This exposition of Exodus 20:1-3 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Bapitst Church on Sunday morning, February 10, 2019.
Intro:
Tensions were high. There was an eerie silence. Elijah, the prophet of God, had called for this “religious summit.” 850 prophets to the pagan god stood on one side. Elijah the man of God stood alone on the other.
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The proposition was clear. Let us both build an altar and call on the name of our god. The one who answers by fire is the true and living God. The prophets of Baal prepared their sacrifice and then began their elaborate ritual. They called out to their god from morning to midday. But there was no voice. They shouted louder. They cut themselves with swords and lances in an effort to coax their god into responding but to no avail. The heavens were silent. They danced, they mourned, they wailed, they sang, nothing. The time of the evening sacrifice came. Their efforts, though more intense, brought nothing. Elijah taunted them. “Louder! Perhaps he is asleep or on a journey.” “Who knows, maybe he stepped out to go to the restroom.” Finally Elijah stepped forward, repaired the altar of Israel. Placed 12 stones around the altar (one for each of the sons of Jacob). He instructed that a trench be dug around the altar and then ordered that the altar and the sacrifice to be dowsed with water. Again. And again. So that the whole was soaking wet and the trench was filled with water. Then he prayed a simple prayer:
“O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”
And the fire of God fell and consumed the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust and licked up the water. And the people fell on their faces and cried, “Yahweh is God! Yahweh is God!”
Elijah asked the question, “How long will you linger between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow him. But if Baal is god, then follow him.” It is the same test Moses put before the people of Israel on the verge of the Promise Land. It is the same truth Paul proclaimed to the elite philosophers of the Areopagus in Acts 17. He said, “I note you are a very religious people. Your city is filled with gods. You even have an altar to “the unknown god.” What you worship as unknown – I want to proclaim to you. I want to tell you of the God who made heaven and earth and everything in it. He doesn’t live in a temple made with human hands and he does not need your service since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Isaiah the prophet thundered: “And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.” Isaiah 45:21
The biblical record is clear, there is only one God and he will not share his glory with another. This morning we begin a look at the Ten Commandments by considering that first word spoken from the smoke and fire of Sinai.
Text: Exodus 20:1-3
God spoke these words.
This is God’s revealed will for his people.
Thesis: God’s first word, thundered from Sinai, claims your supreme allegiance and your exclusive devotion.
There are two things I want to point out to you.
- God sovereignly forbids giving allegiance to anyone or anything other than to Him alone.
- The Sovereign LORD expects your exclusive devotion in response to who He is and what He’s done.
Conclusion:
There are a couple of tests. There is the “love test” and the “trust test.”
Love test - “What each one honors before all else, what before all things he admires and loves, this for him is god.” - Origen
Trust test - What do you trust? When you are in trouble, where do you turn? “Whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is properly your god.” - Luther
I realize we are just getting started and this is just the first of ten commandments – but how are you doing so far? James says if you break one you’ve broken them all. But there is good news for law breakers – John 3:16; 1 John 1:9. The apostle Paul reminds us the purpose of the law is to reveal the sinfulness of sin and to drive us to the Savior (Galatians 3).
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