No Other Gods
Notes
Transcript
Text
Text
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Introduction
Introduction
Illustration: Sharing...
At the heart of the our covenant with God is this one very important abiding and essential truth, it is a monogamous relationship. The Lord will not tolerate other gods in our lives. He doesn’t permit sharing.
When you take a look at the way the Ten Commandments are ordered, it just makes logical sense that the first command would be the command we find in verse 3
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
It’s been said all the other commands follow. If we make it our aim to obey this first. To place no idol before Christ our King...
So this commandment is the key that unlocks all the other commandments.
This morning I want to give you three reasons why you should seek to obey it...
1. God will not share His people with other gods.
1. God will not share His people with other gods.
As we discussed last week, words like these are meant to speak to the polytheist, the monotheist, and the atheist.
In other words, your culture may promote the worship of many gods. To that God would say “Do not put those gods before me. I alone must be worshipped.”
Your culture may promote the worship of no gods but yourself. To that God would say “Do not put any other god before me EVEN yourself. I alone must be worshipped.”
Your culture may even promote the worship of one God just not the triune God. To that God would say “Do not put THAT God before me. I alone must be worshipped”
God will not be one among many. God will only be satisfied if he is exclusive.
One author summarizes this truth up in this way
“Don’t think that you can mix God with your worship of idols. If you want one-third of God, and two-thirds of other idols, you get none of God.”
This is important for few reasons:
1. God is giving His people a very clear distinction in their culture. They have no choice but to stand out. Polytheism is all around them. and God is saying that may be the culture but it will not be your culture because I will not tolerate it.
2. God is forcing us into a internal battle. You see one of the most important things for us to remember about idols is that MOST of them are not formal and outside of us. Most of them are informal and inside of us.
In his commentary on the book of Acts John Calvin famously said. “The human heart is a factory of idols. Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.”
In his most popular work “The Institutes of the Christian Faith” (1.11.8), Calvin elaborates a little more on that thought: “daily experience shows, that the flesh is always restless until it has obtained some figment like itself, with which it may vainly solace itself as a representation of God.”
WE ARE WORSHIPERS. Rather we worship the triune God or not.
WE ARE WORSHIPERS! Even, if you declare yourself an atheist, you still worship. Calvin is saying even if you had no formal idols to worship. Your flesh would formulate something to worship. It is RESTLESS until it formulates something like itself to serve as an representation of God.
This could be graven images made of metal and wood, but oftentimes it is invisible images made from the raw material of sin.
It is idol of sex stirred up and fomented from unchecked lustful thoughts and actions or from lies that tell us the greatest right we have is to be sexually satisfied at all costs even the cost of precious lives in the womb if they violate that convenience.
It is idol of greed cultivated over years of believing the lie that money can bring ultimate salvation leading us to close up our bowels of compassion and fight to horde as many dollars as we possibly can out of sheer right versus need.
It is idol of racism developed from the pride we have in our ethnicity or the fear we have of another ethnicity.
It is the idol of nationalism developed in our misplaced confidence in our own country’s exceptionalism leading to SOME of the unfortunate events that we saw unfold on this past week.
WE ARE WORSHIPERS and so when our worship of the one true God is empty, we WILL ALWAYS FILL THE VOID with an idol.
God’s words “you shall have no other gods before me” are an collective acknowledgement that “if you don’t put me first SOMETHING ELSE WILL GO THERE, BUT I WILL NOT SHARE YOU WITH THAT OTHER THING.”
In fact, we see this in clear flashing lights in Ezekiel 14.
1 Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 2 And the word of the Lord came to me: 3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?
Here is what’s happening: Israel’s leaders are struggling pretty badly. Babylon has decimated Israel. It has taken most of its population into captivity and back to Babylon and the folks remaining in Jerusalem are left deeply discouraged. So, the Jerusalem elders begin to bring idols into the temple out of the thought that God had possibly abandon them.
Back in Babylon, the elders have not resorted to physically bringing these idols into worship, but that does not mean they are not present.
Ezekiel by the power of God exposes them:
3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? 4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.
You see they didn’t have any PHYSICAL IDOLS, but it doesn’t mean they were without IDOLS. The idols were present in their hearts.
So these elders were showing up in front of Ezekiel and looking for a word from the Lord and the Lord was saying, “No, you don’t get to consult me when you’re allegiance is to idols.”
And if someone were to ask, “what do you mean idols? Our allegiance is to you. The elders back in Jerusalem are worshipping idols, not us”. God’s response would be: The idols you’ve taken into your heart are just as bad and invite my judgment.
If you want one-third of God, and two-thirds of other idols, you get none of God.”
Doesn’t matter whether the idols are visible and external or otherwise.
So, what counsel does God have for these elders?
6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7 For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, I the Lord will answer him myself. 8 And I will set my face against that man; I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Repent from your idolatry: The idolatry where you try to replace me by bringing idols into my house of worship and the idolatry where you try to share me by taken idols in your heart while consulting my prophets about your future. REPENT OF ALL OF IT. Or I will set my face against you and cut you off.
ILLUSTRATION: There were a lot of things about the events that transpired in Washington on Wednesday that captured my attention, but the biggest thing that stood out and grieved me the most aside from the deaths suffered was the attempt was the fusion of that insurrection attempt with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The opening lede from one article I read went as follows:
“The name of God was everywhere during Wednesday’s insurrection against the American government. The mob carried signs and flags declaring jesus saves! and god, guns & guts made america, let’s keep all three.”
Further down in the article, you get this line: “Defiant masses literally broke down the walls of government, some believing they were marching under Jesus’s banner to implement God’s will to keep the President in the White House.”
Family, this is the embodiment of Ezekiel 14.
This is not mere political engagement. This is not merely casting a ballot for Trump or for Biden or for an independent. And I’m not here to bind your conscience on either of those decisions because they are far too complicated with far too many layers for me to even try…
That is not what Wednesday’s storming of the captiol was about and that is not why I call it an embodiment of Ezekiel 14. I call it that...
What happened Wednesday was people being so convinced that God needs one candidate or the other to accomplish his will that you have to storm the Capitol in violence in order to force it into existence.
What happened Wednesday was a people so identifying with their preferred political party and politician that they cast their movement to overturn the results as a Christian movement of good against evil.
This is saying “we have no idols because you don’t have any idols that you can touch when in reality what we have done is taken the idol of political partisanship into our hearts.”
And as we saw this week, it is DEADLY but more importantly. God is not interested in sharing himself with any of it. The politicians. The GOPers, The Democrats, The Independents, NONE of them have a place on His throne. So we must make wear in our sinful flesh to not try and place them there.
This is why the Apostle John warns us in his final words in 1 John: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
This troubling moment in our history actually leads us to another very important point that we need to consider as to why we obey the command to put no other god before the Triune God.
2. Idols always promise more than what they are able to deliver.
2. Idols always promise more than what they are able to deliver.
Why do we even pursue idols?
We follow idols because of what they make promises to us.
They promise us hope, they promise us joy, they promise us satisfaction, They promise us rest, They promise us peace. They promise and promise and promise and promise...
Even right now in this moment, many of us are tempted to reject God and turn towards an unhealthy relationship because of the promise of more happiness...
Some of you are tempted to turn towards giving in to your fleshy appetite whether sex or stuffing your belly with wine or with food and in doing rejecting the truth that only God can satisfy.
Some of you are tempted to try and force God into your work agenda and career plan because you believe that the career is going to give you ultimate joy...
Some of you believe the Democrats are going to secure peace for you. Some of you believe the GOP are going to bring security for you.
Why do we do this? Because sin has left us with eternal longings, deep soul desires, and idols promise us that they can deliver those things and they NEVER EVER DO IT...
How many times have traded in obedience to God to follow one of these idols telling yourself this time it will be different. This time the money will make me happy, the influence will satisfy me, the political party or politician will deliver the security I’ve been waiting for. AND EVERY SINGLE TIME you’re left empty yet again with more regret than the time before.
Our idols over promise and under deliver, ALWAYS...
18 “What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
20 But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
They promise, promise, promise, promise, but they can never deliver. They have no resurrection life in them. They have creative power in them. They don’t have eternity in them.
One pastor captures this sentiment well.
Idols promise peace, but give us prison instead.
Idolatry can’t deliver what you’re looking for, but there is something that they can give you: BONDAGE.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
When we turn towards idolatry we lose our God senses…sexually we lose our ability to capture God’s will for us. relationally we lose our ability to capture God’s well for us…practical wisdom becomes difficult to reach…
Idolatry leaves doing things and asking ourselves why on earth did I do that!
It PROMISES peace but gives us prison instead...
Application - Two Tests To Gauge Idolatry in Your Life
Application - Two Tests To Gauge Idolatry in Your Life
So how do we know when we are creeping in idolatry?
Pastor Theologian Tim Keller gives a really good extensive assessment that I don’t have time to deep dive into this morning but we will post in today’s description box on YouTube later on, but another Pastor Theologian, Phil Ryken offers two tests that I do have time to get into that can help us determine which gods we are tempted to worship...
The first test is the love test. What do we love?
Quoting Ryken, he says:
“...It only makes sense: We are called to love God with all our hearts and all our minds, but if instead we give our love to someone or something else, then we are serving some other god.
Ryken then moves into some very simple questions that we can ask ourselves when gauging idolatry in our lives.
“So what do you love? Or to ask the same question a different way, what do you desire? When your mind is free to roam, what do you think about? How do you spend your money? What do you get excited about? A false god can be any good thing that we focus on to the exclusion of God. It could be a sport or recreation. It could be a hobby or personal interest. It could be an appetite for the finer things in life. It could be a career ambition. It could be personal health and fitness. It could even be a ministry in the church. Certainly we are allowed to enjoy the good things in life, but we must not allow them to replace God as the object of our affections.”
Ryken the moves to the second test to gauge idolatry in our lives: The Trust Test.
“What do you trust? Where do you turn in times of trouble? Martin Luther said, “Whatever thy heart clings to and relies upon, that is properly thy God.” Similarly, the Puritan Thomas Watson said, “To trust in any thing more than God, is to make it a god.” This makes sense too. We are called to trust in God alone for our salvation, but if we put our trust in someone or something else, we are serving some other god.
So what do you trust? Some people trust their addictions. When they are in trouble—when they are lonely or discouraged—they count on drugs and alcohol or sex or shopping or some other obsession to pull them through. Other people trust things that are good in themselves but that nevertheless have a way of replacing our confidence in God. Some trust their jobs, their insurance policies, or their pension plans for their security. Some put their faith in the government and its control of the economy. Some trust their families or their social position. Some people trust science and medicine. God can use all of these things to care and provide for us, but we are to place our ultimate confidence in him alone.”
Ryken, P. G., & Hughes, R. K. (2005). Exodus: saved for God’s glory (p. 564). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
The last reason I want to deal with regarding why we should not turn from God to idols.
The answer: Jesus is better than the idols
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.