A God who Speaks: The Second Commandment

There has been a mild, a minor controversy, a mild and minor controversy in St. Albans

for the last several months.

And it's mild and minor because most of you probably have no idea what I'm going to say

that it is.

But for a few people it's been a controversy and I've had to field a few phone calls and

a few conversations.

Those of you who aren't guests and who have come to this church for several months or

more might remember that behind me, right here, there used to be a statue of St. Albans.

And it's not there now.

And it hasn't been there for several months.

And this has caused, as I said, a minor controversy for some in St. Albans.

I don't think anybody has left the church over it or anything.

But I had never really intended to speak about it from the front.

But the second commandment or the second word, which is what we're going to look at today,

as soon as I read it on Monday, because I always start my sermon preparations on Monday by reading

the text and starting to really think about it, instantly I realized that I'd have to talk

about the statue because it's gone around in some segments of the congregation.

The reason that I removed the statue is because I thought that it was an idol, which isn't

the case.

I don't think there was anybody in St. Albans that was worshipping the statue.

In case I'm wrong, if you were doing that, you should stop, okay?

But I don't think anybody was doing that.

But this text this morning, given that it talks about idolatry and idolatry in worship, later

on in the sermon, I am going to share precisely why it was that I removed the statue.

But in general, as we start to meditate and think about this temptation, or not this temptation,

as we start to think about this second commandment, I'd just like to warn all of us about a very

particular and powerful temptation that happens whenever we read the Bible.

And the great temptation is that we always think that the Bible applies for somebody else.

We may be even cheer, inwardly cheer, when we read parts of the Bible which seem to show

why other people are wrong.

And if that becomes a habit within us, it is a very, very great sin.

And even when it happens to us occasionally, it is a very, very great sin.

As we are warned by the words of Jesus, we are to come under God's word, willing and asking

God's Holy Spirit to move on our lives so that we might hear God's word to us.

And sometimes, to our horror, God's word speaks to us in such a way that we realize

that we might have to make very substantial changes in our life.

And so the question is, some of the people who talked to me about the statue and whether

in fact I was doing it out of reasons of idolatry, they said, for instance, that the

very same reasons for having the statue are the same reasons that we have the stained

glass windows in the church, which I happen to think in most cases are very beautiful.

But the question would be is this, is as we read these Ten Commandments, let's say that

as we read the Second Commandment, we come under conviction by God that he is telling us

that we should not have something like stained glass windows.

Are we willing to try to obey?

I mean, that's a very, very important question.

It's easy to desire to obey when it's something trivial.

It's easy to think, yes, I can obey when it's something that I already want to obey.

It's always a great challenge to us when the word of God speaks about something that actually,

God, to be honest with you, we really quite like doing this.

And it's going to greatly inconvenience my life if I have to change.

That's always the test of obedience.

So I invite you to take your pew Bibles or your own Bibles, those of you who brought your own Bibles from home.

And Jill very wonderfully read the Ten Commandments as found in Deuteronomy.

We're going to look at it in Exodus.

So if you're using the pew Bibles, please turn with me to page 65.

And the second commandment or the second word, those of you who are guests this summer,

where last Sunday we began a summer-long series on the Ten Commandments,

each Sunday looking upon a new commandment every week.

And so this week it's the second commandment.

And the Ten Commandments are found in two places in the Bible, Exodus and Deuteronomy.

They are virtually identical.

In this particular case, it is word-for-word identical, the Exodus reading and the Deuteronomy reading.

But I'm just using the Exodus reading so you've become familiar with it,

and also because it's all on one page.

But page 65, and let's listen as once again we hear the second word.

Begins at verse 4 and goes to verse 6.

You shall not make for yourself any 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.

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,

visiting the iniquity of the fathers on 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.

And as I did last week, every time I read this, I'm going to say what the prayer book teaches me to say.

Lord, have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law.

And if you want to join with me when I say that,

Lord, have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law,

feel completely and utterly free to do that.

The first thing that we see about this commandment or this word from God

is that we are to live and worship by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Some of you might be really good with your Bible.

And as soon as I say that summary statement, it might sound a little bit familiar to you.

In fact, you might even recognize it as being the response that Jesus gives

when he's tempted in the wilderness by the devil.

If you go back later on in reading your Bibles,

in Matthew chapter 4, after Jesus has been baptized by John the Baptist,

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

the Holy Spirit drives him into the wilderness.

And in being driven into the wilderness, he spends 40 days in fasting and prayer.

And towards the end of that 40 days of fasting and prayer,

the devil comes to Jesus,

and there is, in a sense, a spiritual struggle between Jesus and the devil.

And the first temptation which the devil gives to Jesus is,

knowing that Jesus is hungry, the devil, in effect, says to Jesus,

Jesus, you have the power to deal with your hunger.

You can turn these stones into bread.

And Jesus' response is to quote Deuteronomy chapter 8 back to the devil.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

And he says,

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And Jesus here is speaking a fundamental spiritual principle,

that we do not live by bread alone, or in a sense, by liturgy alone, or by singing alone.

We live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And this general spiritual principle is at the root of this second commandment.

The first commandment commanded us that we are to have no other gods,

that we are to be loyal to God alone.

The first commandment, in a sense, is very similar to what happens in a marriage service.

In about, I don't know, how many weeks is it?

Are Patrick and Crystal in five weeks or something like that?

We're going to do a wedding ceremony for Patrick and Crystal.

And they're going to stand right there.

And they are going to promise to me, representing, in a sense, God and the state and their family and everybody else,

that they will forsake all others and cleave only on to the other.

And then they will exchange solemn vows, saying right there in that spot,

they will turn and face each other.

And they will say, Patrick will say that he forsakes everyone other than Crystal.

I don't know if there's three billion women on the planet.

He's saying, I'm forsaking two billion, 999 million, 999,999, and it's only you, Crystal.

And then Crystal is going to say the very same thing about Patrick.

And that, in a sense, is what the first of the commandments is calling us to do.

Because the Ten Commandments are actually the key to Israel and all people who are Christ's.

It is the principle of a covenant with God.

And so it begins by saying, we, in a sense, are invited to say to God,

God, I will have no other God but you.

No matter how many gods people think there are,

no matter how many people claim to be gods or try to take the place of God in my life,

I will be loyal and I will cleave and obey and only be yours and no other.

And the second commandment, then, is not, in a sense, duplicating the first.

The second commandment is really answering the question, how do we worship?

How do we worship?

How do we worship the only God whom we are to be solely and exclusively loyal to?

That we are to give not even the vaguest hint that we are loyal to any other God.

That we are called by God to know Him alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone.

That's the New Testament that teaches us how we come to know God.

But God is to be alone in our affections as God.

And how are we to worship, given that this is whom we are called to know?

The second word teaches us that God is spiritual, that He is non-physical,

that He is personal, and that He speaks.

And here's the key, that God is self-revealing.

That God is self-revealing.

That it's not, in a sense, a matter that, you know, to know God,

I sort of give 50% and God gives 50%, or I give 100% because I'm a seeker,

and God just is sort of waiting around for me to find Him.

The fact of the matter is that the Scripture time and time and time tells us

that God is seeking us, that He desires us to be His children and His people,

and that the primary posture and the primary call upon our lives is, in a sense,

finally be still and turn and face Him, and in a sense, you know, let Him come into our lives.

Let Jesus be the Savior and the Lord of our life.

And so the text of Scripture here is emphasizing that God is self-revealing,

and that He reveals Himself through His Word.

The heart of worship is to know God.

By being open to His Word, Jesus, we know that as New Testament people,

but not only to be open to His Word, but also to be open to the Word of God,

to fill ourselves with His Word, to fill our minds and our hearts and our wills,

to fill our souls, our very person, with His Word, and to learn to obey.

Jesus, in John 14, verse 15, says,

John 14:15

If you love me, keep my commands.

You know, in a sense, with an idol, we can serve an idol, but you can't obey an idol.

Obedience involves words, and love always involves obedience.

Love always involves obedience.

There is no love without obedience.

And there can be obedience without love,

but there is no true love without a willingness to obey the Word and the will of the other to whom we love.

So, in a sense, the first commandment describes what our chief end is.

The Westminster Confession, originally designed by Anglicans,

although mainly used by non-Anglicans nowadays,

says that the human being's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

And that's, in a sense, expressing the first commandment.

And the second is describing the key means to that end,

that we are to trust in God's self-revealing power

by being completely and utterly open to His Word.

And by being open to His words,

we are to see that this commandment tells us that all images,

the use of images in worship, are forbidden.

The second commandment is not about alternate gods,

but about us trying to worship the true God

by the ways that we want to worship Him.

In this particular case, in particular, by trying to draw an image of God.

And the commandment warns us that by trying to worship the true God

according to our own means and our own power

leads us to idolatry and a hatred of God.

It's a very, very strong word of command.

Now, here the question is,

are we willing to meditate upon the second commandment?

Are we willing to let it form us

every time we think about a new change in church architecture,

every time we think about a change in worship?

Are we willing to meditate upon this second word from God?

Are we willing to have it be so deeply part of our life

that we're even aware of it

when it comes time to think about worship?

Now, this gets me very briefly as an aside about the statue.

Most Christians acknowledge that when it comes to worship,

the incarnation changes things.

In other words, as part of God's self-revealing power,

not only has God revealed the Word of God

and spoken the Word of God,

but that God sent the Word

and the Word was made flesh

and walked amongst us in the words of John 1, verse 1.

John 1:1

The Word became flesh

and walked amongst us, dwelt amongst us.

And that Jesus is the perfect revelation of God.

He is the one who narrates God and interprets God.

He is the one that not only reveals God,

but opens truly for us human beings the door to heaven

so that we can actually come into God's presence

and become His adopted children by grace.

And so Christians throughout the ages

have differed a little bit

about how the incarnation relates to the second commandment.

I think that it's completely acceptable

in Sunday school material

to have pictures of Jesus

and pictures of Bible stories.

I think it's completely acceptable in a church

to have a window like we have at the front of our church,

which in a sense is only pointing to Jesus,

whom you can see,

could have seen if we were able to go back in time,

we'd be able to see Jesus,

and points us to the biblical testimony

and the biblical witness

and the great act of salvation

which Jesus won for us.

I think it's completely acceptable

to have pictures like that

that completely and utterly focus us

and in a sense serve the Word of God

by helping us to think about the Word of God

and be led by the Word of God

to God's saving act in the person of Jesus Christ.

The statue was removed

not because I thought that it was an idol

and not because I thought

that there's anything wrong

with occasionally drawing

or representing some saint

or some Christian

who'd lived a noteworthy life

as a way of reminding us of their life.

I'm not a huge fan of biography,

but I'm a small fan of biography,

and the autobiography of C.S. Lewis

has been a powerful thing in my life.

I loved to read the biography of Simeon.

I've loved to read the biography of John Stott,

and biographies can be a powerful means

by which we can be drawn close to Christ,

and from that I don't inherently see anything wrong

with drawing pictures of these people.

The statue, just so you know,

of St. Albans was removed

because of our vision statement.

And in our vision statement,

by an overwhelming majority,

we said that we believe

that God is calling us

to be an evangelical Anglican church,

which evangelizes,

and on and on and on and on.

That's what we said,

that we see God calling us to be.

In a sense, it could be,

and it should be,

that St. Albans will be

an evangelical Anglican church

which believes the Bible,

which evangelizes,

which builds community,

which worships in traditional

and contemporary forms,

and on and on.

It's at the very, very front

of your bulletin.

So throughout the years,

I've had a variety of complaints

about the statue,

but I have felt uncomfortable

in removing it

in terms of any type of authority

that I have.

But I can say this about the statue.

First of all,

statues are very, very rare

in Anglican churches.

And that's because Anglican churches

are originally a creature

of the English Reformation.

In other words,

being reformed by the teaching of Calvin

and by the other early English reformers.

Statues in a church,

an Anglican church,

tends to communicate to people

who come in

that it's an Anglo-Catholic church.

Well, how can we have it?

It almost be like having a big sign

at the front of the church

that says,

we are an Anglo-Catholic church,

while our vision statement says

we're an evangelical Anglican church.

That type of inconsistency

has to be dealt with.

And thirdly,

why is it that virtually no,

in fact, I would say no,

reformed church

ever has a statue in it?

And that's because historically,

churches with statues in them

are churches that believe

in praying to the saints.

That's just historically the case.

And so to see a statue in a church

implies that this is a church

which believes in praying to the saints

and asking for the saints

to intercede for us.

And, I mean,

I don't think necessarily anybody

in St. Albans was doing any of this,

but that's what the statue communicates,

that we are a church that believes this.

And so my hope is

that the statue can have,

I mean,

I think it's appropriate for us

to remember our past,

to remember that our past

is sometimes very different

than the present

and to have ways of remembering

and honoring that.

And I think there should be

some place like that

for St. Albans

as we remember

the heritage of this church.

But it seems to me,

apart from the Second Commandment,

although from the Second Commandment

we could maybe have

discussions about that as well,

that it was appropriate

to remove the statue

because of our vision statement.

So for those of you who are wondering,

no, I didn't think it was an idol.

And I didn't think

that it had to be removed

because people were worshipping it.

But I do think

it had to be removed

because of our vision statement.

And the Second Commandment

would also require

sober second thought

and conversation around it.

About the windows,

you know, once again,

you know,

the question is always,

if in fact,

every time from now on

we consider a change in the church,

every time we consider

a change in worship,

it's really appropriate

for people to say,

George, how does this fit in

with the Second Commandment?

And for us to get on our knees

and pray

and ask that God,

that everything that we do

is in keeping

with what God desires us

because this scripture,

this word from God

is telling us

that God,

that we are to live

and worship

by every word

that proceeds

from the mouth of God.

That's how we are to live.

We are to live

and worship

by every word

that proceeds

from the mouth of God

because God

is a self-revealing God

who reveals himself

as he speaks to us

and he invites us

to hear his word

and obey.

Lord, have mercy upon us

and incline our hearts

to keep this law.

Very briefly,

just a couple of final things

because I don't want

to make you think

that I'm sort of,

that I'm ignoring

the other parts

of this word.

It has not only

a prohibition

about images

used in worshiping God

but has some very powerful things

to say about God.

Just read with me,

I'm going to read again

the full second word

or second commandment.

You shall not make

for yourself

any 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 shall you serve them.

For I, the Lord your God,

am a jealous God,

visiting the iniquity

of the fathers

on 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.

Lord, have mercy upon us

and incline our hearts

to keep this law.

Very briefly,

this commandment

tells us

of the deep,

deep love

of God

towards his people.

That's why the word

jealousy is there.

It tells us

of the deep,

deep love

of God

to his people.

We are called

to a person,

not a law.

We are called

to a person,

not a principle.

We are called

to a person,

not an abstraction.

We are called

to a person

and not

an inexorable

and unstoppable

process.

We are called

to a person,

the person

of almighty God

and this God

who truly

does exist

has a deep,

deep love

of his people

and he calls us

into a covenant

with him.

And jealousy

in this text

points

to proper love.

You know,

maybe some of us

have met people

who have a problem

with jealousy.

They imagine

slights to love.

They just imagine

them constantly

and often

when we hear

the word jealousy,

we instantly think

of people

who have a problem

with imagining

slights to love

that don't exist

and people

who by imagining

slights to love

don't exist

fly off the handle

and one of the things

that the devil does

to in a sense

pervert us

from hearing God's word

is to instantly think

of such a bad example.

But there's in fact

a godly jealousy.

My kids don't always

know this

but my wife and I

and my wife

is the real guardian

of this.

We worry

sometimes about

who the kids

will be starting

to have as friends.

You know,

we see that they want

to start to be friends

with a certain person

and we, you know,

Louise and I

will start to notice it

and we talk about it

and, you know,

it'll be part of her prayers

and my prayers

because, you know,

we only want our children

to have friends

that are going

to be good for them.

You know,

we don't want them

to have friends

that are going

to lead them astray,

lead them into evil,

lead them into danger

and if we started

to sense

that they were developing

friendships

or attachments

that would lead them,

you know,

into evil

or lead them

into great trouble

or distress,

we would be jealous

in a sense

for the children.

We would be passionate

for our children.

We would be thinking

about all that we could

possibly do

to steer them away

from such a bad friendship

and lead them

to that friendship

and relationship

which will only build them up

and will only be good

for them.

And so,

the jealousy language

here in this prayer,

in this commandment,

is expressing God's

deep love

towards his children

and the way he feels

when he sees

and what he thinks

when he sees us

engaging in practices

that if they reach

their proper conclusion

will lead us

to hate him.

And God,

because he loves us

deeply,

is jealous

for us,

desiring

that we will only

cleave to him

and that we will

forswear

and abandon

anything

that would lead us

to turn our back

on God.

Once again,

you shall not

make for yourself

any 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.

Lord,

have mercy upon us

and incline our hearts

to keep this law.

This text as well

invites us

to understand

that we are not doomed,

that today

can be the day

that you enter

a new destiny

and legacy.

You know,

when I was,

it's,

listen again

to this sort of

troublesome language

for many people.

The end of verse 5

and 6,

visiting the iniquity

of the fathers

on 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.

You know,

when I was young,

when I was 20,

I'm approaching 50.

When I was young,

it was impossible

for me to even imagine

that some of my decisions

could have consequences

for generations.

Now that I'm approaching 50,

and you know what,

sometimes parents

can do things

and it affects

the children

and the grandchildren

and the great-grandchildren.

We can make decisions

when we are young people

and old people

that have a consequence

that goes on,

literally echoes

into time

for a considerable

length of time.

And that's just

the way the world is.

many of us struggle

with parents

who are alcoholics

and can maybe even point

to parents

who are alcoholics,

grandparents

who are alcoholics,

great-grandparents

of alcoholics.

Many of us struggle

with the issue

of sexual abuse

or just real sexual fallenness

in our past.

Many of us struggle

with the enduring consequences

of maybe parents

or grandparents

who have been involved

in the occult.

And I could just tell you

that it's a regular feature

of counseling

to deal with people

who are dealing

with generational issues.

The fact of the matter

is that evil

can echo on

in our lives.

And this text of Scripture

is not in a sense

telling us of something

that God is going to

in a sense

inflict upon us.

It is just describing

the real consequence

of us choosing evil.

But the wonderful thing

about this text,

the text,

the commandment

doesn't tell us this

so that we can feel

inevitably doomed.

It doesn't tell us this

so we can say,

oh no,

my parents were raging alcoholics

and therefore not only

am I doomed,

but my children are doomed

and potentially even

my grandchildren are doomed.

The text is not telling us

that we are doomed.

The text is telling us

that we deal with a God

who loves us

and that we can choose

to enter into covenant

with the God

who loves us,

to worship him

and know him

in such a way

that our destiny

is not harm

for future generations,

but that our destiny

is by that obeying him

and loving him

that literally

thousands of generations

will be blessed.

It is in a sense

setting before us

the seriousness

of our choices

and the possibility

of entering into

a covenant with God

and learning to obey

his word

so that literally,

literally,

thousands of generations

after us

can be blessed.

The text

not only talks to us

about forgiveness,

but tells us

about providence

and of hope.

It says to us

that even if we come here

and maybe we are

80 years old

and our lives

have been lives

of, in a sense,

being outside

of a covenant

and a relationship

with God

and maybe we have made

a huge mess

of our lives

and with our families.

Maybe we come here

as single people

without any children.

The text actually

has no definite articles

of the father

and of the son.

It's just basically

talking about this

process of continuing on

and the text tells us

that even now

at this point in time

no matter what we have

done with our lives

and what we have made

with our lives

or whether we have

any physical generation

that comes after us

or not

is that we have

an invitation

from Almighty God

that we can come

into a relationship

of love and obedience

with him

and that as we enter

into this relationship

of love and obedience

with him

and try to be faithful

that God can give us

an enduring legacy

that will stretch

to a thousand generations.

Many of you have heard

of the power

of a woman

by the name of Diane

in my life

who was,

you know,

when I met her

just towards the last year

and a year and a half

of her life

she was in

St. Vincent's Hospital.

She was completely

and utterly bedridden.

The disease

that afflicted her

had so removed

her power of speech

and movement

that I could only

understand every second word

and I had to go

to visit her

and the first few times

I visited her

I was terrified

of going to visit her

and then I started

to realize

that I was going

to visit her

not so I could

minister to her

but so she could

minister healing to me.

And this precious one

who had come to faith

in Jesus Christ

in a sense

her faithfulness

and her witness

and her prayers

without any children

so to speak

can have a power

over my life

and by me sharing

this with you

with other lives

it just goes on

and on and on.

I think of the power

of Hugh

in my life

that when I met Hugh

he was a grumpy guy

in many ways.

He was an angular

and cantankerous guy

but he'd spent

50 years on the street

50 years

as a street person

before he came to faith

in Jesus Christ

and for the first

couple of years

I came to church

every Sunday

he'd be at the back pew

right where John O's sitting

and he was just

this strong guy

who would pray for me

and he taught me

so much about

how to minister

to the poor

and how to deal

with certain things

and he has no

physical children

that could be passed

on any type of legacy

but his faithfulness

his faithfulness

can have

an effect

that goes

from generation

to generation

to generation

to generation

and so even

in the midst

of this second commandment

what God is saying

to you and me

is this

failure isn't final

doom isn't final

a legacy

of whatever

we've done

with our lives

if we've done things

that have been

unbelievably horrible

in our lives

that does not

have to be

the final word

about you

and the final word

about me

there is a God

who loves you

there is a God

who loves me

he wants us

to come into

a relationship

with him

and when we say

yes to that

relationship

and learn to obey

even if we do this

at a late date

in our lives

the legacy

that can flow

in our lives

and the lives

of others

can flow

for a thousand

generations

so there is

no better time

than today

to choose

to know God

through the person

of Jesus Christ

let's bow our heads

in prayer

father we give you

thanks and praise

that you are not

the God

of a second chance

you are the God

of unending chances

we give you

thanks and praise

that you are a God

who loves us

unfailingly

and unstoppably

we give you

thanks and praise

that no matter

what we have done

in our lives

that you desire

to have us

as your children

as your child

as your precious

possession

and treasure

we give you

thanks and praise

father

that we can

get off the path

of three or four

generations

of echoing evil

and that by faith

in Christ

and in obedience

to your word

and command

we can enter

a legacy

that will lead

to blessing

for a thousand

generations

we acknowledge

before you father

that it is not

because of our power

or our righteousness

that such a thing

can happen

but purely

because of your providence

purely because

of your power

loving father

we ask that you

would help us

to come to you

through your son

Jesus Christ

help us to be

open to your word

and teach us

to love

and to obey

your commandments

in Jesus' name

we pray

amen