We are looking tonight at the first commandment. And really, backing up, we are considering the Ten Commandments. This is going to be the next month or so, probably more than that actually. And as we commence on the Ten Commandments, or sometimes they are referred to as the Ten Words, I want to remind us of what we're doing or what lens it is that we're considering these Ten Commandments, okay? So, we're considering them as members of the New Covenant, not as members of the Old Covenant. Remember, there's no such thing as a law apart from a covenant that gives the context of that law. And so we must understand when we read the Bible what covenant we are a party to. The Ten Commandments came through the covenant of Moses, but now they have found fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and now we approach them through the prism of the personal work of Jesus Christ, and they do look a little different in some respects, but what we find at bottom is that It's not difference in essence, it's really difference in intent, and it's difference in an emphasis that Jesus has put primarily on the heart rather than just external conformity. So we are obeying the law of love as it comes to us in the New Covenant, and we are going to consider the Ten Commandments through the lens of Christ. So, tonight we're going to consider the first commandment. And question 51 asks, which is the first commandment? And we answer, the first commandment is, you shall have no other gods before me. Now, to understand, really, all of the Ten Commandments, to understand the world that Israel lived in that allowed them, well, basically, that gave context to the Ten Commandments, we really have to go back to the ancient Near Eastern backdrop of the Ten Commandments. And to do that, we're going to go to a place called Rash Shammah, which is in the northern, it's basically in Syria, modern-day Syria. And in that place, about 60-70 years ago, they found these documents in a language that was new to people at that time called Ugaritic. And in this language, Ugarit, or the place is called Ugarit and the language is called Ugaritic, they had all this religious literature about their own gods. And in that literature we find this scheme that you have in the handout that I've given to you of a certain god called El. Let me teach you just a little bit of Hebrew. El is the most basic name for God in basically the ancient Near East. Every single language has some form of El. So if you know a little bit of Hebrew, some of the words for God or names for God are Elohim, Okay, El Shaddai. And just about every other name of God starts with something like El. So it's the God Almighty, or God overall, or God the warrior. Well, in the Ugaritic literature, sometimes it's referred to as the Baal Cycles, they talk about El who is the supreme God. He is the God who is over all other gods. Now we've got to stop there for a moment and throw out a few definitions that are going to help us to understand and conceptualize this scheme that the Ugaritic literature gives to us. So what is the name for belief in one God? What do we call that? Monotheism, okay? Belief in many gods is what? polytheism. Well, there's another term that really is the collapse of these two terms and it's called henotheism. And what henotheism is, is it is the belief in the superiority of one God and yet not denying the existence of other gods. And so they recognize there's one God over many other gods. Now we're not going to at this moment get into the question of what kind of other gods are those inferior gods. Just leave that on the shelf for now. But that's what the Ugaritic people believed. They believed that El was the supreme God over all other gods. But that he had this divine counsel. We'll call it a pantheon. And in this pantheon there were what we're going to call 70 junior gods. Now these 70 junior gods were basically God, the God of the moon, God of the sun, God of the stars, and there was about 67 other gods of like nature. And these 70 gods were all given in the Ugaritic literature Nations. So El gave as an inheritance to all the gods in his pantheon, nations over which they would be, essentially for lack of a better term, the patron gods of those nations. And that is what we find in the Ugaritic literature. Now, what relevance does that have to the Ten Commandments? Well, if you read the Old Testament, you might be surprised to find a lot of time is given to talking about other gods. Have you ever read that in the Old Testament? In fact, in our text tonight, Exodus 23, you shall have no other gods before me. Moses seems to assume, we're gonna nail down in what sense a little bit later, but he seems to assume that there's other gods. Now, in your English translation, it's lowercase g, right? And in our language, we make a distinction between uppercase and lowercase. There's a big distinction there. what we call an ontological distinction, a distinction in essence, okay? But they seem to assume the existence of other gods. Let me just read you just a little sampling of other places. We read this at the beginning of this evening, Psalm 82.1, God has taken his place in the divine council. That's interesting. We just heard about that from Ugarit, didn't we? God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. in Exodus 15 11 who is like you O Lord among the gods who is like you majestic and holiness awesome and glorious deeds doing wonders and Then in Psalm 82 6 to 8 I said you are God's Sons of the Most High all of you nevertheless like men you shall die and fall like any prince now if you recall Jesus picks that verse up doesn't he in the book of John and when he was claiming to be God and they were taking up stones to stone him, remember that? And what does he do? He said, well, wait a minute, your own scripture says you are gods. So if your own scripture says that, and by the way, the scriptures cannot be broken, then how are you getting so flustered that I'm claiming to be God? Your own tradition recognizes that in some sense that we are not defining at this point, there are other gods. So the Old Testament seems to assume that there's other gods. So let me give you a thought experiment. If you, as a 21st century Christian, Protestant, conservative, confessional, went to an agrarian farmer in early Israelite history, under Moses, time of the divided kingdom, United Kingdom, and said, hey, there's not really any other gods, right? He would probably scratch his head and say, well, There sure are a lot of shrines to these other gods. In fact, there's a shrine right around the corner to the wife of Yahweh. By the way, that was archaeologically found in the last century, shrines to the wives of Yahweh. And so he would say, well, no, there are other gods. And so you say, well, then give some type of qualification. What I know from my tradition is that Yahweh, my God, is the true God. He is the superior God. He makes all those other gods look like toy figures when it comes down to it. Now, I want you to notice in what I just read, Psalm 82, 6. He says, I said you are God's sons of the Most High. Now, what do you hear in that? You hear these echoes of Ugarit, the most high god. You're hearing things, features of henotheism, this sort of layering of power and authority of certain gods. And here, Yahweh is the one who is the most high god, but he seems to be making a competitive truth claim, an authority claim, to all the other gods that, if you will, are in the water of ancient Near Eastern thinking. Because what we find in Ugarit was indeed in the water theologically in the ancient Near East. They all recognize that there is a sense in which some type of God, El, every culture is going to call him something a little bit different, is over other gods. And now Yahweh comes in and he says, I am the most high God. So with that, I want you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 8. Because you should be wondering at this point, well, in what sense are there other gods? In what sense are there other gods? And in Psalm 32, 8, we read something very interesting. Psalm 32, 8 and 9, this is the song of Moses. Psalm 32, 8, Moses says this. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted heritage." What do you hear in that? Do you not hear the competing claims of Ugarit in that text? The Most High God, in Hebrew, El Elyon. The God who is over all gods, all pantheons of gods, all nations. And what did Most High do? He gave to the nations their inheritance. He divided up the nations according to, and their borders, according to the number of the sons of God. In the Ugaritic bell cycle that we find in Rosh Hashanah, there were 70 of those. Now, here's the question. Is there any place in scripture where there is a similar divvying out of nations and gods in the Bible? And the answer is yes. In Genesis chapter 10, we read of what's called the table of nations. And this chapter, chapter 10, records the lineage that went out from Noah And if you go through, I'll save you, spare you the time in doing so, if you go through and count all the numbers of the names that came out from Noah, guess what number you come to? 70. You come to 70. Isn't that interesting? Coincidence? I think not. I'm going somewhere. Just stay with me, okay? These 70 descendants of Noah represent the 70 nations that were dispersed throughout the earth. So the narrative in Genesis 10, the narrative of the table of nations in Genesis 10 talks about these 70 nations that went out from Noah, and what happens in chapter 11? Tower of Babel. What were they trying to do? They were trying to build their own kingdom. We heard a little bit about that this morning, right? Trying to build their own kingdom to the heavens, and God comes down. and he sees the activity. And in chapter 11, verse seven, it tells us that Yahweh sees man's activity and he speaks to his counsel. There's another correspondence to the Ugaritic literature. And then in 11.7, he says, come, let us go down. And then in verse eight, chapter 11, verse eight, Yahweh alone comes down and he disperses them over the face of all the earth. So you have these nations and they're dispersed throughout all the earth, okay? And it's a dispersion of judgment. Now, when you put Genesis 10 and 11 together with what we just read here tonight in Deuteronomy 32, eight and nine, we see a complete picture. The 70 nations are dispersed and chapter 32, verses eight and nine says, they're dispersed according to a particular pattern, their borders, according to the number of the sons of God. Now, who are the sons of God? It's a big question. In the Old Testament, it means a number of different things. It can mean simply human kings that come out of the lineage of Cain, Abel, Seth. Okay, Seth and Cain. Or it can mean angelic beings. or it can mean demons, or it can mean basically kings. But in Deuteronomy 32, eight and nine, we see something very interesting. The borders are according to the sons of God, and now I want you to go to Deuteronomy chapter four, and this is gonna complete the picture, okay? Deuteronomy chapter four, verses 19 and 20. Humanity is going to be enslaved to these patron gods, I want you to read Deuteronomy 4, 19 and 20. This is what it says. He always says to the people of God, and beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven. And when you see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them. Watch this. Things that the Lord your God has allotted. There's the same word we saw in Deuteronomy 32. has allotted to all the people's nations under the whole heaven. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace out of Egypt to be a people of his own inheritance as you are this day. This aligns with Deuteronomy 32. God in judgment, coming out of the Tower of Babel, assigned to all the nations except for Israel, he kept them for himself. He assigned to all the nations these sons of God, these patron gods, God of the sun, the God of the moon, the God of the stars. Now in the Ugaritic literature, they were actually the sun and the moon and the stars. But in the biblical literature, and we see this even in Job chapter 38, the sun and the moon and stars are symbols of these gods. Okay, so those astral figures represent these gods. And so what God is saying here in Deuteronomy chapter four is, I put all the other nations under judgment to serve these false gods, but I've taken you Israel to serve me. So who are, what are these false gods then? Well, Deuteronomy tells us in chapter 32, verses 15 and 18, that they are demons and no gods. He says, but Jeshurun grew fat, that's Israel, and kicked. You grew fat, stout, and sleek. Then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation. They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations. They provoked him. to anger, they sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. Now, Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 10. He says, no, I imply what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to gods. So what we see as we put all of this together is it's not that these gods did not have existence. I mean, after all, demons do have existence, don't they? But what we are seeing when we put the whole picture together is these are indeed created figures of God, demons, angels that have lost their place according to Jude, and they are standing over nations and deceiving them. And the nations actually give their worship to them. And this was the design of God out of judgment from the very beginning. So the Bible does not deny the existence of other so-called gods. Rather, what the Bible is doing is He is saying, Yahweh is the true God, and all the other gods are inferior to Him. And so you know what Yahweh is doing in chapter 32 of Deuteronomy? He's saying, hey, you know what you heard in the Ugaritic literature? That El is the most high God? Well, I've got news for you. The true El, the most high God, is Yahweh. And what you've been serving all this time and been ascribing as El is actually Yahweh. He's over all the gods. In fact, he's over El, and El is a demon. This is the context that we get the first commandment in. There are other gods, lowercase g. They are demons, they are subtle, they are deceptive, and we are not to say, oh, they don't have existence, because that's to deny the subtlety and the deception, and to deny the power that they actually have. But that power is to be understood under the rubric and authority structure of Yahweh himself. So this is the context in which we find the first commandment. And this is the essence of the before me in the first commandment. So question 54 says, what are we especially taught by these words before me in the first commandment? These words before me in the first commandment teach us that God who sees all things takes notice of and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God. You are to have no other gods before me, that is to say, as a priority before me, because frankly, in the Israelite, ancient Near Eastern context, there were many other options besides Yahweh. Think of, to give you a thought experiment, You're, again, an Israelite farmer. You get your whole living by harvesting whatever. We'll say dates, okay? Well, what do you need for dates to grow? You need rain. And so you pray to Yahweh, Yahweh, please send rain. God, for whatever reason, in his divine counsel, decides not to give rain. So what do you do? Well, your neighbors, you know what they're doing? They're going over to Molech. Because Molech has promised that if you pray to him, and by the way, do something else, that he will give rain. Well, you're in a tight spot because how long are you gonna wait until Yahweh supposedly answers your prayer? All the while, you know, your date seeds are drying up. Well, some Israelites decided to go to Molech, and guess what Molech requires? Your firstborn son. And this is the context in which Israel was facing. It's interesting that the false gods require you to give your own son, whereas the true God gave his own son for you. So now let's apply this to a modern day. Are there gods today? Absolutely, lowercase g. Anything that presents itself as superior to God, anything that wants to take your attention, your affections, your desires, the command center of your heart, and be a priority over the God of the universe is considered a God. It's considered an idol. It's considered as something that is less worthy of worship than God himself. It's considered something that is a gift of God that is always to remain a gift and not be made into an object of worship. So let's just consider very briefly then, in this commandment, what is required? Well, question 52, what is required in the first commandment? The first commandment requires us to know and acknowledge God, to be the only true God and our God, and to worship and glorify Him accordingly. So very simply, two things are required in this commandment. To know and acknowledge Him, to be that He is, and even more importantly, that He is for us, that He is our God. It's one thing to know that God is there, but you know what? That God is there is actually a very terrifying thing if he's not also for you, right? It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. And so you must not only recognize that he is there, but you also must recognize if you're gonna have any benefit of having this God, that he's also for you. And the only way that God can be for you is if you come to him in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, I just wanna simply say here, knowledge, we make much of knowledge in our circles, and we should. We should make much of knowledge, because frankly, if we don't understand the God to whom we worship, then we're not going to worship him correctly. If we don't understand what God expects of us, and that's why we're examining his commands tonight, then we're going to lapse into will worship, which is just doing whatever we want and thinking that God is going to accept that as acceptable sacrifices. But no, God gives us commands, that actually protects us from the commands and whims and desires of other people. So I don't have to submit to whatever people think I need to do and what other people think I should do when I worship God. But God has clearly told me what He wants when we worship Him. So I think it's important that we do press on to know the Lord. If you don't press on to know the Lord, you will lose motivation to worship him as he really is. And this is why we put such an emphasis on reading your Bible, memorizing scripture, prayer, and public worship. Even when we're tired, we must press into him to know what kind of God he is. And you know what? The majority of the Christian life is not learning new things. We go through phases, right, where we learn new things, and it's helpful. But you know, the majority of the Christian life is remembering. It's remembering what God has done for us in Christ, and remembering also that it matters. It matters in the temptation that faces you at any given moment. It matters when you are despairing and in need of hope. It matters when you feel like God can't forgive you, but you're reminded through the gospel once again that lo and behold, He does. It matters. And we have to remind ourselves of that. I think sometimes we have too high of an opinion of ourselves, and we have this concept that basically says, well, I know that, so I'm good. Well, how many things do you know that you don't apply? So here's another thought experiment. I've got a pit bull over here and a bull mastiff over here. You guys know those two dogs? Two fighting dogs, right? If I were to put them in a ring together and let them fight, which one do you think would win? Any takers? Okay, good, that's the tagline. The one I feed, that's the one that's gonna win. And so it is with us. We have two forces, if you will, two entities warring within us, the flesh and the spirit. The spirit wants us to basically find our identity and meaning and focus in God and glorify him and receive the good that comes from that. And the flesh wants to glorify ourselves. Well, which one's gonna gain ascendancy? One that we feed. You feed yourself with the word and prayer and meditation. It's going to grow the desire and the spirit to be more like Christ. You neglect that, you become anemic spiritually, and the flesh becomes fat and strong. If those two things go together. But it's not enough to know that He is there, it's also, as I said, that He is for us in Jesus Christ. So as you come to Him in Christ, we are to worship Him and glorify Him the way He demands us to, and that is with our whole life. Now, let's look very quickly at what is forbidden. What is forbidden in the first commandment? The first commandment forgives the denying or not worshiping and glorifying the true God as God and our God, and the giving of that worship and glory to any other which is due unto Him alone. Two things are forbidden, very simply. Atheism and idolatry. Now, atheism, very simply, you know, the Psalms say, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, and there is none who does good. The psalmist is not simply engaging in name-calling, like, ha ha, I called you a fool. He's talking about the essence of the heart and mind of the atheist. The atheist really is a fool, because he lives in a world that all around him showcases design and order, and then he says it was made by chaos and unconformity. Well, that's foolishness. But you know what he does? He only focuses on the evidence that supports his own conclusions, right? So it's kind of like the drunk, right? He can't find his car keys. And he's looking around on a dark night for his car keys, and he decides to look under the streetlight. Not because he might have dropped them there, but he could see under the streetlight, and so it seems like a good place to look for his keys. That's what the fool does. The fool only looks in the places that support his worldview, but here's the catch. If there is something that does not support his worldview but actually supports the worldview that a designer and one who ordered all things is indeed the one who gave fiat or an inception to all things, he just believes one day we are going to come to a naturalistic explanation of what that is. In other words, he has confidence that there will be a naturalistic explanation. You know what confidence is in Latin? confide. You know what confide is? With faith. The atheist has faith that his worldview will win out. So he's really no different than us, except that his faith is in the wrong things. But it's not just blatant atheism that is forbidden here. It's also practical atheism. And can we not be practical atheists at times when again, and I'll just give you two examples, when trials come, we respond like the dog who snarls at the rock but pays no attention to the hand that threw it. It is the Lord that sends affliction our way. It's the Lord that sends trials our way. And while we do not call those trials in and of themselves and those afflictions in and of themselves good, because they're not, We believe Romans 8, 28, that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. And then finally, idolatry. John said it perfectly in 1 John 2, 16 and 17. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. There are two ways. Two ways that this commandment lays out for us, love God and experience freedom, freedom from self, freedom from the rat race of trying to please ourself with things that only give temporary pleasure, but leave us on the rocks with the sirens with no hope. or trust God. Now the fact of the matter is that none of us can perfectly keep this. Who can perfectly have no other God before me? Even in this last week, we have in some sense given our hearts over to other gods, other idols. We have made things the source of our joy more than God himself. And it's for that reason that we make much of Christ. It's for that reason That we look to Christ and say, though I have had other gods before God, Christ never did. Christ always perfectly worshipped the Father, and that's what makes me love Him even more. And not only that, it gives me motivation to not want to have other gods before Him. So you see, Christ is the answer to everything. He's the answer to the problem and the plight that you have in failing to keep the law, and he's the answer for giving you motivation for why you should now, out of the new creation that God has made you in Christ, want to keep this law. And that's why we worship him. So if you're not a Christian tonight, repent and believe in Christ. If you are a Christian and you've broken this law, repent, believe in Christ. The gospel's for believers and unbelievers. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for this gospel. Forgive us for where we have broken this law and give us grace to uphold it through the power of your spirit, for the glory of your son and for our own good. We ask these things in your son's name. Amen. All right. Are there any questions? Yes. Mm hmm. Yes. You're on the right track. Look, yeah, so you're exactly on the right track. Let me say two things. Number one, isn't it interesting that certain cultures tend to have certain sins. Why is it that some cultures are prone to cannibalism? Why is it some cultures are prone to, you know, other things? Well, again, I think if we could see behind the curtain at the supernatural level of what's going on is because some nations have been given over to certain demonic activity that God has put over them as judgment. Now, what you're referring to is that when Jesus came, he bound the strong man, and in Revelation chapter 20, if you take the correct interpretation and see it as the church age, the millennium as the church age, he has bound Satan for the church age, but it is very specific in what he is bound in, so that he may no longer deceive the nations. That's why on the one hand we could say Satan is currently bound, and on the other hand, Peter, that Satan goes around like a lion seeking whom he may desire, okay? Because he is doing other supernatural activity, but one thing that he is limited in, which by the way, bound doesn't mean completely incapable, bound means limited. And so one of the things he's been bound in is deceiving the nations, and that is why Christianity moved from a small sect of 120 people in the upper room in the Book of Acts to a worldwide international entity because it broke through all the nations because Satan is bound. Another reason to be an amillennialist, okay? All right, any other questions? All right, you are dismissed. Have a good evening.