Deo Gloria
Sermon for June 23, 2019
Pastor Martin Bentz
The 10 Commandments – Living Life God’s Way
Text: Exodus 20:1-3
Theme: Love God More Than Anything Else!
It was probably a good twenty years ago already. One of our missionaries was talking to a Russian official about doing mission work in his city. Though somewhat reluctant the Russian official gave his permission. He said, “We will allow you to teach about God and about Jesus Christ on one condition: that you teach our people the 10 Commandments.” Funny, isn’t it? After many years of atheistic communism, this Russian official recognized that his country and his people by and large were morally bankrupt, and was willing to allow what previously had been banned in their country if our missionaries would teach their people the 10 Commandments. And here in our country, after 200 years of Christian heritage and influence we have leaders and groups of people who want to get rid of the 10 Commandments, want them banned from public display and even removed from the wall of the United States Supreme Court. 50 years from now will we be saying what this Russian official said?
This morning we begin a series of sermons on the 10 Commandments. Yes, I did say the 10 Commandments, not the 10 Suggestions. What God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai were not 10 easy ways to improve your life. These were God’s commands, his laws, his will for his people. This is the way he wanted them to live their lives. And guess what? God’s will hasn’t changed. It’s still the way he would have us live our lives today. So we’ve entitled this series “Living Life God’s Way.” As we study the 10 Commandments, we’ll see just how relevant they still are, some 3,000 years later, and how they apply to our every day lives.
This morning we’re going to look at the 1st Commandment where God makes it clear that we are to love him more than anything else.
Before we get to the 1st Commandment, however, there are some basic things we need to cover in regard to the law itself. First of all, its purpose. The purpose of the law is not to show us how we can earn eternal life. Let me repeat that: the purpose of the law is not to show us how we can earn eternal life. The law is not a how-to manual on how to get to heaven: If you do this and this and this, and don’t do this and this and this, then you get to go to heaven. Many people look at the law that way, but that’s not what it was intended for.
Actually God gave us the law to show us our sins. “Therefore,” Paul states in Romans, ch. 3, “no one will be declared righteous in his sight [that is, God’s sight] by observing the law.” No one is going to earn God’s favor and earn a place for themselves in heaven by obeying the 10 Commandments; “rather, through the law we become conscious of sin”(v. 20), we become aware of sin. How do I know it’s wrong to curse and swear? A lot of the guys at work don’t think it is. Because God says so: “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” How does a young person know it’s wrong to talk back to his parents? His friends do it all the time. Because God says so: “Honor your father and mother.” How do I know it’s wrong to covet? Because God says so: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.” In that way the Law serves like a mirror. It shows us how we really look in God’s sight. On my own I might think I’m a pretty decent guy, but then along comes God’s law and I see that I’m not so good after all. I’ve fallen far short of living my life to the glory of God.
And when I see my sins, then I see how badly I need a Savior. Left to myself I could never make it to heaven. God would never accept me, because I have broken his commands time and time and time again. I would be lost, doomed to spend eternity in hell. How badly I need a Savior, someone to rescue me from my sins, someone to live a holy and righteous life the way I should have, but haven’t! How badly I need—we all need Jesus!
Secondly, why should I obey the law? I mean if obeying the 10 Commandments isn’t going to help me get to heaven, why bother? Well, first let’s look at why the Israelites were to obey them. Before God gave the 10 Commandments to Moses and the people of Israel, he spoke the following words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery”(Ex 20:2). Before giving them his commandments, God reminded his people of what he had done for them. He had delivered them from slavery, from the heavy hand of Pharaoh, from years and years of forced labor, from beatings and whippings at the hands of cruel task-masters. God had delivered them from all of that. By his mighty power and his awesome miracles, God had rescued them and set them free and now was guiding them to a new land, a land they could call their own, the Promised Land. How could they ever forget? And how could they not express their gratitude and thanks to God by obeying his commands? That’s why they were to obey them: out of gratitude and thanks.
Has God done any less for us? God made us and the world in which we live. He gave us life and breath. He gave us food and clothes. He gave us our homes and our cars and our families and our friends. That by itself would be more than enough reason, but that isn’t all he has done.
In addition, he sent his own Son to rescue us from our sins, to deliver us from the punishment we deserve because of our disobedience. In love he sent his Son to die, so that you and I might live, might live forever with him in heaven. That by itself would be more than enough reason, but that isn’t all he has done.
In addition he has sent the Holy Spirit to create faith in our hearts, that we might believe in Jesus as our Savior, that through faith we might be adopted into his family as his very own sons and daughters, that through faith we might become heirs of heaven. And I could go on, but I think you get the point. God has done so much for us. He has blessed us in so many different ways. And the way we express our gratitude to God and our thanks to him and our love for him is by obeying his commands. “This is love for God: to obey his commands”(1 John 5:3).
Which brings us then to the 1st Commandment: “You shall have no other gods,” or as Moses recorded it in Exodus, ch. 20: “You shall have no other gods before me.” The idea expressed in the Hebrew is not that it’s O.K. for us to have other gods as long as we keep the Lord first. No, God’s will is that we have no other gods besides him, no other gods in addition to him—that we look to him as God, that we trust in him as God, that we love him as God, and no one and nothing else.
Who is the true God, the God who alone we are to love and worship and serve? The true God who revealed himself to Moses on Mt. Sinai and who primarily revealed himself through his Son Jesus Christ is the Triune God, the three-in-one God, the God who is one being and yet three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Any god other than this God, no matter what you call him, is a false god, an idol.
Back in the days of Moses people worshipped gods like Ra and Horus and Baal and Molech. In the days of Jesus people worshipped Zeus and Jupiter and Mars and Artemis. Today people worship Buddha and Allah and Vishnu. All of these are false gods. All of them are idols. The same is true of those who reject Jesus Christ as true God or the Holy Spirit as God. The god they worship is a false god. He is an idol.
And yet these are not the most common idols worshipped today, at least not here in America. What would you say are the most common idols worshipped here in our country? I would say the first one is money and possessions—not that people actually get down on their knees and pray to their money or worship their SUV, but they love their money and their things and they put their trust in them. They have their spacious home with a 3-car garage and pool out back. They have their cabin at the lake and their boat and their jet ski and their four-wheelers and their snowmobiles. And life is wonderful and they think they’ve got it made in the shade and God and their relationship with God is the farthest thing from their minds. But what would happen if those things were taken away? They would be devastated. They wouldn’t know how to go on. In their eyes their lives would be ruined. That’s because their things have become their gods. “You cannot serve both God and money,” declared Jesus. (Mt 6:24)
Another very common American idol is the great tri-me-ity—you know, me, myself and I. All that matters is what I want, what I feel, what I think. If it makes me happy, if it makes me feel good about myself, if it gives me pleasure and I can do it without hurting someone else, that’s all that really matters. It doesn’t matter if it’s legal or illegal. It doesn’t matter what God thinks or says. It doesn’t matter if I really can’t afford it. I want it. I, I, I. Me, me, me.
If I put anything ahead of God, however, if I love that thing more than God, if I trust that thing more than God, if I give that thing my attention and devotion more than God, if I look to that thing for blessing and favor or help in time of need rather than looking to God, even if that “thing” is myself, then that thing is my god and I have broken the 1st Commandment.
I hope by now you all have become a bit uncomfortable, because the truth is none of us has kept the 1st Commandment. Have you always put God first in your life, before anything else? Have you always loved God above everything else? Have you always trusted in him, always obeyed him and followed what he said? I haven’t either. And that is exactly what the 1st Commandment shows us. We have sinned. We have not obeyed God’s will for our lives. And we don’t deserve to live with him in heaven.
But I know someone who did obey the 1st Commandment, someone who always put God first in his life, always loved God more than anything else, always trusted in him, always obeyed what he said. His name is Jesus. Jesus kept the 1st Commandment perfectly, and he did so for you and for me. He also died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins against the 1st Commandment. How thankful we are to Jesus our Savior!
In gratitude to God for all that he has done for me, will I strive to love God above anything else, and trust in God above anything else, and obey God above anyone else? Of course, I will. That’s how the 1st Commandment guides me in living my life God’s way.
I’d like to close with a little story that I think illustrates pretty well what the 1st Commandment is all about.
The cheerful girl with bouncy, gold curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. “Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please!”
Quickly the mother checked the back of the box and then looked back into the pleading, blue eyes of her little girl’s face. “A dollar ninety-five. That’s almost $2. If you really want them, I’ll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday’s only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma.”
As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her piggy bank and counted out 27 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for 10 cents. On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace.
Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere—Sunday School, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.
Jenny had a very loving father and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when he had finished the story, he asked Jenny, “Do you love me?”
“Oh, yes, Daddy. You know I love you.”
“Then give me your pearls.”
“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess—the white horse from my collection, the one with the pink tail. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me. She’s my favorite.”
“That’s okay, Honey. Daddy loves you. Good night.” And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.
About a week later, after story time, Jenny’s dad asked again, “Do you love me?”
“Daddy, you know I love you.”
“Then give me your pearls.”
“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll, the brand new one I got for my birthday. You can even have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper.”
“That’s okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you.” And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.
A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian-style. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and a silent tear rolled down her cheek.
“What is it, Jenny? What’s the matter?”
Jenny didn’t say anything. She just lifted her little hand up toward her dad. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver, she finally said, “Here, Daddy. It’s for you. I love you.”
Fighting back his own tears, Jenny’s dad reached out his hand and took the dime-store necklace, and with his other hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case. Inside was a strand of genuine pearls. As he gave them to Jenny, he said, “I love you too.”
What is it that you treasure more than anything, the one thing you want to cling to and hang on to forever? Whatever it is that is your god. Jesus said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment”(Mt 22:37,38). Amen.