Step #1 – Choose The True God
Exodus 20:3
I. The Ten Commandments In The News
When people arrived at the State Judicial Building in Montgomery, Alabama on the 1st of August five years ago, they came face to face with something they had not expected. Without telling anyone about his secret plan, Chief Justice Roy Moore had installed a 5,280 pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments in the center of the rotunda. Some thought it was a novel idea. Others thought it was a waste of space. Still others felt it was a violation of the separation of church and state. They took the judge to court seeking the removal of this colossal and offensive monument – and they won. Judge Moore was ordered by the 11th Circuit Court to remove the monument because it was a violation of the First Amendment.
Judge Moore refused. He believed that the Ten Commandments were not only the foundation of the law, but the basic moral code that should govern the behavior of all people in every nation. And many God-fearing, faithful Christians agreed. The result was a relatively nasty public debate over the role of the Ten Commandments in American Society. But as the debate raged it quickly became apparent that many, if not most, of those who supported the Ten Commandments didn’t really know what those commandments actually were. It is presently estimated that 90% of Christians in America can’t name the Ten Commandments. And even the few who can quote them may not fully understand what they are and why they were given.
So, let me ask you, “What are the ten commandments?” Why did God give them? The answer to that question may surprise you. Let me suggest to you that while I value Judge Moore’s desire to stand up for the ten commandments, I’m not sure that he fully appreciates why they were initially given to God’s people. To understand that, we need to remember a bit of the story. God had called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt in order to worship Him. Pharaoh refused, so God sent a series of plagues to change his mind. Finally, Pharaoh let the people of God go. Three months later they find themselves at the foot of Mount Sinai. They are free from tyranny but relatively confused about how to build a nation – after all, most of them were uneducated slaves.
So God comes to them and tells them that out of all the nations in the world, they will be his treasured possession; that they would be a kingdom of priests to the surrounding nations. But, to fulfill that mission, they must not be just another nation, they must be a special nation, a unique nation, a holy nation. So God gives this new, fledgling people ten primary sayings to guide their conduct and shape their character. If they lived according to these ten overarching principles, they would live truly significant lives. They wouldn’t be like the other nations, they would be different – a peculiar people.
Now, what that means is this: The Ten Commandments were not designed to make the nations moral. They were designed to make a specific group of people different. You see, the commandments were not given to the nations, they were given to one nation – Israel. They were give to a specific group of people, called into relationship with God, in order to make them peculiar, unusual, holy. Then, when the nations saw how peculiar this nation was, how truly significant their lives had become, they might gain a holy curiosity and be drawn into relation with God.
And while we live in the days of the New Testament, the Ten Commandments are still to function in that way – with one key difference. Believe it or not, the Bible tells us that as New Testament believers, God has etched these commandments not on tablets of stone but upon your hearts. Looking forward to the day when Christians would be filled by the Holy Spirit, Ezekiel said the following, “I will give you a new heart…And I will put my Spirit within you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” You see, in some sense we are not just to memorize the ten commandments, we are to become the ten commandments. We are to submit ourselves to Christ and God will etch those commandments within us and cause us to live them out. We are not to demand that the commandments be posted in a courtroom. We are to make sure they are written upon our hearts. We are to allow them to shape our lives so that others might see how unique we are, how significant our lives have become, and be drawn unto the God who has called us.
II. What The Commandments Teach Us About God
And not only do the ten commandments teach us about Godly living, they teach us much about the God for whom we live. As we look at the first commandment, we are called to recognize four significant truths about God that gives him the right to speak to us, and gives us the desire to listen to Him. Let’s read that together.
[READ EXODUS 20:1-3]
The first commandment in preceded with a preamble that calls us to remember, first of all, that we…
• We worship a particular God
God begins by reminding Moses, and the people, that “I am the Lord.” You are not Lord. Moses is not Lord. Pharaoh is not Lord. For that matter, the idols of Egypt are not the Lord. I, the one who created the heavens and earth, the one who called Moses and performed the miracles in Egypt, I am the Lord. Now, that’s not a very popular truth in our world. We live in a world where many gods are worshipped.
- The Muslims pray to Allah – there claim is that Allah is the only god and Mohammed is his prophet.
- The Buddhist prays to Buddha – or the enlightened one
- The Hindu prays to Vishnu, or Brahma, or Shiva
- The Native American prays to Mother Earth or The Great Spirit
- But we as Christians pray to a particular God. His name is Yahweh.
And according to the Bible, and according to the ten commandments, He is not one among many gods. He is not a Lord, He is the Lord. He is the only true God. The creator and sustainer of all that is. He is revealed in scripture, validated through miracles, confirmed by history and deserves our undivided loyalty. Not only do we worship a particular God…
• We worship a personal God
God went on to say, “I am the Lord your God…” He is not just “a” god, or “the god.” He is our God. God does something here that is fairly surprising. The word “your God” is spoken to the entire nation that has gathered at the foot of the mountain. You would expect the word to be in the plural form, meaning that He is the God of the nation. But it’s not in the plural form, it’s in the singular form. God is talking personally to every single individual standing before Him. He is saying that I am John’s god and Susan’ god. I am the god of grandma Louis and the god of infant Tyler.
The commandments are rooted in relationship. You’ve heard that age old saying, “Rules without relationship spells rebellion.” Well, in some sense that’s true here. God is not some disconnected ogre giving us a bunch of rules to limit the amount of fun we can have in life. He knows us. He has entered a personal relationship with us. He is interested in our well-being and speaks into our lives for our best interest. And we desire to listen to Him because we know Him. He is our God and it is our joy in life to follow Him.
All relationships require rules. Amy and I have been married now for over 19 years. When we got married, we agreed to abide by certain rules. We agreed that we would live together in one place, not in two separate apartments. We agreed that we would not go out for an evening of fun with someone of the opposite sex unless we went together. We agreed that my things were her things and her things were my things. We agreed to find a common place of worship rather than go our own way and do our own thing. And we agreed to those things, not so much because we had to, but because we wanted to. We couldn’t imagine even wanting to do anything else. Amy wasn’t making unreasonable demands of me; or I of her. We were entering into a covenant relationship. We desired to spend the rest of our lives together. In order for that to work, we had to follow certain rules.
The same is true with these commandments. We have entered a covenant relationship with God. And in order for that relationship to work, we need to agree to follow certain rules. The commandments aren’t restrictive rules that limit our freedom. They are expressions of love that reveal the desires of our heart.We worship a particular God. We worship a personal God. Third…
• We worship a saving God
God goes on to say, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” God had earned the right to speak into their lives because He had led them from bondage to freedom; from disgrace to honor; from the mud pits of Egypt to the mountain of God. The same could be said by any of us who have come to know Him as Lord and Savior. Through Jesus, God has rescued us from the land of slavery and brought us to a new and better life. He has delivered us from the bondage of sin to the freedom of grace. He has removed our shame and given us dignity. We worship this particular God because He alone has taken a personal interest in our daily lives and saved us from the world, the flesh and the devil. Finally…
• We worship a passionate God
You know, one of the first lessons that we teach our children is how to share. We are forever reminding our children to share their toys, share their space, share their food. Children don’t come into this world with the natural desire to share – we need to teach them. However, while sharing is a good thing, we must also teach our children that there are certain things in life that were never meant to be shared. You don’t share a bite-sized piece of candy – its designed for one person. You don’t share a unicycle. You don’t share gossip. You don’t share answers to a test with the person in the desk next to you. You don’t share your spouse with the neighbor. In order for these things to be properly enjoyed, they have to be kept exclusive.
The same is true when it comes to the worship of God. The very first commandment God gives is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Now, God is not saying that we can have many gods so long as we don’t put them before God. The word before here is a Hebrew word that means “in my face.” The idea is that of forcing God to share our devotion with another god that has been placed before His face. Worship is an all or nothing thing – we worship God alone or we don’t worship God at all. We are in covenant relations with Him. He is the groom. We are the bride. Our devotion to one another is to be exclusive. To share our worship with another is akin to committing adultery. It is not to be done in any place, at any time, for any reason. And God doesn’t say this because He is afraid that He won’t measure up to another god. He says this because He is that passionate about us. He is absolutely, permanently, unchangeably and wholeheartedly committed to you. And all He asks is that you feel the same about Him.
III. Step #1 – Choose The True God
So, what is the first step toward living a truly significant life? Well, it’s not grabbing a picket sign and marching down the street demanding that people obey the Ten Commandments. And it’s not insisting that they be posted outside the local court house. The first step toward living a significant life is entering into a real relationship with God by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is recognizing that there are not multiple ways to heaven – but one way. It is found in a relationship with a particular God, who is personally interested in your life, who is so passionate about you that He gave His one and only Son to save you from yourself, the world and the devil. When you do this, God fills you with His Spirit, gives you a new heart and begins to write His word upon your heart. You will find that you know longer “have to” obey the commandments of God, but you will “want to” do so because you can’t imagine doing anything else. You will become unique, others will take note, and they will be drawn to the God who has made you what you are.
