The First Commandment

Last week we talked about the Ten Commandments. That was kind of an introduction to the Ten Commandments, and went through why they still apply today and how important they are to God, and how they spell, really, how we live our lives. And if we want to please God, and if we want to be in His kingdom, we will follow those commandments, and we will keep them in spirit and physically, as we talked about last week.

And I said last week we'd go through the first commandment today. So turn with me over to Exodus 20, and let's look at that first commandment. Exodus 20, and in verse 2, of course you'll remember that as Israel was gathered here at the base of Mount Sinai, there were thunderings and lightnings, and this was an important monumental event that God was going to give His way of life and the principles that His people then and His people always would follow. In Exodus 20, in verse 1, it says, God spoke all these words, saying, verse 2, 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. And that's the first commandment, but those two verses are chock-full of meaning. As God began or started speaking those words to Israel, there's a lot He said in those first two verses. And today I want to look through three, and you might count them as four, different parts of that commandment that will help us to understand how important that commandment is, how riveting it is in our lives, that if we can keep this commandment, the rest of them we will be able to keep as well.

If we don't keep this commandment, the chances of you keeping the rest of them are nil. Of course we know, and if I don't say it later on, without the Holy Spirit we can't keep any of these commandments, just as the ancient Israel proved in the time that they were in the Old Testament. The first, as God began the New Tester, the commandment here, He reminds them that He is the Lord God, and that He brought them out of Egypt and out of bondage. And as He started His commands, He did that for a reason.

He wants people to remember He is God. He is the one who brought Israel out. Without God, that ancient people Israel, and His people today, you and I, and the people all over the world who He's called, we would be nowhere. The people that were living in Egypt at that time had no hope, they had no future, they were, for all practical purposes, dead. They lived their lives, subservient to a Master, whose only interest in them is what work He could get out of them.

They lived, they worked, they died. No future, no hope, nothing in that society. It was just totally a dead society that they were in. And even though they had the numbers, and you recall we said there were probably 2 million people, or more, that God brought out of Egypt, they didn't realize their numbers, and they were captive and held down by a society that just had nothing in it for them except death.

That was what their life was. That society simply meant death. Only God, only God could deliver them from that society of death. And if He never acted, if He never looked down on Israel and had pity on them and mercy on them, they would have just simply died and kept dying year after year after year. And as He opens up the Ten Commandments, He reminds them, I am the Lord, your God. I brought you out of the society of death. I brought you out of bondage.

No longer slaves, but free. And then He begins to tell them the things that He wants them to do. You know, as they wandered in the desert, or as they were led by God in the desert for those 40 years, after He brought them out of Egypt, they became totally dependent on Him, didn't they? They didn't have food that they could grow themselves. Excuse me. They didn't have vegetable gardens that they could plant and go out and pick their dinner. They became totally reliant on God.

Without Him, they died in the desert. He provided everything. Water from a rock, quail when they wanted meat, bread every morning in the form of manna. Totally reliant on Him. He brought them out of a society out of Egypt, where they worshipped other gods or knew of other gods, a society that they had looked to and become dependent on for all those necessities of life. And when He brought them out, they learned, or should have learned over 40 years, to be totally dependent on Him.

He just didn't put them into another country and have them live there with another government. They lived totally under His control, totally under His domain. He provided everything they needed, and here at Mount Sinai, He gave them a new system to live by. He brought them out of the system that was Egypt, and began giving them laws, a new system that would lead to the opposite of everything that they had experienced in Egypt.

A new life with hope, future, promise, potential that they never understood when they were there. But they learned, or they should have learned, look to Him alone. The first principle of the commandment, then, learn to rely on God for the present, and learn to rely on Him for the future, because it's all wrapped up in Him. And as He calls His people out of the world, He wants us to learn to rely on Him, and not the system that He called us out of.

Turn with me over to Matthew 6. Matthew 6, and in verse 24, here in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, and you'll remember last week we talked about the Sermon on the Mount, and how Christ expanded the teaching of the commandments, and showed the people through this sermon that there isn't just a physical law you keep, but there's a spiritual law that these commandments have.

In chapter 6 and verse 24, He touches on this first commandment. He says, No one can serve two masters. Either you'll hate the one and love the other, or else you'll be loyal to the one and despise the other. You can't serve God and Mammon. You can't serve them both. Now, Mammon is one of those words that we in the church know. When you look it up in Strongs, what it means is wealth, and wealth personified, as if that is a person or a being out there.

We can't serve God and worship Him, and then also worship wealth personified, that is this world. When He calls us, He wants us to learn through the process of our life, be totally dependent on Him. Learn to rely on Him. Matthew 6 goes on in the verses after this and says, Don't worry about food. Don't worry about clothing. Now, we have to do those things. We have to work. We have to make provision for our families. But seek first God's kingdom, serve Him first, and He'll see that all those things are added to them. That's kind of the lesson He was teaching Israel and Egypt. You seek Me first, and you know what?

I'll make sure you have everything you need. You'll have food. You'll have clothing. You'll have provision of everything that you need. And Christ says, You can't serve God and wealth. You can't serve God and mammon. Serve Him first. Do that first and turn your heart over to Him, and He'll see that all these other things, as you're living the life and all the life that He called us to live, He'll see that we have all those things. Let's turn back over to 1 John, because the Apostle John touches on this concept as well. 1 John 2, and beginning in verse 14. Of course, John, you recall, the Apostle who walked with Christ, served Him, knew how He thought, knew how He acted, reacted, interacted with people.

He was there, so He knew and He learned, and continued to learn after Christ was gone, and He had the Holy Spirit as well working with Him. Verse 14 of 1 John 2 says, I've written to you, fathers, because you've known Him who is from the beginning. I've written to you, young men, because you're strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. And then He says, Don't love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Well, that sounds like you can't serve God and Mammon. You can't serve two masters. One is preeminent, the other one you live in, you work in, you learn the lessons in, but you serve God. Don't love the world, John says.

You know, some young people over the years have said they don't like when we talk about the world. Or they've even said, when you talk about the world, what are you talking about? Because the world, I mean, we live in it. So when we talk down about the world, I suppose sometimes people can look at it and say, you're downing the very thing from which we get our sustenance. Well, if you look at the word world there in verse 15, and you probably know this, but it comes from the Greek word kosmos, k-o-s-m-o-s. What kosmos means is orderly arrangement. We might say today, a system.

So John might say, don't love the system that you're in. Don't live the orderly arrangement of how things are done in the world. When we talk about world, that's what we're talking about in church, the system of the way things are done outside of God's government. Don't love that system, he says. If you love that system, the love of the Father is not in you.

Well, if we think about the system that we live in, the governments, the way of life, the way people do things around us, is it of God? Are they following these 10 commandments that God set for his people to follow?

No. We know we're not. I don't need to turn there. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 says, the God of this world, the God of this system, is who? Satan. The God of this system that we live in is not God the Father, not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not the God who gave the 10 commandments that lead to happiness, peace, joy, and all those fruits of the Spirit that are written back there in Galatians 5. The God of this world, the God of this cosmos, the God of this system that we live in is Satan.

So it makes sense when John says, don't love this system. Don't love it. Don't put all your stock into it. Don't have faith in it. Christ said, you have to live in it. I want you to learn lessons by living in it. I want you to be there and be an example of the way of life, living in the system that we find ourselves part of.

But don't love it. Don't put all your trust and reliance on it. Don't look to it to provide everything you need, because if you're doing that, you're leaving God out. As he brought Israel out of Egypt, he didn't give them... he gave them his system. He didn't lead them into another land and put them into another place where they could grow. He kept them to himself.

And you know what Christ said, or what it says in Revelation 18.4. It says, come out of her, my people. Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 17 as well. Come out of her mentally. You live in it. You work in it. But don't love it. Don't love it. Don't do the things the way the system that you live in does. Love God. Now, how do we love God? We read it last week. We love God by doing his commandments. By doing the things that he says, even when it's contrary to our nature, even when it's contrary to what the people around us think is the way to get what they think we want.

Loving God is more than just an emotion. Loving God takes action. John talks about that as well. You have to demonstrate your love. The way we love God is choosing to do what he says to do, even when it hurts. Even when it hurts. Even with all our beings, we want to do something different. And our bodies and our minds and the people around us say, no, do it this way. But we look into the law of God and we say, no. If we love him more, we'll do it his way.

And show him the love we have by rejecting what we want and doing what he wants. So John says here, don't love the world. Don't love it. Don't love this system. Don't worship it. God says in the first commandment, he's God. Don't have any other gods before me. Not this system that you live in. Love his system. The system that will be all over the world when he returns to earth. In verse 16 here, in 1 John 2, he goes on and he says, For all that's in the world, all that's in the system that we see all around us, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

It's not of the Father. It's of the world. It's of this system. We know what the lust of the flesh is. We all know what that is. And there's times in our life, probably more times, that we want to remember that we've given in to the lust of the flesh.

And it didn't use the Holy Spirit to say no. And after we've done that, we've probably, well, hopefully when we've repented, we realized we didn't love God enough to resist. We didn't live him enough to resist.

When David, in Psalm 51, talked about repentance and in his prayer, after he sinned with Bathsheba and after Uriah, you remember in Psalm 51, he says, David knew he had sinned. He had known he had done wrong. But at the depth of him that loved God, that was choosing daily to do things the way God did, and for the rest of his life he did that. He realized in those sins he was showing God, I don't love you more than myself. I don't love you more than the lust of the flesh. I don't love you more than the lust of the eyes.

In those instances, when he fell prey to those temptations, that were part of the system that he was in at that time as well, shouldn't have been, certainly part of the system that we live in today. When you look at all the advertising that we have, everything that we see around us, it's a large part based on lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the things that put before us that we want. It's part of this system, not part of God's system.

And he says, the pride of life. What's the pride of life? We all have a pride of life. We all have an identity, right? When we come into the church, we think we are someone. We go through our lives, we go through our careers, we define ourselves as, this is our career, this is who we are. And we all have this pride about us. So you see in the world, people that want bigger houses, different cars.

Why? They want people to see something about them. They want to make a statement about who they are. Pride of life. Self. If you want to just mark in there, pride of life equals self. Isn't that what this system, isn't that what this society is all about? Self. Self aggrandizement. Me first. Self esteem. Self confidence. Have confidence in self. Pride of life. You don't need anyone else, you just need yourself. And you need the people around you is what this system and what this society would say.

That's not God's system. That's not the way of life He has called us to. We don't have confidence in self. We don't trust in ourselves. We trust in God. Reliant on Him. Dependent on Him. Absolutely trusting in Him and believing that what He says He's going to do, He's going to do. The Kingdom will come. Christ will return. It will be established. And His way of life, His system will be established on this earth, and people will live it.

And they will begin to see the benefits of living that way of life. This system, they will come to understand, never had life in it. This system of the world is all about death, just like the system that was there in Egypt. For Israel and God's people in Egypt, it was nothing except about death. This system of the world is just about death. It can't offer you eternal life. It can't offer you joy, happiness, peace, security on any lasting basis. Only God's system, only God's way of life, can do that.

Not this system. And Jod says, the things of this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, self, and the pride of life, don't. He says, it's not of the Father. It's of this system. Don't put your stock in it. Don't worship it. Don't, by your action, show that it's more important to you than God's way of life. Don't do it, He says. And the first part of the commandment, in Exodus 20, verse 2, God reminds His people, I am the Lord, your God. I am the one who brought you out of Egypt. I'm the one who brought you out of bondage. No longer a life committed to death, slavery, and no potential and no growth.

He's the one who brought all His people then and brings His people out now to a life that's full. A life with the future. A life with potential eternal life. If we show God and if we learn to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. Let's go back to the commandment again.

This time let's look at Deuteronomy. Verbiage is exactly the same in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy 5 and verse 6, He writes, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. In chapter 6 and verse 4, in this book, of course, Moses is recounting to Israel His people then and His people now. In verse 4, He says this, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. One God, a united God.

You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Now that sounds like the first commandment. I am the Lord your God, you will have no other gods before Me. Moses says, and love Him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength. With everything you have, love Him.

Back in Mark, Christ said virtually the same thing. Back in Mark 12. Picking up in Mark 12, let's start with verse 28. It says, One of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, the scribe asked Christ, Which is the first commandment of all?

Jesus answered, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, 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, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

This is the first commandment. And the second like it is this, Love your neighbor as yourself, there is no other commandment greater than these. So the scribe said to Him, Well said, teacher, you have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is none other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, all the understanding, all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that He had answered wisely, He said to Him, You're not far from the kingdom of God. This man got it. The sacrifices that God is looking for is a broken heart, a contrite mind, and for people to give their being to Him with all their might, all their soul, all their strength, and with all their heart.

It's a lifelong process, and even at the end of our physical lives, we're not there. But when Christ resurrects us, we will be. But through our lives, more and more and more understanding that we need to love God by the things and the choices we make daily with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, all our strength.

If we want His kingdom, if we want to be part of that kingdom, that's the first commandment. I am the Lord your God, have no other gods before me, one God before you. And that's God the Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know the covenant that most of us have taken, and in some time in our lives, hopefully everyone will be, is the marriage covenant.

And if you remember back to when you were married, when you, after the preamble and the introductory comments, you turned to each other and you made your vows to each other. And words like this were said to you. I'll take it from the speaking to the man, but the identical words are said to the woman. It says, Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, to love and respect her, honor and cherish her, in health and in sickness, in good times and in bad times, and forsaking all others to keep yourself only to her, so long as you both shall live?

And you say, Yes. Your wife says, Yes. And you've made a commitment before God to love and cherish her forever, respect her forever, and the same her back to you, and forsaking all others to keep yourself only to that person, one person going forward, one spouse.

I can't imagine what my life would have been like if I had married Debbie and said, You know, well, I still want this picture of my girlfriends in the past up here on the shelf. I kind of want to remember who they are, and I kind of want to, you know, email them regularly and see what's going on in their lives. No, no, no, no. You don't do that. It's forsaking all others. Keep yourself only to her, one wife, one spouse going forward.

Not a bunch of...you put all those behind. You've made a choice. You commit yourself for life to one spouse and forsake all others for as long as you live.

When we come into the church, that's the same commitment we make to God.

For sake all other gods that we had out there. One God going forward. One God we worship. Not holding on to the things of the society in our past that we kind of liked and don't want to let go of, forsaking all of it.

One God going forward. One system that we live by. That's the commitment when he calls, when we repent, when we're baptized. One commitment for eternity to one God.

There's an example I've used here before, but it's one that I very much like and it always inspires me. Turn with me back to 2 Kings. Because Ernie is an example of a king here that did forsake everything else when he came to the knowledge of God. When it came to his attention that Israel wasn't following God's laws. And it's back in 2 Kings 23. And I just want to read through, not the whole chapter, but some highlights of it. To give you an idea and a reminder, I guess, of what Josiah did. In 2 Kings 23 and verse 1, it says, It says, All his soul. To perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. He was committing, I'm forsaking all others, I'm committing to live this way. And the people took a stand for the covenant. And the king, it says, commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, for all the hosts of heaven, and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. Bring them out here, and let's get them out of our sight. He said, no longer part of the system that we're going to be living by. And he removed in verse 3 the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the city of Judah, and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, to all the hosts of heaven, the systematic forsaking all others that were there at the start of the past. And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the Eternal in the brook Kidron outside Jerusalem. He burned it in the brook Kidron, grounded to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. And he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Eternal, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He broke down the high places at the gates, which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were left to the city gate. You see what he's doing, one by one. He's going through the system, the landscape of Israel, just the way we should be going through the landscape of our minds. And one by one, he's casting those things out, no longer part of the way of life he's going to be living, and that Judah is going to be living. Just like the things that we cast out of our lives, no longer part of the system that we go through. In verse 11, he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. Down in verse 14, he broke in pieces, the sacred pillars, and cut down the wooden images. Verse 16, Heva went into the tombs, and says he took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar. But when he came to one that was a man of God, it says in verse 17, he said, leave those bones alone. So in verse 19, he took away all the shrines of the high places. Verse 20, he executed all the priests of the high places, and then they kept the Passover.

In verse 21, turning to God, beginning again their life with Him, but before the Passover, they went through. They examined the land. They examined everything that was about them, and they cast it all out. In verse 24, he put away mediums and spiritists. In verse 25, it says, Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and with all his might, according to the law of Moses, nor after did any arise like him.

Right down the line, Josiah gave it all to God. He read that first commandment and said, no other God before you, all the other gods gone, right through the landscape of Israel, just like we should go through the landscape of our minds. When we do that, when we commit to God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, forsaking all the other gods that have been there, then we will experience what he wanted mankind to experience.

Josiah did it. Hopefully we're in the process of doing that. It's a lifelong process. It doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen all before baptism. It happens every year as we go through our lives. More and more things we see that stand between us and God.

And our job, if we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, cast them away. Foursake them. Trust only in him.

You know in the Bible, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had wives. One of those men had two wives. Remember? Jacob was fooled into marrying Leah, and he loved Leah less by comparison, is what the Bible said. He really wanted to marry Rachel, and so he worked more for Rachel to be able to marry her. And so Jacob went through his life with two wives. One that he loved very much, one that he was tricked into marrying, but she was the one who God blessed. She had six sons, a daughter. Rachel was barren for a number of years until God blessed her with a couple of boys, and then she died. Jacob's life was probably interesting with two wives. Even though they were sisters, there was a lot of contention, I would guess. There was jealousy going on. As you read through the accounts there of Leah and Rachel, Rachel wasn't happy that Leah was having those babies and that God was blessing her and she wasn't having them. And Jacob learned, perhaps through the course of his life with two wives, it's pretty difficult, pretty difficult to commit yourself to two people. He committed to Leah, but then later he committed to Rachel. And he didn't forsake all others. And life wasn't as good and it caused him some problems. Down the road, and a little bit later we'll talk about some of that. But when we commit to God, we can't have another God. One God is who we commit to. One system we commit to. And he tells us what that system and what that way of life is. Let's look at a couple examples here that Christ gave that pertain to this commandment. Back in Matthew 19 is a well-known story. Matthew 19 and beginning in verse 16.

This is the story of the rich young man who comes to Christ. And he wants to live that way of life. And he wants to follow him. Verse 16, it says, someone came to him and said, good teacher, what thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And Christ said to him, why do you call me good? No one's good, but one. That's God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.

If you want eternal life, if you want what God has to offer, love him. Do what he says to do. He said to him, the young man said to him, which one? Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man said to him, I've done all these things for my youth. What do I still lack?

Christ said to him, if you want to be perfect, if you want to become blameless, if you want to walk down this road, go. Sell what you have and give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.

And the young man heard that saying, when he heard it, he went away sorrowful. For he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, assuredly I say to you, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

What was that young man missing? He couldn't commit to have no other gods before God. He had possessions. Christ wasn't asking him, or he gave him an example here, go and sell, and give it all away.

Sacrifice all that and follow me. The young man looked at what he had, his wealth, his bank account, his house, his cars, and maybe his livelihood that was producing all that, and said, no, no, no. I can't do that. I can't come out of this system and give that up for you.

What was he saying? I don't love you enough to do that. Christ, I don't love you enough to give away my livelihood and my possessions. Now, perhaps later on in life he was. You know, many are called into the church, and once in a while you meet someone who has a problem with the Sabbath.

And many, many, you know, that you know, give up a job to keep God's way. Others you come across just can't do it. And as you talk with them, I think about this. Can't do it. God gave me this job, and I'm not going to sacrifice working on the Sabbath.

God wouldn't want me to do that. Yeah, is what, yes, you tell them, but then you don't hear from them anymore.

Christ is saying to the young man, no other gods. You can't love God and the world. It's okay to have those things. It's okay to have a job. It's okay to have possessions. God gives us those things.

But if they come between you and God, that you say, as this young man did, sorry, I can't give it up, you haven't kept the First Commandment.

Whatever stands between you and God is a God that has to be put away so that you are loving God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.

With your emotions, with your thoughts, with your strength, all your resources, with all your soul, and even your identity, who you are changes when you follow God and him only.

All those other things, pride of life, lust of flesh, lust of eyes, sacrificed, showing God, I choose you. This young man couldn't do it.

Christ was showing in this example, keeping the First Commandment is difficult. It requires faith in him and learning to have reliance on him. This young man couldn't do it.

And in our age, there's people that can't do it either. They can't give up themselves. They can't give up self. Can't give up possessions. Can't give up jobs. Can't give up lifestyles. Because it's more important to them than God.

Let's go back to Luke 14 and see another example of something that stood between people and God.

Luke 14, verse 26. Again, Christ speaking says in verse 25, Harsh words. Harsh words. Now, hate, we understand, means loveless by comparison. He's telling people, If you come to follow me, no other gods before me. What I say is preeminent, God says. My system, my way of life, what you've been called to, that is the priority from here on out.

And if mother and father say differently, if brother and sister say differently, if friends and employers and co-workers say differently, you don't pay attention to them. You pay attention to me. If you commit to follow me, God says, you follow all my principles. And if you have to forsake family, if you have to forsake friends, if you have to forsake any people, don't let them stand between you and God. You keep God first, is what he's saying.

You know people, I know people, and I've given the example here of someone who worked with me for many years. Obviously, she was being called and understood the things and should have come to church. But what always came between her and committing to God was her children. Every single time, when she was ready to go, Christmas came up and she couldn't let go of Christmas because it was important to them. Or it was something else that she had to do that had to be done on a Sabbath or a Holy Day. Every single time, she chose child and children over God. Every single time.

That's what he's talking about here. The first commandment is, no other gods before me. No, nothing more important. You choose me first, is what God is saying. All our lives we grow up and we obey our parents, and that's exactly what we should do, but there may come a time in life when we're called and God says, there comes a time you choose me first over them.

What he's saying in here to these people is, I'm the Lord your God. You will have no other gods, even if their name is mom or dad or brother or sister or friend or employer. No other gods before me. Back in 1 Samuel, I'm going to quickly go through. I used this example at the feast when I spoke, and it's a very telling example here of the high priest Eli. Back in 1 Samuel 2, Eli was a high priest. His job was to, of course, serve God with all his heart, mind, and soul. For many years, apparently, he did that, but then he had sons who grew up, and the sons weren't following things, following God's way. It says in 1 Samuel 2, verse 12, the sons of Eli were corrupt. They didn't know God. They weren't following him. They weren't paying attention to what he had to do. They were just kind of using their father's position for their own benefit. Verse 23. So Eli heard what the sons were doing, and it was horrendous things when you read through the verses here that they were doing. And he said to them, Why do you do such things, sons? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. And he said, No, my sons, it's not a good report that I hear. You make the people, the God's people transgress.

So he went to them, and he told them what they were doing wrong. He did the right thing by approaching them. But you know what? He did not take them out of the service of the tabernacle. He let them keep being there. They kept doing the same things. And even though he went and told them, he didn't take them out of that service, even though he knew they were perverting the things of God. Down in verse 27, it says, You hear what he's saying to Eli? Why are you putting your sons before me? Eli, you're not keeping the first commandment, and you're entrusted with setting the example to God's people.

He's telling Eli, put God first. Eli put his sons first, and what they wanted first. And that system, that decision, as you read down through the rest of 1 Samuel 2 here, led to death.

Whenever we choose a system different than God's, it leads to death. Let's look at another one back in Matthew 15. Something else we can put between us and God.

Matthew 15, verse 1. The scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands when they eat bread. Christ answered and said to them, Why do you transgress the commandment of God? Because of your tradition. For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother, he who curses mother or father, let him be put to death.

What you say, he says, whoever says to his father or mother, whatever prophet you might have received from me is a gift to God, then he need not honor his father or mother. Thus you've made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. And he calls them hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, This people draws near to me with their mouth, They honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

Down in verse 13, he says, after they discuss it more, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.

So here we had people, the Pharisees, who had all these other rules that people were going to follow. They were supposed to all support the Ten Commandments of the system of God, but sometimes they got in the way of those commandments. And in verse 13, Christ says, Every plant which has been planted that my Father hasn't planted will be uprooted. Here's what the Barnes Commentary says about this verse. It says, Religious doctrine is not in aptly compared to a plant.

It's planted in the mind for the purpose of producing fruit in life or right conduct. Jesus here says that all those doctrines or ideas of which his Father was not the author, must be rooted up or corrected. The false doctrines were the false ideas of the Pharisees. Therefore, had to be attacked, and it was no wonder that they were indignant. It couldn't be helped. It was Christ's duty to attack and uproot those ideas that were coming between the people and God's will.

They had their own ideas.

They were looking at themselves and they thought, you know what, this is what this command means and this is what you people need to follow.

Probably started off very innocently. But over time, those ideas took preeminence over the law of God. So even in the examples that Christ says here in the opening verses of chapter 15, you can see that they were pretty much trumping the commandment of God. The ideas of the Pharisees, the ideas of the chief priests of that time, interfered with the will of God, interfered with the truth of God. No longer were they keeping that first commandment, have no other God before me.

Their ideas, their way of doing things, their interpretations took preeminence.

And you know what? Those people couldn't let go of them.

None of them took, stepped back, took stock, and said, you know what, Christ, you're right.

They couldn't let go of their ideas. They were too much a part of their identity.

They were too much a part of who they were. And it was very difficult for them to lay it all down and say, I'll give that to you, and it's going to be thrown out because you follow God first. And you love Him with all your heart. All your mind where ideas emanate. All your soul and all your strength.

They couldn't do it. They couldn't tumble themselves. They couldn't look at things correctly.

And what they did, to Christ we know.

A system that didn't produce life. A system that didn't produce peace.

A system that didn't produce joy. But a system that produced death of the Savior that was sent to them. And they rejected Him. They had their own ideas, their own identity, and they weren't about to give that up to let God define the identity that He had for them.

The first commandment says an awfully lot.

It requires us, and if we're going to follow God, it requires us to give up ourselves to follow Him.

Give Him our heart. Give Him our soul, our identity. Give Him our mind and emotions and let Him direct and lead them.

And give Him our strength. Give Him and honor Him with our substance as well as with our time and our minds.

Only with God's Holy Spirit can we ever do that. Impossible for men to do that. As you read through the Old Testament, as you read through the New Testament of the examples, can't do it. Not one of us can do that. No one can keep that commandment without God's Holy Spirit running through our minds.

This commandment has to be very personal to us. We can't understand what it means. I can sit here and I can tell you the things that I need to give up, the things that I needed to sacrifice to God, and the things that I don't even know yet that God will show down the road. But what my walk with Christ is, is totally different than yours.

We all have different things than our background. We all have different ideas, identities, weaknesses, faults. Every single one of us has those things, and every single one of us need to lay them down before God and ask Him to give us the strength to do all those things, to give Him all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

David did this. You know how David came to understand how to keep that first commandment? It wasn't by someone giving him a list of do this, do that. David prayed. David fasted. David read the Word of God just like Deuteronomy 17 says kings should do. I'm sure he read it every day of his life so that he understood what was in that book of life. But David also meditated. David thought about things. When he had spare time, he sought God.

And in those hours that David meditated, in the still of the night, God showed him the things that he needed to do, and God gave David a love of his system, a love of his way of life, a love of the commandments. Let's turn back to Psalm 119. We just hit a few verses here in Psalm 119 where over and over we see David as he's talking about the law, he loves the law, and his delight is in the law where he talks about the times that he meditates.

Psalm 119, and we'll run through a few verses here, verse 15. He says, I will meditate on your precepts. I will contemplate your ways. Verse 23, he says, Princes sit and speak against me, but your servant meditates on your statutes.

He wasn't worrying about what others were doing to them. He chose instead to meditate on God's precepts. Verse 27, he says, Make me understand the way of your precepts, so shall I meditate on your wonderful works. Over in verse 97, and I'm not hitting every one of them here, just highlighting a few, it's written, Oh, how I love your law.

It's my meditation all the day. It's in my mind all the time. David says he chose to make that his meditation. It just didn't automatically happen. There were choices that he had to make. You, or verse 99, I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. That's what I think about, David is saying. Over in verse 148, My eyes, he says, are awake through the night watches.

Laying awake at night. One, two, three hours, who knows how long? My eyes are awake through the night watches. What is he thinking about while he lays awake there in the still of the night with nothing else going on? Says that I may meditate on your word. David made choices when he thought about what God's word was. Paul said, think on these things, remember?

Remember when he said, think on things that are noble? Where's that Philippians 4? Verse 8, think on noble things, good things. Fill your mind with those things. Rather than the latest football score and what the team could have done differently to change that outcome, think about God's word when you have those times. Fill your mind with that. And God will lead you to how to keep that first commandment better. You can also write down there, I'm not going to turn to him, Psalm 63, verse 6, and Psalm 77, verses 6 and 12, where David talks about meditation.

But turn with me over to 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5. And let's pick up at the beginning of the sentence up in verse 3. Paul writes, though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Everything that wants to present itself as, I know better than what God does. I have a better idea. I have a better way. Casting down all those things because they're false thoughts, he says.

And at the tail end of verse 5, he says, Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. What a tall order that is! Every thought, all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, is wrapped up in that first commandment. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 5. One last thing we, well, among many things, one last thing for today that we can see in that commandment.

Deuteronomy 5, verse 7, says, You shall have no other gods before me. We said that several times today. Now, in your margin of your Bible, perhaps it has the same thing that mine has there next to verse 7.

And it says, with a little mark by before, besides. Meaning you can read the verse, or maybe should be read, as you look back at the Strongest Good Accordance for the word before, You shall have no other gods besides me. Because the word before would indicate, as long as you have God first, it's okay to have all these other little gods, as long as he's first. But if you read the verse, you shall have no other gods besides me. One god. Not one primary god and little gods of self, and little gods of all these other things. One god. You shall have no other gods besides me. Now, your margin probably says, as mine does, Hosea 13, verse 4. So let's look at Hosea 13, verse 4. Hosea is after the book of Daniel. Hosea 13, verse 4. It says, Yet I am the Lord your God, ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but me. For there is no Savior besides me. No gods besides me. No Saviors besides me. First, in your life, and the only God in your life. Just like Josiah went through that landscape of Israel and Arjuna, and he wiped out everything that he could find that was between God, between the people and God. Just as we go through our lives, wiping out the landscape of our minds, every idea, every false thought, everything that we hold dear, and we give it to God. All our heart, all our identity or soul, all our mind, ideas, and emotions, and all our strength. Everything we have, no other gods besides him. Now let's go back for a moment and visit Jacob and Leah and Rachel. Back in Genesis 31, this is after Jacob has been living in Laban's or working for Laban for many years, and you recall the story of the speckled goats and the white goats and how God enriched Jacob. And it comes time for them to leave, and they're packing up their belongings and heading out the door. They decide not to tell Laban that they're leaving. They're just going to take Jacob's going to take the family, the wives, and just leave. Genesis 31, verse 12. Now I don't want to read all through verse 12. You can read that. Let's go down to verse 17. Jacob rose and set his sons and his wives on camels, and he carried away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had gained, his acquired livestock which he had gained in Pat and Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. Now Laban, his father-in-law, had gone to shear his sheep. Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father's.

So part of what she was packing up, as they were packing up their belongings, Rachel, while her father was out, decided she was going to go in and pack up these little things in Laban's house. These little household idols, if you were, little representations of things that Laban held dear, and apparently Rachel held dear as well.

Verse 20, Jacob stole away unknown to Laban the Syrian, and that he didn't tell him that he intended to flee.

Well, when he came back home that night, you can understand that he was upset. Here, in that morning, he had his daughters, all his grandchildren, his son-in-law, who he knew had been a blessing to him all those years. They were all gone.

And he looked around his house, and he noticed they took what was theirs, except all these little household gods, all these little household idols were gone. And that infuriated him as well. How dare they leave without leaving? And if they're going to leave, why would they take these household idols as well? And so he goes out to catch them. Verse 30. And when he catches up with them, he says to them, Now you have surely gone, because you greatly longed for your father's house, but why did you have to steal my gods? Why did you take those with you? Wasn't it enough that you just take everything else? And then you remember the story. As he goes through, and Jacob said, we didn't take your gods. Not one of us need those gods for anything. And he said, you can search everything of us, and if you find anyone that's taken those gods, that person can be put to death. And you remember the story of Rachel? She sat on those idols, gave her father an excuse, he believed her, and he never found those idols. But Rachel kept them well hidden. But Rachel wasn't going to leave that house without those little idols behind her. What does that say about Rachel? Leah didn't do that. The Bible doesn't say Leah went back in and found her own little favorite things that were very important to her, that she had to have with her to feel comfortable. But Rachel did. God, if you remember, blessed Leah, she had six sons. And Dinah. Rachel was barren for many of those years. Could it be that God saw something in Rachel's heart that was different? That she had a predisposition to not have only one God?

Could it be? Let's look at Genesis 35. Genesis 35, verse 16. As they are traveling, it says, And when there was a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, Don't fear, you'll have this son also. Benjamin was being born. And so it was, as her soul was departing, for she died, that she called his name Benoni, but his father called him Benjamin. So verse 19, Rachel died. She was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem, and Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day. So she died in childbirth. They were in the process of going from one place to another. Rachel's buried out in a place that they didn't call home. But he put a pillar up for her. Back in Genesis 49, verse 29, As Jacob has gathered his sons together, and Joseph's two sons, and given them the blessings that, in chapter 49, that we read about, he says this at the end of chapter 49, verse 29, he says, He charged them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephrath and Hittite. It was important to Jacob, where he was going to be laid to rest. And he says, Bury me there in Ephrath, in the cave that's in the field of Machpala, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham brought, or bought, with the field of Ephrath, that Hittite is a possession for a burial place. There they buried Abraham. There they buried Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, all these fixtures, all these patriarchs, all these people who were loyal to God, His wife, and there he says, I buried Leah. Leah buried there, her body honored, with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah. And Jacob, as he's in Egypt, says, Carry me back and marry me in that cave, with those people, with those people of character.

And named in that is Leah. Leah the less-loved wife, but perhaps the wife with more character. The wife who loved her husband with all her heart, soul, and mind. And perhaps Leah, like the others that are mentioned there, who loved God with all her heart, soul, and mind.

Perhaps God is telling us something about how we honor Him and keeping this First Commandment no other gods besides me.

Let's read again the First Commandment here, Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 5.

Let's read Chapter 6, Verse 5.

One more time, Moses' words.

He says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your strength.

We know that. We've talked about it. Let me suggest that we add another word into that sentence there.

You shall love and commit to the Lord your God, all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

When we love someone that way, we're committing to them.

When we marry our spouses, we commit to them, and we enter a covenant.

Commit to God to love Him with the valuable definition of what love is, and that's keeping and doing His commandments and choosing to live that way.

Commit to love Him with all your heart, all your strength, all your soul, and all your mind.

Deuteronomy 5, verse 6.

In conclusion, I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.

After Thanksgiving, we'll go through the second commandment. But might I suggest that between now and then, you meditate, pray, and think about this commandment. And ask God to help you and show you how you can keep it with all those elements that He's asked us to.