Bible's with you this evening. I invite you to open and turn with me to the book of Exodus, the book of Exodus chapter 20. As we continue looking at these 10 commandments, we will read verses 1 through 17, though our sermon will focus just on the second commandment given there in verses 4 through 6. So we'll read this evening Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 through 17. Please hear the word of our God. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image. or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me. but showing steadfast love to thousands of 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. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that 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 house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant. or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. As far as the reading of the Lord's Word, may he bless it. Please join me again in prayer. Oh, our great and glorious God, how we thank you that this second commandment reminds us that you are to be worshiped. but that you are to be worshipped according to the pattern that you have laid down in your most holy and authoritative and infallible and inerrant work. We pray that you would help us to cling closely to these commandments. They might be sweeter than honey to our tongue. They might be an encouragement to our faith. We might see that indeed these laws that you have given to us are not only for our good, that they prescribe and teach to us how it is that sinners like us can even begin to love the God who has created us and redeemed us. Help us to have great humility as we come now to your word. Help us to hear what it is that the Spirit has to say to the churches. We ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Sometimes, as an Orthodox Presbyterian church, We get comments from visitors or those who come from outside of the Presbyterian denomination who notice that the way in which we worship is very different from what they are used to. And in large part, the reason for that comes down to the way in which not only we here at Providence and not only Presbyterians, but even greater, how the Reformed come to understand what it is that God teaches us in the second commandment. Remember that as we dealt with the first commandment there in verse 3 of chapter 20, that the first commandment teaches us who it is that we worship. And the second commandment, as we begin to unfold this tonight, turns our attention not to who we worship, but how it is that we are to worship this God. Perhaps some of you know this and perhaps some of you don't, but this idea of how it is that we worship God was the great impetus or the great starting point, the great fuel, if you will, of the Protestant Reformation. At many points, it was how it is that we worship God that was even more important than uncovering and the rediscovery of the glorious doctrine of justification by faith alone. The Reformers, and perhaps chief among them John Calvin, sought to restore a proper and a right worship of how it is that sinners are to worship God. And that's what the Second Commandment, as we come to it, teaches us. It teaches us how we rightly worship God. And if we needed to summarize this commandment in one sentence as to how it teaches us that we worship God, we would summarize it by saying that the second commandment teaches us that God and God alone determines how he is to be worshiped. Now, as we come to the second commandment, you'll see very clearly, Lord willing, that there are three parts to this commandment. There are two prohibitions and there is one motivation that is given. As we come to the second commandment it is very important that we see that there are two prohibitions. The first prohibition of the second commandment is found there in verse 4, where the Lord says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. That's the first prohibition. The second prohibition of the second commandment is found there in verse 5, where the Lord says, You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. This is important for us as we come to the second commandment. Because oftentimes people see these two prohibitions and they say there's only one. And the only prohibition that is forbidden here in this commandment is that we ought not to make images to bow down to them. But indeed, as we have it here in verses four and five, there are two. We ought not to make images. And secondly, we ought not to bow down to those images. Now as we read of these images, undoubtedly what's being spoken of are not all sorts of pictures or artistry that we would have, but pictures or images of God himself. It's the first thing that is forbidden here in the second commandment, and the second thing that's forbidden is not only should we not make these, but we ought not to worship them. Both of these things are equally reprehensible in the sight of God. And both of them betray this holy commandment. So the first two parts of this commandment is that we have two prohibitions. We also see that the third part of this commandment is that we have a motivation. Now as we read this motivation, it's important that we have an immense amount of humility. Now I'm not so naive as to think that there aren't some among us who are going to disagree with the substance of this commandment. If you were in Sunday school several months ago, we briefly talked about the second commandment and you heard the disagreements that came out. There are differences of opinion. But as we come to this motivation we need humility because this motivation impresses upon us the immense gravity of this second commandment. You see that in the motivation first there comes a threat and then there comes a blessing. And we read that there in the last half of verse five. Where God says, I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. To be in violation of this commandment carries the great threat that we are hating God. If we disregard this commandment, we are expressing hatred for God, and God threatens us here, showing that He visits this iniquity of the fathers onto the children of the third and the fourth generation. A violation of the second commandment brings with it a ripple effect that goes far beyond your personal opinions or convictions. It reaps consequences for later generations to come. You can think of the story of Gideon, where Gideon went out and he made out of that gold, that golden ephod, and he laid it before the people. And you remember that even of this preeminent judge of Israel that we read in chapter 8, that this didn't please the Lord. That in making this image, he displeased the Lord and that he and his children and his children's children were given to worship essentially what this was, an idol. So we need an immense amount of humiliation when we come here because of the threat that's imposed here. We also see that in the motivation there is a blessing. And that is that when we live in accord with this commandment, the Lord himself shows steadfast love to thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments. So we come to the second commandment tonight, undoubtedly there will be disagreement with the substance. We need to exercise an immense amount of humility. Several weeks ago we noted that one of the points of these Ten Commandments is that indeed they are summarizations of the moral law. That is, all of our duties are not explicitly put into these commandments, but we have, as it were, a summary statement. As we come to the second commandment, the summary statement of the second commandment is that the Lord himself condemns idolatry. But what we need to grapple with as we come to this commandment is that idolatry goes far beyond just bowing down to profane idols or false gods. As the Bible itself defines idolatry, it just doesn't deal with false gods or pagan gods, but the idea, the concept of idolatry extends to worshiping God in any unbiblically authorized way. In any way that the Lord has not commanded us to worship him. When we attempt to worship Him in those modes or forms or traditions or customs that He has not commanded us, we are guilty of breaking the second commandment. We are guilty of idolatry. So, idolatry in its simplest definition is a distortion of biblical worship and how it is that we ought to worship God. As we come to the second commandment, I want to consider with you three points as it pertains to the substance of this commandment. I want to be very focused this evening and upcoming weeks. So these three points we want to focus on is that the second commandment first, it guards God's worship. The second point is pertaining to the substance that we want to look at, is that the second commandment guards our consciences. And the third point pertaining to the substance that we want to look at is that the second commandment guards the faith. So we have this second commandment in its substance, it guards God's worship, it guards our consciences, and it guards the faith. Due to time restrictions tonight, I just want to look at those first two points. The second commandment guards God's worship and it guards our consciences. Lord willing, next week when we come back, I want to spend a whole sermon on the third point, that the second commandment guards faith. wanna take these three points in two weeks and then Lord willing the following week two weeks from now we will begin to look at how is it then that we are to worship God what has God commanded us as to how we should worship him so this week The second commandment guards God's worship and it guards our consciences. This is going to pertain to the second prohibition. Next week we'll look at the first one as it guards the faith. So this evening, our first point is that the second commandment guards God's worship. I wish that we didn't need to preach on something as simple and mundane as this. I would hope that it's a given in the mind of every Christian and Bible-believing person that God is incredibly committed and even zealous and jealous for his own worship. His standards do a good job reminding us. But if you've had your ear to the ground this week and you've looked at the news, You've perhaps seen that this is betrayed in many quarters of greater evangelicalism. I don't know if you've had the opportunity to hear and to read about this recent situation at Wheaton College. where a professor by the name of Larissa Hawkins has decided that it is appropriate to wear a hijab that is a Muslim woman head covering in order to show her solidarity, as she put it, with her sisters in the Muslim faith. And she's been cited, at least in secondary sources, that she finds this to be warranted because the Pope himself has said that Muslims are people of the book. And she has at least reportedly connived this idea that Muslims are worshipping God, though they are worshipping him in a different way. As we come to the second commandment this evening, We see that that's a bunch of hogwash. That God alone prescribes how he is to be worshipped. And that there is no such thing as a pious Muslim, or a pious Hindu, or a pious Buddhist. God himself controls how it is that he is to be worshipped. And contrary to my good intentions or my thoughts or my opinions, the Lord isn't worshipped in ways that I think He is worshipped. You men, perhaps you've had the opportunity to go out and get a gift for your wife. I've done this on several occasions to get a gift for my wife, and it turns out that my wife didn't really enjoy the gift. As we often say, well, you know, it's the thoughts that matter. It's really the intentions of my heart. I wanted to express love to my wife. Even if she didn't really care for this gift, she still felt loved. That's not the way that the worship of God works. It doesn't come down to my intentions or my motivations. Good intentions don't matter in the worship of God when He has sufficiently revealed to us in His Word how it is that we are to worship Him. This is what makes it so utterly appalling that not only this Wheaton professor, but many strong Bible-centered evangelicals or even entertaining the thought that Muslims, through their good intentions and desiring to worship the God of Abraham, may actually be onto something. The worship of God is not a wax nose. We can bend in form and fashion in any way that we see fit. And so the first point we come to this evening is that the Second Commandment, it guards God's worship. God has commanded us how it is that we worship Him, and to deviate from that plan is to commit idolatry. This is the testimony of all of the Bible. I have several examples here, bear with me. Think of the golden calf incident in Exodus 32. As Moses is on Mount Sinai and the people gather together and they begin to grumble because Moses is no longer with them and they tell Aaron, you should form and fashion a god out of this gold and Aaron heeds the voice of the people. And there in Exodus chapter 32 verse 4, As this golden calf comes out of the fire and it's forged and it's formed, Aaron looks at the people of Israel and he says, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. It's important that as we read Exodus 32 that we understand that this wasn't blatant idolatry, that the people of Israel weren't asking for another god, that Aaron and the Israelites didn't think that this golden calf was Baal or Asherah or Ra. They thought that this golden calf was a representation of the true God. And that's why immediately in verse 5 of chapter 32 of the book of Exodus, that Aaron upon seeing this idol come out of this fire, he declares that tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And if we look at that in our English Bibles, the name LORD is all in capital letters. This is the covenant name of God. Israel wasn't looking at this calf thinking this is somebody other than Jehovah. They were looking at the calf and attempting to worship God through this calf. They weren't so foolish even as of yet to think that it was this calf that had brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea into Sinai and that it was this calf in all of his glory who had descended upon Mount Sinai. The people of Israel wanted God to be physically present with them in an attempting to worship God through this calf. We remember in Psalm 106 that they are condemned committing the sin of idolatry. Their good intentions mattered nothing before the Lord. You think as well of the sons of Aaron, of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus chapter 10. We're told that these two priests brought an offering of fire before the Lord. And as they presented this fire to God, we read in verses 2 and 3, that fire came out from before the Lord, and it consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord said, among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. What was the sin of Nadab and Abihu? Is it that they were given over to a pagan ritual? Were they given over to blatant idolatry? Were they offering human sacrifices? Did they have wrong motivations? Why did the Lord consume these sons of Aaron? We read very simply in verse 1 that no, to all those questions, the reason they sinned is because this fire was unauthorized. The Lord had never commanded them to worship Him by presenting this fire. We could go on in the Old Testament, but we won't. We can turn to the pages of the New Testament and see in the same way that the Lord is so concerned with His worship that to worship Him in any other way than He's commanded is blatant idolatry. Think of how Christ rebuked these Pharisees. Remember, he quotes the prophet in Matthew 15 verses 8 and 9, where he says that this people, that is, these Pharisees, they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. And you remember these Pharisees heaping up burden upon burden, and precept upon precept, and command upon command for the people of Israel, saying, you need to worship in this way or in that way, you need to keep this feast in this manner, you need to tithe of everything that you own, and Christ rebukes them. And He says, it's in vain that you worship Me. Think of the Samaritan woman in John 4, as Jesus stands there with her. And he begins to tell her what true worship is, and he says that the Father is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. It's not just the spirit of worship that matters, it's the truth of worship, that is to always be guided by truth, always be guided by what God says here in this book. And Jesus telling the Samaritan woman, there's coming a day when you won't worship on Mount Gerizim and you won't worship on Mount Moriah. These mountains will be done away with and the Lord won't receive worship from those places anymore. But the worship that He's going to accept is that worship that is in keeping with the revealed truth of the Scriptures and what God has commanded. You think of Paul in 1 Corinthians. as he in many ways regulates worship for the church in Corinth. He tells him that everything that you do ought to be done decently and in order in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 40. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 34, Paul regulates worship and he says women are not to have a place of teaching authority over men. He teaches in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 again that only two or three people can stand up, men, and prophesy in the sacred assembly, and each ought to be in his own turn, so that they're not talking over each other. And even back in the early church, when tongues were spoken, they couldn't speak in these various tongues unless there was an interpreter. He commands us that there are ways in which we ought to pray, that women ought to pray with their heads covered, that men ought to pray with their heads uncovered. He says in 1 Timothy 2, verse 8, that holy men ought to lift their hands in prayer. Paul sees that the worship of God isn't a free-for-all. And you think especially of Paul's condemnation of those Judaizers. Some of the sharpest rebukes in all of the Bible. a reserve for those Jews who came alongside these young Christians. They said, if you want to worship God, you need to worship according to these commandments or these modes or these institutions. And Paul doesn't respond to these Judaizers and say, hey, your intentions are great. Thank you. He doesn't look at the churches and say, if you follow these people, just make sure that your heart is in it. Because this is what really matters to the Lord. And Paul rebukes them. And Paul says, if you go back to these forms, If you go back to these customs of the Old Testament, that it is to turn back again to the weak and the worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more. You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid that I may have labored over you in vain. For these Judaizers to say you can worship God in these ways that under the New Testament He has not commanded, Paul sees as nothing but an act of idolatry. Or you think of the way in which the Bible prescribes that we must worship the triune God. We must come on the blood of Jesus Christ by the Spirit to the Father. As Paul teaches us in Ephesians 2.18, that any worship that is offered to God that is not through the triune God is weak and worthless and pathetic. And so the second commandment, it guards God's worship. And the vanguard that ought to always be written over the worship of God, is thus saith the Lord. The Puritan Matthew Henry once wrote, our religious worship must be governed by the power of faith, not by the power of imagination. God is zealous for his own worship, and he has commanded us how it is that we are to worship him. But secondly, and more briefly this evening, The second commandment, it guards our consciences. This isn't restrictive. To say that we can't worship God other than how he has commanded us, this is not restrictive, but this is a glorious freedom. It guards our consciences. It ushers in a sense of freedom to us, a freedom to obey this commandment and to worship God with integrity and with a clean and a pure conscience. Imagine yourself just for a moment to have lived in the time of the Reformation. I feel if we did, we would perhaps grasp the glory of the second commandment that guards our consciences. Perhaps you remember from reading your history books that the Roman Catholic Church had bound the consciences and the hearts and the faith of the Lord's people with so much self-imposed and man-made worship. Telling people that you need to pay for these indulgences in order that you might purchase the forgiveness of your sins. Telling even the poorest of the poor that when this coffer rings you need to cast a coin into it and you know that from this we're going to build St. Peter's Basilica, the glory of all the earth. Imposing upon these people false doctrines like purgatory. Or telling people you need to make prayers for the dead or you need to be baptized for the dead. Or you need to venerate Mary. Perhaps you're familiar with the story of the great Presbyterian John Knox as he was on a slave ship. And these Roman Catholic oppressors were bringing before these Protestants a little icon of the Virgin Mary and they were saying, you need to kiss her and you need to worship her. And Knox and all of his Presbyterian zeal took her and he cast her into the lake. And he said, let the Virgin save herself if she's so glorious. heaping up into the consciences of men that we need to adore and venerate Mary, or relics in the bones of the dead, or pieces of the cross, or telling weak consciences, you need to go forth and you need to pay penance in order to be forgiven of your sin, because there is no free forgiveness and repentance in Jesus Christ, or attempting to tell people that monastic orders will make you holier in this life and you will ascend the ladder of holiness and be closer to God, or impressing upon these people you need to make your pilgrimages to the city of Jerusalem or even to the Holy Father in Rome, or binding their consciences by the Eucharist and saying, you are unworthy of yourself to partake of this bread and this wine And so the priest does it for you. Binding the consciences of individuals and saying if you want forgiveness of sins, you must confess to a priest who is your mediator. Even recently in the news, Rome has not let go of her blasphemous worship. Pope Francis recently opened yet again another Porta Sancta. a holy door where they bind the consciences of people and say, if you walk through this door, you will reduce the number of years in purgatory. Reformers looked at all of this and they said, you're binding consciences where God has not bound them. Even Luther wrote one of his greatest treatises on the Babylonian captivity of the church. looking at the practices of Rome and saying the Lord himself has not commanded these things from us and therefore we have no duty even more we have an obligation not to obey them. And even some of our Protestant forebearers who died fiery and awful deaths because they refused to bow before the Holy Eucharist and the Father and kiss his seal. It was no less freeing in the Reformation than it was even in Paul's day earlier on. I quote at length Colossians 2 where Paul takes up this very issue. He says, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to festival, or a new moon, or the Sabbaths. These are all forms of worship. He says, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and the worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, It's the Old Testament ceremonies. Why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. According to human precepts and teachings, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body. Indeed, they have the appearance of wisdom. But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Paul rebuking those who would bind consciences by man-made regulations and commandments and traditions. And Paul says these are useless. They appear to be wise and pious and devote, but no value before God or in killing sin. And it's no less freeing even today to adhere to this second commandment that it guards our consciences. Because what this teaches you and I is that the church can't overstep her boundaries of authority. And as your elders in your session, we cannot impose religious worship or gestures or ceremonies or ordinances that Christ, who is the only head of his church, has not instituted. And it teaches us that the consciences of men and women are not something to be trifled with. In keeping with this commandment, we here at Providence, and even in the OPC, we don't seek novelty in worship. Our worship is not structured according to that which is pragmatic. If it was, I think the sermon would be the first thing to go. Our worship is not structured around what's going to bring entertainment to people. We don't offer popcorn during our services so people can be tickled and have a full tummy. We don't attempt to re-envision the worship cycle or how it is that we do church. We don't see the church as an avenue where we have the liberty of individualism or self-expression in how we worship God. Our worship is not structured around that which can be culturally engaged in or relevant to those who are outside of the church. We see that the second commandment binds our consciences to the Word of God alone. And so as a Reformed and Presbyterian church, we seek fidelity to the commandment of God. And this is what protects our witness as the church. knowing that what we do here God has commanded. Because let me tell you, in case you're wondering, you don't want us imposing on you things that God hasn't commanded. You don't want us attempting to tell you that you have to be at worship services seven days a week. or that in order to be a good Christian you need to recite prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, or that you need to wear necklaces or crosses to show your devotion to the Lord, or make the sign of the cross when you finish praying, or lift your hands up during worship, that you have to come and confess your sins to us in order that you can be absolved of your sins, or that you have to read this book or that book in order to be a truly good Christian. You don't want us to do that. God alone is the Lord of the conscience. And our worship is regulated by this principle that God alone determines how he is to be worshiped. And it protects your conscience to know that by God's grace, every time you walk through those doors to worship, the worship of this church is guarded by the headship of Jesus Christ alone. and not the political or ideological philosophies of a minister or a session that sits back and asks, what do we want worship to look like? But a church that's governed by the question, what does God want the worship of this church to look like? You see, in all this, the Second Commandment teaches us that faithfulness and obedience is what the Lord honors. So the second commandment here, particularly as it relates to the second prohibition of this commandment, is meant to keep us from idolatrous worship. And what we've seen this evening is that the second commandment both guards the worship of God, and it guards our consciences. Because indeed, the Father is looking for worshipers who worship him in spirit and in truth. Amen. Please join me in worship. O our great and our glorious God, We thank you for your word and we thank you for these holy commandments. And we would ask that you would forgive us, O Lord, when we esteem your worship to be of so little value. We pray that you would help us to press on to know you in truth, that you would help us to form our lives and our worship in accordance with your word and your word alone. that you would help us to guard your worship zealously, and that you would help us to see the freedom that is offered to our consciences when we understand that it is you and you alone who dictates how you are to be worshipped. Grant to us the humility that in all of our worship we might see that we are insufficient, but that you, O God, are sufficient. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.