Exodus 20, beginning at verse 1, hear now the word of the Lord. And 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 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 these 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. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. For 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 servants, nor your female servants, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon 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 house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. Let's try the reading of God's Holy Word and may He add His blessing to it. Well, I don't have any kind of fancy title, as you see, for the sermon today. It's just the Preface and First Commandment of the Decalogue. That's what we're going to look at together here. Last week we did note, for our second sermon here, that to be a good Christian, to be a faithful Christian, we are called to keep God's moral law, to keep His commandments, which is summarized here in the Ten Commandments. And in turn, the Ten Commandments Christ summarizes for us As loving God, the first four commandments teach us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The last six teach us to love our neighbor as ourself. And therefore we see from that our duties to God and our duties to our fellow man to be done from a heart of love. We also looked at how really any command in scripture can fit under one or more of these Ten Commandments. I think we talked about prayer and a few other things, how you can trace them back, so to speak, to the sum, the source of the moral law, the summary of that in the Ten Commandments, and also that helps us see, you know, are we being commanded to love God, love our neighbor here, and so on. And so we see the unity of the law of God in this as well. So let's now look at the first commandment together and along with that the preface where he officially, through Moses, gives us the first commandment that you shall have no other gods before me. You see the preface there in verses 1 and 2. God spoke all these words saying, verse 2, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. That set the context really we say the covenantal context into which God is giving his law to his people. As our sermon theme then is that the first commandment requires us to know, trust, worship, and serve the true God alone. And our two points from that first point, we must avoid all idolatry and worshiping of mere creatures. And then secondly, essentially the other side of that, we must be wholly devoted to God, trusting in him rather than idols. And so this context that we just noted here in verses 1 and 2, God addresses Israel, His people, and by extension all of His people are grafted into Christ today now as well, as the Lord. You'll see that likely printed in your Bible, L-O-R-D, capital letters there. That's the name of God as the covenant Lord to His people, Jehovah. I am the Lord, your God. He is their God. He's singling them out as His people. So this is not God's Ten Commandments to become the children of the Lord. It is the commandments given from the One who is our Lord already, our Lord and Savior. It says, He brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. So this deliverance from Egypt of old, of course, pictures also the deliverance from sin the Egypt of our souls, the desert of our souls, so to speak, being redeemed out of that in order to serve God. Again, I believe we've established that, but it's important to understand that. God is giving this to his people so that we would obey him, follow him, and keep his commandments with glad hearts already reconciled to him. So to obey God, then, is, as we said last week as well, I believe, to truly bear His image, to bear it properly, to live according to His likeness, to reflect His glory. We've been renewed by the outpouring of Christ's Spirit in order to be able to do that. Again, by, now, the blood of Christ. Before, there was the blood of bulls and goats. Now, there's the blood of Christ that washes us white so that we can serve Him. So in that context, we come down to verse 3. It says, You shall have no other gods before me. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean, before me? This could indicate in His presence, obviously God's presence is everywhere, and so the idea may be that God, His all-seeing eye, wherever we are, whatever we're doing, or anyone is doing, we should be serving God, we should be worshipping Him. Everything is before God. And we should have no other gods before Him. It's obviously not saying you could have lesser gods, but not as great as me, as the one true God. It's not to have in His sight, which is everywhere, anything that would be a competitor to Him, to His glory, to His majesty. We cannot divide up our affections because there's only one true God, and Him alone we are to worship and serve. So the Lord is not affirming some kind of reality of other gods when He says, you shall have no other gods before me. It's not to say, well, there are other gods. It is to say, really, there are no other gods. I and my glory and my presence encompass all things, so follow me, so worship me. Do not give yourselves over to idols. As you know, most of the Ten Commandments are given in the negative, right? There's a negative command, a prohibition. He could say, you know, worship me alone. Instead he says, do not have any other gods before me. Why is that? Well, there's probably multiple reasons why it's stated in the negative. It seems reasonable to point out that because we are sinful and fallen, our sinful nature is always on the precipice of sin, if we're honest. We're renewed in Christ, we have the Spirit working in our hearts, but the sinful flesh is always seeking out wickedness. And so we need to hear that negative explicitly put. Think of an analogy with your children. We have to tell our kids, I don't know, eat your beans before you eat I don't know, the cake, the cookies or whatever the case may be. Often times we may have to just go directly to the prohibition. Do not touch the cookies or you will die. You know that you shall die. We have to go straight to the source of what we're craving and what we're going after. Well man is an idle factory in his heart. I think Calvin said that. It's true. We go after simple things so we need to be told. You know, the negatives, the things to stay away from directly. You know, if he said, worship me alone, we would find a way to say, well, he didn't say anything directly about this or that God and, you know, people still try to do that, veneration versus worship and so on. We need to hear the negatives. We need to be told explicitly, do not go here. Right? Do not eat the forbidden fruit. Do not worship after pagan gods. So, that's likely one reason why many of the Ten Commandments are stated negatively, but of course, as we talked about I believe last week as well, the positive is commanded as well. If we're not to have any other gods before him, then obviously that's commanding us to worship God truly, rightly, and He alone. Now, to address sort of the issue of other gods, what would that refer to if that's a non-entity, if that's not a real thing, if it's merely the imagination of man's heart, He could be saying that, he could be saying do not construe in your mind anything, and as we get into the second commandment as well, do not make for yourself a carved image and so on. We could say that it's simply prohibiting that. But we know there's a distinction between the first commandment and the second commandment. The first commandment is telling us who to worship, the one true God. The second commandment is telling us how to worship. the one true God as he has revealed himself, not according to images and icons and things that we make with our hand and so on and so forth. But we do know that there is some demonic reality, deceptive reality to the gods. I mean, we've been talking in our first sermon about the pagans and the philosophers and their idolatrous worship. We see in scripture, for example, Paul's own words in 2 Corinthians 11, that Satan and his fallen angels and ministers, angel, messenger, present themselves as angels of light. And that in the context there could especially refer to false teachers pretending to be apostles or prophets, pastors, messengers, and so on. But it also applies to the false gods of this world. Satan is a deceiver, he's been deceiving from the beginning and certainly he wants to take our hearts and our affection away from right and true worship to God. So one of his chief deceptions is going to be getting us to worship things that are not truly God, false idols and images and the whisperings of the devil. We should not give any reverence to idols, physical things of this world. This doesn't have to only be something tangible or something that is literally like a statue crafted that you bow down to. Anything that takes the place in our hearts and minds of that which we would live for. and sacrifice for is the ultimate thing, right? Power, fame, pleasure, other people, blind allegiance to an earthly ruler. Whatever the case may be, drink, drugs, alcohol, that kind of thing. Whatever we have given ourselves over to, just like in the first sermon where Paul was grieved that the whole town, the whole city was given over to idols. It's not merely giving yourself over to something that you carve with your hands, but the invisible reality of that, the wicked, perverse desires of your heart. Whether you consciously deem it as the one true God or not. Of course, most of us, I trust, I pray, do not do that. Yet we all recognize we struggle with these temptations, with these passions to be all-consuming and therefore to be the highest thing that we're seeking out and it becomes an idol to us when we do that. We don't want to be giving over too much wine, as it says, for elders. To not be giving too much. That enslavement, that serving it as your master, as your lord, that is the idea behind that. Again, moderate use of good things in this life are appropriate when we give thanks to God for it. But when we give ourselves over to it, whatever it may be, even good and lawful things in themselves, it becomes idolatrous to us, at least in our heart going out to it, even if we would deny that we're worshipping it. Well, as God is the source of all goodness, truth and power, he must be worshipped as such, recognized as such. Again, the first sermon we talked about how he's the pagan philosophers and just anybody that's not a Christian, whatever, gifting and graces and things that we can benefit from them is all owing back to God and his kindness and so we should praise God for that As well, we give Him glory for all good and true things, wherever it may be precisely found. It goes back to Him, the source of all truth and goodness for us. So, because of our simple nature, again, we need to be commanded what we ought not to do. We're tempted to worship other things. We know at root we should worship God alone. The command then, again, is most properly fitted and stated in the negative. No other gods, no exceptions. Further, as the Hebraic Catechism puts it in question 94 there, it also said that we are to avoid and flee these things. For the sake of my very salvation, I avoid and flee all idolatry. Stay away from it. Do not have any other gospel before me. This is again, it's something you run from. Paul also says, flee sexual immorality. There are certain things that have such a pull on us, idolatry, the passions, the lusts of the flesh. These are things to flee from, not even to flirt with. And as you see, that goes into the idolatry, the witchcraft, superstition, prayer to saints or to other creatures. This would all be brought in together. because witchcraft or even superstition. Think about one of the little trinkets and things that people put in their house or the horseshoe over their house or whatever saying that maybe this will bring me good fortune or good luck and they actually believe that to some degree or another. Well that's not giving reverence or worship to the one true God who controls all things with the palm of his hand, right? It's one thing to have that as a decoration, it's another thing to truly believe that this wards off evil or will make a better life for me because there's some sort of superstitious power connected to these things. So yeah, better to be safe than sorry. I'm sure you've seen on Facebook and elsewhere people who share, hey, the Lord will bring you good fortune if you share this to 20 other people or something. And it's like, are you kidding me right now? And these are supposed to be Christians sharing this kind of thing. Well, that's a superstition. That's a violation of the first commandment. That's going after something as if it has power. to direct our lives and so we're putting our hearts and our affections into that to give us the things that we need in this life and for this life. Witchcraft, summoning up the dead, Saul when he went to the witch and Samuel came up. These are all seeking power, information and knowledge from sources other than God that therefore are a violation of God and his glory and are not giving him the praise due to his holy name. praying to other saints, as the Heidelberg Catechism there says. If we were to pray to another, prayer is an act of worship. It's not a lesser reverencing thing that we can do for really holy people that are alive. Prayer is only to be given to God, just as when at times new converts would fall down either before an angel or before other holy men, like Paul, the angels, or Paul would say, stand up, I'm just a man or I'm just a creature. That's an act of devotion, of worship that is not fitting for anyone except God alone. So therefore also when it comes to prayer, we should not pray to anything or anyone but to God. And you probably have heard that story of Martin Luther when he was supposedly converted or at least being led to convert. I believe he calls out to Saint Anne. You know, help me Saint Anne, I'll become a monk if you spare me from this that he thought he was going to die from lightning or whatever. I suppose behind that was the idea that St. Anne would pray to God for him, so he would say God helps him. But again, you should not call out to St. Anne, certainly not in some kind of form of prayer. We ask others to pray for us, but we don't pray to them. It's a world of difference to ask for the body of Christ. The righteous prayer of Christians avails much. It's one thing to ask for prayer, to pray together, but it's a whole other matter if somebody starts praying to you. You need to tell them to stop. You're not God that nobody should be praying to you, and you should not be praying to anyone else either. And so that of course gets into different doctrines, Roman Catholicism and other things where people go astray in these various ways regardless of whatever distinctions and arguments they may make to try to mitigate it as an act of worship. Paul says, yes, leave from idolatry in 1 Corinthians 10 and along that line he also gets into some things about the reality That idolatry, to not flee from it, to draw near to that in our hearts, in actual structures or buildings or little icons and images that are made, Buddhas and all that, is a drawing near to wickedness, real wickedness, demonic influence and wickedness. There in 1 Corinthians 10, it goes on, he says, to eat meat offered to idols, particularly at the sacrifices where the meat that's being brought is being sacrificed to the idols, to partake in that ceremony is to have fellowship with devils, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10. Now he'll say later that you can eat the meat offered at the marketplace that was formerly offered to idols because You're just eating meat, just buying meat there. You're not eating it in a ritual that is actually, Paul is saying, a communion with demonic influence, demonic power. So the idols and the idols of the heart are not separated from real demonic wickedness. As you know, some of these people would mutilate their bodies and everything else. I think we can make, sadly, some pretty scary applications to those today who'd mutilate their bodies in the name of sexual liberation or freedom or whatever, that they really have and are drawing near to some dark, twisted, demonic stuff. We should flee from that and speak against that. Well, in that chapter, Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, he contrasts communion with God at the Lord's table, and again, drawing near to Satan at his table with these idols. And he says, you cannot have communion with God and the devil. This gets into the witchcraft the idolatry and all these things that are prohibited in the first commandment as the Heideberg Catechism lays out there for us. Our larger catechism, the Westminster larger catechism, in Leviticus 20 verse 6 says, The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards to go a-whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. That verse is listed in larger catechism as a violation of the first commandment, and they call it consulting the devil. So don't do that. We know Satan fell from glory. He was an angelic-like being. Whether that was literally Lucifer or not, I'm actually not entirely sure of that anymore, but Lucifer may be referring to something else. But Satan was an angelic being that fell from glory before the foundation of the world. We know that he tempts through the serpent in the garden, Adam and Eve, to eat the forbidden fruit there. He uses the natural cleverness of the serpent and possesses it essentially to lead Adam and Eve astray. So again, to fall into deceptions, to embrace lies and errors and contradictions and to go after that as a thing that's pleasing to the flesh will lead again to idolatry, perhaps even to witchcraft explicitly and so on and all that is a violation of the first commandments. Calvin notes that Satan spoke through the serpent, for Satan, not the serpent, is called the father of lies. And so, if an idol is not true, and it's a lie, and people are giving themselves over to that, we should see very clearly the hand of the devil behind all these things. The fallen self of mankind is a forbidden meal in communion with the devil, lacking devotion to God. I don't know if we often think of it in such stark terms, but really it was. It was that. It was a forsaking of the communion that Adam and Eve had in the garden with God, a listening to the lies and deceptions of the voice of the devil, the father of lies, and then with him there, partaking of this meal. In fact, I was reading some commentaries. I think this is kind of just speculation, but I suppose it's possible that this serpent himself, I guess you would say, ate from that tree of knowledge of good and evil in the presence of Eve, and that led her to be deceived to thinking this gave the serpent the ability to speak. Again, I think that's just speculation. We can't necessarily demonstrate any of that, of course. But it does demonstrate the point that whether the serpent literally ate some of that fruit or not, There, Satan, under a deception, the clever serpent, deceives Eve. Adam partakes as well. Together, there's a fellowship meal with the devil, a turning away from God, a giving themselves over to their flesh, their cravings, the desires of their heart. And so, the first sin, the fall of man, goes all the way back to the first commandment. Have no other gods before me. Listen to my voice alone. They failed to do that. We have fallen. and Adam we need to be warned against the forbidden fruit of this life as well and to worship and serve God only. James tells us in James 4 that we are to submit to God by resisting the devil who will flee from you but also to draw near to God and he will draw near to you. So idolatry in the heart is a gradual drifting from God and drawing near to the devil, but returning to God in true worship, as we're doing right now in the sermon and our worship, is a drawing near to the Lord. Now we draw near to the Lord in our home, at home in prayer and Bible reading and meditating upon God's Word. We do it as a family, I trust. We ought to be doing so together, husbands and wives, with our children also, praying together, instruction of the Word of God, reflecting upon it, singing praises to God. All of this is a true and genuine drawing near to God. If you must flee from the devil and idols, you must run to something, and that is to God. And so, spiritually, we are all either going towards God and true worship and reverence, which is good for us, body and soul, or we are doing The opposite of that, drawing closer and closer to the lust of the flesh, idolatry of the heart, away from God and toward the dangers of the devil himself. But as we resist him, the devil, the Lord works in us and in the reverse of that is commanded to draw near to God. In James chapter 4 verses 7 and 8, Well, Jesus in John chapter 8 sharply rebukes the unbelieving Jews who sought to kill him, saying, Though they have descended from Abraham, he is not their true father, but the devil is. And they desire to do the lying and murdering of their father, the devil, listening to the devil's voice rather than Christ's. So again, seeking out witchcraft, living by superstition. It's demonic. It is idolatrous. It is a drawing away from God and a drawing near. It's a wicked sin. We may think I don't worship an idol. I've never broken, since I've become a Christian, the first commandment. But that's fundamentally not true. You're kind of, I trust, beginning to see, and especially if you look at the larger catechism and other things, that every sin, I don't know if there's any sin you can possibly accept, is a violation of the first commandment. Any sin is an act of idolatry, ultimately. It is a drawing away from God and going after the desires of our heart and turning from Him. It is not reverencing Him and worshipping Him, properly speaking. So in that broad sense, any and every sin that we commit is a violation of the first commandment. So the Heidelberg Catechism, for example, goes on and it tells us Further, that I rightly come to know the only true God, trust in Him alone, submit to Him with all humility and patience, expect all good from Him only, love, fear, honor Him with all my heart. In short, that I forsake all creatures, rather than do the least thing against His will." Well then, if you do anything, the least thing against His will, that would be a violation of having other gods before Him, at least to some degree or another. These are all, some of the things listed there are all abominable practices in the sight of God. You know the wicked ones would, nations and countries and sometimes even the Israelites would offer their children to idols, burn them alive and so on and dedicate them. This is real wickedness that is abominable to God and ultimately we see all of our sin as an abomination to Him. This is what led God to drive out the nations of the Canaanites and others who Israel went in to take the land, because of that idolatry, because of that sacrificing their children and turning from the Lord. So then, we can understand also when we turn from God, when we live for our sin and our pleasure, no, we can't lose our salvation if we're truly converted, but we can experience God's displeasure, temporal judgments in this life. Deuteronomy 18.14, this is what I was told. For these nations which you dispossess, which you will dispossess, listen to sue the sayers and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. So the church today inherits the earth as we are obedient and devoted to him. We draw near to him, we inherit the earth, the wicked are driven out, only because we draw near to God. even in a personal way, in our own personal lives, have success in this life, apart from drawing near to God, all good blessings and prosperity will come from His hand. Later on, of course, Moses will tell us that there must be a prophet like him that will rise up in the midst of God's people, the Israelites, and he is the one whom they shall listen to. That would be Christ, the God-man. Christ is no idol. He's truly God in the flesh. It's his voice and his voice alone that is to be heard and to be listened to, not the lies and deceptions of Satan. Christ is the anti-Satan, we could say in that regard. He comes to earth. He proclaims the truth. He sets the record straight. Well then, we draw near to God in Christ, through Christ in prayer. Because of what he says is true, and we have it revealed in his word, when we pray in Christ, according to his will, is a true drawing near to God, that God, who is alive and real, is pleased And that really is now getting us into our second point, our final point, that if we are to flee idolatry and run away from that, then we must be wholly devoted to God. We must trust in Him rather than these idols. Look at the definition again of idolatry there in the 95th question. What is idolatry? Idolatry is having or inventing something in which to put our trust instead of, or in addition to, the only true God who has revealed Himself in His Word. Right? You invent it, or you simply put your trust in it, either to just place that all together, or just come alongside of God as He's revealed Himself in His Word. Any of that is idolatrous. All of that is idolatrous. We open our first worship service, We may not think of it this way, but it is an attempt, it is a keeping of the first commandment, right? We affirm various, the Psalms, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth, or our soul waits for the Lord. He is our strength and our shield. We're calling upon the name of God in our worship to draw near to Him, to recognize the source of our strength, our help, who made all things comes from God and from Him. alone is recognizing, Lord, we are not having intercourse before you, we're coming before you now in your holy presence, saying, you are our help, you are our delight, you are our strength, our shield, and everything. And so that is a good and proper way to open the worship service. That's the way many Reformed services and others throughout history have opened Psalm 124, 8, and other passages. like that, that the whole church body is confessing that aloud together. So this should be coming from our heart, not just rote repetition, but a confession of our devotion and dependence upon Him, upon God alone. We gather for worship because we trust God alone for salvation. We gather for worship because we know we owe Him all our love and loyalty alone. There is no other God. There's no other gods before Him that we are to have. Our help and our help alone comes from the Lord. He's made it all. He's redeemed all of His people and He empowers all of His people to know Him and to serve Him. The focus of our worship then should also be on God and His glory alone. It should not be on the minister. It should not be on a singer, a musician, a choir. A stage, lights, candles, incense, any of those sorts of things, and of course some of those things you should not have at all in a worship service. The focus is on God, and God is invisible. Which tells us what? If God is invisible and our focus is to be on God, then should our focus be on anything visible? Children? In worship? No? Good, good, good. That's hard. It's easy to be distracted by the lights, by a noise you hear, by your sibling punching you, or whatever the case may be. The ache in your back, your drowsiness, you may be distracted by my hand gestures, hopefully not. Whatever it could be, you may be distracted by many things that averts our mind, our heart, our gaze upon God and his word being proclaimed by the minister or when we're singing praises to God or worship coming up to God in our psalms and hymns, when we're praying together, when we're reciting the creeds, the confessions or scriptures together. What should be in the four of our hearts and our minds have been over God, but the one true God. We are in the presence of God. We have drawn near to Him in our corporate worship. He is near to us. In Christ we are lifted up to Him. And so our focus is on worshiping God, truly. Our focus is on pleasing Him and hearing from Him in His Word. His Word sung, His Word read, His Word preached and recited and so on and so forth. Anything else leads to divided devotion. And certainly, if people come to church for the purpose of, they may not put it so crassly, but being entertained by the music, by the minister, by a musician, or any of these things, then what are they doing? They're definitely sinning. What kind of sin are they committing? Idolatry, yes. They've exchanged the glory of God for the glory of man. They've come not so much, not predominantly to hear God and his word, not to praise him, but to be part of really an earthly, carnal experience. Now yes, it's fine to enjoy music in other settings, but not in the worship service, not in the worship setting. It's not a gathering around talented musicians or orators, or a visual, audio experience. Go to the movie theaters, or a rock concert, or something if you want that. That is not the purpose of worship. Worship is a drawing near to God, and you can't get that anywhere else. You can get music, entertainment, and fun all over the place. Even with a messenger that tells you nice things or whatever. But you can't accept in corporate worship of the gathered people of God, drawn near to God in this way, with hearts open, with God's ear open. And his heart even opened to you so that there is true communion and worship and fellowship together as the people of God in the body of Christ. And that is commanded every Lord's Day, every Sabbath day, the Christian Sabbath, Sunday, for us to do that. And so we should have our gaze and our mind lifted up. This is an expression of true Christian worship. Now that doesn't mean that we should be poor. in our singing or that we should not care about anything, you know, like how things look. Yes, we should do things decently and in order, but that's not the focus, right? Whatever music we have somebody play while we're singing is to aid in our singing to God, not to be something that distracts us or takes the spotlight off of worshiping God. And so I hope that is helpful and clarifying at least to some degree in our worship. that worshiping is hard because it is hard to focus on something that we cannot see. To focus on God. It takes our brains, our minds, our hearts, our affections engaged in worshiping God. It requires preparation. It requires usually getting some good sleep if we can the night before and so on and so forth. But through that the Lord blesses our worship to Him. We stay away from idolatry. We draw near to God and He blesses us in His holy presence. So we can continue and see. For example, the commands to get that undivided attention and dedication to God. I believe we may have mentioned this last week some as well. It was critical that Israel of old and we today understood that God is one God, so there's no other gods. Deuteronomy 6, for example, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Right, one God. The pagans, the others, they had many gods to their affection. They all have been oriented to God, but it was divided up in their affections, right? There was the god of the valleys and the god of the hills and everything else. Well, no, it goes on. It says, which loved Jehovah, our God, who is one, with all our heart, soul, and strength. And we know that's the sum, really, of the first four of the Ten Commandments. And it goes on and really connects to the loving your neighbor well, and it says, all that God commands we are to teach diligently to our children as we sit in the house, walk by the way, lie down, rise up, and so on. The whole church body is to encourage that together. We are, in a way we could say, are encouraged to help each other keep the first commandment, to have no other gods before the one true God. In our worship, in our affection, and that of course starts in our homes, teaching our children, and children obeying your parents and the Lord, honoring your parents, the fifth commandment, if they're good Christian parents, they in turn are teaching you to keep the first commandment, all the commandments, but the first commandment also, to worship God and have no other gods before him. The unbelievers around us who may also have nice things, they may tempt us to worship their gods, their pleasures, their possessions, and so on. That's again why we should keep company and close friendships with the people of God and encourage one another, and then call unbelievers into the communion of God to give up their idols of their hearts and repentance and faith and worship the one true God alone. And so already, again, we begin to see when God, Paul, the others, they say that God's law is one. It's one God that we either sin against or keep His commandments. So the law of God is a reflection of God's character, of His will for us, of what we're called to do. There is a sense in which it's true if you break any part of the Ten Commandments, you violated the law. It's not like you've got 90% right if you've just committed this one sin against this one commandment. No. The command is keep the law. And when you break any part of it, you break the law. And it's a ripple effect to actually, if you break one commandment directly or particularly, the ripple effect of that really is to break the other ones as well. to keep the first commandment to have another God before the one true God, to worship Him alone and trust in Him alone, while it requires that we lead our families, friends, neighbors, and church family toward God alone in knowledge, worship, And holiness, right? Loving God, loving neighbor, it all goes together. Our children are holy to the Lord. If we do not devote them to God in baptism, and especially in teaching and training them in the Lord, well, you sinned against your neighbor, your precious children, but above all, at root, you sinned against God. You've not devoted them to God, who has devoted them to Himself. He says the kingdom of God belongs to them. And so in a way that too can even be seen as a breaking of the first commandment by not training and raising our children in the Lord. Joshua says, choose this day whom you will serve as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. That's in terms of keeping the first table, the first commandment even. We're going to serve the true God, the Lord, me and my house. as a family. That's what we're called to do and lead our wife and children in as well. We can't change the heart of our family. We can't even change our own hearts. God must do that. But true devotion to God points all under our care and our near relations to devote themselves to God as well. And for our children, we do devote them to God in baptism and bring them to worship and teach them all that Christ has commanded. So notice in Ephesians chapter 5 how Paul connects various sins back to idolatry. Idolatry against God, having no other gods before him. There Paul says, for this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Now, yes, we could read that and say, well, it's talking about fornicators, unclean persons, and covetous men who are idolaters, who are perhaps not truly worshiping the one true God. But really, it seems to be, to understand this, that to be covetous, to be these things, is to go after these things in your heart, which is to be an idolater. Let no one deceive you with empty words. Paul goes on to say, because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. So when we go after these things, you're going to be judged as a lawbreaker, you're going to be judged as an idolater, if you have not repented and trusted in Christ. He says, therefore, do not be partakers with them. Remember, the last commandment is against covetousness. The first commandment is against idolatry, but the commandments of God are one. To covet that which is not ours is a sin against our neighbor, but it's also to go against God in true worship to him, drawn near to wickedness and away from righteousness. And so as we close, God willing, you will see, you do see, that we all break the first commandment regularly and daily. Every sin at root is having an affection above or apart from God. We're in competition with God. Sin dethrones God before another God. It casts our love and adoration upon the sin rather than our righteous God. And so then you get this long laundry list in the Larger Catechism, Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 105. What are all the sins forbidden in the First Commandment? Now, it talks about what's required, which is even longer than the Hattelberg that we confessed together. But listen to what's forbidden under the First Commandment. according to larger catechism. The sins forbidden in the first commandment are atheism and denying or not having a god, idolatry and having or worshiping more gods than one or any with or instead of the true god, the not having and avowsing him for god and our god, the omission or neglect of anything due to him required in this commandment. ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts of Him, bold and curious searching into His secrets, all profaneness, hatred of God, self-love, self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him in whole or in part, vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief, distrust, despair, incorrigibleness, and insensibleness under judgments, hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting of God, using unlawful means and trusting in lawful means, carnal delights and joys, corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal, lukewarmness and deadness of the things of God, estranging ourselves and apostatizing from God, praying or giving any religious worship to saints, angels, or any other creatures, all contacts and consulting with the devil, and hearkening to his suggestions, making men the lords of our faith and conscience, slighting and despising God and His commands, resisting and grieving of His Spirit, discontent and impatience at his dispensations, charging him foolishly for the evils he inflicts on us, and ascribing the praise of any good we either are, have, or can do to fortune, idols, ourselves, or any other creature." That's a lot. That's kind of everything, right? That's kind of everything. that you do wrong is ultimately having other gods before the Lord. And so you can see, perhaps, maybe, from that, even how David goes back to his sin of murdering Uriah, committing adultery with Bathsheba, In his prayer of repentance, he says, rightly in one sense, against you, talking about God against God, you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. All of our sin at root, at core, is a turning away from God, is a turning to our lusts, our idols of our hearts. It's a lack of allegiance and devotion and drawing near to him and what he's called us to do. Remember, David didn't go out to war when he was supposed to, which led to that sin and so on. Now, each one of those things I just read, that whole long list from the larger catechism, has Bible verses with it. If you go to like some of the little OPCTCA books that have the catechism separate, it's like the Bible verses pick up 90% of the page. You turn pages to page, you get through the actual question in the catechism. A good exercise may be To go to the catechism there, and on other questions too, and personally, maybe with your family, pray. Pray to God and confess your sins in these particular ways. You know, the larger commandment here, the first commandment in larger catechism, really covers all the bases, but you could do that with each one. Go to God in prayer, look at the scriptures that it's referring to, and see, yes, Lord, I am breaking these commands. I am sinning when you tell me not to. Lord, I confess that. Look also at what is required. You can go to that also and pray to God. God, help me to keep your commandments. Help me to do what you call me to do here. This will keep before our minds what we ought to be doing, what we ought not to be doing. It will give us clarity in our prayers, strength in our prayers, and help us, I trust, to grow and draw nearer to God. Truly, help us see our sin, grieve it, confess it, and turn from it, and truly draw nearer to God, and better see the commandments of God and what He is calling us to keep, to truly be devoted to Him alone and faithful to Him alone. Well, as we close here, think upon Christ's perfect obedience in your prayers as well. If you don't, you'll be sad. You will be very sad as you think about all the sins that you commit and also all the sins you commit by not doing what God commands. The sins of commission and the sins of omission. What you should do, and you don't. What you should not do, but you do. As Paul says, a wretched man that I am in Romans 7. As you examine your heart in this way, remember Christ's obedience for you and His love for you, poured out from on high, that every disobedient act, everything you have done, has been wiped out and nailed to the cross. Thank God and Christ for this in your prayer. Thank Him for the same Holy Spirit that He lived by that is now in you, so that you can live for Him and keep His commandments, imperfectly yet truly, and fight against the remnants of our sinful nature that were against our spirit and the spirit of God within us. Ask the Lord to strengthen you by his word and spirit to live for him, to keep his commandments, and he will grant this to you far above what you could ever imagine. So again, there's so much in the first commandment that could be taken and broken down But I trust this at least helps us begin to see that it's all-encompassing. The first commandment truly requires us to know, trust, worship, and serve the true God alone to avoid all idolatry, to draw near to Him in everything that we do. Let us now ask the Lord in prayer to help us do that. Let us pray. Father, again, as we try to wrap our heads and our minds around your infinitude, I guess, if that's a word. Your majesty, your glory, your greatness and your goodness to us. And very few words, and yet the complete demands of, you shall have no other gods before me. Lord, to truly live up to that, no one but your Son could do that. Lord, help us as your children, as your sons, redeemed in your Son, Jesus, to pursue that day by day, to put off sin, to put off all the idols of the heart, the wicked affections that are in themselves wicked, the inordinate affections for good things that become ultimate things to us. Lord, let us love everything in the proportions that You would give them to us and receive them all, all good things from Your hand as the giver of all good gifts so that it is used for Your glory It is used indeed, Lord, as a drawing near to you. May that be for our work, our recreation, our passions, our families, everything. May through them all that you give us, may we enjoy the good things you give and enjoy them righteously so that it is a drawing near to you and not a turning away to the flesh or the world or the devil. Help us to do that, Lord. Help us to confess this in our prayers. and to go in the confidence of your Son who has washed away all of our sin. We ask all this in Jesus' name, Amen.