Don't Worship Anything But God Series

Don’t worship anything but God -- Deuteronomy 5:6-10

Beginning:

The being we call God is unique. His name is I AM, it is not God. The astrologer worships his footstool -- The sun worshiper loves just, one small star. The animist, the works of His hands The Satanist prays to a created and lesser being. The materialist is consumed by a temporary condition – The prideful is in love with God’s only rival. Before time was, He is. -- When time ends, He will still be one day old. Mother Nature and Father Time are his children. He is I AM, self starting and self-contained -- He is life. If He ceased to exist, so would everything. -- He is bigger, smarter and more powerful than we will ever know. -- He owns and manages everything in the universe from the infinitely large to the infinitely small. You can’t go someplace where He is not already there. You can’t metabolize one calorie, enjoy one heartbeat or breathe one breath w/o his permission. Sooner or later every knee will bow and tongue confess that He alone is worthy of worship.

Men through the centuries have inscribed on stone their religious understanding. The Babylonians devised the Code of Hammurabi, a stone monolith of royal history. The Egyptians created the graphic hieroglyphics. It seems to be written in the heart of man to pass our understanding of God to the next generation.

We have done this with democracy. The Americans and French placed the lone inscription, July 4, 1776 on the tablet held by the Statue of Liberty. We stake the future of this country on our ability to govern ourselves under the principles of the Ten Commandments." -- James Madison, 4th President of the United States

The most significant inscriptions ever placed on stone or parchment is found in Exodus 20, following these words, "And the Lord spoke all these words.”

Burden:

The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever

Isa. 48:9-11 For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

Background:

After 40 years in the wilderness Moses retells the events of Horeb to a new generation. A new generation hears about the giving of the law

The 10 C’s are part of a Suzerain covenant 5:2. The stronger party (I AM) cuts covenant with a weaker party (man).

Basic Truth:

Man, in covenant relationship, is to worship Him exclusively

Big Question:

Why is it important that we worship God only?

It is His will

vs.7"You shall have no other gods before me.

Theologians have theorized that God has a perfect and a permissive will. There is much that can be said about such a division of His will, but there is one area we don’t have to debate as to what God wants. It is His will we worship only Him.

An interesting thing about God’s will is it doesn’t have to benefit man, but thankfully it does! “For God so loved the world. . .” It is His choice to love us and that is infinitely beneficial.

We also are allowed to make choices. Choices that counter the will of God are never blessed no matter how politically correct or life affirming them may seem.

Our keeping the Ten Commandments or not keeping them does not impact God at all. He is the I AM.

The 10 Commandments are totally for the benefit of man. They are God’s best advice on living as a human being in a material environment.

They are truth before there was time and space. They didn’t just take effect on Sinai. They existed before the world was created. They will still be truth when the last star has winked out of existence in the farthest corner of the universe.

Ted Turner told members of the National Newspaper Association in Atlanta that the biblical Ten Commandments do not relate to current global problems, such as overpopulation and the arms race. "We’re living with outmoded rules," Turner said. "The rules we’re living under is the Ten Commandments, and I bet nobody here even pays much attention to ’em, because they are too old. "When Moses went up on the mountain, there were no nuclear weapons, there was no poverty. Today, the commandments wouldn’t go over. Nobody around likes to be commanded. Commandments are out."

Ted may choose to throw them away, but he is throwing away the best advice ever given to human beings. If He continues with this ideology his life will disintegrate.