No Other God
God Wrote Love • Sermon • Submitted • 38:23
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· 15 viewsThe Ten Commandments are considered to be a difinitive list of moral imperatives—thou shalt nots that define the boundary between right and wrong. But what if there is more to them? Jesus gave us a command to Love God and Love Your Neighbor, and many say these comands replace the ten commandments. But what if they are the very same commands, but abreviated? Jason begins to unpack the ten commandments of love in the beginningo of this sermon series on the the ten commandments.
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Brainstorming:
The one who loves, fulfills the law.
The one who loves, fulfills the law.
Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The law is holy, just and good.
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Law of liberty.
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
“The law defines the basis for maintaining love between us and God and among ourselves.” (God’s Finger Wrote Freedom, James J Londis) It’s the relational code that defines where a loving trust can flourish and at what point it will deteriorate.
“Bowing down before any god but the true living God of Scripture is like hugging a mannequin. it can’t respond. It can’t produce. It can’t offer anything to anyone.” Laws of the Heart, Bill Hybels
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
The NonCommandment Commandments, crowdsourced by Lex Bayer, an executive at AirBnB.
Be open-minded and willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true.
The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
Every person has the right to control of their body.
God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life.
Be mindful of the consequences of all your actions and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.
Treat others as you would want them to to treat you, and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspectives.
We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations.
There is no right way to live.
Leave the world a better place than you found it.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
“It’s not hard to se why idolatry was so attractive and why Israel was constantly tempted to adopt the same practices. The religion of the world was guaranteed, selfish, easy, convenient, normal, logical, pleasing, indulgent, and erotic. It was a religious system made by men, for me.” The Ten Commandments, Kevin DeYoung
No Other God
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Last week (Jan 8, 2019) the Christian Post published an article with the title: “Andy Stanley says the Ten Commandments don't apply to Christians.” Andy Stanley is a pastor that preaches to an audience of about 33,000 people every Sunday on the five campuses of North Point Community Church. He’s a popular leadership guru and a best-selling author.
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In a column published in Relevant Magazine, Stanley argued that “[I]f we’re going to create a monument to stand as a testament to our faith, shouldn’t it at least be a monument of something that actually applies to us?” He suggested that instead of trying to put up copies of the Ten Commandments everywhere, Christians should be putting up monuments to the Sermon on the Mount.
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“Participants in the new covenant (that’s Christians) are not required to obey any of the commandments found in the first part of their Bibles. Participants in the new covenant are expected to obey the single command Jesus issued as part of his new covenant: as I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
I appreciate Andy’s desire for the church to focus on Love, but I disagree with how he got there. Though I think I understand why he got to the point of rejecting the ten commandments.
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“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (, ESV)
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
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In preparing for this sermon I looked at a dozen books expounding the value and morals and spiritual virtue and cultural forming the ten commandments offer. They tell how its the morals of the Ten Commandments that has given us the relative peace of our day. They describe the authority of God to give commands. They tell how the commands are good for our personal health and well-being. They describe the horrible things that would happen if there were no objective morality such as is given in the Ten Commandments.
All these books love the law. They talk about its beauty and sufficiency in the same glowing terms that David did when he wrote
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How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes!
13 With my lips I declare
all the rules of your mouth.
14 In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.
is the longest psalm in the Bible with 176 verses and the vast majority of it is either praising God for His law, or sharing how He delights in it, or illustrating its goodness.
Not me, not Andy, not anyone can contradict David’s conclusions or refute the magnificent moral nature of the Ten Commandments. They are quite literally the most significant document in all of human history. They are the foundation behind any moral government and the only guide that will create a free and noble society.
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And yet glorifying the commandments is a lot like glorifying a fence that protects a beautiful landscape from harm. It’s like getting out a magnifying glass to examine the chain-links and the “Danger: do not enter” sign. We often focus on the nitty gritty details of obedience to the law like what does it mean to take God’s name in vain? What must we do to ensure that we don’t break the Sabbath? What exactly is the definition of a lie?
Examining the law will demonstrate the masterpiece of a fence that it is, but there’s a whole landscape behind us if we turn our attention around from examining the prohibitions to look at the possibilities.
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Some people attempt to demonstrate the freedom the law allows by describing a fence around a small park. As long as the kids stay in the fence they’ll be safe from the dangers of the road and the unsavory neighborhood beyond. The good stuff is that small area inside the fence, the bad stuff is the rest of the world outside it. The law is the fence that provides safety for the kids who play inside. That sounds nice, but it’s not what I find in the Bible.
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In the beginning God set Adam and Even in a beautiful garden, kind of like that park. But this garden didn’t have a fence around it, it had an imaginary fence with a “Danger: Do Not Enter” sign around one solitary tree. The “Inside” of the fence where Adam and Eve lived was the entire world, while the “outside” of the fence place was a small area with limited possibilities. What if we are thinking of the law all wrong.
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Instead of examining the fence and trying to explore all the possibilities of the sin and evil it holds back, how about we turn ourselves around, put our backs to the law, and explore the world of possibilities it protects.
Let’s not worry about whether we’re under the law, as if it’s a crushing weight.
Or about whether we’re judged by the law, as if the focus of our Christian experience is a legal trial.
Or about whether the law is moral or ceremonial or whatever else.
Stop worrying about whether it’s been done away with or if it’s only one small part of many hundreds of other laws that we should be keeping.
Those are all great subjects to study, but let’s just ignore all that for a moment and instead explore a world of possibility and wonder and excitement and awe.
Skeptical yet? Have I got you wondering about my theological moorings?
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What do you think? Shall we turn around from staring at the fence and see the possibilities it enables?
Andy Stanley says that Jesus’ “new commandment” replaces the “big ten,” but he missed the whole point. If he only looked inside the “Big Ten”, then he’d find exactly what Jesus said—Love. When God came down to earth on that mountaintop with Moses, he wrote down love. It was the same law of love that guided heaven. The same law of love that he brought to the garden of Eden. When Jesus quoted Deuteronomy saying that the great commands are to love God with all our hearts and love our neighbor as ourselves, He wasn’t making up anything new. To love others as He loved us is all part of these few passages in Exodus that Andy calls the “Big Ten.”
You can find our study today in Exodus chapter 20, verses 1 through 3. We won’t be able to explore all of the Law in just one sitting, so I’ve broken this into a several part series I’m calling, God Wrote Love. Today’s topic is No Other God.
Background
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Consider the Israelite’s miraculous and powerful deliverance from bondage in Egypt, and then move back to the beginning of all things. In both places you’ll find the active agent is the Almighty God of the Universe. The One and Only. The source of all life and love. The Creator God of heaven and earth.
He is the author of the Ten Commandments and the one who says,
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“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” ( ESV)
The Israelites had just come out of slavery to a nation that was filled with false gods. The Lord had systematically proven their gods powerless and meaningless. Yet idolatry still had its tentacles wrapped around their hearts. In our enlightened age we wonder how anyone could build an idol out of stone or metal or wood and then bow down to the thing and worship and appease it. yet, the people of Moses’ day worshiped idols for the same reasons you and I do things we shouldn’t:
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It’s Easy — not much personal sacrifice is required.
It’s Convenient — a franchise of beliefs that are accessible anywhere you go
It’s Selfish — when you worship you get something you want
It’s Guaranteed — an recipe of activities or incantations produces a predictable response
It’s Normal — everyone does it
It’s Logical — it gratifies common sense and appeases rudimentary inquiry
It’s Pleasing to the Senses — beautiful, artistic, interesting, unique
It’s Indulgent — things that please the pallet; delicacies, partying, and more
It’s Erotic — Whatever your desires are, that’s what you should really be doing
It’s a Placebo that makes you feel a little better for a short time
We replace God in our lives just as easily as the Israelites did. If we’re honest with ourselves we find ourselves pursuing what everyone else is doing, believing what everyone else says is logical, and selfishly seeking gratification of our own indulgent passion so that we can feel a better for a brief moment.
The God of Heaven is the only God—living, powerful, and kind. He alone can satisfy us, fulfill us, and heal us. God doesn’t says we shouldn’t have other gods before Him for selfish reasons—it’s the only rational thing to consider. He alone is worthy of our worship.
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Bill Hybels wrote in his book, Laws of the Heart, “Bowing down before any god but the true and living God of Scripture is like hugging a mannequin. It can’t respond. It can’t produce. It can’t offer anything to anyone.”
One of the most important things we can recognize about these commandments is that God is not selfish. He’s not trying to obtain an army of robots that do whatever his arbitrary will demands. What He gets from our obedience is our well-being and happiness, and hopefully our friendship. He just wants what’s best for us.
And that’s one of the most important things we can recognize about this command. God is not selfish. He’s not trying to obtain an army of robots to do whatever his arbitrary will demands. What He gets out of all that He requires is our well-being, and our friendship. He just wants what’s best for us.
What does it mean to love God?
Let’s examine some of the possibilities that obedience to this law opens up to us.
In Jesus responded to the question of a Scribe, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus said,
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And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
“you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
“you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
So, if “having no other gods” is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, what does that world of possibilities look like? What does it mean to love God?
I’m about to describe a bunch of fun and interesting things that we can DO in loving God. But this positive side of the though-shalt-nots isn’t another list of requirements. We are not being commanded to do all of these things all of the time. No, the positive implications of these laws are the possibilities that each of us can explore and implement based on our own experiences, personalities and interests. As I share some of my ideas, recognize that they are a limited set of all the wonderful possibilities that exist. And no, you don’t need to be writing down and then trying to accomplish all these things—especially not all at once.
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Here are five ways that I have considered as possibilities for loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength:
Give God your Affection
Surrender to His Authority
Give Him your Allegiance
Impress God
Live for God
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Give God your Affection
Affection is a feeling of liking and caring for someone or something. A tender attachment, or fondness. You can express affection for God in a lot of ways.
Respect God
Wives, don’t your husbands appreciate it when you affirm and respect them? God would love it if you looked at all He did for you and said, “wow, God, you’re pretty amazing. I can’t believe you’ve worked so hard for me. I love you for that!”
Give your attention to God
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Paul says it this way, “Pray without ceasing.” . He’s not saying we should always be on our knees and never do anything but pray. He’s saying that God loves it when we give Him our attention—and He has an endless capacity for listening and communicating with us. We never need to be worried about God getting distracted by a text message in the middle of our conversation.
Praise God publicly
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My wife appreciates it when she hears me telling someone how creative or industrious or good looking or intelligent she is. My praise is a testament to what’s in my heart, and that gives her confidence and joy. I truly adore her, and I want other people to know how amazing she is. God likes to hear us praise Him in front of others too. In religious terms we call it “giving our testimony,” but it's simply telling other people what God has done for us and how much we appreciate Him.
Spend quality time with God
If I plan a date for my wife I plan something where we can talk about our lives and enjoy ourselves. I’ve taken her out to eat. We’ve gone on scavenger hunts. We’ve climbed mountains together and sat for hours reminiscing about important moments in our relationship. We’ve gone camping, sat up watching movies she likes; folded laundry together, and done the dishes together. It’s not hard to imagine a hundred more scenarios of quality time, and there are no less possibilities with God.
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One way Joelle has been enjoying is to do some creative journaling. She has a wide-margin Bible that she makes notes in, highlights and draws pictures in. It’s a way to engage her personal creativity for God’s glory and it’s helped her to create a daily devotional habit. A daily time to sit and meditate on God’s Word is one of the simplest ways that you can spend time with God, but it’s not the only way. All this last week the prison ministry’s team has been delivery Christmas gifts to the prisoners at the Washington State Penitentiary in town. It’s an incredible experience to see the gratitude on the faces of those men when they get a gift. Serving our fellow mankind is a way we can work side-by-side with God, and He loves it.
Giving gifts to God
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When we want to show our affection to someone we buy them gifts — Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, wedding gifts, and gifts for no reason at all. The people we love most we give our entire paychecks to. At least that’s what I do in my family. My paycheck goes to support my family’s needs before anything else. God invites us to demonstrate our trust in Him by giving a tenth of all we earn to Him. Tithe is similar to that baseline of support that you provide for your family.
Then there are special gifts that demonstrate you’re thinking about your loved one. Bring home a bouquet of flowers and your wife doesn’t just think, “these are pretty,” she’s also thinking “wow, He thought about me in the middle of the day! I’m special to him.” I’m sure God smiles with joy when we give a gift that blesses ministries and people that God cares about. He’s delighted when He sees a creative expression of art or music that focuses on Him. Gifts make God think, “she’s been thinking of me today. I’m special to her.”
Helping God
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You know someone cares about you when they are willing to go out of their way to help you with something. I’ve heard that the husbands who’s wives desire them most are the ones who help out around the house. Pretend that God has a lot of chores to do, and we can help out with some of them. We can’t change a heart like the Holy Spirit can, but we can be there to be a friend to someone He’s trying to reach. We can be God’s hands and feet and ears and mouth as He reaches into this world with His love. And when we spend some of our time and energy on his house of worship and our fellow Christians, God sees what we do. Like a wife who looks fondly at her husband for folding the laundry, God is pleased by every attempt we make to bless His kingdom.
Keep God’s interests in mind
If you come into your kitchen and only wash a plate and a fork so that you can eat a snack, it doesn’t matter how your spin it, you haven’t helped your wife around the kitchen. Affection is only demonstrated when we truly have the other person’s interests in mind. What is good for them? What do they enjoy? How do they like to spend their time? Who do they like to spend time with? Where would they like to go? What would make them feel appreciated? Love studies what interests them. It makes note of what makes them happy. Can you think of something that God would love to see or hear or do?
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Surrender to His Authority
Not only can love include showing affection, but loving God with all our heart recognizes His authority in our lives. Not as a cruel dictator, but as a loving parent or a compassionate spouse. Authority is the right to exercise power. God is our creator, and our king. He has the right to exercise power in our lives. Yet he doesn’t manipulate or coerce us to be in a relationship with Him. He draws us to Him with love, allowing us to choose Him or reject Him.
To submit is to yield our plans and desires to another person. In a marriage this happens when you say to your spouse, “I’d really like to take a hike in the mountains today, but what would you like to do? I’m happy to do whatever you want.” It’s not painful to submit. It might mean we don’t do exactly what we want when we want, but mutual submission is a source of confidence and peace for any mature relationship. A child submits when they set down their toys and say, “coming mamma,” when their mother calls them to the table to eat. It’s not hard to go to the table to eat—mamma’s food is usually delicious—but it does take a little bit of effort to set down that toy and run to obey. In submitting you recognize that God has your best intentions in mind, and that He will plan a better future than you will.
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Give God Your Allegiance
Another way that we can show God love is to give him our loyal allegiance. Allegiance is what you give to a country when you voluntarily become a citizen. In the United States the oath of allegiance begins:
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“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…” (Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America)
When we give God our allegiance we are telling him that we renounce all other allegiances that would attempt to take precedence over Him in our lives.
You’ve heard of the Knight in Shining Armor? Apparently women appreciate a man who gives them their allegiance—someone who will renounce all other allegiances and vow to support and defend them. It’s a huge gesture of love to give your allegiance to someone.
If you haven’t given your allegiance to God and publicly declared your love for Him through baptism, then I encourage you to take that step sometime soon. God will LOVE seeing you make that vow before Him and before His people. It will give Him so much joy.
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Impress God
When I was small I wanted nothing more than to show off to my mom. If I built something or fixed something or found something interesting, she was the first person I’d run to show. Now that I’m married, when I finish a project or write sermon, it’s Joelle that I go to first to see what she things. She’s honest with me, but often I receive her approval and praise. I love it when something I’ve done impresses my wife.
We all live for praise to one extent or another. When my self-worth is based on what other’s think of me then I’m going to pursue a path in life that bends and twists according to someone’s faulty values. And no matter how much they may love you, they don’t set your value; God does. So why not live to impress the one who made you? You can either try to please God, or work to please people. God is the only one who will value every effort and praise every step in your growth in Grace.
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Live for God
We could explore possible ways to love God for an eternity, but let’s just consider one more thought. We can live for Him.
To live for God means that our purpose and mission in life is for God’s benefit.
Can you imagine how God would feel if that person were to turn to God and say, “what would you like me to do with my life? What is your purpose for me?”
When I was a young boy my mom told me over and over again that God had a purpose for me. As I grew up and surrendered my future to God, I realized that He did have a plan for me. I wanted to be an astronaut or a bush pilot or a farmer, but God wanted me to be a gospel seed sower. I’m glad I said yes to God’s plan—it’s been a blast! If you don’t already know what God wants you to do, or if you’ve recently entered a new phase in life and you don’t have a direction from God, then ask Him—how can I live for you? What will please you?
Conclusion
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There is no list of activities to rightly love God. He just really wants us to love Him—any old way we can. Some people have given their life. Some have given great wealth to God and He’s used it to save orphans from the gutter, provide education for the poor and downtrodden, bring health to the sick, and tell the good news to the world. Others have given their time and energy and hard work and He loves it so much.
Every moment we spend with God, every song that we sing for him, every dollar that we give to Him is a prize to our God. He clings to it and set it up as a trophy of our relationship.
Oh that we would continually explore the possibilities of showing our love to God!
We don’t need to compare what we do with what other people do. My friendship with God is different than your friendship with Him. We’ve been through different things together. I have a different personality. Don’t expect my day with God to be just like your day with God. There’s so many possibilities for loving God that comparing ourselves to each other is pointless. It’s also selfish and self-serving—which, I might point out, is not loving to God or to His children. That’s not to say that we can’t learn from each other’s experience with Jesus. Joelle suggested I compile a short video with several people telling how they’ve been showing God their love lately. Seeing how other Christians relate to God can really help us understand Him and grow up in our relationship with Him.
God came down on the mountain of Sinai and said,
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Exodus 20:2-3“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me.” ()
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.
Several hundred years later God came down on a different mountain with Moses and Elijah standing there with Jesus and three of his disciple. This time God said,
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He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
“ “This is my beloved Son…; listen to Him.”
To Love God and have no other gods before Him is to love Jesus and adore Him.
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If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
To Love God and have no other gods before Him is to love Jesus and adore Him.
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If you haven’t surrendered your heart to the lover of your soul—your original soul-mate—your God and king, then today, don’t harden your heart, give Him your love. Tell Him now that you want Him to be the king of your life.
Maybe you’ve been far from a relationship with God, but close to religion. You’ve been checking your lists and making sure you haven’t done anything bad. Or you’ve been selfishly attempting to partake in Christ’s hard-won salvation without enjoying a relationship with your savior and Friend. Don’t be a pew warmer any more. Make this the beginning of your journey, hand-in-hand with Jesus. Tell Him today that you are enamored with His great sacrifice for you, and you want to get to know Him and fall desperately in love with Him.
Maybe you’ve been enjoying that old-shoe comfort of a long-term relationship with Jesus. It’s comfy and familiar, but maybe needing an injection of passion. Today, ask Jesus what you can do to make Him happy. Spend some time getting to know his interests and passions and joys. Then do something special for Him—something that says to Jesus, “You’re the only one for me.”