Question 56: What is required in the second commandment?

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.

During the next two weeks lessons we will see the specifics that underline the regulative principle of worship. In doing so we will see what God has said to do in His worship and what not to do.

DAY 1: Deuteronomy 12:32; 32:46

In looking at the passage in Deuteronomy twelve we see this context is one following chapters five through eleven which speak to a general principle of worship, loving and obeying God that was demanded of the people of Israel.

In chapter five Moses called the people of Israel. He reminds them of the words that God had given them on Mount Sinai. In verses six through 22 he reviews that ten commandments. He reminds them of the fear they had when they stood in the presence of the Lord at Mount Sinai. In each chapter the people of Israel are exhorted to obey God and they’re warned about disobedience. For instance, in chapter six, they’re told in verse five that they are to love the Lord their God with all their heart with all their sole to with all their strength. Moses then gives them the practical application of this command in verses six through nine. He tells them that they show their love for God in diligently teaching the things of God to their children. They’re immediately warned of neglecting to follow through and obedience. They’re told and verses fourteen and fifteen that they’re not to take for themselves any other gods nor are they to serve the gods of the people who surround them. If they do, the lord will burn in his anger and will destroy them from the face of the earth. They are to remember the things that the Lord has done for them in the past and what He is about to do by bringing them into the Promised Land. So we can see that it was important that the people pass on the heritage that was theirs because of what God had done. The purpose for this teaching was so that the next generation would know the Lord and obey and love Him.

God told them how they were to conduct themselves in the land. In chapter seven they are told not to enter into agreements with the people of the land nor show mercy to them (vs. 2). They were not to marry them (vs. 3). They were to destroy the people’s abominable places and instruments of worship, even down to their carved images which this commandment specifically deals with (vs. 5). He tells them the reason for this. They are a holy people to the Lord (vs. 6). The term for holy here is qadosh. We have seen the term used in the Septuagint, hagios, in our New Testament studies. It refers to saints. Specifically in this passage it speaks to being set apart. As those who are among the elect of God, we have been set apart for a particular purpose. That purpose is to glorify God. The same was to be true for Israel. They were not to try be some super spiritual people. Rather they were to glorify God by obeying Him from a heart of love. However, there existed one problem. They had uncircumcised hearts, as we saw in our previous lessons. Therefore, if anyone was to worship God in the ways He was commanding, their hearts had to be circumcised. We often think that our worship of God is what is done corporately in the meeting of the church. While that is true, worship is also the very actions and motives behind those actions. This is what drives our worship. God did not just give them the specifics on corporate worship, but even the worship of everyday living. He did not leave one thing unspoken about every area of life including what they were to wear and eat.

They were also given reasons for doing so. In 7:6 God told the people that they were a wholly people. This meant they were to be separate from the people in the land they were going into. That they were chosen people with whom he had set his love upon and as a result he expected them to love Him in return. God then instructs them about the blessings they will receive if they are obedient to Him.

In chapter eight the Lord reminds them not to forget Him when they enter the land. He wanted to remind them of the source of their life, strength and their sustenance. He also warned them that if they forgot Him and followed other gods and serve them that they would surely perish.

In chapters nine and ten we see that God had spoken to Moses about the people and Moses and had spoken to the people the words of God concerning them. And God was also gracious in providing another copy of the Ten Commandments and they were to put them in the art of the covenant. Remember that the Lord had to provide the second copy because of the sin of idolatry within the camp as Moses was upon the mountain. For when Moses came down he saw the people engaged in their sin and he threw the tablets down and broke them.

The some of our study is found in chapter ten verse twelve. "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?” God’s desire was for them to worship Him in purity and from a heart of love and gratitude for all that He had done for them and for who He is. He even promises them that He will reward their obedience. God is pleased to show mercy to those who love and obey Him (Ex. 20:6).

Moses also gave them commands of how their formal worship of God was to be. In 12:2-3 the people were to destroy all the places and altars where the people they were driving out worshipped. God was not to be worshipped as the false gods of the land. They were instead to worship WHERE the Lord prescribed (vs. 5) and they were to worship Him WITH burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, heave offerings vowed offerings and the firstborn of their herds and flocks. Their worship was also TO BE reverent (before the LORD your God) and full of joy as the Lord had blessed them.

Their worship was to be just as God had declared it to be. Each man could not come and worship “as he pleased”. Rather his worship was to be exactly as God had said it should be. The Lord even gave instruction about what was to be done with the sacrifices and how they were to be partaken of in verses 11-28. God told the people that he hates all the ways of worship of the people that he was driving out and specifically mentions the burning of their children (vs. 31). The people of Israel were not to invest themselves in such things, nor were they to even inquire about the worship of false gods (vs.30).

Notice that the things they did in their “private lives” were not to be removed from their public worship. The same is true for us today. We are not to worship God on the Lord’s Day and then not worship Him throughout the week. Rather, even our conduct is worship to the Lord. The people of Israel were to conduct themselves different in their everyday lives, as well as, in their corporate worship of God. Therefore, we see that we must be careful both in how we worship corporately and in how we worship privately. This is to be clearly understood in light of what Moses says in Deuteronomy 32:46, “…be careful to observe—all the words of this law.

In all of the things that they were commanded to do, God was very clear to them in 12:32. They were to obey whatever He had commanded. The word “observe” (shamar) means to give heed to, but also carries the idea of guarding or protecting. The people were to guard the worship of God in the sense that they were not to allow the influence of the worship of the gods of the people in whose land they were entering to influence the worship of the true God. This can be a very dangerous, even deadly thing. In our case today, we must closely scrutinize our worship, both corporately, as well as, individually. We have many traditions that have been engrained in us that we must seek the counsel of the Lord to rid ourselves of in order that we may worship God in Spirit and in truth.

DISCUSSION: You may want to ask your family what things would be proper in the worship of God. Have them mention some things and then ask them to explain why. You may also want to discuss why certain things should not be included in the worship of God. Also provide an explanation.

Make sure that your family understands that everyone cannot worship “in his or her own way”, but must worship God as He has defined His worship to be. Make sure they understand that their daily lives are worship toward God and that it cannot be disconnected from their worship on the Lord’s Day.

DAY 2: Matthew 28:20

While this passage is used quite a bit today to rally many people to evangelism, I believe that The Great Commission is even more than the conversion of people. Today it is widely emphasized to get people to present a somewhat watered down anthropocentric gospel in order to make people feel that they are obeying God and make them feel good about themselves. However, these words are command of the resurrected Lord concerning the work to be done following baptism.

Notice that Jesus said that authority was given to Him and His authority is used in verse 19. He commands us to go. There are several things we are to do. We are to make disciples of all nations (ethnos). We are not to be limited in our scope of discipleship to Americans. We are to make disciples of all ethnic groups. For Jesus has redeemed the world (people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation) unto Himself (Rev. 5:9). We are to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Part of our worship of the true God is obedience to baptize and be baptized. Baptism thus becomes a proclamation of Who the disciple is identifying with, Jesus Christ.

The ongoing portion of what Christ commanded was that we teach. Again, this goes back to what the previous day began with. While Israel was commanded to teach their children (Deut. 6:6-9), we are commanded to teach our children (Eph. 6:4). But our teaching is not limited to our children. While we speak much of teaching them, our teaching must go beyond our own family. It must go to all the ethnos. What then should we be teaching? It is interesting to note that Jesus summed it up with similar words that Moses used with the people of Israel, “observe all things that I have commanded you”.

Let us keep in mind that the God of the Old Testament is the same God that speaks to us in the New Testament. He has not changed. The Sermon on the Mount was really a clear teaching on the law of God that had been perverted by those in positions of power. Jesus was not giving something new when He said, “You have heard it said…, but I say unto you”. He was getting back to the original intent and essence of what God had commanded the people.

Though the Lord Jesus did do away with the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, He did not do away with the moral laws. Each of the Ten Commandments were clearly emphasized in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. The only one that is not explicitly spoken of is the keeping of the Sabbath. We can gather from the book of Acts (20:7) and 1 Corinthians (16:2) that the church gathered together on Sunday and that it was a time when their corporate worship was held. However, we are not told anywhere that Sunday was ever changed to the Sabbath. As a matter of fact, every time in the book of Acts the Sabbath is mentioned as the day when the Jews were gathered in the Synagogue (13:14, 27, 42, 44; 15:21; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4). Paul also mentions the issue of the Sabbath in Colossians. In chapter 2:16 he tells us to let no man judge us concerning food, drink, festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. In Romans 14:5, 6 he speaks concerning the exaltation of one day above another. If one does it, it is to the Lord. However, if one does not exalt one day over another, then it is also to the Lord.

What about tithes? Though Jesus never clearly spoke concerning stopping the tithe, we do find that He commended the widow who put in all she had (Luke 21:1-4). The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7) and we see that in the early church the idea behind giving was not like the Old Testament system where the money was used to fund the government, the festivals, and other amenities. Rather the monies given in the New Testament were to be used to help fellow believers. Even the money given to a Pastor was to come from a heart of love knowing that his labor was on behalf of his sheep (1 Tim. 5:17-18). The New Testament church is free from the demands of a certain percentage of giving. Rather we are to give cheerfully with an open hand. Our giving is also not limited specifically to the church organization, but can be to those of our own households, such as widows or elderly parents (1 Tim. 5:3-8).

Some other things that we won’t take time to go into concern the worship of God in the meeting of the church include: qualifications of those who are spiritual leaders in the church of God (elders & deacons) (1 Tim. 3:1-13), the only symbols used in the worship of the church are the sacraments of baptism (current verse; Acts 2:38; 8:12, 38; 10:47; 16:15, 33) and the Lord’s table (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:17-34). While the instruments or melody of music is not clearly marked out in the Scriptures for the church, the kind of music is. Paul tells us in that we ought to sing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19; Col. 3:16).

We want to keep our focus on what God has clearly laid out for us in our worship of Him. Where God is silent concerning particular things in His worship, it was not because it somehow slipped His mind. We need to be careful. Just because something isn’t mentioned, doesn’t mean that it becomes a license for incorporating it into the worship of God. When we meet together Sunday, I hope we can be open and discuss some of these things that might be of interest to you. I hope you will open up dialogue with your family concerning these issues as well.

DISCUSSION: You might want to go through The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) and pick a few examples and see how Jesus clarified the people’s understanding concerning how they had been taught to conduct themselves.

Also, see how your own family perceives the importance of worshipping God in the ways He has clearly mentioned versus the means of modern churches.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 12:32; 32:46; Matthew 28:20.