Samuel tells Saul to wait for him. I'm going to see you. And in verse eight we read, then he waited seven days according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me. And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering that Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might greet him. And Samuel said, hey, good for you. You took it upon yourself to worship. That's not what he said. It was forbidden. This was godlessness. This was lawlessness. Jesus Christ is a priest king. The kings of Judah and Israel were not priests. He was not authorized to bring this sacrifice. Verse 11, Samuel said, what have you done? Saul said, when I saw that the people were scattered from me, now think about this. It may even be with good motivation or good intention. Hey, we thought we could entertain and thus get them to ask questions about the gospel and bring them into the camp. See, the motivation or the intentions might be decent or legitimate. In this instance, it sounds like Saul wants to sort of, you know, appeal to the people and keep them from, you know, getting unwrangled. He says, back in verse 11, when I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, the Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord. Therefore, I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. Was Saul right? Saul was wrong. I felt compelled. I'm sorry, Saul, you can't suspend the proper worship of the living and true God because of a feeling that you have. I would suggest that it's this that frames and formulates much of what passes for Christian worship today. I felt, I felt, I felt rather than God has said this is the way we are supposed to worship Him. We are not to play games with this particular commandment. See what happens in terms of God visiting the iniquity of this particular man. Verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. Samuel doesn't say, well, I respect your feelings. I respect this compelling that you had, and I'm glad that you... He doesn't do that. He reproves him. You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you." So it's no joke, and it's no small thing to worship the true and living God in a false way. And then the third reason, we see the consideration of theology proper, the threat of punishment, and then the promise of mercy. And what a promise it is. Verse 10 says, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. Look at the difference. In the previous section, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. Third and fourth, but here showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. Ursinus says, whereas he threatened punishment only to the fourth generation, he here extends his mercy to thousands, that so he might declare that he is more inclined to show mercy than wrath. And this is a provocation to his people or an incitement to them to love him and to worship him and to adore him. It is the revelation of who God is in this very promise. He shows mercy to thousands. And I think generations is probably an apt way to understand that. It shows the blessed fullness of God's mercy to those who love him, to those who keep his commandments. Again, not innovators, not creators, not those who offer up strange fire, but those who take Scripture seriously and obey what God says concerning the approach to Him through the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The ones justified freely by God's grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are those who love God, those who keep His commandments. Just a few New Testament passages to underscore this. John 14, 15. If you love me, keep my commandments. Romans 12, 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And then 1 John 5, 3. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. Well, thus concludes our exposition of the commandment. Let's just finish with a few thoughts, and then we'll close. First of all, the sin of idolatry in terms of the making of idols. If we engaged in making idols, how does that violate? Well, it violates, obviously, the explicit teaching of the text, but it also obscures the glory of God Almighty. See, when it comes to worship, we're supposed to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, not obscure His glory, not try to hide it, not try to fashion it in a manner that is approved by us, but rather we are to stand in awe at what Scripture says concerning God. Secondly, the image misleads men. Images do not teach the truth of the true and the living God. Thirdly, the image-maker provokes the wrath of Almighty God, as we see in this particular commandment, and then the image-maker attempts to make the invisible visible. God is invisible. That means we cannot see Him with the eye. But when we make images, we are trying to make Him visible. So if, definitionally, one of the things that God is, is that He's invisible, if we try to make Him visible, then you see the problem. We are distorting the very image of God Himself. As well, we seek to make the incomprehensible comprehensible. When Jeroboam the son of Nebat said, these are your gods that led you out of the land of Egypt. It is to try and make the omnipresent localized to make the spiritual physical. It is ultimately a rejection of the principle enshrouded by Paul that we walk by faith and not by sight. But consider the fact that when we worship idols, something bad happens, okay? Something really bad happens when we engage in idol worship. G.K. Beale, in his excellent book on idolatry... That sounds weird. An excellent book on idolatry almost sounds like he teaches you how to be a good idolater. Basically, it's a biblical theology of idolatry. If anybody's interested in this in further detail, G.K. Beale's book on this is really good, but sort of a central thesis for Beale is what you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or for restoration. Listen to that one more time. What you revere, what you worship, you resemble, either for ruin or for restoration. When we revere the true and living God, we are restored or are in the process of restoration. When we revere that which is an idol, when that which is a creature, we are doing so to our ruin. In fact, Psalm 115, that passage that teaches us concerning the futility of idols, Psalm 115.8 says, those who make them are like them, so is everyone who trusts in them. We take on the very characteristics of the idols that we worship. Intriguingly, Israel worshiped calves. What was one of the indictments of the prophets against Israel? They were stiff-necked. Well, isn't that characteristic of a calf or of an ox? You have to put a yoke on it to control it. Well, when Israel worships, she becomes like that which she worships. It really has a degrading effect upon a person. I think you only need to look outside, watch the news for about 30 seconds, and see the degradation that obtains to those who worship something other than the true and living God. When you worship and serve the creature, creature rather, vis-a-vis the environmentalism, which has become the gospel of liberals and Democrats everywhere, when you do that, it has an effect upon you. You are distorted with the way that you perceive reality. And if you want further proof of that, again, turn on the news for about 30 seconds and watch and see what happens. Christopher Wright says, the primal problem with idolatry is that it blurs the distinction between the Creator God and the creation. This both damages creation, including ourselves, and diminishes the glory of the Creator. Another observation, we're going to close in just a moment, is the importance of corporate worship. In other words, if there is a commandment that speaks specifically to how we worship God, that should encourage us with the thought that how we worship God is important. And when we look at scripture, there is this emphasis on corporate worship and that it must be engaged in, and that it must be engaged in properly. Consider a few passages. Psalm 87, 2, Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Ephesians 2, 19 to 22. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. Do you ever come to church conscious of the fact that when we gather here, it is the dwelling place of God in the spirit? Man, I think if we came to grips with that reality, it would probably invigorate our worship. It would vitalize our worship. When we understand that we collectively, the people of God, the blood-bought children of God, are the dwelling place of God in the spirit, and that we see not the building, but the church is the people, believers, the blood-bought children of God, is the temple or dwelling of God. This would hopefully encourage us in terms of David's report, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord. And then that section in Hebrews 12, it's a good place to end. You can turn to Hebrews chapter 12. It's an emphasis on new covenant worship. If there is a commandment given, prescribing acceptable worship to the living and true God, then that should reinforce in our minds how important the worship of the true and the living God is. If I were to ask you, and I'm not, so don't raise your hand and don't call out, but what's your favorite commandment? Do you have a commandment you're really looking forward to in this series? Maybe you haven't even thought of that. Some people might say, oh, the fourth commandment. That kind of makes us different than everybody else. We actually believe that there's a fourth commandment. Or we might think of the seventh commandment, because not only is environmentalism sort of being pushed on us, sexual perversion is sort of being pushed on us. a good recovery of that. Do any of us ever say the pure worship of God, the glory of God, the exaltation of God, the majesty of God? I think I've shared with you in the last several years, we saw a particular Christian leader basically have fellowship with what's called a modalist, a man who denies the Trinity. And a few Christians grumbled about that, but no one was really bent out of shape. But when that self-same man found out to be guilty of plagiarism, I mean, that was scandal of scandals. That was the most horrible thing in the world. Now, I'm not suggesting plagiarism's okay. I'm not suggesting go out and steal material and put your name on it and turn it into your teacher's. I'm not saying that. But what I am suggesting is that when he's sitting with a man who denies the Trinity, and just a few voices grumble about that, but then he plagiarizes, and everybody freaks out about that, it shows something concerning our priority structure. It's not that the second table is unimportant, but it is the case that the first table is first, and God should always come first when it comes to the thinking of his people. Hebrews 12, verse 22. But you have come. Now, he's talking to believers who were physically alive. He's not talking about when they die and then this takes place. He's talking about new covenant worship in what follows in this section. You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven. to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who speaks, for if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he is promised saying, yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Now notice the implication in verse 28. After having talked about new covenant worship, the glory of it, he says, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. The second commandment calls us to that. And as the church of Jesus Christ, we should be about that. We should guard against profane fire. We should guard against innovation in worship. We should guard against anything that would be an affront to the true and the living God. He is the object of worship and he prescribes the manner in which we are to worship. And it's centered on his word. Well, I hope that that will be an encouragement to us to guard our hearts, to guard our minds, and to seek, by God's grace, to have an approach to Him that is in accordance with what He authorizes. And the primary way of approach to God, obviously, is faith in Jesus. If we're not believers, we will not worship in spirit and truth. The way to worship in spirit and truth is, first and foremost, to look unto Jesus Christ, to believe on Him who lived in obedience to the Father's law, who died as a sacrifice and a substitute on the cross, and who was raised the third day, so that everyone who, by God's grace, looks to Him in faith will have everlasting life, and it will be their reflex, it will be their default setting to want to worship that God in the manner that He prescribes. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for these commandments. We know, God, we're not saved by keeping them, but we have been saved by your grace in order that we may walk according to these things. Jesus prayed, sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth. And I pray the very same thing, that your Holy Spirit would write these things in our hearts, that you would cause us to reflect upon them and cause us to appreciate not only who you are, but how we are supposed to worship you. And we pray now that you would go with us, watch over us in this coming week, and we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.