Sermon Notes

Please note that these are only notes, not transcripts, and as such are not identical to the recorded sermons. They also contain frequent abbreviations.

Introduction

1. The 1^st and 2^nd Commandments may seem to be the same, but there is an important distinction.

   1. The 1^st C answers the question, “Whom must we worship?” Answer: God alone.

   2. The 2^nd C answers the question, “How must this one God be worshipped?”

      1. The answer is, first, negatively: not by images, statues, idols.

      2. The answer is, second, positively, only as God Himself has commanded in His Word.

2. In many churches today there is a war in the congregation, often a war between the generations.

   1. In these churches the congregation is divided among two types of worshiper.

      1. There is the older generation – they want the old traditional worship they are used to.

      2. And there is the younger generation – they want contemporary worship, worship which moves them emotionally. Old hymns sung to old tunes on an old organ are boring for them.

      3. Sometimes to please both sides the church reaches a compromise: at 9 AM we will have the contemporary worship service (modern music and a rock band) and at 11 AM we will have the traditional worship service (traditional hymns and an organ).

   2. But the compromise is a disaster for the church’s unity. The old and the young worship separately and the war continues. The 2^nd Comm. is the answer to the worship wars.

      1. The 2^nd Commandment answers the question, “How must God be worshipped?”

      2. Should He be worshipped to please the old people, who like traditional worship? Or should He be worshipped to please the YP who like modern worship?

      3. They answer is neither. God determines what is proper in His worship, and what pleases Him. God alone. That’s the essence of the 2^nd Comm. Consider …

“THE PROPER WORSHIP OF GOD” 

I. Authorized

II. Edifying

III. Spiritual

1. AUTHORIZED

   1. Worship acceptable to God must be commanded by God.

      1. That is the principle behind Biblical and Reformed worship – the Regulative Principle of worship (RPW).

         1. It is surprising that few churchgoers think of worship in that way.

            1. Churchgoers assume that God must be pleased with their worship b/c they come to church and do what has always been done: they do not stop to think.

            2. The attitude is, if we are sincere, God will accept it; if it makes us feel good and we feel that it glorifies God, it must please God.

            3. If the people like it, and we are all sincere Christians, will God not accept it?

         2. But the question is not – do we like it, or do others like it, or have we been doing this for a long time – but what does God say in His Word?

            1. Does the Bible teach we can worship God how we like or acc. to the majority preference or in the way which attracts the most people to our services?

            2. Look at the OT: God gave very detailed instructions on worship and He inflicted severe punishments on those who tampered with His worship.

            3. Is God less strict in the NT? Not at all. Jesus taught that we worship God in Spirit and in truth and Paul warns against will worship in Col. 2:23, worship which comes from the will of man without authorization from God.

         3. If you think about worship – it is to glorify God – the RPW is v. reasonable.

            1. Say you wanted to throw a party for a friend: but, instead of thinking about what your friend likes, you made a party with all kinds of things that you like.

            2. So, you cook foods that you like but your friend hates, you decorate the hall in the colors of your favorite football team, but your friend hates that team, you play your favorite music, but the music which your friend hates, and you all play games that you like but your friend hates.

            3. A person attending the party might legitimately ask the question: did you arrange this party for the pleasure of your friend or for your own? [When you listen to some people about worship you could ask the same question: is worship for you or is it for God? Did you make any effort to find out what God wants in His worship before you planned your services?]

      2. The RPW is very simple. We worship God only as He has commanded us in His Word. What He commands, we do. What He forbids, we do not do. And what He does not command, we do not do.

         1. The Church is the house of God, and just as you determine how people behave in your house, so God determines how we behave in His house.

            1. Proper behavior in the house and church of God is the theme of one of the NT Epistles: I Timothy (3:14-15).

            2. In that Epistle, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives instruction on the role of men and women in the worship service, the place of prayer by men, the ruling of elders and serving of deacons and the place of preaching by the minister.

            3. The house of God is not a “free-for-all” so everyone can do what they think good. Let everything, Paul writes, be done decently and in good order.

         2. The RPW regulates what the elements of worship are but it does not act as a kind of spiritual straitjacket, leaving no freedom whatsoever.

            1. To determine what God would have us do, look for a specific command or biblical principle: we sing, we pray, we read God’s Word, we preach God’s Word, we take an offering, we use the sacraments. All clearly commanded.

            2. But there are other aspects of worship which are left to the discretion of the local congregation: we would categorize these under time, order and number.

            3. We meet on the Lord’s Day, that is clear, but at what time and how often? What shall our order of worship be? That is not clearly set forth. How many times shall we sing or pray in the service, and shall we sit, stand or kneel for prayer? How long shall the worship service last? These are things to be determined by the consistory for the edification of the congregation.

         3. The RPW honors God because it recognizes His wisdom, His authority and His goodness in determining the worship of His people.

            1. Who better to decide how He is to be worshipped than God Himself! By introducing into the worship of God ideas of our own we question God’s wisdom and God will say to us, “Who hath required THIS at your hand …?”

            2. God is surely offended when, for whatever reason, we imagine that we know better than God how He can be worshipped: perhaps we think that we can liven it up by adding something to it [chef illustration, adding salt].

            3. And God has so determined His worship so that it glorifies Him and therefore pleases Him, and so that it best serves to edify His people. [At bottom, then, any attempt to introduce innovations into God’s worship, is pride].

   2. The HC says that we must not worship God by images, nor worship Him in any other way than He has commanded in His Word. In light of this we should examine the worship practices of the church.

      1. In the OT there are three outstanding examples of will worship, worship acc. to what man thought was right at the time.

         1. First, at Mt. Sinai, while Israel waited for Moses, Israel worshipped GC.

            1. It was not Israel’s intention to worship a different god: they just did not want to worship a God they could not see. And it was not their intention to insult Jehovah. They thought that a calf was an honorable symbol of God.

            2. In fact, in Ex. 32:5 Aaron called the GC Jehovah and proclaimed, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.”

            3. But the question Aaron should have asked was this, “Has God commanded us to make a CG and has He commanded us to make a feast?” No, He has commanded us to wait for Moses to return with the instructions for worship.

         2. Second, later in wilderness, Aaron’s sons offered “strange fire” in Lev. 10.

            1. What was strange about this fire? We are told one thing about this fire, and that was enough for Jehovah’s wrath to be kindled: “which He commanded them not” (10:1).

            2. These two men, Nadab and Abihu, were priests, they were ordained, they were in the right place at the right time (the tabernacle), yet their worship was rejected and they were killed.

            3. It was because they ignored Jehovah’s detailed instructions on how to make and offer incense: they made incense acc. to their own preference and it cost them their lives.

         3. Third, much later, at the time of the schism between the N. and S. Kingdom, Jeroboam the son of Nebat made Israel to sin by introducing false and unauthorized worship.

            1. Jeroboam led a rebellion against the kings of Judah and the house of David and to prevent them returning he consulted with his advisers and came up with a new way to worship God.

            2. This would be the same as the worship of Jehovah in Jerusalem in the Temple but much more convenient for the people (“It is too much for you to go up …” I Kings 12:28).

            3. The religion of Jeroboam consisted in two GCs in Dan and Bethel, priests ordained (but not from the tribe of Levi) and feast days. Thus Jeroboam changed the place of worship, the manner of worship, the time of worship and the officebearers who led the worship. And I Kings 12:33 tells us that it was “devised of his own heart.” God judged these unauthorized forms of worship very severely.

      2. The RPW still applies today and in light of it much which calls itself worship is strange fire before the Lord.

         1. Perhaps one of the most controversial matters is singing.

            1. Sadly, Christians fall out because some want the modern choruses with a youth band and others want the more traditional hymns with an organ. How can we solve that?

            2. The answer is simple: ask God in His Word, what would He have us sing? The answer is, God gave us 150 Psalms, songs perfectly suited to God’s praise, and songs inspired by the HS. He did not command us write our own songs or use the songs of uninspired men and women (we call them hymns). It would be intolerable presumption to say that we could produce better and more fitting songs than the HS.

            3. If you want hymns you must prove that “hymn” in the NT is the same as hymns today, a hymn by the Wesley brothers or Isaac Watts (Mark 14:26).

            4. So, the question is not, do you like traditional hymns or modern choruses but which songs are authorized by God?

         2. What about other parts of the worship service. Without the RP there is confusion and a tug-of-war between the traditionalists and the modernizers.

            1. Let us say someone wanted to have a puppet show in the service, or to perform a sketch or have the minister dress up as a clown and juggle.

            2. Perhaps you say, “But that is hardly fitting.” Says who? You? The minister? The YP? A survey you do with the local community to see what might attract them to the church? What if having these things could boost the numbers and make the church more attractive?

            3. God has not commanded puppet shows, sketches, fancy dress or juggling, so we do not do it.

         3. The only sure way to shut the door against innovations is the RPW.

            1. The RPW is the end of worship wars: neither the traditionalist nor the modernizer gets his way: both bow humbly before the revealed will of God.

            2. Following the RPW leads to unity and mutual edification – all things are done decently and in good order to God’s glory.

            3. And the most important goal of worship is reached: God is pleased; we know He is pleased because we are doing what God has commanded, nothing more. And if we find it boring, we need to ask God to forgive us for finding the worship which He has commanded boring and ask God to stir our hearts to love to worship Him as He has commanded.

2. EDIFYING

   1. The primary purpose of public worship is the glory of God. Whether we “get anything” out of it is secondary. Yet, God in His mercy has so designed worship that we are edified by it.

      1. To edify is to build – we get our word “edifice” from edify, a building – and it means to build up, to strengthen and to grow. Specifically, it means to grow up spiritually into Christ thru faith, hope and love.

         1. Edification of God’s people does not occur through entertainment or thru emotional experiences but thru the feeding of God’s people by God’s Word.

            1. Not only is the feeding of God’s people edifying it is also worship. God’s people worship God when they pay attention to His Word and humble themselves under it.

            2. And that Word is spiritual food to our souls: the more we hear and understand it, the more we grow in grace, and the more we are strengthened. That means that the Word must have content, and that content must be the knowledge of who God is and the knowledge of His mighty works.

            3. And this teaching occurs primarily thru preaching – the public proclamation of God’s Word by a man lawfully called and ordained by the Church.

         2. Without preaching, the Church is not edified and God’s people suffer. In fact, without preaching the Church cannot survive.

            1. God preached His Word in the OT: sometimes directly, but often through men, Moses, the prophets and others preached.

            2. Jesus and the Apostles came not to entertain but to preach. And the church continued its preaching after the Ascension of Christ. In fact, whenever the Church has flourished in history, she has preached.

            3. And a sign of apostasy in the Church is the loss of good preaching. The Middle Ages is a case in point: ignorant clergy could not and would not preach; and an ignorant and un-edified church was the result. And today, beloved, history is repeating itself – the pulpit has failed, the people are ignorant and the church suffers.

      2. So important is preaching to the life of the Church that even when there is little reading of Scripture, the Church still flourishes with good preaching.

         1. In the Reformation, many of the people could not read, but they could understand preaching.

            1. The Reformers believed Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” so they preached, so that the people would hear. At the same time they promoted education and translation of the Scriptures so that the people could read the Bible.

            2. The Roman Catholic Church opposed this because an ignorant people, dependant on the Church for salvation, gave them power over the people.

            3. The result was that the people flocked to hear men like Luther, Calvin and Knox preach, while Rome hid the Word of God behind the shroud of Latin.

         2. The answer of Rome to preaching was this. It is not necessary because images are books to the laity.

            1. Only recently, the Vatican advised that sermons should be shortened to a maximum of 8 minutes and bishops in the CofE have made similar pleas for brevity. Given the drivel CofE pulpits produce, shortening the sermons would be merciful.

            2. Rome argued at the time of the Ref. and still today that the common people (the laity) could not understand the Bible, but they could be taught by pictures. Go to Roman Catholic Churches today and you’ll see that.

            3. But this is a denial of the Holy Spirit given to the Church: the Spirit anoints believers so that they do understand the truth.

         3. Besides, the only thing that images – ancient and modern – teach is lies.

            1. Habakkuk warned that already in the OT: 2:18 (“a teacher of lies”).

            2. And the same is true of modern movies about Christ, pictures of Christ in the children’s story books and other pictures. They teach lies, misleading ideas about Christ.

   2. The true worship of God is edifying and God-glorifying and pleasing to God because it centers on Christ crucified.

      1. That was the heart of all acceptable worship in the OT.

         1. Why did the worship of the Israelites in the wilderness, of Nadab and Abihu, of Jeroboam displease God so much? Because it bypassed or tried to bypass Christ.

         2. The Israelites rejected the God-appointed Mediator and type of Christ, Moses, when they worshipped the GC and they did not worship by the blood. But blood was everywhere in the worship Moses brought down from the Mt.

         3. Nadab and Abihu did not use the God-appointed incense which was a type of Christ’s intercession mixed with the coals from the altar of burnt offering.

         4. And Jeroboam rejected the worship of the temple and the Davidic kings. All of this was the rejection of Christ. All of them were saying, we will worship Jehovah in our own way without Christ. That sin provoked God to fierce anger.

      2. The same is true in the NT.

         1. Every true ordinance of Xian worship proclaims Christ: prayers are in Christ’s name, the Psalms of David are about X, the Word read and preached is the Word of Christ. Christ crucified is every sermon, the heart of every worship service.

         2. God would teach us that we cannot worship God except through Christ and that we must find all our salvation in Christ and His cross.

         3. And the more we are taught about this, the more we will be edified.

3. SPIRITUAL

   1. The 2^nd Commandment comes to us as a prohibition against all image worship, or the use of images in the worship of God.

      1. The explanation is “That we in no wise represent God by images” and “God neither can nor may be represented by any means.”

         1. That is because God is pure spirit, invisible and without any physical shape or form. No image which we could make of Him could accurately depict Him.

         2. The calf Aaron made was splendid piece of art: pure gold and a figure of a majestic animal, but it was a calf. God be compared to a calf, even a golden calf.

         3. God is insulted when we try to depict Him because no image can possibly come close to how great God is.

   2. The same is true of Christ – no man can tell us what He looked like, and even if we could know, we could never depict Him. He is the Eternal Son of God in our flesh.

      1. Let us not look to dumb images, either physical or images in our mind.

      2. Let us rather learn from God’s Word to worship God aright thru Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.