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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. You know, I have done wedding ceremonies for about 45 years, and I ask a couple to do a lot of things. But one thing I ask them to commit to is forsaking all others to be faithful to that other person alone. And that's really what the first commandment is about.
It's about a steaming God on the other. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. What do you value most? For some people, family always comes first.
Others are dedicated to their careers 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 was 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? You shall have no other gods before me. This strong command from our Creator was designed to divert our attention away from false gods in order to fix our eyes on the one and only true one, the God of the universe.
This divine guardrail from God has become despised by many in today's world. I'm going to explain how the Ten Commandments don't restrict our freedom. The Ten Commandments enhance our happiness.
They serve as guardrails for our protection. Then, just after I finish today's message, I'm going to explain how you can receive my best-selling book. It's the one I wrote while preparing this teaching series on the Ten Commandments. It's called simply The Ten.
Plus, I'm very pleased to offer a brand new book for the children in your life. It's called The Ten Commandments. But more details later, right now, let's open our Bibles together to Exodus 20, verse 3. I titled my message about the first commandment, Esteemed God Alone.
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's 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.
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. 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 2, he gives us four reasons that we are to have no other gods before him. The reason is in verse 2.
The command is in verse 3. Four reasons to esteem God alone. Two have to do with who God is. The next two have to do with who God is.
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. 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 3 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.
And 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. And he took the first step in establishing that relationship. 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. And 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 1 Corinthians 6, 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. And finally, we're to esteem God alone because he is our rewarder. In verse 12 of Exodus 20, he tells us that he not only delivered us out of the house of slavery, but he's delivered us into the land which the Lord your God gives you. He's rewarding us with a promise of heaven one day, that eternal dwelling place that we'll enjoy with God forever. What does it mean to esteem God alone?
What does that mean exactly? I want you to notice in verse 3, two components to this command, this most basic command, you shall have no other gods before me. First of all, shall have.
Let's break it down. Shall have. When I have a couple repeat the vows at a wedding ceremony, they say to have and to hold from this day forward. What does it mean to have somebody?
Well, it means to possess them, to possess something of them exclusively. For example, I have a car. You heard about my car last week. I have a car.
Nobody has a right to drive that car except me without my permission. It is my car. I have a house. It's my house. Nobody has a right to wander in or wander out of it without my permission. It is my possession.
It is my house. I have a wife now, Amy. Nobody has a right to her affection except me. She is my wife.
And the same is true for me. Nobody has a right to my affection except her. When we say we are to have no other gods, we are to have God and God exclusively.
He said, I want to be the sole focus of your affection. You see, the problem with the Israelites, this is important to understand, was they never abandoned the true God. They just added to the true God with many false gods. God said, nope.
It doesn't work that way. Either you love me and serve me exclusively or you don't have me at all. That's what it means to have. And then the second phrase, no other gods before me. You are to have no other gods before me. You know, the Israelites had spent 430 years in Egyptian slavery. And they had developed a habit of worshiping false gods. And during those 10 plagues right before the Exodus, God showed how he was superior to all the other Egyptian gods which the Israelites had become accustomed to and even began to worship. For example, the Egyptians believed that the Nile River was the bloodstream of the false god Osiris, who was the god of life and death.
The Nile River was the bloodstream. Well, when God turned that river into blood, essentially their false god Osiris, he bled out right before all the Egyptians and the Israelites. Or remember, they had another god, Ra, the god of the sun, the god of light. God showed his superiority by making everything dark, a great darkness descended over all the land of Egypt. They had another god they served, Hecate.
You know who Hecate was? He was the god of the frogs. The Egyptians worshiped frogs and the god of the frogs, Hecate. So God said one day, oh, you like frogs, do you?
Choke on these, and millions of frogs came from the Nile River and infected every part of the Egyptians' lives. They saw the futility of other gods, but now here they are about to enter into the promised land. And God is saying, remember, you're to have no other gods before me. And the reason he makes that, the primary command is he knew they were about to enter a new land that even had greater temptations to idolatry than what they had experienced for 430 years in Egypt. Why were these new Canaanite gods even more powerful in their appeal?
Well, first of all, because of Israel's prolonged habit of idolatry. You know, the longer you do something, the more it becomes a habit. Habits can either work for you or against you.
Have you noticed that? A good habit works for you, bad habits work against you. Good habits become reflexive. They become almost second nature.
Unfortunately, so do bad habits. I like to illustrate it this way. You know, I could take a piece of string and wrap it one time around my hand. If I did that, I could easily break free. But if I wrapped it three, four, five, six, even though it's a tiny piece of string, wrapping it four, five, six times would make it impossible for me to break free. That's why Proverbs 5 22 says sin is like a cord. Repeated sin is like cords that ensnare us. And God realized that after 430 years of idolatry, the Israelites would be much more susceptible to idolatry in the new land of Canaan. But there was a second reason they faced an even greater temptation. It was because of the false gods' powerful appeal. These new false gods they would face in Canaan would have much more appeal than the Egyptian gods. I mean, let's be honest. It's one thing to worship a god of blood and frogs and light, but these new Canaanite gods, they would demand worship through gluttony, through drunkenness, through sexual immorality.
They would be much more tempting. And that's why in Deuteronomy 6, Moses said, Now before you go into this promised land, remember God's command, the great Shema of Israel. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God, and you're to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Verses 6 and 7, you're to teach your children about them. You're to obey Him. Verses 8 and 9, you're to remember God and fear and worship Him. And that same truth is for us today. We're living in a land in which there are many appealing substitutes for God, but God says, My most primary command to you is to worship Me, esteem Me, and Me alone.
Why? Because I am your creator, your covenant maker, your redeemer, and your rewarder. Now let's get real practical for a moment. How do you know if God really has first place? He's sitting in that first chair in your life. In a little book called Laws That Liberate, one writer suggests three questions to ask yourself to know if God has first place in your life. Let me elaborate on these for just a moment.
Question number one, this is so simple. What do you think about most often? What do you think about most often?
That will tell you what your God is. In those quiet moments while you're driving or standing in a checkout line, or maybe drifting off to sleep at night, where do your thoughts naturally turn? You know how a compass works.
You can shake up a compass and the needle bounces around, but very quickly it goes to true north, doesn't it? When your thoughts finally settle down, where are they directed? Money?
Pleasure? A relationship? Or do your thoughts naturally go to God who has given you all of those blessings?
What do you think about most often? Second question to ask yourself, whom are you trying to impress? Whom are you trying to impress? Let's be honest, all of us are trying to impress somebody, maybe a mate, maybe a friend, maybe a work associate.
You may be trying to impress yourself that you can climb the ladder and reach the pinnacle of success. During the great reformation, the battle cry was Coram Deo, Latin for before the eyes of God. Martin Luther and the great reformers were willing to give their life because they knew ultimately they were living their life for an audience of one. In the end, all really that mattered is pleasing God, impressing God. That's not an original thought.
Paul voiced it 1,500 years before the reformation. In 2 Corinthians 5 verses 9 and 10, he said, For we had as our ambition, our goal, whether here or absent, to be pleasing to God. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may be rewarded for what we've done in the body, whether it be good or worthless. What do you think about most often?
Whom are you trying to impress? And the final question, what are you living for? What are you living for? Remember the old soap opera, One Life to Live?
Never watched it, but I thought the title was intriguing. One Life to Live, that's an important truth. We all only have one life to live. What is your ultimate goal in life? Again, is it measured in possessions or pleasures or relationships?
If God truly has first place in your life, you're living for one thing, to discover God's will for your life, and then do it with all of your heart. The Christian mystic, Madame Gouillon, said, There are really only two principles, competing principles, that govern this universe. One principle is the one that has me at the center of my universe. The other is the one that has God at the center of the universe. It's one or the other.
It can't be both. The person who has God at the center of his universe will have thoughts that turn to him naturally, will be living to impress him and him alone, and will seek to do his will, whatever the cost. And so the question lingers in our minds. Who or what is at the center of our universe?
God or someone else? I hope today's message prompts you to make a careful evaluation of your top priority. To accelerate this process, I'd like to send you my best-selling book called The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way.
It's the book that coincides with this teaching series. Only a generation ago, it was generally accepted that the Ten Commandments were the foundation of our nation's legal system. In recent years, however, the Ten Commandments are seen as obsolete, and for some people, the Ten Commandments have become a despised symbol of restraint. Well, at Pathway to Victory, we're determined to change this false perception, and we can do that by broadcasting the truth about the Ten Commandments. To say thank you for your generous gift to Pathway to Victory, let me send you a copy of my best-selling book called The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way.
In addition, I want to send you a brand-new book I wrote for your family. It's called The Ten Commandments for Kids. Friends, please do what God has asked you to do. Pass along your faith to the children in your life. Be sure to get a copy of my book to share with your children and grandchildren. Again, it's called The Ten Commandments for Kids. And thank you for your support of Pathway to Victory with your generous gift so that we can utilize every platform at our disposal to broadcast God's truth.
David. 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 illustrated book for children, The Ten Commandments for Kids. Plus, you'll also receive the best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress called The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. Here's our toll-free number, 866-999-2965, or visit online at ptv.org. Now, when your gift is $125 or more, you'll receive not only the two books, but also the complete collection of audio and video discs for The Ten teaching series. Plus, we'll also include a helpful study guide.
It's perfect for Sunday school class or a small group Bible study. One more time, call 866-999-2965, or visit online at ptv.org. Now, you could write to us if you'd like to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
I'm David J. Mullins. Idol worship was a major problem in ancient Israel, and it's still a pervasive problem in the church today. Join us for a message on the Second Commandment, Worship the True God, that's Monday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Picture yourself relaxing aboard a luxury cruise ship as you sail the Mediterranean Sea on the Pathway to Victory, Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. This 11-day journey will take you to unforgettable destinations in Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
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