Would you open your Bible with me, please, to Exodus chapter 20? We're continuing today with our study in Exodus 20, which, of course, includes the Ten Commandments. And last week, we studied the First Commandment, which instructs us to have no God except the true and living God. Now, there's some overlap between the First and Second Commandments. I think that was probably obvious to you last week. It'll probably be obvious again today. And to give you an idea, I'm gonna try to describe the differences in different ways, starting off with a quote I found by Tony Merida. He said, the second commandment warns us against having the wrong object of worship and against worshiping the wrong way. Those are the warnings here in the second commandment. Philip Riken's commentary was super helpful as I read it this week. And here's how he compared these two, or contrasted the two commandments. He said, whereas the first commandment forbids false gods, the second forbids false worship. So that gives you the idea of where we're headed. Hopefully you've had a chance to find your place. I'm gonna ask you to stand with me as I read Just three verses, this is Exodus 20, verses four through six. 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. Let's pray together, please. Our Father, we are asking for your help again today. As we come to your word, as we study it together, we ask that you would grant us understanding. Lord, you've spoken. There's no question about that. but we wanna hear and we wanna understand and we wanna know how to apply and that's what we're asking for your help in today. Lord, I ask that your Holy Spirit would empower me to teach your word this morning, that your message for all of us would come through clearly and that we would hear and obey in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, you may be seated. We'll do a quick review. I showed you this slide in parts last week, but there's the whole thing. Commandments one through four, the first table of the law, dealing with our relationship with God, our vertical relationship with Him, those first four commandments you see there. And then the second table, the law, the horizontal relationships, our relationship with other people. And there are six of those. I figured out the way the schedule is looking, I think we're going to finish the first table of the law before Christmas. And then we'll pick it back up in January to continue. But there are four, and as I've been studying them, I think there's a lot of overlap between have no other gods, make no idols, honor God's name, and honor the Sabbath day. I think they're interrelated, and they should be. but I hope to point out the way these first two are interrelated as we look through them today. Here's the main point. Here's what I want you to take home with you to think about this week. The one and only God demands that we worship him in his way. The one and only God demands that we worship him in his way. Coming back to that difference between the first and second commandments. The first commandment teaches us what to do. Worship only Yahweh and what not to do. Worship false gods. The second commandment teaches us how to worship Yahweh and how not to worship Yahweh. And some of you are thinking, Bob, I don't see the difference, I don't really get what you're saying. So I'd like to illustrate it from a familiar story that occurs about a dozen chapters later in Exodus. You can turn there if you want to, I'm gonna put it on the screen, but Exodus 32, verses one through six. This is Aaron and the golden calf. This is a story that many of you have seen, maybe you've seen it in a children's devotional. So I'm gonna read these six verses and then we'll focus in on one of them. Now, when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods that shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf. Then they said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." We will get into that in detail a few months from now, and we'll study each of those verses. But as I read verse 4, maybe you thought the same way, how awful that they would believe and even say out loud that this calf idol had brought them out of Egypt. Anybody else think that's horrible? I think that's horrible. But that's not the verse I want to look at. I want to look at the next verse. Verse five reveals their perspective. I heard somebody, a preacher say years ago that a person's thoughts, words, and actions make sense in his own mind. It may be good, it may be bad, it may be ugly, but what we do makes sense to us. And here's what they were thinking. This is why they were reasoning to themselves, we don't know where Moses went, we're going to make a gold calf, that's it. A gold calf, that's what brought us out. Seems so strange to us. Here's what they were thinking, verse five. So when Aaron saw it, this statue, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is what? What does that say? A feast to whom? The Lord. He's saying, this is it. This is our worship of Yahweh, and this is what I want you to understand in the context of the second commandment. They didn't change gods. They're not worshipping Baal or Molech or Ashtaroth. They're worshipping Yahweh. Do you think they're doing it in a way that pleases Him? No. That's the difference between that first and second commandment. It is possible to believe at least in your heart, in your mind, I'm worshipping the one true God, and do it the wrong way. How do we know what's the right way? How do we know it's the wrong way? We gotta look it up in his word. He tells us. And that's what we want to discover or remind ourselves of today. Go back with me please to verse four. 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 it says carved image there. And you can get fancy and say there were carved images and there were molten images, and that's true. The idea is nothing man-made should be worshiped. That's what we're looking at here. Some translations like the NASB say idol, and that helps us out. But what is this? Someone called it a man-made representation of some divine being. In other words, I'm picking an object here in the creation and saying that's a god, or that's the god. Now, let me clarify a couple things. This commandment does not prohibit artwork. It is not saying that you can't draw or paint or whittle or sculpt or whatever you like to do. God is not against art or beauty. If he were, he wouldn't have told Moses to include statues, gold statues of angels or pomegranates, fruit. in the tabernacle. We'll see that by the time we get finished with the book of Exodus. So that must not be it. Side note, I also don't believe that this verse prohibits an actor from portraying Jesus, for example, in a play or in a movie. But the key that we're gonna get to in a moment is that we must not place undue attention on those objects or those people when we worship God. That's the key to this. When we create an image for the purpose of worship, I believe we expose our false view, our wrong view of God in at least three ways. These are the three ways that I thought of. First, God is a spirit. Phil Jr. read that for us in our scripture reading, John 424. God has no physical form. The fact that God spoke the Ten Commandments audibly without appearing to his people visibly is both important and intentional. He gave them evidence of his presence by lightning and smoke, but he did not appear to them visibly. Deuteronomy 4.12, reviewing, looking back on this event, spells it out very clearly. It says, and the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form. You only heard a voice. David Guzik said this established the principle that the worship of God was to be word-based and not image-based. It is supposed to be word-based, and by that I mean the Bible. Not based on images. Second way. that we're exposing our incorrect view of God when we worship an idol, is that God is everywhere. Psalm 139.7 tells us that, among other passages. Our efforts to make an idol, and then usually a temple in which to worship that idol, attempts to confine God to one geographic location. We've talked about that a little bit. The Canaanites. were dwelling at this point in time in the promised land. They had all kinds of different gods, but they would have the god of the mountain and the god of the valley and different geographic locations. That was the mindset of people back in this time and culture. And so they would have, here's the idol for Ephesus. We are gonna worship this god in Ephesus, and so on. What we talked about last week, to have no other gods before me, no other gods in my sight is one way that can be translated. Well, you have a problem because everywhere you go, you're in God's sight. The one true God is everywhere and by trying to confine him to an object or confine that object to a temple, we're exposing that we don't understand who the true God is. Third one, God made us in his image. Isn't that what Genesis 1, 27 tells us? The Lord made man in his own image, male and female, made he them. When we make idols, we are remaking God in our image. It's backward, isn't it? We're gonna talk more about that as we go today. Now, going back to verse four, 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 covers a lot of territory. That's pretty specific. We must not make images of the sun, moon, stars, people, animals, birds, or sea creatures in order to worship them. No images of anything created in order to worship it. The key to all this, as I mentioned before, comes in verse five. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, and that's the prohibition. Here it is, worshiping a man-made image. That's what we must not do. Here's how it's worded in verse five. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. I appreciated what one person wrote about this. The sin of idolatry is ultimately a sin of the heart. An idol is anything we depend on to meet the deep needs of the heart. Love, security, worth, or significance. When we seek to find identity and security in something besides God, we have made an idol. John Calvin described our hearts, the human heart, as an idol factory. We generate them. We often search for peace or identity through relationships, substances, money, entertainment. Addictions are forms of idolatry, as are a host of other worldly enticements that cannot ultimately satisfy. When we give ourselves to the pursuit of man-made gods, we are breaking the second commandment. That goes along with what we talked about last week, doesn't it? All those false gods we mentioned. This article went on and said, even good things can become idols if we're not careful. Ministry, hobbies, charity work, or family can usurp the rightful place only God should hold in our lives. When we emotionally rely on anything other than our relationship with him to validate us, we are breaking the second commandment. Then, continuing in verse five, God gives us the reason behind the second commandment. He says, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. Now, I know some of you have studied the names of God. There are books, devotional books on this topic, the names of God. How many of you are aware that one of the names of God is jealous? That one may have surprised you. It's Exodus 34, 14. For you shall worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. And some of you are scratching your heads because our English word jealous has a bad connotation. When we use the word jealous, we usually use it in the sense of being envious of someone who has something we don't have. quoting from that same article from a minute ago. A person might be jealous or envious of another person because he or she has a nice car or a nice home. Talking about possessions here. Or a person might be jealous or envious of another person because of some ability or skill that that person has, maybe an athletic ability. Another example would be that of external beauty. You can be jealous or envious of somebody because you wish you looked like that person. But not all jealousy is bad. It may seem that way to us, but as you start thinking about it, the most obvious example is that of a husband and wife. I am not okay if Rachel goes out on dates with other men. That's not okay with me. And it wouldn't be okay switching it around. I would be jealous in that circumstance. And I should be. And most of you, by your reaction, you think the same thing. That, no, that's a good form of jealousy. And that's the best way I heard it described this week. The difference between being jealous of, God is not jealous of us. God is jealous for us. There's another closely related word, zealous, and that's not one we use a lot today either, but that's more of a proactive. It is a passionate desire, concern for. And that's what's going on here. God is concerned for us. Who are the people that he's telling this second commandment to? They're the people that he's brought out, he's redeemed, he's purchased them. They belong to him. He has the right to make certain demands of them. Someone said, God is possessive of the worship and service that belong to Him. He is possessive of those things. He is jealous for those things. Isaiah 42.8 spells it out for us. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to what? Carved images, idols, How does God's jealousy reveal itself in this context? Still continuing in verse five. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. So there's some terms we should probably define so we know what we're talking about here. Let's start with iniquity. Iniquity means guilt worthy of punishment. We could say it's intentional sin. That's iniquity. And for those of you who might be wondering, here and in some other verses, father can be understood as either father or mother. It's not just hung up on the fathers of the family. In fact, if you have an NIV with you, it says the sin of the parents. So what's going on? Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations. The effects of one disobedient generation can take several generations to reverse. That's a paraphrase of something that John MacArthur put in his commentary. The effects of one disobedient generation can take several generations to reverse. Now, some of you might be wondering, you're curious, why four generations? Says to the third and fourth generations, what's that all about? Why not seven, why not two? Warren Wearsby offered a suggestion there. He said, in Bible times, it wasn't unusual for four generations to live in the same extended family, same household, and thus have greater opportunity to influence and affect one another. In our culture in the United States, in most cases, in many cases I should say, you have one generation of a family, maybe two. There was a family in Maryland that had three that lived in the same house. You don't often hear four, but that was normal back then. And so, of course, if you live in the same household with your great-grandfather or great-grandmother, you're gonna receive influence from them. Now, does this verse mean that we're all just a product of our environment? Do you think that's what it's saying? In other words, my parents sinned, and I grew up in their home, so I'm doomed. It's all over for me. No. If we compare Scripture with Scripture, and that's how we should interpret things, we find frequent references to personal responsibility. God doesn't punish me for anyone else's sin, and vice versa. Let me show you the verse. If you wanna dig into this on your own, you could read all of Exodus 18, but I'm gonna take one verse out of there. 1820, I said Exodus, didn't I? Ezekiel, Ezekiel 1820. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. So if God meant what he said in Ezekiel, and he did, then we can't come over here in Exodus and say God is saying he's gonna punish four generations for one person's sin. And remember, what's the context of this? Idolatry. So one person worships an idol, bam, four people are condemned, four generations. I don't think that's quite what's being said here. Some people interpret this and they come up with a weird doctrine of intergenerational punishment or generational curses. I don't believe that's what God is doing based on Ezekiel and other passages. So what is he doing? What is going on here? Here are a couple of takeaways I think from verse five that I hope will clarify. As the father of my home, if I were an alcoholic, then the consequences of my sin would greatly affect my family. True? So the consequence of my sin will affect others. That's the way God wrote the universe to work. But they will not be punished for my sin. God will hold me personally responsible for my sin. Does that make sense? That's what this is saying. This commandment also is a warning for future generations. So let me put it this way, God is saying that if we don't deal with idolatry in our generation, we will pass it down to our children and their children. Why? Because children learn by watching their parents. You can tell your kids all day long, do this, don't do that, and chances are they're gonna grow up and they're gonna do what you do and not do what you don't do, regardless of what you say. That's what this is saying. Continuing that quote, when children observe mom and dad running to a bottle, a pill, another romance, or a shopping spree to make them feel good about themselves, they follow that pattern. When children watch their parents spend time, money, and energy on worldly pursuits, they naturally copy those values and will raise their own children to do the same. So no, it's not a general racial curse. But more is caught than taught, And if you choose to follow after idols, your children are going to see that, and they're going to copy it. And as they grow up, they're going to do it, and their children are going to copy it, and so on. One more point before we move on from this verse. It's the third and fourth generations of whom? Whom are we talking about here? Those who hate me. Those who are the enemies of God. I'm gonna say it this way. God will punish the sin of an entire family that hates him. But there is an exception to this rule. I've been telling you for the last five minutes that we are each responsible, that if I sin, I receive the punishment of my sin. If you sin, you receive the punishment of your sin. And it doesn't go from one generation or one family member to another. But Isaiah 53, six says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him, who is that? The Christ, the Messiah, the iniquity of us all. New Testament. Second Corinthians 521, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. God the Father placed our sin, our guilt, our punishment on his son, Jesus Christ, who endured the wrath of God, the just wrath of God against our sin on the cross. That's the exception to the rule, that there is one who bore the punishment for everyone else, and that's Jesus. So let's continue with the good news. Warren Rearsby said, the godliness of ancestors can help bring blessing to succeeding generations. That's good. Verse six. but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. Again, let's figure out what we're talking about. What is mercy? His steadfast love, his loyal love. Mercy is God's sparing us from his wrath and not giving us what our sin deserves because Christ is our substitute. And what does he say? I'm gonna show mercy to thousands. Thousands of what? Some of your translations add the word generations. Philip Rikens said, the promise is more powerful than the warning because its blessing lasts not just for three or four generations, but for a thousand. In other words, it will last forever. All we have to do is respond to the God who loves us by loving him in return, by worshiping him the way he wants to be worshiped. 1 John 4, 19, we love him, why? Because he first loved us. He demonstrated his love for us while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. And he says, showing mercy to thousands of generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Just as children learn from their parents, They're gonna do what you do. If what you're doing is worshiping the one true God, His way, they're gonna copy that too. That's a good thing. These two concepts, loving God and keeping His commandments, go hand in hand. That's how Jesus put it in John 14, 15. What'd He say? If you love me, do what? Keep my commandments. What is God saying way back on the mountain? He's saying, I'm going to bless countless generations of those who love me. How do we know that we love him? Because we keep his commandments. It all goes together. Now these verses should provide great hope and comfort to those of us who have had difficult family situations, and some of you have. Maybe there was great wickedness and even hatred of God in your home. But here's the thing, God's grace has the ability to rewrite our stories. to change lives and to rewrite stories. Here's an example from the Old Testament, further back than what we're studying right now. Abraham. He was called Abram when this happened, but when he and his family were idolaters in Mesopotamia, remember that's one of the descriptions of him, that he was worshiping false gods, that's what they did. Where they came from in Ur seems to have been really big on worshiping a moon goddess. When they were still idolaters, he called, he chose Abram and said, I have something special for you. And how did Abram respond? He responded in faith, and that faith was counted to him for righteousness. That faith that evidenced itself in obedience. And what did God do for him? He obeyed. And generation after generation after generation of those who love God and keep his commandments have been blessed. God blessed the entire world through the descendants of Abraham, ultimately through Jesus Christ. And where did it start? With an idolater in Mesopotamia, and God called him and said, I have a place for you to go, go. I'll tell you where later, just go. And he responded in faith and obedience. and blessing came, and that is a fulfillment. It's an illustration of what we're talking about right here in the second commandment. I have one more quote to share with you. Some of you already saw it because I posted it earlier this week, but this is from Philip Graham Reichen. What is God doing in your family? I don't have this on the screen. You just have to listen. What is God doing in your family? As parents plan for the future, they should be more concerned about the second commandment than they are about their financial portfolio. This commandment contains a solemn warning for fathers. When a man refuses to love God passionately and to worship God properly, the consequences of his sin will last for generations. The guilt of a man who treasures idols in his heart will corrupt his entire family. And in the end, they will all be punished. But, a man who loves God supremely, a man who bows before Him in genuine worship and serves Him with true praise, will see the blessing of God rest on his household forever. What kind of life are you leading? What kind of worship are you giving? What kind of legacy will you leave? We must worship God His way. How do we know what that is? He's told us in the Bible. So here's some practical thoughts, questions for you to think about. If I have any other gods, that's a sin. If I don't worship God in spirit and in truth, that's a sin. In other words, if I insist on making up my own ways to worship God, that's a sin. I might be deceived into thinking that I need a certain place to worship God. I don't. I might be deceived into thinking that I need a certain style of music to worship God. Well, if those lyrics line up with scripture, I don't. I might be deceived into thinking that I need stained glass windows or certain furniture like an altar, a kneeling bench, or even candles in order to worship God. I don't. I might be deceived into thinking that I need to use certain objects such as beads or a prayer shawl to worship God. I don't. I might be deceived into thinking that I need to approach God through Mary or a saint. I don't. I might be deceived into thinking that I need to say certain prayers or specific words to worship God. Though with the exception of praying God's word back to him, I don't. I might be deceived into thinking that I need to achieve a certain vibe. I need to feel a certain way in order to worship. Well, I hope you feel something, but you don't have to feel a certain way in order to worship. Some of the things I just mentioned are sinful. Most of the ones I just mentioned aren't. But they become idols of our heart. I have to have it this way or I have to feel this way or I'm not worshiping. Gotta be very careful. Worshiping God is recognizing that he deserves first place in my life and then living my life like he's in first place. It affects my thoughts, my attitudes, and my actions. Worshipping God can and will play out in my everyday living, and perhaps especially in my corporate worship. How can we worship God the right way? What can save us from our own private idolatries? According to Philip Graham Rykin, the answer is very simple. Rather than making God into our image, we need to be remade into His image. God does this by bringing us into a personal, saving relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. I have a couple familiar verses for you to see from Romans. Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things, quote it with me, work together for the good of those who love God to those who are the called according to his purpose. That's pretty similar to what we just read in Exodus 20, isn't it? But here is the description, verse 29. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And then he finishes it off, moreover whom he predestined, those he also called, whom he called he also justified, those he justified he also glorified. But what I want to focus on is our purpose. He predestined us to be conformed, to be made like the image of his son. If you're here this morning, if you're with us online, God has a purpose for you today. It's to be like Jesus. To be more like Jesus. Because our problem is that our heart is an idol factory. And we come up with all these ways. Yes, I'm gonna worship the true God, but I need to do it this way, I need to do it that way. What we need to do is allow him, his word, his spirit, to make us more like Jesus. That will be worshiping in spirit and in truth. That will be worshiping in his way. The one and only God demands that we worship him his way. So as we finish up, same thing I did last week, same thing you're gonna hear a lot through this part of our series. We're gonna follow Ephesians 4, 22 to 24, and consider how to respond to this commandment. We're supposed to put off, we're supposed to be renewed in our mind, we're supposed to put on. What do we need to put off? Simple question. What do we need to put off, according to this passage, is idolatry. Now we've described that a lot of different ways, we've been talking about it now for 40 minutes. But what do we need to put off? Idolatry. in all its forms. That would include any unbiblical beliefs or practices in our worship of the one true God. How can we renew our minds? Here's a passage for you to consider on your own. If you're taking notes, write this down. Romans 1, 18 to 25. Instead of worshiping God based on what they knew, the people described in these verses rejected the Creator and chose instead to worship various parts of His creation. That's what you're going to read. And we describe that as the downward spiral of sin. That's what's going on in Romans 1. That God gave them up, God gave them over, that kind of thing. But what's going on? They're worshiping the creation. They're worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. That's what you're gonna find when you look at that passage. And we need mind renewal. We need God to show us you're missing it. What should we put on? Worship of God in spirit and in truth according to his word. This passage has been very much geared toward believers in Jesus, but there could be somebody with us online, there could be somebody in this room. You don't have a relationship with God through Jesus. 2 Peter 3, 9 tells us that he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to what? Repentance. Have you heard that word in our church services any time recently? A lot. Repentance, turning from sin, turning to God. You read other passages, God is not eager to condemn or punish anybody. Whether in this generation or three generations later. That's not his heart's desire. He desires that all men everywhere should be saved. And that's his invitation to you again today. That you would call on him for salvation. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Father, you know our frame. You remember that we're dust. Lord, we take great comfort in the fact that by placing our faith in you, you have separated our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. Lord, we thank you that you give us grace to turn from our sin and to turn to you in faith. Lord, I pray that each one here would have a relationship with you through Jesus' finished work on the cross. Lord, I pray for the believers here who have said that you're talking to them, that you, Holy Spirit, are leading them to make a change. And so I pray that you would give them grace to do that. that you, Holy Spirit, and the word that you have given, and the fellow believers around them would be an encouragement in following through on what you're leading them to do. Continue to remind us of these truths this week. In Jesus' name, amen.