So every time I come up, you can see that there is a bit of a traffic control there alright- waiting for who to make way for who. Alright, we are looking at the Ten Commandments, so I hope for the next ten weeks we shall be reading Exodus chapter 20, the first seventeen verses. I hope by the end of the tenth week we shall all know and remember the Ten Commandments.

As I said last week that I think the first time I heard of the Ten Commandments was through a film alright “The Ten Commandments” alright that stars Charlton Heston. I hope you don’t have to get to know the Ten Commandments that way. You can get to know by coming to the Word of God. Alright, today we are looking at the second commandment you know the second commandment. And so please again turn in your Bible to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20, in the second commandment it’s recorded here from verse 4 through verse 6 alright- verses 4 through 6.

So let me just read that section once again in Exodus 20 beginning in verse 4. “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; you 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, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Now the Ten Commandments may be divided into two alright. So there are two what you call tables of the commandments alright. And here on one side, we call the first table of the Ten Commandments, now they describe or they deal with our duty towards God. And then on the other side are the other six commandments. On that table, it deals with our duty towards our fellow men.

And remember the Lord Jesus Christ alright sum up the Ten Commandments that way alright. The first table is about our duty towards God to love the Lord your God now with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind alright. And then on the other side is to love your neighbour as yourself. So those are the two tables.

Now another way to describe the first table (the first four commandments) is that the first table described our duty towards God alright, another way to describe it is in terms of worship. Now that is how I would like us to look at the first table of this commandment in this series, to look at the first four commandments as our worship of God.

And in the first four commandments, we have what we called here the elements of true worship. The elements of true worship. Now, remember our duty is to worship God and to worship Him truly. Question then is: What is true worship? What is true worship? And I pointed out last week that true worship, now the first element of it is love. Your worship ought to be an expression of your love towards God. That’s why you are here.

You are coming to show your love towards God. If there is no love for God, there is no worship alright- there is no true worship. Then everything that you do in church, everything about your Christian life if there is no love for God, there is no worship of God. It’s all about you. And so the first element of true worship is love. And I explained from the first commandment that that love ought to be intense and exclusive. It ought to be with our whole being, unwavering, undivided love for God. Now that is true worship.

Now in the second commandment, we have the second element of true worship, and here we are told that the second element of true worship is truth. The second element of true worship is truth. Now, remember what Jesus said in the gospel of John in John chapter 4. John chapter 4, and Jesus speaking of worship said this to the Samaritan woman. And He said in verse 24 of John chapter 4 that “God is Spirit, and that those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”. And in truth.

So true worship must be according to truth. And truth here refers to the true knowledge of God. In other words, if you were to worship God, you need to know this God. If you do not know this God, you cannot truly worship Him. Not only you must know this God, you must know Him truly. So truth here refers a true knowledge of God. Now our worship, therefore, is as true as our knowledge of God.

Now that is a measurement- our worship is as true as our knowledge of God. Therefore if you have false knowledge of God, then your worship is false alright. And so all pagan worship is false worship because it is not according to truth. Now all pagan worship is false worship because they are not according to true knowledge of God. Now this commandment as I say is against idol worship. This commandment is against idol worship because idol worship is false worship. Idol worship is false worship.

And so what I’m going to do now is to, first of all, look at what really is idol worship. Now, what is idol worship? And then secondly, why is God against idol worship. And then finally, what is the implication for us. So first, what is idol worship? I say this second commandment is against idol worship. It begins by saying here in verse 4: “You shall not make for yourself (here in this translation as) a carved image” or in the NASB is said here as “idol”. Do not make for yourself idol or a carved image.

Now, so what is idol worship? Now there are two views concerning the meaning of this commandment (the second commandment). Now the first is the view of the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans alright. They understand this second commandment as belonging or they understand this as belonging to the first commandment. So they will read the first commandment as beginning in verse 3 and onto verse 4 and so on. And so they see this as part of the first commandment.

Then you might think that: Does that mean that the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans, therefore, believe only in nine commandments? No, they still believe in that there are Ten Commandments, just that they break up the last commandment into two parts alright. So verse 17, there are two commandments there. Now for the others (now the Reformed tradition), we understand this to be the second commandment.

In other words, we do not understand like the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans to think that this is a reference to the other gods. This idol is a reference to the other gods in verse 3. But rather we understand this to be a visual representation of the true God. So you see the distinction. They say that the idols belonged to the first commandment, the idols are the, you know, the other gods. Now we say no, it’s a visual representation of the true God, and I’ll just give you two verses here to clarify on this alright.

The first is in Exodus itself. If you look at Exodus chapter 32- Exodus chapter 32, now this is what the second commandment is about alright. This is the breaking of the second commandment. Now in Exodus chapter 32 beginning in verse 1, it says here that “when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. Verse 4: “And he received the gold from their hand, he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a moulded calf. Then they said, “This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!””.

Now that is what the second commandment is about. It is a visual representation. So they make a golden calf, but it’s not about the other gods. It is to represent the God who delivered them out of Egypt. So they are worshipping the true God but with visual representation. Now that is what the second commandment is about.

Another reference and that is in First Kings chapter 12. First Kings chapter 12, and there you look at verse 28. 1 King 12:28, it says here: “Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!””. Now again you see, here is Jeroboam trying to get the people of Israel to worship the God who delivered them out of Egypt, but again using visual representation alright- visual representation.

And so the second commandment is about idol worship, and idol worship is to worship God through man-made objects. It is to try to worship the true God through visual alright- man-made visual or visual representation. So that is what idol worship is about. So that answers the first part. So what is idol worship? Remember it’s a visual representation of the true God.

Now that leads to the second question. Now, why is God against idol worship? In other words, why is God against man-made objects to represent God? Why is God against visual or images or pictures we call idols? Now the answer is this alright. A quick answer would be God is against idol worship or using visuals or images to represent God because it is false worship. Because it is false worship. If true knowledge of God it is essential to true worship, then using visuals such as the crucifix or pictures of Jesus and so on, these are false worship.

And so we know that is very common. You can go to the Philippines alright, you can see a lot of visuals of God alright or they use a visual representation of God now little Jesus or pictures of Jesus in people’s house and things like that. Now it’s not just the Philippines. Now I used to go to Myanmar, and surprisingly in Baptist churches, churches I mean church buildings and in Baptist homes alright- homes of members of these churches (Baptist churches), and I find pictures of Jesus everywhere. It’s almost like their altar alright put a big picture of Jesus somewhere alright, and that is their Christian altar. 

Now I say God is against that, against using visual representations of Him such as all these kinds of things. And so we say: Why? I say because it is false. Now let me here now point out three things alright that tell us why God is so against this kind of worship by using visual representation. Now the three reasons are one because such representation alright such kind of worship is deficient alright. It’s deficient. And secondly, it distorts true worship. And then thirdly, it deceives alright the worshipper. It deceives the worshipper.

So let’s first of all, look at the first reason here why God is against using visuals and images and pictures to represent Him or in the worship of Him. I say it’s deficient in the sense that it is not possible. It is not possible to use any of these objects to represent God because man-made objects, any objects that we create for ourselves, whether we paint a beautiful picture of Jesus or whatever, now man-made objects are utterly inadequate in depicting or representing the true and the living God.

Now, this is something we need to grasp. There’s nothing that we can use on Earth or nothing that we can create to depict this great and awesome God. It will be deficient, not sufficient, unable, or impossible to represent God. In fact, someone says this: Any representation of God is a misrepresentation. There’s no way we can use anything to represent God. Now any representation of God is a misrepresentation.

Now turn with me to what the prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah chapter 40 alright- Isaiah chapter 40. And here the prophet is trying to help us understand something of the God whom we worship, this true and living God. Now, do you have some idea of the God that you are worshipping? I think here is the problem about worship, about so much of worship that is so false because we have faint idea of that God that has been revealed to us in the Holy Scripture.

And so here in this chapter, the prophet Isaiah is trying to tell us something about our God. Look at verse 9, who is trying to tell the Israelites: “O Zion, you who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, you who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, and be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!””.

You see, the big problem I say with a lot of worship is that we have not lifted up our eyes to behold our God, to see God as He truly is. Do you know God? Do you know Him as He is revealed in the Holy Scripture? What is He like? What is He like? You see, idol worship trivialise worship. It makes your worship you know light. There’s a lack of sense of awe in lots of worshippers because we have failed to see how glorious and how great God is.

Look again in this chapter (Isaiah chapter 40) and see verse 10: “Behold”. You see what the prophet Isaiah said. Come, take a look. Behold this God. Behold our God. “Behold, the God shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.”. Then he said in verse 12: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow with His hand, or measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? And weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?”.

You know what the prophet is inviting us here to see? He said come and see the greatness of God. God who created the universe, who on earth can do these things? And then here in verse 15: “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.”. He said come and see this God. Behold this God. He’s such a powerful God. He’s such a great God and looks at Him. By comparison, everything else is as nothing.

You see, we cannot see ourselves as nothing and come to this God in humility is because we are unable to see Him in His glory. Once we see Him like the prophet Isaiah, then we see everything pales into insignificance. And he says in verse 17: “All the nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless to him. To whom”. Verse 18: “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare Him?”.

See, he’s challenging here. You see, think about this God. Behold this God. Take a look at this God. Is anything comparable? Is there anything that we can use to represent Him? Verse 21. Verse 21: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?”. Have you not know anything at all you know about God? Who is this God? Verse 22: “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”.

This is our God. This is our God. Have you not heard? Have you not known? That is the problem. That is our problem. We’re so ignorant of this God. Verse 25: “To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; Not one is missing.”.

Verse 28: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.”. Now that is what the prophet is trying to say. Our God is a great God. Now I say, idol worship is trivialising worship. It is making worship like it’s nothing. True worship, it is about true knowledge of God. True knowledge of God will lead to true worship.

And we know that many religions use objects to represent God. Many religions now use objects. You see that they may use an elephant to represent God. And we know that the Egyptians, now in Egypt in the days of Israel, they too used many objects to represent God. And what the prophet is trying to help us see is this: How can these objects represent God? How can a bull, an elephant, a frog, a dog, how can these creatures represent one? How can a tree, a rock, a star, or the moon depict God? How can they?

What can a bull say about God’s eternal nature? What can a monkey say about God’s holiness? And how merciful can a chicken be? It’s nothing. It’s nothing that can in the slightest way show the glory and the majesty and the greatness and the wisdom of the God of the Bible. That is why God is against idol worship. He’s against using any things to represent Him. I say firstly because it is utterly deficient. It’s just impossible.

Secondly, God is against idol worship because idol worship distorts true worshippers. These idols distort the truth about God. Now look with me now to Acts alright- the book of Acts in Acts chapter 17. Now Acts chapter 17, and here is Paul speaking to the philosophers in Athens. And here in verse 23 through verse 29, now he said these to them alright- he said these to them. Acts chapter 17, beginning in verse 23. Now he said: “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship”.

You see, these people were using objects in their worship, objects to represent God. And Paul as he was passing through the city, he saw these objects. And he says: “I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you”.

Then he proclaims to them this God, verse 24, that this “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, and does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”.

Verse 26: “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”.

Verse 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.”. You see, Paul passes through the city and he sees these idols everywhere and he said that to them that you don’t understand. By using these objects to represent God, you don’t understand God. And let me tell you who this God is. He’s the One who created everything. And you cannot- you cannot. You are not able to represent Him with any of these things.

So what is Paul saying? Paul is saying that God is not like what you imagined Him to be because when you create an idol, make something to represent God alright you make a round face, big Datuk God alright and you think that that’s a greedy God. Now that is your imagination of God alright. Or you make another object of God. You see, it’s all according to your imagination, and Paul is saying that this God revealed in the Bible is not according to your imagination or what you portray Him to be.

Now God is against all these representations. Now God is against all these man-made objects is because these man-made objects or idols implied that God is physical and limited. Remember what Paul says in verse 24? He says that “since He is Lord of heaven and earth, He does not dwell in temples made with hands”, you are trying to limit God by making Him. And also because idols implied that our God is a needy God. You see what Paul says in verse 25: “Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything”.

You see, we have an imagination that our God needs us. You know Paul says that is not the God of the Bible. And idols also implied that He’s like the things we used to make Him like what we just now read in verse 29. You think that He’s like these things that we made Him. You see, so an idol, therefore, makes the infinite God finite, makes the invisible God visible, makes the omnipotent God impotent, and makes the omnipresent God local.

Now you see, we have created in other words a different God. By using objects to represent God, we have created a different God, and therefore it distorts the truth about God. That’s why God is against idol worship. But there’s a third reason why God is against idol worship. Not only it’s deficient, not only it distorts true worship, but it also deceives the worshipper. It deceives the worshipper and promotes superstitions. Now turn with me for a moment to First Samuel. First Samuel chapter 4.

First Samuel chapter 4, and here in verses 2 and 3. Verse 2, here is the Israelites going out to battle against the Philistines, and we are told in verse 2: “Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field.”. Verse 3: “And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.””.

Now you can see that they were thinking that what is going to save us is this object, and that’s why “it may save us from our enemies”. Verse 5: “And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook.”. They were rejoicing when they saw the ark. And then verse 10: “So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. Also the ark of God was captured”.

Now you see, God is showing to them you cannot trust in the object. They were superstitious. They were thinking that what saved them was that ark or that object. And you know that at the end, as we are told in verse 11, even the ark was also captured by the enemy. The ark has got no power. Now that is the problem with a lot of people who wants to use object in their worship because they treat the object like the Philistines treat the ark (Mistakenly mentioned “Philistines”, supposedly “Israelites”). The object or the idol as it were became a conduit of power.

And that’s the reason why many people have a cross alright on the main door in the house, thinking that the thief will not come in alright. Or they put a little cross in the purse, now the snatch thief will not be able to snatch it away alright, or things like that. Now that is superstitions. We know as I said that you go to the Philippines you see a lot of Jesus’ alright in the jeepney and in their cars alright. That is superstitions. Idol worship deceives the worshipper, that’s why God is against idol worship.

Now let us now come to the third and final question here: What has all these to do with us Christians? Do we have idols? Do we use idols in our worship? Now I used to think that we are quite safe from idolatry until I saw the reality show “the American Idol”, and suddenly idol has become a national obsession. Everybody wants to be an idol. Nobody thought: Look, Christianity has no idols alright. We don’t worship idols.

Does that mean that we don’t break this commandment though we are safe? Now we are Christians, we don’t believe in idol worship. No, we are not safe from the breaking of this commandment because this commandment remember is not only about physical but also mental idols. In other words, it’s not just about images, it is also about imagination. It is not just about idols as it were but also about ideas. It is not just about the things created with our hands but also things that we created in our heads.

Now let me give you an example of this. Now, how often you hear a Christian (so-called Christian) say something like this? They say: I’ll never believe in a God who allowed my son to die in the accident. My God is not like that. I will not believe in a God who condemns people to hell. I would not believe in a God who chooses some and not the others. I will not believe this kind of God. Then I’ll like to ask you or ask these people: Then tell me, what kind of a God will you believe in?

You see, they will only believe in a God that they have created for themselves. A God that they want, not the God revealed in the Holy Scripture. Now by so doing, we are worshipping idols. We are worshipping something in our mind alright that we have imagined, that we have thought out. But that is your God. The prophet Isaiah says we don’t want to worship your God. Behold our God.

This is our God. Our God is a God revealed in the Holy Bible. Our God is a good God, merciful God. But our God is also a holy God, a just God, also a God of righteousness. Yes, He’s a God of mercy; He is also a God of wrath. You see, when we worship God based on what we want Him to be rather than what He actually is as revealed in the Bible, then we are breaking the second commandment. We are worshipping idols because modern idols you know, we have to beware of both modern idols as well as mental idols alright. 

If this is true alright- if this is true; if true worship is to worship God as He actually is, now I want to ask you: What is the practical implication of that? If true worship is to worship God as He actually is, what is the practical implication? In other words, how then can we know what He actually is? Now turn with me to this final passage here in Deuteronomy alright. Now here is what Moses said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy chapter 4.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, beginning in verse 11- in verse 11. And Moses said this: “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.”. Verse 12: “Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. (Now listen here, he said) You heard the sound of the words, but you saw nothing”. You heard, but you saw nothing. “You only heard a voice”.

Verse 15: “Now take careful heed to yourselves, for (you saw nothing). You saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: in the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.”.

And verse 35- verse 35: “To you (Moses said) it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; and that there is none other besides.”. Verse 36: “For out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.”. Now, what is being underscored in this passage here, in this chapter here?

Now it is this: Moses is telling the people this is how, this is what true worship is about. True worship is about true knowledge of God. But how can you have true knowledge? How can you know God? He’s telling these people you saw nothing, you only heard. You only heard. It’s like emphasis here about hearing. You see we live in a very visual age. Images are used in every field- in business, in school, in politics, but the image of God is not in arts, in pictures. The image of God is in the Word of God.

You want to see God? There’s so many people who claimed I want to see God. You want to see God? Here it is. That’s what Moses said. You heard but you saw nothing, but that’s how you will know this true and living God. In other words, that is how God tells us how He wants to be worshipped. It’s to come and listen, not to look. Come and listen but not to look.

Or you might remember just now when we were reading from Acts 17 when Paul was telling those philosophers who had these many man-made objects to worship God. And Paul tells them: The God you do not know, Him I proclaim. Him I proclaim. Paul is saying: Oh, you have created all the false art about God, let me now create a true art of God.

We are not here to come and create a true art of God now in competition with many arts of God created out there. We’re here to proclaim Him who has been revealed in His Holy Word. True worship- true worship is by having true knowledge of God, and true knowledge comes from the hearing of the Word of God. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we bow before You this morning and we have come, O Lord, to see something of what worship ought to be. Lord, it is indeed to know You. It’s about knowing the God revealed in the Holy Scripture. And help us O Lord this morning to have another glimpse of that glorious God and to behold Him and to see that He is indeed such a wonderful God and an amazing God. There’s nothing- there’s nothing that we can create that could represent You. So Lord, help us. Help us to come to the true knowledge of God by coming to Your Word, for we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.