Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to serve as your Bible teacher every day on this great radio station.
On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. Now why is it we ought to esteem God? Because God is our Creator. Just think for a moment about the vastness of this creation. If you want to see the power of God, think about this universe. Why do we esteem God alone? He is our Creator, not just of the universe.
He is the Creator of you and me. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. What do you value the most? Well, for some people, family always comes first.
Others are dedicated to their work or financial goals. But for Christians, one thing should be at the top of our priority list. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shares what it looks like to have no other gods before God himself. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Let me begin today with a question. When is the last time you paused to study the heavens above you? In every star that shines in the night sky, God's power and majesty are on display. And when we stare into space with a sense of awe and wonder, it reminds us that God the Creator is worthy of our praise. Well, today we're going to look at why these truths should compel us to obey the first commandment.
Remember what it says? God said, you shall have no other gods before me. This strong command from our jealous Creator was designed for our benefit, to divert our attention away from false gods so that we can fix our eyes on the one and only true God, the God of the universe. While I'm speaking about God's masterful creation, let me give you a vacation idea. I want you to see the jaw-dropping beauty in Alaska with us, your friends at Pathway to Victory. I guarantee the lush coastline, the open skies, the glacier-filled bays will inspire you to praise our God. Now, the dates for this journey are June 15th through 22nd, and it's our Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. We'll take along with us recording artists Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien. We'll also have Dennis Swanberg, the comedian, on board to share with us in laughter. And I'll be opening God's Word along the way as well.
We'll depart from Vancouver, British Columbia, and glide north along the Inside Passage en route to the great frontier. So, go to ptv.org, take a look at all the details, and make plans to join us. Then, just after I finish my message today, I'm going to explain how you can be among the first to receive my brand new book.
It's the one I wrote while preparing this series, and it's called The Ten. But right now, let's open our Bibles together to Exodus chapter 20, verse 3. I titled my message, Esteem God Alone. Pastor Tim Keller has said that idolatry is the sin beneath every other sin. When I sin, I'm basically allowing some competing desire to take God's rightful place in our life. If Keller is right, and I think he is, if the root cause of every other sin is loving something or somebody more than we love God, then it's no surprise that the very first commandment God gave had to deal with rooting out idolatry from our lives. You shall have no other gods before me.
How do we do that? If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20, beginning with verse 1, as we discover why it is we are to esteem God alone. You know, I have done wedding ceremonies for about 45 years, and I ask a couple to do a lot of things, to commit to a lot of things. But one thing I ask them to commit to is to love and cherish the other person and forsaking all others to be faithful to that other person alone.
What am I asking? I'm asking them to esteem one another, and that's really what the first commandment is about. It's about esteeming God alone. What does that word esteem mean? When you look up the English word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it means to set high value on, to regard, to prize accordingly.
Now that's the English word, but the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the primary Hebrew word for esteem is erek, erek. And it literally means to arrange things and to put them in order. When it comes to another person, it means to give priority to somebody by placing them first in a series. Perhaps you've heard a symphony orchestra, or you've heard a band play before.
If you have, you understand the concept of erek, to arrange things in order. For example, there may be several trumpet players, there may be five trumpet players in an orchestra, but there's only one that can occupy what we call the first chair. The first chair is the best trumpet player, the one who is esteemed above all others.
If you're not into symphonies and bands, you're probably going to watch a football game this afternoon. And both teams are going to have what they call a starting quarterback. Now if there's a second string quarterback, there may be a third one in the reserve, but there's one person who is the starting quarterback in the lineup. That's what this word, esteem, means. It means to place first in order of priority. Now, the writer of Proverbs 31 demonstrates that when he's describing the woman of excellence. Referring to his own wife, he said, a wife of excellence who can find her worth is far above jewels.
And then he explains about his own wife, many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all. In other words, you are in first chair, you have first place. That's what God is commanding in verse three, when he said, you are to have no other gods before me.
I'm to be first place in your life. Now why is it we ought to esteem God and put him in first place? I want you to notice in these first three verses what God says. Then 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, you shall have no other gods before me. Will you notice in verse two, he gives us four reasons that we are to have no other gods before him.
The reason is in verse two, the command is in verse three. Four reasons to esteem God alone. Two have to do with who God is, the next two have to do with what God has done. First of all, we're to put God in first place because God is our creator. He said, I am the Lord.
That word translated Lord is the word Yahweh, the Hebrew word Yahweh, the most holy name for God. Remember in Exodus three when God first appeared to Moses in the burning bush and commanded him to go to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. And Moses said, well, who am I to tell Pharaoh, who am I to tell him that sent me to give him that command? And what did God say?
He said, you just tell him, I am sent you. I am who I am. That's what Yahweh means. I am the self-existent, the eternal, the sovereign God. That's who God is. And that's why we're to esteem him alone. Remember the old Saturday night live show, the Saturday night news update when Chevy Chase was the lead comedian. Remember how he opened that segment.
He said, good evening, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not. Well, you know, that's what God is saying here. Why are you to worship me alone? I am self-existent.
I am self-sustaining. I am eternal. I am sovereign and you're not. That's why you are to worship me. I am the creator. Just think for a moment about the vastness of this creation.
If you want to see the power of God and why we should esteem him alone, think about this universe. You know, astronomers have been able to use powerful telescopes and see objects, planets, drones, maybe in the sky. I don't know, but they're probably planets and stars that are 4 billion light years away.
Now that's an amazing thing. How far is a light year? A light year is how far light can travel in a year. Now, you know, light travels at 186,000 miles a second. So a light year is how far light travels in one year.
But we're able to see objects 4 billion light years away. You know how far that is? That is 25 septillion miles.
That is a 25 with 24 zeros behind it. And that doesn't even measure the size of the universe. That's just how far we can see right now. To put it in another way, imagine you were able to get in a spacecraft that traveled 186,000 miles a second.
Can you imagine such a thing? If you got in that spacecraft going 186 miles a second, it would take you 1.3 seconds to get to the moon. It would take you 8.3 seconds to get to the sun, which is 93 million miles away. But it would take you 200,000 years going 186,000 miles a second just to get to the edge of our Milky Way galaxy. And our Milky Way galaxy is just one of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of galaxies in the universe. Who in the world made all of that?
How did that happen? Well, listen to the secularists, and they've got an idea. The late physicist Stephen Hawking, remember Stephen Hawking? He had what he called the theory of everything. He said, my proposal is the statement that the universe is a closed system. We don't need to suppose that there's something outside the universe which is not subject to its law. It is the claim that the laws of science are sufficient to explain the universe. In other words, all that exists can be explained through mathematical equations, Hawking says.
Well, then where is God in all of this? Hawking admitted that's one answer he didn't have. He said, even if we had a theory of everything, we would be left with one final question. What is it that breathes fire into the mathematical equations and makes a universe for them to describe? If I knew that, then I would know everything important.
What is it that breathes fire into these equations? The answer is not an it, it is a who. It is Jehovah God, Yahweh, the creator of all. Colossians 1, 15 through 17 says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation for by him, Jesus.
All things were created both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or rulers or dominions or authorities. All things have been created by him and for him. Why do we esteem God alone? He is our creator, not just of the universe, he is the creator of you and me. Psalm 100 in verse three says, the Lord, he himself is God. It is he who made us and not we ourselves, for we are his people and we are the sheep of his pasture. God gives us another reason to put him in first place. Not only is our creator, he is our covenant maker. He is our covenant maker. God is not just some distant deity.
He says to the Israelites and to us, I am the Lord, your God. I want a relationship with you. God didn't just create this world and you and leave us to our own. He wants to have a friendship with us, but he wants more than a friendship. He wants an intimate relationship with every one of us.
That is the most incomprehensible thing to me, to think that the God who made all of this cares about you and cares about me and wants a relationship with us. He took the first step in establishing that relationship. Whoever takes the first step in initiating a relationship is really going out on a limb.
He is taking a chance. Now, I remember when I made my first move toward Amy. It was in the ninth grade and I decided I didn't want her just to be somebody who sat in front of me in math class.
I didn't want to just be her friend, I wanted to be something more. And so one day I screwed up the courage to ask her out on a date in the ninth grade. Now, do you remember dating in the ninth grade? What it consisted of, it would be parents taking you and dropping you off at a restaurant, then picking you up and dropping you off at a movie. But I had it all planned out for that Friday night.
First, I had my parents drive us to El Phoenix at North Park and we had dinner while my parents sat at another table. Then we got into their car and they drove us to the Esquire Theater where we walked into the movie and sat there through the movie and I realized, I planned out the evening that I was only going to have a few minutes to talk to Amy by myself. So I'm sitting through that movie with her and I'm starting to sweat profusely as I try to think up exactly what I'm going to try to say to lure her into a relationship with me. The movie finally, finally comes to an end. The end and I knew, boy, this is it buddy, you better go for it.
This is your only chance. So we're walking out of the movie theater, my parents are waiting out on the station wagon and I stop Amy in the foyer before we go through the doors. And I said, Amy, could I talk to you about something?
She said, sure. And I said, well, I've got a problem and I don't know what to do about it. And she's so kind and sympathetic, she looked real concerned. She said, oh, what's the problem? I said, well, I like this girl in our class and I don't know how to tell her that I like her. And she said, well, who is it? And I said, her name is Amy. And she said, oh, Amy? And she named another girl in the class. I said, no, it's Amy Renard.
It's you. Cue the violin. Everybody say aw.
Now, she could have at that moment, she could have, as the country western song says, stomped on my aorta. She could have said, oh, Robert, I like you too as a friend. Those are three words no adolescent boy ever wants to hear.
No adolescent boy wants a friend. They want something more. But she didn't say that. She didn't say I like you as a friend. You know what she said?
It's none of your business. But trust me, she was interested in being more than a friend. And she certainly has become much more than a friend. You know, that was taking a risk to establish a relationship.
I didn't know exactly how she was going to respond. Now, in a much more serious way, God has done that. He has set his affection on us. Romans 5-8 says God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, he made the first move. He sent Christ to die for us. He is our covenant maker. He wants a relationship with us. In fact, 2 Corinthians 1 verses 21 to 22 talks about the steps God went through to make a relationship with us.
Look at this. Now he, that is God, who establishes us with you is Christ and anointed us is God. God took the initiative. He established a relationship with Christ. And he also sealed us, verse 22, and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. God took the initiative. He sent Christ. He sent his Holy Spirit as a gift.
You could translate that as a down payment, as an earnest, or as a wedding ring, a ring, a sign, an engagement ring that we are his. And one day he's going to come and take us into himself. He's coming for the bride, the church of Jesus Christ, to take the bride, to unite the bride with the groom, Jesus Christ himself. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you unto myself. God took the initiative. He is our covenant maker. Don't ever gloss over that.
Don't ever become hardened to that idea. The creator of the universe loves you and wants a relationship with you. Why do we esteem God and God alone? He is not only our creator and covenant maker. Notice what he's done for us.
Two things. He is our redeemer. We see this again in verse two of Exodus 21. God said, I am the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. God has released us from the prison house of slavery to sin and to Satan. Paul expressed it this way in Colossians 1, 13, and 14. For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You've heard me talk about that word, redemption, redeem.
Ex agorazo, it means out of, ex, the agora, the marketplace. When slaves were sold and purchased, it was done in the agora, the forum. If you wanted to purchase a slave, you would pay whatever the price was and you would redeem him, ex agorazo him, and take him out of the marketplace to become your servant. That's what God did for us. He paid the price for our redemption from Satan and sin and the price was the blood of Jesus Christ himself. He has paid that price for us because he loves us in spite of what we have done.
Even though we've gone astray from him, he has never lost his love for us. When I think about this idea of redemption, I think about the story of the little boy who spent weeks working on a model sailboat, a little red sailboat. The day came that he had finished the project and he was eager to test it out, so he took it down to the local pond, he put it into the water to see if it floated. A gust of wind came and caught the sails and took that sailboat far from him. The little boy was heartbroken.
Something he had spent so much time building was now lost forever. A few weeks later, he was walking down the street and he saw in the window of the toy store his red sailboat. He couldn't believe it. He was overjoyed. He thought he would never see it again and he went in and explained to the store owner that that was his sailboat and could he please have it back. The store owner said he didn't know anything about that. All he knew was he had paid for the boat himself and if the little boy wanted it, it would cost him. It was $14.
So the boy reached into his pocket, pulled out a sweaty wad of dollar bills, counted out $14, gave it to the man and he took that sailboat and he held it close to his chest. As he walked down the sidewalk, he said, you're mine twice now. Once because I made you and now because I bought you.
That's what God says to us. You belong to me. First, because I made you, but even though the winds of sin carried you away far from me, I never gave up hope and I purchased you. I bought you not with dollar bills. I bought you with the blood of my son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul says in first Corinthians six, do you not know you're not your own? You've been bought with a price. That's why we worship God alone because he made us and he redeemed us.
He bought us. God alone is worthy of our worship and before he even gave the first commandment, God clearly explains the reason behind it. Well, as your television pastor and Bible teacher, I have a growing sense that time is fleeting. I believe Jesus returned to earth is coming soon. And with this reality in mind, I'm measuring everything I do to make sure my activities serve God's redemptive plan. That's one of the reasons I'm so focused on the ministry of Pathway to Victory.
I don't know of any more effective tool to reach men and women with the truth of the gospel than through television and radio. Gratefully, we've encountered loyal friends like you who've come alongside of us to support this mission. Thank you for joining us in an all-out effort to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word. However, for a limited time, you're invited to request my brand-new book that just released today. It's called The Ten—How to Live and Love in a World That's Lost Its Way. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'll make sure that a copy of The Ten is sent to your home right away. Many of us have shared that they have chosen to use The Ten as a guide for their small group Bible study or Sunday school class. Others are reading through my book with their entire family. Whatever the case, please take advantage of this exclusive offer to receive my newest book, The Ten. Here's David with all the details.
Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you give a generous gift to Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of the brand-new book by Dr. Jeffress called The Ten—How to Live and Love in a World That's Lost Its Way. Here's our toll-free number, 866-999-2965, or visit online at ptv.org. And when your gift is $100 or more, you'll receive not only the book, but also the complete collection of audio and video discs for The Ten teaching series. Plus, we'll also include a study guide. It's perfect for a Sunday school class or a small group Bible study. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or find us online at ptv.org.
You could also write if you'd like. Here's that mailing address, P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you back next time for Part 2 of our message, The First Commandment, Esteem God Alone. That's Thursday, here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
