In his sermon titled 'Biblically Regulated Worship,' Mike Davenport discusses the second commandment from Exodus 20:4-6, emphasizing the importance of worshiping God correctly and not through man-made images or forms. He delineates the commandment's prohibition of worshiping the true God in a false manner, as opposed to the first commandment, which forbids worshiping false gods. Davenport highlights John Calvin's perspective on false worship, which warns against subjecting God to human perceptions or substituting Him with any form. The sermon outlines the commandment's restrictions and the requirements it implies, emphasizing worship in spirit and truth, the dangers of 'will worship,' and the necessity of eradicating idols both physically and within one's heart. The sermon underscores the need for full surrender to God's service, worship according to His will, and a heartfelt, joyful zeal in worship. Davenport concludes by urging believers to seek Christ, who perfectly obeyed the law, and to love God wholly, trusting in Christ's redemptive work for righteousness.

Exodus 20, verses 4 through 6. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, 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. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. Let us look to him in prayer. Oh gracious God, help us in this hour to sense the greatness of who you are.

Lord, to sense the emptiness of ourselves, the inability to do the things you ask us to do, that you command us to do. Oh Lord, we fall fresh upon Christ. We thank you that he obeyed where we have not. And Lord, even as we seek to worship you in our own weakness, oh Lord, we ask that you would see us in him, in his perfect obedience, in that righteousness which we claim is our own. We thank you for him and we pray all of these things in his great name.

Amen. You may be seated. We come today to a consideration of this second commandment. And as we start out this morning, it is important for us to understand what differentiates this command from the first, you shall have no other gods before me. Thomas Watson in his volume on the Ten Commandments, states the difference this way, quote, in the first commandment, worshipping a false god is forbidden.

In the second commandment, worshiping the true God in a false manner is forbidden." End quote. Another helpful way to understand the distinctions between these commands found in the first table of the law, the first four can be summarized like this. Commandment one, who is to be worshiped? And we see we must worship God and Him alone. Commandment 2, our commandment today, how is God to be worshiped?

And we will see we must worship God in truth. Commandment 3, again, how is God to be worshiped? And we will see that we must worship God in spirit. And then the fourth commandment, Again, how is God to be worshiped? Well, we must worship God and God alone in spirit and in truth and on the day that He has prescribed and set apart.

The title of the sermon is biblically regulated worship. Biblically regulated worship. And we will seek to unpack this command under three headings. We will only have time to handle the first two today. Lord willing, in a couple of weeks, we will come back to the third.

But here is the outline. First, the restrictions stated. The restrictions stated. Secondly, the requirements implied. The requirements implied.

And then in a couple of weeks, Lord willing, we will look at the third point, the reasons provided. The reasons provided. So first this morning, the restrictions stated. We see in our text, you shall not make for yourself a carved image, 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. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them." The reformer, John Calvin, defines the false manner of worship the following way, quote, the commandment has two parts.

The first restrains our license from daring to subject God who is incomprehensible to our sense perceptions or to replace him by any form. The second part forbids us to worship any image in the name of religion." Holding your place here in Exodus 20, turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 12. We see in Deuteronomy 12 both the heart of God behind this very commandment, what he intended by it, and we also see the propensity of sinful men to not follow this commandment and why we stand in such great need of it to direct our worship. Look with me beginning in verse 12, Deuteronomy 12.1. These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess all the days that you live on the earth.

You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire. You shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place." And notice, you shall not worship the Lord your God with such things." He doesn't say, you shall not worship those things. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things. And he goes on, but you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to put His name for His dwelling place, and there you shall go.

There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not at all do as we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. Now, skip down to verses 29 to 32. When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire after their gods saying, how did these nations serve their gods?

I also will do likewise. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods, for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it nor take away from it." Well, to better understand the restrictions brought out by virtue of our text here in Exodus 20, let us once again turn to that helpful tool, the Baptist Catechism in question 54, which asks and answers the following question, what is forbidden in the second commandment? The answer, the second commandment forbids the worshiping of God by images or any other way not appointed in His Word.

Well as I studied this answer out, I was helped by the study that Wilhelmus Abrako did in his third volume of the series entitled, The Christian's Reasonable Service. He deals in that volume a lot with the law of God. And I would ask you to please consider with me what is forbidden in this commandment. The first thing forbidden is the worship of images. The worship of images.

Now having forbidden the worship of other gods in the First Commandment, the emphasis here is upon worshiping the true God by means of images, by means of things not prescribed by him. Dear ones, there are many leaving so-called evangelical churches today, and there are not a few who are making their way back to Rome in some form or fashion. And those who remain in the churches where they are often are clamoring for some sort of clean or sanctified practice of bringing images into the church, crosses, lambs, doves, flags, banners, and the like. Here's my question. Who gets to determine where we draw the line?

Who? Is too far defined as the place occupied by those who go a little further than us? Whose church is it? And what has God said He wants in His church? We must worship God in the simplicity that he requires.

If he has not said he wants it, we are not at liberty to add it. Otherwise, we do no differently than Nadab and Abihu, who were slain for bringing something to God's worship that He did not ask for. Second, making physical representations of God in our minds. Making physical representations of God in our minds. This is something that He has forbidden.

The Bible helps us in our understanding by speaking of God in anthropomorphic terms. Children, we read of the hand of God. We read of the arm of God. We read of the eyes of God and the ears of God. But these are to help us in our weakness to relate to God who is, as the Confession states, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, without parts, and without passions.

We are not to allow our minds the freedom to fashion in our thoughts some likeness of God, thus limiting him who is spirit to the demands and weaknesses of our senses. Now Someone may ask here, but what about pictures of Jesus? He had a body. Listen to the wise words of Thomas Watson, quote, it is Christ's Godhead united to his manhood that makes Him to be Christ. Therefore, to picture his manhood when we cannot picture his Godhead is a sin because we make him to be but half Christ.

We separate what God has joined. We leave out that which is the chief thing which makes him to be Christ." End quote. Dear ones, allow me just to be blunt. The second commandment forbids us to have pictures or images of Jesus, even in children's books or Bibles. It forbids it.

Forbids it. How can one consider this commandment and then turn around and set an image before a child and say, this is your God? Watson has this to say to any who would regard such an image as a small matter, quote, to say that someone can use an image to put them in mind of God is as if a woman should say that she keeps company with another man to put her in mind of her husband." Our daily worship of our God must be free from any such representation in mind or on paper. What else is forbidden? Well, thirdly, worshiping with a non-religious disposition of heart.

Worshipping with a non-religious disposition of heart. This occurs when There is no impression of God, no fear of God, and no love for God. There's no effort to either know Him or to seek to know Him or to do His will. There is no esteem for the Word of God or for the servants of God who preach that Word. There is no desire to be united with the people of God, to confess the Lord and to live to His honor.

You see, we can come to the house of God and participate in this service and go through all the motions and all the while with hearts that don't belong to God. We can convince ourselves that we are truly worshiping the Living God. We can convince everyone around us. But the reality is that whatever or whomever we are worshiping, it is not the Lord of heaven and earth. Fourthly, something else it forbids, will worship, will worship.

This consists in serving God in a manner of our own devising or in a manner which has been suggested to us by men, doing so without concern and investigation as to the manner in which God wants us to be served. My fear is that many evangelical churches have attracted masses by means of appealing to the senses and not to the mind. Sights, sounds, smells. There seems to be a growing hunger and longing for the show and not for the word, for decorations and not for doctrine, for connection and not for conviction. The talk of will worship revolves around personal likes, tastes, and preferences.

What do the masses want? What will get them through the doors? And for the church attender, will worship Alton makes choices of where to worship and if not checked and reined in will often choose based on things that the Bible is silent about. Have you ever found yourself after a church service saying, I really liked this. I really liked that.

Dear ones, does it really matter what you like? Should that be the measurement that we use of whether a service was good and biblical? Whether it adhered to the regulative principle? Whether it was pleasing to God? God is seeking worshipers who will worship Him, not their preferences, not their wills.

Fifth, laxity and listlessness in the performance of religious duty. Laxity and listlessness in the performance of religious duty. Laxity and listlessness in the performance of religious duty. Now how is this relevant to the commandment? Well, in this sense, those who are in the presence of God this very moment, what are they doing?

They are declaring, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created." The very summation of the commandments, The greatest command according to Jesus is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our mind and all of our strength. The God of heaven and earth, the creator of all living things, is worthy of the totality of our entire beings in worship to Him. To give him any less is to declare that he is not worthy. It is to fashion a God of our own making who actually deserves less than my all. And how easy that is.

When our hearts don't want to be in it, we fashion a God who is content with how we served him today. That's not our God. Our God is deserving of our whole heart. To do this is to rob him of his glory. Sixth, resting in such a routine performance.

Resting in such a routine performance. Resting in such a routine performance. Isaiah 1 describes a people that have the regulative principle down pat. They know exactly what God wants. They know how to prepare it.

They know the right time. They know the right way. The problem is that it is all routine. They approach God as if he were a deaf and dumb idol, as if he were unaware of how they were approaching. See, there is a danger of worshiping the very principle and act of our own worship.

Worship for the sake of worship, and not worship for the honor of God. We make God to be a deaf and dumb idol who knows not our heart if we bring to him worship that is nothing more than routine and expect him to approve. Lastly, what is forbidden, what is restricted? Hypocrisy in religious practice. Hypocrisy in religious practice.

This is similar to the last in that there might be in place a carefulness in the ways of worship, but the problem here is the audience that we intend. We do things for the eyes of men, thereby placing them as the true objects of our worship and not God whom we claim to be worshiping. And this is what permeated the worship of the Pharisees. They intended to be seen by men and recognized. Edward Fisher in his book, The Marrow of Modern Divinity, declares that if you are here this morning For this reason, then you have in all these things honored and worshiped your parents, your neighbors, your friends, and yourself, and so many false gods instead of the true God and therein have been guilty of a breach of the second commandment.

Brothers and sisters, we have to look at our hearts. Why are we here? Because it was expected of our parents, they made us come. Because it was expected of the elders, because it was expected of us by our brothers and sisters in Christ. Have we come to be seen, to be heard, or have we come to worship our God?

And so we see that there is more to this commandment than forbidding us to take up a carving tool and to fashion a god of our making out of wood or stone or metal. Neither carving an image nor actually physically bowing down are limited to a physical act. We can do these very things within the confines of our own hearts. But not only does this command state restrictions, secondly, we should also see in this commandment the requirements implied. The requirements implied.

As we saw in our last study, with all of the commandments, there's both a positive as well as a negative. The restrictions were actually stated in the command, while the requirements are here implied. And again, we turn to our Baptist Catechism and looking at Question 53 in the Catechism, we see this question in answer. What is required? Not what is forbidden as in the 54th but here in the 53rd, what is required in the second commandment?

The answer, the second commandment requires the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God has appointed in His Word. So what has God required? Well, number one, He has required the full surrender of one's self to the service of God in all things, with all things and at all times." Full surrender. Full. Is this not the plea of Paul in Romans 12, 1 and 2?

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. His will for us is our full surrender. And the commandment implies that we are to serve Him in all things, that we are to serve Him with all things, and that we are to serve Him with all things and that we are to serve Him at all times. Dear ones, do you see it?

If God is who he says he is, is he not worthy of such a sacrifice? And do you see that to offer anything less is to determine, define, and declare the being, the character, and the attributes of God as something less than they are, in so doing an idol has been created and God's glory diminished. Secondly, another requirement implied, the serving of God according to His will. The serving of God according to His will. That is, our entire conduct is to be governed by the will of God as revealed to us in His Word.

This engenders purity in our religious practice. God is seeking worshipers to worship Him in truth. That is, God is seeking worshipers whose entire conduct in this worship service is governed by His Word, His Word that reveals to us His will. Children, do you Recall the very first two catechism questions that we studied some time ago. That first question, what is the chief end of man?

What was that answer? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. You see, this reflects the truth of the first commandment. This is what it means to have no other gods before Him. It's to say, My purpose in life is to glorify Him and Him alone.

But then we come to the second commandment, which instructs us how we worship Him. And so the next catechism question asks us, what rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him? And the answer is the Word of God. Namely, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him. And so when we come to church on Sunday morning, children, the Word of God is the only rule to direct us how we are to glorify and even enjoy this great God in this worship service.

And if God has not said He wants it, we are not at liberty to include it. This is the only means to purity in our worship. Well, what else is implied? Third, the serving of God with the soul, the serving of God with the soul, That is, with the Spirit in a spiritual manner and with the intellect, will, and emotions, the affections of our heart. The true worshipers of God are not those who only worship in truth, as important as that is.

They are those who also worship Him in spirit. Now this comes out more in the next commandment. The preaching of the Word of God, the message of the songs we sing, the prayers that are lifted up to God are all meant to engage our intellect, to capture our will, and to draw out our affections to God. Moses, in calling the people to a pure love for God involving the totality of their being, Deuteronomy 6, what does he do? He holds before them the undivided, pure, and complete oneness of the triune God.

As There is no division in the Trinity. There is to be no division found in our humanity, serving God with the totality of our intellect, our will, and our affections. A fourth requirement is the serving of God with a perfect heart, the serving of God with a perfect heart. That is, without a divided heart, having and seeking something in addition to God. God's indictment against Israel in Isaiah 29-13 includes charges against them in the area of both heart and truth.

In as much as these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the commandments of men." This commandment demands that we not only have a fear of God that is instructed and shaped by the commandments of God, but it demands also that we bring an undivided heart. Fifth, the serving of God with a joyful zeal. The serving of God with a joyful zeal. That is, it must not be a burden, but a delight, rejoicing in the fact that God as yet wishes to be served by us. Not only a full surrender, not only conduct shaped by the Word, not only an engaged intellect, will and affections, not only with our whole and undivided heart, but on top of all of this we must bring zeal.

Zeal. The demand of such a worthy Savior should not burden us, for this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome." First John 5.3. Albrachl sums up these very points in the following manner, quote, it is neither a matter of indifference to God as to how we serve him, nor are we to be of the opinion that he will be pleased just so long as he is served, even if it is in a manner which is acceptable to us, he indeed takes note of the manner of service as carefully as the service itself." The last requirement I shall state is the opposing of false religion and eradication of idols and images. This is what's required. The opposing of false religion and the eradication of idols and images.

Now, what does it look like to oppose false religion? Well we live in a society the doctrine of which is found on bumpers everywhere. Coexist. Coexistence. Syncretism is the way to go about it.

They often proclaim that all religions are but different paths, different sides of the same mountain, and we're all ascending the same mountain. We're all making our way to the same God. Is it enough for us just to do our thing in the middle of it all, to take what we see as that right path up that mountain to our God, to ignore false religion all around us and just plug on our own journey. I ran across an article a couple of weeks ago that really gripped my heart. The article was a copy of a public release written by a Scottish presbytery in regard to a decision by the Western Isles Council out on the Hebrides of Scotland to accept the planning application for the construction of a mosque in Stornoway, Scotland.

I submit to you that this Presbytery understands the crown rights of Jesus Christ. They understand the authority that Jesus Christ alone has and the duty of the Church of Christ to teach the nations. And I would like to just read the press release to you. This is what it said. Having made a representation on the matter to the council prior to the determination of the application, we now wish to state publicly the reasons why we object to the creation of a mosque in Stornoway.

Our main concern is with the religion of Islam itself. If a mosque ever opens, Islam will be able to promote itself in our midst through public worship despite its beliefs and practices being alien to the religious convictions of the vast majority of our community. Islam is wholly inconsistent with the teaching of the Word of God and Holy Scripture, which is the only rule to direct us. It is opposed to the Christian religion as confessed by the church historically since apostolic times and as established by law in our land since the Reformation. Fundamentally, Islam utterly denies the divine person and redeeming work of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to satisfy the justice of God that He might grant forgiveness to sinners.

Since Islam has no Savior, It offers no hope to guilty and hell-deserving sinners, for we cannot save ourselves by our own works. The Bible declares that having paid the price for the sins of his people, Christ rose triumphantly from the dead, ascended bodily to heaven, and is now seated at God's right hand. From there, He will return to this world at the end of time as the infallible Judge of us all. Islam is also incompatible with and indeed a threat to our religious and civil liberties, as is very evident from the situation which prevails in those countries where it dominates. The oppression of Christians and the reduced status of women under Islam are well known, as is the willingness of some of its followers to spread its influence by violent means.

It is a sobering fact that in recent years many militant Islamists or jihadists have entered European countries under the guise of being refugees and migrants. When their real intention has been to wage war on the West on behalf of their religion. We are witnessing the tragic results of this deception in the form of regular acts of carnage, including in the UK. We have also seen young men born and brought up in our own country who have been radicalized in mosques and have turned against the society which has hosted them. We stress that we have nothing against individual Muslims, least of all, any who have been forced to flee their homelands because of persecution and suffering.

Our desire and prayer for those who have made their way to Scotland and other parts of the UK is that they would hear the gospel of Christ and find the way of salvation, coming to know the love, grace, and forgiveness of God. Finally, we urge the Lord's people to make this situation a matter of earnest prayer, asking the Almighty that in His kindness He will grant that no mosque will ever appear in Stornoway. Man may propose, God always disposes. Above and beyond this particular issue, we need to plead with the Lord that in His mercy He would enable us to turn from our sinful and foolish course as a nation and return to Him. Let us take our confidence from the Bible which says, is anything too hard for the Lord.

What a public release. What a public release. Our God has all authority. The church to be the pillar and ground of the truth. We must demolish false religions.

But brethren, it's not enough to demolish the false religion out there. We must eradicate the idols and images in our own midst, here, in our midst, the false worship that proceeds from our hearts. As is the case with every sin, so it is with idolatry. Oh, we see it so much more clearly in the lives of others than in our own life. But we must be about the duty of eradicating that which is unacceptable to God, who has made His will abundantly known in His Word.

What we have seen this morning, the restrictions stated and the requirements implied, the Lord willing in a couple of weeks we will consider together the rest of this commandment, which gives us reasons to keep it, reasons to obey it with all of our hearts. My friend, is your conscience smitten this morning? Maybe you feel the finger of Nathan the prophet pointing at you saying, you're the man, You're the woman. What are you to do? What are you to do?

Well, the first thing you must do, You must go to Christ. He is the one who obeyed this law perfectly, perfectly. He is the one He is the one who paid the debt of the curse due to you for not obeying. He paid it on the cross, but he only paid it for those who will come to him in faith and embrace that substitutionary sacrifice on their behalf. If you've not confessed Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life, then you can in no way, in no way worship God right.

You can't do it. Even those of us who know and love Him can't do it as we ought, as we want to. Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father for salvation or with worship apart from Him. Come to Christ.

Come to Christ. The other thing we need to do is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength. It's not run out and do better, do better. Outperform them, get this right, get this right. We need to go to Christ and we need to love our God.

Love our God. And my dear friend, when you are trusting in Christ for your standing before the Father, and when you have a love for God that excels all, and when your love for Him constrains you to take the Scriptures to heart, then and only then will you be enabled to, as the psalmist says in Psalm 119.32, I will run the course of your commandments for you, O Lord, shall enlarge my heart. May God make it to be so. Amen. Let us pray.

O gracious God, we we thank you for your goodness and your mercy to us. We thank you that your Son has redeemed us from the curse of the law. For oh Lord we have in so many ways broken these commandments. Father we come to you through him. Lord, we have need that His sacrifice would cover our sins, even in this past hour.

We have not worshiped you as we ought. We have not loved you as we ought. Oh God, forgive us. Give us hearts that love you and want to keep every single one of your commandments if it were possible to keep them perfectly. But though we never will this side of heaven we thank you that we have a Savior.

We thank you that His blood covers the multitude of our sins. Wash us afresh in that blood. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.