Exodus 20:1-3, “And God spoke all these words: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’”
- What do those words mean to you? Say to you?
- Do you give them much thought? Any thought?
- How do they shape your life? Do they in fact, shape your life?
- In terms of importance, how important are they to you? Or are they important to you?
- If you had to live without them, could you?
Regardless, God sees this commandment as a very big deal. This Commandment is the first and the greatest of the Ten Commandments. As such, it has rightly been called the “basic command,” the cornerstone upon which all the other commandments rest, the source from which all the others flow. In simplest terms, this command is a clear cut presentation of God’s will; His plans and purposes for your life.
I want you to hear the command again. This time I will read it from a number of translations:
- “You must not have any other gods except me.”
- “You are to have no other Gods before Me.”
- “Do not worship any god except me.”
- “Never have any other god.”
- No other gods, only me.”
God is bearing His heart here. He is saying that He really wants to be your God. Think of the implications of this:
- The One true and living God wants to be your God.
- The absolute, omnipotent Creator God wants to be your God.
- The gracious provider, of whom, through whom and unto whom all things exist, wants to be your God.
- The God of John 3:16, wants to be your God.
- The God that gave us His Son, wants to be your God.
- Jehovah, Yahweh, The Great I Am, The Alpha and Omega, the Resurrection and the Life, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, and the Everlasting Father wants to be your God!
- I mean, isn’t that what the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is all about? God wants to be your God!
- There are literally millions upon millions of gods that are worshipped today. And yet, God wants to be your God!
There is an obvious flip side to this. The Lord God wants you to want Him to be your God. To acknowledge Him as your God. To worship Him as your God. In fact, He makes this a command.
He is to be God in your thoughts, plans, in all your ideas, in all your desires, in all your activities, as well as in your giving. He says that we must indeed recognize God as God.
WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE FIRST COMMANDMENT?
Worship. Each of the commandments center in one way or another on the idea of worship. As you recall, the message that Moses gave to Pharaoh was short and sweet: “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’”
Look with me at the emphasis on worship in the first four commandments:
- The first commandment deals with the object of worship: ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’”
- The second reveals the true mode of worship: Exodus 20:4, “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. You shall not bow down to them or worship them….” The order of worship is to be spiritual, not material.
- The third command teaches us that our worship is to be holy: Exodus 20:7, “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” Our worship is to be so inclusive that it governs even the words of our mouth.
- The fourth command dictates that a specific amount of time – one day out of seven – is to be set apart for the express and sole purpose of worship: Exodus 20:8, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
WHAT/WHO DO YOU WORSHIP?
Please notice, I didn’t ask if you worship. Someone has said, “Every man worships. The only real freedom a person has in this world is the freedom to determine his gods. After that, his gods determine the person.”
It is as impossible for a man to live without an object of worship as it is for a hippopotamus to fly. The very composition of human life, the soul, the spirit, demands a center of worship. It has been this way since Adam and Even; since Cain and Abel.
Look with me at these systems of belief:
- Agnosticism — It is not possible to know whether God exists. We cannot know how the world began. An agnostic would say, “I don’t know if there is a God or not.”
- Atheism — There is no need for a God. The gods of the Greeks and the God of the Bible are the same; just so many myths and legends. An atheist would say, “I know there is no God.”
- Deism — God set the universe in motion and left it to its own results. God no longer interacts with man. A deist would say, “The world is like a clock that God wound up once and it is now winding down.”
- Pantheism — We are all part of God. Everything that exists has God in it. A pantheist would look at a tree and say, “That tree is God.”
- Polytheism – There are many gods. A polytheist would say, “That river is a god, that monkey is a god; the sun and moon are gods.”
- Theism — There is one God. He created the universe, and we can know Him. You and me would fall into this group. We would say, “God is there and He is not silent.”
Which of these belief systems do you ascribe to? Think before you answer. For instance, we have thousands of practical atheists in America today. These folks would not dare to confess with their month that “There is no God,” And yet, by their manner of living they violate the dictates of God without giving it the slightest thought.
- They desecrate the Lord’s day,
- live in drunkenness and immorality,
- cuss like a sailor,
- ridicule the truths of hell and eternal punishment,
- and they seldom if ever pray and
- they never devote themselves to the study of Scripture.
Their non-verbal’s cry out — “There is no God.”
Then too, we have a good number of polytheists running around today. Remember, these people believe in many gods. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians were poly-theistic. For instance, the Greeks worshipped…
ATHENA – THE GODDESS OF WISDOM
Athena, the mythical daughter or Zeus, was once memorialized by a statue that stood forty feet high in the Acropolis of Athens. Athena was, again, the Goddess of Wisdom in the city of Aristotle, Plato, Zeno, and other giants of thought.
APHRODITE — GREEK GODDESS OF LOVE
Outside the ruins of ancient Corinth, one can see the ruins of the temple of Aphrodite. If you ever go there, your guide will tell you a most intriguing story. It seems (or so the story goes) that each evening about 1,000 priestesses would come down into the city to encourage the men of Corinth to go engage in the worship of Aphrodite. The careful eye would catch the inscription on the sole of the girls’ sandals: “Follow me.” The point is, sex was not merely a part of worship, but was the very means and object of worship.
BACCHUS, THE SON OF ZEUS AND THE GOD OF WINE
Bacchus was associated with fertility, wine and grapes, as well as sexual free-for-alls. Therefore, it should be no surprise that this false deity was also known as the so-called “party god.” In addition to being the patron of wine and drink, Bacchus is a god of the theatrical arts.
MAMMON
Jesus spoke of Mammon in the Sermon on the Mount and in the parable of the Unjust Steward. Matthew 6:19-24 (New King James Version), “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Mammon was and is used to describe material wealth or greed.
Oxford defines Mammon as: god of wealth, regarded as evil or immoral; ‘those who worship mammon’ are equivalent to greedy people who value money too highly.
Webster’s dictionary defines “Mammon” as the false god of riches and avarice. Riches regarded as an object of worship and greedy pursuit; wealth as an evil, more or less personified.
The term Mammon is used rather extensively today:
- Mammon is a main villain in the comic Spawn.
- Mammon is the son of Lucifer in the film Constantine.
- Mammon is a name given to one of the Seven Sisters of Purgatory.
- An episode of Criminal Minds is set in a small town named North Mammon.
- In the Dungeons and Dragons game. Mammon is the “arch-devil” that rules over one of the nine layers of Hell.
Would you believe that people still worship these ancient gods and goddesses? The only difference is that we have dropped the formal titles. We no longer call them gods or goddesses. And we have become a little more subtle in our worship. But we have gone right on worshiping the very same gods. We cannot help ourselves for these gods and goddesses are a reflection of our appetites, the drives of the unchanging nature of humankind.
Back to Athena – the goddess of wisdom
The worship of the god of knowledge is one of the byproducts of our scientific, technological, computerized age. We have to have more and more of it and we have to get it faster and faster. People who would never think of giving money to the work of the Lord will pour thousands of dollars into their worship and pursuit of knowledge. People who would never think of giving time to the One True God will devote years to the pursuit of knowledge.
Aphrodite — Greek Goddess of Love
God alone knows how many persons sacrifice their health, nerves, homes, virtue, and reputations on the altar of sex.
- Sex that has no meaning to marriage;
- Sex that has no hint of responsibility or commitment;
- Sex that sidesteps the real meaning of love;
- Sex that has become an end within itself—a god!
I once asked a man who was having an extra-marital affair (he was a professing Christian, by the way) if it mattered that he was openly disobeying the Word of God. He simply answered “no”. Sex had replaced God as his object of worship.
Bacchus, the god of wine
I want to tell you something you don’t know. If I speak against alcohol, it is as if I have said a dirty word. People will invariably be offended and leave the church. I have almost come to the place where I ask myself, what’s the use? My words of warning don’t seem to do much good. People just go on taking a drink until drink finally takes them.
I know of people who would chose booze over God any day of the week and twice on Sunday. What a way to worship!
Mammon
A woman sat weeping in a pastor’s study recently. She confessed that her marriage was
falling apart. She said, “For the last fifteen years, money has been my husband’s god. He never has made much, but he has always worshiped it.” Do you worship Mammon?
These ancients gods serve as examples of what people worship today. So, again, who/what do you worship?
THIS WOULD BE A GREAT PLACE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, WHAT EXACTLY IS A GOD?
The truth is, whatever claims your ultimate devotion and allegiance is your god.
- Someone else has pointed out that anything that stands between you and God is your god.
- Whatever is most important in your life—that’s your god.
- Your god is what you have given top priority—primary allegiance.
- If a good time is the most important thing in your life, then pleasure is your god. It’s as simple as that.
- If your business is the most important thing to you—if your job comes before children, spouse, or health—then your job is your god.
- If education comes before honesty; if a grade is the most important thing to you; then academics has become your god.
- Philippians 3:18-19 (The Living Bible) fits well here, “For I have told you often before, and I say it again now with tears in my eyes, there are many who walk along the Christian road who are really enemies of the cross of Christ. Their future is eternal loss, for their god is their appetite….”
- Again, “their god is their appetite….” According to The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible Commentary, the word appetite speaks of “sensuality, the desire for the physical pleasures of this world. Physical and material gratification is their god.”
Then too:
- A boyfriend or girlfriend,
- A habit,
- A car,
- Your looks,
- Your own way,
- The applause of others…
any or all of these things – and millions more — could over time become your god.
Someone argues: “Pastor, I really do not think that what you just described is all that bad. There happens to be a number of things in my life that are more important to me than worshiping what the Bible calls the true God. If that is how I see things, it’s nobody’s business but mine.”
The poet Walt Whitman gave a voice to this way of thinking when he wrote in his introduction to Leaves of Grass: “There will soon be no more priests. Their work is done . . . every man shall be his own priest.”
I want you to hear this important principle. It has been said that when a person dethrones God, he deifies and worships himself. There are people out there today of whom it may be said that they worship themselves with all their heart and with all their strength and with all their mind. They serve themselves. They give to themselves. They love themselves as they love no one or anything else. Such a person is a god unto himself or herself.
Notice with me a story of such a man. The account is found in the Bible in Luke 18:18-23, “A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ … You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’’
‘All these I have kept since I was a boy,’ he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.”
- How many commandments are listed in Exodus 20? (Ten.) Yet, how many of the ten did Jesus list here? (Five.) Why only five? Jesus knew that the young man was truly “religious” in keeping these particular commandments. He hadn’t committed adultery. He hadn’t murdered anyone. He wasn’t a thief. He wasn’t a liar. He did give honor to his parents. Notice, though, each of these commandments dealt with his relationship with other human beings.
- As good as he was in observing these commandments, he still lacked one thing according to Jesus. He had to sell everything that he had and give it to the poor. Instead of telling him to get more and more, the Lord commanded that he get rid of everything.
Why? What was Jesus really saying here? Some have taken this to be a teaching against wealth. That Jesus is setting forth a principle that dictates that we are to take a vow of poverty, sell all that we have, and go live among the poor in Calcutta, India.
I really do not see that in the passage. Rather I believe that Jesus was on a quest. He intended to show the fellow that he really wasn’t keeping all of the commandments – as he had boasted. In fact, he was violating the first and greatest one, again — “You shall have no other gods before me.” He had placed at least two other gods before the One True God. What were they? His own wants and desires as well as Mammon.
In short, Jesus was exposing the fellow’s idolatry. Verse 23 points out, “When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.” Interestingly, we do not have a record of his ever approaching Jesus again.
I want you to understand that the essence of all idolatry is a substituting of some person or object in the place of God.
SO, WHO ARE WE TO WORSHIP? GOD. OUR GOD. THE ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD. JEHOVAH GOD.
God intended that a human being have one supreme object of devotion. And He intended for that object of devotion to be Himself.
Isaiah 45:5, “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.”
- The Lord God is the source of absolute truth.
- He alone holds the key to eternal salvation.
- He is love and He has proven His love in the most unselfish way possible.
- He alone has the power to heal us, to provide for our needs, and to answer our prayers.
Why would we even think of worshipping some other – some lesser god?
Proverbs 3:5-6 orders that we are to put God first, and he will direct our paths and crown our efforts with success.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Please understand. This was somewhat akin to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Hebrew faith. Every adult male was obligated to recite this passage every morning and evening. It served as a daily reminder as to whom they were to worship.
In Matthew 22:35-40, an expert in the law of Moses “tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Here Jesus makes the First Commandment the very essence of New Testament Christianity. And, in the process, He again answers the question – who are we to worship? We worship “the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
FOR MY LAST POINT, I WANT TO BRIEFLY RETURN TO A POINT THAT I TRIED TO DRIVE HOME IN THE FIRST MESSAGE IN THIS SERIES. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ARE A LOVE LETTER FROM THE VERY HAND OF GOD. They are not meant to be taken as being mean-spirited or stern. Rather, they provide us with boundaries. They protect. They preserve.
Marilyn and I pastored for several years in Carson City, Nevada. If you have been there, you know that the city was built on high desert land surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Lake Tahoe is a short 13 miles away. The place is some kind of beautiful. Anyway, one day the family was out in our backyard. Marci, who may have been two or three years old at the time, reached down and picked something up off of the ground. I looked over just in time to see a full-sized scorpion on the object and it was crawling up toward her tiny hand. Let me ask you, was that a good time for me to whisper sweetly, “Marci, dear, daddy wants you to drop what you are holding. Quickly, now place it on the ground. Tula-Lu. ” No! My heart lurched within my chest. I shouted, “MARCI, DROP IT!”
Again, that was not a time to speak softly. A life could have hung in the balance. Certainly, Marci could have, at the very least, suffered a serious sting. Oh, would you like to know what happened? She understood the urgency in my voice and she obeyed me instantly. The scorpion got away, but our child was safe.
I submit to you that the Ten Commandments have a bit of that flavor to them. They seem to be written in bold with capital letters. No doubt the Father heart of God knows the dangers at hand when we substitute other gods – any gods — in His place?
Listen to the urgent tone of these words from the book of Ezekiel: “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, 0 house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11) Can you hear it? “Stop! Stop! Turn back! Turn around! Don’t go that way! There is sorrow ahead! There is death ahead! Come back to Me.” That is what the Ten Commandments are all about.
So, the key point in this message is, make sure that nothing – no god, person, object, task, duty, or pleasure – comes before the One True God in our priorities, in our plans, and in our affection. Why? God wants to be your God.
