Commandment 1: Worship Yahweh Alone

Introduction

**Begin with story about sharing. . . we are taught to share our possessions. . . and sharing is a good thing. . . but some things should never be shared with others. . . some things are exclusive. . . God will not share his glory with any other god. So he has given us this command: You shall have no other gods before me.”

Key Point: Because God has redeemed us from sin, he is the only one worthy of our worship, and we should love him supremely.

The Ten Commandments can be defined by really two commandments:

Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength:

Commandments 1-4.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Commandments 5-10.

In verses 1-2, before giving the first commandment, the Lord reminds the people of who he is, that he is Yahweh, their God, who has redeemed them from slavery to Egypt.

Exodus 20:1-2 “And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

Once more, we see that God reminds the people that these commandments were founded and based upon the grace that he had already shown them in making them his people.

The commandments were given to Israel as a way to express and live out their relationship with Yahweh.

“The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.” (Deuteronomy 6:20-24). -Philip Ryken

We could therefore read these verses for us today like this:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the Egypt of your sin, out of your slavery to Satan.”

We must remember that the law comes from God who is our Savior and our Lord.

Now looking at the first two commandments. . . they are really one commandment with two parts. The first deals with who Israel should worship and the second addresses how they should worship.

The question you need to ask yourself tonight is “Who are you worshipping. . . What god do you worship?”

Now as we go through each of these commandments for the rest of the semester, we will always ask four questions of each commandment:

What is the Commandment?

What did this Commandment mean for the Israelites?

How Does this Commandment reveal the character of God?

How Does this Commandment apply to us and reveal our sin and need for a savior?

So, lets look at the first question as we study the most important command that God has given to us. . .

What is the Commandment?

Exodus 20:3 ESV

“You shall have no other gods before me.

Now, for every commandment there are two sides. . .

Where sin is forbidden, the corresponding duty is required; and where a duty is required, the corresponding sin is forbidden.

“You shall have no other gods before me.”-negative form

“You shall worship Yahweh alone.”-positive form

What Did This Commandment Mean for the Israelites?

The Israelites were to not bring any other God’s before the presence of the Lord and worship other god’s along with the Lord.

This command connects with the statement “I am the Lord your God” therefore. . . you shall not worship any other gods besides me.

The word “worship” means to:

praise, adore, bow down to, exalt, placing supreme significance in.

They were to give Yahweh their complete and unrivaled love, allegiance, and obedience.

When it comes to worshipping God. . . it is is all or nothing.

Matthew 6:24 ESV

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

They were to worship only Yahweh because he is the only one who redeemed them from Egypt and demonstrated his power over all the other gods of the Egyptians. Yahweh alone is the only one worthy of worship.

Deuteronomy 4:32–40 ESV

“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

The command in Exodus 20 also encapsulates the command to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. . . because he alone is the Lord, He alone is the One true God (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

How does this command reveal the character of God?

This commandment shows that God is holy, majestic, and awesome, no other “god” or created thing can compare with his glory.

Exodus 15:11 ““Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”

Psalm 86:8-10 “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.”

Isaiah 40:21-29 “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

From these verses, we see that God is. . .

Holy

Majestic

Sovereign

All-Powerful

All-Knowing

All-Good

Eternal

Self-existent

And the list goes on and on. . .

Essentially, this command shows us who God is and why he alone is worthy to be worshipped.

How does this commandment apply to our lives and show us our need for a Savior?

This command is clearly continued in the New Testament through the teachings of Jesus and the apostles:

Matthew 22:37-40 “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

Acts 5:29 “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”

So what this command means for us is that. . .

We must love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We must not worship or obey anyone or anything besides God.

We must not only choose to worship God alone but we must stick with our choice. . . we cannot have a divided heart. . . we cannot be double-minded.

Lukewarmness.

Riding the fence

Matthew 12:30 ESV

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

This command gives life because we were made to worship God.

Worshipping God alone will give us freedom, satisfaction, abundant joy, peace, and contentment.

But if we do not worship God alone. . . it will only bring misery, enslavement, discontentment, and despair.

Look at the example of Solomon

Solomon had it all:

Eccles. 2:4-8 “I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.”

“This was Solomon’s grand experiment: the pursuit of other gods. He summed it all up by saying, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure” (Eccles. 2:10a). What was the result? Was he satisfied? Did he get what he wanted? Was it worth it? No; his pursuit of power, pleasure, and prosperity led him into emptiness and despair. He said, “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.… So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me” (Eccles. 2:11, 17a).” -Philip Graham Ryken

So, what are some gods of our day that we can worship:

Popularity

Food

Our physical appearance

Sports

Entertainment (books, movies, tv, video games),

Sexual pleasure

Money

Fame

Praise from people

Success

Our friends

Our Family

Luxury

Comfort

and last but not least. . . Ourselves.

Three ways to identify who and what you are worshipping.

First, ask yourself: If I only had ______ then I would be happy, satisfied, and content.

Whatever you put in that blank is your god.

Second, ask yourself What do I love?

What consumes your passions, desires, and obsessions?

What consumes your time, especially your free time?

What do you spend your money on?

Who do you obey?

Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments.

The command to love God precedes the other commandments, indicating that love is the motivation for keeping the rest of the law.

Third, ask yourself What do I trust?

Where do you run to when there is trouble?

What gives you security?

Where or who do you run to when you are lonely and depressed?

We also break this command...

when we say that there are other ways to God and that Jesus is not the only way to be saved.

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

when we do not see God as sovereign over our suffering. . . and rather see chance or the Devil in control when we suffer.

When we love what God hates and hate what God loves.

Our worship of other gods shows us our need for a Savior.

We have utterly failed to keep this commandment. . . but praise God that Jesus kept this commandment perfectly

Matthew 4:10 “Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ””

You see, our hearts are wicked and broken and we need a new heart to have the ability to love God fully. . . but because of Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death in our place. . . through repentance and faith in him. . . we will be made a new creation and have the ability to love and worship God alone.

The only way we can keep ourselves from worshipping other gods is by having a passionate and deep love for God through trusting in his Son, Jesus Christ.

“The only thing that can tear our hearts away from all our other affections is true love for God. And the only thing that can replace all the other things we trust is a total faith commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The way that we grow in our love for God is by remembering his love for us.

By loving him, we will want to and be able to obey his commands. . . and if we keep his commands, we will abide in his love. . .

John 15:9-11 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Believer. . . abide in the love of Christ tonight and turn from idols. Kill and destroy any other gods you are worshipping. . . because they are not worthy. . . only Christ has saved you. . . he alone is worthy.

Lost. . . repent and trust in Jesus. . . turn from the false gods you are worshipping because they cannot save you. . . only Christ has fulfilled the law, only Christ has paid for your sin. . .

Worship the Lord alone, for his is the only God.