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Promises Of The Law - Part 9

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• Deuteronomy chapter 5, and we're going to read verses 8 through 10. Deuteronomy 5 verses 8 through 10. This is the ninth message in the series on the promises of the law. And today we come to the second commandment. So notice Deuteronomy chapter 5, beginning there with verse 8, God says: "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." We've come a long way in this series, and last week I dealt basically with the first commandment where God says, "Thou shalt have none other gods before me." And the first commandment is indeed a basic or fundamental commandment.

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• If it is acknowledged and understood, then logically all of the other commandments should actually fall in place. So after declaring in the first commandment who was the one true and the living God and that He alone should be worshiped, in the second commandment He now tells you how He is to be worshipped. He gives us what will be His lawful worship and what will be unlawful. Now, since God is absolutely sovereign, since God is God, He has the absolute right to tell us how He is to be worshipped. He has the right to tell us what is acceptable unto Him and what is unacceptable. Unacceptable worship is really not worship at all. It is rebellion.

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• It is blasphemy. It is the way of Cain. You remember in the book of Genesis, Abel brought the blood as was required of him, but Cain brought the fruit of the ground, that which he had made with his own hands. And Abel's was accepted and Cain's was not. And so anytime you deal with unacceptable worship, in one sense of the word, it is what the Bible calls the way of Cain.

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• Now, many people erroneously believe that they need aids in worship. Now, by the term aids, I refer to images and statues and paintings. And all of these things are kind of looked upon as an aid to help people really and truly worship God. However, the truth of the matter is the aids usually detract from God's worship. They usually lead us astray into that which is not really God at all. Because many times we use those paintings or we use those images or those statues and we form in our minds some concept of God which is totally and absolutely unbiblical and unscriptural.

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• A good illustration is if you recall the average picture of Jesus that is prominent today. He's kind of looking away like this. He's got the long brown hair. And of course, according to the Bible, Jesus Christ did not have long hair. How do I know that? Well, first Corinthians chapter 14 tells us if a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him. And obviously our Lord is not going to do anything that would shame himself or the Father. Moreover, when He was alive, Caesar was on the throne and the Caesar cut was the rage. And the Caesar cut, of course, was a very short hair style. But usually when people think about Jesus Christ, they try to picture that painting or that drawing which is very, very familiar.

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• So oftentimes these paintings and these statues and images, they detract from the real worship of God. They certainly do not help. And anything that is condemned by God is certainly unacceptable unto Him.

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• Now let me tell you something that I found very interesting. And some of you should know this, having been raised in this situation. But did you know that the Roman Catholic Church totally, completely leaves out the second commandment out of their ten commandments? So what they do, they take the tenth commandment and they divide it and make two out of it, but you will not find the second commandment as it is recorded in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 in the commandments by the Roman Catholic Church.

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• Because obviously if this commandment was preached and taught, it would not only destroy their teaching, but it would certainly destroy an awful lot of their unacceptable worship as well. But the Bible tells us very plainly, if God is God, then He has the absolute right to tell us how He is to be worshipped.

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• Now when we are talking about the Second Commandment and God says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or that in the waters beneath the earth," I do not think that this commandment is against art for art's sake. Nor do I believe that this commandment is against what you and I would just simply call sculptures, or sculpturing. You have to remember this, there was an awful lot of art not only in the tabernacle, but in the temple as well. Not only was there art, there were the cherubims and they were certainly what you and I would call molten, or graven, or made somehow. And of course when you get to the Temple, all of the artwork that was there.

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• In fact, God also commanded Moses to make the brazen serpent in the wilderness, which was held up so people could look at it. So this commandment then is not necessarily condemning all art, all sculptures, or all images or anything like that. But what it is indeed condemning is using those things as a means to worship. So the plain everyday carving of an animal or chiseling something out of stone is not necessarily sin in itself. It is a sin therefore to take those things and use them as a means to worship God, which He condemns very clearly. Now the Hebrew word for graven, when God said, "Thou shalt not make any graven image," literally means to hew, to carve, or to grave. And it signifies any kind of image, either wood, stone, or metal, on which the ax, or the chisel, or the graving tool has been employed.

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• So this commandment then includes the prohibition of practically everything that the Egyptians worshipped. Now, why would this commandment be so specific against that which the Egyptians worshipped? And the answer is because Israel was in Egypt for over 400 years. And in 400 years you would have a lot of time to absorb heathen thinking and culture, methodology. And God is being very specific. He says you are not to make anything graven.

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• Now let me show you. I want you to look in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 4 and let's begin reading there with verse 12. And then I'm going to give you a quote and try to analyze this passage for you. Deuteronomy chapter 4, beginning there with verse 12: "And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice." So the Bible is emphasizing the fact they saw no kind of image or any kind of form when God spoke. They just simply heard the voice. Now watch verse 13: "And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them

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• in the land whither ye go over to possess it." Now look again, here's this warning: "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."

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• Now God is very specific, and especially in verses 16 through 18, about that which is absolutely forbidden. I want to take the time to read to you a comment by Adam Clarke, and he's actually commenting on these verses 16 and 17 and 18 where God says you're not to make any likeness of these things. And listen to what he says: "To know the full spirit and extent of this commandment, that is the second commandment, we must take it in light of Deuteronomy chapter 4: 'Take good heed unto yourselves, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female.' Now listen to what he says: 'All who have the slightest acquaintance with

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• the ancient history of Egypt know that Osiris and his wife Isis were the supreme divinities among the people.' So they had a male and a female as gods. He goes on: 'He is explaining now the likeness of any beast, such as the ox or the heifer. Among the Egyptians the ox was not only sacred but adored, because they supposed that in one of these animals Osiris took up his residence. Hence they always had a living ox, which they supposed to be the habitation of this deity. And they imagined that on the death of one he entered into the body of another, and so successively.

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• This famous ox-god they called Apis and Mnevis.' Then he goes on to say, '...the likeness of any winged fowl, the ibis, or the stork, or the crane, or the hawk, may here be intended, for all of these were objects of Egyptian idolatry.'

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• Now listen carefully: '...the likeness of anything that creepeth, The crocodile, serpents, the scarabaeus or beetle were all objects of adoration. And it is very probable that the frog itself was a sacred animal, as from its inflation it was emblematic of prophetic influence, for they supposed that the god inflated or distended the body of the person by whom He gave oracular answers.' And then he mentions the likeness of any fish. This is amazing. All fish were esteemed sacred animals among the Egyptians.

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• One called Oxyrhynchus had, according to Strabo, a temple and divine honors paid to it. Another fish called Phagrus was worshipped at Cyrene, according to Clemens Alexandrinus. And the Lepidotus, whatever this is, and the eel were objects of their adoration, as we find from Herodotus. In short, oxen, heifers, sheep, goats, lions, dogs, monkeys, and cats; the ibis, the crane, the hawk; the crocodile, serpents, frogs, flies, the scarabaeus or beetle; the Nile and its fish; the sun, moon, planets, stars; fire, light, air, darkness, and night were all subjects of Egyptian idolatry.

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• all included in this very circumstantial prohibition as detailed in Deuteronomy, and very forcibly in the general terms of the text, 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.'" So, what He is doing in the Second Commandment is saying anything that you find, or anything that you understood from Egypt is verboten. It is forbidden. It is unacceptable.

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• I will not have any worship that is pagan in its origin. Now John Calvin, quoting on this, made this statement. He said, "Now we must remark that there are two parts to this commandment. We are talking about the Second Commandment. The first forbids the erection of a graven image or any likeness. And the second prohibits the transferring of that worship which God claims for Himself alone to any of these phantoms or delusive shows. Therefore, to devise any image of God is in itself impious, because by this corruption His Majesty is adulterated, and He is figured to be other than He is." In other words, you and I cannot conceive in our mind images of God and think, "Well, this is the way God is." No, the only God that exists is the God that has revealed Himself in the Bible. And He is exactly as He has revealed Himself. And for you and I to think otherwise is absolutely idolatry. You must remember that the word image comes from the word imagination. You cannot create an image unless you first imagine it in your mind.

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• So image comes from imagination. To give you an illustration how far off our thinking normally is, years ago I was in a pastor friend's office and we were talking about the doctrine of election. Well, the door was standing wide open and his secretary was right outside at her desk. And we had just been rejoicing in the doctrine and talking about the doctrine of election, and all of a sudden she barges into the room and into our conversation. And she makes this statement. She is so upset.

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• She says, "I don't care what the Bible says. I know God's not like that." Well, the pastor picked his jaw from the floor. He looked at her. He said, "Did you hear what you just said?" And in other words, her God was a god of her imagination. It was not the God of the Bible. She was unwilling to take what the Bible said, but she was willing to accept what she thought. Now molten images, graven images, idols have always been condemned throughout Scripture. Let me just show you several passages. If you will turn in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 4, just back a few pages. Leviticus chapter 19, look in verse 4. God says in this particular passage, "Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God." So He says, "Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods." Look in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 1. Leviticus 26 and verse 1. Again God says it like this: "Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear

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• you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God." So God is forbidding any graven image that can be worshipped or associated with worship to be reared up. In Joshua 24 and verse 20, you don't have to turn there, but Joshua told the people, "If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good." In other words, don't turn away from the one true and living God and turn to idols.

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• Now obviously when you look at Deuteronomy chapter 5 and the Second Commandment, there are two promises that are attached here. So we are talking about the promises of the law. So if you look in Deuteronomy chapter 5, beginning there with verse 9, after He tells you not to make any graven image, He says, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."

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• Now here is a promise, it is a threat: negative sanction, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." Here is the positive: "And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."

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• Now, here is what I want you to see today. God has promised to visit His vengeance, His justice, upon those who hate Him. Wow. And He is describing those who hate Him as those who will not honor Him and give Him glory and worship Him in the way that He has declared. So here's the promise of judgment. Here's the promise of divine vengeance on those who violate the Second Commandment. The second part of that promise is found in verse 10, He said, "...and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments." So, He says once again, if you love Me and if you keep My commandments, then I'm going to promise you that you are going to be receiving mercy.

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• Now here is the point that I want to make: you have a negative sanction, you have a positive sanction. But here is the connection, look back in verse 9: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them"—and you can underline this—"for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." The reason for these promises, both negative and positive, is that they are connected to the jealousy of God. Not sure that you are aware of this, but I'm going to show it to you in the Bible. But do you know that one of the names of God in the Bible is Jealous? If you will look in your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 34, Genesis, Exodus, Exodus chapter 34 and look at verse 14. You are going to see the term jealous used a number of times in Scripture. But Exodus chapter 34 in verse 14, look carefully. God says, "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." So one of the names of God in Scripture is Jealous, because He is a jealous God. You would turn right over to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6, right past our text, Deuteronomy chapter 6, and look

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• if you would please at verse 15. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 15: "For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth." So He says the Lord thy God is a jealous God. In fact, in the book of Nahum chapter 1 in verse 1, the Bible says, "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries." But it begins, "The Lord is jealous." The name and the nature of God answer one to another, and God is not going to allow any competitors or any rivals. An interesting thing is when you look at all of the false gods, for instance if you went to the Greek Parthenon and you see here's a Diana, here is a Juno, here is someone else, all of these gods are competitors and they really—they're false gods—but they are competitors and they have rivals and they will fight against each other and all that. But God is not like that. God brooks absolutely no rivals. He is jealous of His worship.

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• He is jealous of His honor and He is jealous of His glory. And this jealousy, I'm going to show you a little bit later, is actually a jealousy that is related to what you and I would call a marriage covenant.

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• Now, I want you to look in your Bibles back to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus 34, go back to that passage. We just read one verse, that was verse 14, showing you that the name of the Lord is Jealous. Now we're going to go back and look at it in its context. Exodus chapter 34 and we're going to begin reading in verse 10 and read through verse 17. So Exodus chapter 34 and look, if you would please, at verse 10. Notice if you would: "And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee." Now note, He said, "I'm going to make a covenant with thee." God's jealousy for His people is based upon His covenant, His covenant relationship with them. Let's go farther, verse 11.

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• He said, "Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods." Now God says, when you come into the land, you destroy their altars, you cut down their images, you cut down their groves, and nothing.

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• In other words, my worship is not like their worship. What did He say in Isaiah 42 and verse 8? "I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." God is indeed a jealous God.

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• Now, jealousy in the Scripture is used both in a positive and a negative sense. When it is used in reference to God, of course, it is a positive because it is not only the name of God, but it is an attribute of God. Now, let me just stop and mention to you the way to understand this is to understand it anthropomorphically. I've given you that word before. Anthropos is the Greek word for man. Morphe is the Greek word for form. So anthropomorphic just simply means man-form speaking. You're going to find as you read the Bible, there are a lot of man-form speaking in the Bible.

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• For instance, when you get to Proverbs 15, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, beholding the evil and the good." God doesn't have any eyes. God is spirit. That is speaking of God's omniscience. When the Bible says He brought Israel out of Egypt by a mighty hand or stretched out arm, that's anthropomorphically. God does not have a hand like we have a hand or an arm the way we have an arm, because God is spirit. But that is speaking of God's omnipotence. That is speaking of God's power. And so when you understand God's jealousy here, the language is used in relationship to a covenantal relationship, just like the relationship between a husband and his wife. And you're going to find that of course God's jealousy, it's not just for His honor and His glory and His worship, but it's also for His people as well. As you read through the Bible, if you would take note of the fact, His jealousy is spoken of over and over. He is the jealous God. He's not going to give His glory to another. He's jealous for His glory.

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• He's jealous for His honor. He's jealous for His worship. He's not going to accept anything except that which He has delineated. And He is jealous for His people. What did He say? "He that toucheth thee toucheth the apple of my eye." He rebuked kings for His people. He says, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." So we're going to find that God is indeed jealous over His people as well.

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• Now, the jealousy of God just points out how He is vigilant in protecting that which is His own. The difference between envy and jealousy is this. Envy is when you desire something and covet something that does not belong to you. You want it. Jealousy is when you're protecting that which does belong to you. So if I protect my wife, I could be said to be jealous for my wife. I'm not envious for her, I'm jealous for her because I'm going to protect her, I'm going to protect her honor as well. So this is exactly what God is doing. Jealousy guards that which one does possess. And God does possess honor, He does possess glory, He does possess His own worship, and He does possess His own people. Now, so where the name Jealous comes in for God and the fact that God is a jealous God in terms of His worship has reference into what you and I would call the marriage bed or the marriage covenant.

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• In the book of Proverbs 6 and verse 34, the Bible says that jealousy is the rage of a man. And in fact, the man will not be satisfied, though thou givest him many gifts. But on the other hand, when the Bible talks about God's jealousy, it is a holy and just jealousy where God is vigilantly guarding that which belongs to Him. So let me give you a couple of statements and I want you to ponder these. First of all, it is impossible to worship God aright if you do not worship God alone. It is impossible to worship God aright if you do not worship God alone.

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• Secondly, it is impossible to worship God aright unless you worship Him in the manner that He dictates. There is acceptable worship and there is unacceptable worship. There is lawful worship and there is unlawful worship. And when God promises in the second commandment to take vengeance to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him, it is in regard to His jealousy. When God promises to have mercy upon those that love Him and keep His commandments, it is in regard to His jealousy. Now what you and I fail to remember is that we owe God every day, every hour, every minute, second. Certainly we should give Him His public worship. We should also give Him His private worship.

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• But let me show you. I want you to look in your Bibles to 1 Chronicles chapter 16. 1 Chronicles chapter 16, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapter 16, and look if you would please at verse 29. And then we're going to turn to Psalms. First Chronicles chapter 16, verse 29. The Scripture says, "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.

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• Bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."

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• Now note if you would, "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." So giving the Lord glory that is due unto His name is connected to worship. If you would turn in your Bibles to Psalm 29 and look at verse 2. Psalm 29 and verse 2. Notice again Psalm 29 verse 2, and here it is practically the same verse: "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Give unto the Lord the glory that is due unto His name. Then if you will look in Psalm 96—hold the book of Psalms because I'm going to show you another one just momentarily—but look in Psalm 96 if you would please and verse 8. Psalm 96 in verse 8: "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth." Notice again, "Give

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• unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts," and then he says, "O worship the Lord." So once again worship is connected with giving the Lord the glory due unto His name. We should be giving God praise, glory, and thanksgiving on a daily basis, sometimes on an hourly basis. It is my custom each morning when I awaken, before I ever get out of bed, to thank the Lord for allowing us to live through the night and thank Him for the new day. When I go to bed at night, I thank Him for allowing us to live through the day and ask Him to protect us and continue His blessings through the night as we sleep. Whenever we're driving down the road and I see a cross beside the road knowing someone was killed there, I always thank the Lord for life. I thank Him for sparing my life, for sparing my wife's life. I'm just simply saying we miss so many opportunities to give God glory and to give God thanks.

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• Many of us have been in automobile wrecks. We've totaled our cars, some have, but we were spared. I just received a prayer request just this week of a family up north. An older couple had their grandchildren there spending the night with them and somehow their house caught on fire. And they were in the second story and they had to open a window and jump into a snowbank to save their lives. The grandparents got out fine, so did the grandchildren, but the house and everything in the house was utterly consumed. Of course they were thankful just to be alive. I mean it is a sad thing to lose everything that you have worked for all of your life, but at least you have your life.

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• And this is what he is talking about: give the Lord the glory due unto His name. Now here is another thought: a failure to give the Lord glory, a failure to give the Lord worship is a provocation unto Him. So I want you to go back to Psalm 78, Psalm 78 and see how these individuals provoked the Lord. Psalm 78 beginning there with verse 55, and he's talking about how he brought Israel into the land. So notice Psalm 78 verse 55: "He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God." Note, they tempted and provoked the most high God.

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• How did they tempt Him? How did they provoke Him? "And kept not his testimonies, but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow." Here it is: "For they provoked him to anger with their high places"—that is unacceptable worship—"and moved him to jealousy with their graven images." Wow. They provoked God by failing to give God the worship, and the glory, and the honor that was due unto Him.

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• Now when you see the word provoked, the word provoked there literally means to be rebellious, to be disobedient, to be grievous, to be refractory, a failure to show honor and respect. So, here's God declaring Himself to be the jealous God, and He says if you give Me My glory, if you worship Me, I promise to bless you and show you mercy. If you do not worship Me and honor Me, then I promise to judge you and I promise to exercise My wrath upon you. Now, let me ask you a question. How many of you would be willing, if I provided a stick

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• that was six feet long, about an inch in diameter, had a sharp point on the end of it—how many of you would be willing to go up to a full-grown grizzly bear or a full-grown lion and poke him with the sharp end of that stick just to see what he would do? Just stop and think about this. You pretty well know the outcome, I'm sure. I saw a cartoon. I liked it. It showed a grizzly bear sitting up on a stump. I mean a big grizzly bear.

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• And he said, "Campers and tents are nothing more than soft tacos to us." Well, that's kind of the truth. I mean, you start poking a bear or a lion with a sharp stick, you're gonna be like a soft taco, and you know it. And if someone did that, you know, we would say he's insane. We know what the outcome is going to be. But yet, you know, people provoke God and hate Him and despise Him and disobey Him, and He is the omnipotent Sovereign of the universe, and they challenge God and they dare God to judge them and to strike them. They would never do that with a lion or a bear, but yet they're willing to do that with the God of heaven. Now, I

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• want you to note something. The jealousy of God is not only taught in the Old Testament, it's also taught in the New Testament. I want you to look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10, and let's begin reading there with verse 14. 1 Corinthians 10, and look if you would please at verse 14. The Apostle Paul gives some very good counsel in verse 14. He says, "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry." Run from it, get away from it. Do not engage in it. Do not have anything to do with it. So he says, "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

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• I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say." Now, he said if you're wise you're gonna listen to me. Now watch verse 16: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" So we're talking about the Lord's table. "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then?

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• that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?" Now watch carefully: "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles"—in this context, the unsaved, the pagans, the heathen—"but I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." Now watch this question: "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?

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• are we stronger than he?" He says, you want to play around with God? You want to poke God with that long stick and challenge Him? You want to try to worship Him partially and worship something else partially? No! He said it is totally wicked and vile, and it's just as wrong to provoke God in the New Testament as it was to provoke Him in the Old Testament. I want to give you a quote. John Gill, the great Baptist commentator, said this: "To give in to idolatrous practices is to proclaim and enter into a war against God.

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• And what madness must this be? Who can be so sottish and stupid as to think of succeeding, when God is omnipotent, and man a poor, feeble, impotent creature, a worm, and but dust and ashes? Thus the apostle dissuades from idolatry, and every species and branch of it, partly from its ill effect in bringing men into fellowship with devils, and partly from the impossibility of practicing it in consistence with the real and true participation of the cup and table of the Lord. And from the absurdity and stupidity of it and its dangerous consequence"—listen—"in exposing men to the vengeance of an almighty incensed being." He says, you want to stick God? You want to provoke God? You want to jab Him with that sharp stick? You want to find out what an angry God really is?

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• Charles Haddon Spurgeon said it like this, and this is trying to tie the jealousy of God in with the second commandment. He said, "The covenant of grace is a marriage covenant. Christ's Church has become His spouse." I'm going to stop right there. We have been married to Jesus Christ. We are a spouse to Jesus Christ according to the Apostle Paul. He says, "It is here that God's jealousy is peculiarly liable to take fire. Men cannot be God's favorites without being the subjects of His watchfulness and jealousy. That which might be overlooked in another will be chastened in a member of Christ. As a husband is jealous of his honor, so is the Lord Jesus much concerned for the purity of His church." Wow.

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• And Moses in Psalm 90 in verse 11 said, "Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath." You know, the interesting thing is when the Bible talks about earthquakes and all kind of catastrophes, the Bible says this is but the hiding of His power. It's not the full demonstration. It's just the hiding of His power. But do you realize it is just as possible to provoke God in the New Testament as it was to provoke Him in the Old Testament? Look in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 8. Hebrews 3 and verse 8. Note if you would the reference. Hebrews 3 verse 8: Here the Apostle says this, "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation"—he's talking about what we read in Psalm 78—"Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness." Harden not your hearts. Skip down to verse 15: "While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." Wow. Harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation. Now, the interesting

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• thing is the word harden is from the Greek word skleruno, and it literally means to make hard, to make obstinate, to be stubborn, to be insolent. This is the same Greek word that we get our English word sclerosis from, the hardening of the arteries. And so He says, "Harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation." It is possible for a Christian to harden his heart.

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• You remember, I preached on this not too long back on two messages on hardened hearts. Our Lord looked at His apostles and He said, "Have ye your heart yet hardened?" So obviously it is possible for a Christian to become insolent and stubborn and obstinate. Let me give you an illustration. I have counseled a lot of people, and inevitably someone comes up with something like this. I would say, "Now the Bible says..." and then I would hear, "I don't care." Then I'll change just so—"Now God says..." "I don't care." And I would stop and say, "You mean you don't really care what God says? You don't care what the Bible says?" What that means is you have a hardened heart. What that means is you are in far more trouble than you could ever imagine. Because God has said, "Harden not your hearts." A hardened heart is a heart that is inconsiderate. It's a heart that is unthinking. It's a heart that is uncaring. It's a heart that is rebellious. And when you stop and think about the adulterer, the adulterer only cares for himself.

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• He cares not for his spouse. And it's the same truth in relationship to God. When we render unto God the kind of worship that we want Him to have, we're caring only for ourselves. And I've heard people say, "But this makes me feel good." Really? Worship is not designed to make you feel good. Worship is designed to give God the honor and glory that is due unto His name, whether you feel anything or not. Worship is not about you. It's about God.

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• An interesting thing is this. All idolatry in the Bible is usually represented as spiritual adultery or spiritual fornication. It's giving the heart to sin and wickedness when the heart should be dedicated to God. What made the sin of Israel so grievous was that they were in a covenantal relationship with God. They had promised Him their heart, their love, and their worship, and they rebelled against Him. What makes it so grievous in the New Testament is we have been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ. We have been bought by His person and His work. We've entered into a covenant with Him and we've promised to give Him our hearts, our love, and our obedience. And then we turn and give it to something else. Wow. No wonder God is said to be a jealous God. It's just like if your wife promised to be faithful to you and then turned and went with every man in town, you'd be mighty upset. And wives would be the same thing if your husband promised to be faithful, then ran off with every other woman.

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• You'd be mighty upset. God is a jealous God. Now, let me make a couple of applications and think about this. If you really want to comprehend the second commandment, then you must comprehend and understand the jealousy of God. Because the jealousy of God is really and truly expressing His love and His affection for His people. He is saying in essence, "I love you so much that I am unwilling to be deprived of your affection and your honor and your worship. I want it." And I'm unwilling to be deprived of it. And therefore God is jealous over us with a godly jealousy. We must give Him, if we love Him, the worship and the praise and the honor and the glory that is due unto His name. When you look at the second commandment, there are promises. And God is saying, if you do not worship Me as the one true and the living God, and you do not worship Me the way that I dictate, I promise that I will judge you. But the other part of that promise is, if you worship Me as the one true and the living God, and you give Me that which I ask for, I promise you there will be mercy and grace.

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• The second commandment is easily understood if you understand the jealousy of God. God is jealous. His name is Jealous. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we do bow before Thee. We thank You for Your word. We thank You for Your truth. We thank You, Heavenly Father, that Thou art the one true and the living God. We ask You today, Lord, that You would help us, enable us to give Thee the glory and the worship and the honor that's due unto Thy great and holy name. May we not forget Thee. May we not provoke Thee. But may we honor Thee. Father, we ask in the name of Jesus Christ that Thou wouldst spring our lives in submission unto Thee, and help us, Lord, to render unto Thee our love and our affection and our thanks. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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• so so

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T14:03:00Z