Old Abbott and Costello skit. It doesn’t matter too much who is in what position in our lives until we settle the matter of who is on first. In other words, we need to know who is in first place in our lives. This issue must be settled! If anyone, or anything, occupies first place in our lives ahead of God, than our lives are out of control and out of balance.
“And God spoke all these words: 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me.” Exodus 20:1-3
In the book The Ten Offences, the author writes, “To see what other gods have done to people, it is only necessary to visit Calcutta, a city in India dedicated to Cali, the goddess of death. It was in Calcutta that Mother Teresa ministered to some of the most wretchedly poor people on the planet. This is a city where years ago the “dead truck” picked up corpses of those who died each day from disease or starvation.
Or visit Haiti, a nation whose people prayed to Satan some 200 years ago that if he delivered them from the control of the French they would worship him. Black magic, oppression, grinding poverty and ceaseless killing have been the lot of the Haitians as their reward from their “other god.”
In fact, study the island that makes up Haiti, and you will find that it is divided in half. One half is Haiti, which is one of the most impoverished countries of the Western Hemisphere. The other half belongs to the Dominican Republic, a prosperous and fertile land where the people worship Jehovah God. It would be hard to find a more vivid contrast.
1. Only God could make this requirement!
God’s requirement is very simple. He demands to be in first place in every area of our lives. He knows that all men must have a God of some sort, and He demands that it be Himself.
We must come to understand who is making this requirement. Most of our Bible translations today have hidden the real name of God out of Jewish tradition. To protect His name from abuse Jewish rabbis used to substitute the name Adonai or Lord for each time the name of God appeared in the bible. The word Lord loses a lot of meaning because nearly every religion has some kind of Lord. It has become a generic term and fits in with the religious pluralism that dominates the post modern world that we live in.
In this passage of scripture, God says, “I am Yahweh, who led you out from slavery in Egypt. You are to place no other gods before me.”
The use of specific name clearly indicates that there is only one, true God. Knowing and believing this keeps us from the frustrating pursuit of an elusive and unknowable being who so many religions pursue and never catch.
The bible tells us exactly who God is and how we can connect with Him. Yahweh is not a vague, “higher power,” who cannot be known and embraced.
This is a very critical teaching this morning and I hope you are getting it. God has many names that describe His breadth and character.
While I am not going to digress into a study today on the names of God let me just list a few of the translations that show up in the Hebrew language:
God Almighty
Most High God
Rock
The Strong One
God of Hosts
God our peace
God our Healer
God our Righteousness
God our Provider
The first commandment is very precise and tells us who we are to worship. Such an exclusive claim makes people angry today. It is not inclusive. It is not tolerant. It is the crux of our downfall as a nation.
Not accepting God as God explains the dilemma that we find ourselves in.
The First Commandment can be summed up in three words: No other gods! But why, in a document like the Ten Commandments, that is essentially ethical in nature (i.e. it presents to us ultimate standards of right and wrong), would the author begin with our perception of God? What is the big deal with how people worship? Can’t people have good values without God and without religion? After all, there has been a great deal of talk over the past decade about the importance of "values clarification" in our schools at the very same time God was largely being eliminated from the market of public ideas.
Administrators are concerned about character education but there is no foundation of belief to build it on. How successful has the values clarification effort been? Do you think we are any closer to a public consensus concerning right and wrong today after all this talk about values clarification? I would suggest this morning that our schools are more lost in a sea of relativism than they have ever been, and there is more crime and immorality exhibited by young people than ever before in human history. The lesson that should scream out to us is that ethics must be based upon theology. That is, no concept of right and wrong can be effective and long-lasting unless it is based on a right concept of God. Let me give you an idea of what is not acceptable regarding our approach to Yahweh.
Deism is the belief that there is a God out there somewhere, but he’s really not involved in human affairs. He created the world and everything in it, but then like a clock, he wound it all up and let it go. He’s detached from us and doesn’t intervene. He’s not emotionally involved either. He could really care less what happens here on earth.
We don’t call it deism anymore. Today it goes by the titles “inclusivism” or “ecumenical” or sometimes “tolerance.” It’s the idea that there is a God, but we shouldn’t try to define him. This has resulted in what one author has termed the “Mush God.”
The Mush God has been known to appear to millionaires on golf courses. He appears to politicians at ribbon-cutting ceremonies and to clergymen speaking the invocation on national TV at either Democratic or Republican conventions.
The Mush God has no theology to speak of, being a Cream of Wheat divinity. The Mush God has no particular credo, no tenets of faith, nothing that would make it difficult for believer and nonbeliever alike to lower one’s head when the temporary chairman tells us that Reverend, Rabbi, Father, or Amman, or So-and-So will lead us in an innocuous, harmless prayer, for this god of public occasions is not a jealous god. You can even invoke him to start a hooker’s convention and he/she or it won’t be offended.
God of the Rotary, God of the Optimists, Protector of the Buddy System, The Mush God is Lord of the secular ritual, of the necessary but hypocritical forms and formalities that hush the divisive and derisive. The Mush God is a serviceable god whose laws are chiseled not on tablets but written on sand, open to amendment, qualification and erasure. This is a god that will compromise with you, make allowances and declare all wars holy, all peaces hallowed. Nicholas Van Hoffman as quoted by Adrian Rogers in Ten Secrets for a Successful Family, pp. 29-30
I was very thankful this week for the pastor who ended the inauguration with a very well-thought out prayer and prayed it fearlessly in the name of Jesus Christ.
Our God prohibits polytheism
That’s not the belief that someone named Polly is God. Polytheism is the belief in many gods. Egypt, the place where the nation Israel had just escaped from, was polytheistic. They had many, many gods – Ra, Isis, Horace, take your pick. The Lord God told them to forget all that nonsense. He’d publicly triumphed over all those so-called gods and now his people were to acknowledge only him.
If you’re a Christian you may be thinking that you’ve got this one licked. You’ve never bowed down to another god. You’ve never prayed to or called on the name anyone other that the Lord. Don’t pat yourself on the back too quickly. You may not have gone through ritualistic worship of other gods, but the way you live might just reveal rank idolatry. You just haven’t recognized it as such.
In just a few minutes we are going to look at this more closely.
…Whatever you love most, serve most, seek out most, give to the most, worship the most, and care about the most is your god.
Your “god” can be your career, your bank account, the way you look, a particular position or degree, influence, power, or physical pleasure. It can even be something that is considered intrinsically good, yet you allow it to dominate your life more than God – such as your marriage or your family. Your “god” is whatever you allow to control you, to be the ultimate guide to decision making, the place of your supreme loyalty, and the source of your self-worth. James Emery White, You Can Experience an Authentic Life, p. 2
2. Discovering the reason God requires our devotion. v.2
There was a time in America when if someone went looking for God there were only two places to look: church or synagogue.
Terry Muck, in his book, Alien Gods on American Turf, points out that there are more than 1,500 religious groups in the U.S., 600 of which have non-Christian roots.
Islam is the second largest religion in the world but has been designated as the fastest growing even in America. Let me quote from a CNN report:
“The second-largest religion in the world after Christianity, Islam is also the fastest-growing religion. In the United States, for example, nearly 80 percent of the more than 1,200 mosques have been built in the past 12 years. Some scholars see an emerging Muslim renaissance as Islam takes root in many traditionally Christian communities. Islam has drawn converts from all walks of life, most notably African-Americans. Former NAACP President Benjamin Chavis, who joined the Nation of Islam recently, personifies the trend.
We have become a nation of many different cultures and religions. Israel faced the same issue. Wherever God took them they were constantly surrounded by false gods or idolatry. Too many times they would be influenced by those around them instead of focusing on Yahweh.
To understand God being so intolerant and so demanding we must examine Him closely. God could make this demand of Israel because He had paid the price for them. He had purchased them unto Himself and they were His. He chose them, loved them, delivered them and blessed them. Therefore, they owed Him absolute reverence and worship.
When God makes reference in our text to delivering them out of Egypt, He is referring to a story that is found in Exodus 12-13, when the death angel, sent by God to destroy the first born of Egypt, passed over the houses of the Hebrews which were marked by lamb’s blood on the lintels and doorposts. This was so significant that to this day even the most liberal of Jewish families spend at least one evening a year in the spring remembering this deliverance. It is called the seder and it is a symbolic meal that tells the story of the Passover. I have attended many of these with a Jewish family that I was very close to during my college days. The question is always the same: Why is this night different then all other nights? The story is told and repeated of God’s deliverance.
How much more do we, the blood bought Church of Jesus Christ, owe to Him? We owe Him our total devotion! Just as God led Israel out of bondage so Jesus provided a way out for us. It is what we are supposed to remember in communion. I am really thinking about communion these days. The most special communion services that I have ever experienced have been in this church when we focused a whole service around it.
God requires our devotion because of what He did for us.
3. Our Response
There are only 2 possible ways in which man can respond:
Man can continue to place everything in the world before God. 1 Cor. 3:13-15.
Or, man can comply with God’s demands. To do so will result in a blessed life and a glorious eternity.
As you look into your heart right now, what, or who, do you see on the throne of your heart? Anything or anyone other than Jesus is an idol!
Who’s on first? The only solution to idols is to bring them to God and leave them before Him. He excels in destroying them and replacing them with His wonderful presence and glory. Remember, He will tolerate no one but Himself on the throne of your heart.
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. Psalm 115:3-8 (NIV)
What does this mean for us?
"Whatever we make the most of is our God." – Martin Luther.
Man, by nature, is a religious creature. He will find someone, or something, to give his worship to. We make gods of many different things. Some of them are:
gods of Pleasure – Phil. 3:18-19 Pleasure is like a drug. It often requires more to get the same effect. (Can include: sensual, sexual, sports, entertainment) Heb. 11:25
gods of Possessions – Matt. 6:24. The gift of grab dominates many lives. People who place money and things first are idolaters!
gods of Personal Worth – Romans 1:25 – When a person feels that the world revolves around them, and that they must always come out on top, that person is an idolater.
gods of Plans And Projects – Anything that occupies the mind and life ahead of God is an idol!
gods of the past - They don’t make ice cream like they used to...
This list is practically endless. Man can make a god out of anything.
In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a legend from ancient India: Four royal brothers decided each to master a special ability. Time went by, and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned. “I have mastered a science,” said the first, “by which I can take but a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it.” “I,” said the second, “know how to grow that creature’s skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.” The third said, “I am able to create its limbs if I have flesh, the skin, and the hair.” “And I,” concluded the fourth, “know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete.” Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialties. As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion’s. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life. Shaking its mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle. We too have the capacity to create what can devour us. Goals and dreams can consume us. Possessions and property can turn and destroy us—unless we first seek God’s kingdom and righteousness, and allow Him to breathe into what we make of life.
Be careful which God you give control. The God you choose will either devour or develop you life. If it’s a false god you’ll be ruined to an eternal extent. If you chose the God who reveals himself in the Bible you’ll reap an abundant life.
Rob Schenk: Ten Words that will Change a Nation, “When my children were small and I was serving as a minister in a large church, they would often complain that they had to stand around bored and hungry after service because the people wanted to talk too long with me. One time they came up with what they thought was an ingenious plan. My daughter begged to be lifted up on my shoulder while someone was asking me a question. Then my son who was the younger smaller, passed her a drawing from a Sunday school lesson. Voile! The paper was suddenly in front of my face cutting off my conversation. This is a perfect illustration of what happens when we place other gods in front of Yahweh. Once the drawing was between me and the person talking to me, it effectively cut off communication. In the same way, those things we deem more important than God cut off our communication with Him.
As we pause today let us ask ourselves this question before God: Is there anything in my life more important than God?
Most Holy God, Yahweh, we come to you as a congregation today and as individuals. There are some things we need to talk to you about. We purpose to follow you, Father. The fact that sometimes we follow you from a distance is troubling and convicting.
I ask today that you will forgive us for not putting you first. Forgive us for allowing other gods to creep into our lives and steal our attention away from You and Your mission. Forgive us for not being involved in Your causes and concerns.
Lord I ask that you would give us another chance to make you first in our lives. Give us the energy this week to destroy the other gods that have gained strongholds in our lives. We give them all to you.
One can hardly underestimate the profound impact of monotheism on those rescued from pagan cultures. Listen to Joy Davidman: ...the belief in one God slew a host of horrors: malign storm demons, evil jinn of sickness, blighters of the harvest, unholy tyrants over life and death; belief in God destroyed the fetishes, the totems, the beast-headed bullies of old time. It laid the ax to sacred trees watered by the blood of virgins, it smashed the child-eating furnaces of Moloch, and toppled the gem-encrusted statues of the peevish divinities half-heartedly served by Greece and Rome.
The old gods fought among themselves, loved and hated without reason, demanded unspeakable bribes and meaningless flatteries. While they were worshiped, a moral law was impossible, for what pleased one deity would offend another. If your wife ran away from you, it was not because you beat her, but because you’d forgotten the monthly sacrifice to Ishtar; just offer a double sacrifice, and you’d get two new wives prettier than the old.
Then came the knowledge of God. An almost unimaginable person—a single being, creator of heaven and earth, not to be bribed with golden images or children burned alive; loving only righteousness. A being who demanded your whole heart.
