LAW HOMILY: The Danger Of Religious Syncretism

The Second Commandment and the Regulated Worship of God

Every week we go through the law of God because we want to understand what God has to say for his people. Today we're in the second commandment, which is Exodus 20 4 through 6. This is what it says. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

You shall not worship them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing loving-kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.

The second commandment does not merely forbid Baal statues and temple totems. It forbids worshiping the true God in a false way. The Living God all throughout the scriptures regulates his own worship.

He appoints means by which we are to draw near to him like the public reading of Scripture, the preaching of the Word, Psalms, prayers, hymns, spiritual songs, the sacraments rightly administered, and the Lord's Day kept holy.

The Westminster Larger Catechism says that it's our duty to receive and observe and keep pure and entire all that God has instituted. And our sin is any religious worship not instituted by God. Even when cloaked in zeal and good intentions, the point is painfully clear.

The Lord is not wooed by our creativity. The Lord is not honored by our disobedience. The Lord is not like a doting mother who will accept whatever artwork you made and will put it on her fridge. The Lord has decided for us, determined for us, and deliberated for us how he is to be worshiped.

That leads us to a concept that I think is really important in this topic, which is called syncretism. Maybe you've never heard of syncretism. Syncretism is the blending of the worship of the one true God with elements that he has not commanded.

Pagan rites, cultural customs, self-made inventions, so that God's name is evoked while his ways are displaced. It is worship that fears the Lord and yet serves other gods. Syncretism prowls precisely where our obedience grows timid.

It speaks fluent Christianese while splicing the world's imagination into heaven's liturgy. Our Lord calls that vanity of worship when the commandment of God is displaced by human tradition. Paul talks about the gravity of this when he says, I don't I don't want you to become sharers in demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord in the cup of demons in 1st Corinthians 10. What he's saying is mixture with the world in the world's ways is not neutrality in a spiritual adultery. The jealous husband will not spare the adulterous bride.

False Worship in the Church and Practical Atheism

Now there's many ways that we can look at this. How have we worshipped God in ways that God has not commanded? You can look at it from the idea of churches that constantly do things to evoke emotions out of people instead of actually worshipping God.

The smoke machines and fog machines and skinny-jeaned guitar playing guy who sways his hips in an effeminate way. That's one way that it happens. But there's also other ways where, I was thinking about this this week, when I'm afraid and I'm not trusting the Lord, I'm treating God as though he is not my helper and that he cannot come to my aid, that he is not strong, a mighty tower, he is not able to protect me.

When I am.

Anxious, I.

Am acting as though God cannot meet my needs. I'm treating God like a false God. So whatever my behavior is saying about who God is, we ought to repent of the moments when our behavior is saying something about him that's not true.

That's a violation of the second commandment. When we act as though God is not who he is, when we act like practical atheists. So let us, in whatever we need to repent of today, and I'll tell you this, every sin you've ever committed is a violation of the second commandment.

Just like it's a violation of the first commandment. Just like it's a violation of the third. So whatever sin you're facing today, repent of it. Lay it at the foot of the cross of Christ, because he is able and he is willing to forgive us of all of our sins and to lead us unto righteousness.

Repentance, Forgiveness, and Worshiping in Spirit and Truth

Amen? Let's pray. Lord, you've told us how you want us to worship you and you've said very simply in spirit and in truth. So any way that we are treating you that is based upon a lie, Lord, may it be something that we repent of forcefully, eagerly, and joyfully.

Lord, let our behavior match our confession. And when we sin and fall short of these things, let us eagerly go to the throne of grace and repent. Lord, whatever it is today for any number of us, let us lay those things down and receive Christ's forgiveness for all our sins.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen? Luke 5 20 is a great assurance.