2nd Commandment — Law Homily

Now, this week, as we do come before the law of God for our reading of the law and confession of sin, we're in the second commandment, and that being from Exodus 20, verses four through six.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 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.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous

God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Now, the second commandment is often narrowly understood as a prohibition against idolatry, against making graven images and bowing down to them.

And indeed, this is its most obvious application. But the Westminster Larger Catechism in question 108 helps us to see that this commandment reaches much further than we might initially think.

It speaks not only to what we are forbidden to do, but also to what we are required to do in the worship and government of God's church.

The catechism asks, what are their duties required in the second commandment? And among the answers given, we find this, the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship and according to each one's place and calling, removing it in all the monuments of idolatry.

We notice the phrase, according to each one's own place and calling. And this is crucial, right?

The second commandment does not only bind individual believers in their private devotion, but it also binds, for example, our government to oppose false religions and worship in our society according to their place and calling.

To stand against the invading heathen who would undermine a Christian people and religion, to enact laws where possible that promote the true religion and leave no allowance for false worship.

In their obedience to God, our government must, as the psalmist says to earthly kings in Psalm 2, kiss ye the sun, lest ye be angry and he destroy you along the way.

And so we have obligation personally and societally to labor for, vote for, call for the right worship of God and the tearing down of idols that would take away from that.

What's more, this doesn't only apply to us as individuals or to our civil magistrate, but also to the church corporately, and especially those who hold office in the church.

But even each of us, according to our own station, again, is to maintain the purity of worship and exercise faithful discipline within the church of Jesus Christ.

And so we'll focus there for a moment here. God is a jealous God. He will not share his glory with another.

He will not tolerate the corruption of his worship. And he has entrusted to his church, through her officers, the responsibility of guarding that worship.

This is not a secondary matter. It's not a mere administrative detail. It's not a matter of obedience, or excuse me, it is a matter of obedience to the second commandment.

To fail in this duty is to fail in our covenantal obligation to our God. In Matthew 16, 19,

Jesus says to Peter, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

This authority, the keys of the kingdom, is given to the church through her officers. It is jurisdiction, which essentially means to speak justice, right?

It's the authority to speak justice on kingdom matters, to admit people to the sacraments, to exclude people from them as needed, to affirm true worship, and to condemn false worship.

As Article 29 of the Belgic Confession of Faith says regarding the true church, the church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel.

It makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them, and it practices church discipline for correcting faults.

In short, it governs itself according to the pure word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it, and holding

Jesus Christ as the only head. By these marks, one can be assured of recognizing the true church, and no one ought to be separated from it.

This is not a power to be taken lightly by the church of God. It is a solemn trust of his people, and it is directly tied to the second commandment's requirement that we remove false worship and maintain the purity of God's house.

In 1 Corinthians 12, at verse 28, Paul lists the offices that God has appointed in the church. God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

And the point is clear, a church government is not a human invention. It is not a concession to organizational necessity.

It is a gift of God. God himself has appointed officers in his church for the building up of the body and the maintenance of order and purity within it.

To despise church government is to resist the exercise of discipline, to undermine the authority of elders and pastors.

These are not merely offenses against men, but they are offenses against God who instituted these offices and who commands us to submit to them.

So what does this mean for us? First, we must honor the government that God has established in his church.

This means respecting the authority of elders, submitting to their oversight and supporting them in the difficult work of maintaining discipline and purity.

Second, we must pray for our elders and leaders. The work of church government is not easy. It requires wisdom, courage, and a deep love for both truth and souls.

And so we pray that God would give discernment to distinguish between true and false worship and courage to act when action is required.

And third, we must examine our own hearts. Are we tolerating sin in our own lives?

Are we grumbling and complaining? Are we content with a form of worship that does not conform to God's word?

Are we placing stumbling blocks before others by our example or our speech? Are we creating unnecessary division with foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law that are unprofitable and vain?

And finally, in our pursuit of right worship in accordance with the word of God and the second commandment, we must remember that the goal of all church discipline and government is the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

We do not discipline for the sake of power or control. We discipline because we love God, because we love the truth, and because we love his church, his people.

The second commandment calls us to more than the mere avoidance of idolatry.

It calls us to be active preservation of pure worship in all spheres of our lives. And within the church in particular, the faithful exercise of government and discipline.

It calls us to be zealous for the honor of God's name and the purity of his house.

And so let us then be a people who honor God in all our worship. Let us be a church that takes seriously the responsibility of discipline, not out of harshness, but out of love.

And let us be a congregation that submits gladly to the government that God has ordained, knowing that it is for our good and for his glory.

And may we do so being reminded of the words of verses five and six of this commandment. For I, the

Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.

Remember in verse six, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Amen. If you would, and if you're able, please join me in kneeling as we confess our sin in this area and any others that the

Holy Spirit has brought to mind for you this day. And as you do confess your sin to your God in true faith in him, knowing that Jesus Christ has accomplished all righteousness for you and that he has taken your punishment upon himself for your sin.

You are forgiven in him. But if you do not know Jesus Christ as savior, if you do not believe in your heart that he is

God and that your only hope in life and in death is him, this blessed hope is not for you. And instead, the wrath of God still rests upon you.

And I implore you to repent and turn to him this day and be saved. Confess your sins to God that you may know his mercy in Jesus Christ.

Lord, we do confess that we are a stubborn people at times. In particular, we are more stubborn than others.

Lord, we also confess that we do not always know right in these matters.

And yet you have given a great, you've entrusted a great responsibility to your church.

And so we do ask that as we would confess our shortcoming, recognizing that we fall short and oftentimes again in areas we don't even notice.

We ask that you by your spirit would reveal those things to us, that you would help us. Lord, to be a people mindful of where our worship of you may be false, where we may be misdirected or misguided.

We ask that you'd help us, Lord, fix our path upon the way in which you would have us to walk, that we would worship you,

Lord, again, in accordance with your word and in accordance with the ways in which you've called your people to praise you.

Help us to be a people, Lord, who loves you and rejoices to submit to you,

Lord, even as we submit to human rulers that you've established, whether it's in our magistrate,

Lord, or within the church or within our homes, where it may be hard at times to submit for each, according to their stations, to submit to the rulers that you've established over them.

Lord, may you help us to be a people who do honor those that you've established among us.

Lord, and that we would be a people who are not only pleasant and submissive and honoring towards those who you've established over us,

Lord, but also that we are a people in many, whatever sphere it may be, that our rulers would even rejoice to rule over, that our rulers would be glad to have us as subjects in whatever, again, whatever sphere this may be within, but may you help us to be a people who serve well, serve you well,

Lord, and serve those around us well. Help us to honor you, worship you, to be obedient to you in this command, even where it may be difficult, especially where it may be difficult.

Lord, we ask your help as we do confess our shortcoming to you, and all these things we confess and pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. If you would please stand with me to hear our pardon this day.

Again, we are a sinful people, we fall short, and yet we are

Christians, so we know that we is good and right to confess our sin to our God, to be humble before him, especially as we come before him on the

Lord's day. But it is important that we remember that we are pardoned in Christ. And so as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, called upon by God to bind and loose on earth, hear this regarding your soul this day, and be assured of that pardon that he has granted to you in Jesus Christ, his son.

From Colossians chapter one, verses 21 through 23. And you that were sometime alienated in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

If you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.

You have been reconciled through Jesus Christ to his body, his flesh, through his death, that you would be presented holy and unblameable and unreprovable in the sight of God, our father.

Be assured of that pardon this day, Christian, that God has purchased you. Though you fall short, you have and you will take heart in this, that Jesus Christ has reconciled us to himself through his finished work on the cross.