Overview of the First Four Commandments

Overview of the First Four Commandments

An outline from last Sunday, as we looked at the first four commandments concerning our duty to God, (Exodus 20). 

That duty is summed up in the requirement to love God with the totality of our being.  Love demonstrates itself in obedience.  The first four commands are essentially concerned with the worship of God. We therefore show our love by keeping God’s commandments regarding his worship.

1     WHY we worship – v1, 2.  He is our personal God and powerful redeemer.

2    WHOM we worship – v3.  There are to be no other gods before God’s face. This excludes the worship of false gods, (paganism), the worship of a god of our own imagination, (pseudo-christian liberalism), and the worship of those less than God, (Mary and saints).

3    HOW we worship – v 4 – 7.

3.1       Not by the use of images or icons, which can not represent the infinite God.  Icons of Christ fail to truly represent his deity – we worship the whole Christ, not merely his humanity.

3.2      Not by insincerity in worship. We use his name in vain when we do that in worship that he has not commanded.

4    WHEN we worship.  This is a principle imbedded in the very heart of the moral law. For Christians the day has changed but the principle has been preserved.

5    Conclusion – we view these four worship  commandments through the lens of Christ, his person and work. He is the reason why we worship, our personal God and powerful redeemer.  He is the one whom we worship alongside the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Triune God.  He is the one who directs us how to worship, in spirit and truth, and in simplicity and sincerity.  We need no visual representation because Christ, the reality is present by his Spirit. He is the one who dictates when we worship, on the Lord’s Day or Jesus’ Day.

When we preach the commandments we guard the purity of the worship of God.  Ignorance of the first four commandments is the reason that so much evangelical worship is sub-biblical.

This is simply a skeleton.  Personal application was imbedded throughout.