No Other Gods Before Me

Introduction

English Standard Version Chapter 20

20 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

This week we’re going to begin looking at the ten commandments by considering the first table of the law, and it’s first commandment, “you shall have no other gods before me.” If you haven’t already, I want to encourage you to head over to our website and listen to the first four introductory sermons in this series on the ten commandments, because it’s important that we know how to understand and apply the law of God properly before we attempt to do so. One of the greatest dangers when applying God’s law is mishandling it, not because the commandments are particularly difficult to understand, but because, like any good tool, the commandments can be misused and have a damaging effect on our lives.

For example, as we walk through the commandments we must avoid the ditch of moralism, or giving the impression that we’re justified before God by our ability to keep the law. The law should certainly bring conviction, and it’s my prayer that it would, but the point is not to try to justify ourselves by the law, but that it would ultimately drive us to Christ, who is our righteousness and our law-keeper, who has kept the law for us, on our behalf. And that you would seek to obey the law, not out of a desire to justify yourself, but to please God.

Context of redemption

Now, before we consider the first commandment, it’s important for us to consider the broader context of these commandments, and to recognize the importance of the prologue there in verses 1-2 which says, “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.”” We must not forget that these commandments were not given in a vacuum, but were given within the broader context of redemption. That God had made a covenant with Abraham hundreds of years before, and promised to give him a land, the land of Canaan, and to give him a son, and that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars.

But God also told Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14,

Genesis 15:13–14 (ESV)

“Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

So, before Abraham’s descendants would take possession of the land of Canaan, they would first be sojourners and servants in a different land, and afflicted for hundreds of years before being rescued from their bondage to slavery.

Therefore, when we fast-forward to the closing chapters of Genesis, over a hundred years after these promises were made to Abraham, his descendents, Jacob and his sons, sojourned in the land of Egypt to escape a severe famine. God protected Jacob and his family from the famine by sending his son, Joseph, ahead of them providentially.

But later, in Exodus 1:8-14, we read,

Exodus 1:8–14 ESV

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

God’s prophecy to Abraham had come to pass, but the story wasn’t over yet. Skipping ahead to Exodus 2:23-25, we read,

Exodus 2:23–25 (ESV)

the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

God had heard Israel’s cry for help, and the time had come to bring judgement against Egypt, to deliver Israel from it’s bondage to slavery, and to bring them out of the land of Egypt into the land promised to Abraham.

This is why we read at the beginning of Exodus 20, in verses 1-2,

English Standard Version Chapter 20

20 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

In other words, the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai came as a result of God delivering Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. That he’s not only their creator, but their king and their redeemer, and that it’s their deliverance out of Egypt that has provided the grounds, or the basis, for his claim upon them. They’re his people, and he’s their king, and it’s on these grounds that he gives them the law, these ten words. He’s their supreme authority and their lawgiver.

Which parallels the message of the Gospel. The gospel of the kingdom, as Jesus called it, is fundamentally a proclamation that Jesus is Lord, that he is king of kings. Which is why Paul writes in Romans 10:9 that, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Sadly, this element of our proclamation is all but lost here in the West. How often do we tell others that Jesus is Lord, that all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to Christ, and that he commands all people everywhere to repent?

And like the Israelites, Jesus’ claim on us is grounded in our own redemption, because he has delivered us out of the world, and from our bondage to sin. We too have been bought with a price. So, before God gives the Israelites his law, he begins by saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” And it’s within this redemptive context and upon these grounds that he gives them these ten words, these ten commandments.

Redemption preceded the law

Furthermore, it’s important that we notice that these commandments came after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. That God’s grace toward them preceded the giving of the law. In other words, it wasn’t their obedience to the law that motivated God to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians. They didn’t follow the law in order to be saved. Instead God intended for them to keep the law as a result of their redemption. Again, this parallels the Gospel in the NT, we’re not saved as a result of keeping the law, but we keep the law as a result of being saved. Our pursuit to keep the law should be motivated by our love toward God, not as a means to justify ourselves or to garner his favor.

Importance of the first table

Now, as we examine these first four commandments we need to keep in mind that these commandments comprise what’s referred to as the first table of the law. These first four commandments summarize our duty to God, or our duty to love and worship him; they’re vertical commands. Whereas the second table of the law, which includes the last six commandments, are horizontal commands that deal with loving our neighbor, or our duty to love one another.

In our culture, even today, very few people take issue with the second table of the law, or the last six commandments. Whether people will admit it or not, this is, in large part, due to the influence of Christianity upon the West over the last two thousand years. However, a vast majority of people do take issue with the first table of the law, or the first four commandments. They continue to acknowledge the importance of the second table, but they argue that the first table is unnecessary. That they don’t need to believe in God to be a good person. They say, “I can be good without God.”

And in one sense they’re not altogether wrong. Mankind can render external obedience to God’s law, at least for a time. But what most people don’t realize is that the second table, when isolated from the first, becomes like a ship without a compass. Most people don’t realize that the second table of the law is steered and supported by the first table. Therefore, to neglect the first table of the law in favor of the second will cause us to lose sight of our reason for keeping the law. Therefore, over time, men will begin to forsake it whenever it conflicts with their own desires. If your desire to keep the second table is not rooted in a desire to keep the first, you will either find other reasons, or you will lose sight of any reason for keeping the law at all.

You see, the first four commandments provide the last six commandments with purpose. The first table is the reason and motivation to carry out the commandments of the second. To say it another way, our duty to love our neighbor is grounded in our duty to love God, and the reason we love our neighbor is because we love God. Our love for God motivates us to love one another, and it’s God who dictates to us what love looks like. This is why the the Apostle John would later write that our love for one another is a litmus test for determining whether we love God or not. Listen to 1 John 4:19-21,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Anyone who says they can be morally upright without God will have to ground their duty to love their neighbor in something other than their duty to love God. They will inevitably replace the first table, their duty to love God, with a duty to love themselves. In other words, love for themselves becomes the sole motivation and driver behind loving their neighbor. They’re no longer loving their neighbor to please God, but to please themselves. Turning their so-called love for their neighbor into a self-serving endeavor. Therefore they’ll love their neighbor insofar as it serves their own interests. Their love becomes merely self serving, it become an idolatry of self, rather than worship given to God. And over time, what previously resembled the second table of the law, now only resembles their own personal desires. They’ve usurped God’s authority, and have put themselves in his place, and have defined for themselves what is good and evil according to their own pleasures. This is what we’re witnesses in our culture today.

This is why our own manufactured righteousness is like filthy rags before God, because they’re fundamentally idolatrous, we do them to serve ourselves rather than God. This is why it is impossible to please God without faith. Our desire to carry out the second table of the law must always be rooted in a desire to please God. Genuine obedience to the second table is always grounded in genuine obedience to the first table. Without the first table any attempt to obey the second table on our own will fail, because the first table is what steers and supports the second. And the first table guards us from compromising the second table of the law. And my point here is simply to demonstrate the importance and priority of the first four commandments, so as we begin to examine them you’ll understand their vital role within the decalogue.

No other gods before me

So with that, let’s look at the first of these four commandments which makeup the first table of the law. We read again there in verse 3, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Now, this text is not suggesting that there are others gods, and that the Israelites can worship those other gods as long as they ensure that they put Yahweh first. As one writer put it, this text isn’t saying that Yahweh is number one, but that he’s the only one. Just as I’m sure your wife doesn’t want to be number one in your life, she wants to be the only one in your life.

This text isn’t making room for polytheism or some form of pluralism, as though there were many ways to God. However, this hasn’t stopped the various cults from making this argument. For example, Mormonism, is arguably the most polytheistic religion in the world, and while they teach that Yahweh is the supreme God, they also teach the possibility of an infinite amount of gods, and I’ve watched them employ texts like this one to support their arguments.

However, the Apostle Paul confirms in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 that isn’t at all the case, he writes,

1 Corinthians 8:4–6 ESV

Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

God is not one among a pantheon of other gods in the universe to be worshipped.

Idolatry forbidden

This also isn’t a command for the Israelites to simply re-prioritize their idols. God is demanding Israel’s exclusive worship, declaring that he is the only God in the universe, maker of heaven and earth, and that he demands their exclusive worship. Isaiah 42:8 famously says, “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.” We’re to serve him, and him alone.

However, we tend to chafe against this kind of exclusive language, but not because we’re pious or humble as we might want others to believe. When people say things like, “What is truth?” or “Who can really know truth?” they want us to believe such questions are humble questions, and that anyone who makes a truth claim is simply being presumptuous. But the truth is, men make statements like that because they love their idols, and they want to keep them. Why are there so many religions? Is it because there must be many ways to God? Or because no one can know the truth? No, it’s because, man’s nature is a perpetual factory of idols. We want to choose what we worship, particularly idols that suit our own desires. Therefore, men invent religions and craft arguments to guard their idols.

But God demands our total devotion, that we serve him and him alone. This doesn’t mean that he intends for us to live some kind of monastic lifestyle, but that our whole lives would be ordered according to his will within the context of our circumstances. His law informs who we marry, how we raise our children, how we order our priorities, how we conduct business, our conduct between one another, whether at work, at home, or with the world. He demands our highest loyalty and devotion, that we should have no other gods before him.

Cannot serve two masters

And our worship must be exclusive because it’s impossible for us to serve two masters. Jesus famously said in Matthew 6:24, “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.” Notice how it’s not only impossible to serve two masters, but any attempt to do so will cause us to be devoted to one of them, but to despise the other. In other words, its impossible to be devoted to God and to our idols, without coming to despise God. You see, when we serve idols we can’t serve God at the same time, therefore we will either come to despise God for preventing us from serving our idols, or we’ll come to despise our idols for preventing us from serving God. Any devotion to idols will inevitably destroy our devotion to God.

This is why pornography, for instance, will cause a husband to develop an inner disdain or hostility toward his wife, because she represents an inherent threat to his idolatry due to their marriage covenant, and so he comes to resent her for interfering with his pursuit of such idolatry. Therefore, pornography will inevitably drive a fundamental wedge between a husband and a wife. Just as any idol will drive a fundamental wedge between God and us. Therefore, it’s unavoidable that our worship and devotion must be given exclusively to God, because we cannot serve two masters. And any form of idolatry is treason against God, and will lead us away from our devotion to God.

Sophisticated idolatry

And we must also realize that idols aren’t only physical objects that someone might keep on a shelf, bow down to, or offer prayers to, but I think this what many of us imagine when someone mentions idolatry. Therefore, we might mistakenly conclude that we don’t suffer from idolatry merely because we don’t have a statue of Dagon on our shelves, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. As fallen creatures we can make idols out of about anything. The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:25 describes mankind as having “exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and [as worshipping] and [serving] the creature rather than the Creator.” And even good things can become an occasion for idolatry. One might say, especially good things, because this kind of idolatry is more likely to fly under our radar. We are apt to place money, material items, relationships, and other pleasures before our pursuit of God.

Possessions

Let me give you some examples, listen to Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22,

Matthew 19:16–22 ESV

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Can you tell me which commandment the rich young ruler broke? He was in violation of the first commandment, “you shall have no other gods before me.” The man genuinely thought he had kept all of the commandments, but Jesus cleverly revealed that he hadn’t. When he asked the man to go sell all of his possessions, to give to the poor, and to come follow him, we’re told that he walked away sorrowful. Why? Because he had great possessions. Now, money and possessions aren’t at all inherently evil, in fact, God knows we need them and often gives us many good things, but the questions is whether we’re devoted to our wealth and possessions, or to to Christ? If our wealth and possessions become an obstacle to serving and following Christ, then we know that these things have become as idols to us.

Respectability

Another example, are you willing to look foolish for Christ? Or are you devoted to your respectability? What matters more, pleasing God or pleasing men? Are you willing to displease or offend men in order to please God? Or are you devoted to maintaining your respectability before the world? Are you devoted to God or to your status, your influence, or your reputation?

Family

Another example, do you love Christ more than your family, more than your parents, more than you spouse, or more than your children? Listen to what Jesus said in Luke 14:25-26,

Luke 14:25–26 ESV

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

What is Jesus asking of his disciples? Is he literally telling them that they must hate their own father and mother, their brothers and sisters, and even their own lives? No, his point is that their love and devotion to him must exceed their love and devotion to everyone else, their families, and even their own lives. God created the institution of the family, and it’s a gift from God, but are you willing to follow Christ even if your family doesn’t? If it comes down to them or Jesus who are you supremely devoted to? Your family or to Christ? We sometimes say things like, “He worships the ground she walks on,” when we see a husband extremely devoted to his wife, but we must never be more devoted to our spouse than we are to Christ.

Your own life

And more than that, are you willing to give up your own life to follow Christ? Are you willing to submit all of your dreams, all of your desires, all of your pursuits, your career, your talents, and your abilities to serve Christ? Are you willing to drop everything to follow him? Most people live their whole lives solely to please themselves, but the Christian lives to serve Christ. And the first commandment demands that our devotion be to God, and not to ourselves. Therefore, we must guard against the idolatry of self.

God of our imagination

Another kind of idolatry that’s common to us is the idolatry of our imaginations, or of worshipping the god of our imagination instead of the true God, who’s revealed in the Scriptures. Many professing Christians have grown accustomed to fashioning God in their own image, consciously imagining him differently than the Scriptures portray him to be, redefining him. We say things like, “I believe God is like....” when we’re confronted with uncomfortable scriptures. With our minds we image a quasi-biblical god that better suits our sentiments. For example, the holiness of God can make us uncomfortable and so we imagine a god who’s not as uptight about our sin, or the severity of his judgments against sin and so we imagine a kinder or gentler god, or the doctrine of election which may appear unloving to the ungrateful sinner and so we imagine a god who begs men to come to him, and so on. There are many doctrines that may make us uncomfortable, but we’re never given permission to imagine God any differently than how he’s reveled himself in Scripture, because if we do then we will find ourselves worshipping a different God altogether, no matter how sincere our worship may be, for sincerity is not a hallmark of truth, and many have been sincerely wrong.

Conclusion

Now, we’re prone to devote ourselves to all sorts of idols for a multitude of reasons, and I want to look at some of those reasons in our next time, and I also want to take some time then to consider the duties required by the first commandment, since we’ve already spent time today looking at what’s forbidden, but until then let’s close in prayer.

Prayer