This week's Sorter Catechism question is, What is forbidden in the Second Commandment? The Second Commandment forbideth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in His Word. So the second commandment forbideth that which is created by man. God gives himself to us and he has appointed the ways in which he gives himself to us. When we worship him, we worship a living and true God. One of the problems the idols have is that they don't exist, which leads to a second part of their problem that they don't tell you how to worship them. You have to invent it for yourself. because you invented them, or a demon invented them and convinced you that it was some sort of divine revelation. But the true and living God exists, and He alone can give Himself to us. We cannot lift ourselves up to heaven. Who will ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up? The Apostle says, these things are beyond us, and so we are only able to truly worship God, to actually engage the true and living God in those ways in which He has decided to engage us. There's nothing that we can invent. In fact, if we invent something, then it will not be the true God whom we worship. We will be worshiping according to our desires and our ideas. We will have put ourselves in the place of God. And so God, when He's getting ready to give the the people of the law again in Deuteronomy chapter 5 reminds them in Deuteronomy chapter 4 that God is the one who set the terms of engagement, set the means by which his people could know him and interact with him. So an image is not just a picture that you draw or even a graven image, something that you carve. True, we may not worship God in those ways and The second, especially, is the way that most idolaters at the time were choosing to worship their idols, or what they would call worship. But an image refers to anything that we come up with in order to worship God. So the second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images. And this does especially mean pictures. Even before the Lord Jesus Christ had come, God gave His people to worship Him primarily by words. He gave them ceremonies that were included, just like we have. The ceremony that is a meal, not a sacrifice. The Lord's Supper. But He gave them primarily to worship Him by words. God has exalted His word above all his name. And so man desires to worship not through the ear or the mind or the heart. Man desires to worship through the other senses and especially through his eyes. This is because While God has given us, as sinners, to be redeemed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ so that we are to walk by faith, of course, since God's appointed way is to walk by faith, what does the flesh want to do? Walk by sight. And so we want to have images, and that continues today, those who beyond making the worship room suitable for those activities that God himself has commanded desire to make it extravagantly beautiful or intricately decorated. Not realizing that even the decorations that God put into the tabernacle and the temple were designed to communicate particular things about the garden that had been lost in Eden and the paradise that would be regained. And so there's a mixture of, gold and odd lighting to communicate otherworldliness with particular decorations in the tabernacle that were reminiscent of Eden. But those things were not. in order to be extravagantly beautiful, and beautifying the worship room actually takes away from the ear worship, the heart worship, the faith worship, and moves toward sight worship, and many other such things we do. We should always immediately suspect and destroy anything that we want to add to God's worship. Because it's coming from us The the only decision-making to be made In the worship is how best to do that which the Lord has commanded so That's a good transition from the first part second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images or any other way not appointed in his word. And so perhaps it's something that we don't think we came up with. Perhaps it's something that we think has come down to us through tradition. And many people have found it worshipable and God has borne patiently for centuries with something that was invented by other men, not us, or perhaps There is claim for some other form of divine revelation other than from the scripture, but it doesn't matter what the source is. If the source is not the scriptures, the word of God, then it is a rejection of God himself and an attempt to engage God on terms that he has not provided. And we realize how horrible this is when we realize what are the terms by which God has enabled man to come to him. The terms by which God has enabled man to come to Him are not that man would do only the activities that God has commanded. God has commanded those activities. But the terms upon which God has enabled man to come to Him is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so those things that God commanded for worship in the administration under Sinai were things that looked forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. And those things that God has commanded for worship in the administration under the Lord Jesus are those things that Jesus himself leads from heaven. And therefore, to come in any other way than that which God has appointed in his word is actually to come without the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we understand even in addition to the issue of the holiness of God, and if we can say it this way, the Godness of God, that God's prizing of his son is the only way that we can come to him, is behind what's called the regulative principle. So what is forbidden in the second commandment? And the answer is, the second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word. Now we're gonna do five times, but I hope that this will be the last time we do five times. Because it's so easy and short that I would expect that you would all have it memorized by the time we come to worship again tomorrow morning, Lord willing.