Look first at Exodus chapter
21 through 6. You'll recognize this, I'm sure,
as the giving of the law at Mount Sinai and the prelude to it and
so forth. And God spake all these words
saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt
have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness that is in the heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath
the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me and that keep my
commandment. Alright, in Leviticus chapter
26, we have here also one verse, and listen to it, "...Ye shall
make you no idols, nor graven image, neither rear you up a
standing image, neither set you up any image of stone in your
land, to bow down unto it, for I am the Lord your God." Now,
you know, God did a work when he separated Israel. He chose
them and separated them and said, I'm your God, and gave them laws
and statutes to guide and direct them, and basically left the
rest of the world to walk in their own way until the time
was come that they might also be called into the grace of God."
And you know, the notion of God and the need to worship something,
some God or Supreme Being, seems to be ingrained in the heart
of men and of women. And so indelible is this writing
that atheism is actually the exception rather than the rule
to the extent that man will have him a God even if he has to make
one by hand or conjure one up in the imagination of his mind. so that nature moves him to have
a God, to have something that he might worship. So while nature
is moving him to have some object of worship, his ignorance and
darkness and depravity carries him off into idolatry so that
he worships not the one true God, but any God that might come
along. The very work of conscience testifies
that there is a God that is to be worshipped, that there is
a judgment that is to be dreaded, and there is one that is to be
feared. The majority of the human family
over the course of history have fallen off into idolatry. The worship of some false, unreal,
conjured, made-up God. Their gods, in other words, are
not the true and the living God. Now concerning idolatry, idolatry
can only be defined from the premise that there is one true
living God. I want us to get that. Idolatry
can only be defined in light of the fact that there is only
one true and living God. I mean that There can be no such
thing as idolatry unless there is one who is the real, true,
living and everlasting God. If this is not so, then there
is no such thing as an improper way of worship, if there are
in fact many gods. And so the object of worship
that pleases them, they choose and they give venerance and they
give service unto that God. Now, idolatry, I guess we ought
to define it, idolatry by definition is set in contrast to the worship
of the true and the living God. Idolatry is the worship of idols. Idolatry is the worship of one
other or beside God. And such a one is called an idolater. And their worship is idolatry. These are words that are used
in the Scripture. So let us repeat that idolatry
is set in contrast to the worship of the true and the living God. We see this in many places in
the scripture. For example, in 1 Corinthians
1 and verse 9, the apostle Paul writes unto some of them, saying
unto them, Ye turned to God, from idols to serve the true
and the living God. In Acts 17 and verse 16, Paul
stood in Athens and he saw the city wholly given over unto idolatry. Idolatry can be defined thusly,
as the ascribing to some other object of worship, the worship,
the service, the fear, the devotion, the honor, the praise, and the
glory that is only properly due to the one God of heaven. It is idolatry to venerate any
object or matter or material rather than God, even to claim
that they are but aids in worship, to help us worship better. The
New Testament warns against idol and idolatry. In that council
in Jerusalem, Acts chapter 15 and verse 20, The word went out
to the Gentiles that they abstain from pollution of idols. That is, believing Gentiles. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 16,
what agreement hath the temple of God with idols, the temple
of God being the body. John 5 and 21, or 1 John 5 and
21, John closes that epistle by saying, little children, keep
yourself from idols. Now, idolatry is, as the Puritan
Thomas Manton wrote, listen to these words, quote, is the greatest
unrighteousness that one can be guilty of, unquote. Idolatry, the greatest unrighteousness
that one might be guilty of. for or because idolatry being
the worship of some inferior or some low creature or some
man-made object, giving it the veneration that belongs only
to He that made all things and delivered them out of the land
of Israel." Israel built a golden cave. And they danced about it,
and they said this, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt. Sometimes Israel fell into idolatry,
and worshipped in the groves, and took up the false gods of
those around about them. Our first text in Exodus chapter
20 is the definition as regards the worship of God and the forbidding
of idols and the practice of idolatry. Now there are two things
regarding this giving of the law in Exodus chapter 20 that
we'll notice quickly. Number one, there was the preparation
recorded in chapter 19, making ready to receive the law and
to put the people in the mood of a great and wondrous expectation
of a mighty manifestation from their God. from Mount Sinai. And that's why you read in chapter
19 of the book of Exodus in verse 10 and verse 11, the Lord God
said unto Moses, go unto the people and sanctify them today
and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes. Be ready against
the third day. For the third day the Lord will
come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. Now, certain precautions and
preparations, therefore, were made and were taken. For example,
in chapter 19, verse 12 and verse 13, the mount was to be cordoned
off so that not even a man or a beast might touch it. In verse
14, the people were to wash their clothes as a sign of cleanliness. In verse 15, there was to be
the suspension of the conjugal union. And then a trumpet would
summon the congregation before the mount. at the appointed time,
as God made ready to deliver unto them these great oracles."
Now sometime the glorious manifestation you ought to read in Exodus chapter
19, verse 16 through verse 23, just prior to the giving of the
law. We won't take time to do that
now. For God proposes a covenant to
them. chapter 19, 1 through 8. And the people agree to that
covenant, 19 and verse 5. This is what Scott called the
national covenant with Israel. And then Scott went on to say,
was the charter upon which they were cooperated as the people
of God and the government of Jehovah, whilst to be over them. God would perpetuate His ordinances
among them. He would then engage on their
behalf to be His peculiar people and to direct and to keep and
to bless them, guiding them along on their way to the promised
land. Now the second thing regarding
the giving of the law in that particular time was the solemn
preface to the law itself that we read in chapter 20. Look at
the second verse again. I am the Lord thy God which brought
thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage."
Now these words are addressed to the nation of Israel gathered
there before the mount. For they were the ones that God
had brought up out of the land of Egypt. Now the preface to
the law has two parts or two halves. A, we noted that He said
unto them, I am the Lord thy God. Oh, how that must have thundered
out from from the mount as they stood there in expectation. This describes the lawgiver,
the Lord thy God Himself. Jehovah, the God of heaven, the
God of earth, the ruler and sovereign over all things. But secondly,
we notice B, what God had done for His people. That was He brought
them out of the land of Egypt. He delivered them from Pharaoh. by the mighty arm of His power. He brought them out with a high
hand, and Pharaoh and his army He destroyed in the Red Sea."
Now there are two expressions here of the same thing. Egypt
was the house of bondage. The land of Egypt had been their
house and place of bondage. God is constantly reminding them. throughout their history and
his dealings with them. I am the Lord that brought you
out of the land of Egypt. I'm your deliverer. I freed you
from the awful, abysmal bondage of Egypt. He broke the power
of Pharaoh. He parted the Red Sea. He destroyed
their enemies and he brought them out of their bondage. How then could they ever forget
that? How could they, in Exodus 32,
soon after that deliverance, build a golden calf, dance around
it and say, these be thy gods that brought thee up? They offered
sacrifice unto idols. Acts 7 and verse 41. 1 Kings 12 and verse 28 also
speaks of that. It is strange that some have
contended that verse 2 contains the first commandment that God
gave unto them. I am the Lord thy God. But they are right who see verse
2 as the preface to the whole body of commandment. The preface
establishes the very ground upon which the nation was to embrace
this law, keep it, and honor it, and worship the God who gave
that law. am the Lord God. I delivered thee. Therefore,
because of these things, thou shalt have no other gods before
me. I am Jehovah, the Lord, the Self-existent,
the Independent, the Eternal One, the Being of all being,
the Eternal and Immutable Jehovah. I am. I, the Lord. The one and only soul. For David confessed in 2 Samuel
7 and verse 22, Thou art great, O Lord, for there is none like
Thee, neither in heaven above or in the earth below. There
is none beside Thee, according to all that we have heard with
our ears. Isaiah 43 and verse 10, I am
He. Before Me there is no God-form,
neither shall there be after Me. Isaiah 43 and 11, I, even
I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Savior. Isaiah 44 and verse 8, is there
a God beside Me? Yea, there is no God. I know not any. Jehovah would
be known as the only and the solitary God, none beside Him. He would be known as that God
alone who is Jehovah, who not only delivered them, but created
all things whatsoever. But not only did Jehovah declare
unto them, I'm the Lord, But notice he said personally, I
am the Lord thy God. He was the God of Israel, the
God of that nation. Is any thy God beside me? Nay. Nor can it be. How was He their God? Was it by creation only? Was
it by election? Was it by redemption? Or was
it by all of these things that we have mentioned above? Thomas
Watson pointed out that the word or name for God here is Elohi. And it was a clear covenant God,
the God who makes and who keeps covenant. Gil said, in a special
and peculiar manner, He's the God of Israel. Not, as he might
be said, to be the God of all, but He is a special God in relation
unto the people of Israel. He was not a God far off, but
nigh. He was not a God in name only,
but a God in every reality. He became their covenant God,
taking them as His chosen people, saying, You are my precious people
and I am the Lord your God. He proved Himself their covenant
God in the special work of delivering them out of the bondage of Egypt. It was a redemption. It was a
bringing them out. It was freeing them out of Egyptian
bondage. Now this great deliverance out
of Egypt by Jehovah was proof enough that God, indeed, had
become their God. It was an undeniable, unquestionable
manifestation of His unmerited favor toward them and of His
purpose. But then we notice something
else. Next, God reminded them of the token of His love that
stood high as any token He might ever give them. I brought you
out of Egypt and took them as His covenant people. Nowhere
is this more beautifully illustrated than in that passage in Ezekiel
chapter 16. You remember the little infant
cast out into the field in the day of their birth, wherein God
likens them to a little baby girl, born but not swaddled,
born but not washed or cleaned, cast out at birth into an open
field, left there to perish except for the mercy of some stranger. God likens Himself as one that
passes by and preserves their life, kept them alive. not only preserve their life,
but actually took them to be, as it were, His wife. No more
beautiful picture could be found than that one in Ezekiel chapter
16, as tokens of God's love and of His purpose. The point being
that God portrays Himself as their covenant God. Not only
that, but as a husband. also as a father, as a shepherd,
as a pastor, ever guiding, directing, watching, and caring for them. Then He says to them, seeing,
being as I am thy God, which brought thee up out of the land
or house of bondage. And the second verse then said,
after the prelude, Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Now, it does not mean you can have some after Him or some lesser
gods or some lesser affected, but absolutely no other god whatsoever. am the Lord thy God. Look at
verse 3. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image. Look at verse 5. Thou shalt not
bow down thyself unto them. Look at verse 7. Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. So that the first
commandments blend with the second and with the third. Now, let's
look at the first commandment. That's what we're interested
in this evening. No other gods shall you have
before me. This leads the way of the Ten
Commandments. This stands at the head. This
is first and foremost. It leads the way. It's the foundation
of all else that is contained in the law. No other god before
me. The worship of God. is the true
cornerstone of religion. What is meant by the commandment,
no other gods before me? Does the expression other gods
imply the reality or the actual existence of other gods? Is God
admitting that there are others beside Him that might be called
God? Absolutely not. Not in the true
sense of the word. God does not recognize the existence
of any other God. There is no reality in other
God. There is no other being. There is no other deity. Deuteronomy 4 and verse 39, the
Lord, He is God in heaven above. There is none else. Isaiah 44 and 6, I'm the first,
I'm the last. Beside me there is no God. 1 Corinthians 8 and 6, Paul says
as Christian, to us there is but one God. To others there
might be others called God, but to us there is but one God. There is only to the believer
one omnipotent power our first cause, our Creator, that is Jehovah,
the Lord God. So secondly, what is meant by
before me? No other gods before me. Can there be secondary gods so
long as God is first or is number one or is the principal God or
the highest God? Does it mean ahead of me? And the answer is certainly no. For there are no other gods. Only God is God and only God
is to be worshipped. So the words before me have been
rendered from the Hebrew before or against my face or in my presence."
None beside me, none before me, none in addition to me, none
against me, none in competition with me. Let there not be unto
thee other gods beyond me, is what God is saying. Let there
not be unto you any god whatsoever before my face. in my sight or
before me." Now, why is that commandment so stressed and so
necessary? Why is it repeated again and
again, particularly in the Old Testament? Why is it repeated? One, in regard to the nation
of Israel, we see it come before us over and over. Secondly, why is that needful,
necessary and repeated to all people upon the face of the earth. And why in regard unto Israel,
we might ask. Because of their recent sojourn
and time spent down in the land of Egypt, they had been for a
long time among the idolatrous Egyptians. Those who worshipped
such things as oxes and calves and elephants and bulls and all
manner of beasts and all manner of four-footed things. They were
polygamists in the land of Egypt. They had not only false gods,
but they had many false gods that they venerated and they
worshipped. And some of them, the Hebrews,
no doubt, had taken up with their idolatry. Plus the fact they
were headed to a land filled with idolaters and enemies and
pagan. And they must put away all false
gods and all false religion that they might live under God in
the land of Canaan. You could read, I'll not turn
there, but in the book of Joshua, chapter 24, verse 14 through
verse 18, deals with that same subject, that those gods must
be put away. Now, a part of this passage is
worth noting again. Put away the gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and
serve ye the Lord God. Those are the words of Joshua. Now, the covenant with the nation
of Israel, or the Jews, was chartered by the moral law requiring them
to serve, to worship, honor, acknowledge God as their one
and only God. To have no other gods which they
served or acknowledged or did sacrifice to or venerated. Furthermore, in verse 4, the
second commandment of Exodus chapter 20, they were to make
no visible representation of a deity, none at all. None was
to be made. They were not to make images,
they were not to make statues, they were not to make Idols,
they were not to make graven figures and such like. Listen.
Thou shalt not make unto thee for your use, for yourself, for
your own use or aid, any carved image or figure or anything. Nothing at all. Not any likeness
of anything in heaven, or under heaven. They were to carve out
nothing or form nothing as a visible representation of deity. And by the way, there is a large
church that omits the second commandment and makes two commandments
out of the ten in order to avoid this commandment about statues
and graven images. Why no images? Why none are to
be made in worship. Why no carved figures? Why no statues, maybe even made
of gold or of silver? Why no pictures around as we
come to worship? Because It's simple. It would in no way be a true
likeness or representation of God. It would not be either a
replica of something visible to their eye or it would be out
of the imagination of their heart. They just simply imagined something
and drew it out. Now if you turn with me to the
book of Deuteronomy chapter 4, I did want to read a few verses
here concerning the matter. We begin in verse 14 of that
chapter and read down through verse 19, please. Deuteronomy
chapter 4 and verses 14 through 19 for our looking at it. And the Lord commanded me at
that time to teach you statutes and judgment that you might do
them in the land where thee go over to possess. Take ye therefore
good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude
on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the
midst of the fire. lest you corrupt yourself, make
you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of
male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth,
the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, the likeness
of anything that creeps upon the ground, the likeness of any
fish that is in the water beneath the earth, and lest thou lift
up thine eyes unto heaven. When ye see the sun, and the
moon, and the stars, even all the hosts of heaven, should be
driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God
hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. God knows, God knew the depravity
of the heart, that it would ever be seeking something to worship,
ever be seeking something visible, something that it could touch
or to feel or to see or to kiss or whatever it might be. And
so they are reminded of one thing. When God gave that magnificent
law on Mount Sinai, when they heard the voice, They saw no
form, they heard the thunder, the fire, the trumpets, the quaking,
and all of that, but they saw no figure on the mount. God did not manifest himself
to them in some visible form or outline, or figure that they
might see and then imitate. For Deuteronomy 4 and 12, you
heard the voice of words, but you saw no similitude. Only you heard a voice. So it is ridiculous to try to
make something to represent God when they saw no form or outline
as God was manifesting Himself to them. Therefore, verse 16,
it would be corruption to make a graven image. or similarity
of any figure, whether male or female, whether beast or flying
fowl, fish, sun, moon, stars, angels, any of these would be
an insult as being a representative of the being and the person of
Almighty God. Someone says, oh listen, We don't
worship these things. We don't worship these statues
and these idols and these pictures and these golden altars that
are in them. Others say we don't bow down
to them or pray unto them, but this will come in time, probably
already had. But that's not the point. God
said don't even make them. So it's not enough to say we
make them, but we don't bow down. Some have claimed they're aids
to worship. These aid us in our worship of
God. No scriptural authority for such
a thing whatsoever. You can meet under a tree without
a building and know the true and the living God and worship
Him. So it's not enough to say, well,
we don't worship them, we don't honor them, we don't pray to
them, I've seen a few candles burnt unto a few of them, but
God said, do not even make them. And He said something that ought
to strike our hearts. I am a jealous God. I, the Lord, am God. I brought
you out of Egypt. I am due your undivided worship
and honor and praise. I am a jealous God. God would only be represented. by or in the form of His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world. He that has seen
Me, He said, has seen the Father. The making of images is the first
step toward idolatry. And the other step will soon
be taken if the first is taken. The making of images, statutes,
statues of angels or whatever, is the first step to worshipping
them. They are not even so much as
to be made. And we've laid the foundation
then for a study of idolatry. Perhaps we'll carry it further
in later Sunday evening services.