Good Morning!
Pray y'all are well this morning, and are staying as dry as possible. :)
I know many of you are looking forward to this weekend and for Spring Break (some of you are enjoying Spring Break this week)!
As we continue to walk through the Confession of Faith we come to Chapter 21 and "Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day". Now for this chapter due to its breadth and depth we are going to take this one over two Thursday's.
The first part of the Chapter I want to highlight is Section 2:
"II. Religious worship is to be given to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to Him alone; not to angels, saints, or any other creature: and since the fall, not without a Mediator; nor in the mediation of any other but of Christ alone."
Now it seems fairly obvious what this portion is telling us. Don't ask St. Cuthbert for help, nor light candles to the Virgin Mary, or check the newspaper's horoscope to find how your day is going to go, etc... All those things are idolatry and should be self-evidently wrong for the Protestant believer. Only the Triune God is to be given worship and is to be sought for help in times of trial. But there is something more I want to talk about this morning that this section is trying to help us understand as we bring our fruits of faith and devotion to our Lord.
First of all, underlying this portion of the Confession is the question that begins the Shorter Catechism: What about the Glory of God? Is He truly the central focus of our worship? Not just in the devotional exercises on the Lord's Day, but is His person and work the foundation for everything we do in prayer, praise, and proclamation? Or are we sharing that mercy with idols and/or people? Do we give away with the left hand what we gained through the Right Hand?
Now, this is not to say that everything we do is worship, like the worship we give to Him on His Sacred Day, but it is to say that whether we work diligently at our jobs, love our family, or run out a hard hit ground ball to second base, that all we do is to bring glory to Jehovah God alone. When it comes to worship it matters who we are, intentionally or not, bringing into the worship with us: whether it be our own vainglory in hoping to be seen by men in our worship ala Matthew 6 or hedging our bets in prayer doubting whether God even hears our heart’s desire.
Secondly, we hear an echo of what Paul and Barnabas experienced at Lystra:
"Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!' And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them."
-- Acts 14:11-15
Any worship given to man-made things is vanity. They are worthless for sure, but something about it is even more problematic than that. Everything that we give to an object, a sports team, even another person that which truly belongs to the Lord is to draw us away from the fullness that we have in the Triune God. Here we see part of the reasoning as to why we don't make images of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. How could anything made by the hands of men come close to capturing the incomprehensible glory of the living and real Holy God?
Well, they can't.
So as we find comfort in Christ today let us be watchful not to make idols of the things of this world, or the things we create, and be sure to be giving all glory to the Lord above, who is the one who has made us and is alone deserving of our obedience, our faith, and especially our worship.
Our reading today comes to us from Jonathan Edwards:
https://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/gloriousgrace.htm
Y'all have a wonderful day and as always please call, text, smoke signal if you have need of prayer or just need someone to decompress to.
Here to help in any way I can.
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church