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Please turn with me in your Bibles 
to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5, continuing 
exposition of the Ten Commandments. We're on part two of the first 
commandment. Last time we covered this material, 
we saw the prohibition of the commandment. The commandment 
reads in verse 7, you shall have no other gods before me. With 
reference to the prohibition, there are sins forbidden in the 
commandment, namely atheism, polytheism, idolatry, proper 
sorcery, witchcraft, heresy, worship of the creature rather 
than the creator. As well, we saw the ways that 
the commandment is broken in our thoughts and words and deeds. And tonight, we're going to take 
up the positive aspects of the commandment. We looked at one 
of those last time, which was, in fact, the knowledge of God. 
Tonight we'll consider the love of God, secondly, the fear of 
God, third, the necessity of obedience to God, fourth, the 
necessity of trust in God, and finally, the proper worship of 
God. So those are some positive aspects 
of the first commandment. But I do want to read beginning 
in verse 6, just to get it in front of us, so that our minds 
are warmed with God's holy law. I am the Lord your God who brought 
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make 
for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that 
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that 
is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them 
nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am 
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children 
to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing 
mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of 
the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless 
who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep 
it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall 
labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath 
of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you, 
nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your 
female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your 
cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your 
male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the 
Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and 
by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God 
commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your 
mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days 
may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which 
the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall 
not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall 
not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not 
covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's 
house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his 
donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words the Lord 
spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain, from the midst 
of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice. And he added no more, and he 
wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me." Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, 
we thank you for the written word of the living God. We thank 
you for your holy law. And Father, we know that there 
is a lawful use and an unlawful. And we thank you that you've 
shown us the way to salvation is not through law, because of 
our own sinfulness, our own depravity, our own wickedness. God, you 
have shown us the grace of God, the mercy of God, in and through 
the Lord Jesus Christ. You've shown us justification 
by faith alone. But as justified believers, we 
know now that our Our commitment to you is often best expressed 
in the way that we observe your holy law. So God, in terms of 
our lives of sanctification, may your Holy Spirit guide us 
according to the written word. And may you help us to love these 
things, and help us to internalize these things, and help us to 
delight in the law in the inner man. And Father, forgive us now 
for our sins and our transgressions of this law, and cause us, Lord 
God, to repent and to forsake and to find mercy from you. And 
fill us now with your Holy Spirit as we consider this word, and 
we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Well, as 
I said, when we look at these commandments, there is the prohibition 
that is obvious on the surface of it, and then there is that 
necessary implication in terms of positive aspect. So here the 
prohibition is, you shall have no other gods before me. So by 
way of implication, all these other things flow out of this 
command, the knowledge of God. Last time we considered how important 
it is. In fact, you see that relationship 
there between verses six and seven. Verse six, I am the Lord 
your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of 
the house of bondage. He defines for us or describes 
to us who he is. so that we can respond in kind. Therefore, you shall have no 
other gods before me, before that one who has brought you 
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. So it's 
imperative that we know this God. We need to know the doctrine 
of the Trinity, who God is in and of himself. We need to know 
the perfections of God. We need to know the knowledge, 
or we need to have that knowledge of the external works of God, 
namely creation and providence and redemption. And then as I 
said, there are several other sorts of things that flow from 
a positive aspect of this commandment. The first thing I want to mention 
is the love of God. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 
6. The love of God is the natural reflex of the heart that has 
been conquered by God's sovereign grace. In Deuteronomy chapter 
6, in verse 4, we see Israel's central confession of faith. 
Deuteronomy 6, 4 says, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the 
Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your 
God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your 
strength. So this is the natural response 
of the conquered by grace heart to the God of sovereign grace. 
We are to love Him. We confess this theological orthodoxy 
that the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And in response to that, 
we love Him. We adore Him. We seek to honor 
Him. We enjoy Him. We understand that 
Westminster, shorter catechism, question number one, what is 
the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify 
God and to enjoy Him forever. That is an expression of our 
love for God Almighty. All throughout the Pentateuch, 
all throughout the books of Moses, there is this recurring emphasis 
on the love of God that is necessary in the hearts of His people. 
Meredith Klein says, the past mercies of God rehearsed in the 
historical prologue prompt such love, and the love reveals itself 
in reverent obedience to all God's particular commandments. And when we look there at Deuteronomy 
6, 5, notice the emphasis in terms of the entirety of man. 
It says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 
with all your soul, and with all your strength. This first 
commandment demands allegiance, it demands obedience, it demands 
love on the part of the creature for the creator, and that means 
everything in us. Christopher Wright says, to love 
God then with all your heart and with all your soul means 
with your whole self. We don't hold anything back from 
our God, including your rationality, mental capacity, moral choices 
and will, inner feelings and desires, and the deepest roots 
of your life. I think that's a great sort of 
explanation of what's in view here in Deuteronomy 6.5. But 
turn over to Matthew's Gospel in Matthew chapter 22 and see 
how our Lord answers the question, which is the great commandment 
in the law? He appeals to this particular 
passage in Deuteronomy chapter 6 at verse 5. So in Matthew 22, 
36, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus 
said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 
with all your soul, and with all your mind. So Christ says, 
this is in fact the greatest of the commandments. This is 
the way that we express our allegiance to God, our devotion to God, 
our honor of God, and our worship toward him. It is expressed through 
love to God. And this is in itself a response 
to that central confession. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our 
God, the Lord is one. That is a theological confession 
on the part of God's people. As well, it is a personal confession. Yahweh is our Lord. He is our 
God. He is our blessed Savior. And as well, it is a practical 
confession. It describes our response to 
God. Every fiber of our being is to be employed in our love 
for God. John Gill says, that is, with 
all the powers and faculties of the soul, the will, the understanding, 
and the affections, in the most sincere, upright, and perfect 
manner, without any dissimulation and hypocrisy, and above all, 
objects whatever, For this the law requires." Again, that's 
the commandment. I realize we do not love him 
as we ought. We're gonna follow up on this 
at the end in terms of application. Remember, there's a few different 
ways to use the law of God. And one of the ways that we ought 
to use the law of God is to see our own sin and to see our own 
misery and to see the necessity that we have to repent. But in 
terms of the aspect of the command, in terms of a positive application, 
love to God is absolutely crucial. And then turn over to Romans 
chapter 12 for just a moment. Romans chapter 12, with reference 
to this confession of who God is, with reference to this confession 
of what God has done for His people, we see that this love 
to God is a logical thing. It flows rightly. It is absolutely 
and utterly consistent in the heart of the redeemed. Notice 
in Romans 12, 1, he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the 
mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It 
is reasonable based on everything that Paul has said in Romans 
chapters 1 to 11. Look at verse 1 in chapter 12. He says, I beseech you, therefore. That means that this is a concluding 
implication, an inference. This is where he comes to apply 
all that he has been discoursing on in chapters 1 to 11. The argument 
is simple. If God has saved you, those who 
were clear recipients of his wrath and his curse and his judgment, 
if God has saved you by his grace, through faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ, he has filled you with the Holy Spirit, he has given 
you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus, then it naturally follows that you will present your bodies 
unto Him as a living sacrifice. This is, in fact, your reasonable 
service. It is logical, it is consistent 
in the heart of the redeemed to love God with all the heart, 
the soul, the mind, and the strength. We are to have no other gods 
besides, in spite of, in defiance of, to the disadvantage of, to 
the neglect of me, God says. Again, the dominant issue here 
is God's jealousy. This comes out in the second 
commandment, the constant battle for the exclusive sovereignty 
of God. His incomprehensible majesty does not allow any division 
of man's allegiance. So this first commandment calls 
upon God's people to exercise allegiance to him. And that allegiance 
is seen first and foremost in love to God. But secondly, there 
is this fear of God. And again, I think this is a 
logical and a consistent sort of application. When we understand 
who God is, it ought to promote in our hearts the fear of God. In fact, Wilhelmus Abrakel, the 
Dutch theologian, said, if the soul may perceive God in His 
majesty, glory, and holiness, it cannot but be that the soul 
will tremble out of respect for God. So the fear of God, again, 
is consistent with this particular commandment. It is a positive 
aspect. Go back to the book of Exodus 
so that we can try and define what this fear of God is. I think 
there's a lot of misunderstanding with reference to the fear of 
God. We see the fear of God spoken 
of in two ways here in Exodus chapter 20 at verses 18 to 21. 
And what the Bible emphasizes in terms of fear to God or fear 
of God that is biblical, that is consistent, that is good, 
it is a filial, it is a respect, it is a reverential awe for the 
true and living God. In Exodus 20 at verse 18, It 
says, Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning 
flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. And 
when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 
Then they said to Moses, You speak with us, and we will hear. 
But let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said to 
the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, and 
that his fear may be before you, so that you may not sit. So you 
see, Moses uses fear there in two different ways. On the one 
hand, do not fear. Theologians refer to this as 
a servile fear. It's the type of fear that runs 
from God. It's the type of fear manifested 
with Adam and Eve where they tried to hide themselves from 
God. That servile fear is not what's being enjoined with reference 
to the commandment, but rather it is that filial fear. It is 
that fear that Moses speaks to secondly. Do not fear, for God 
has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so 
that you may not sin. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 
5 again. If we had continued reading, 
we would see that this is precisely what God the Lord requires from 
His creature. from his redeemed ones, from 
those who by grace have come to confess his lordship, his 
sovereignty, his glory, and his majesty. In Deuteronomy 5, 28, 
it says, Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when 
you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, I have 
heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have 
spoken to you. They are right in all that they 
have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they 
would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it 
might be well with them and with their children forever." See, 
this is God's design, that we understand who He is, that we 
respond accordingly, that we give Him that reverential awe 
that is due unto Him, And in the language of Brockle, just 
quoted, it is a demonstration or a trembling out of respect 
for God Almighty. John Murray describes the fear 
of God in this second sense, this filial fear, as the soul 
of godliness. He also wrote, the fear of God 
in us is that frame of heart and mind which reflects our apprehension 
of who and what God is. Same thought that Braco brings 
out. When we understand who God is, when we understand something 
of his perfections, yes, the reflex is love. We love him, 
we adore him, we seek to honor him and glorify him and enjoy 
him forever. But we also fear him because 
he's God and we're not. He is the creator and we are 
the creature. He is altogether lovely and chief 
among 10,000. And He is most excellent, most 
glorious, most wondrous. And we are in comparison, not 
even worms, because worms do what worms are supposed to do. 
We are sinners. We are vile. We have rejected. We have raised the fist at Him. But having been conquered by 
sovereign grace, now it promotes in us that heart of fear before 
the Lord most high. And that fear of God is a consequence, 
ultimately, of God's grace. John Newton, in that famous hymn, 
tells us, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear." When the apostle 
Paul indicates what is wrong with men in Romans chapter 3, 
you know that bit where he says, there is none righteous, no not 
one, there's none who seeks after God. He ends the whole sort of 
katina of verses by saying, there is no fear of God before their 
eyes. We should fear God. Who would 
not fear thee, O King of the nations, for indeed it is thy 
due? That's what Jeremiah the prophet 
says, and that's what John the apostle says. But we know because 
of sin, we have gone astray, and we don't fear him as we ought. 
So now that he conquers us by sovereign grace, we know who 
he is, we understand something of his perfections, we respond 
to him in love and adoration, and with this fear, And when 
Newton penned this particular stanza of the hymn, he wasn't 
just sort of making things up. In the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 
32, 40, it's a promise, a new covenant blessing. The prophet 
or God through the prophet says, and I will make an everlasting 
covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing them 
good. Isn't that a beautiful concept? I will not turn away 
from doing them good. In that particular section, God 
says, I will plant them in the land with all my heart and all 
my soul. All that God is, God is for his 
people. We don't get a bit of God, a 
little piece of God, a little bit of afterthought with reference 
to God. We get God. And all that is in 
God is God, and He's all that for His people always. It's a 
beautiful thought. It's a beautiful expression of 
His perfections. But He says, I will not turn 
away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts 
so that they will not depart from Me. In other words, the 
fear of God is a gracious acquisition on the part of the sinner. We 
do not have this by nature. There may be the servile fear. We may hear a sermon on the law 
and want to run and hide from God, but this filial fear is 
a running to and finding refuge in God and respecting Him and 
honoring Him and glorifying Him and revering Him as is fitting. John Flavel said, this fear of 
God is a gracious habit or principle planted by God in the soul, whereby 
the soul is kept under an holy awe of the eye of God, and from 
thence is inclined to perform and do what pleases him, and 
to shun and avoid whatsoever he forbids and hates. It is planted 
in the soul as a permanent and fixed habit. To fear man is natural, 
but to fear God is wholly supernatural. And I think that that is a great 
way to express the gracious character of the fear of God. But before 
we close out this particular point, I want to mention that 
the fear of God is not inconsistent with joy in the presence of God. You hear that outside of Christian 
circles. People say, well, you know, the 
fear of God. I remember that as a kid. I would hear, you know, 
statements about, you know, having been brought up Roman Catholic, 
they weren't big on preaching. As far as I remember, the fear 
of God in its proper way. They were all about servile fear. They were all about using God 
as a mallet to sort of keep people in line. That really is prevalent, 
at least in my experience, of the Roman Catholic institution. 
So I'd hear this fear of God expressed in a favorable way, 
and it absolutely and utterly perplexed me. I wondered, how 
could anyone be happy? Again, working from that Catholic 
framework, where servile fear, they were great at sort of doling 
that out. They were great at sort of giving 
that or instilling that to you. But as a young papist, hearing 
that, how could it be good to fear God? And it sounds miserable, 
doesn't it? The fear of the Lord. You're 
hiding under the piano. You're constantly, you know, 
sort of wincing from God. Well, as we consider Scripture, 
especially in the Old Testament revelation, the fear of the Lord 
is basically those who are God's people. The people who fear the 
Lord are those who are rightly connected to God. But the fear 
of the Lord is not inconsistent with joy, with thanksgiving and 
heartfelt praise. In Psalm 211, it tells us, serve 
Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. So it ought never 
to be the case that the fear of God promotes a moroseness 
or a despair or a despondency, but rather the true fear of God 
is what ultimately brings that joy, that thanksgiving. that 
rejoicing in the sight of God. And there is a practical sort 
of explanation or demonstration of this at the tomb of Jesus. 
In Matthew 28.8, when the disciples go and they find the tomb empty, 
it tells us, they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great 
joy. So again, those things are not 
inconsistent, and they ran to bring his disciples word. So 
positive aspects of the first commandment, in terms of our 
allegiance to God, we need to know God, we need to love God, 
we need to fear God, and then fourthly, working with both sermons, 
we need to obey God. The nature of the commandment 
demands that, going back to Deuteronomy 5-7. You shall have no other 
gods before me. Now, he doesn't say in this particular 
sense that, well, therefore, you need to obey everything I 
say. Everything written around the revelation of the Ten Commandments 
encourages the Israelites, and by extension, the New Covenant 
Israelites, the church, to obey God. God is the authority, God 
is the lawgiver, God is the one who calls us to obey. Not because 
he's mean or he's vicious or he's capricious or he's arbitrary, 
but because he's the moral governor of the universe and he knows 
what's best for his creatures. and we are to render that obedience 
unto him. John Calvin, commenting on the 
verse as a whole, or the commandment as a whole, he says, the purpose 
of this commandment is that the Lord wills alone to be preeminent 
among his people and to exercise complete authority over them. 
Now, in our particular era, That would no doubt shock the delicate 
sensitivities of persons who love their freedom, who love 
this idea that constraint is bad, who have this concept that 
any form whatsoever of anybody ever telling us what we do is 
absolutely contrary to the way that we should be. That's absolutely 
false. God is, as I said, the lawgiver. God is the authority. God is 
the one who has the absolute authority to command us and to 
tell us what to do. Our response ought to be, how 
can we best please? How can we best serve? How can 
we best embrace our subordinate position under God most high? So the nature of the commandment 
demands obedience to our Lord God. John 14, 15, what does Jesus 
say in the upper room to his disciples? He says, if you love 
me, you will keep my commandments. We consider this in the morning 
hour, studying the confession of faith. Chapter 16, of good 
works. We're not saved because of our 
good works. We're not saved because we obey 
God. We obey God and we engage in 
good works because we're saved. Those are consequences of us 
having been conquered by sovereign grace. And I think that's what 
Jesus means in John 14, 15. If you love me, you will keep 
my commitments. It's a no-brainer. Kids express 
this with their parents, hopefully, each and every day. There is 
this love, there is this fear, not the servile, dad's gonna 
whack me, but this reverence for dad, which issues forth in 
obedience to the commandments of the parental authority in 
the home. Now, this is certainly a recurring 
emphasis in 1 John, and you can turn there. 1 John mandates, 
I know it's crazy, that we actually obey God. As God's people, we 
need to actually obey Him. 1 John 2, verse 3, now by this, 
we know that we know him. If we keep his commandments, 
we have totally missed so much. I was thinking, I was actually 
discussing with my wife earlier today, I just wish the church 
would preach the Bible. Churches that don't preach the 
Bible make it difficult for those who do try to preach the Bible. 
See, when you try to preach the Bible today, what are you typically 
labeled as? You're narrow, you're exclusive, 
you're bigoted, you're prejudiced. Every single church should be 
looked at that way in this particular community. We are narrow, we 
are prejudiced, not against any ethnic group or anybody for, 
you know, reasons that are, you know, they can't change or whatever. 
But there is an exclusivity about covenant religion. We do not 
brook rivals with false gods, or brook rival with these false 
gods or the concepts of men. We need to preach the truth, 
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And nowadays, 
to actually preach obedience to God is looked upon as a form 
of legalism. Now, legalism is pernicious. 
Legalism is terrible. But there's a whole lot of different 
things involved in legalism. And obeying God as a blood-bought 
child of God ain't legalism. If you think that's legalism, 
please, please, please read 1 John from cover to cover. Read everything 
he says about obedience to our God and Father. These are evidences 
and fruits of a true and lively faith in the hearts of God's 
people. Notice in 2.29, if you know that He is righteous, you 
know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Reality is, is that when we're 
born of Him, the reflex is to obey Him, to do what He calls 
us to do. Notice in 1 John 3.24. 1 John 3, 24. Now he who keeps 
his commandments abides in him and he in him. And by this, we 
know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given 
us. And just don't want to neglect verse 23, because I know in our 
community, sometimes people don't think this is really a commandment. 
Verse 23 says, and this is his commandment that we should believe 
on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another 
as he gave us commandment. It's not presumptuous to preach, 
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is consistent with what God 
commands. It is not easy believism to preach, 
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, because this is what God commands. wrong and bad and misplaced and 
unbalanced to not preach belief on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's 
the fault, that's the error, that's the problem. Not actually 
telling sinners that there is hope to be had in Jesus Christ 
the Lord. That's simply incongruous with 
what scripture says at this particular point. Now notice in 5.3, for 
this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. Notice 
how all these things are intertwined. You know, I'm giving them sort 
of an order here, but they're a conglomerate. It's a complex. 
It's a lot of things. There's that knowledge of God. 
There's that Love to God that fear of God that that obedience 
to God they all they don't go together This is the love of 
God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not 
burdensome I've often thought that if the commandments of God 
are burdensome to you you either a need to repent or be need to 
be born again and Because in terms of the people of God, the 
burden isn't the law of God. The burden is our inability, 
or perhaps our unwillingness, to actually follow the law of 
God. We do say, with the apostle, 
O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body 
of death? There's no peace in the heart of the man. With remaining 
corruption, he cries out to God. He struggles. He wants to obey. 
He wants to do what is right. But he doesn't pick and choose. 
He doesn't say, you know, Lord, I don't like these commandments. 
I don't like this commandment. I don't want that commandment. 
I remember a comedian when I was growing up and he thought it 
was so funny to say, you know, I believe in seven of the 10 
commandments. And of course everybody laughs 
and all that sort of thing. I never thought I'd live as a 
pastor and a Christian to see that that's the case in the church. 
We like a few of them and we will rehearse a few of them. 
But the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 
God can't tell me what to do on that day. God can't tell me 
what I'm supposed to do or not do on a particular day. I'm a 
free man in Jesus. I can do whatever it is I want. 
Well, think about that application of God's law. We are never called 
to pick and choose and to just take the ones that are most pleasing 
to us. That is absolutely reprehensible 
on the part of the professing Christian. The commandments of 
God are not burdensome. So we have, obviously, the necessity 
of obedience to God. Next, we have the necessity of 
trust in God. The necessity of trust in God. 
Consider the children of Israel, what they were called upon to 
do in terms of their lives, in terms of their mission, in terms 
of movement. God had made a promise, first 
to Abraham, and then it moves through Isaac, and then to Jacob, 
that he's going to give them a land, and he's going to give 
them a sea. And then they go into bondage 
in Egypt, they are in captivity for those many, many years, and 
then God redeems them, God frees them, and God calls them to travel 
to the promised land. They had to do this with trust 
in God. In fact, go to Deuteronomy chapter 
8 to see this evident in the lives of the Israelites in their 
sojourn. Deuteronomy chapter 8, the necessity 
to trust God. Deuteronomy 8.1, every commandment 
which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that 
you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of 
which the Lord swore to your fathers. Seed, land, Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob comes to fruition now. They need to do this in 
order for these promises to be realized, actualized, fulfilled 
in the lives of his people. Verse 2, and you shall remember 
that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in 
the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was 
in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 
So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, 
which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. You see, God's 
tutelage of his people, God's leadership of his people, isn't 
always roses. It isn't always happiness. It isn't always full refrigerators. It isn't always an abundance 
in your bank account. There are instances and seasons 
and times in the lives of God's people, there is affliction, 
there is hardship. There is travail and difficulty, 
not because God is unable to give you good stuff, but because 
God is bent on promoting in you trust in God. Does that make 
sense? If we had no afflictions, if 
we had no trials, if we had no hardships, we'd live as if there 
was no God. This is what the Proverbs say 
in Proverbs 30, give me neither poverty nor riches. Why? If I'm 
rich, I'm gonna forget God. That's the tendency, that's the 
pressure that we face, and God highlights that in this particular 
account. So back to the beginning of verse 
3. So he humbled you, allowed you 
to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did 
your fathers know. Now notice, that he might make 
you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives 
by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord." In other 
words, God did this to inculcate in you trust. God did this in 
you to promote trust in Him, that He is gracious, that He 
is kind, that He is sovereign, that He is an authority, that 
is to be trusted, and He has guided you, and He has led you, 
and He will continue to protect and provide for you. It may not 
always be the way that you think or want, but the Lord God does 
deliver. Turn over to Proverbs chapter 
3, a passage we considered probably a year ago in our studies in 
the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, with reference 
to trust in God. It says, trust in Yahweh with 
all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all 
your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. This highlights in the first 
place entire commitment to our Lord God. It says with all your 
heart. not part of your heart, not just 
the religious aspect, but with all your heart. It's sort of 
like in 1 Kings, in chapter 18, when Elijah lays down the gauntlet. He says, if Baal is God, then 
serve him. If Yahweh is God, then serve 
him. In other words, there can't be 
this half-hearted allegiance. You can't try to marry Baal with 
Yahweh and call this your sort of religious therapy. You can't 
do that. Jesus says the same thing in 
Matthew chapter 12 at verse 30. He who is not with me is against 
me. So with reference to trust in 
the Lord, it is an entire commitment with all your heart. Notice as 
well, it's an exclusive commitment. He says, and lean not on your 
own understanding. In other words, you don't know 
best. You don't know what's right. 
Therefore, you are not to lean on your own understanding. You 
are to reject all rival objects of guidance and direction. But thirdly, it is an exhaustive 
commitment, in all your ways acknowledge Him. Not just on 
Sunday, not just in the religious aspect of your life, but in all 
your ways acknowledge Him. You see, that's the trust in 
God that this first commandment positively enjoins upon His people. We are to trust in Him. Now turning 
over to the New Testament, again there's Obviously, a lot of passages 
that can sort of substantiate each of these particular points. 
I'm just giving you a few specimens, a few samples, so that hopefully 
you will pray these things in and get some encouragement. But 
turn to Matthew chapter 6. In terms of the emphasis in the 
New Testament, we have, of course, the doctrine of justification 
by faith alone. We are to trust in Jesus Christ 
for salvation. We're to trust in Jesus Christ 
for our life eternal. We are to understand that by 
the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, 
for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Rather, we are to look 
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. We are to go to Him. We are to, with the hymn writer, 
say, Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. 
Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. So we certainly 
see this trust in God in terms of justification by faith alone. 
But working with a group of people that profess faith in Jesus Christ, 
let's look at the practical aspects of trust in the Lord, vis-à-vis 
the first commandment and its reference to our lives. In Matthew 
chapter 6, in verses 25 to 34, Jesus cautions his disciples 
four times, do not worry. Do not worry. Do not worry. Do not worry. Why? Because when 
you worry, you express a lack of trust in your Heavenly Father. When you are paralyzed with carnal 
anxiety, you are expressing an ethic that is more akin to the 
Gentiles who have no God. You are demonstrating a lack 
of faith and confidence in your Father to provide for you. So 
four times the emphasis in Matthew 6, 25 to 34 is, do not worry. And specifically, he says, don't 
worry about food, drink, clothing, and tomorrow. Don't worry about 
food, drink, clothing, and tomorrow. Now, Jesus isn't saying lay down 
on your couch and, you know, just have a nice snooze, and 
when you wake up, there'll be food, there'll be clothing, there'll 
be tomorrow, all those sorts. He's not saying that. The passage 
should be wrested out of its context to teach indolence or 
laziness or apathy. You know, God's gonna provide 
for me, so I don't need to get a job. God's gonna provide for 
me, so I'll just go where the wind takes me. That's folly. 
The Bible does not tell you to do that. The Bible does not tell 
you to not work and just trust in God. You trust in God and 
find a job. You trust in God and get up on 
Monday morning. You trust in God and you show 
up. You trust in God and you don't question your employer. 
You trust in God and you do what you're supposed to do. You trust 
in God and you collect your paycheck. You trust in God for these things. But in terms of carnal anxiety 
and this panic that sets in and this fretting, And this worry 
that he is condemning here, it betrays a lack of trust in God. So he says, don't worry about 
food, drink, clothing, and tomorrow. He says, I want you to study 
the birds. I want you to study the lilies. 
I want you to understand that the way God provides for them, 
he's gonna provide for you. You're far more important. Again, you know, the God haters 
in our day hate this stuff, right? When we say man is more important 
than animal. Oh, you can't say that. Meat 
is murder. Meat is not murder. You cannot 
murder a non-image bearer of the living God. Meat is good. 
The Lord gave it to us to enjoy, according to 1 Timothy chapter 
4. If you decide not to eat meat, that's up to you. But do not 
blame God or do not say that somehow Animals bear the image 
of God. We shouldn't be vicious to them. 
We shouldn't be unkind. I mean, I guess the whole concept 
of eating them betrays that, but you know what I mean. We 
shouldn't abuse them needlessly, but God provided them for us. So the Lord Christ tells us, 
look at those lilies, look at those birds. If God provides 
for them, is he gonna let his blood-bought children go naked? Is he gonna let his blood-bought 
children starve to death? No, of course not. He says, do 
not live like the Gentiles who have a godless philosophy of 
life. I'm just sort of summarizing 
rather than running through each and every jot and tittle here. 
And then he says, do live like the children of a heavenly father, 
knowing that he cares for you. So you see, we have this trust 
in God, specifically justification by faith alone, but we have this 
daily trust in God where we're not worriers to the point where 
we're engaged in carnal anxiety. Now, for those of you who have 
mastered this, you can email me how you've come to this. This 
is a passage I need to reflect on often. It was another thing 
inculcated in my youth. I don't know if it was potpourri 
or if it was my dear mother, but she promoted in me a worry 
wart. Most of you who know me would 
say, oh yeah, that's not a surprising statement. You get that. So Matthew 
6, Jesus is talking to people like me and maybe talking to 
people like you, but the prohibition is do not worry because it expresses 
or evidences a lack of faith and trust in the living and true 
God. In other words, we as God's people may not be the most composed, 
we may not be the most secure, and we may not be the most stable, 
but we're not the least stable, the least secure, and the one 
who is ridden with panic and with distress. And then finally, 
the worship, the proper worship of God. Now, we are going to 
deal with this in more detail when we get to the second commandment. Because if you ask the question, 
what does the Bible say concerning worship, we see the first two 
commandments. The first commandment tells us 
who we are supposed to worship, and the second commandment tells 
us how we are to worship Him. There is a close connection between 
the first two commandments. So we need to know who the living 
and true God, and we need to know how, without images, without 
innovation, without creativity, without the sorts of things that 
persons want to engage in today, but rather we are to obey God. As I mentioned in the morning 
hour, we're supposed to pray the Word, preach the Word, read 
the Word, sing the Word, and see the Word. The worship of 
the living and true God is word-based. It is word-focused. It is word-centric. Because you saw no form, God 
reminds them in Deuteronomy chapter four, but rather you heard his 
voice. And so God prescribes true worship. He tells us how we are to approach 
him. He tells us how we are to worship him. And we are not free 
or at liberty to change that, to twist it, to distort it, to 
add to it, or to take away from it. Deuteronomy 12, 32 is very 
specific in this regard. A way that we can sort of remember 
God's approach to worship is we're not to do anything more, 
anything less, or anything else than what God has commanded. 
Much of what passes today for Christian worship is actually 
strange fire. And that comes from Leviticus 
chapter 10. In Leviticus chapters 1 to 9, 
God gives detailed, minute legislation for the way that Israel is to 
approach Him. In fact, most readers of the 
book of Leviticus, by the time they get to chapter 3, are thinking, 
is this ever going to come to a conclusion? Well, there's a 
reason for it. There's a method for this. I've 
mentioned before, God's Shekinah glory comes and dwells in the 
midst of Israel at the end of the book of Exodus. But nobody 
can go in there. Nobody can approach God. And 
when we get to Leviticus, this is the prescription for how sinful 
man can now approach a holy God. And it's through a bloody knife 
and a smoking altar. So that's what Leviticus one 
to nine stipulates. At the end of Leviticus chapter 
nine, they present a proper worship. God sends fire down and consumes 
the sacrifice and the people rejoice. Leviticus chapter 10, 
Nadab and Abihu offer up strange fire. They were innovative, they 
were creative, they departed from the written word, and they 
went on their own. They were renegade, they were 
maverick. They perhaps thought, well, you know, Yahweh liked 
what we just presented, certainly He'll like what we present now. 
Well, God sent fire, but this time it didn't consume the sacrifice, 
it consumed Nadab and Abihu. And that underscores this reality 
that when it comes to the public worship of God, we do not have 
the right as creature to determine and define how we will worship. We have the obligation as creature 
to obey creator and approach him the way that he has mandated. And hopefully the Lord willing, 
we'll see that as we move through the second commandment in the 
coming weeks. Well, in conclusion, just a couple 
of thoughts and then we'll pray. First, with reference to this 
first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. 
There is a consistent and universal condemnation of idolatry in the 
Bible. All sin is bad. Every sin deserves 
God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to 
come. Make no mistake about it. But 
if we had to say, are there some sins that God seems to really 
be at war against, idolatry would certainly be in the top one in 
that particular list. Idolatry is an offense and it 
is an abomination to the true and living God. This is what 
Israel descended into over and over again. In fact, turn to 
Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6, after 
the Shema here, O Israel, Shema simply means hear or listen. 
The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord 
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with 
all your strength. He then enjoins upon the people of Israel to 
apply this individually, familially, and societally. And then he gives 
specific cautions against disobedience in verses 10 and following. The 
first is verse 10 to 13. Danger of forgetting God because 
of affluence. In other words, when they got 
into the land, and it was profuse, and it was full of abundance, 
and it was full of milk and honey, they had the tendency to forget 
God. It's an unfortunate thing, but again, Proverbs 30, give 
me neither poverty or riches. If I'm rich, I might forget God. So he's cautioning them against 
that. And then notice in verses 14 
and 15, danger of abandoning God because of surrounding idolatry. In other words, your hearts. And then the last section, danger 
of doubting God because of hardship. So these were the particular 
cautions given by God through Moses on the plains of Moab, 
so that when they go into the promised land, they do not defect, 
they do not apostatize, they do not reject or resist the true 
and living God. Now we know, because we've read 
it, that they do precisely that. We know that they go into the 
land and they forget the God who has given them abundance. 
We know that they go into the land and they engage in idolatry. 
In fact, that's the reason for the mandate of holy war in Deuteronomy 
7. Look at this, verse 1. When the 
Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess 
and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and 
the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites 
and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier 
than you, And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, 
you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make 
no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you 
make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter 
to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they 
will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will 
be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall 
deal with them. You shall destroy their altars 
and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images 
and burn their carved images with fire. You're not supposed 
to enter into political alliance with the Canaanites. You're not 
supposed to enter into social alliance with the Canaanites. 
And you are certainly not supposed to enter in to religious alliance 
with the Canaanites. Idolatry is bad. When we look 
at 1 Kings, what happens with Solomon? He violates the prohibition 
God gave to kings in terms of multiplying wives. He multiplies 
wives, and what do those wives do? They turn his heart away 
from the living and true God to their gods. So idolatry is 
universally condemned in the Bible. In the prophet Isaiah, 
he mocks idolatry. The prophet Isaiah speaks of 
the idolater. He goes into the woods and he 
cuts down a tree and he brings some of that wood and he makes 
a fire so that he can roast what he took in hunting. And he warms 
himself with that fire and then with a bit of that wood, he makes 
an idol and he bows down to it. Isaiah the prophet highlights 
the futility involved in idol-making. Paul the apostle does this in 
Romans chapter 1. He shows that they exchange the 
creator, or they worship the creature rather than the creator. 
They exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for that which 
is corruptible. Remember, it's the wrath of God 
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 
of men. Certainly those acts of unrighteousness 
are horrific. He condemns all the vices of 
the Gentile world at that particular time. But the root, the place 
from whence these things spring is that although they knew God, 
they did not honor God, nor were their hearts thankful. So their 
ungodliness preceded these acts of unrighteousness. How does 
John end the first epistle? My little children, I want you 
to be happy, healthy, and whole. No. My little children, I want 
you to have health, wealth, and prosperity. No. My little children, 
I want you to just have therapy for the rest. No. My little children, 
keep yourselves from idols. And in the context in 1 John, 
probably the idol that he is most conspicuously highlighting 
is the idol of a false Christ, the anti-Christian sort of drivel 
or dracker or heresy that teaches that Jesus didn't come in the 
flesh, that Jesus is not Messiah. So he says, my little children, 
keep yourselves from idols. Typically when I preach against 
or on idolatry, not on in a favorable way, I quote John Stott from 
his commentary on the book of Acts. And I think this is most 
excellent. He says, all idolatry, whether 
ancient or modern, primitive or sophisticated, is inexcusable. Whether the images are metal 
or mental, material objects of worship, or unworthy concepts 
in the mind. See, I think there's this idea 
that as long as we're not bowing to a pole, or bowing to a rock, 
or bowing to our money, that we're not guilty. Brethren, if 
we construct a false Christ, If we have a false idea of God, 
that's why the very first point of positive aspect was the knowledge 
of God. If you don't know the triune 
God, if you don't understand His perfections, if you don't 
understand the external works of the true and living God, what 
God are you worshiping? The Jesus that is preached in 
some churches bears little resemblance to the Jesus of the pages of 
Holy Scripture. You see, it's not just bowing 
down to some construct that we have made, it's bowing down to 
a false idea of who God is, or of who Jesus is. And I think 
that this brings this out well. He says, for idolatry is the 
attempt either to localize God, confining Him within the limits 
which we impose, whereas He is the creator of the universe, 
or to domesticate God. I really think this happens. 
I really think there's a lot of people out there trying to 
domesticate God. Why do you think absolute comprehensive 
sovereignty bothers people? Because they can't domesticate 
that God. They can't put him in a box. 
They can't control him. He is too big for them, and so 
they reject great swaths of Holy Scripture so that they can, in 
turn, try to domesticate Him, try to put Him on a chain, try 
to make Him a harmless little pussycat that we can play with 
and trot out when we are so inclined. He goes on to say, or to domesticate 
God, making him dependent on us, taming him, whereas he is 
the sustainer of human life. Or to alienate God, blaming him 
for his distance and silence, whereas he is the ruler of nations 
and not far from any of us. Or to dethrone God, demoting 
him to some image of our own contrivance or craft, whereas 
he is our father from whom we derive our being. In brief, all 
idolatry tries to minimize the gulf between the Creator and 
His creatures. If you get that, you will understand 
why it is so offensive to be an idolater, in order to bring 
him under our control. More than that, it actually reverses 
the respective positions of God and us, so that instead of our 
humbly acknowledging that God has created and rules us, we 
presume to imagine that we can create and rule God. He says, 
there is no logic in idolatry. It is a perverse, topsy-turvy 
expression of our human rebellion against God. I think that's a 
hundredfold amen-worthy. Now, Stott was not without his 
issues. I understand that. He had some, 
you know, problems at the end of his life. I'm not saying go 
out and read everything that John Stott ever wrote. But that 
comment from Acts 17 is right on. There is that attempt to 
change God into the image of man. There is that attempt in 
man to try to make God something that we can control. That's the 
essence of idolatry. It is to jettison the truth as 
it is in scripture and to fashion a God after our own desire. As well, we need to understand 
the normative use of the first word. The normative use. That 
means the normal day in and day out practice of the Christian. 
How do we as God's blood-bought children, those cleansed in the 
blood of Jesus, those justified freely by grace, those possessing 
the Holy Spirit and possessed by the Spirit, how do we respond 
to the first commandment? Not to be saved. We are saved 
by God's grace. So how do we show that obedience 
with reference to this commandment. First, we are to reject false 
gods. My little children, keep yourselves 
from idols. Now, I do not suppose for a moment 
that some of you go home and fashion idols in your basement 
and bow down to them. Maybe you do, but that's never 
arisen in my mind. But where I would see the danger 
is the internet. I'm not saying the internet's 
an idol. Just hear what I'm about to say. I'm not saying the internet 
is bad, vicious, vile. I am saying that the internet 
is a means by which heresy is propagated. In other words, I 
think the problem facing God's people in terms of 1 John 5.21, 
my little children, keep yourselves from idols, is a false understanding 
of who God is. And there is no shortage of men 
out there, and women, teaching who God isn't. And if you are 
not careful, if you are not confessional, if you are not biblical, you 
are susceptible to being an idolater. Any thought concerning God that 
is false, any thought concerning Christ that is false, any thought 
concerning sovereignty, grace, salvation that is false, you 
run the risk of becoming an idolater. fashioning a God who is more 
akin to your liking. I mentioned this earlier today, 
in our culture, people don't like the fact that the Bible 
condemns certain things. Well, brethren, the Bible does 
condemn certain things, and we have to be faithful in the condemnation, 
not because we hate people, but because God Most High is holy, 
God Most High is unchanging, and God Most High has spoken. 
So we are not to say, well, it's okay, for instance, something 
that is going on right now to let women preach. Paul says unequivocally 
in 1 Timothy 2, I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise 
authority over a man. Now for me, I don't know how 
much clearer the apostle could be. I don't know how anybody 
could try and wriggle out of the clear, obvious implication 
that we're not supposed to let women teach or exercise authority 
over men. But lo and behold, there's a 
whole host of professing Christians, people that say they're believers, 
churches that say they're serving the Lord God Most High, that 
have women preachers. This is idolatry. It is fashioning 
a God that is more akin to our culture and to our societal norms 
than he is revealed in Holy Scripture. We need to be careful. Secondly, 
we need to express allegiance to the Creator rather than the 
creature. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy 
the creature. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy 
marriage. We can't enjoy a good steak. 
I'm thinking 1 Timothy chapter 4. But when we put any creature 
before God, we have violated and transgressed the commandment. 
Thirdly, we need to cultivate the knowledge of God. We need 
to understand this God. James Durham, in his commentary 
on the Ten Commandments, says with reference to the commandment, 
it requires the right knowledge of God. For there can be no true 
worship given to him, there can be no right thought or conception 
of him or faith in him till he be known. He must be known to 
be one God in essence, Deuteronomy 6, 4, and three persons, 1 John 
5, 7. He must be known in his attributes 
and essential properties, infiniteness, immenseness, unchangeableness, 
eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, wisdom, goodness, justice, and 
faithfulness. He must be known in His special 
works, whereby His sovereignty and majesty appears, as His works 
of creation, providence, redemption, and what concerns it, as the 
covenant of grace in its terms, the mediator in His offices. 
No service or worship can be offered to God, nor can we have 
any ground of faith in Him without some measure of distinct knowledge 
of these." Now, brethren, that doesn't mean you have to have 
all of this right now. I think sometimes believers get 
discouraged. Well, I don't know all that stuff and it seems like 
a tall order. Just start reading your Bible. 
Pick up our confession of faith. Investigate chapter two in that 
confession. Investigate the sections and 
the three forms of unity that speak concerning who God is in 
terms of his triunity, in terms of his perfections, in terms 
of his external works. Yeah, this acquisition of knowledge 
isn't gonna happen with one sermon or one sort of brief read of 
the Bible. It's a lifelong sort of a thing. Great are the works of the Lord. 
They are studied by all who delight in them. But to actually honor 
the commandment, we need to understand who God is. As well, there ought 
to be a manifestation in the hearts of God's people of love 
to, fear of, trust in, and worship of the true and living God. So 
that's the normative use. Now pedagogically, what does 
the law of God in this particular commandment teach us if we're 
not believers? It teaches us how much we need 
Jesus. It teaches us how bad we are. It teaches us how far 
astray we are. In the language of the Heidelberg 
Catechism, how do we come to know, or how do you come to know 
your misery? The law of God tells me. A man by the name of Bachmuel 
says, the first commandment is always a call to repentance because 
we are rarely single-minded in our commitment to God. The commandment 
taken seriously produces the response, God be merciful to 
me, the sinner. So if you are not a believer 
in Jesus Christ tonight, that is the first order of business. 
Believe on Him. Look to Christ in faith. That 
is the way of salvation. And then embrace this blessed, 
wonderful commandment that calls us to allegiance to the God who 
is absolutely worthy of allegiance. Well, let us close in a word 
of prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for 
these commandments. Thank you for that you've not 
left us in this world to try and figure things out. God, so 
many people around us have that mindset. You've given us the 
word of the living God. You've given us scripture. You've 
given us all things necessary for faith and practice, and we 
rejoice in that. Help us, God, to meditate upon 
these things. Help us to increase in our knowledge 
of who you are and to respond with that love and fear and obedience 
and trust. and that worship that you sanction, 
that you call for in Holy Scripture. I pray that you would go with 
us now, that you would continue to watch over your people, that 
you would encourage and strengthen our hearts. And we pray these 
things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. We'll close with 
a brief time of meditation.