The Second Commandment - 07/10/2022

First Baptist Church Leominster

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set their minds on things, or to set their mind on the flesh is death, but to set their mind on the flesh is life.

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Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh, the spirit of God dwells in you.

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Anyone who does not have the spirit of God dwells in you.

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The spirit is life. He who raised

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Christ will also give life to your immortal bodies through the spirit of God.

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So then, brother, in the spirit of adoption, present time, that is, to retain freedom of the blows, what is the mind of the saints?

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He also freed us in order that we may be free of destiny.

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He also called us. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

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No, in all of these things we are more than a concourse to pray this all -faithful today.

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Before we begin, I just want to point out one thing regarding your notes. If you look at the notes, there are no scripture passages listed out, and that's intentional.

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I recognized last week, one of the things I miss when I preach is I miss hearing the flutter of pages of scripture.

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I think we were being a little easy on you, so I took those passages out. Now, if you're interested in what the

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Word of God says, I will certainly be speaking it, but you've got to look it up in the scriptures. Hopefully, that's not a problem for anybody.

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The other thing, what I started in this sermon is I started citing my sources. I've been a bit careless about that in the last few sermons.

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I've gone in and I've put in footnotes, and also I've gone back to do that in my previous sermons.

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If you would like those notes, just shoot me an email and I can send those to you. That way, we're on the same page.

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Let's just commit our time once more to the Lord. Heavenly Father, help us now as we open up your

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Word. We just pray that the Word would be faithfully preached and that the

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Word would go out and it would affect each one of our lives. We pray, Lord, that we would be attentive to what your

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Word has to say. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. In Exodus 19, immediately preceding the receiving of the

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Ten Commandments, the Israelites beheld with their very own eyes an awesome and magnificent display of the grandeur and the glory of the

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Lord God. At the foot of Mount Sinai, all of Israel was encamped before the mountain, and Moses ascended the mountain to speak to the

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Lord God. Exodus 19, verses 10 to 13. The Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day.

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For on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people, and you shall set limits for the people all around, saying,

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Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.

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No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. Whether beast or man, he shall not live.

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When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. On the morning of the third day, as promised, the

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Lord God descended upon the mountain. In great power and majesty and glory, the

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Lord God descended upon the mountain with deafening crashes of thunder, flashes of lightning, and with an ascending trumpet blast that grew louder and louder and louder.

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Smoke engulfed the entire mountain, for the Lord God Almighty had descended upon it in fire.

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The whole mountain trembled and shook greatly. In the camp of Israel, the people trembled and shook greatly.

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Because of the presence of their omnipotent creator, the Lord God was manifest. The presence of the

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Lord God was made obvious to them. The manner in which the

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Ten Commandments were received must have left an indelible and lasting impression upon the

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Israelites. I suspect that this spectacular display of the power and glory of the

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Lord God would be something that would not be so easily forgotten. The breathtaking and awe -inspiring display would be etched into their souls, etched into their memories and their discussions for generations and generations to come.

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Who would ever forget such an awesome and dramatic display of the power and the glory of the

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Lord God Almighty? As it turns out, the Israelites. Because less than 40 days after this encounter, less than 40 days after the

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Israelites experienced the manifest presence of the Lord God, a plot of rebellion broke out among them.

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Exodus 32, verses 1 through 6. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him,

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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.

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So Aaron said to them, So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

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And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.

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And they said, When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it.

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And Aaron made a proclamation and said, And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.

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And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. This passage provides us with tremendous and magnificent insights into the great depth of the depravity and wickedness and sinfulness.

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The absence of light for three days and the death of every firstborn child.

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Then, after these plagues, as the Israelites were returning the promised land, the Lord God divided the

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Red Sea for them, allowing the Israelites to pass through on dry land. Pharaoh and his armies chased after them and they entered the waters and the

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Lord God caused the waters to return and covered their chariots, covered their horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh.

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Not one Egyptian remained. In their continued travels to care for their hunger, the

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Lord God had rained down upon them manna, the bread from heaven. To care for their thirst, the

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Lord God provided them with water, which was supernaturally received when Moses struck the rock at Horeb and water poured out.

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At this time, the Israelites firsthand beheld the mighty power of the

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Lord God Almighty. But even after all these miraculous wonders, even after seeing and hearing the voice of the

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Lord God as he answered them in claps of thunder upon the mountain, it still only took 39 days for the

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Israelites to rebel against the Lord God. 39 days.

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Just over a month. Their rebellion was not a violation of the first commandment.

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Their rebellion was a violation of the second commandment. Make us gods who will go before us.

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Referring to the golden calf, the Israelites cried out. These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

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The Israelites represented the Lord, their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, by using a carved and graven image.

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The first commandment addresses having the right God as the object of our worship.

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The second commandment addresses the worship of the right God in the right way.

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In the first commandment, worshiping a false god is forbidden. In the second commandment, worshiping the true

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God in a false manner is forbidden. The first commandment points us to the one and only true

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God. The second commandment points us to the right worship of the one and only true

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God. Beloved, the manner and method of our worship are nearly as important as the object of our worship.

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If you are not worshipping the right God, then your worship is an exercise in futility.

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If you are worshipping the right God but in the wrong way, then your worship is also just as empty.

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The right God must be worshipped in the right way. Please turn with me to the book of Exodus.

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Our passage this morning is Exodus chapter 20, verses 4 to 6.

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Let's look at the text together. Exodus chapter 20, verses 4 to 6.

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In our exposition of this commandment, we're going to be looking at four things. We're going to be looking at the commandment itself, verses 4 to 5a.

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The motivation for keeping this command, verse 5b. The warning for breaking this command, verse 5c.

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And then the reward for walking in obedience to this command, verse 6.

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This morning, we'll address the commandment itself. And then over the next couple of weeks, we'll address the motivation for keeping this command, the warning for breaking this commandment, and the reward for walking in obedience.

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So let's take a look at the command itself. What does this commandment command? Exodus 20, 4 and 5.

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You shall not make for yourself a 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.

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You shall not bow down to them or serve them. This commandment is simple and it is straightforward.

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The Lord God commands that we are not to make any carved image of any likeness of anything in the heavens above, on the earth beneath, or the water under the earth for worship or for service.

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In other words, we are commanded not to make carved images of anything in all of creation for worship and service.

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Carved images or any other likeness in all of creation are not to be used in the worship of the one and only true

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God. A carved image or a graven image is referring to an idol.

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It's referring to anything that has been crafted by a tool, something that has been crafted by the hand of man for the explicit purpose of worship.

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It could refer to anything that has been fashioned out of wood, chiseled out of stone, engraved in a precious metal, painted on canvas, blown in glass, or shaped from any other medium for adoration, for exaltation, and for worship.

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The Westminster Larger Catechism states, question 108, what are the duties required in the second commandment?

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The duties required in the second commandment are the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God has instituted in his word, particularly prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ, the reading, preaching, and hearing of the word, the administration and receiving of the sacraments, church government and discipline, the ministry and maintenance thereof, religious fasting, swearing by the name of God and vowing unto him, as also the disproving, detesting, opposing all false worship, and according to each one's place in calling, removing it and all monuments of idolatry.

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In question number nine, what are the sins forbidden in the second commandment?

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The sins forbidden in the second commandment are all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself, tolerating a false religion, the making any representation of God of all or of any of the three persons either inwardly in our mind or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever, all worshiping of it or God in it or by it, the making of any representation of famed deities and all worship of them or service belonging to them, all superstitious devices corrupting the worship of God, adding to it or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any other pretense whatsoever, simony, sacrilege, all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances which

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God hath appointed. I would encourage you to go through and look at these again.

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There is a lot of material there. The second commandment explicitly forbids the making of any type of figure, stature, effigy, picture, portrait, or icon to be used as an object of worship or even to be used as an aid to our worship.

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This commandment is not condemning the ingenuity of making carved and graven images, but in worshiping them.

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Arthur Pink remarks, The legitimate worship of the Lord God must not be profaned by idolatry or by any other superstitious rites, since God is a spiritual, invisible, and omnipotent being to represent him as a being of a material and limited form is a falsehood and an insult to his majesty.

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The Lord God must not be worshiped through any of these man -made means, or for that matter, by any other means which are not duly appointed by himself, which are not duly appointed by his revealed word, the

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Scriptures. The Puritans referred to this as the regulative principle of worship.

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The London Baptist Confession of 1689, Article 22, Paragraph 1, states,

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The light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all.

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He is just, good, and does good to all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart and with all the soul and with all the might.

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But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations or any other way not prescribed in the

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Holy Scriptures. In other words, the proper manner, the proper method for the public worship of the

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Lord God has been instituted by the Lord God himself, in the

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Scriptures. The Lord God has instituted his worship. The Lord God has the final say in how he is to be worshipped, and how he is to be worshipped has been made known to us in his revealed

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Word, the Scriptures. The only acceptable way to worship the

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Lord God is to worship him by the commandments, the examples, and the methods that had been revealed to us in the

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Scriptures. The Scriptures regulate the public worship of the Lord God, thus the regulative principle of worship.

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A great illustration of this principle is found in the book of Exodus. In Exodus 28, Aaron and his four sons were commissioned to minister before the

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Lord God as his priests. And throughout the remaining chapters of Exodus and into the book of Leviticus, Aaron and his sons were given very specific instructions detailing the specific work of their service.

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Leviticus 10, verses 1 to 3. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the

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Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the

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Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the

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Lord has said, Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people

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I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire before the

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Lord God. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord God, a fire that the

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Lord God had not commanded them to offer. This offering of unauthorized fire resulted in their immediate deaths.

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The fire of the Lord fell upon them and they were consumed. Why? Why did the

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Lord God respond to their offering in such a harsh and severe manner? Why were

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Nadab and Abihu so quickly consumed by fire? You may remember in the book of 2

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Chronicles, King Uzziah, he also disobeyed the Lord God. He offered incense before the

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Lord God, which was not lawful for him to do. But King Uzziah wasn't consumed by fire.

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He was afflicted with leprosy, but he didn't die for his transgression. So why did

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Nadab and Abihu have to die for their transgression? As those who serve as priests,

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Nadab and Abihu failed to approach and worship the Lord God as the

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Lord God had instructed them. As priests, they had failed to approach and worship the

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Lord God as the Lord God had specifically commanded them. The sons of Aaron had failed to honor the

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Lord God as holy. They had failed to sanctify the Lord God as holy. They had failed to esteem the

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Lord God through strict adherence to his revealed word. Specifically, his revealed word concerning the altar of incense.

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Exodus chapter 30, verses 7 to 9. And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it.

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Every morning when he dresses the lamps, he shall burn it. And when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it.

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A regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations. You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering.

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And you shall not pour a drink offering on it. Nadab and Abihu were not authorized to burn any incense upon the altar.

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And they were certainly not authorized to burn strange fire upon the altar. This privilege was only to be formed by the high priest

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Aaron, who had been specifically instructed by the Lord God to execute this sacred duty.

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The sons of Aaron may have been very well intentioned in their service and in their worship, but their manner and their method were completely contrary to the scriptures.

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Their manner and method were not regulated by the scriptures. Another great example of this principle is found in the book of 2

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Kings. In the book of 2 Kings, Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, was appointed king over Israel.

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And Jehu was divinely appointed by the Lord God to bring an end to the worship of Baal, which had thoroughly infected and permeated the land.

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Jehu was also appointed to bring an end to the wicked house of Ahab, and to the treacherous queen

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Jezebel. In all the house of Ahab, there was not anyone as vicious and as wicked as Queen Jezebel.

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It was she that introduced and encouraged the worship of Baal. It was she who slaughtered the prophets of the

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Lord God. It was she who contrived the plot to murder Naboth and steal his vineyard. Queen Jezebel repeatedly stirred up her husband and her sons to act wickedly and without shame.

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She was an evil woman and a curse to all the land. So the Lord God commissioned

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Jehu to put an end to her wicked reign. 2 Kings 9, verses 7 through 8.

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And you shall strike down the house of Ahab, your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants, the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the

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Lord. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.

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After being proclaimed king, Jehu made ready his chariot, and he went out to meet

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King Joram at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. And King Joram saw Jehu, and he said,

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Is it peace, Jehu? Jehu answered, What peace can there be so long as the whoring and the sorceries of your mother

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Jezebel are so many? And upon hearing these words, King Joram fled.

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Jehu drew his bow, and with his full strength he shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank into his chariot dead.

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Then Jehu shot King Ahaziah, who was the king of Judah, and had been an ally and a friend with King Joram.

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Jehu then traveled to the city of Jezreel, where Queen Jezebel was staying. And Queen Jezebel was bold in her defiance, and rather than adorning herself with sackcloth and humility, as Jehu entered the city, she painted her eyes, she adorned her hair, and she made herself look as beautiful as possible.

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Instead of trembling before Jehu, Jezebel threatened him. She sought to put

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Jehu back on his heels by asking him an ominous question. As Jehu entered the gate, she said to him,

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Is it peace with you, Zimri, murderer of your master? Zimri had been a servant of Elah, the son of Basha, the king of Israel.

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And Zimri had conspired against King Elah and killed him and killed all of his descendants.

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Then Zimri appointed himself as king, and he reigned over the land. However, his reign only lasted seven days.

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The city was besieged by Omri, and when the walls of his city were breached, Zimri went into a citadel of the king's house, and he burned the house over him, and he died.

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Queen Jezebel was drawing attention to this short reign of Zimri. Did Zimri have peace?

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Did Zimri have peace after killing his master? And will you, Jehu, expect to have peace after killing your master?

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Jehu didn't even bother to answer. He said to her attendants, Throw her down. So they threw her off the balcony, and Queen Jezebel died right then and there, and her blood splattered on the walls and the horses as they trampled over her body.

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After a quick meal, Jehu and his men went out to bury her, but she was gone. Only her skull, feet, and the palms of her hands remained.

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Queen Jezebel had been eaten by the dogs, thus fulfilling Elijah's prophecy against her.

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Jehu continued to persevere in his quest. He slaughtered every one of the 70 sons of Ahab. He slaughtered every one of the descendants of the house of Ahab, as well as all of his great men, all of his close friends, all of his priests.

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Anyone who was acquainted with the house of Ahab was slaughtered until none of them remained.

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After this, Jehu shifted his aim to the worshippers of Baal. He assembled all the people, and in cunning he said to them,

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Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. Call all the prophets of Baal, all of his worshippers, all of his priests, and we will have a great sacrifice, and whoever is not missing will die.

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All of the worshippers of Baal were in attendance. There was not a worshipper of Baal left who did not come to this solemn assembly, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other.

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And Jehu said to his guards and his officers, Go in and strike them all down. Let not any man escape.

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So they were all put to death by the sword. And the pillar of Baal was demolished, the house of Baal was demolished, and it was made into a latrine.

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And this violent account of the faithfulness and victory of Jehu ends with the following commendation, 2

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Kings 10 .28, Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. Jehu was faithful in slaughtering the house of Ahab.

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He was faithful in destroying the wicked queen Jezebel. He was faithful in exterminating the worship of Baal from the land of Israel.

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Jehu was faithful and obedient in fulfilling the first commandment. He did not put any other gods before the

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Lord God. He did not put any other gods before the face of the Lord God. Jehu worshiped and served the

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Lord God alone. And yet, Jehu was not entirely faithful to the

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Lord God. He did not follow the Lord God with an undivided, with a whole heart.

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The manner and the method of his worship were not correct. 2

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Kings 10, verse 29, Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made

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Israel to sin. That is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. And the

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Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.

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Verse 31, But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the

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Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which made

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Israel sin. Even though Jehu had fulfilled the first commandment, he had failed to uphold and promote the second commandment.

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Jehu failed to worship and serve the Lord God as the scriptures commanded. Jehu may have wiped out the worship of Baal from the land, but he had not wiped out the two golden calves who represented the

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Lord God to the Israelites. These calves were allowed to endure, which further provoked the anger and jealousy of the

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Lord God. The regulative principle of worship is also seen in the

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New Testament. In the book of Matthew, the scribes and the Pharisees came from Jerusalem to question the

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Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.

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Matthew 15, 3. He answered them, And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

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For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

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But you say, If anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God.

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He need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.

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You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

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In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

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The scribes and the Pharisees were far more concerned with keeping their own interpretation of the law, the tradition of the elders, rather than keeping the actual law of God.

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The scribes and the Pharisees, by their incorrect manner and their incorrect method of worship, had made void the word of God, and thus their worship of the

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Lord God has also been made void. In adding, that which the Lord God had not commanded or appointed, their worship of the

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Lord God was greatly displeasing to him, and it was utterly in vain. In the book of Colossians, Paul was cautioning the church to beware of false teachers.

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He says, Beware of false teachers who will seek to impose upon you the heavy and burdensome yoke of the ceremonial law.

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Colossians 2 .16 Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a

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Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come. But the substance belongs to Christ.

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Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and the worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

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If with Christ you have died to the elemental spirits of this world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?

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Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings.

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These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self -made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

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The false brethren who had infiltrated the church at Colossae were seeking to promote their own flavor of religion.

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They were seeking to promote their own self -made religion. It was not paganism, it was not

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Judaism, nor was it Christianity. It was a combined mix of everything.

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The false brethren at the Colossian church were seeking to promote the worship of the Lord God on their own terms, as their own hearts desired.

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Beloved, the Lord God is not free to be worshiped in any and every manner.

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In the public worship of the Lord God, it is the scriptures that give us the specific requirement of worship, and we are not free to disregard them, change them, or add to them in any way.

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Thomas Watson remarked, A godly man dares not vary from the pattern which

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God hath shown him in the scripture. And probably this might not be the least reason why

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David was called a man after God's own heart, because he kept the springs of God's worship pure, and in matters sacred did not superinduce anything of his own devising.

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Like David, we too must keep the springs of God's worship pure.

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We must worship the Lord as he desires to be worshiped. John Calvin remarked,

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God does not approve of any modes of worship that are not expressly sanctioned by his word.

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The regulative principle of worship is something that desperately needs to be resurrected in the church today.

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Far too many denominations, far too many churches have strayed from this guiding principle, which has resulted in disastrous consequences.

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Many churches today are merely knockoffs of the world. Many churches today are using worldly techniques and worldly methods and worldly means to grow and legitimize their ministries.

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In many churches, programs have replaced prayer. Community service has replaced evangelism.

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Entertainment has replaced worship. Comedy and self -help have replaced the exposition of the scriptures.

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The concept of worship in our North American context has taken on a life of its own.

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Too many worship services are designed to appeal to the unregenerate rather than appealing to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. The corporate gathering of believers to exalt and worship the

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Lord God has become nothing more than an evangelistic program, a weak and pragmatic evangelistic program.

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Many worship services today have a distinct flavor of entertainment rather than adoration, rather than praise, rather than reverence.

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Many worship services today forget who the actual audience is in our sanctuaries.

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It's not the guests. It's not the members. It's not the leadership. Beloved in the gathered assembly of believers, you are not the audience.

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The audience, our audience, is the Lord God. Our audience is the

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Lord Jesus Christ. The reason we are gathered together today is to exalt and to worship the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And everything we do here today, we do for his glory.

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We do for his praise. We do for his honor. The songs we sing are for his glory.

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The scriptures we read are for his glory. The scriptures we memorize are for his glory.

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The money we offer is for his glory. The prayers that we pray are for his glory.

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The sermons we preach are for his glory. The service we render is for his glory.

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Even the fellowship that we share is for his glory. And the reason we worship the

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Lord God in all of these different ways together is because the scriptures have clearly directed us to do so.

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The scriptures have given us very clear direction and very clear instruction as to how we are to worship the

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Lord God on the Lord's day. To take direction in our worship of the

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Lord God from anything or anyone else is to promote self -made religion, like the false brethren at Colossae.

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To take direction from anything or anyone else is to promote human traditions, like the scribes and the

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Pharisees. There is nothing extra that is needed in our worship of the Lord God.

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No golden calves, no strange fire, no carved images, nor anything according to our own imaginations.

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Beloved, our worship of the Lord God is to be according to his commandments, according to his revelation.

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The manner and method of our worship must come from sola scriptura, the scripture alone.

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To worship the Lord God in any other manner is to provoke his anger and wrath, which is one of the motivations for keeping this commandment, which we will address next week.

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Beloved, the Lord God commands that we are not to make any carved images of any likeness of anything in the heavens above, of anything in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, or anything else in all of creation or imagination for the explicit purpose of worship and service.

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The second commandment requires the receiving and observing and keeping pure all such worship and ordinances as the

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Lord God has instituted in his word. This commandment forbids all devising, counseling, commanding, using and approving any such worship not instituted by the

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Lord God himself. Beloved, remember Paul's rebuke of the false brethren at the

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Church of Colossae. Remember Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees for putting their traditions over the scriptures.

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Remember the account of Jehu. He was faithful in the first commandment, but he failed in keeping the second commandment.

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Remember the account of Nadab and Abihu. Their unauthorized fire led to their demise.

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Beloved, flee from idolatry and pursue the one and only true

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God in a right and correct manner, according to the scriptures alone.

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Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the clarity of your word, and we confess that we are idolaters.

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We may not bow down to graven images, but, Lord, we set up images in our heart and we worship according to our own imagination.

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Lord, we confess this to you, and we pray that you would help change us. Lord, we ask that you would direct our worship according to the scriptures.

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We pray that we would be lined up according to the scriptures in all things. Lord, help us look to you.

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Help us to look to your word so that our prayer, so that our worship, so that our offerings, so that our service, so that everything might be done in a manner that is pleasing to you.

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Lord, we thank you for these things. We thank you that Christ perfectly fulfilled the first commandment.

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He perfectly fulfilled the second commandment and every other commandment. And, Lord, we look to him for salvation.

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The law cannot save us, but it can direct us to the one who can. And so, Lord, we pray that Christ would be the object of our focus throughout the week.