The First Word

Introduction

Jane is a nice enough lady. High achiever. Gifted artist. If she visited our church, you would all enjoy her company. But she’s an idolator. Don’t get me wrong, she believes in Jesus, has even memorized large portions of scripture. She’s a Christian but she doesn’t trust Jesus very much. She refuses to take responsibility for her sin. Instead, she blames other people. Because Jane is smart, she makes pretty convincing arguments to herself that her breakup was all her ex-boyfriend’s fault, and she didn’t get the full ride to college years ago because someone on the board was a misogynist. She’s an idolator because she refuses to see that her sin needs saving.

The Passage

Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:1–3

Explain the Passage

God introduces His commands, not as commander, but savior. God introduces Himself as the god who brought them out of Egypt and out of slavery (v.2). The first word is not worshipping anyone else. Verse 3 literally says, “there shall not be for you another god before my face” God isn’t just saying no god higher than Him, but no other god around him (e.g., 2 Kings 21:7). This also means that idolatry outside the sanctuary is forbidden because all idolatry begins in the heart (Ezek 14).

Savior and Lord

Luther said that the first word requires you to “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Human beings fear, love, and trust because human beings worship. God made every person as a worshipper. Everyone is worshipping something or someone. The first word says it should be God alone.

Because we are created beings, we long to worship someone greater than us. Because we are sinful beings, we long to worship someone who can save us. God, in these first 3 verses shows us He is our savior and our lord. He is our maker and our sustainer. He gives the law and also takes away the penalty of breaking the law. He is the source of our fear, awe, adoration, and trust. To worship is to fear, revere, adore, and trust. So, anytime we refuse to worship Him, we commit idolatry.

Idol Factories and BOGO

Hearts make idols. Calvin said heart is a factory of idols. Paul said something similar in Titus 3:17. We are foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved to our sin. We choose other saviors and lords. We choose other things to fear, revere, adore, and trust. Anne tells herself that her family depends on her. What she really means is she has a savior complex. She works double shifts to pay for her daughter’s violin even though she and her daughter both hate classical music. She judges her husband as lazy and undependable, and the rest of the house knows it. Now, we could diagnose Anne with pride and slander, but ultimately, she’s worshipping an idol—herself.

Idols are attracted to other idols. Anne’s husband, Rick, also has a heart worshipping an idol. Anne thinks he’s lazy because he spends his free time watching football or playing video games. But she doesn’t know that he’s also extremely anxious over the economy and talk of new owners at the company he works at. Rick worships stability, and sports are the only thing he thinks stable at the moment. For Anne to be the savior of the family (her idol), Rick must be too lazy to get involved (his idol). But also Rick lives in his head idolizing the good ole’ days feeds Anne’s pride of making the “right” decisions for everyone else in the family. Rick’s idols feed on Anne’s and Anne’s feed on Rick’s. Idols come in clusters and are buy one get one free.

You become what you worship. Psalm 115 shows us that when we worship idols that don’t speak, we end up not saying anything worth saying. When you worship fashion and clothes, you become a mannequin. When you worship money, you become as spineless and gutless as dollar bill. When you worship your own fame and glory, you become the loudspeaker that hurts everyone’s ears. You become what you worship.  

Jesus Fought the Battle of Jericho

When God saved Israel from the slavery of Egypt, He also saved them from the slavery of their idols (Josh 24:14). After the Exodus, the ministry of Joshua was to take dominion over Canaanites who worshipped idols as well as the Israelites who still desired idols (Josh 24:14-24).

In the New Covenant, we receive a similar but better ministry. Jesus, the new Joshua, saves us from our sins. He takes the penalty of our sin on Himself (Rom 8:1). He sends God the Spirit who makes our bodies a temple of Christ who resides united with our spirit (1 Cor 6:17-20). He has now tasked His church to take dominion over this world (Matt 28:18-20). But we do not fight with swords and grenades but more powerful weapons.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. 2 Cor 3:3-5

Jesus is a newer and better Joshua. He has tasked us to win with worship. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho with 6 days of silence and 1 day of song because God said (Josh 6:3-4). Jehoshaphat sent singers into battle because God promised victory (1 Chron 20). Jesus has all rule and authority in the heavenly places (Eph 1:19-23) and He has seated us with Him in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6). When we come to worship on Sunday, we have come to the heavenly Zion, not just to worship the One True God, but to destroy idols (Heb 12:22-24). Worship is warfare.

Run from Idols and Run to God

1 John ends with “little children, flee from idols (5:21).” Idolatry is something we are to run from and worship of the triune God is something we should run to. Christians should be running, fleeing people.

Run from the idols you see. Like Rick and Anne, we can always see the idols in another person’s life better than our own. But we can’t repent of someone else’s idolatry. We can only repent of our own. Here are some questions to find your idols. So, what are you worshipping? Where do you go for joy? What do you fear more than anything? What do you dream about? I don’t recommend going to another person asking them to help you find your idol to repent of because their idol may depend on your idols. Most people are people pleasers for this reason.

Run to worship on Sunday to worship God. Our earlier passage this morning from Hebrews 12 shows us that when this world shakes, we should run to God because He is powerful enough to protect us (vv. 28-29). The God who is shaking the idols of this world is standing secure. We should stand with Him instead of with our idols. That means approaching Him thankfully and reverently.

Repent of our lax view of God. If you do not come to worship on Sunday thankfully and reverently, then you likely aren’t doing it when its hard all week. If your worship of God is cold on Sunday, it’s because you’ve given your white-hot worship to idols.

Conclusion

Don’t be discouraged by the idolatry in your own hearts. Just break the idols. But don’t be discouraged. One day Jesus will crush all the idols of this world under His feet because one day every knee will bow, and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:10-11).