Please turn with me in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5, continuing exposition of the Ten Commandments. We're on part two of the first commandment. Last time we covered this material, we saw the prohibition of the commandment. The commandment reads in verse 7, you shall have no other gods before me. With reference to the prohibition, there are sins forbidden in the commandment, namely atheism, polytheism, idolatry, proper sorcery, witchcraft, heresy, worship of the creature rather than the creator. As well, we saw the ways that the commandment is broken in our thoughts and words and deeds. And tonight, we're going to take up the positive aspects of the commandment. We looked at one of those last time, which was, in fact, the knowledge of God. Tonight we'll consider the love of God, secondly, the fear of God, third, the necessity of obedience to God, fourth, the necessity of trust in God, and finally, the proper worship of God. So those are some positive aspects of the first commandment. But I do want to read beginning in verse 6, just to get it in front of us, so that our minds are warmed with God's holy law. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, 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. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. 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. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain, from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice. And he added no more, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me." Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the written word of the living God. We thank you for your holy law. And Father, we know that there is a lawful use and an unlawful. And we thank you that you've shown us the way to salvation is not through law, because of our own sinfulness, our own depravity, our own wickedness. God, you have shown us the grace of God, the mercy of God, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. You've shown us justification by faith alone. But as justified believers, we know now that our Our commitment to you is often best expressed in the way that we observe your holy law. So God, in terms of our lives of sanctification, may your Holy Spirit guide us according to the written word. And may you help us to love these things, and help us to internalize these things, and help us to delight in the law in the inner man. And Father, forgive us now for our sins and our transgressions of this law, and cause us, Lord God, to repent and to forsake and to find mercy from you. And fill us now with your Holy Spirit as we consider this word, and we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Well, as I said, when we look at these commandments, there is the prohibition that is obvious on the surface of it, and then there is that necessary implication in terms of positive aspect. So here the prohibition is, you shall have no other gods before me. So by way of implication, all these other things flow out of this command, the knowledge of God. Last time we considered how important it is. In fact, you see that relationship there between verses six and seven. Verse six, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. He defines for us or describes to us who he is. so that we can respond in kind. Therefore, you shall have no other gods before me, before that one who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. So it's imperative that we know this God. We need to know the doctrine of the Trinity, who God is in and of himself. We need to know the perfections of God. We need to know the knowledge, or we need to have that knowledge of the external works of God, namely creation and providence and redemption. And then as I said, there are several other sorts of things that flow from a positive aspect of this commandment. The first thing I want to mention is the love of God. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 6. The love of God is the natural reflex of the heart that has been conquered by God's sovereign grace. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, in verse 4, we see Israel's central confession of faith. Deuteronomy 6, 4 says, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. So this is the natural response of the conquered by grace heart to the God of sovereign grace. We are to love Him. We confess this theological orthodoxy that the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And in response to that, we love Him. We adore Him. We seek to honor Him. We enjoy Him. We understand that Westminster, shorter catechism, question number one, what is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That is an expression of our love for God Almighty. All throughout the Pentateuch, all throughout the books of Moses, there is this recurring emphasis on the love of God that is necessary in the hearts of His people. Meredith Klein says, the past mercies of God rehearsed in the historical prologue prompt such love, and the love reveals itself in reverent obedience to all God's particular commandments. And when we look there at Deuteronomy 6, 5, notice the emphasis in terms of the entirety of man. It says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. This first commandment demands allegiance, it demands obedience, it demands love on the part of the creature for the creator, and that means everything in us. Christopher Wright says, to love God then with all your heart and with all your soul means with your whole self. We don't hold anything back from our God, including your rationality, mental capacity, moral choices and will, inner feelings and desires, and the deepest roots of your life. I think that's a great sort of explanation of what's in view here in Deuteronomy 6.5. But turn over to Matthew's Gospel in Matthew chapter 22 and see how our Lord answers the question, which is the great commandment in the law? He appeals to this particular passage in Deuteronomy chapter 6 at verse 5. So in Matthew 22, 36, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. So Christ says, this is in fact the greatest of the commandments. This is the way that we express our allegiance to God, our devotion to God, our honor of God, and our worship toward him. It is expressed through love to God. And this is in itself a response to that central confession. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That is a theological confession on the part of God's people. As well, it is a personal confession. Yahweh is our Lord. He is our God. He is our blessed Savior. And as well, it is a practical confession. It describes our response to God. Every fiber of our being is to be employed in our love for God. John Gill says, that is, with all the powers and faculties of the soul, the will, the understanding, and the affections, in the most sincere, upright, and perfect manner, without any dissimulation and hypocrisy, and above all, objects whatever, For this the law requires." Again, that's the commandment. I realize we do not love him as we ought. We're gonna follow up on this at the end in terms of application. Remember, there's a few different ways to use the law of God. And one of the ways that we ought to use the law of God is to see our own sin and to see our own misery and to see the necessity that we have to repent. But in terms of the aspect of the command, in terms of a positive application, love to God is absolutely crucial. And then turn over to Romans chapter 12 for just a moment. Romans chapter 12, with reference to this confession of who God is, with reference to this confession of what God has done for His people, we see that this love to God is a logical thing. It flows rightly. It is absolutely and utterly consistent in the heart of the redeemed. Notice in Romans 12, 1, he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It is reasonable based on everything that Paul has said in Romans chapters 1 to 11. Look at verse 1 in chapter 12. He says, I beseech you, therefore. That means that this is a concluding implication, an inference. This is where he comes to apply all that he has been discoursing on in chapters 1 to 11. The argument is simple. If God has saved you, those who were clear recipients of his wrath and his curse and his judgment, if God has saved you by his grace, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, he has filled you with the Holy Spirit, he has given you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, then it naturally follows that you will present your bodies unto Him as a living sacrifice. This is, in fact, your reasonable service. It is logical, it is consistent in the heart of the redeemed to love God with all the heart, the soul, the mind, and the strength. We are to have no other gods besides, in spite of, in defiance of, to the disadvantage of, to the neglect of me, God says. Again, the dominant issue here is God's jealousy. This comes out in the second commandment, the constant battle for the exclusive sovereignty of God. His incomprehensible majesty does not allow any division of man's allegiance. So this first commandment calls upon God's people to exercise allegiance to him. And that allegiance is seen first and foremost in love to God. But secondly, there is this fear of God. And again, I think this is a logical and a consistent sort of application. When we understand who God is, it ought to promote in our hearts the fear of God. In fact, Wilhelmus Abrakel, the Dutch theologian, said, if the soul may perceive God in His majesty, glory, and holiness, it cannot but be that the soul will tremble out of respect for God. So the fear of God, again, is consistent with this particular commandment. It is a positive aspect. Go back to the book of Exodus so that we can try and define what this fear of God is. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding with reference to the fear of God. We see the fear of God spoken of in two ways here in Exodus chapter 20 at verses 18 to 21. And what the Bible emphasizes in terms of fear to God or fear of God that is biblical, that is consistent, that is good, it is a filial, it is a respect, it is a reverential awe for the true and living God. In Exodus 20 at verse 18, It says, Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, You speak with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, so that you may not sit. So you see, Moses uses fear there in two different ways. On the one hand, do not fear. Theologians refer to this as a servile fear. It's the type of fear that runs from God. It's the type of fear manifested with Adam and Eve where they tried to hide themselves from God. That servile fear is not what's being enjoined with reference to the commandment, but rather it is that filial fear. It is that fear that Moses speaks to secondly. Do not fear, for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 5 again. If we had continued reading, we would see that this is precisely what God the Lord requires from His creature. from his redeemed ones, from those who by grace have come to confess his lordship, his sovereignty, his glory, and his majesty. In Deuteronomy 5, 28, it says, Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever." See, this is God's design, that we understand who He is, that we respond accordingly, that we give Him that reverential awe that is due unto Him, And in the language of Brockle, just quoted, it is a demonstration or a trembling out of respect for God Almighty. John Murray describes the fear of God in this second sense, this filial fear, as the soul of godliness. He also wrote, the fear of God in us is that frame of heart and mind which reflects our apprehension of who and what God is. Same thought that Braco brings out. When we understand who God is, when we understand something of his perfections, yes, the reflex is love. We love him, we adore him, we seek to honor him and glorify him and enjoy him forever. But we also fear him because he's God and we're not. He is the creator and we are the creature. He is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. And He is most excellent, most glorious, most wondrous. And we are in comparison, not even worms, because worms do what worms are supposed to do. We are sinners. We are vile. We have rejected. We have raised the fist at Him. But having been conquered by sovereign grace, now it promotes in us that heart of fear before the Lord most high. And that fear of God is a consequence, ultimately, of God's grace. John Newton, in that famous hymn, tells us, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear." When the apostle Paul indicates what is wrong with men in Romans chapter 3, you know that bit where he says, there is none righteous, no not one, there's none who seeks after God. He ends the whole sort of katina of verses by saying, there is no fear of God before their eyes. We should fear God. Who would not fear thee, O King of the nations, for indeed it is thy due? That's what Jeremiah the prophet says, and that's what John the apostle says. But we know because of sin, we have gone astray, and we don't fear him as we ought. So now that he conquers us by sovereign grace, we know who he is, we understand something of his perfections, we respond to him in love and adoration, and with this fear, And when Newton penned this particular stanza of the hymn, he wasn't just sort of making things up. In the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 32, 40, it's a promise, a new covenant blessing. The prophet or God through the prophet says, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing them good. Isn't that a beautiful concept? I will not turn away from doing them good. In that particular section, God says, I will plant them in the land with all my heart and all my soul. All that God is, God is for his people. We don't get a bit of God, a little piece of God, a little bit of afterthought with reference to God. We get God. And all that is in God is God, and He's all that for His people always. It's a beautiful thought. It's a beautiful expression of His perfections. But He says, I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. In other words, the fear of God is a gracious acquisition on the part of the sinner. We do not have this by nature. There may be the servile fear. We may hear a sermon on the law and want to run and hide from God, but this filial fear is a running to and finding refuge in God and respecting Him and honoring Him and glorifying Him and revering Him as is fitting. John Flavel said, this fear of God is a gracious habit or principle planted by God in the soul, whereby the soul is kept under an holy awe of the eye of God, and from thence is inclined to perform and do what pleases him, and to shun and avoid whatsoever he forbids and hates. It is planted in the soul as a permanent and fixed habit. To fear man is natural, but to fear God is wholly supernatural. And I think that that is a great way to express the gracious character of the fear of God. But before we close out this particular point, I want to mention that the fear of God is not inconsistent with joy in the presence of God. You hear that outside of Christian circles. People say, well, you know, the fear of God. I remember that as a kid. I would hear, you know, statements about, you know, having been brought up Roman Catholic, they weren't big on preaching. As far as I remember, the fear of God in its proper way. They were all about servile fear. They were all about using God as a mallet to sort of keep people in line. That really is prevalent, at least in my experience, of the Roman Catholic institution. So I'd hear this fear of God expressed in a favorable way, and it absolutely and utterly perplexed me. I wondered, how could anyone be happy? Again, working from that Catholic framework, where servile fear, they were great at sort of doling that out. They were great at sort of giving that or instilling that to you. But as a young papist, hearing that, how could it be good to fear God? And it sounds miserable, doesn't it? The fear of the Lord. You're hiding under the piano. You're constantly, you know, sort of wincing from God. Well, as we consider Scripture, especially in the Old Testament revelation, the fear of the Lord is basically those who are God's people. The people who fear the Lord are those who are rightly connected to God. But the fear of the Lord is not inconsistent with joy, with thanksgiving and heartfelt praise. In Psalm 211, it tells us, serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. So it ought never to be the case that the fear of God promotes a moroseness or a despair or a despondency, but rather the true fear of God is what ultimately brings that joy, that thanksgiving. that rejoicing in the sight of God. And there is a practical sort of explanation or demonstration of this at the tomb of Jesus. In Matthew 28.8, when the disciples go and they find the tomb empty, it tells us, they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. So again, those things are not inconsistent, and they ran to bring his disciples word. So positive aspects of the first commandment, in terms of our allegiance to God, we need to know God, we need to love God, we need to fear God, and then fourthly, working with both sermons, we need to obey God. The nature of the commandment demands that, going back to Deuteronomy 5-7. You shall have no other gods before me. Now, he doesn't say in this particular sense that, well, therefore, you need to obey everything I say. Everything written around the revelation of the Ten Commandments encourages the Israelites, and by extension, the New Covenant Israelites, the church, to obey God. God is the authority, God is the lawgiver, God is the one who calls us to obey. Not because he's mean or he's vicious or he's capricious or he's arbitrary, but because he's the moral governor of the universe and he knows what's best for his creatures. and we are to render that obedience unto him. John Calvin, commenting on the verse as a whole, or the commandment as a whole, he says, the purpose of this commandment is that the Lord wills alone to be preeminent among his people and to exercise complete authority over them. Now, in our particular era, That would no doubt shock the delicate sensitivities of persons who love their freedom, who love this idea that constraint is bad, who have this concept that any form whatsoever of anybody ever telling us what we do is absolutely contrary to the way that we should be. That's absolutely false. God is, as I said, the lawgiver. God is the authority. God is the one who has the absolute authority to command us and to tell us what to do. Our response ought to be, how can we best please? How can we best serve? How can we best embrace our subordinate position under God most high? So the nature of the commandment demands obedience to our Lord God. John 14, 15, what does Jesus say in the upper room to his disciples? He says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. We consider this in the morning hour, studying the confession of faith. Chapter 16, of good works. We're not saved because of our good works. We're not saved because we obey God. We obey God and we engage in good works because we're saved. Those are consequences of us having been conquered by sovereign grace. And I think that's what Jesus means in John 14, 15. If you love me, you will keep my commitments. It's a no-brainer. Kids express this with their parents, hopefully, each and every day. There is this love, there is this fear, not the servile, dad's gonna whack me, but this reverence for dad, which issues forth in obedience to the commandments of the parental authority in the home. Now, this is certainly a recurring emphasis in 1 John, and you can turn there. 1 John mandates, I know it's crazy, that we actually obey God. As God's people, we need to actually obey Him. 1 John 2, verse 3, now by this, we know that we know him. If we keep his commandments, we have totally missed so much. I was thinking, I was actually discussing with my wife earlier today, I just wish the church would preach the Bible. Churches that don't preach the Bible make it difficult for those who do try to preach the Bible. See, when you try to preach the Bible today, what are you typically labeled as? You're narrow, you're exclusive, you're bigoted, you're prejudiced. Every single church should be looked at that way in this particular community. We are narrow, we are prejudiced, not against any ethnic group or anybody for, you know, reasons that are, you know, they can't change or whatever. But there is an exclusivity about covenant religion. We do not brook rivals with false gods, or brook rival with these false gods or the concepts of men. We need to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And nowadays, to actually preach obedience to God is looked upon as a form of legalism. Now, legalism is pernicious. Legalism is terrible. But there's a whole lot of different things involved in legalism. And obeying God as a blood-bought child of God ain't legalism. If you think that's legalism, please, please, please read 1 John from cover to cover. Read everything he says about obedience to our God and Father. These are evidences and fruits of a true and lively faith in the hearts of God's people. Notice in 2.29, if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Reality is, is that when we're born of Him, the reflex is to obey Him, to do what He calls us to do. Notice in 1 John 3.24. 1 John 3, 24. Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. And just don't want to neglect verse 23, because I know in our community, sometimes people don't think this is really a commandment. Verse 23 says, and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. It's not presumptuous to preach, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is consistent with what God commands. It is not easy believism to preach, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, because this is what God commands. wrong and bad and misplaced and unbalanced to not preach belief on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the fault, that's the error, that's the problem. Not actually telling sinners that there is hope to be had in Jesus Christ the Lord. That's simply incongruous with what scripture says at this particular point. Now notice in 5.3, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. Notice how all these things are intertwined. You know, I'm giving them sort of an order here, but they're a conglomerate. It's a complex. It's a lot of things. There's that knowledge of God. There's that Love to God that fear of God that that obedience to God they all they don't go together This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome I've often thought that if the commandments of God are burdensome to you you either a need to repent or be need to be born again and Because in terms of the people of God, the burden isn't the law of God. The burden is our inability, or perhaps our unwillingness, to actually follow the law of God. We do say, with the apostle, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? There's no peace in the heart of the man. With remaining corruption, he cries out to God. He struggles. He wants to obey. He wants to do what is right. But he doesn't pick and choose. He doesn't say, you know, Lord, I don't like these commandments. I don't like this commandment. I don't want that commandment. I remember a comedian when I was growing up and he thought it was so funny to say, you know, I believe in seven of the 10 commandments. And of course everybody laughs and all that sort of thing. I never thought I'd live as a pastor and a Christian to see that that's the case in the church. We like a few of them and we will rehearse a few of them. But the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. God can't tell me what to do on that day. God can't tell me what I'm supposed to do or not do on a particular day. I'm a free man in Jesus. I can do whatever it is I want. Well, think about that application of God's law. We are never called to pick and choose and to just take the ones that are most pleasing to us. That is absolutely reprehensible on the part of the professing Christian. The commandments of God are not burdensome. So we have, obviously, the necessity of obedience to God. Next, we have the necessity of trust in God. The necessity of trust in God. Consider the children of Israel, what they were called upon to do in terms of their lives, in terms of their mission, in terms of movement. God had made a promise, first to Abraham, and then it moves through Isaac, and then to Jacob, that he's going to give them a land, and he's going to give them a sea. And then they go into bondage in Egypt, they are in captivity for those many, many years, and then God redeems them, God frees them, and God calls them to travel to the promised land. They had to do this with trust in God. In fact, go to Deuteronomy chapter 8 to see this evident in the lives of the Israelites in their sojourn. Deuteronomy chapter 8, the necessity to trust God. Deuteronomy 8.1, every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. Seed, land, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob comes to fruition now. They need to do this in order for these promises to be realized, actualized, fulfilled in the lives of his people. Verse 2, and you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. You see, God's tutelage of his people, God's leadership of his people, isn't always roses. It isn't always happiness. It isn't always full refrigerators. It isn't always an abundance in your bank account. There are instances and seasons and times in the lives of God's people, there is affliction, there is hardship. There is travail and difficulty, not because God is unable to give you good stuff, but because God is bent on promoting in you trust in God. Does that make sense? If we had no afflictions, if we had no trials, if we had no hardships, we'd live as if there was no God. This is what the Proverbs say in Proverbs 30, give me neither poverty nor riches. Why? If I'm rich, I'm gonna forget God. That's the tendency, that's the pressure that we face, and God highlights that in this particular account. So back to the beginning of verse 3. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. Now notice, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord." In other words, God did this to inculcate in you trust. God did this in you to promote trust in Him, that He is gracious, that He is kind, that He is sovereign, that He is an authority, that is to be trusted, and He has guided you, and He has led you, and He will continue to protect and provide for you. It may not always be the way that you think or want, but the Lord God does deliver. Turn over to Proverbs chapter 3, a passage we considered probably a year ago in our studies in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, with reference to trust in God. It says, trust in Yahweh with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. This highlights in the first place entire commitment to our Lord God. It says with all your heart. not part of your heart, not just the religious aspect, but with all your heart. It's sort of like in 1 Kings, in chapter 18, when Elijah lays down the gauntlet. He says, if Baal is God, then serve him. If Yahweh is God, then serve him. In other words, there can't be this half-hearted allegiance. You can't try to marry Baal with Yahweh and call this your sort of religious therapy. You can't do that. Jesus says the same thing in Matthew chapter 12 at verse 30. He who is not with me is against me. So with reference to trust in the Lord, it is an entire commitment with all your heart. Notice as well, it's an exclusive commitment. He says, and lean not on your own understanding. In other words, you don't know best. You don't know what's right. Therefore, you are not to lean on your own understanding. You are to reject all rival objects of guidance and direction. But thirdly, it is an exhaustive commitment, in all your ways acknowledge Him. Not just on Sunday, not just in the religious aspect of your life, but in all your ways acknowledge Him. You see, that's the trust in God that this first commandment positively enjoins upon His people. We are to trust in Him. Now turning over to the New Testament, again there's Obviously, a lot of passages that can sort of substantiate each of these particular points. I'm just giving you a few specimens, a few samples, so that hopefully you will pray these things in and get some encouragement. But turn to Matthew chapter 6. In terms of the emphasis in the New Testament, we have, of course, the doctrine of justification by faith alone. We are to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. We're to trust in Jesus Christ for our life eternal. We are to understand that by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Rather, we are to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. We are to go to Him. We are to, with the hymn writer, say, Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. So we certainly see this trust in God in terms of justification by faith alone. But working with a group of people that profess faith in Jesus Christ, let's look at the practical aspects of trust in the Lord, vis-à-vis the first commandment and its reference to our lives. In Matthew chapter 6, in verses 25 to 34, Jesus cautions his disciples four times, do not worry. Do not worry. Do not worry. Do not worry. Why? Because when you worry, you express a lack of trust in your Heavenly Father. When you are paralyzed with carnal anxiety, you are expressing an ethic that is more akin to the Gentiles who have no God. You are demonstrating a lack of faith and confidence in your Father to provide for you. So four times the emphasis in Matthew 6, 25 to 34 is, do not worry. And specifically, he says, don't worry about food, drink, clothing, and tomorrow. Don't worry about food, drink, clothing, and tomorrow. Now, Jesus isn't saying lay down on your couch and, you know, just have a nice snooze, and when you wake up, there'll be food, there'll be clothing, there'll be tomorrow, all those sorts. He's not saying that. The passage should be wrested out of its context to teach indolence or laziness or apathy. You know, God's gonna provide for me, so I don't need to get a job. God's gonna provide for me, so I'll just go where the wind takes me. That's folly. The Bible does not tell you to do that. The Bible does not tell you to not work and just trust in God. You trust in God and find a job. You trust in God and get up on Monday morning. You trust in God and you show up. You trust in God and you don't question your employer. You trust in God and you do what you're supposed to do. You trust in God and you collect your paycheck. You trust in God for these things. But in terms of carnal anxiety and this panic that sets in and this fretting, And this worry that he is condemning here, it betrays a lack of trust in God. So he says, don't worry about food, drink, clothing, and tomorrow. He says, I want you to study the birds. I want you to study the lilies. I want you to understand that the way God provides for them, he's gonna provide for you. You're far more important. Again, you know, the God haters in our day hate this stuff, right? When we say man is more important than animal. Oh, you can't say that. Meat is murder. Meat is not murder. You cannot murder a non-image bearer of the living God. Meat is good. The Lord gave it to us to enjoy, according to 1 Timothy chapter 4. If you decide not to eat meat, that's up to you. But do not blame God or do not say that somehow Animals bear the image of God. We shouldn't be vicious to them. We shouldn't be unkind. I mean, I guess the whole concept of eating them betrays that, but you know what I mean. We shouldn't abuse them needlessly, but God provided them for us. So the Lord Christ tells us, look at those lilies, look at those birds. If God provides for them, is he gonna let his blood-bought children go naked? Is he gonna let his blood-bought children starve to death? No, of course not. He says, do not live like the Gentiles who have a godless philosophy of life. I'm just sort of summarizing rather than running through each and every jot and tittle here. And then he says, do live like the children of a heavenly father, knowing that he cares for you. So you see, we have this trust in God, specifically justification by faith alone, but we have this daily trust in God where we're not worriers to the point where we're engaged in carnal anxiety. Now, for those of you who have mastered this, you can email me how you've come to this. This is a passage I need to reflect on often. It was another thing inculcated in my youth. I don't know if it was potpourri or if it was my dear mother, but she promoted in me a worry wart. Most of you who know me would say, oh yeah, that's not a surprising statement. You get that. So Matthew 6, Jesus is talking to people like me and maybe talking to people like you, but the prohibition is do not worry because it expresses or evidences a lack of faith and trust in the living and true God. In other words, we as God's people may not be the most composed, we may not be the most secure, and we may not be the most stable, but we're not the least stable, the least secure, and the one who is ridden with panic and with distress. And then finally, the worship, the proper worship of God. Now, we are going to deal with this in more detail when we get to the second commandment. Because if you ask the question, what does the Bible say concerning worship, we see the first two commandments. The first commandment tells us who we are supposed to worship, and the second commandment tells us how we are to worship Him. There is a close connection between the first two commandments. So we need to know who the living and true God, and we need to know how, without images, without innovation, without creativity, without the sorts of things that persons want to engage in today, but rather we are to obey God. As I mentioned in the morning hour, we're supposed to pray the Word, preach the Word, read the Word, sing the Word, and see the Word. The worship of the living and true God is word-based. It is word-focused. It is word-centric. Because you saw no form, God reminds them in Deuteronomy chapter four, but rather you heard his voice. And so God prescribes true worship. He tells us how we are to approach him. He tells us how we are to worship him. And we are not free or at liberty to change that, to twist it, to distort it, to add to it, or to take away from it. Deuteronomy 12, 32 is very specific in this regard. A way that we can sort of remember God's approach to worship is we're not to do anything more, anything less, or anything else than what God has commanded. Much of what passes today for Christian worship is actually strange fire. And that comes from Leviticus chapter 10. In Leviticus chapters 1 to 9, God gives detailed, minute legislation for the way that Israel is to approach Him. In fact, most readers of the book of Leviticus, by the time they get to chapter 3, are thinking, is this ever going to come to a conclusion? Well, there's a reason for it. There's a method for this. I've mentioned before, God's Shekinah glory comes and dwells in the midst of Israel at the end of the book of Exodus. But nobody can go in there. Nobody can approach God. And when we get to Leviticus, this is the prescription for how sinful man can now approach a holy God. And it's through a bloody knife and a smoking altar. So that's what Leviticus one to nine stipulates. At the end of Leviticus chapter nine, they present a proper worship. God sends fire down and consumes the sacrifice and the people rejoice. Leviticus chapter 10, Nadab and Abihu offer up strange fire. They were innovative, they were creative, they departed from the written word, and they went on their own. They were renegade, they were maverick. They perhaps thought, well, you know, Yahweh liked what we just presented, certainly He'll like what we present now. Well, God sent fire, but this time it didn't consume the sacrifice, it consumed Nadab and Abihu. And that underscores this reality that when it comes to the public worship of God, we do not have the right as creature to determine and define how we will worship. We have the obligation as creature to obey creator and approach him the way that he has mandated. And hopefully the Lord willing, we'll see that as we move through the second commandment in the coming weeks. Well, in conclusion, just a couple of thoughts and then we'll pray. First, with reference to this first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. There is a consistent and universal condemnation of idolatry in the Bible. All sin is bad. Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come. Make no mistake about it. But if we had to say, are there some sins that God seems to really be at war against, idolatry would certainly be in the top one in that particular list. Idolatry is an offense and it is an abomination to the true and living God. This is what Israel descended into over and over again. In fact, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6, after the Shema here, O Israel, Shema simply means hear or listen. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. He then enjoins upon the people of Israel to apply this individually, familially, and societally. And then he gives specific cautions against disobedience in verses 10 and following. The first is verse 10 to 13. Danger of forgetting God because of affluence. In other words, when they got into the land, and it was profuse, and it was full of abundance, and it was full of milk and honey, they had the tendency to forget God. It's an unfortunate thing, but again, Proverbs 30, give me neither poverty or riches. If I'm rich, I might forget God. So he's cautioning them against that. And then notice in verses 14 and 15, danger of abandoning God because of surrounding idolatry. In other words, your hearts. And then the last section, danger of doubting God because of hardship. So these were the particular cautions given by God through Moses on the plains of Moab, so that when they go into the promised land, they do not defect, they do not apostatize, they do not reject or resist the true and living God. Now we know, because we've read it, that they do precisely that. We know that they go into the land and they forget the God who has given them abundance. We know that they go into the land and they engage in idolatry. In fact, that's the reason for the mandate of holy war in Deuteronomy 7. Look at this, verse 1. When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire. You're not supposed to enter into political alliance with the Canaanites. You're not supposed to enter into social alliance with the Canaanites. And you are certainly not supposed to enter in to religious alliance with the Canaanites. Idolatry is bad. When we look at 1 Kings, what happens with Solomon? He violates the prohibition God gave to kings in terms of multiplying wives. He multiplies wives, and what do those wives do? They turn his heart away from the living and true God to their gods. So idolatry is universally condemned in the Bible. In the prophet Isaiah, he mocks idolatry. The prophet Isaiah speaks of the idolater. He goes into the woods and he cuts down a tree and he brings some of that wood and he makes a fire so that he can roast what he took in hunting. And he warms himself with that fire and then with a bit of that wood, he makes an idol and he bows down to it. Isaiah the prophet highlights the futility involved in idol-making. Paul the apostle does this in Romans chapter 1. He shows that they exchange the creator, or they worship the creature rather than the creator. They exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for that which is corruptible. Remember, it's the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Certainly those acts of unrighteousness are horrific. He condemns all the vices of the Gentile world at that particular time. But the root, the place from whence these things spring is that although they knew God, they did not honor God, nor were their hearts thankful. So their ungodliness preceded these acts of unrighteousness. How does John end the first epistle? My little children, I want you to be happy, healthy, and whole. No. My little children, I want you to have health, wealth, and prosperity. No. My little children, I want you to just have therapy for the rest. No. My little children, keep yourselves from idols. And in the context in 1 John, probably the idol that he is most conspicuously highlighting is the idol of a false Christ, the anti-Christian sort of drivel or dracker or heresy that teaches that Jesus didn't come in the flesh, that Jesus is not Messiah. So he says, my little children, keep yourselves from idols. Typically when I preach against or on idolatry, not on in a favorable way, I quote John Stott from his commentary on the book of Acts. And I think this is most excellent. He says, all idolatry, whether ancient or modern, primitive or sophisticated, is inexcusable. Whether the images are metal or mental, material objects of worship, or unworthy concepts in the mind. See, I think there's this idea that as long as we're not bowing to a pole, or bowing to a rock, or bowing to our money, that we're not guilty. Brethren, if we construct a false Christ, If we have a false idea of God, that's why the very first point of positive aspect was the knowledge of God. If you don't know the triune God, if you don't understand His perfections, if you don't understand the external works of the true and living God, what God are you worshiping? The Jesus that is preached in some churches bears little resemblance to the Jesus of the pages of Holy Scripture. You see, it's not just bowing down to some construct that we have made, it's bowing down to a false idea of who God is, or of who Jesus is. And I think that this brings this out well. He says, for idolatry is the attempt either to localize God, confining Him within the limits which we impose, whereas He is the creator of the universe, or to domesticate God. I really think this happens. I really think there's a lot of people out there trying to domesticate God. Why do you think absolute comprehensive sovereignty bothers people? Because they can't domesticate that God. They can't put him in a box. They can't control him. He is too big for them, and so they reject great swaths of Holy Scripture so that they can, in turn, try to domesticate Him, try to put Him on a chain, try to make Him a harmless little pussycat that we can play with and trot out when we are so inclined. He goes on to say, or to domesticate God, making him dependent on us, taming him, whereas he is the sustainer of human life. Or to alienate God, blaming him for his distance and silence, whereas he is the ruler of nations and not far from any of us. Or to dethrone God, demoting him to some image of our own contrivance or craft, whereas he is our father from whom we derive our being. In brief, all idolatry tries to minimize the gulf between the Creator and His creatures. If you get that, you will understand why it is so offensive to be an idolater, in order to bring him under our control. More than that, it actually reverses the respective positions of God and us, so that instead of our humbly acknowledging that God has created and rules us, we presume to imagine that we can create and rule God. He says, there is no logic in idolatry. It is a perverse, topsy-turvy expression of our human rebellion against God. I think that's a hundredfold amen-worthy. Now, Stott was not without his issues. I understand that. He had some, you know, problems at the end of his life. I'm not saying go out and read everything that John Stott ever wrote. But that comment from Acts 17 is right on. There is that attempt to change God into the image of man. There is that attempt in man to try to make God something that we can control. That's the essence of idolatry. It is to jettison the truth as it is in scripture and to fashion a God after our own desire. As well, we need to understand the normative use of the first word. The normative use. That means the normal day in and day out practice of the Christian. How do we as God's blood-bought children, those cleansed in the blood of Jesus, those justified freely by grace, those possessing the Holy Spirit and possessed by the Spirit, how do we respond to the first commandment? Not to be saved. We are saved by God's grace. So how do we show that obedience with reference to this commandment. First, we are to reject false gods. My little children, keep yourselves from idols. Now, I do not suppose for a moment that some of you go home and fashion idols in your basement and bow down to them. Maybe you do, but that's never arisen in my mind. But where I would see the danger is the internet. I'm not saying the internet's an idol. Just hear what I'm about to say. I'm not saying the internet is bad, vicious, vile. I am saying that the internet is a means by which heresy is propagated. In other words, I think the problem facing God's people in terms of 1 John 5.21, my little children, keep yourselves from idols, is a false understanding of who God is. And there is no shortage of men out there, and women, teaching who God isn't. And if you are not careful, if you are not confessional, if you are not biblical, you are susceptible to being an idolater. Any thought concerning God that is false, any thought concerning Christ that is false, any thought concerning sovereignty, grace, salvation that is false, you run the risk of becoming an idolater. fashioning a God who is more akin to your liking. I mentioned this earlier today, in our culture, people don't like the fact that the Bible condemns certain things. Well, brethren, the Bible does condemn certain things, and we have to be faithful in the condemnation, not because we hate people, but because God Most High is holy, God Most High is unchanging, and God Most High has spoken. So we are not to say, well, it's okay, for instance, something that is going on right now to let women preach. Paul says unequivocally in 1 Timothy 2, I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Now for me, I don't know how much clearer the apostle could be. I don't know how anybody could try and wriggle out of the clear, obvious implication that we're not supposed to let women teach or exercise authority over men. But lo and behold, there's a whole host of professing Christians, people that say they're believers, churches that say they're serving the Lord God Most High, that have women preachers. This is idolatry. It is fashioning a God that is more akin to our culture and to our societal norms than he is revealed in Holy Scripture. We need to be careful. Secondly, we need to express allegiance to the Creator rather than the creature. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy the creature. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy marriage. We can't enjoy a good steak. I'm thinking 1 Timothy chapter 4. But when we put any creature before God, we have violated and transgressed the commandment. Thirdly, we need to cultivate the knowledge of God. We need to understand this God. James Durham, in his commentary on the Ten Commandments, says with reference to the commandment, it requires the right knowledge of God. For there can be no true worship given to him, there can be no right thought or conception of him or faith in him till he be known. He must be known to be one God in essence, Deuteronomy 6, 4, and three persons, 1 John 5, 7. He must be known in his attributes and essential properties, infiniteness, immenseness, unchangeableness, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, wisdom, goodness, justice, and faithfulness. He must be known in His special works, whereby His sovereignty and majesty appears, as His works of creation, providence, redemption, and what concerns it, as the covenant of grace in its terms, the mediator in His offices. No service or worship can be offered to God, nor can we have any ground of faith in Him without some measure of distinct knowledge of these." Now, brethren, that doesn't mean you have to have all of this right now. I think sometimes believers get discouraged. Well, I don't know all that stuff and it seems like a tall order. Just start reading your Bible. Pick up our confession of faith. Investigate chapter two in that confession. Investigate the sections and the three forms of unity that speak concerning who God is in terms of his triunity, in terms of his perfections, in terms of his external works. Yeah, this acquisition of knowledge isn't gonna happen with one sermon or one sort of brief read of the Bible. It's a lifelong sort of a thing. Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. But to actually honor the commandment, we need to understand who God is. As well, there ought to be a manifestation in the hearts of God's people of love to, fear of, trust in, and worship of the true and living God. So that's the normative use. Now pedagogically, what does the law of God in this particular commandment teach us if we're not believers? It teaches us how much we need Jesus. It teaches us how bad we are. It teaches us how far astray we are. In the language of the Heidelberg Catechism, how do we come to know, or how do you come to know your misery? The law of God tells me. A man by the name of Bachmuel says, the first commandment is always a call to repentance because we are rarely single-minded in our commitment to God. The commandment taken seriously produces the response, God be merciful to me, the sinner. So if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ tonight, that is the first order of business. Believe on Him. Look to Christ in faith. That is the way of salvation. And then embrace this blessed, wonderful commandment that calls us to allegiance to the God who is absolutely worthy of allegiance. Well, let us close in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for these commandments. Thank you for that you've not left us in this world to try and figure things out. God, so many people around us have that mindset. You've given us the word of the living God. You've given us scripture. You've given us all things necessary for faith and practice, and we rejoice in that. Help us, God, to meditate upon these things. Help us to increase in our knowledge of who you are and to respond with that love and fear and obedience and trust. and that worship that you sanction, that you call for in Holy Scripture. I pray that you would go with us now, that you would continue to watch over your people, that you would encourage and strengthen our hearts. And we pray these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation.