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.
When we worship something else we are outside of the will of God. On the outside of His will unnecessary tragedy exists. Inside is the pain also, but it is purposeful and is the road to life. Outside of it is death.
Life application:
Worshipping other gods can be a very subtle thing. A working definition of idolatry is putting anything between you and God.
These past five 6 years have been the most exciting of my ministry. I have stood on a high point watching God put together a mighty church. The workdays have been long and weariness pulls at your mind. The battles have been intense and wounds and scars dot the landscape where our humanity has clashed. God whispered to me on one of those dark days that His work around me was destroying His work in me. He told me that I had become idolatrous. I said, “God, what is my idol?” He said, “It is Evergreen Church”. I had allowed this work to come between us. I had to repent, and repent I did.
He again visited me this October 2001 while I had pulled aside for a spiritual retreat. He once again showed me idolatry. This time it was not the church organization, it was the people who worshipped within its walls. He told me I was more interested in pleasing you than I was in pleasing Him. He told me He has placed me as pastor to lead Evergreen Church and not to try to please everyone. He reminded me that you could not ever be pleased anyway until you found your peace in Him. He told me I was to live the rest of my life with an audience of one. I felt Him tell me to lead Evergreen as a strong leader with my eyes focused on him alone. I am trying to step up to that level of leader. Pray that I never again allow you to come between God and me. Understand that, although I love you and want the best for you, I may not always do what you think is best. I am trying to please the head of the church not the arms and tail.
Transitional statement
The first commandment is the single most important of all. Someone said that if one keeps the first commandment perfectly there is no need for the rest. The absolute purity of the first commandment gives us insight into the mind of God.
He is a jealous God.
Vs. 8 –9 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,
God’s attributes are infinitely righteous and honorable. God’s jealousy is not evil as is human jealousy. There are no other gods to worship. When we put some false god between our hearts and God’s heart we put something dead there and futility and vanity is all that results.
Mat at his very best is a man worshipping God alone, in covenant relationship.
Hosea was told to marry a prostitute named Gomer to dramatize the condition of Israel as she put after other men between herself and Hoses, Israel was prostituting herself with other gods.
Vance Havner said, “ You cannot break the laws of God -- you break yourself against them. Might as well try to attack Gibraltar with a popgun as to go up against the laws of God. It will not work. You jump off a skyscraper and you do not break the law of gravitation. You break your neck, but not the law of gravitation”.
He is jealous of your love. When you worship Him, He knows you will be on your way to heaven. He wants to be with you forever.
Life Application:
A marriage goes through an inevitably difficult time. The two who stood at the front of the church and said they would, now wish they had not said they would. The couple that loves God and believes the Bible knows God hates divorce. What they don’t know is the reason he hates it. But for the remainder of their lives they will understand why. God knows that you can’t tear what has become one heart and one life and one family apart cleanly, neatly or even fairly. When divorce occurs the lives of many are ripped, torn and left bleeding for decades. Divorce devastates lives and the God who loves knows this happens every time and has warned us –no commanded us—to learn to make our families work.
What do I want you to know?
The cross of Christ is the ultimate example of these first two commandments. When a person rejects the suffering Savior he is left only with other gods to worship. All other gods have a common destiny. They will be thrown in a lake of fire along with all those who have worshipped them.
What do I want you to do? Come to the one true God who loves you and went to the cross for you.
