Deuteronomy 5:8-10, The Second Commandment

Deuteronomy chapter 5 starting verse 8 hear the word of the Lord You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth

Beneath or that is in the water under the earth You shall not bow down to them or 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 generation of those who hate me

But showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well when we were when we were in Mary and I were in Ethiopia We spent about six months in a small

Bible College in a town called southern Ethiopia called Dilla The the

Bible College had a small library full of donated books. I'm actually not bad -sized library for small college

But it was closed because the students or whatever. I'm not exactly remember the reason something They weren't keeping the books in order.

Is that it? Yeah, okay Mary's not her head she remembers and so no one was Keeping overseeing the library.

So the students can use them They closed the other way people gave to stock this library in rural

Ethiopia, and it was totally closed No one use it So I volunteered to be the librarian so the students could come and read and I thought it didn't make much sense

I have a library that no one can use. I mean, what's a library for? It's for keeping in books

Or is it for helping readers? I've and I've heard stories like that over and over again even

Christian organizations churches and others Bible Colleges and so forth having raised Often having raised money for something and built something or maybe a library or haven't gotten a

VCR you know can't move the VCR from upstairs to downstairs so we can show the

Jesus film to the poor kids because you might damage the VCR and Chairs Folding chairs and well, maybe you know the youth ministry those rambunctious kids might damage our chairs that we might have to shut down the whole ministry and churches,

I've heard in this even in this area that other churches have built gyms and Then guess what the kids come they play ball and guess what happens they get the gym dirty

We can't have that so they closed down the whole gym and the whole ministry shut down and and on and on like that The people

Christians they they do something they raise money for something and then they forget what it's for This is amazing how easily people forget what or who?

Something is for and get more caught up in protecting it. You know, whatever it is the books

I'd rather have all the books to get stolen You know out there at least someone someone's likely to read more likely to read them if they're out there

Then they are locked in a library that no one can get into our VCRs or chairs or gyms or vans or buses or gym, you know gyms

They are they get caught up in protecting that stuff and really it's about then Protecting our status.

Look what a nice gym. We have look what a nice library we have, you know, and nice electronics nice chairs rather than You know what the ministry was supposed to be for We forget to let them do but you know, maybe what the gym is supposed to be for they come in They'll scuff up the place

At the YMCA the GW swim team has to come practice late in the evening like, you know, sometimes 8 p .m

Because the old folks have to have their water aerobics earlier got another Y member here. He may object I don't know what he thinks of that.

But I wonder though if they've forgotten what the Y and YMCA stands for What about What about church

What about what about worship? What or who is it for?

Well, there are in my opinion basically three types of churches At least those are among around us those first who think the church is for themselves

They may never say that but you can tell by the way they live So the hymns they sing the suits and ties and dresses they wear

The the things they preach on the old translation they use the style of preaching is what makes them feel comfortable

It's what they're used to it's what they grew up with They're comfortable with it. Maybe it's the old -time religion or Whatever.

I mean we sing a lot of Hope anyone notices seeing a lot of kind of 70s

And 80s choruses in this that in this church often That's because I'm the one choosing the songs and that's what

I'm most comfortable with. I love you Lord good old 70s and But if that's all you do that's all about us.

Well, that's a problem then others though The second time is that the church is for those outside Whatever draws in the crowds

So everything is geared toward attracting people outside Making them more comfortable. You gotta you know, you gotta have the jeans and the untucked shirt.

It's kind of the uniform these days Certain style of church Yeah, I won't tell that story and Preaching is replaced by a talk from a guy sitting on a stool

With in jeans and an untucked shirt, of course And a lot of attention is played to two graphics and lights and multi.

I'm not putting down untucked shirts Okay, you can wear untucked shirts if you want There's just such a uniform among the stuff but a lot of tension again is the multimedia

You got of course contemporary music that's taken for granted You got to engage all the senses with with images and drama and skits and dance and all that kind of stuff

Everything else that is exciting and appealing to our culture today because it's for those outside church

They say and some of them say this explicitly Churches for those outside out there and then there are a lot of people who have got to have a as you like it attitude

About worship, you know, it's talking about the about what's right worship for them

Those people that that's as ridiculous as talking about the right kind of food, you know You might like Chinese food or you might

Italian or you might like Mexican or you know, American or whatever It's whatever you like. It's to your taste what suits you and so the same mentality comes to church

You you might like traditional you might like your hymns or you might contemporary Are you like expositional preaching or maybe you're like secret sensitive kind of topical messages or maybe you like liturgical, you know

Justin these old Robes and chanting and incense and all that whatever it's up to you

Worship is to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln of the people by the people and for the people

And then there's a third option The worship is not first about the people in here about us or the people out there

But the God up there maybe Just maybe there's an audience of one that we need to attend to And the first commandment

God demands to be the only one we serve to give worship that is worth ship to and the second commandment

God demands that all worship be done as He directs and this makes the second commandment one of the most widely and blatantly disobeyed of the commandments one frequently

Violated even by religious church -going people and perhaps the most incomprehensible of the

Ten Commandments to many people especially today The Lord tells us you shall not make notice the way that commandment is put you shall not make for yourself a

Carved image and it goes on notice that for yourself Now if you omitted that phrase

For yourself, it would it would still mean the same thing You know, you shall not make a carved image and so on But but it wouldn't have the emphasis that the commandment is about that phrase is there for a reason

Because that I think is the essence of the commandment for yourself worship is not about yourself

But as soon as we're unable or unwilling to worship God in spirit and in truth, we start making worship this for ourselves

To make us feel comfortable whether it be the old hymns or the new songs exciting contemporary songs or the ways that will draw in the crowds or Ways that just remind us of the good old days the good old seventies

If it's for us, it's about us. They express who we are What we want and our own perverted desire to control

God to kind of put him on our short leash When we worship God the way we think God should be worshiped

We become the arbitrators over his worship we become

Then gods We take to ourselves the right to stand over God and tell him this is the right way

That you are to be served God. We're gonna tell you God how you are to be served and That very attitude the very arrogance that would come to God in the way we think best

Is at the heart the opposite of worship and it really doesn't matter how you do it whether you're a traditional contemporary or liturgical or Positional Puritan life if that's your attitude, he's gonna be done my way

Your worship is all wrong Worship is a humble reverent bowing of the knee accepting his attitude

His say is his guilty verdict on our sins Accepting that the only way that we can be saved is if God does something for us that we can't at all do for ourselves

So worship looks to the cross and accepts that sacrifice and says you are

Lord But when we make worship for ourselves We say we think we know we know better About what we need to get to God about how he should be worshiped

And so to put a fine point on it worship that comes from us It's a product of our imagination our planning out for our purposes to suit our needs to make us feel the way we want to Feel that is not real worship of God at all.

It's not even something innocent and intolerable It's not an optional way of doing things, you know Just for people who are kind of into that kind of thing

Worship if it is to be worship of God at all must be of God by God and for God Otherwise is nothing other than damnable idolatry.

It's our own self -worship Notice that phrase you shall not make for yourself

It's very difficult for people in our day to understand even sympathize with a day in which we talk about worship styles

It's a common phrase out there worship styles when the reigning idea of in many even in many churches seems to be that worship is

All a matter of preference with our taste being the final judge of what's acceptable and what it's not God says you shall not make for yourself.

We say go ahead make for yourself a worship experience that suits you that appeals to Seniors or Millennials or bikers or cowboys or white people or black people or Chinese people or whatever group you're trying to appeal to we talk a lot about worship and then forget the very

One it is supposed to be about In the second commandment then come screaming to us worship is not for us

It's for God and for it to be real. It has to be done God's way period a

Second commandment tells us you can't determine how God is worshipped but idols Don't make the carved image.

Don't bow to it idols They stand for the way of the life of the people who worship them they stand for the people

In that day in Moses's day that the gods were worshipped, you know, according to their Their way of life their their culture from the appearance of the temples to the altars to the role of the priest it all reflected as an expression of of the values of the art of the aesthetics the ideals of the culture of of the people

It was of by and for the people. It's a celebration of them That's what their religion was.

So like in Roman days when the Christians would not sacrifice a pinch an inch a pinch of incense to the

Emperor and and say What are they what would have a hail hail to the

Caesar? Sacrificed to the genius they call it the spirit of the

Emperor When Christians refused to do that the Romans saw that now he's irreligious, but just unpatriotic

You're a traitor. You're not joining with us, but the Christians couldn't do it and In idolatry whether it's like that or any other it the worship meets the needs of the culture

Maybe of the state of the society maybe to hold them together of the patriotism and and surely we think there isn't anything wrong with that Maybe there's not if he's you know, saluting a flag before a football game, which is a fine place to do salute a flag

But what about the worship of God? People say well, there's not anything wrong with that in worship of God.

Oh, but there is God tells the Israelites it is worse. But worship is not merely an expression of their culture

It's of the Lord by the Lord and for the Lord He is worshipped by me teachable hearts who come to hear

God's Word Have their sins exposed by it and offer their lives as a living sacrifice to him

It is not Self -expression that God wants out of us. It's submission

That God's after you know in the book of Exodus when the Lord describes how to make the tabernacle

You never read through all that and you think oh I start to glaze over so many details well,

I had to read this is the hard part to get through the Bible and And about the tabernacle and the altar and the

Ark of the Covenant and all of that other decorations and Other things you don't even know exactly what they are.

He has very detailed instructions He leaves nothing to their imagination you think of that why are there so many details?

God is like a control freak there even to the colors of the threads You know, he describes the this these threads are supposed to be these colors

It's as though he is Communicating to them that their worship is not something they can just kind of concoct out of their own creative thinking

That they should not think for themselves how to create the best worship experience to visitors to the tabernacle

I mean you want to draw in as many visitors to the tabernacle as you can No, that's not what they were thinking but that this will all be done as the

Lord determines This is why it's so seriously wrong to think you can worship him in any way of our choosing

Something that as long as people are sincere. Well, they're sincere. It's okay but you know when

Moses was on Mount Sinai getting the Ten Commandments Aaron was sincere he was sincerely making a golden calf and Declared that made that he sincerely makes this golden calf and declares sincerely

This is your God over Israel and then they call a feast sincerely I assume

For the Lord, you know, and if you read the passage is all capital letters Lord means Yahweh It's not just any

God he means and he means the very God who this is the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt Aaron says

This and this image that he made this golden calf was was to represent this

God Now many people assume that Aaron was making another God to worship and so violating the first commandment

But no, he made a image a golden calf and then called the image the Lord Yahweh He said this was the

God that brought us out of the land of Egypt the people remember they were getting nervous because where's Moses? He had been gone for so long

Moses is God prophet had represented God To the people and their faith is so weak that they needed they needed something that they could see

Someone that something they could look at before I've been Moses and now we need someone to remind them of God And so Aaron made another image of God for them.

But the problem is it was for them for a human purpose It was a violation not of the first but of the second commandment

Here in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 15. We saw a week or two ago They were reminded that you saw no form on the day that the

Lord spoke to you or they heard his word But they saw his works not in not him himself and so and they said so don't make an image to use in worship and Again, we need to be careful because this we need this to think what does this have to do?

We don't make idols That's not in our culture anymore. That's all gone This is we be careful.

We don't think this is an old Irrelevant warning really doesn't apply to us anymore. We're past that stage in human evolution

No, we're not but you know, the Eastern Orthodox Church draws in evangelical

Christians today Just a couple just was last year The so -called

Bible answer man Hank Hanegraaff converted supposed to be evangelical Christian converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and now burns incense to images

Okay, so that's going on now to icons They call them because and this happens to among evangelical

Christians because people aren't careful about images in worship Now the Eastern Orthodox claim to have perfectly preserved the practices of the

Apostolic Church Unchanged unaltered from the very beginning, but they use icons images in worship

And the truth is that the early church strictly prohibited icons They knew that the

Second Commandment set them apart from a pagan culture with its all its images And so they allow the early church allowed no images in the church.

No likeness of any figure Whatsoever to be used in worship even as late as the mid 300s the 4th century a man named a

Papa Nias Papa, I write his name all the time, but I don't hardly ever say it Papa nice. He's a bishop and from Salamis.

He was traveling and Called it Israel or Palestine and he comes again to a church to pray and there's a curtain there with that I've got an image on it

He said he didn't remember exactly what it was up a Christ or some other perfect curtain Decoration and he was angry

This bishop he tore it down tore it to shreds gave it to the deacon there in the church

And so told him to go give the the the rags now to some poor person who needed them And that's the way the early church was about images in the church

Okay, you get stories like this when you have a pastor as a PhD in church history But that's what the consensus of the early church for the first four centuries

So this this claim that you know from the early we preserve the practices of the early church

From the beginning and now we're just like they did we're bowing before icons. Okay, that's that's false

If you stronger terms than that, but it's just false. So and Worship again must be done

God's way and it prohibits images and even the words of the Lord Jesus Show that God demands that he be the

Lord over his worship In John chapter 4 a Samaritan woman. Remember that story as they at the well tries to debate with him

I have a debate about worship. I'm a Samaritan. He's a Jew. Let's debate worship What's the best place to worship and Jesus tells her

God is spirit and those who worship him You know, she didn't say well, you should go to Jerusalem do that thing

But he doesn't also say it doesn't matter where you worship either He didn't say that either does he no matter how you worship you worship must worship must worship in spirit and truth

Maybe we're not good. That's not our passes for today. But you know, some people have gravitate toward the spirit Well, it's in your heart.

It's sincere But notice the insistent kind of irksome immovable word

Jesus put in there must You must worship

God's way in Spirit and in truth the second commandment is still alive and it still tells us that God demands that worship must be his way

This is what makes the second commandment so hard for people to understand God is saying that worship isn't really for people at all

It's for him and when there is a group of people who understand that Who assemble in worship not just for the socializing or the familiar music or the sense of having fulfilled an obligation a weekly ritual?

But out of love for him those people he says in the commandment remember he will bless them Those thousands he will love them

On the other hand, it's the people who don't seek to make worship About him that he is

Angry against but it's the people who don't seek to make worship for themselves. They aren't making it for themselves

Those God commits to make sure They will get something out of it sort of the irony

You come to worship Wanting really sincerely to worship God. You're not thinking I want this for myself

You want to worship God you get something out of it. God make sure he blesses you those who come

I want something out of the shirt for myself. I want to feel my way or whatever there those

God opposes So while they while those people who think they can bend worship for their purposes

God says he will pursue He'll be against them generation after generation who

God reserves the right to himself To to describe how he will he will be worship first He says use no images in our worship any use of an image to pray to or through or kind of help us focus our our prayers our devotion or to somehow bring a blessing on us is absolutely

Forbidden and it's amazing how often we make Something we can see into like Some image that gives us power.

I saw some guy on some YouTube video. I know his name Bob Larson. Yeah Supposed to be casting out demons out of someone and he's using the

Bible like it was a magic wand Waving it over people's heads and the book itself became an image that has the power that brings

God's blessing Not the words just the book you understand the difference and No, that's what the second commandment is against don't use

Objects that you can see somehow as conduits of God's power Doing that because there are our attempts and they always fall short of his glory.

They diminish they insult his glory They make him something look like well He his power can be controlled with the waving of a

Bible or some got him whatever magic wand Of a cross I just last night we see it a movie

Tom Cruise movie. It was a American made I think it was and a drug smuggler, right?

from Columbia just planes and trying to dodge the American DA agents and to get drugs in the u .s.

And he of course he put a cross on his Cockpit window there is a lucky charm to help him in his drug smuggling

That's the way people think God will help me if I put the the object ensures God's blessing well

No, it doesn't. In fact, it may ensure God's opposition You notice something odd about the commandment as we read about it.

It makes it stand out from all the rest There's something odd about this commandment. It's different. I think from all the other

Commandments Notice how specific it is The rest kind of the rest of the commands leave it up to us convert with to define with integrity

What what makes the you know, what violating the means? You know, we can define for ourselves.

What does it mean to take the name of the Lord in vain? You know, so he doesn't have a long when he comes to that doesn't have a long list. Don't use these two words

Don't use these terms. No, he just says don't take the name of the Lord in vain define for ourselves what it means to not work on the

Sabbath or what it means to honor your parents or To not murder or not commit adultery or are not stealing or not slandering, you know

Do not do that He doesn't have to exactly describe the action that is required or prohibited in those other commandments if you think about it

You know, I do not murder What's murder? We have a couple lot.

We have one lawyer I guess it's right and a law student, you know law is all about you got to define exactly what these things mean

And so often a lot of boring detail, but here but most the commandments don't do that Say with murder what we can figure that out for ourselves with the help of other scripture

When is a killing a murder or not? But with this commandment, it's not like that It's not like the others.

It's not you think about what God could have done is he didn't say do not commit idolatry and Be done with it.

It's very short like many of most of the other ones are Leaving it up to us to decide for ourselves what makes for idolatry.

No, what is prohibited is Exactly described So that are interesting, you know, he didn't do that with murder

He didn't say don't sneak up behind your enemy with a club and bash him in the head until he's dead Or and then go on don't stab him in the back.

Don't you didn't do that He just has to do that murder because we can figure out what murder is here.

He didn't say do not commit idolatry Why is that? Why is he described specifically what not to do?

And Here what not to do is don't make an image and bow down to it You have an object something you can see and you worship to or through or with that thing

Don't do that And those are two elements notice the two elements that are required. There's an image and bowing to it now

Is it is it wrong to have images? To have art on your walls to have pictures of your family

Maybe of your ancestors who have passed away Is that wrong Not necessarily.

No, it's not not if you don't bow down to them if you're not using them in worship somehow It's not the photo of your past family members.

That is wrong but the joss sticks The prayers offered to them as though they can hear you the food offered to them as though they can eat it

The money burned to them as though they can you know, spend it somehow that transfers it to them

Decorations photos pictures on your wall to remember past people ancestors art

It's not prohibited God even tells Moses to make carvings of cherubim to decorate the

Ark of the Covenant That seems strange doesn't in light of this commandment, but it's not but some people look at that and say, oh, yeah, he made art carvings of cherubim see

Icons are acceptable just like we bow to images of Mary and Saint whoever But no, no, where are those?

images of the Cherubim used in worship. They're never bowed to or before and used in any way in worship

They're just decorations and in the in the in the tabernacle in the temple Decorations are fine

Nothing wrong with decorations with art icons Really idols are not

And what is prohibited is exactly described Why did he do that you think?

It's not left up to ourself to decide whether we've committed idolatry because people always lie to protect their idols and Romans 1

Paul describes How God's invisible because God's invisible attributes his eternal power that he could create this whole universe that there is a

God Have he says have been clearly perceived people know that But people suppress the truth and they exchange the the worship of the true

God. He says For images for idols for icons

That that is idolatry Arises from an exchange you have the truth already because it's there

You have that truth, but you exchange it for a lie that you prefer instead you like the lie rather than the truth

So that's where idolatry comes from. It's out of a suppression of the truth. It arises from lying

We always lie to support our idols And I've seen this literally and dealing with Eastern Orthodox people who will claim with a straight face

I guess a straight because most time is through the computer. I can't really see their face but Straight words on the on the screen that they're bowing to an image

They're doing exactly what is clearly described and prohibited in the Second Commandment I mean they're doing exactly what the

Second Commandment says not to do That that's not violating the commandment I Mean, how do you get away with it?

Well Because they're suppressing the truth. They're worshiping they'll say though.

Well, we're not worshiping idols We're venerating icons and that's an entirely different thing.

Sure. It looks the same but it's entirely different They say but the second commandment doesn't say

Don't commit idolatry No, it describes exactly what not to do don't make any image and then bow to it

But they lie first to themselves So they can do what the commandment says not to do and I'll say all that not to condemn them make us feel better Because if they'll do that with their literal idols, no matter what they call them

Think how much more likely we are to do that with our Non -literal idols

Oh, we don't idolize our spouse we say we love them We don't live for our kids.

We say we are just focusing on the family We don't idolize sports.

We say Just make sure you're out by 12 so we can get the whole game We don't you know, we'll miss church to go on traveling teams

Because it's only for a few years We don't serve the money God we say We've just got bills to pay we got responsibilities a family to support

We'll come back to church when we have a big enough a bank account We always lie to protect our idols

Why does God take his worship so seriously? What's the what's the reason that this makes it into the

Ten Commandments? Of all the things this is probably the one commandment most even secular people not even

Especially secular people and why is this here? Well in the middle verse 5 he says for or because so here comes the reason this is why he's commanded this

I the Lord your God am a jealous God He is jealous

That means that he wants no rival to our affections for him Just like a husband or wife rightly jealous that his or her spouse not have another boy or girlfriend on the side

You know, it's not good enough just a spouse plays is okay, honey. Yeah. Sure. I got a few on the side But you're my most loved so don't worry about it.

Okay, that doesn't fly with anybody. I know It's not good enough to be the most loved.

Oh, honey. You're you're 51 % of my love Maybe even a little bit more and divide the rest among other affections among other lovers.

No, that didn't work Don't work with your husband or wife And the second commandment

God demands that he be our only love our only object of worship that we have no other gods and if We do love anything or anyone else?

Like a like a wife or husband. We love them for the ways. They bring us closer to God. We love other people or things

Because we see in them something of the goodness of God their God's gift to us something of the glory of God If we are not to be an idolater everything that we love we love for God we love

God through loving them and Like any normal husband or wife the

Lord is determined not simply to be our highest God not to be our favorite Our favorite among that our harem of lovers.

He determines to be the only one He's monogamous and he's jealous God wants no competition for our worship

We are not to worship the angels who help him or the Saints who have been especially close to him in the past all such

Attempts to make other objects of devotion no matter what you call it whether praying to or through them seeking their aid

To get to the father, you know, if you really want the father to listen to you talk to Mary because Mary is

Jesus's mother and and so You know Jesus will definitely do what his mother tells him to do and then

Jesus is close to the father So, you know, you got to have connections right connections Everyone knows you want to do well in society got to have connection same with God go through him connections

No, he blows all that away. The only connection you need was right with God himself.

Don't seek intermediaries Venerating people who were thinking we're close to the Lord. All of that is forbidden

It is idolatry the people who do that may think they have good intentions But they're making something for themselves not really for God and the

Lord is jealous and does not tolerate it The Hebrew word for jealous denotes an intense emotional reaction to any affront to God's glory

This prohibition is not something that's cold and stern some just restriction Legalistic like not like some policeman telling you not to litter you don't really care

But it's just his job or some teacher telling you do your homework This is something God is passionate about He is intensely

Passionate about worship that he'd be done his way for his glory He expects passionate obedience passionate worship in return so that means boredom with God boredom with his word

This is y 'all I got a read I gotta do I gotta come shirts. Oh It's an insult to his passion for worship

We saw in the first chapter of Isaiah last fall You remember can read it again Isaiah 1 that the

Lord told the Israelites that their worship that their offerings they were vain Their incense they offered in worship, even they did it according to the law

But even if they did it the right way was an abomination That he could not endure

Their assemblies and they're off. They're supposedly for him, but he didn't he hates it His language is heated white hot with the intensity of his feeling

God hates Hypocritical Worship, he hates worship that disgraces him.

He hates worship that makes people think that he really isn't that important He's just something you got to endure for an hour until we can get to the to the restaurant and before the

Methodist do That other interests are royalties like the nation to the family or whatever Whatever's on TV at noon.

All of that is more important than he is. It's not a light thing. It's something the Lord deeply angrily despises and so he says in the second half of verse 9 that he visits the iniquity of the fathers on The children to the third grandchildren and fourth great -grandchildren generation of those who turn away from right worship

He equates violating this command notice he says he calls it that he calls that hating him notice that They they think now these people think well

I just prefer this way of doing things or I'm just not into that kind of thing But God is saying you hate me.

That's what's going on when you're turning away from right worship because you hate me At the end of verse 9 those who disobey this commandment who degrade the worship of God Who promote rivals to him who treat him as though he he's not worth that much attention or interest or those he says hate him and That's that's different than we think is we usually think boredom

Which is one way people now hate God. We think boredom is it's a lack of interest Something cold.

It's a lack of strong feelings. Well hate is Is Intense it's hot.

It's a lot of strong feelings But here the Lord says that those who can't muster the interest in him to worship him, right?

They actually hate God They're not cold about him.

They're They're against him. That's why the casual disinterested approach to God is the most dreadful thing

It's it's hatred toward God fair to give God the passionate Wholehearted worship he deserves is to hate him and here the

Lord says he visits that iniquity on our Chill, it means they'll come around and bring it on the children and grandchildren and great -grandchildren

In other words, God says that he will bring the consequences of our failure on the heads of our descendants

Now something that sounds too harsh for a God of love to do and Certainly, he doesn't mean that if they even if they repent if I turn away from God's right worship

But my children don't and they they turn back to him. That doesn't mean he's gonna continue But it means likely if I turn away from the

Lord There's a greater likelihood that my children will so will their children and on and on but some people think well

God He's not gonna actually visit this punishment on Descendants is he they so they try to skate around it

Imagine that he's just saying he allows people to reap the consequences for their own bad behavior and and there is some truth to that Sin has its own ill effects

Sin often has consequences for the whole family the man who trusts in his alcohol to escape from his problems

That has consequences for his family trust in his anger to meet his needs. Well that has consequences

For his first family they suffer the consequences of him not being able to truly revere and serve God but notice here in the last half of verse 9 that God doesn't just say that he passively leaves us us to suffer the

Consequences of our own bad decisions. It's not as though punishment is is just built into the sin

Maybe there's some of that but some God just leaves it up to us to receive. It's not just that no the verse says that the

Lord visits That is he actively and heatedly Punishes the one who will not worship him right he does it

Not just laws of the universe that he doesn't stop people who will not revere him enough to treat him as the one

Worthy of exclusive and right worship. He intentionally visits their punishment on them and not just on them on their descendants

Now some might object. Well, that's not fair But friends what is not fair is that we teach our children either by words or by modeling

That the Lord is not worthy of worship That's not fair You see we all sacrifice our children to one

God or the other You got to make your mind up which which God you're going to sacrifice your children to all parents routinely ask our children to suffer because of our values and well we should if We think sports or work or school or socializing is more important and more interesting than the

Lord will teach that lesson To our children They'll see it in our priorities.

They'll see it in those things. We just can't miss or what we can easily miss They'll see it in our choices when we have to decide over one thing over another

They'll see it in where our interest is that on what we discuss around the dinner table And what we spend a lot of time doing or listening to and what we're really not interested in at all

They'll see that we could spend a lot of money on vacations and nice cars and maybe tattoos and been giving to the spread of the gospel and We will either teach our children that God is worthy of exclusive worship it is someone being worth being passionately interested in or if you know

Come on. Let's be real. This is Just boring religion

We'll either teach our children to love the Lord as far as we can or we'll teach them to hate him and If we teach them to hate him to hate him by not giving him the exclusive passionate worship that he is worth

Then our iniquity Will be visited on Them.

So who are you going to sacrifice your children to? to the Lord for their blessing or To your cold bored hatred of him for their curse

Why worship him, right? Well, not only jealous. That's one reason and this is the consequences of those who hate him on On their descendants, but also the second reason why to worship him, right?

He shows Famous term steadfast love in Hebrew chesed that devoted Commitment to love that loyal love like Ruth showed he showed he has that steadfast love

To those who love him and notice again in verse 6. It's the language of passion It's a language of love and of hate.

It's not simply good enough to keep his commandments He says we need to keep them for the right reason, you know The Pharisees made a good show of keeping his commandments, but they kept them for the wrong reason deep down they hated

God and they thought but that by keeping the commandments they could control God that they could earn the rewards from him like The way you can buy

Mafia protection not because you love the Godfather Oh, I just love the Mafia boss and I want to give him money but because you want to keep him off your back

Obedience is not enough. God says here that he keeps steadfast love to those who love him to the people who are have the same passion for his glory that he does who understand that worship is not by the

People of the people and for the people that is for God that he is worthy people with that passion that love for the

Lord those the Lord loves loyally And if we love the

Lord It will show it aren't keeping his commandments Notice at the end of verse 10 the blessing comes on those those who love me and keep my commandments

Those aren't two different groups of people Okay He doesn't say those who love me or keep my commandments as though you could do either one

You can love him or you can keep his commandments either ones. Okay? No, they're the same group of people. They love him and keep his commandments now something they can obey without love

Like Pharisees and others think they can love without obeying like a lot of people today, but both are wrong

Where there is obedience without love like the Pharisees is Servile is it's not the worship and spirit and truth that we must remember must

Offer to God, but when there is so -called love without obedience

That's just self -serving Sentimentality, this is empty gushy

Words, it's just froth We see this in people who profess to love

God But who can't stand to be restricted by what the Word of God says on how to worship him on how to serve

God with their bodies By not being intoxicated or by giving him bar but not giving into sexual immorality about serving

God with their tongues What the words they say or with their work who talk a good game?

But their money shows where their treasure is. We have people who claim to love him may claim to love us and They say that's enough just to claim just the words just the profession just the gushing emotion

But the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse 23 if anyone loves me He will obey my teaching

First John chapter 3 verse 18 says let us not love in word or talk.

Oh, I love you. I Love this church. I'll never leave but indeed and in truth

Love and obedience go hand in hand at least when it comes to God If you don't have one you don't have the other those who love

God Keep his commandments They sacrifice their children to him

They teach their children in words and deeds that God is worth serving that he is worth passion and interest and attention and So God blesses them and he blesses their children to the thousandth generation he is overflowing in his exuberant desire to do good to those who see that God and God alone is worth glorifying