Redimete Diem!

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
making the most of the time, because the days are evil. (Eph. 5:15-16, ESV)

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How Do We Please God?

2^nd Commandment

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;

Ex. 20:4-6

                Today we examine the second of the Ten Commandments which is:

“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 nor serve them.”

                I want to remind you, at this point, of the same thing I mentioned before.  The commandments do not first tell us what to do, they first tell us who Jesus himself is and what He did.  Our greatest joy is knowing that by our faith in Jesus, His righteousness has become our own – we didn’t earn it, He did.  And therefore, our obedience unto Jesus, by following His law, is out of our gratitude and zeal to live the life that Christ has given us to live.

Is there a true image of God?

                The first thing to observe in regards to this commandment is that man, himself, is the one who bears himself the image of God. (Gen. 1:27)  Man was made by God to represent Him on earth.  And through that image, God’s rule over all of His creation was to be made manifest. (Gen. 1:28)  But man, God’s very image on earth, sinned against God and fell by giving himself over to worshipping that image rather than the One who made it and was represented by it – when the image thought of himself as God (Gen. 3:5).  Now, as a fallen creature, man still bears the image of God within him,  but  it  is marred, scarred,  and  nearly  ruined  by  the distance this fall put between him

and God and by the sin that man continues to commit every day by his continuing to worship and be pre-occupied with the creature rather than the Creator.

                But then God sent forth His own Son, Jesus - God took upon himself the very form of man – the fullness of God dwelt in the fullness of man.  God Himself became the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) – the one who took our punishment for us so that, through faith and new birth, we might be conformed into His likeness (Phil. 2:7).  We honor the God who made us when our attention is off of ourselves and focused singularly on the God who redeemed us through the gift of His son, Jesus Christ.

                Therefore, the lesson for our obedience to the 2nd Commandment for us today is this: as the 1st Commandment told us Who we must worship, the 2nd Commandment tells how we must worship God as our Lord and Savior.  Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth -we must worship Him with as much devotion and attention and faithfulness as we learned to love this God in the 1st Commandment.

Who Says?

                So how are we to properly worship God?  How do we determine what that is?  Theologians use a term to discuss this called the “regulative principle”.  It means that someone decides or regulates what proper worship to God truly is.  But who should do that?  Who should determine what is proper worship?  We might all have different ideas about what would be good, nice or proper in worship.  Who is to say?

                Let me take an illustration from a holiday we’re all familiar with: Christmas.  Have you ever known exactly what you wanted for Christmas  but didn’t  get  it?    Have  you  gone  out  and  purchased  “just  the  "right present" for

What we make for ourselves we are prone to worship.

someone else only to have that person not appreciate it or take it back?  Most often the problem is that the one giving the gift didn’t really know what this person wanted, or worse, he thought he did know - but was dead wrong!  But the problem would have been easily solved if only the one giving the gift had done one thing: thought about the person, studied the person, or simply asked the person what he wanted!

                Sometimes people come to church with the sincere intention of worshipping God but what they bring with them are all kinds of their own ideas as to what they think worship should include.  They think of things that please themselves or enjoy seeing and hearing things that they like.  Or they want things in the worship service that they think visitors and newcomers might be attracted by.  And they think that simply offering up what pleases them should also please God.  They are bringing gifts to God but are they gifts that God truly enjoys?

                How do we know how to please God?  We do know, because He has told us in His word how we are to worship Him – what we are to do, what we should not be doing – and that makes all the difference.

When we worship God as He wants us to, He delights in our praise and prayer and study of His Word.

                This is what we mean by the regulative principle of worship.  Who should decide how we worship God?  Our worship is something we are giving Him, the proper way to worship Him, then, is to do so as He tells us:

Calling on Him in the name of Christ
Singing of Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
Offering up our prayers to Him
Tithes & offerings
The trustworthy proclamation of His Word
The observance of His sacraments
The blessing of His benediction

And then, when we are not in church, when we are out in the world we also know how to honor the Lord’s name by living the way He wants us to live - for we are His representatives in the world.  People look to us to find out what God is like, Christians must be the image of God in the world.

The Golden “ Christmas Tie”

                The Regulative Principle of Worship means God tells us what He wants from us in our worship of Him.  That is what He commands and that is what we must give to Him.

                But, as with all the commandments of God there are not only the things He commands, things He wants, there are the things He forbids.  When it comes to the 2^nd Commandment, God is quite clear: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image … “  Now we don’t have to go far to find an example of what God forbids here.  In Ex. 32 is the story of the Golden Calf.

                Now this is probably a very familiar story to all of us – Moses had led the people through the wilderness and right up to Mt. Sinai.  He had  gone  up  the  mount  to  receive  the Law of God but, in  his  absence  even right in front

of God’s presence on the mountain, the people grew impatient and pressured Aaron.  “Make us gods”, they cried, or idols, in other words, “to go before us”, to set before our eyes.  And Aaron bowed to the pressure of the people and had the idol made.  In his weakness, he tried to keep the true God in their minds, however.  “This is your god, “he cried, “that brought you out of Egypt!”  “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”  And what was the result?  The people worshipped as they pleased.  And then, they enjoyed themselves as they pleased.  And it was all OK, because, after all, they thought, even though it was an idol of their own making, it was still worship done in the name of their God.

                But what did God think?  Look at verse 7.  This was not worship as the people thought it was.  God said “they have corrupted themselves.”  First, they made for themselves an idol.  Second, they worshipped and sacrificed to their idol.  Third, they called it their god, the god who delivered them.  God’s opinion of all this is not in dispute: they were not a people who loved the Lord at all, they were a stiff-necked people.  They should not be received and accepted by Him, they should be destroyed.

                But then, look at verse 14 – Why were they not destroyed?  Was it because Moses convinced God the idol wasn’t all that bad?  Had he successfully argued that religious art should be appreciated in the worship of God?  Was Moses satisfied that the calf wasn’t a pagan god after all but simply one person’s idea of the true God; and that if it helped the people worship that it should be OK?  No.  None of those things were true.  None of those things mattered at all.  The people were not destroyed in their sin because of God’s covenant promise to them.  God’s name shall yet redeem them.

                You see, idolatry doesn’t draw anyone closer to God.  It  only  demonstrates  how  wicked  our hearts really

are and why we truly need to be redeemed, delivered, changed in heart, in soul and in mind after the true image of God’s own son.

                Now look at verse 19.  How did Moses respond when he came off the mountain?  The Law of God had been broken, not just stretched or fudged.  There could be no compromise, no discussion, no congregational vote.  It was not up the people whether to keep this Law or not, the idol was a sin and it needed to be destroyed.  And judgment began with the house of God.

                Moses cried out “Who is on the Lord’s side?”  It is sad to think that one of the church’s well-known hymns of faith and duty is based on the issue and matter of idolatry - not outside the ranks of the church but within them.  And the judgment of God was terrible – splitting the church over it was not too high a price to pay, hurting people’s feelings was not too major a consideration.  It was the Lord that must be worshipped and nothing else.

                In the church today, we, a congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, cannot afford to be any less careful or zealous or fearful to worship this same God.  The Lord deserves and calls for our full worship and obedience.  We should not think of compromise because our hearts are no less prone to sin and wandering today, our need for the redemption and changing by the Lord is no less today.

                When we come into the presence of the Lord for worship, what is worthy to set before our eyes, to put between our God and ourselves?  And how does God truly receive it?  When you bring your covenant children into the worship of God do you gaze upon some image?  Do you point to anything – even by suggestion –and say to your children – even by your silence -“This is our God who has delivered us!”?  “This is the one who has died for our sins!”?  “Let’s come and worship before him.”?

                As I have said before, we hold the commandments of God dear because we know that Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly in himself.  And yet, the fully righteous one died a sinner’s death.  He died in our place because we needed him to do so, because we are prone to break this commandment.  We are prone to idolatry.  Who is on the Lord’s side?  Savior, we are thine!

Truth or Consequences

                Now we will finish our look at the 2^nd Commandment.  We have already studied what was commanded is how we are to worship God properly.  We then saw what God prohibits: idolatry.  First, we may  not  make   an   idol   –   to  set  an  idol  before  our eyes, and then, second, we may not bown down or worship an idol.  What could be the

reason why He stresses both making and then worshipping?  He knows well the natural inclination of our sinful hearts, that what we make for ourselves we are prone to worship.

                Now I want to look briefly at the reason and explanation God attaches to this commandment.

Do not make or worship idols
“For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God … “.

Now we normally associate jealousy with sinful or weak characteristics – i.e.: fear, worry, over-possessiveness, insecurity, hatred, competitiveness.  Those kinds of things are found in the sinful, human heart, but we certainly would not think of God that way.  So if God calls himself a jealous God there must be another meaning to the word, a meaning that carries with it a holiness, an appropriateness, a justice.

                That meaning is based on God’s rightful claim on his own people, a claim He is not willing to give up even if they, from time to time, are.  A  man  and  woman who have given vows to one another in marriage have a similar right to this kind of jealousy – not to be suspicious or sinister towards one another, but to have a right to expect faithfulness and to protect the sanctity of the marriage covenant.

                In fact, there is so much similarity here that, in Scripture, God often calls idolatry  adultery  and  God  regards  sexual  sin  as  a   more  heinous  sin  in  his  sight  than other sins we are prone to commit because it is so

analogous to idolatry in his sight.

                There are 3 basic ways we can see this analogy in Scripture:

                1)  Promiscuity – actually engaging in sexual sin violates the holiness of the institution of marriage (whether or not you are presently married) in the same way that flagrant indulgence with an idol violates your relationship to God.  Anything or anybody that you give yourself, your life or your affections to, that makes that thing, that person an idol to you because it steals those things from God.

                2)  Pornography – feasting your eyes on a sexual object is committing adultery in your heart. Jesus said “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  (Mat 5:28)  Anything that tempts and desires to capture your attention, imagination and lust violates your relationship to God in the same way.  You don’t have to touch it to worship it.  It is idolatry.

                3)  Priority – fixating your mind toward the object of your sinful desire.  This is what happens when you forsake your devotion and obedience to God and give yourself, instead, to that which takes his place.  When you purposefully expose yourself to temptation and sin -or when you prepare for it, dress for it, spend on it, plan, scheme and lie for it – when a husband deceives his wife or a son his mother - you make it your idol, that is idolatry.

                An old rule  of  thumb I discovered long ago which  exposes  the  sin  of  idolatry  to  your heart is when you

defend and rationalize your motives by asking the question “What is wrong with it?” instead of the question “What is right about it?”  Idolatry begins when you do not care what God thinks when you are only concerned with what you want.

                Then, God says, as he is a jealous God, He is

“visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the 3^rd and 4^th generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Sin carries with it consequences, damage, penalties and scars.

                God gives out consequences as a form of his justice, for our rebellion deserves his condemnation.  And the sins we commit we cannot contain – it doesn’t just hurt us, it hurts everyone and the pain will be felt for generations.

                Even so, God gives out consequences also out of his grace, for even the consequences of our actions are not the payment we deserve for our sins.

                But God also gives out consequences out of his judgment.  Idolators are judged by God now: they are the ones, He determines, who are driven not by foolishness or ignorance but, in reality, by their hatred for God.

                But, because Christ has taken the condemnation of the law upon himself, even though you may receive the consequences of idolatry, you can be restored.  You can be restored by the covenant commitment of God - His word is your salvation, His son your perfect sacrifice.  You can be restored by a true repentance, faith and trust, for these are the actions of one who loves the Lord, even in the midst of his sinfulness.  You can be restored by obedience to His Word, for only those who choose to obey him are the ones who truly love him.

From Studies in the Book of Exodus, by Pastor Dave Barker, January, 2001.