Jeff Schreve - God Alone

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So, today, we want to start with commandment number one. Exodus chapter 20, it says, «Then 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 slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.'» What do we learn from the first of the Ten Commandments? They teach us, the very first commandment teaches us, three important truths about God. Truth number one, God is the awesome God. We sing that song sometimes, «Our God is an awesome God,» and God is the awesome God.

Now, you’ve got to get the picture, when God gave the Ten Commandments, they were, the people of God had, come out of Egypt, come through the Red Sea, it was three months from leaving Egypt that they got to Mount Sinai, where they received the law of God. And they trembled before the Lord, they were scared to death. We know this is true because it says in Exodus chapter 20, verse 18, when the Lord finished speaking, «And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, 'Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.' And Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.'»

Don’t be afraid of God, but fear God. And that’s how it starts out, as they’re receiving these commands from the voice of God. And right off the bat, we learn that God is a God to be feared, he’s not a God to be trifled with, he’s not a God to be overlooked, he is a God to be feared, not to be afraid of, but to be feared, to be revered, to consider him as the most valuable, worthy, as we just sang that song, «He is worthy,» and we come before the Lord. And see, the fear of the Lord is not, «Ah,» the fear of the Lord is, «Ahh, wow, God». And you’re very careful around God, just like if you’re working on electricity, live electricity. You’re not afraid of electricity, but you’re very careful with electricity, because you know, «Hey, if I just grab onto this, it could fry me».

People have done that with the Lord. «Nadab and Abihu,» the nephews of Moses, «They burned strange fire before the Lord,» Leviticus chapter 10. What happened to them? «Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them». You don’t mess around with God, you don’t treat God like he’s an old shoe, you fear him, he is to be feared. Now, the sad reality is, we have lost the fear of the Lord, we’ve lost the awesomeness of God. Deuteronomy 10:17 says, «For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe». That is, God, he is awesome, which means fear-producing.

«Our God is a consuming fire». «It is a terrifying thing,» it says in the Book of Hebrews, «To fall into the hands of the living God». And the fear of the Lord, as Moses pointed out to the people, «Don’t be afraid of God, but fear God». You said, «That seems like a contradiction». It’s not a contradiction. So, if I’m afraid of God, I’m never gonna get close to God because I’m just going to, «I hear God coming, I’m going to be like Adam and Eve, I’m going to head for the hills and hide myself, because you don’t want to get near God, you know? You got to be afraid of God, he’s like 'Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, ' and I want to get away from him».

God doesn’t want you to be like that, he wants you to come to him, but he wants you to stand in awe of him, give him the ultimate, utmost respect. And the Scripture says that, «The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,» it’s the beginning of knowledge. «By the fear of the LORD one keeps away from evil». «The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance in the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate». «Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the LORD always». So, we are to fear God, it’s the beginning point of everything, and so he was teaching his people right off the bat, «You fear me because I am an awesome God».

The Song of Moses is given in Revelation chapter 15, and in the Song of Moses this is what they sing, «Great and marvelous are your Works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy». The person who does not fear God is a fool to the highest magnitude, because, «Our God is a consuming fire,» and, «It is indeed a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God». So that’s the first truth that we learn from the beginning of the Ten Commandments, our God is an awesome God. Second truth, not only is God the awesome God, but God is the only God, the only God. He says, «You shall have no other gods,» little G, «Before Me».

God is the only God, no other gods besides me, no other gods alongside of me, literally, no other gods before my face. Isaiah 46, verse 9 and following, «For I am God,» the Lord says, «I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning And from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure». God is the only God. When Jehoshaphat was praying and asking the Lord, no, I’m sorry, Hezekiah, King Hezekiah, when he was asking the Lord to intercede because the Assyrians were coming against Judah, he prayed and said, «O God, the Lord,» the only God, «Will you not save us? You’re the only one». And God is the only God, so there are many false gods, but there’s only one true God.

This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, he says, «Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods,» so-called gods, «And many lords,» so-called lords, «Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him».

Lots of false gods, but there’s only one true God, and there’s only one God we are to worship and serve. Remember what Satan said to Jesus? «All the kingdoms of the world have been given to me, and I can give him to whomever I wish. And I’ll give them to you, Jesus, if you’ll just bow down and worship me». And Jesus said, «It is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP GOD ONLY AND HIM ONLY SHALL YOU SERVE.'» We worship and serve God alone. Now people today say, «Well, you know, we’re not like those people way back when in Ancient Israel, we don’t worship Baal, we don’t have these idols, we don’t have some totem pole that we worship. No, we’re more sophisticated, we worship money».

That’s the American idol, people worship money and materialism. We worship pleasure, we worship sports and we worship celebrities. And we worship family, you know? That starts getting close to home, «Well, are we supposed to love our family»? Yes, we don’t worship our family, we worship the Lord, and him alone. And for many people, you know who they worship? They worship themselves, and life is all about me. Well, the Lord says, «You have no other gods before Me,» no other gods that come up and rival me, because I am the only God.

Now we see this so beautifully pictured in 1 Kings 18, Elijah on Mount Carmel, because, the people, it’s not like they just said no to Jehovah, «We’ve thrown Jehovah out, we’re not worshiping Yahweh anymore, we’re worshiping the Baals,» they wanted to cover their bases, they wanted to hedge their bets. So, it’s like, «Yeah, we worship Jehovah, we worship Yahweh here, but we also worship the Baals». And Elijah said to them, «How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him». Hey, you can’t keep riding the fence, get off the fence, either go all in for the Lord, either he’s God and you need to follow him, or he’s not God, Baal is God and you need to follow him.

«'How long will you hesitate between two opinions? ' But they didn’t answer him a word»? He said, «This is what I want to do, let’s have a little contest to see who God is. There are 450 prophets of Baal, I alone am the prophet of the Lord. I,» the one guy, «Will go up against the 450 prophets of Baal. And this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to take wood and we’re going to make an altar there with the wood, and we’re going to take an oxen, we’ll cut up the oxen, we’ll put it on the wood, but we won’t have a fire underneath it. We’ll call upon God to light the fire. And Baal and his 450 prophets, they’ll call upon Baal and,» he said, «I will call upon the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God».

And the people said, «That’s a good idea, let’s do that». And so he said, «Okay, you prophets of Baal, you go first». So, they got the wood and they cut up the oxen, they put the pieces on the altar, or on the wood there. And they called upon their god, and they called upon him from nine in the morning till noon. No answer, no voice, nothing happened. And then Elijah starts mocking them, and he said, «Hey, what’s up with your God? Maybe he’s gone on a journey or maybe he’s asleep or maybe he’s in the bathroom». He actually said that, «Maybe he’s relieving himself, maybe you need to cry out louder». So they said, «That’s a good idea, it might be in the bathroom, you know? You can never tell with Baal».

And so they began to cut themselves with lances and the blood started gushing, and they cried out with a loud voice, and for three more hours there’s nothing. Why? Because there’s no God but Jehovah God, that’s why. And there is no answer, and so then Elijah said, «Now it’s my turn». And he took 12 stones for the 12 tribes of Israel and he made an altar, and he put the wood on the stones, and then he cut up the oxen and he put the parts of the ox on the wood. And then he said, «Let’s do this». He said, «Get me some water». He dug a trench around this whole altar, it could hold four gallons of water, it was a big trench. And he said, «Douse it with water».

So, they took a bunch of water, they doused it with water. He said, «Do it again,» they did it again. He said, «Do it a third time,» they did it a third time. There was so much water that it filled up the trench that held four gallons of water, that’s a lot of water, everything is totally drenched. And then he prayed and he called upon the Lord, and the fire from God fell, boom, like that after his prayer. And it licked up or it consumed the sacrifice, it consumed the wood, it consumed the stones, it consumed the dust, and it licked up all the water in the trench. And the people said, «The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God». There’s only one God, and his name is Yahweh God.

We sing that song, we used to sing that song, «There’s no God like Jehovah». Uh-uh, there’s no God but Jehovah, and there’s no one like him anywhere. Sad, but in Romans chapter 1, and Romans chapter 1 is becoming such an important passage of Scripture because we see it just unfolding before our eyes. Romans chapter 1 says this, «For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them». «Evident within them» is the voice of conscience, «Evident to them» is the voice of creation. «For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse».

Every single person has the voice of creation, the voice of conscience, that says, «There is a God». He says, «For even though they knew God,» or knew about God from the context, «They did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools». Moreno is the Greek word, we get our English word moron from that word. «Professing to be wise, they became morons». You know who works primarily at the universities? Morons that are teaching, especially in humanities, morons. «And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures».

You know what they worshiped in Egypt? They worshiped the scarab, you’ve seen that little beetle? The scarab, that’s a dung beetle, that’s a beetle that eats dung, he’s constantly messing around with dung. You go home and you «YouTube» the dung beetle, and you just see, «And they worship that thing»? That’s just down-down-down, from birds to four-footed animals to crawling creatures. «Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever».

Hey, our God is an awesome God. He is the only God. And thirdly, He is the redeeming God, the redeeming God. I love how the Ten Commandments begin. Then God spoke all these words saying, an introduction before the first commandment, «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». He doesn’t say, I am the Lord your God who created the heavens and the earth. We know that God created the heavens and the earth, but He doesn’t say that starting out. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the house, out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He is the one who redeemed you.

And see, we need to remember that the commandments came not when they were slaves in Egypt, it came when they got out of Egypt and God gave them the commandments. They were a freed people that got the commandments. Now what do we do today with the Ten Commandments? We somehow think that if you keep the Ten Commandments, then God will save you. So I keep the commandments, then I’m saved. What do you hear from people when you say, hey, What would you say to God if you were to die and He stand before God and He says to you, why should I let you into heaven? And they say, well, you know, I’m a pretty good person. You know, I keep the commandments. Well, can you name them? No, but I can name the ingredients in a Big Mac. You know, they don’t know and they think that, well, they’re a pretty good person because they keep the commandments.

Listen, God didn’t give the Ten Commandments to slaves. He gave the Ten Commandments to those who had been freed through the blood of the Lamb. Salvation is not a reward for obedience, it’s the reason for obedience. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And we see redemption in verse 2, God is a redeeming God, and the redeeming God cares for you and me. Because He says, I am Yahweh, your God, the Lord. Lord is all in caps in the New American Standard Bible. Any time you run into Lord all in caps in the Old Testament, that’s because that’s the name, Yahweh, the four letters, Y-H-W-H. Seminarians call it the Tetragrammaton, the four letters.

Now that is the personal name of God, the holy name of God, the covenant name of God. And when God gave that name, He gave that name to Moses at the burning bush. Remember Moses said, well, what’s your name, Lord? I’m going to go to the Israelites and they’re going to say, well, who talked to you? What’s your name, Lord? I don’t know your name. He says, I am who I am. And the name Yahweh, Y-H-W-H, is connected to the I am. I am the bread of life. You know, in the book of John, Jesus has all those I am statements. Jesus said to the Jews, before Abraham was born, I am. And what did they do? They picked up stones to stone him. Why? Because I am is the name of God. And you being a man, make yourself out to be God.

The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 1, humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares upon him, because He cares for you. Literally, it matters to Him concerning you. God is the God who cares. He’s the redeeming God who cares about us. And He’s the redeeming God who delivers us from the slavery of sin. Now they were slaves in Egypt, and you say, well, I’ve never been a slave in Egypt, but you’ve got to get the picture here. Egypt is a picture of sin. Pharaoh is a picture of the devil, and they’re slaves to sin with the devil in charge as Pharaoh is a picture of that. And the Lord delivers them out of the house of bondage, and how does He do it? Through ten plagues, and the last plague was the most notable, that’s the plague of the death angel.

And how did you make sure that the death angel didn’t come to your house? You took a lamb, a spotless, unblemished lamb, and you killed that lamb, and you took the blood of that lamb, and you put it on the doorpost, and on the lintel, the top part of the door, the sides of the door, and you can see the sign of a bloody cross through the door, and the Lord says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. That’s how Passover came into being. It was from that night where they took the lamb and the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorpost and on the lintel.

Now the Bible says that Jesus is our Passover lamb and so we are delivered out of darkness into light through the blood of the lamb. He is a delivering God who delivers us from the slavery of sin. And He is the God who wants a personal relationship with you and me, because He is the Lord, Yahweh, your God. He’s just not Yahweh God, He’s Yahweh, your God. He is personal and He comes to you and me personally. He wants to have a personal relationship with us. Now the big question is do you have a personal relationship with Him? You can know lots of things about God and not have a personal relationship with Him.

As Brian said in the baptistry today, as we were baptizing, this person had a head knowledge of the Lord, but not a heart knowledge of the Lord. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. It’s both the head and the heart that are involved in salvation. Do you have a personal relationship with the Lord? He wanted to have a personal relationship with every single person that He brought out of Egypt. He wants to have a personal relationship with you. And lastly, He desires as Yahweh our God, He desires our love, our devotion, and our obedience.

«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». Hey, God is the one who deserves your love. God is the one who deserves your worship. God is the one who deserves your obedience. And love and obedience go together because Jesus said, «He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will disclose myself to him».

Hey, talk is cheap. You say you love God and you don’t obey God, then the Lord says, well, you don’t really love me because if you really loved me, you would obey me. Do you love Him? Are you devoted to Him? Are you obedient to Him? You know, when we talk about idols in our lives, you say, What exactly is an idol? It’s anything you love more than God. It’s anything you serve more than God. It’s anything you fear more than God. It’s anything you get more excited about than you do the Lord. That has become your God. And you have another God beside God. Listen, the throne room of God is not a duplex. He’s not interested in being king for a day. It’s all or nothing with God.