Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Exodus

Exodus 20:4-6 05/02/04

Message Title: ‘When doing right can be wrong’                                                                                                               Text: Exodus 20:4-6

Introduction:  John MacArthur, pastor and scholar, writing on worship as the ultimate priority said:

‘The Los Angeles Times Magazine reported that one Lutheran church in Southern California distributed flyers advertising their church service as ‘God’s Country Goodtime Hour’. The flyers boldly promised line dancing following worship. According to the article the pastor is dancing too, decked out in Wrangler boots and Levis. The pastor credits the campaign with revitalizing his church. The article describes Sunday morning at the church as  “Members listen to sermons whose topics include the pastor’s ’70 Ford pickup. After the service they dance to a band called, what else, the Honkytonk Angels’ Attendance has been steadily rising.”

You may think that this is the odd church going off the deep end with outrageous worship antics to draw a crowd. But it isn’t. Modern church growth theories have opened the door to this kind of worship. 

One more. This is an ad for another worship service.

“See Barnum and Bailey bested as the magic of the big top circus comes to The Fellowship of Excitement (churches name). Clowns! Acrobats, Animals and Popcorn.”  This same church once had their pastoral staff put on a wrestling match during a Sunday worship service, even going as far as to have professional wrestlers train the pastors to throw one another around the ring, pull hair and kick without really hurting each other.

Pastors and church leaders in an effort to be the next new hot megachurch will do just about anything to fill the seats. What has happened to worship?

Explanation: This all leads me to the 2nd Commandment. But doesn’t that one say we are not to make a graven image or idol. We are not doing that? What does worship have to do with the 2nd commandment? Well, there are many ways to make an idol and idols are made for worship.

•    If you believe you can’t truly worship God w/o a certain style or quality of music, you have made an idol.
•    If you believe you can’t truly worship God w/o a certain ritual or liturgy, you have made an idol.
•    If you believe you can’t truly worship God w/o reference to a certain system of theology, you have made an idol.

The 2nd commandment is not limited just to idols we can see. It is about worshipping the One True and Living God in our own way instead of God’s way.

Transition: Did you know that the way we worship communicates to others what God is like? We teach when we worship and false worship communicates  a false image of God. How do I know that? Let’s look at Ex. 20:4-5a

Read: Exodus 20:4-5a
 
Worshipping the right God the wrong way
 

The 1st Commandment ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’ Tells us who is to be the object of our worship. (the One True and Living God) 
The 2nd Commandment, ‘You shall not make any graven images/idols’ tells us how to worship the One True and Living God.

This commandment is not addressing the worship of a false god. It addresses the false worship of the True God. It is about how we worship Jehovah, the One True and Living God. Certainly on the surface it says we can not make any physical representations (statues, paintings etc) of what we think God is like and worship them. The key here is worship them.

Please, please, please understand. The 2nd commandment does not prohibit religious art either displayed in the church building or in the home or anywhere else for that matter.

•    Both the Tabernacle and Temple had religious art, symbols representing God and different aspects of his character and nature that decorated them. (Ex. 25:18-36; 26:1; 28:2, 33-35) You can not read the instructions for building the Tabernacle and Temple w/o realizing that God loves beauty and creativity.

The emphasis in the Hebrew is not on the graven images themselves, but on ‘you shall not bow down to them or worship them’.  Nothing should guide our worship of the One True and Living God except that which God has directed us in his word

But why is it wrong to worship graven images/idols (physical representations)?
 
•    A graven image/idol opposes the nature of God. A physical representation is something that can be seen with the eyes. God is invisible, a Spirit who must be seen with the eyes of faith.
•    A graven image/idol makes God too small. No created thing, no matter how good can do justice to the vastness, and complexity of who God is. All images of God are inadequate.
•    A graven image/idol is counterproductive to God’s purpose for worship. God is to be worshipped only through his Son, Jesus. Jesus is the only true image of God the Father.

In the AA 12 Steps program Step 3 states “We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” Or to the God of our own understaning. You see that is the bigger picture here. We all have an understanding of God. Some are true and right, some, like the great grandfather or Santa Clause in the sky, are wrong. But all our understandings of God are incomplete.  Because of our understanding of God we claim that there is only one way to worship and honor him…our way. And as long as what we do fits into our understanding of God, we can truly worship and serve him. By saying or even thinking this, we have broken the 2nd Commandment.

Why? Two reasons:
1.    Because God and God alone gets to tell us how we are to worship him…even if it is not how we like to.
2.    Because by generalizing and prioritizing our own limited understanding of God over and against anothers, divide the body of Christ and limit our worship of God.

That’s why, I believe, God gave us Romans 12:10 which says that We are to give preference to one another with honor. Again why? Because individually we have a limited understanding at best, of God..and that would be reflected in our worship. However,  together our picture of God and our practice of worshipping God gets clearer, not perfect, but clearer.

We need to ask ourselves a few questions.
1.    Is the God that I worship the God that is presented within the pages of Scripture or have I reshaped him into the god of my own understanding?
2.    Is my understanding of worship tied into my limited understanding of who God is? And do I believe worship has to be done my way in order for me to truly worship God? 
3.    Should I make God bigger and therefore be more open to worship that is representative of a big God?

You see, worship isn’t about what you or I like or want or are used to. Worship is about the One True and Living God and what he deserves. And we know what he deserves because he has revealed it to us in his word.

Transition: Well, what happens when we fail to worship the One true and Living God in the right way? Let’s look at the rest of the text.

Read: Exodus 20:5b-6

 
What happens to those who fail to worship the right God the right way
 

First, understand that God is not saying that he will punish children for their parents sin. He is saying that the sin of the parents leaves a mark on the children.  Philip Yancey wrote in Christianity Today:

“I have a friend whose marriage has gone through rough times. One night George passed a breaking point and emotionally exploded. He pounded the table and floor. "I hate you!" he screamed at his wife. "I won’t take it anymore! I’ve had enough! I won’t go on! I won’t let it happen! No! No! No!"  Several months later my friend woke up in the middle of the night and heard strange sounds coming from the room where his 2-year-old son slept. He went down the hall, stood outside his son’s door, and shivers ran through his flesh. In a soft voice, the 2-year-old was repeating word for word with precise inflection the climactic argument between his mother and father. "I hate you ... I won’t take it anymore ... No! No! No!"

Worship in a false way and your children will pick it up and make it their own.

Second, there are consequences for breaking the 2nd commandment.  Punishment/ discipline. (remember this is prior to the cross and the fulfillment of the Law in Jesus Christ) God takes worship seriously.

What happens to those whop keep the 2nd commandment and rightly worship the right God?  According to this text, they will know the blessings and love of God. I want to know that…don’t you?

Conclusion
So, where do we go? We don’t really worship and bow down to physical representations of God and Jesus fulfilled the Law for us? What importance is this then for you and me?

This commandment is about worship.
•    Jn 4:23 tells us that God desires worship and seeks those who will worship him in Spirit and in Truth.
    Worship is led by the Holy Spirit. And worship is practiced by our spirit, our heart,  passionately, wholeheartedly.

•    Rev. 5:12 tells us that God and God alone is worthy of our worship. The reason we often worship poorly is because we have such a limited understanding of who God is. We need to know God better. How do we do that? By knowing Jesus Christ. And how do we do that? Through his Word. Worship certainly should be Word of God heavy.

•    Matt. 4:10 tells us that God demands our worship. It is the primary task of the Church. It is from worship that ministry and service flow. Everything we do ministry and service begins here in worship. Worship God halfheartedly and you will serve him half heartedly.

It is my responsibility as your pastor to help you in this process. And I promise and assure you this is the kind and type of worship of the One True and Living God that I will strive to offer here at CBC.

I hope it is the kind of worship you will offer to the One who gives us life and the One who forgives us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory forever.