Sermon Tone Analysis

*/The Second Commandment:  Worshipping God on the Walls or in the Word/*

Pastor Oesterwind

November 9, 2008

 

*Introduction*:  I faced a great dichotomy that I was never able to resolve as a Roman Catholic.

On one hand, I was taught that without the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church I could never understand or know God.

On the other hand, the transcendent features of Romanism left God far off and out of reach in everyday life.

I felt as though God was never near unless I was within a stained-glass cathedral filled with mystical relics and old, artfully lit crucifixes.

The crucifix, censers, flowing robs of priests, hand lavers, and mysterious statues of church selected saints or biblical figures all combined as a potent reality:  God was in Heaven, far away and unsullied by the evils of this world.

The lesson I learned was that I was part of that evil; therefore, I was left alone, abandoned because of sin.

However, when I entered the churches of Catholicism, I could find God on the walls and in the statues.

The idolatry of Catholicism was as deceptive as all idolatry is.

It was also very blatant at the same time.

My fellow Catholics and I were able to manipulate God by bringing him down to us and hanging him upon our walls.

When I became a true believer, I learned quickly that God is in His Word and not upon the walls.

A faithful church proclaims God from the pulpit; it does not frame God in a portrait.

A faithful church understands that believers are the image of God; inanimate objects are not.

*Transition*:  Our series on The Ten Commandments continues this evening with the second.

The thought provoking lesson learned from it is as valuable today as it was when the finger of God recorded it.

*/You didn’t come to church to look at God on the walls; you came to church to listen to God in His Word!/*

Exodus 20:4-6 “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; 5you 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, 6but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

*/This command is reinforced in several NT passages:/*

Acts 17:29 “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.”

Romans 1:22-23 “Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”

1 Corinthians 10:7 “And do not become idolaters as were some of them.

As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’”

1 Corinthians 10:14 “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

*/Correcting the Roman Catholic Understanding of The Ten Commandments:/*

Two weeks ago, we began our study of /The Ten Commandments/ with the first - “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exo 20.3).

Roman Catholicism teaches that Exodus 20.3 through verse six form one command.

We teach at Heritage that verse three states the first command and verses 4-6 state the second.

As a matter of fact, many of you have the Believers’ Study Bible.

The following explanation appears as a notation for this passage:

 

“Contrary to the opinion of some, it is proper to consider v. 3 as a separate commandment from vv. 4, 5.

The first commandment (v. 3) forbids worship of other gods; the second commandment (vv.

4, 5) forbids the use of visual portrayals of God in worship, or the use of aspects of God’s creation as symbols of God in worship.”

·         How do we know the right interpretation of the passage?

Before we answer this question, you might be thinking, “How do Catholics come up with ten commands if they combine the first two?”

The answer is that they divide the 10th command about coveting into two commands.

·         Our understanding of the break down of /The Ten Commandments/ is correct:

 

o   The first command is concerned with /Who/ we worship; the second command is concerned with /how/ we worship.

o   The first condemns the worshiping of false deities; the second condemns the worship of the true God in a false manner.

o   The distinction between the two commands is clear.

It is also illustrated later in Israel’s history.

§  King Jehu put Jezebel to death when he assumed power over Israel (2 Kings 9:30-37).

He was also rather cunning and thorough about eliminating the priesthood of Baal in Israel (2 Kings 10:18-27).

2 Kings 10:28 states, “Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel.”

o   So, the king refused to worship any other god beside the true God.

He obeyed the first command.

But this is not the whole story.

2 Kings 10:29 “However Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan.”

o   The king continued to tolerate the worship of God in a false manner; therefore, he broke the second commandment.

o   The golden calves of Jeroboam mentioned here were never intended to be false gods; they were used to worship the true God falsely.

*Transition*:  Now, looking to the command itself.

There is a four-fold progression of thought which begins with a simple statement of a prohibition from God.

We have first…

 

*/The Deception of Graven Images (Exodus 20:4-5a)/*

 

“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; 5you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.”

Creating a carved image of a god is deceptive because by so doing, devotees to this image seek to manipulate the god they’ve created.

Jeroboam did this with his golden calves in order to maintain control over God and His people.

We create gods in order to manipulate them - its human nature.

God desires that people take their place as creatures of His creative hand not the other way around.

Even as the image may stand in the place of the true God, people tend to worship it rather than the God it was supposed to represent.

*/They have been deceived by the graven image./*

Nothing in heaven above, the earth beneath, or the water under the earth could serve Israel as a representation of God.

Idolatry perpetually deceives us.

Mankind during the Tribulation will face great plagues and they will still not repent of the works of their hands.

Revelation 9:20 states that they will worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

They are deceived and they worship or serve idols rather than God.

Idolatry is forbidden because it hides God rather than reveals Him. 

 

*Application*:  Before we leave this thought, we must ask whether or not it is permissible to wear a cross on a necklace or lapel.

Some religious groups like the Jehovah Witnesses believe the second command forbids wearing such.

“Christians wear a cross because they worship and venerate Christ.

It is merely an outward symbol for an inner worshipful attitude toward Christ.

If anyone did worship a cross (or any other symbol), or bow down before it, then it would be a form of idolatry (Exod.

20:4).”

- Norm Geisler

 

The key to our understanding is found in the fact that Israel was not to worship any other god or any image of any god.

Art with depictions of angels, humans, or animals is not forbidden in these verses.

The use of those images as idols is prohibited.

/We are not to bow down to them or serve them/ states the text.

“Even language about God in the Bible contains images.

God is both a shepherd and a father.

But each of these is appropriately qualified.

God is not just any father.

He is our Heavenly Father.

Likewise, Jesus is not just any shepherd, but the Good Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep (John 10:11).

No finite image can be appropriately applied to the infinite God without qualification.

To do so is idolatry.

And idols are idols whether they are mental or metal.”

-Norm Geisler

 

*Transition*:  You didn’t come to church to look at God on the walls; you came to church to listen to God in His Word!

We must worship God in truth not deception!

The second thought in our progression involves…

 

*/The Desire of God (Exodus 20:5c)/*

 

“For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…”

 

Jealous?

Does that strike you as somehow not fitting in with the other perfections of God?

It sounds strange to us:  Omnipresent, Omniscient, Merciful, Holy, Loving, and Jealous?

Yet this is the reason why God forbids idolatry.

The first commandment in Exodus 20:3 shows clearly that there is no other god - only One True God.