Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church No Other Gods (Part II) Having no other gods in addition to
the God of the Bible is a tall order, as the command is all at the same time: 1.
Personal Every now and then an athletic contest
is won by some sort of memorable event that could be the last second “Hail Mary”
play or half court buzzer beater that sends everybody into a frenzy. But it seems to me
that these things seem to be won or lost on the basis of fundamentals. Making your free
throws, taking care of the ball, and all that sort of thing. Although it is sometimes more
thrilling to ponder the spectacular, it is the fundamentals that really carry the day.
Sometimes I think that Christians forget fundamentals. It seems it is more fun, more
intriguing, to ponder such things as Bible translations, end times theologies, church
governments, spiritual gifts. These are all good things, but so often we can get all
lopsided to the point where we forget the fundamentals. I am convinced that the fundamentals
are traceable to the ten “Words” God gave Moses on Mount Sinai long ago and the
other nine are supportive of the first. The first is this: 1Then God spoke all these words, saying, No other gods before Me, beside Me, in
addition to Me. None. We are coming at this first
commandment from eight different angles in a sense. Four of them we talked about a week
ago and I do not want to rehash that. I would rather jump in on the fifth and work on some
material that I think is imperative to our understanding of this very first and very
critical commandment. 5. Single It seems to me that this commandment
-- you shall have no other gods in addition to Me, no other gods, not a one -- is a single
word from God. By that I mean, it is a narrow proposition. No other gods narrows the
options to only one. It is an exclusive proposition. Serious Christians, those who believe
the Bible and trust Jesus, have something we share with the nation of Israel at this
point. They were told this word first. Yours is the only true God. This God is going to
work through you and into the world. They had, if you will, an exclusive handle on the God
of the Bible. If you were an Israelite back in the days of Moses and hobnobbing with the
local “ites,” and explaining to them who you were and where you were from, it
would not have been out of the question to have heard, “Oh my, isn’t that a
rather narrow view of God.” Yours is the only one? What about ours? We have our gods,
our goddesses, aren’t you just a little narrow minded?” Christians can be accused as well, and
rightly so, of being narrow minded. Please do not confuse narrow minded with smug. Smug
suggests that somehow we are cool, like we deserve this. Someone has said it is OK to be
narrow minded, if you are right. That is a biblical position, but a biblical attitude is
not arrogance about it. In our culture, this is not a popular
notion. We are a tolerant culture and our society is rapidly moving in the direction that
anyone who is not tolerant is not tolerated by those who are. Let us think for just a
second beyond that statement. What if, when
God said to Moses, “You shall have no other gods. I am it.” Just for the sake of
argument, what if it is true? Jesus, the night of His betrayal, when His disciples said we
are not sure we know where you are going, how can we know the way. He replied, “I am
the way. I am the truth. I am the life.” He then went on to say there is no other
avenue to the Father but by Me. If it is true, we are deeply in sin
not to share it. If it is true, and I believe the Bible is so clear it is true, the most
loving words we can say are these words. Narrow? Yes, but if it is true, it is unloving
not to share it. Indeed, we are called to do just that. The gospel, the truth of the
existence of God, the only God, is based upon truth, which is grounded in real history and
misrepresenting that is a sin. It is wrong. Let’s not hesitate at that score. If it
is true, say it. Not to say it is unloving. To see the singleness of this
commandment, or the singularity of God, the exclusiveness of God, we must go to
Deuteronomy 6, where the statement has come down through the history of the Jewish people,
even to this day. Deuteronomy 6:4 is known in Jewish circles as the shimah of Israel. The
“shimah,” which is the first word of those verses in Hebrew, means “listen.”
That is how the verse reads. "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is
one!” There is only one of Him and no other
options are sanctioned. The implications of that statement are really far reaching. Yahweh
is our God and He is One. It means that atheism is not an option according to the
Scripture. It is very difficult to live consistently as an atheist. Certainly an atheist,
to be honest, would have to admit that there are no real rules, truths, or laws. It is all
subject to whatever people want to make of them. Atheism is anything but a biblical
position. Neither is what is called polytheism,
the notion that there is more than one god, two or even more. It is unequivocally ruled
out by this verse. The Lord is our God and the Lord is One. That is implied by those
words. What is really clear is that there is a direct command between
Deuteronomy 6:4 and that first commandment in Exodus 20 that there is only one God. There
can only be one God. It is pounded on. Let me suggest that the nature of the
situation has several reasons why there can only be one God. The nature of theology, if
you will, dictates this -- why there can only be one God. I have five reasons: First, the word is all powerful.
Theologians used the word omnipotent or all powerfulness of God. God does not share His
power. He has it all. If He has it all, there is not any left for anyone else. Between chapters 40 and 50 of Isaiah
are some of the grandest statements of theology in all Scripture, statements about our
God. Isaiah 44 God says “I have set this up from
the beginning. I will carry it through to the end. It has been by My power that it has all
occurred. I don’t share it. I don’t need to share it. And there is no one who
can handle it.” God will hammer on this through the prophet Isaiah continually. Secondly, there is no shared plan. God
is sovereign. That alone puts Him in a class by Himself. Isaiah 46 God sounds narrow minded. He is right,
so it is OK. 10Declaring the end from the beginning, It is My plan! Mine to put together,
Mine to orchestrate, Mine to execute, Mine to wrap up. It is God’s to do. He is
sovereign. There is no joint; there is no conflicting plan. Third, in Isaiah 42, this one
stretches my imagination just a bit. Because God is everywhere, there is no room for
another one. 8"I am the LORD, that is My name; I stand alone! There is no room for
anyone else. Fourth reason, biblically, as far as
the Bible is concerned, there not only is no evidence whatsoever for many gods or for more
than one God. Repeatedly, in Bible, the point is emphasized that there can be no other
gods. He is big enough. He is smart enough. He needs nothing. He is everywhere. He has
done it all. There is no place for a rival. The final reason there can be only one
God is because of the notion of religious origins. In other words, if people made this up,
people would choose more than one. In the course of history, almost always people tend to
invent gods, first of all to explain things they cannot themselves explain. Back in
antiquity when the farmer was trying to get the crops to grow, he knows he cannot make it
rain. It was thought that if it rained, than God is pleased. We have to explain the rain
by attaching a god. If it does not rain, God is displeased. Fertility in the ancient world is
huge. Without fertility, there are no crops.
There are no herds. There are no children. So gods and goddesses of fertility were created
in order to explain that which people could not control, which is why much of ancient
religion deteriorated into fleshly activities -- in order to appease the god or the
goddess of fertility. People tend to invent gods, first of
all, to explain the uncontrollable and secondly, to resemble themselves. If you are going
to worship a being of your own creation, it is really handy if that particular being lets
you do basically what you want. The gods and goddesses of antiquity were very
accommodating along that score. They were as capricious, as violent, as adulterous, as
fleshly, as the people who invented them. This is anything but a biblical position as far
as the existence and the character of the only true God. “You shall have no other
gods in addition to Me” is a singular proposition. 6. Simple Secondly, it makes our duty very
simple. Simple is an application of “single.” Notice what it says in the grand
statement of the faith (Deuteronomy 6). “Hear O Israel, Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is
One.” Does it not follow that you should love the Lord your God with a singular
focus. “With all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” It
is with a single, simple focus. Deuteronomy 6:4 states the obvious;
6:5 states the application. There is one God, therefore a single focused allegiance to
Him. There was a time in my life I had two bosses. I had Mr. Sloan and Mr. Crosby, one of
them worked in one department and one of them worked in the other. At first I thought this
will be sweet because one of them will think I am doing something for the other one, who
will think I am doing something for the first, and then maybe I can skate by. (This was a
long time ago.) It did not work that way at all. Mr.
Sloan wanted me. Mr. Crosby wanted me. I didn’t know whether I was afoot or on
horseback half the time and neither did they. Work is best when we have one boss. When our
loyalty or our devotion or our obedience or our focus or our worship is required, one
object is best. Jesus had something like this in the
Sermon on the Mount when He said, “You cannot serve two masters. You cannot love God
on the one hand and money on the other.” You cannot love two masters. You cannot
serve two masters. And by the way, you cannot trust two masters either. Only one and that
is the point here. Our marching orders are simple. “You shall have no other gods in
addition to Me.” The nature of the situation goes like
this. Yahweh, the God of the universe, the God of the Bible, is God and He is one. Just
one. Of course, we worship a triune godhead, one in nature, one in essense and three in
Person, but God is one God. He is the only designer, the only creator, the only sustainer,
the only Saviour, the only guide, the only judge. If He is all these things, and the
Bible is so clear that this is His role, this is what He does. If that is true, would it
not also be true that all our needs, yours and mine, all our loyalty, all our devotion,
our goals, our meaning, our purpose, our fulfillment, our everything, ought to be met in
Him alone. If He really is the designer, the creator, the sustainer, the savior, the
guide, and the judge -- if He really is all these -- who else is there who can rival Him
for our purposes, our fulfillment, our devotion? There is no other. That’s why the
Bible does not hesitate to say the Lord is your God, the Lord is one. He gets all of you! It’s very simple that way. You
shall have no other gods in addition to Me. You shall embrace, you shall worship, you
shall be devoted, you shall follow no other gods, the Bible says, in addition to Me. That
is fairly simplistic, but we struggle, don’t we? We know what the Bible says. It is
very clear. We say that is so simple -- yes, sitting here in church. It is very simple. No
other gods. God does everything, is everything, ok, single focus. Until we enter into the
arena of real life again and then another fact surfaces. We struggle at this point. The Bible is pretty clear in several
places. Recall from Galatians 5:17, the apostle Paul kind of summarizes when he says the
flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and so we constantly live
in this tension. James spells it out a little more thoroughly talking about the struggle. It is very interesting how the themes
that surface in these verses in James 4 apply to those basic commandments given to Moses. James 4 Isn’t the problem you? 2You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious
and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. Murder? Fight? Cannot obtain? I see
some commandments here. Does anyone else? 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,
so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 7Submit therefore to God Resist the devil and he will flee from
you. Does that sound simple? Submit to God.
Draw near to God. Move toward God. Take a posture that is simply on Him. Move toward Him
and that is the solution to the problems that plague you personally and interpersonally. Cleanse
your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Double-minded -- that’s the word.
If we come full circle, what is the source of your trouble? It is your double mindedness.
It is your built-in battle between the flesh and the spirit. It is your divided loyalty
between that which promises fulfillment and cannot come through and the God who can. Our
flesh does not help us much here. In
James 1, that word double-minded is found again in verse 8. Speaking about
someone who is driven and tossed by the wind and so forth, verse 8 says he is a
double-minded man. He is in two minds. “Unstable in all his ways.” If we are not
single-minded where God is concerned, we can expect instability in relationships, in
finance, in just about every walk of life. He will put the other dimensions of life into
proper perspective. We cannot do that. We struggle. Those verses in James describe a
believer in trouble, a believer who has somehow gotten away from a single focus and has
begun looking in more than one place for fulfillment or for purpose. This is exactly what is stated in
Romans 7 as the apostle Paul talks about what he wants to do, he does not do and what he
does not want to do, he does. He is in all kinds of turmoil. I love the way Romans 7 ends. He says “Wretched
man that I am.” He sees himself not single minded but double minded and it is driving
him nuts. “Wretched man that I am. Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
He answers his own question, “Thanks be to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
God has provided the answer and it is in Jesus. The point of the law is to take us to
Christ. We come up against it and we realize then our frailty. Remember it is a mirror. It
tells us what is wrong. We come up against this command, “You shall have no other
gods before Me.” We find ourselves looking for fulfillment or answers somewhere else.
If we are not frustrated about that, there is something wrong with us. We should be driven
continually to the cross. This is a blatant advertisement of our fallen sinfulness and of
the need we have for forgiveness and new life and a savior. The law is more than simply a moral
guide for the believer. The law is also an evangelistic tool to bring us to Him, showing
us our weakness, showing us our frailty, showing us our duplicity and taking us to the
only one who can fix it. That is Him. The key is still single-mindedness. There are still
good habits to be cultivated toward that end, but the point is, if you or I are miserable
because our flesh and our spirit are duking it out -- good!
Be miserable and get miserable to the cross, where the answers are, where
the sin is paid for, where the grace is. God is opposed to the proud, gives grace to the
humble. Submit therefore to God, James says. 7. Foundational I am not in the construction business,
but I have seen cornerstones. I have seen cornerstones that have been in place for
thousands of years and seen cornerstones that are mostly decorative that say the building
was built on such and such a day. When I use the word foundational, I refer to a
cornerstone. I am not talking about the new ones. I am talking about the old ones. In many places, in the ancient Near
East, builders liked to leave monuments to themselves as a testimony to their own personal
greatness. Before they could begin with the building they had to lay the very first stone,
which came to be known as the cornerstone. It had to be absolutely level and absolutely
plumb because everything going horizontally had to square with it and everything going
vertically had to square with it. It was the most critical stone in the entire structure.
They were huge stones and they had to be perfectly set. Foundational. Get this right and you’re
good. Get it wrong and you are going to be off. I think it is interesting that in our
lives if the foundation stone, if you will, is in place our horizontal life, our
relational life, will be right as well as our vertical; that is, our relationship with
God. This very first commandment, “You
shall have no other gods in addition to Me,” is a cornerstone commandment. I believe
the rest of the nine find their place in relation to that first one. Matthew, Mark and Luke record the
encounter between Jesus and an individual who has come to be known as the rich, young
ruler. We know he was rich and we know he was a ruler. I am not sure how we know he was
young. Nevertheless, that is how he has come down to us. Just think for a second about where
this individual was coming from. I find it interesting that he came to Jesus with a
problem and he left Jesus with a problem. In Mark 10, Jesus was setting out on a journey.
This journey was from Galilee south and He is getting ready to go to the cross. 17As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt
before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life?" The one God-- that’s what
it says. Jesus takes him to the first commandment immediately. 19"You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT
ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND
MOTHER.'" I think we can know quite a bit about
this fellow, just by what we read in these verses. I think for one, that he is a sensitive
guy. He has jumped through all the religious hoops that were required of him and yet he is
still coming up empty. He heard about Jesus and decided he had to track him down. He ran
to Jesus, which is not what nobility would do. He humbled himself by bowing before Jesus
and very respectfully spoke to the Savior, “Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?” He is conscientious. He is sensitive. He is industrious. He is
religious. He has kept the rules from his youth. He has his own theology going. He
probably figures that, like everyone else, if I am wealthy, God must like me. That’s
what the culture taught then and in many corners today -- in America. So we have a guy who
seems to have it all together but somewhere deep down inside he is thinking something just
isn’t right. I am pleased to a degree with the life I have here. I am religious, I
have money, I am a good guy. But what about eternal life? In his heart and in his mind he
is wondering what that is all about. So he approached Jesus. Jesus said, Why do you call
me good? In other words, “Buddy, you are getting warmer. You realize the only good
one is the one God -- a clear allusion to the first commandment. “What do I do to inherit eternal
life?” Jesus took him to the law and held the law up in front of him. Jesus is
holding a mirror in front of this Jewish young man, this young man who probably at the age
of 13 was bar mitzvah’d and said I will be a son of the commandment, I will do this.
Perhaps it was working in his soul and he was seeing his inadequacy and realizing deep
down inside that all his goodness was not making him right with God. “How are you doing with the
commandment, son?” “Well, actually I am doing quite well, teacher. I have kept
them all from my youth up.” Jesus in a sense said, “All of them? No, not all of
them. One thing you lack. Go sell all you possess. Give to the poor. You shall have
treasure in heaven.” In other words, in my opinion, He is mentioning there that
second commandment “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and
strength as the first and love your neighbor as yourself as the second, summarizing all
the rest. He is saying, “You are missing it, you are missing the spirit of it in the
second commandment -- and come follow Me.” You shall have no other gods in addition
to me. Jesus is saying, “I am the one. I
am the object of your devotion. I am the object of your worship. I am the one. Come follow
Me.” The young man went away sad, it says. He was wealthy and did not want to give it
up. I like to think he thought some more about it and changed his mind. I don’t know.
We will find out in glory if we need to. To this young man, the rules, the
commands -- it is as if those rules were just rules. Almost like a religious checklist to
getting it done. OK son, when you have cleaned your room, changed your sheets, cleaned the
garage, you can go play. I wonder to how many Christianity or religion is like that
checklist. We just do this and this and we’re good. But this guy said I am not good,
how do I get to heaven? Jesus said, “Come follow Me.” He was caught in a typical works
religion. If I just perform. But he knew he was coming up empty. What he needed was
commandment number one. You shall have no other gods before Me and you shall love and
honor and embrace, trust Him alone. If he had had that first, the others would have come
exactly where they needed to be. If the number one commandment, “You shall have no
other gods in addition to Me,” if that one is in place, the rest make more sense. They are not just abstract rules, not
just behavior oriented statues. They key off a central truth: One true God, personally
interested in me. This is what He is like and this is what He wants. You shall not make a
graven image. That makes sense because that would be a rival to the only true God. You
shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain makes sense because He has spoken. He
is holy. He is sacred. If that first commandment was in place, how could I ever use His
name in vain? “You shall remember the Sabbath
day.” That’s how God did it, that’s how I want to do it. He rested; I rest.
Makes sense. Keep your authority in line. Reverence life. Exercise stewardship. Be an
individual of fidelity and truth and be satisfied with what you have. If that first
commandment is where it ought to be in our hearts, all the others will come together in
harmony. You shall have no other Gods in
addition to Me -- that is foundational, not only in the ten but throughout Scripture. 8. Transferable Finally the first commandment is
transferable. If you bring up the Ten
Commandments in Christian circles, people want to do different things with them.
Sometimes, blow them off. “Ten Commandments -- no big deal any more.” Is the law
obsolete? Are the Ten Commandments no longer all that relevant? Didn’t Jesus do away
with it as some would say? What about the confusion that comes
with the obligations that are listed in those first few books of the Bible, the
obligations upon national Israel? We wonder, does that apply to me today? How about the
dietary regulations, and the ceremonial law? This has given rise to a considerable amount
of confusion and perhaps in the minds of some, it doesn’t really matter any more. I
would suggest the Bible says it sure does. This command to have no other gods is
transferable across time, across distance, and from people to people. We’re going to look at Acts 17.
This is support for the transferable nature of having no other gods. In Acts 17, the
apostle Paul found himself killing time. He was in the city of Athens, which several
hundred years prior to the first century had been the intellectual and cultural capital of
the civilized world. It was still a hangout for people who liked to hobnob and think deep
thoughts. Paul found himself among them. It is
interesting as we place the apostle in an environment that is absolutely pagan -- this isn’t
post Christian, this is pre Christian -- this is pagan, tolerant, eclectic, universal,
this is anything goes in Athens in the first century and here is Paul. Acts 17 Now keep in mind where he is going to
take them. He is going to meet them where they are, he is going to talk theology to them,
and he is going to bring them to Jesus. "Men
of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23"For while I was passing through and examining the objects
of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD '
Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. That was because they didn’t want
to leave any out, just in case they missed one.
Do you understand what he is doing? He
is making a case for one God. One God whom they do not know, but who is the source of all
they need and all they have and who is personally making Himself available to them. He is
bringing the first commandment down into terms they can understand. 29"Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that
the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought
of man. All this idolatry -- unnecessary
distraction from the God who is true. 30"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is
now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, He is God and He is one. These people were oblivious to the
Jewish law. They could not have cared less about the Hebrew way. But Paul took the truth
of that law, took it across time and distance and cultural barriers and applied it
directly to their minds and hearts and said you need this too. As a matter of fact, you
will be judged in light of it. The commandment is transferable. It is
transferable because God is timeless and He is unchanging.
People, whether in Moses’ day or Abraham’s day or Paul’s day
or our day, remain lost and needy and we do indeed need Him. We begin here. He is one and we are to
have no other gods in addition to Him. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |