Deuteronomy 5, our focus this evening will be on the second commandment, verses 8 to 10. I do want to read the section though, it's good and helpful to see it in its context with the other nine words and in the specific context wherein Moses is preparing the people to enter into the land of promise. They are currently on the plains of Moab. This is a rehearsal of God's truth by way of exhortation. Several given by Moses to prepare the people prior to the entrance into the promised land. Beginning in chapter 5 at verse 1, And Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said, 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 has given you. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words, the Lord spoke to all your assembly in the mountain, from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness with a loud voice. And he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for Holy Scripture and we thank you for this opportunity to gather in your church. We pray for the ministry of the Spirit of God that he would guide and lead and direct us as we seek to understand the truth, as we seek to put it into practice in our own lives as individuals, as families, and as well as a church. Keep us from this sin of idolatry. Cause us, God, to fear you and to treat you the way the Bible tells us to, to treat you according to your holiness and your majesty and your excellence. Give us grace, Lord God, to receive these things. Give us forgiveness for all of our sins, even now. Cleanse us in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and help us, Father, to receive these things unto your glory and for our benefit and well-being. And we pray these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well, just prior to our exposition of Deuteronomy 5, 8 to 10, turn to Romans chapter 1 for just a moment. give you a bit of an understanding as to why this first table of the law needs to be understood and we need to reckon with it. I submit that if we have a difficulty with the first table, then the second table is going to be likewise difficult. In other words, if we reject God, we simply cannot expect harmony in society or in our families or as individuals. Notice in Romans 1.18, the apostle says, of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. I don't believe that there is a mistake here in terms of the order. The apostle indicates that ungodliness precedes unrighteousness. In other words, what we think concerning God, how we treat God, affects the way that we live. I think the remainder of chapter 1 fleshes this out. It indicates it. It highlights it. Notice, specifically, In verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Idolatry, or a rejection of God, or a disdain for the true and living God, precedes all of the things that then come forth. Notice, as the apostle continues, therefore, as a result of this idolatry, As a result of this sin, as a result of this rejection of the living and true God, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. So they reject God, so God gives them up. They then turn back to their idolatry, and then all manner of unrighteousness proceeds. Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. Gross sexual immorality is a symptom of the larger problem. We don't necessarily have a homosexuality problem, though we do. We have an idolatry problem. When men reject and resist the living and the true God, then He gives them over, and all manner of wickedness then multiplies. So going back to Deuteronomy 5, it is absolutely imperative that we understand this first table of the law. It is good for us to oppose same-sex marriage. It is good for us to oppose heterosexual fornication. It is good for us to be pro-life and oppose the murder of babies and the euthanizing of those who are sick. But as well, we need to be about the true worship of the living God. We need to be about valuing and prizing His name, and we need to be about His Sabbath day. If we stumble at the first table, we cannot righteously expect that everything's going to go well for us in terms of an application of the second table of the law. A disregard for the first table ensures problems with the second table. When we look around at society, the great need is that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed so that sinners are saved and they're turned from their useless idols to the true and the living God. I want to look at this second commandment under three considerations tonight. First, the positive aspect of the commandment. Secondly, the prohibitions of the commandment. And then the reasons given for the commandment. All of this in verses 8 to 10, but we will look at other portions of scripture. In the first place, the positive aspect of the commandment. Taken with the first commandment, commandments 1 and 2 promote to us the true worship of the living God. The first commandment underscores the object of worship. You shall have no other gods before me. Yahweh is identified as the one to whom we are to worship. The second commandment speaks to the manner. How do we approach Yahweh? Do we just run into his presence in any old way that we want? Or do we come as He demands or as He commands? Chapter 4, there's a great caution against idolatry, a detailed section where God, through Moses, tells the people to resist and reject idolatry. Deuteronomy chapter 12 deals with the centralization of worship, which is designed to regulate the conduct of Israel at worship. Again, people weren't afraid to just go hankering after God in any old place they desire, but they must go to God as God commanded. As well, with reference to this emphasis on true worship, the Bible highlights it. But our Reformation heritage highlights this as well. We are Reformed Baptists, and there's a reason that we are Reformed Baptists. One man says, concerning the Reformation period, this is Terry Johnson, he says, many modern historians of the Reformation period have allowed the dominant personality of Luther and his struggle to faith overshadow the heart of the Swiss and Calvinistic Reformation. For Luther and the Lutherans, the focus was justification. How can a man be just before God was their primary question. But for Zwingli, Calvin, and the Reformed stream, the focus was not justification, as important as they agreed it was. Their focus was worship. How is God to be worshiped, they asked. For Lutherans, the enemy of faith was works. For the Reformed, the enemy of faith was idolatry. Again, it's not saying that Calvin and Zwingli were anti-justification by faith alone. but rather it is a question of priority or emphasis. Calvin says this concerning the two defining elements of Christianity, which he says constitutes the whole substance of Christianity. First, a knowledge. First, of the right way to worship God, and secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be sought. I think that's a very important emphasis that we need to understand as participants in the reform stream. As well, these first two commandments help us with what has historically been called the regulative principle of worship. Simply defined, this means that God regulates worship. God commands how we are to worship. We are supposed to obey God on the things that He commands. And we are forbidden or prohibited from doing that which He forbids or from doing that which He doesn't command. You see, in Anglicanism and in Lutheranism and in other places, they say, Well, as long as God doesn't forbid it, it's okay for us to do. That's not the regulative principle of worship. We do what God commands. We are not free to do what He forbids, and we are not free to do what He doesn't command. God doesn't forbid puppet shows in the front of the church. Does that mean we can undertake puppet shows in the front of the church? The regulative principle of worship says absolutely not. We are not free to introduce things that God has not commanded. Deuteronomy 12.32 is one of the texts that justifies this. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it nor take away from it. Hebrews 12.28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Again, we need to ask the question, who defines acceptable worship? For the Christian, it is always God who defines acceptable worship. It isn't our felt needs, it isn't our hankerings, it isn't our desires, but it is rather the word of the living God that is to dictate and demand how we approach God and worship. Interestingly, after this text in Hebrews 12.28, the author then quotes Deuteronomy 4.24. For our God is a consuming fire. Intriguing that he reaches back into Deuteronomy to underscore the principle as to why we are to worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Our confession summarizes the principle this way, but the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men. We are simply not allowed to be innovative or to be creative. If I come out here juggling, you know, whatever it is they juggle, that's wrong. Throw me out. We are not to be innovative or creative in the worship of God. that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any way or other way not prescribed by the Holy Scriptures." As Pastor A.N. Martin defines it, in a pretty wonderful little simple way. With reference to the regulative principle, we are to do nothing more and nothing less and nothing else than what God has commanded. In the words of Terry Johnson, to put it simply, in worship we pray the Bible, we sing the Bible, we read the Bible, and we preach the Bible. As well, we see the Bible in the sacraments. is a wonderfully concise description of the regulative principle of worship. So the positive aspect of the commandment is that we are to worship Yahweh alone, and we are to worship Him in the manner prescribed in His Holy Word. Now notice, secondly, the prohibitions of the commandment, and they are twofold. First, the making of idols is condemned, and secondly, the worship of idols is condemned. which hopefully follows necessarily. If we are prohibited from making an idol, it certainly follows that we are prohibited. from worshiping the idol. But I want to look at this making of idols under four sub-heads. The first, I want to make a qualification. This does not prohibit all art. This does not do away with all art. Very specifically, the priest's garment pictured pomegranates, the mercy seat and the Ark of the Covenant had two cherubim of gold on either end. The commandment is not prohibiting all art. Art is legitimate. Art is a good thing. God has made men and women artistic beings. Persons are able to do things that are beautiful and wonderful and lovely. The second commandment does not prohibit that. It does not forbid that. The specifics of the commandment speaks to making carved images or the likeness of anything as representations of God or as aids to be utilized in worship. Ursinus says it this way, the law does not therefore forbid the use of images, but their abuse, which takes place when images and pictures are made either for the purpose of representing or worshiping God or creatures. That's the prohibition. You are not to make an idol of Yahweh or an idol that is used in the worship of Yahweh. That is denounced. That is forbidden and prohibited. Secondly, by way of explanation, I've already mentioned, the first commandment forbids us from worshiping Baal and Moloch and Ashtoreth. Certainly we are not to make idols in homage to those false gods. The second commandment forbids making an idol to represent the true God. The commandment one says we are to worship the true God alone. Commandment number two says we are to worship the true God truly. We are not to approach the true God in a false manner. We are not supposed to approach the true God in a way unauthorized. We are not supposed to come to the true God in a way that is our hankerings or our desires or our carnality. Rather, the commandment prescribes for us that God the Lord is the one who defines what worship is. I've mentioned Deuteronomy 4, 15 to 24, already highlight this fact. Exodus 32, 1 to 6, what did the people of Israel do there? They were worshiping Yahweh via the golden calf. What does Jeroboam do after the division of the kingdom? Jeroboam knows that if the person's in the north, go down to the south to celebrate feast days, well then they might just stay there. So Jeroboam fashions together an idol and says, this is Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt. It is the worship of the true and living God in a manner or by a means that he has not authorized. The point of the passage, the point of the prohibition, is that worshiping false gods or an attempt to worship the true God falsely. Calvin says this with reference to this second word. To sum up, he wholly calls us back and withdraws us from petty carnal observances which our stupid minds, crassly conceiving of God, are wont to devise. Turretin says it is impossible and wicked to represent God by an image. Again, brethren, we ought to cry out when there is a movement in the land that authorizes wickedness. But why don't we cry out when the churches of Jesus Christ are not worshipping the true God truly? They are worshipping the true God through means and a manner that God has never authorized. Remember that incident, Leviticus chapter 10. Chapters 1 to 9 detail and highlight how the priest of God was to approach God. In fact, the people offered up a sacrifice at the end of chapter 9. God sent fire out of heaven and consumed the offering. And the people shouted. It was a time of blessing and rejoicing. We turn immediately to chapter 10 and Nadab and Abihu offer up strange fire before the Lord. What were they thinking? God just spelled it out in nine chapters. What could they possibly be thinking? Well, we'll just go after this strange fire and we'll present this to Yahweh and He will certainly accept it. No, God sent fire out of heaven again. But this time it didn't consume the sacrifice, it consumed the priests. It killed them. The Lord destroyed them. And the Lord underscored the point with reference to how important the first and second words are. He says, by those who come to me, I must be regarded as holy. I am not an equal. I am not on the same level. I'm not your next door neighbor. I'm not your buddy. I'm not your child. I'm not your parent. I am your God. And the way that you come to me is specified by me. And all those who try to take a securitist route will find themselves in a great deal of danger. The theological rationale for this, in the third place, the doctrine of God. The doctrine of God, theology proper, demands a rejection of idols. How do we possibly image, how do we possibly represent the God described in Holy Scripture? Again, Calvin says, The first part of the commandment restrains our license from daring to subject God who is incomprehensible to our sense perceptions or to represent Him by any form. The attempt to represent an incomprehensible God by a comprehensible means is condemned here. What is God's indictment of the nation of Israel in Psalm 50? You thought that I was altogether just like you. You see, this is the essence of idolatry. It is to pull God down from His throne and to try to localize Him. It is the attempt to domesticate Him. It is the attempt to render the incomprehensible comprehensible. It is the attempt to take this One who inhabits eternity, who is holy, holy, holy, and picture Him through a calf, or picture Him through some other visible representation. You are forbidden from doing such a thing. As well, our Lord Jesus tells us specifically in John 4, Verse 24, God is spirit. God is spirit. Again, her sinus says, from the nature of God. God is incorporeal. That means he is not fleshly. 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. You can't do it. You can't domesticate the sovereign God. You cannot localize the omnipresent. You cannot fashion something to represent this God. God is known by his attributes, which, by the way, are identical with his essence and his existence. But some of the attributes of God we call incommunicable. He doesn't communicate those to us. We are always creaturely. We always will be limited. Things like independence or aseity. How do you capture that in a representation? What about immutability? What happens to idols? They age, don't they? You have to buff them out. They fall sometimes. Didn't Dagon fall before the Ark of the Covenant? You have to fix that. This does not bespeak an immutable God. Infinity. Again, when we think infinity, we ought not to think of a golden calf. unity, simplicity, all of these incommunicable attributes of God. We cannot fashion something that rightly relates or bears forth what God is indeed. Isaiah 40. You can turn there for just a moment. Isaiah 40. As God highlights His sovereignty and His majesty and His excellence and His glory through the prophet Isaiah, notice in verse 12. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand? Measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure. Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or has, as His counselor, taught Him? With whom did He take counsel and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? This is a big God, isn't He? This is a majestic being, isn't he? This is a sovereign being, isn't he? This is a glorious God. Now note the implications drawn out. Verse 18, to whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? Notice, the workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter. The irony or the description here is amazing. This God, who is this sovereign, is pictured, typified, represented, by things that there is a fear will totter." Verse 21, have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told for you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Notice, verse 23, he brings the princes to nothing, he makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, when he will also blow on them and they will wither, and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. To whom then will you liken me, or to whom shall I be equal, says the Holy One. You see, God through Isaiah says, I am sovereign, omnipotent, omnipresent. There is no possible way you can liken me to anything that your hands can fashion. So with reference to the making of idols, this qualification doesn't prohibit art, the explanation, what is in view, the theological rationale, let's fourthly apply this to Christ. Jesus said that God is spirit, but Jesus obviously was a man. Can't we typify or can't we represent or can't we make images of Jesus? Isn't that legit? I mean, just by way of a practical observation, which Jesus is it that we will accept? Is it buff Jesus of the Jehovah's Witness literature? You ever seen Jesus in the Watchtower, Bible, and Tract Society literature? He's coming out of the water after his baptism, and he's ripped, and he's got water glistening on his chiseled body. Or is it the emaciated Jesus of Romanism with the halo over his head? Is it the Jesus pictured in that Arminian photo or that Arminian painting where Jesus is knocking at the door of the heart? There's no handle because Jesus would never force himself on any unlikely soul. The handle's on the other side because the sinner always is sovereign and he must open to Jesus. Which Jesus will we represent? Which Jesus will we image for? Is it ripped Jesus of the Watchtower Society, emaciated Jesus of the Roman Catholic Church, or is it Arminian Jesus who can't use a doorknob because it's up to the sovereign sinner to let that Jesus in? Does the Bible, does the second commandment prohibit images of our Lord Jesus Christ? I argue, yes it does. The second commandment prohibits images of our Lord. In the first place, the second commandment unequivocally forbids making any likeness to represent deity. Certainly Jesus was a man. that certainly Jesus' manhood is one of the natures of the two that are the one person of our Lord Jesus. It's interesting as well, the scripture does not present an attractive Jesus. The scripture doesn't tell us Jesus was chiseled. The scripture doesn't tell us that Jesus had water glistening off his pecs. The scripture tells us specifically that he had no form or comeliness that we should look upon him. If we were walking down the street, we might not even look at him a second time. There was nothing in his humanity that screamed, I am Jesus. Thirdly, the Bible highlights his unique nature. Yes, he was a man, but the Bible tells us that he was much more than a man. And no image, no picture, no representation can capture the hypostatic union of the two natures in the one person. Listen to Watson. It is Christ's Godhead united to his manhood that makes him to be Christ. Therefore, to picture His manhood when we cannot picture His Godhead is a sin, because we make Him to be but half Christ. We separate what God has joined. We leave out that which is the chief thing which makes Him to be Christ. You cannot do this successfully. Again, her sinus says, because nothing but his humanity could be expressed by art. And those who make such images seem to establish again the error of Nestorius or Eutyches. These were two Christological errors. The Nestorians believed in a two-subject Christology. Eudaicheanism taught this confusion of the one nature. So you see, you end up with heresy when you do these sorts of things and you try to picture the Lord Jesus. And then as well, I would submit the Lord Jesus is to be set forth universally through preaching. It is through the preaching of the gospel. Notice what Paul says in Galatians 3.1. Galatians 3.1, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? How was Jesus clearly portrayed among them? Through preaching. It wasn't through videos, it wasn't through picture books, it wasn't through that media. It was through the proclamation of the gospel. For since in the wisdom of the world, or in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. William Perkins says the image also. of the cross and Christ crucified ought to be abolished out of churches as the brazen serpent was, 2 Kings 18. He adds, if any man be yet desirous of images, he may have at hand the preaching of the gospel, a lively image of Christ crucified. So does the second commandment apply to the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, it does. So we've seen the making of idols. Notice the worship of idols. You're not only not supposed to make them, but you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. So it necessarily follows. We can't make them and we can't bow down to them. Neither can we bow down to them if someone else makes them. Well, I didn't make it. I'm just bowing down to it. You're not supposed to bow down to idols. You're not supposed to worship idols. The Catholic Church has an interesting spin on this particular subject. They write, or they state in their encyclopedia, images are in common use in the Catholic Church. I realize not everybody was brought up as a papist. For those of you who were, This is no surprise to you. There's images everywhere. For you Protestants that were reared in a Protestant home and never have stepped foot into a Roman Catholic church, let me tell you, it is bedecked with images. It is bedecked. They're all over the place. Image after image after image. And they admit as much. Images are in common use in the Catholic Church. The object of images is to set Christ, the Virgin, and the saints before our eyes. It's terrible. We're not supposed to set Christ, the Virgin, and the saints before our eyes with some visible representations. Notice what they go on to say. We do not worship the images themselves. The honor which we give these objects being referred to the persons whom they represent. So we're not really worshipping that statue. We're worshipping the Lord Jesus. We're worshipping him. This statue just helps us. Turretin rightly comments that by that logic, the Israelites dancing before the golden calf in Exodus 32 were perfectly legitimate to do so. Here Turatin, answering the question, I worship not this visible thing, but the divinity dwelling there invisibly. He says, neither would the Israelites have been idolaters to the golden calf, which they did not suppose to be God, for who can believe them to have been so stupid as to believe the work of their own hands to be that of God who had led them out of Egypt? They intended merely to form for themselves a representation of him that they might worship the true God in the image. So you see, if Catholicism is right, then that incident at Exodus 32 was right as well. But God certainly doesn't say that it's right. Moses certainly didn't sanction it. Moses didn't say, I like the way that you're expressing yourselves. No, it was a sin against the High King of Evek. So to say that the image is not worshipped, it's the deity behind the image, the Second Commandment forbids that. It prohibits that. Now notice, in the third place, the reasons given for the commandment. In the first place, the character of God. Notice, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God. I Yahweh, your covenantal God, I am yours. I have entered into this arrangement with you. I have brought you to myself. You are my people. I am your God. And I am a jealous God. Calvin again says, as he performs all the duties of a true and faithful husband, of us in return, he demands love and conjugal chastity. I am a jealous God. I don't want you going out a whoring after other gods. I don't want you bowing to a mullah. I don't want you bowing to Baal. I don't want you worshipping yourself or worshipping your money. I have redeemed you. I have purchased you for myself and I demand from you loyalty. I demand from you chastity. So in the first place, God argues against idolatry by saying, I am the Lord your God. But notice in the second place, the curse and the blessing. Notice, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. Note the nature of idolatry. It is to hate God, isn't it? Who's he dealing with? Idolaters. This is a reason appended to the command of the prohibition. Don't engage in idolatry. Why? Because I'm your covenant God. Why? Because I will curse those who hate me. That's the nature of idolatry. It is to exchange the creature for the creator. It is to take and to worship that which is creature rather than the creator. The gravity of idolatry is seen here to those who hate me as well. We ought to understand when it says, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, this is not a transgenerational curse. There are some odd things that come up in theology and in interpretation of scripture. There are those who believe that there are transgenerational curses. If I go out and do something horrible, then my children are cursed subsequent for my wicked act. I don't want to spend a lot of time. I realize it's very hot. Deuteronomy 24, 16 specifically indicates that in a criminal manner, a child does not get executed for the crime of his father. And then in Ezekiel 18, it is obvious, this is not an issue of transgenerational curse. Ezekiel 18, the people were saying, you know, The people of Israel were saying, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. In other words, Ezekiel's generation was saying, why are all these bad things happening to us? This was the sin of our fathers. They ate the sour and our teeth are set on edge. Why are we reaping this? We didn't do anything. Is this a transgenerational curse? No. God says in verse 4, Behold, all souls are mine. the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son, the soul whose sin shall die." There's no transgenerational curse. God specifies in verse 5 that a just man who does what he's supposed to do will not die. Verses 10 and following, a son who is wicked will die. Verses 14 and following, a son who is righteous and does not follow the conduct of his father, he will not die. Behold, all souls are mine. The soul who sins shall die." There's no transgenerational curse. We don't have to pray over this, you know, situation to cast out the whatever's that's going to plague the children. Calvin nails it. He says, 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." It tends to happen. When a father worships Baal, typically his child will follow suit. Another reason for family religion, another reason for us to to teach our children the right and proper way. If we are not showing them what the worship of the true and living God is all about, they're going to go seek after something else. So this is not a transgenerational curse. It is not a genetic predisposition. It's not a cursed family. It simply highlights the perpetuity of idolatry through imitation and indicates the resultant punishment. So there's a curse, but there's a blessing. And notice. in the curse portion. Upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. Verse 10, but showing mercy to thousands, probably of generations. Is this an indicator that we still have many, many more generations to go? I wouldn't want to argue that point. But notice that the mercy of God abounds. It descends or it plagues or it finds in curse upon the third and fourth generation, but showing mercy to thousands of generations, to those who love me and keep my commandments." So that's the exposition. In conclusion, in the first place, we ought to appreciate, with reference to the sin of idol-making, that first the image obscures the glory of Almighty God. It obscures the glory of Almighty God. You cannot bring God down and fashion or put a visible representation as a right representation of Him. The image as well misleads men. Jeremiah chapter 10 and verse 8 tells us specifically that they are all together dull-hearted and foolish. A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. The same thing is repeated in Habakkuk chapter 2 verses 14, I'm sorry, 18 and 19. The image-maker provokes the wrath of Almighty God. You put together that thing that you are going to claim represents God, what does he say? He says, my curse will be upon you to the third and fourth generations. And the image-maker attempts to make the invisible visible, make the incomprehensible comprehensible, make the omnipresent localized, make the spiritual physical. It is a rejection of Paul's emphasis that we walk by faith, not by sight. We are not to make images. That bespeaks a misunderstanding of the whole structure of the communicating God or the speaking God to the hearing person that responds in faith. Again, Ursinus says, God will have his people taught, not by dumb images, but by the lively preaching of his word. Neither does faith come from the sight of images, but by the hearing of the word of God. You see, this is something that the Catholic Church would employ. Well, you know, and ignorant people need images, and ignorant people need to see, and ignorant people that aren't book smart. No, you teach them how to read. You preach to them. They can hear. You certainly do that, rather than giving them an idol, which is going to be an albatross around their neck to lead them to the bottom of the ocean. It's absolute folly to kowtow to people and say, well, they're a visual people, they're artsy. We have to appeal to the artsy crowd using art in worship. No, we don't. If the artsy crowd is that wonderful, they ought to know how to listen and receive the word of God and walk by faith. It's not to denigrate the artsy people, but it's not to kowtow to them. Say, well, you know, I just respond better to the image. I respond better to the things that are seen. No, you need to respond in faith to the living God who speaks. Secondly, the sin of idol worship. The idol worship The idol worshipper dishonours Almighty God. The idol worshipper receives the curse of God and something I do not think we rightly understand is that the idol worshipper degrades himself. It is dehumanising. It is degrading. What does the psalmist say in Psalm 115 verse 8? Those who make them the idols, I think the implication as well is those who worship them will be like them. Did you ever notice that Israel is upbraided several times by the prophets and even by our Lord Jesus Christ for being stiff-necked? You stiff-necked people. Isn't that interesting? What is one of the characteristics of an ox or a cow or a calf? They're stiff-necked. They're a bit stubborn. You have to put something on them so that you make them go where they're supposed to go. It's probably an instance where the people of Israel have become like that which they worship. How many times is Israel condemned for having eyes that do not see, and having ears that do not hear, and hearts that do not receive the truth? Isn't that how Psalm 115 goes? The idols have ears, but they hear not. The idols have eyes, but they hear not. You see, Israel has become like that which they worship. You see it in the idolatry with reference to substance abuse. The man who worships crack cocaine, the man who worships methamphetamine, what happens? He becomes like his idol. He becomes like that which he has attached himself to. It is degrading and it is dehumanizing. I agree wholeheartedly with G.K. Beale. What you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or for restoration. When we revere God, we are going to resemble Him in restoration. When we revere the idol, we will resemble it for ruin. I highly recommend Beal's book on idolatry, by the way. It's a biblical theology of idolatry. We become what we worship. And then in the third and final place, the corporate worship of the church. The church must approach God the way God says. The church is not at liberty to change things up. The church is not at liberty to introduce new things. The church must do what God says. We sing the Bible, we pray the Bible, we read the Bible, we preach the Bible, and we see the Bible in baptism and the Lord's Supper. We need to understand that the blessing that God gives with reference to true worship It's real. It's legit. It is good when we obey God. It is good when we worship the way that He specifies. It is good when we come to God on His terms. That's true worship. How do you define worship? Wow, I really felt the spirit. Wow, I was really encouraged. Wow, I was really built up. Perhaps we ought to ask the question, or we ought to make the statement, God was worshipped in truth. You see, the measure of worship is not us. The measure of worship is not our satisfaction. The measure of worship is not our fulfillment. It's not our batteries being charged. The measure of worship is, was God worship. And I submit that when that is in place, that's when blessing comes upon the people of God. And in the final place under this last heading, we ought to realize The necessity to reject will worship. Will worship. The Puritans use that terminology based on Colossians chapter two for those things that are introduced by man. You see, in the modern church today, I don't think our tendency is to build golden calves and to set them down on the altar up front and everybody bow down to it. I really don't think that's happening. I mean, I guess I could be surprised. You know, the weird and wacky happens a lot. I remember seeing, you know, in the last year, some pastor, you know, repelled into church, you know, some cable when he came to his pulpit. So if somebody was worshiping a golden calf, it wouldn't surprise me at this point. That's probably not our issue. Pictures of Jesus, I think, are a reality, but at least in Protestantism, they find their place in the Sunday school room where they shouldn't. but they're typically not up front. We don't have a big cross with the crucified Jesus on it. We're not bowing down to those things. It's will-worship. It's new means. It's new measures. It's new light. It's new creation, it's new things to stimulate and to satisfy and to stir up the worshiper. Fisher said, and so also are carnal imaginations of God in His worship as you may see. This is prohibited. And so also is all will worship or the worshiping of God according to our own fancy As you may see, 1 Samuel 13, for those who were there on the Wednesday night Bible studies, what does Saul do? He doesn't wait for Samuel. Saul says, I got a hankering to worship, I'm going to worship. Samuel says, why didn't you wait? Because you were taking too long. That is wrong, you cannot undertake on your own behalf. It is condemned by God. Colossians 2.23, talking about the asceticism preached by some. Paul says in 23, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. This is will worship. This is the introduction of things that God has not commanded. the introduction of things that God has not authorized, the introduction of things that the church is really on dangerous ground when they start to present strange fire to the Lord God Most High. Fisher again says, whatsoever worships are instituted by men or do any way hinder God's true worship, they are contrary to this commandment. So brethren, that is what we need to be on guard against with reference to the corporate application of this Second Commandment. We could certainly draw out some personal illustrations or personal applications. You know, little children, keep yourselves from idols, is how John ends 1 John 5. The idol of self, the idol of money, the idol of whatever it is. It can be a good thing that we pervert and turn into a bad thing. The use of something that becomes the abuse of something. All of these things fall under these first and second commandments. which underscore how important it is that we worship the true and living God and that we worship him the way that he has commanded. And may this commandment drive us back to the cross because there's not a one of us who doesn't have some idolatry in our hearts. May we indeed flee to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness, for washing, for cleansing, for purification. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the word of God and we thank you that it speaks so clearly and specifically to these issues. I pray that you would go with us and watch over us in this coming week. May you bless your people here. May you cause us to love and honor and serve you, and cause us to love and serve our fellow men. And we ask these things through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.