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Sermon preached on Deuteronomy 5:8-15 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/06/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
We continue our short survey of the Ten Commandments by considering today the second, third, and fourth commandments. Last time we considered the first commandment which called us to acknowledge the one true God of the Bible as our only God. These next three commands then delve further into our duty toward God. In the second, we learn about how we are to worship God by learning how not to worship via idolatry. In the third, we learn about the reverence we should have for God in the prohibition of using his name in vain. In the fourth, we learn about setting aside a day each week as a holy day of rest and worship.
Let us begin with the second commandment in verses 8 through 10. We are not to make an idol, let alone to worship it. This commandment has two parts to it: we are not construct an idol, and we are not to worship that idol which you construct. As for part one, an idol is physical, visible representation of deity. Idols come in various forms, most typically some carved image that could be made from various materials including stone, clay, wood, and metal. Idols often would be made in the form of various figures, such as depicting land animals, fish, celestial bodies, angelic creatures, and beyond. Verse 8 explains that no matter what your idol pictures, it is wrong. As for part two of this command, the common reason people made these idols was to worship through them. Offering sacrifices and prayers to them is especially common. People generally assign a deep connection between the idol and the god it represented, some believing the god somehow inhabited that idol as a local embodiment of the deity. So, it would be common for people’s devotion to that idol to treat it as divine because many people believed it was in fact divine. But when the command forbids bowing to or serving of the idol, it is using worship language to say that we should not in any way worship an idol.
Let us appreciate how counter-cultural this second commandment would have been back then and there. Idolatry was how people worshipped their gods back in the ancient Near East. But the false worship of the pagan culture was not to be the standard for how the one true God was to be worshipped. God regulates his worship.
With that statement, let me clarify that the second commandment is not really about prohibiting the worship of other false gods via idols. That’s covered in the first commandment. The second commandment is prohibiting worship of even the one true God through idols. This was Israel’s sin at the golden calf incident in Exodus at Mt. Sinai. Aaron made them a golden calf and identified it as the one true God, the God that brought them out of the land of Egypt. Likewise, later on in 1 Kings when King Jeroboam setup golden calves in Bethel and Dan, they were intended as idols that represented the one true God, the God of Israel. These were all explicit violations of the second commandment.
So then, the second commandment teaches us these two related things. God does not want to be represented by an image, nor worshipped through an image. Verse 10 give a reason, that God is a jealous God. This jealous disposition is a righteous thing. For God to be jealous is to demand our faithful adoration unto him as God, instead of us unrighteously giving that devotion to another. No one deserves such adoration except God. It is righteous to give God all worship and it is evil to give that worship to another. This helps explain why God forbids idols. We already said that the second commandment is not talking about worshipping other gods, since that is addressed in the first commandment. But you see, when you try to worship the one true God with a visible image, you aren’t really worshipping the one true God. That’s because you can’t possibly worship the one true God through an image. God is a spirit and does not have a body like men. Or like a calf. Or like a sun or a moon. Or like a fish. Or like anything else. No physical picture and no visible image can actually represent God. The moment you try, you have irreverently insulted our rightfully jealous God. Instead, God who is spirit wants worshippers who will worship him in spirit and in truth.
I will give you two applications from this second commandment. First, don’t make any physical representations of God. That includes statues, drawings, jewelry, t-shirts, videos, dramas, or anything else that would visibly image God. Certainly, we don’t worship those things, but let us not even make them for any purpose. We don’t want to be wiser than God! This would include images of any of the persons of the Godhead, including Jesus in his human form.
A second application is that this commandment implies that God will tell us how he does and does not want to be worshipped. We refer to this as the regulative principle of worship. We are only to worship God the way he tells us. Unlike in other areas of life where we may have freedom to be creative, that is not the case when it comes to worship. We are to only worship God the way he tells us in the Bible. People sometimes falsely say God won’t turn away any worship that is done from the heart. That is a sentimental thought, but not a biblical one. Yes, we can be forgiven of wrong worship in Christ, but we should still pursue proper worship, worship in truth, in the way he commands us.
In closing on the second commandment, let us then see how this finds fulfillment in Christ. Christ is the perfect image of God. While we don’t see him physically right now, he is the way we can “see” the one true God, by faith. And when he returns, we will literally see God in the flesh when we behold Jesus.
Let us now turn to the third commandment. Verse 11, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” This command teaches us to show reverence to the LORD, to everything associated with him. The most immediate sense that is used here has to do with oaths and vows taken in God’s name. If you swear by God’s name, you are calling upon God to hold you accountable if you are not true to what you swear. If you swear by his name, but do not keep that, then you have used his name in vain. That is why it goes on to explain that God will not hold you guiltless if you so take his name in vain. For example, if you take an oath in God’s name in a court room to tell the truth, and then you lie, you’ve not only lied to men, but you’ve taken God’s name in vain and are all the more guilty because of such a great sin.
Now, while that is the most immediate sense of the words here, clearly there is a broader sense implied that speaks to the reverence for God that we should have in general. When speaking here of God’s name, let us appreciate that the idea of a name in Scripture stands as a placeholder for the whole person. One’s name is their reputation and is used synonymous with the person as a whole. As the Westminster Larger Catechism explains, this reference to his name embodies all of God and everything connected with him. So, we must show full reverence to God’s titles and attributes. We must show reverence to the ordinances God has established for his worship. We must show full reverence to the means of God’s grace he has given his people, including the word, sacraments and prayer. We should treat with full reverence what historical working God has done, as we learn about in Scripture. Anything and everything we have revealed of God demands our full reverence. Everything God is and does is bound up in his name.
To further explain this, let me define the word “vain”. This word means empty, worthless, pointless, and without import or value. For example, if you are lost in the woods, and no one is around for 50 miles to help you, and you shout for help, we would say that you are shouting in vain. Your shouting is of no value, it is worthless, because no one will hear you. It is vanity to shout as such. The third commandment says to not do that with God. Whenever you invoke the name of God, you should be giving his name its full worth, meaning, and significance. You should show the greatest reverence and respect in full sincerity. Since God deserves all glory, honor, submission, and praise, that is how we must treat him and his things.
Let me give you some examples to help you grasp and apply this. If someone stubs their toe and yells out “Jesus Christ” as an interjection of frustration, they have used God’s name in vain, because they threw it around as a slur – it’s not like they were praying to Jesus when they said that. When someone is offended by someone, and they say, “God damn you,” or, “Go to hell,” they are using God’s name in vain because they surely are not really meaning to condemn someone to the eternal damnation of hell where the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies. Non-Christians certainly do these things a lot.
But Christians also need to be on guard against breaking this commandment because we are surely making use of God’s name and the things of God more than the world. When we go to church, are we truly engaging in the singing from our hearts, or are we mindlessly singing in vain. Do you daydream at corporate prayer and say a hearty amen at the end, praying in vain? Do we approach the Lord’s Supper without properly examining ourselves and also discerning the Lord’s presence? It is very good for Christians to frequently invoke God’s name and speak of his things. But let us not do it in vain, by not revering God from the heart.
In closing on the third commandment, let us then see how this finds fulfillment in Christ. Remember at the Triumphal Entry, they rightly said Jesus is he who has come in the name of the LORD. The name of Jesus has been given to us as the very name of God. There is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved, except Jesus (Acts 4:12). We preach, pray, and baptize in Jesus name. Let us reverence God in and through our relationship with Jesus.
Let us turn now to the fourth commandment. Verse 12, “Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” We are reminded of the God instituted pattern at creation of six days of work paired with one day of rest. In our Genesis series, I pointed out that this is a creation ordinance. Before Christ, God’s people observed this on Saturday, the last day of the week, commemorating God’s work of creation. After Christ’s resurrection, God’s people began to observe it on Sunday, the first day of the week, to commemorate Christ’s resurrection and the new creation that he brings us into. That is clearly the pattern we see established by the apostles in the New Testament. God’s people now observe the weekly Sabbath on the Lord’s Day.
Let us appreciate that there is a reason given here for why we should observe the Sabbath in verse 15. It’s because God redeemed them out of Egyptian slavery. Now you might say, we as a Christian were never slaves in Egypt. True. But neither were the later generations of Israelites who kept this commandment in the Promised Land. But they did enjoy the freedom of life in the Promised Land because of it. Apply that to the New Covenant. Here is a very clear analogy the redemption God’s people now have in Christ Jesus. We were slaves to sin and death and God brought us out of that by the power of the cross of Christ. We too then have been redeemed by God’s might and power even as he raised Jesus from the dead for our salvation. We now live in the liberty of being set free from sin and death and with the hope of the coming resurrection life. So, if Israel had a good reason to keep this commandment after the Egyptian redemption, we have all the more reason to keep this after our redemption in Jesus. This is how we can also see fulfillment of this command in Jesus. Jesus has redeemed us God’s people so that we can enjoy the liberty of the age to come in the eternal Promised Land. While we live here and now, we observe a weekly holy day as we look forward to that eternal rest that awaits us at Christ’s return.
Now some would say Christians are no longer obligated to observe this fourth commandment. Ironically, some might advocate for the Ten Commandments yet really only want to keep nine of them. But the reformed have always affirmed that all ten are an abiding summary of God’s moral law. Indeed, from the start of the new covenant worship we see God’s people gathering together and worshipping on the Lord’s Day. For those who would want to abrogate the day, they point to two passages by Paul, Romans 14:5 and Colossians 2:16. There Paul calls for charity towards differing convictions among Christians with regard to observing certain days. But Paul there is dealing with the larger Jewish old covenant calendar that had various feasts, new moons, and sabbath observances throughout the year. You could imagine that in those early days of the new covenant that you had Jews and Gentiles coming together in Christ, and surely many Jewish Christians still celebrated those various holy days throughout the year from the old covenant, even while surely many Gentiles Christians did not. Paul called for charity in that, at least to a degree. For in Galatians 4 he speaks more strongly to say that if the Judaizers required keeping that extensive Jewish calendar in order to be saved, then they were stumbling over the law as if they could be justified by works. But do you notice how that extensive set of calendar days is not mentioned in the Ten Commandments? That is because they are two different things. Christians aren’t commanded to keep that old covenant religious calendar as that was ceremonial law fulfilled in Christ Jesus. But that is a separate discussion from whether God calls us to have one day in seven as holy unto the Lord. According to Ten Commandments, the answer is yes. And the pattern set forth in the New Testament of worship on the Lord’s Day, agrees.
So then, let us notice the particulars of this commandment. First, notice with me that it is a day. It is not the Sabbath hour or two. It is the Sabbath day. Let us honor the whole day. Second, notice that is for rest from our normal work. We normally work all week long, but this is a day to take a break and find rest. Third, that has an application to people who are heads of households and businesses to give their people under them rest, as verse 14 describes. I could imagine the Egyptian taskmasters didn’t give Israel a lot of time to rest. Fourth, and very important, notice that verse 12 says it is a holy day. One day in seven we set apart as special to the LORD. This is why it is not just a day to rest, but it especially a day of worship. Fifth, unique to Deuteronomy’s retelling of this command, it says it is something to observe. Observe the Sabbath day. It won’t keep itself, so to speak. We need to order our days so that we are observing this as day unto the Lord. That includes gathering together with God’s people at church, but also keeping the rest of the day holy, even if you are back at home.
Let me offer then several quick applications from the fourth commandment due to common struggles people have with this. Let us prioritize observing the Lord’s Day instead of allowing other good things to come first. Let us plan ahead to minimize works of necessity and mercy on the Lord’s Day. Let us not neglect corporate worship, as it should really be only exceptional circumstances that would make you miss church. Let us not think we could pick any day of the week to be our own personal Sabbath day, for Scripture has established the Lord’s Day so we can observe this as a church. Let us not think it legalistic to keep this commandment, just as we wouldn’t say it is legalistic to seek to not murder or not commit adultery. Let us see devotion to this day is a blessed thing and not a chore.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, I pray that these three commandments today have been a helpful reminder of some of our duty toward God. Let us be people who worship God, revere him, and rest in him. Let us seek to do this not in order to be right with God, but out of great gratitude for how he has made us right with him in Jesus Christ. Indeed, how wonderful that we can know such worship, reverence, and rest, because we are in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Copyright © 2024 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
