The First Commandment

Scripture Reading

You may be seated. Will you turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20 and we'll read Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 through 21. If you're using your pew Bibles you can find that on page 68. Exodus chapter 20, verses one through 21.

I will say, please bear with me. As many of you know, as all of you probably know, the test came back positive for COVID and by God's grace, that's been good. The only time it's difficult for me is to breathe when I talk, because I can't breathe through my nose. So if things go a little bit slower today, please bear with me with that. Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse one. And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. you shall have no other gods before me.

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 waters 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 generation of those who hate me. but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. Now all the people witnessed the thunderings and the lightning flashes, the sounds of the trumpet and the mountain smoking.

And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. For Moses said to the people, do not fear for God has come to test you. and that his fear may be before you, so that you may not sin. So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was."

Please pray with me. Well, Father, we thank you for your word here. We thank you that it comes from your very mouth, that you have breathed it out, that you have given it, and that we can trust it. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would be our teacher this morning. We pray that you would care for us, watch over us, bless us, teach us, build us up in our love for Christ and dependence on Him.

In Jesus' name, Amen. The very first thing God starts the 10 words with, the 10 commandments is verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me. It was God speaking. It was Yahweh Himself, Jehovah Himself who was giving these words out of the thick clouds with the lightning and the thunder. And there, the first commandment He gives, it's just me.

That's it. They'd come out of the land of Egypt. They'd come out of the house of bondage. They had seen what it was like to have all the different gods around them. The Egyptians had the god of the sea and the god of the sun. They'd had the gods of the underworld and the gods of the living. They had a multitude of gods. And here, God says, no. No, it's just me. You have one God. None others. Just me.

Monotheism was a radical reality. Having one God was a radical departure different than every other culture they had ever seen. When God brought them up out of Egypt, there was a polytheistic culture. They worshipped many gods, and the land that they were going into, into the land of the Canaanites, and of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and Perizzites, all of them had many gods.

And here it was saying, there's going to be one thing that's going to separate you from everyone else. Me. One God alone. Exodus chapter 20, verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me." The Hebrew is almost a double here. It's, you shall have no other gods in front of my face. Right upon my face, before my face, I can't stand to see any other god. God will stand to have His glory shared with no other. It's just Him.

He's telling his people, I'm enough for you. I have redeemed you. I have brought you up out of Egypt with my mighty right hand. I'm the one who walled up the Red Sea and brought you through on the dry land. I'm the one who humbled Pharaoh and showed you that all the gods, all the gods of the Egyptians were idols, they were nothing.

Don't bring any other god in front of me. It's me and me alone. You're not allowed to have me and maybe a little demigod over here. You're not allowed to have Jehovah and your little pet god in your house. No, it's just me. You shall have no other gods before me. God won't stand to see any other god in His presence.

This is why when He would make the temple, It's just Him. There's one throne in the temple. There's one mercy seat. It's just Him. It is God who sees all things. It's God who takes special notice of all things. It is God who is much displeased with the sin of having any other God. It's just Him. This is why He would say in the great Shema, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your veriness, with all your strength. If you love God with all your heart, you don't have anything else to give it to an idol. If you love God with all your strength, you don't have any strength left to give to any other demigod. No, everything is reserved for the God of heaven and earth alone. Brothers and sisters, we must have no other God before Him. It's just the Lord.

But see, our hearts, our hearts are sinful. If we turn to God's Word, we see that this sin is broken all over the place in our hearts. Where we have hearts that don't stand up for God to be our God. In Psalm 81 verse 11 God says, But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would have none of me. Israel, his own people who he had redeemed, would centuries later turn their backs on him, and God would say his own people would have none of him. We neglect the things that are due to us and are required of this commandment. In Isaiah 43 verse 22, he says, you have not called on me, but you have been weary of me.

How often do we find that even in our own hearts, where it's just easy to grow weary of the Lord. Where he says, you have honored me with your sacrifices, but you have wearied me with your sins. Sometimes we're just ignorant of God. Sometimes we find ourselves just ignorant of Him. Hosea chapter 4 verses 1 and 6, the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. He says, they have no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Right?

We, His people, can become ignorant of Him if we take our eyes off Him and start thinking of other things, loving other things, devoting a different part of our lives away from Him. We become ignorant of Him. If you're like me, you can just become forgetful of God.

Jeremiah 2.32. Oh, this is biting. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Could you imagine that? I remember photographing weddings. I could never imagine a bride forgetting her wedding dress. I could never imagine that.

And yet, what do we see here? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. How many days do we go along in our lives and we just, we don't think of the Lord. We don't remember His commandments. We don't meditate on His word. How often do we have false opinions of God? We just think about Him, whatever we want to think.

Isaiah 48.18 says, to whom will you liken God? Or to what likeness will we come to Him?

It's amazing when I talk to people along the street and they talk to me about what they think God is like. And then I come to find out, I don't think we're talking about the same person. I don't think we're talking about the God of Scripture. It seems to me you've just created a God in your heart that you want with your mind, but He's not the one that reveals Himself in the Word.

We can sin against Him by having other gods made of our false opinions. We can sin against Him. By not thinking of Him as God, by trying to delve into things that we have no business delving into. Deuteronomy chapter 29, 29 says, the secret things belong unto the Lord our God.

Some men will puff themselves up, some theologians will puff themselves up, thinking that they know everything that God has to think, and everything that God has ever thought, and everything that God is. And they try to meddle in, and in their meddling, thinking they know everything about God, instead of being rooted in His Word. They end up making an idol of their own imaginations, in their own mind. instead of worshiping the God who reveals Himself.

But some people, some people sin in this first commandment against God by just an outright hatred of God. Romans chapter 1 verse 30 says, there are those who are back biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters. It's part of the human nature, depraved and sinful. Men are, by nature, haters of the true God. But it's not just being haters of God. In our culture, the Zeitgeist of our ages, you need to love yourself, you need to be your most authentic self. They have no room in their minds or their hearts, their affections for God.

There's a sin of self-love in 1 Timothy 3, verse 2. But mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days. Peepers will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive. We live in those last days. We live in those days where we see it today where people love themselves, love themselves, love themselves. They're so consumed with themselves that themselves, their own selves, are their own idol. They have no thoughts towards God, but it's they want to think about themselves.

You shall have no other gods before me. When we love this world, we put things in front of God. It's amazing, God tells us in Romans chapter 1 that one of the things we're given over to is taking the things of this world and making the good things of this world. Brothers and sisters, this is a good world. The end of the summer with this beautiful weather is a gift from God. The rising of the sun declares his glory. When you look up at the stars at night, they show his multitude of wonders. It is a wonderful world that God has gifted us with to live in and take dominion of.

And yet what we do with our hearts is we fall in love with his world rather than with the one who created the world. First John chapter to verse 15, love not this world nor the things of this world. For if any man love this world, the love of the father is not in him. We're thankful to God for this world, but we must not put this world before our God, the maker himself. It's amazing how, how our hearts can be. The list goes on. Sometimes we're just, instead of listening to God as the God of the universe, we're just quick to believe whatever we want.

1 John 4, 1 says, Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into this world. This is one of the things when we do evangelism to Mormons and to Muslims, we have to tell them, hold on, who gave you that prophecy? It was God himself who said that we're not to believe in any other gospel, even if an angel brought it to you. There are people in this world who will believe any prophecy that comes out of people's mouths because they say it's of God. Indeed, they put that idol in front of God Himself.

People are given over to unbelief. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12, Take heed, brethren, lest any of you be an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. And this isn't just outside the church, even in the church people are given to this. The church in Galatia was given over to the Judaizers, people who were trying to bring heresy into the church. And in Galatians chapter 5 verse 20, he says that heresy is a mark of the old man. And in Titus chapter 3 verse 10, he says, a man that is a heretic after the first or second admonition, reject him.

But we'll even, Even this week, there was a man on Facebook, I try not to get into arguments on Facebook, all I do is on Facebook, my wife has been good at this, she's just reminded me, don't spend your entire life on Facebook fighting theological arguments. But sometimes when something is so out there, I just have to, I just put a Bible verse or part of the confession, I just walk away and I just, okay, Lord, your word doesn't return void. But one of these was a man who was speaking against church discipline and how horrible it is that people would put someone out of the church, but it's right here. This is what God says, right? If a man that is a heretic keeps on speaking, admonish him a first time and a second time, but after that, you need to reject him.

When we wanna say, oh, hold on, God, we're gonna hold on to what we want to do, we put our preferences in front of God himself. We say, no, Lord, you're not first in charge. It's not just you, but we wanna do what we wanna do, and we're gonna be God's. Our opinions are gonna be before you. Do you see the depths of our hearts? How easy it is for us to break the first commandment when we distrust God, because they believe not in God, nor trust it in His salvation, when we despair of Him.

Genesis 4.13, right? When Cain, after he killed his brother, and God is even merciful to him after that, Genesis 4, 13, Cain said, my sin is greater than I can bear. God had just shown him mercy, and he still doesn't believe God's mercy. He just spares everyone. We have stubborn hearts, Jeremiah 5, 3. You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive your correction. It used to be a time and age in our country. Brothers and sisters, this isn't romanticizing the past, but I'm just stating a fact. Hundreds of years ago in our country, if there was a drought, if there was a plague, if there was pestilence, if there was horrible fires or horrible hurricanes, people wouldn't try to place blame on anyone else, but they would say, we need to fast.

We need to search our lives if there is unrepentant sin in our lives. The prophet Jeremiah is saying, when we won't evaluate our own lives for sin, we're saying we're the sinless ones. We make ourselves God. When we have stubborn, incorrigible hearts, our hearts are given over to pride, presumption. We tempt God. We take the light and carnal, fleshly things. We become lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. This is exactly what Jesus warns about with the seed. Do you remember the seed and the different types of soils? What is the seed that falls onto the thorny soil? It springs up quickly. But what are the weeds that will choke out the life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the cares of this life? When we are deceived by the By the world and by the cares of this life, we can chase after the things of this world, the carnal joys of this world. We can put other things before God by just becoming dead to the things of God.

This is what the Spirit says to the church in Sardis, Revelation 3.1, I know your works, you have a reputation of being alive, but you're dead. We can sin against the first commandment by being lukewarm. This one thing I have against you that you've forgotten your first love. You're lukewarm. You're neither hot nor cold. I'll spit you out of my mouth.

We estrange ourselves from God. People sin against the first commandment of having no other god by praying to or giving religious worship to saints, angels, or any other creature. Let me say that again. We sin against God when we pray or give any religious worship to any saint, angel, or any other creature. This is what Jesus Christ himself commanded in Matthew chapter four, when he told Satan, away from me, for you shall serve the Lord your God and worship him only.

Or when John bows down before the angel in heaven, the angel says, get up, don't worship me. I'm just an angel. Even the angels say this in Colossians chapter 2 verse 18. It says, let no man trick you out of the reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels. We worship God and Him only. We pray to Him and Him only. Men can violate this first commandment by going and consulting with the devils and with witches.

Leviticus 20 verse 6, I have taken away my face against the perverse one who turns to mediums and spiritists who prostitutes themselves to serve them. We have no right to try to go to anyone else for anything in prayer by any other means Brothers and sisters, witchcraft, this is an all-encompassing thing. Do you see how broad this commandment is? And it's broad because our hearts are so sinful. We cannot go to witches or any other things. We cannot make men lord of our consciences either.

The apostles even said this about themselves, 2 Corinthians 1.24, not that we have dominion over your own faith, This is one of the great sins of the Pope in Rome, and that he'll try to bind people's consciences, saying that he speaks ex cathedra from the throne of Christ, and definitively, without any errors, they will command God's people, and they have to trust him and him alone. Brothers and sisters, that is putting an idol in front of God, and God will have no other person before him. sin against God in this first commandment of having another God before Him by despising His commandments, by resisting and grieving His Holy Spirit, by ascribing to any other thing that which is due to the Lord, whether it be fortune, idols, ourselves, or any other creature.

Just this past week, the kids and I were in 1 Samuel chapter 2, and as we were there, the Philistines have this great plan because they've captured the Ark of the Lord and they're going to send it back to the Philistines and they ask their little priests, you know, Dagon, this weird, if we want to talk about Dagon sometime, but there's these weird priests and they say, oh here's what we do, we're going to make these little golden tumors because God had afflicted you with tumors and we'll put that with the Ark and we'll make golden rats because everywhere that the Ark had gone there had been rats infesting the city, and so we'll make golden rats, and we'll put those up with the ark, and we'll put the ark, we'll put it with two cows, and we'll put it along the road, and if it goes to Beth Shemesh, then we know it was of God.

But if it goes the other way, we know it was by chance. There's no such thing as chance. Both of them are of God, whichever way it goes. Assuming things by chance is what pagans do. But I hope you've been uneasy with all of this. I hope that as you've been doing this, you're just like, oh man, this list just keeps going on and on and on. And all I've been reading is the different sins listed in the larger catechism, and I didn't even say all of them. Because when we read these lists and we see the expansiveness of the depravity of our heart, it's meant to fling us to the feet of Jesus Christ.

Because when we think upon Christ, we see a Savior who never put anyone before His Father. Christ never sinned in ignorance. Your Savior was never forgetful of His Father. Your Savior, Jesus Christ, never had false opinions about His God. Jesus never had unworthy or wicked thoughts of Him. Jesus was never bold in going into the secret things of His Father. We even see that even though we get uncomfortable when Jesus says, no one knows the time or the hour, not even the Son.

We think, oh, how does that work with the Trinity and stuff? But brothers and sisters, I want to make a point to you here. Jesus Christ knew there was something of His Father, and His Father said, that's for me. And the Son went, all right, Lord. You're my Father, OK.

He didn't try to pierce into things that weren't for Him. Jesus Christ was never profane. Jesus Christ never had hatred for His Father. Jesus Christ never put Himself before His Father's needs or His Father's commands. Jesus Christ was never self-seeking.

He was never immoderate with his mind and his affections. He never loved this world more than his father. He was never given under unbelief. He never said something wrong of his father. He never disbelieved his father. He never distrusted his father. He never despaired of his father's providence. He was never stubborn in his heart. He was never full of pride. He was never presumptuous before the Father. He never had carnal security that he could do it on his own, but he depended upon his Father.

Jesus Christ never tempted God with unlawful means. Jesus Christ was never blind or corrupt. Jesus Christ never had indiscreet zeal. Jesus Christ, your Savior, was never lukewarm toward His Father. Jesus never left His Father apostatizing from Him. Jesus Christ never prayed to any saint. Jesus Christ never prayed to any idol. Jesus Christ never bowed down to any angel, not even Satan himself.

Jesus Christ fulfilled the law that we never could. Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ was tempted in every way as we were, yet was without sin. Do not let your hearts be hardened today in the expansiveness of this list, but I hope that you see the grand sacrifice that Jesus Christ did by living a perfect life in His active obedience for you. See, God had a perfect law, a perfect standard, one that we could never achieve. Adam failed in accomplishing that covenant of works, but Jesus Christ achieved it. Throw yourselves at the feet of Christ. Trust nothing other than in Jesus Christ.

And as we look to Him, I'm going to say this list quickly. You can feel free to look at your larger catechism, question 104, when you get home later if you want. But Jesus Christ and His Spirit teaches us now that by His Spirit we can, not perfectly, but by His grace we can imperfectly keep some of these commands. We can glorify our Father now in this first commandment by thinking upon Him, by thinking His thoughts after Him, by meditating on Him on our bed, by remembering our creator. Our blessing now is being in Christ is that we can highly esteem our God who is in heaven. We can honor him as a son honors his father. We can adore our father in heaven, that we can bow our knee to him and swear to him alone. We can choose him.

Indeed, this is what Joshua would charge the people as they were about to enter, or as they had entered the promised land, and the land was being subdued, the work was almost done, and Joshua would stand there, and he knew he was going to die, and he looked at the people dead in the eyes, and he said, you know what? If Baal is God, go and serve him. But if Yahweh is God, if the God of the first commandment is God alone, choose this day in your heart whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Choose this day. Will He be your only God? Is it Him alone in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit in you? Choose this day whom you will serve. Will you love Him?

We have the blessing now that when in Christ Jesus, we can love Him with our hearts, with our minds, with our soul, with our strength. We can desire Him. We can fear Him. We can believe and trust in Him forever. In Jesus Christ, we can delight in our Father who is in heaven.

Psalm 37, verse 4 says, Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. And this is an amazing thing, right? What does He say? Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will what? Give you the desires of your heart. What are the desires of your heart if you delight in the Lord? The Lord. Right? This is the beauty of heaven, is when we get to heaven, yeah, we're going to walk on streets of gold.

Yes, we're not going to need the sun or the moon, but what are the angels concerned about in heaven? What are the saints in heaven, the elders in the congregation, as they're there in heaven, what are the apostles and the patriarchs in heaven worried about? Are they worried about the gold streets? No. Are they worried about the lack of the sun or the moon?

No. But their delight, day and night, is to sing the praises of their God, because it's just Him, the Lamb who's sitting on the throne. Some of you are nearer to death today than I most likely am, humanly speaking. What is your joy? This is a diagnostic question for your soul. What are you wanting in heaven?

If it's anything other than the God of heaven, that thing itself is an idol before him. All the other stuff is cool. but it points to Him. Brothers and sisters, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. You shall have no other God before Him. Delight in Him. Rejoice in Him. Have no other gods before Him.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank You for you. Lord, we thank you that you are our God. We who were once far off from you, you have brought us near. You have saved us by your grace and you are our only joy, our only hope. Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit might strip us of our joys of things in this world, of the trifles of this life, Father, please purge us of our idols and let us be left with nothing but you. For if we have only you, it's all we need for eternity. Please, Lord, take this weak sermon and by your spirit, let us have joy everlasting. Joy in you. In Jesus's name, amen. Let's go ahead and stand and we'll sing in response Psalm 19, selection B. Psalm 19, selection B. Please stand if you're able.