The Second Commandment
God’s Perfect Ten
The Second Commandment
Exodus 20:4-6
 
I don't know everything about you but I know one thing about you and that is you have an instinctive desire to worship God.  It is true of all men everywhere.  Man worships instinctively almost as instinctively as he breathes.
 
What about an atheist?  It’s my conviction no one is born an atheist.  As we saw last week, an atheist is that person who has made a decision to not let God be involved in his life.
 
People have an instinctive desire to worship God.  Man was created to worship and if he does not worship the true God he will worship a false God and if he does not worship the true God the right way, then he will worship in the wrong way.
 
Last week we looked at the first commandment and remember the first four deal with our relationship with God.  The first commandment tells us who to worship - "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods before me.
 
Tonight we look at the second commandment and it tells us how to worship.  The first commandment forbids false gods, the second commandment forbids false worship.
 
Exodus 20:4-6
 
I want us to look at this second commandment under three simple statements that tell us how to worship and thus keep this commandment.
 
First, in order to keep this commandment, we must have,
 
1. A Proper Conception of God
 
This is the reason that the Lord has so emphatically forbidden the making of a graven image, because it misrepresents God.  No God who is a spiritual God as our God is could be represented by any material, physical, visible image.
 
The Bible tells us in John 4:24 that “God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
 
I guess most of us have heard about the little girl who is said to have been drawing a picture of God and someone asked her what she was drawing.  She said, I'm drawing a picture of God, and they said, "Well, honey, you can't do that."  She said, "Why not?"  And they said, "Well, no one knows what God looks like."  She said, "They will when I get finished."
 
But that’s not so.  There is nothing visible or tangible or physical that will ever be able to represent the great, immortal, invisible, eternal, spiritual God.
 
That's the reason Isaiah said in Isaiah 40:25, speaking for the Lord, "To whom then will ye liken me or what shall I be equal, to what shall I be equal? saith the Holy One."
 
 
And maybe the worst thing about an image is that is supposed to represent God, but it just doesn't do it.  Therefore what is represented is distorted and misleading.
 
And I can tell you this: No one likes to have a bad picture of themselves in circulation.  And if you don’t believe me, just take a look at your driver’s license!
 
When we have our picture made we're very careful to look at it to see if it looks like us, we want it to at least look like us, and really we'd like for it to look a little better than us, wouldn't we?
 
That’s why Glamour Shots have become so popular.  Nobody wants a misrepresentation of himself for the worse.
 
You probably heard about the woman that commissioned an artist to paint her portrait.  After working for several days, he’s finally ready to present her with the portrait.  Just as he invites her into the studio, the phone rings and he excuses himself.  She goes over to where the painting is displayed and when he returns, she is just irate.  The color of her skin is far too pale.  She looks sickly and tired; he’s painted way too many wrinkles; her eyes have bags under them, and she can’t believe he would so unfairly misrepresent her.  To which he replies, “Madam, you’re looking in a mirror!”
 
So what’s wrong with a graven image of God?  It degrades and misrepresents Him.  It distorts the idea of God.
 
 
 
But I think beyond the misrepresentation, God prohibits images because when a person worships an image, he's worshipping the work of his own hands.  That is a form of self-worship.  When a man worships the work of his own hands, then he's really worshipping himself.
 
At its core, image worship humanizes God and defiles man.  Now I know someone might say, but those who use statues and images in their worship aren’t worshipping the image, but it is simply an aid to worship.  After all, we've got enough sense to know that's not really God.  It just reminds us of God."
 
Well, that sounds pretty good, but I want to ask you ladies a question.  Suppose you suddenly opened the door to your house and there stand your husband with his arms around another woman.  He’s got her drawn up real close in an embrace and is kissing her.  And you say to him, “What in the world are you doing?”
 
And he replies, “I know this looks bad, but let me tell you, she reminded me so much of you that really I was just thinking of you.  I had you on my mind the whole time.  She was just simply representing you while you were away”
 
Are you buying that?  I didn’t think so!  And I think you can understand the next part of
 
Verse 5
 
God says, “Don’t worship idols because I am a jealous God.
 
Now, sometimes we misunderstand that because we think in human terms.  We say, "What right does God have to be jealous?  Isn't jealousy a bad attribute?"  Not necessarily.  It may be a very good attribute.  There's a good kind of jealousy and there's a bad kind of jealousy.
 
Obviously there are times when it is very wrong to be jealous.  For example, one athlete never has a right to be jealous of another athlete because he doesn't own athletics.  There's room for more than one athlete in the world.
 
One musician never has the right to be jealous of another musician because he doesn't own music.
 
One minister never has the right to be jealous of another minister because he doesn't own the ministry.
 
One artist never has the right to be jealous of another artist because there is more than one artist.  And on and on that list goes.
 
But, on the other hand, a husband has every right to be jealous of his wife because he is to be the only husband that she has.
 
A wife absolutely has the right to be jealous over her husband because he is the only one to be in that role in her life.
 
And you understand I'm not talking about suspicion or control or a perversion of the relationship.  I'm talking about a person who says, “This is my wife, she belongs to me, she was given to me in marriage.”
Now if that is true in human wedding relationships, h How much more so does God, the thrice-holy God of Israel, have a right to be a jealous God?  That means there is no other.
 
There may be more than one artist, there may be more than one athlete, there may be more than one musician, but folks, there's only one God and his name is Jehovah and He said, "I am the Lord your  God; you shall have no other Gods before me."
 
And then to underscore the significance of that, He gives this reminder about being a jealous God.
 
Think about it this way:  Suppose you were God and it was you who created the heavens and the earth.  And it was by your power that you held it all together and made sure everything was just right for life to be sustained on the earth you had made.
 
And you look down one day and there is the creation of your hand, sharing your image, enjoying your gift of life by worshipping a dung beetle or snail or a frog or a stick or a statue or a denomination or a church or anything else.  And there you sit, the Lord God of the universe who made it all and they give you no credit or worship at all!
 
Now I ask you, Mr. or Mrs. God, how are you going to deal with that?  I know I’d just leave a little greasy spot where they used to be!
 
Listen:  God will not be a part-time God. He’s not moonlighting as God and He'll not share his throne with any other.  As Adrian Rogers once said, “His palace is not a duplex.”
 
God said, “Don’t make any graven image" and in order to keep this commandment there must be, first of all, a proper conception of God.
 
Here’s the next thing.  If we’re going to keep this commandment there must be
 
2. A Persuasive Communication of God
 
Think about this:  the way we worship communicates what we believe about God and what God is like.  We teach when we worship.  Therefore, if we worship wrongly we're teaching wrong lessons about God.  If I worship an image then I am teaching those that watch me that God is like that image when God really is not like that image at all.
 
Now the next part of verse 5 is a little difficult to understand and I want to make sure we get it right, so listen to it again:
Verse 5
 
Some people read that and say, “That’s not fair.  Children shouldn’t have to suffer for the sins of their fathers."
 
Well, whether it seems right to you or not it’s true.  We see that happening all around us all the time.  Little children suffer if their daddy is an alcoholic or a dope head or lazy and unspiritual.  Children suffer for the sins of their parents all the time.  We see it all the time.
 
But notice here, God does not say that the children are going to be held guilty for the sins of their parents.  The children are never held guilty for the sins of their parents and that's not what he's saying.  Instead He says they suffer as the result of the sins of the parents.  So what is the sin that God is talking about?  Well, in order to understand the scripture you must see it in its context.
 
God has just said, “Don’t worship an idol because I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the father's upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."
 
Now don’t miss what that verse is teaching us.  God is saying, “How you choose to worship and relate to me will have impact on your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren and even on your great, great grandchildren. 
 
Let me show you a Biblical illustration of that.
 
2 Chronicles 26:16
 
Now as we come to verse 16, we are hearing about King Uzziah.  He is king of Judah and he has just amassed an amazing army and his fame has spread and everything is looking good.  But then pride begins to get in the way.
 
verse 16
 
Now notice the sin of Uzziah.  He didn’t get drunk.  He didn’t steal He didn’t commit adultery.  He sinned by worshipping the right God in the wrong way.
 
 
Watch what happens:
 
Verses 17-20
 
Now, to this point he has wrongly worshipped and now he as an individual is suffering the consequences of his sin.
 
But let’s follow his story.  Uzziah had a son and his son was a wonderful young man.  He was twenty five years of age when Uzziah died.
 
2 Chronicles 27:1-2
 
Jotham must have been a fine young man.  He did what was right in the sight of the Lord with one glaring exception.  Notice the parenthesis in verse 2.
 
No doubt he was a good man.  He believed God but he refused to go to the house of worship.  Why do you suppose he refused to go to the house of worship?  His father had been hurt.  There was a church fuss and no doubt he had heard about some of the details of it.  So he was like so many today who say, Yeah, I believe in God, but I'm kind of turned off by the church because the church didn’t do momma and daddy right.”
 
So here's a father who worshipped in a wrong way and now we have this son who is picking up on what his father did.  And so he wouldn't go to the house of the Lord.  His feelings had been hurt or something is wrong and the Bible says,  he did a lot of good things, but he didn’t worship in the temple.
 
But we aren’t finished yet.
 
If we keep reading, we discover Jotham had a son (Uzziah's grandson)
 
Chapter 27:9
Now remember our chronology here.  Uzziah was a great king who knew God’s blessings.  He just got off track in his worship.  Jotham was a good man, but he refused to go to the temple.  So what was Ahaz like?
 
Chapter 28:1-4
 
I think it safe to say Ahaz was an enthusiastic supporter of Satan.  Now remember, he is only two generations away from Uzziah.
 
Look down to 28:24-25
 
Here was a man who nailed the house of God shut, the doors were shut and substituted idols to false God in its place.
 
Now follow that series of circumstances.  First of all, Uzziah was a father with misguided worship.  Jotham was a son with neglected worship.  Ahaz was a grandson with corruptive worship, and the great grandchildren were sacrificed to idols.
 
God said, "I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.
 
There are some of you, who if you're not careful your great grandchildren will suffer spiritual ruin because you failed to worship God in the right way.
And it’s all because you did not understand the significance of worship.
 
 
 
We communicate what we believe about God by the way that we worship and if we worship the Lord our God in a wrong way we are saying something to those who watch us.  And the heart is so easily diverted from spiritual worship to carnal worship that does not represent God at all.
 
Why does the Lord say that we're to worship him without graven images?
 
Number one, because there must be a proper conception of God, God is a Spirit.
 
Number two, because there must be a persuasive communication of God.  We teach by the way we worship.
 
Now the third and final thing I want you to notice in this passage is we keep this commandment where there is
 
3. A Prayerful Contemplation of God
 
You see, it's not all negative.  Look in verse 6 and there you'll see the positive.
 
Exodus 20:6
 
Too many people quit reading too quickly.  The Bible says that he shows mercy to those that love Him  and keep His commandments.
 
Listen:  Just because you don’t worship an idol doesn’t mean you’ve kept this commandment.
 
 
 
We’re not keeping this commandment if that's all you're doing.  Until you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, you've left something undone.
 
We are to love the Lord our God.  There is to be a prayerful contemplation of God.  That is what worship is.  Dear friend, worship is loving God, worship is adoring God, worship is praising God, worship is reverencing God.  Do you do that?  If not, you're breaking this commandment.
 
There is absolutely nothing in your life more important than worship.  Did you catch that?  There is nothing more important than worship. Why is worship so important?
 
Number one, God desires it. The Bible says in John 4”23 "The father seeks such to worship him."  That's really all God wants from you.  If you gave God your intellect he wouldn't be any smarter; if you gave God your money he wouldn't be any richer; if you give God your strength he wouldn't be any stronger.  The one thing that God seeks from you is your worship.
 
In fact, that is why God created humans to begin with.  Why did God make you?   Somebody may say, Well, God made us to serve him.  Friend, if he wanted servants he could create a billion angels just like that that would serve him a lot better than we would.  They would never once say “no”; they would carry everything out to perfection.
 
God wants something out of you that he can get from no one else and that is your worship.
 
 
Angels can worship, but God wants the peculiar kind of worship that only a human can give, the worship that a redeemed child of God can give.
 
And by the way, there is always going to be someone who can sing better than you or give more than you.  There may be some people who can study better than you.  There may be someone who can preach or teach better than you.
 
But did you know that when it comes to worship we're all equal?  Did you know that?  No one can worship God better than you if you want to.  Isn't that great?  That's something we can all do equally alike and that is of supreme importance; that pleases the Father more than anything else, worshipping him.
 
Why is worship so important?  God desires it.
 
Number two, God deserves it.
 
Do you know what the word worship means?  It actually comes from the word or the words, worth ship. W-0-R-T-H.  It shows what we think God is worth.
 
We worship him because he is worthy of worship.  Let me tell you something - you show me the way you worship and I'll tell you what you think of God.  How much God is worth to you will be shown in the way you worship and how often you attend worship and how you participate in worship.
 
The reason that you worship so poorly is that you have such a low estimation of God.
 
There is a crowd in heaven saying, “Worthy is the lamb to receive honor and glory and power and majesty and dominion forever and ever and ever, he alone is worthy.”  That's why we ought to worship him.  Who else, what else is worthy of our time, but to worship Jehovah God?  This scripture tells us we're to love him.
 
We worship because God desires it and deserves it.  But I’ll go a step farther and say,
 
God demands it.
 
When Satan wanted Jesus to worship him, Jesus quoted that scripture and said Satan, "it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve."
 
God demands it.  I'm so glad that he puts it this way, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.
 
Did you notice the order, first worship and then service.  Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.
 
And it will be a great day in our churches when we learn that worship comes before work.  I don't care how much you serve the Lord, if you're not worshipping your service is empty, vain and worthless.  Worship must come before work.
 
Somebody said the first duty of the church is to spread the gospel.  That’s not true.  The first duty of the church is to worship the Lord.
 
 
Out of that worship flows every other act of service and work and duty.   We're mighty busy, some of us Baptists.  We're all busy and there's nothing wrong with taking care of business, especially when it’s the Lord’s business.  But I want to tell you God's order is thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.  Work is second, worship is first.
 
Why should we worship?  God desires it, God deserves it, God demands it, and it is insufficient to merely not bow down before a graven image.  Out of your heart must flow worship and from that worship service if we are correctly keeping this command.
 
Some of you may have heard of Fritz Kreisler.  He was a great violinist.  He was born in Austria in 1875 and died in 1962.  In addition to being a world-renowned violinist, he was also a collector of fine violins.  He owned several Stradivairus violins and played them in smaller concert halls, but his favorite was a Joseph Guarnerius violin made in the mid 1700’s.
 
In his book “The Story of my Violins”, he tells of how he acquired it.  He begins by telling how happy he is with another violin he’s owned for a year, a Gagliano.
 
“For one year I was in truth happy in the ownership of this truly superb instrument; then one day as I entered the rooms of Mr. Hart I heard a Voice, liquid, pure, penetrating; whose divine sweetness pierced my soul as a knife with the anguish of longing. I rushed into the room in a frenzy of emotion.
"Whose is it? Where is it?" I cried. "At any cost it must be mine. What is its price? I will give my entire fortune, but I must possess it!"
"My poor Fritz," replied my good friend Mr. Hart, "be calm. This is my greatest treasure. It is my 'Hart' Guarnerius, which bears my name, so greatly do I prize the honour of having discovered it. I have never spoken of it to you, for it was not in my power to either sell or give it to you. Before I knew you I parted with it."
 
It was then the property of an English collector of wealth, with a passion for collecting violins. That this divine Voice should be so doomed to silence under the glass case of a collector was to me a tragedy that rent my heart.  More than ever I was determined that I should endow it with life and the power to interpret the great message of our music gods. From that day, with Mr. Hart as an abettor, I laid siege to the fortress which held the imprisoned Guarnerius.
 
I gave no rest to its jailer, who, I must admit, was a gentleman of rare culture and attainments. For weeks and months I assailed him with my pleadings.
Finally he took it from his case, saying, "Play." I played as one condemned to death would have played to obtain his ransom. When I had finished he said: "I have no right to keep it; keep it; it belongs to you. Go out into the world and let it be heard."
 
I want to tell you ladies and gentleman, God made you to serve him and that's music in his ears and he alone is worthy.  And through our worship, we have the privilege of going out into the world to let it be heard.
 
Let’s pray