30 Jan The First Commandment: “You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me”
Preacher Huijun - 23 July 2015
Be Wise, Choose Christ
Mt 2:1-23 In our christian faith, do we often find ourselves sitting on the fence? While we do not reject Christ, do we truly accept Him? Do we truly seek Him for who He is instead of how we want Him to be? Do we truly yearn to have fellowship with Him in our spirit, and delight in knowing His heart for us today? If we’re to introspect our hearts today, we will often realise that our relationship with God is often contaminated by hypocrisy and selfish motives - sometimes, we subconsciously come to God for certain personal gains, not genuinely convinced that God has already prepared the best for His children, all He really want is our inner joy in Him first. There’re also many moments in our lives when we’re just contended with our outward worshipping of God (going to many church meetings, serving fervently out of our self-will) that our hearts start to turn numb towards the truth of God. We have grown to know the truth of God on the outside, without connecting it with our hearts and let it becomes the substance of our thinking, speech and living. We sometimes run into the danger of thinking the truth is not something we can do at this point of time, and want to test the threshold and wait a little more before we want to submit to God, and be led by Him. Familiarity breeds contempt. As time goes by, the indifferent spirit deepens and takes roots, giving the devil increasing foothold to work in our hearts to doubt the love of God, to belittle the promise of God, to give up on the fellowship with God and His people. Through the message shared today, may the truth once again shines upon our hearts and expose the indifferent spirit within us. When God exposes us this hidden channel of Satan’s work, it’s because He wants to protect us from turning to a King-Herod-like man who rejected Christ and became the slave to sin. He’s always working in our lives to carry His perfect will to completion, and He delights in us being in partnership with Him and enjoy the glory together with Him. Choose life by choosing to fight the indifferent spirit in our life, so that we can grow in genuine fellowship with God. When our strength seems to be running out in the fight, God being God He is, will add on strength and grace to continue fighting, for He is always on our side.
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<Ex 20> 1 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
2 questions:
(1) What does this commandment teach me about God?
(2) What does this commandment teach me about our Christian response and duty?
“First” commandment: Most important >>> Foundation to other commands
First commandment: The object of our faith; are we worshipping the right God?
“What does the Lord require in the first commandment?”
- HEIDELBERG CATECHISM: “What does the Lord require in the first commandment?” [Q&A 94]
- That I, not wanting to endanger my own salvation, avoid and shun all idolatry, sorcery, superstitious rites, and prayer to saints or to other creatures. That I rightly know the only true God, trust Him alone, and look to God for every good thing humbly and patiently, and love, fear, and honor God with all my heart. In short, that I give up anything rather than go against God’s will in any way.
- Challenges faced today in obeying this first commandment: Pluralism, relativism and liberalism
- “No other gods before me” may sound like God just wants to be the Number 1 God among many other ‘gods’, but no!
- “Before me”: Besides me, to my face, in my presence
Idolatry is a BIG problem for mankind
- Idolatry is the Number 1 enemy of our relationship with God
- It’s so hard for the human heart to stay single-hearted
- HEIDELBERG CATECHISM: “What is idolatry?” [Q&A 95]
- Idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God, who has revealed Himself in the Word.
- 2 tests:
- (1) What do you love most?
- (2) What do you trust most?
Exclusive devotion
- “Forsaking all others”
- Similar to exclusive relationship in marriage
- Problem: We may not reject God altogether, but we also want other ‘gods’
- God is a jealous God <Ex 20:5>
- We are called to worship God with our everything <cf. Lk 10:27>
- Though salvation is God’s free gift, following Jesus will cost us everything <cf. <Lk 14:25-33; Mt 16:24-26>
Reflection
- Share about your struggles with idolatry. What are your idols? How can you set them in their right places (e.g. let money really be a ‘tool’ instead of ‘master’), and not let them usurp God’s place in your heart? How can you test whether you have succeeded in so doing?
- How have the pluralism, relativism and liberalism of our times challenged your obedience to the First Commandment? How can you restore the exclusive and singlehearted devotion to God? Are you willing to exclusively worship God even if it costs you everything?
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