Recap of the 10 Commandments

Now we began the series in the 10 Commandments last Sunday. This is part of a series through the book of Deuteronomy. After the sermon last Sunday, my son said to me, the poem I used cannot make it because even after I shared the poem, people still cannot, he cannot remember the 10 Commandments. But thankfully, we have many helpful Gospel Lighters, and one of them sent me a video of how someone would memorize or remember the 10 Commandments. I made some minor adjustments or modifications, but here it goes. The first commandment is, there is only one God. You shall have no other gods before Me, simple, one. The second commandment is, you shall not make unto yourself any graven image nor bow down before them. Number two, can? Commandment number three, do not take the name of the Lord in vain. Therefore, it’s about not speaking or holding your tongue. So, number one, first commandment is no other gods. Number two, not bow down to graven image. Number three, don’t take the name of God in vain. Okay? Number four, four is kind of like this sleep, so you should remember the Lord’s Day, a day off rest and, of course, amongst other things, a reflection and worship, but rest.

Commandment number five, what is it? Honor your father and your mother, all right. Number five. Number six, something like this, and you can think of it as pulling a trigger. You shall not kill. Very good. So, recap again. Number one, only one God, no other gods. You can practice, then you can remember. Number two, no other gods. Don’t bow before the other gods. Number three, stop your mouth. Do not take the name of God in vain. Number four, rest. Remember the seventh day. Number five, Honor your father and your mother. Number six, you shall not kill. Number seven, something like this, you should love your wife, your husband, and it should be together. You shall not commit adultery. Number eight, well, in olden times, people cut off your fingers and your thumbs if you steal. So, number eight, no more thumb. You shall not steal. Okay. Number nine, I admit, is a bit lame, but the best we can do is number nine, four is not five. Five is not four. You shall not lie. All right, most lame one, but okay, we got to find something for it. And then number ten, you shall not, you shall not, not massage. You shall not covet. Don’t grab but instead, be generous to give. So, these are the 10 Commandments. Hopefully it will help you remember them in its right sequence.

First Commandment and Its Importance

Well, today we continue this series by looking at the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” We say in Chinese, “上梁不正下梁歪Shàng liáng bùzhèng xià liáng wāi”, means, if the pillar on top is crooked, the bottom one will also be crooked. So, if you cannot keep the first commandment, you will not be able to keep the rest of the commandments. The first commandment is therefore the most important commandment. It is the key to being able to live a godly, righteous, holy life, as we will soon see. But today, let’s look at the first commandment. That’s all that we’re going to focus on. Chapter five, verse seven. It’s a call. It’s a passage that teaches us about worship.

Human Instinct for Worship

 So let me share three things with you from this one verse. Number one, we see that there is a capacity for worship that is indicated or presumed in the text. You shall have no other gods, or you shall not have other gods before me. That means we are all created to worship. Man has an instinct for worship, a desire for worship, a capacity for worship, doesn’t matter who you are. There is always something, someone you are loving, serving, depending upon, because we can never find that full satisfaction in and of ourselves. In 2004, there was this book by Dean Hamer about “the God gene”. Twenty-one years ago, and he’s exploring where does this instinct for worship come from? Is it hard wired in our DNA, in our genetic makeup, or not? Well, I think even up to today, it remains a query, a question, no one really knows. But in the same year, in “Time” magazine, I think the October issue, “the God gene” is also presented as the cover page of the magazine. So, people are wondering, where does this instinct come from? Nevertheless, I think it is quite clear. We are all created for worship. We are all created with the capacity for worship. The Bible speaks about this drive, this capacity. In Romans, chapter one, the Bible tells us that we can know God, His existence, from the creation of the world.

The writer, Apostle Paul, makes it clear, His invisible attributes are clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. (Romans 1:20-25) When you see the stars, the elephant, a human being, the water cycle, you look under the microscope, when you see all creation, it speaks to you “Creator”. There is a Creator behind all this marvelous creation. But the problem is that even though we can clearly know that there is God deep in our hearts, sinful man chooses to suppress this knowledge of God. We don’t want to acknowledge God because we love our works of darkness. So, we did not honor Him as God, nor give thanks to Him. And our foolish hearts are now darkened. And instead of worshiping this God, we now create other gods to worship. We exchange the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal men, birds, animals, creeping things. You see, even though we suppress the knowledge of God, the instinct and the drive for worship is not extinguished. It must be expressed. And so, man finds other objects of worship, because there is a drive and capacity for worship. And now we worship and serve the creature. We serve created things, rather than the Creator Himself. All this speaks of the capacity and the drive for worship.

Kent Hughes, a preacher, says that there are actually only two kinds of people in this world, true worshippers or true idolaters, because all have a God. We all love and serve something in our lives. So, this commandment reminds us of the capacity for worship. You and I today, we are looking for something and someone to worship. That’s where we tie the meaning and the purpose and the significance of our lives too.

Competition in Worship

But secondly, in this text, we see the competition in worship, because God says, “You shall have no other gods.” Now bring ourselves to the people of Israel. God is saying to Israel, “You shall have no other gods.” And I think the context there is very obvious. Israel had been slaves for 400 years in Egypt. And in Egypt you have what? In Egypt you have not pyramids, but in Egypt you have many gods. I checked up. Someone said that there are 2000 over gods in Egypt. But I checked chat GPT, they say there are hundreds of gods. So, I think chat GPT should be more “chun” [accurate]. Nevertheless, Egypt is a place where that there are many gods. It’s really interesting, because when God inflicted the 10 Plagues upon Egypt, scholars tell us that these 10 Plagues directly address or attack these false gods. So don’t bother to take the notes. It’s too small for you to see. You can easily Google. The 10 Plagues are a kind of war that God wages against the various false gods of Egypt. So, Israel came from there, and God says, “You shall have no other gods.” Maybe this is what you have been familiar with, but you shall have no other gods. And indeed, when Israel will cross the river Jordan into the Promised Land, they will also face a people with many gods. In Canaan, there are many Baals, false gods. They call them Baals there. And people actually offer their children as child sacrifices to these gods. And again, God is saying, “You shall have no other gods before me.” But you say, “What’s this got to do with me? I don’t come from Egypt. We are not near Egypt, and we’re not going to Canaan.” Well, in today’s day and age, this verse still sounds true, or is still very relevant. There are five major religions in the world, but if you count all other religions inside there are, I’m told, 4,000 religions in existence today. And if you count all the religions throughout history, they say there are 10,000 religions. That’s a lot. And as for the number of gods, chat, GPT also tells me, it’s about 100,000 gods. There are many gods, and God is saying there is only one true God. In a world of tolerance, this sounds unacceptable, but that is the reality.

Modern Idols and Their Impact

Now, some of you may say, I don’t have all these traditional religions or gods. I don’t believe these things. But let me say to you that the definition or the understanding of other gods is wider than just these recognized religions in the world, because an idol is simply anything that substitutes for God in your life. It can be a car, it can be a girlfriend, it can be a child, it can be a project in your workplace. It can be a house, it can be anything, but anything that you love, anything that you trust, anything that you serve more than God, that has become your idol. It was Martin Luther who said “Whatever we make the most of is our God”, and “That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God.” So, what are some of the modern gods that compete for the place of God in our hearts? I think what is very obvious to me will be that of possessions, things, stuff, things that we long for, work hard for, we think about, we dream about all the time. And by the way, these possessions can be your God, even though you come to church every Sunday morning. You can come to church and you look like you worship this God of the Bible, but actually, deep in your hearts, you are still dreaming about this stuff.

Twenty over years ago, I was in China sharing God’s word, and I remember at that point of time, I was not in a very good state, I think because I was all thinking about and obsessed about my car. I do not know about you, but I guess men, when they grow up, they kind of think about these things. And I was surrounded with friends who always talk about cars. So, while I was preaching in China, I was thinking about my car, how to “zhng” [add accessories] the car, how to make the car more “fierce.” And I was thinking about all those things. I was thinking, in particular about a stupid thing, a bumper for my car. Want to make the car look more “fierce” right? You got to make it lower so you find a bumper. And that’s what I was thinking about. That kind of bumper. This is kind of what my car looked like, except that it was black. I said, the bumper will make it look a bit more “fierce.” So, as I was preaching, I was thinking about my bumper. Can you imagine a preacher like this? I know some of you are now beginning to judge me. Wah this guy? “Jialat”, what a stupid fellow. What bumper? But before you judge me, that’s how I think about you. When you talk about your Birkin back and your Gucci bag and your Chanel shoes, I also don’t know what you’re doing. Why you like this kind of stupid things, plastic bag cannot meh? So why spend so much money on these things and dream about them? Buy this. Buy that I don’t understand. But you see, we don’t understand that these things have a magical hold upon our hearts, sometimes. Now I look at it as a stupid bumper. It really is, because every time I go down the slope, I got to drive very slowly. Every time I go over the hump, slow down like crazy, always that scratch. But these are the idols. These are the stuff. Now I’m not saying that stuff is bad. I’m not saying that the handbags you buy are bad, the shoes you buy are bad. I’m not saying that, but good things can become bad things when they replace God in our lives, when we love them and serve them and depend upon them more than the God of the Bible.

There’s a story that is really fascinating in the Bible. A man came to Jesus asking about the way of salvation and life, how to have eternal life. And Jesus said to him, I think rather cheekily, “Obey all the commandments.” And this man actually said, “Which one?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, love your neighbor as yourself. And this man then said, “Oh, all these ah? I kept them since I was young, man.” What kind of pride and audacity, but never mind. Jesus was very wise. He didn’t kind of address all those things. He simply said, “All right, go sell all your possessions, give them to the poor, follow me and you’ll have eternal life.” And this young man turned away sorrowful, sad. [Mathew 19:22]  Why? Because he had great possessions. It is no more that he possessed the possessions, but that the possessions possessed him. He is not holding these possessions, but the possessions have a hold on him. He is obsessed with them. These possessions have become his God, and therefore he cannot give them up for the true God of the Bible. And isn’t it so that some of us today cannot come to God, because we know we cannot let go of these gods, functional gods in our hearts.

The Role of Money and Pleasure

Maybe some of you are not so low class. Bumper back. You are a bit more-high class. What you want is not these things that you buy. All you want is money. All you want is prosperity. All you want is riches. Well, the Bible tells us, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24 ESV) Jesus spoke these words, and he is actually saying that in the hearts of men and women, God and money are competitors. And he’s saying to you, you cannot serve God and money at the same time. It’s an impossibility. So, if you come to church, you say, I’m a Christian, but actually, in your life, you are serving and slaving for money. Well, the reality is you cannot serve two, you are really serving money and you are not serving God. You are not worshiping God. I suppose that explains a lot of things. When people come to church, I notice them, I see them, I watch them. I watch all of you because I know exactly who sleeps every Sunday, or I exactly know because it’s predictable. And I wonder to myself, who are you worshiping? Is it really God, or is it your job? You say, “I’m very tired lah, Pastor.” I know. But why so tired? Because someone is driving you real hard, isn’t it, to the degree that when we come to worship God and to hear his word, it is not quite a priority. In fact, you are quite thankful that in Gospel Light, sermons are quite long. Then you have a good nap. In some other churches, preaching is very short, then stand up, got to sing, cannot sleep long enough. When it comes to sermons, when it comes to God’s word, sleep, but when it goes to investment talks, wide awake man. Why? It’s not about energy, it’s not about busyness, it’s about God. Who is God in your life?

You know, we come to a time when I’m going to, I think anticipating church attendance to start to drop soon. Every time of every year around here, you start to see people less and less. Why? PSLE? Exams? Wah, extra class must put on no more day. Must put on Sunday. Son, PSLE is more important because if you don’t do well in PSLE, you’re not going to have a good job, and if you don’t have a good job, you’re not going to have enough money. You know what we are teaching our children? “The almighty dollar is more important than the Almighty God.” Why? Because there’s no way you can serve God and money. It’s impossible. And the sad thing is that this serving of money is not just amongst the people seated, but it can happen up here on stage, where preachers will tell you come to God because He’s going to give you, health and wealth. The Prosperity Gospel is really not a gospel. It’s bad news. It’s a lie, it’s a scam. It’s scamming people, so that people will come to church, but it doesn’t lead you to God, because all it leads you to is idolatry. Leads you to worship more and more money, health, success. It doesn’t lead you to God. It only leads you to goodies, and it’s actually a satanic lie. But that’s how we are, isn’t it? The gods can make us believe things that are not true.

Another god I can think of in our modern-day living is pleasure. Oh, if Epicureans existed in ancient Greece. I think Epicureans abound even more today, the lovers of pleasure. So many of us in wealthy, comfortable Singapore, we find meaning, we search for meaning, and we say, “What’s the meaning of life?  “Oh, taste better wine, eat better food, go further places, explore all the exotic corners of the world.” Now, again, I am not saying that God does not allow us to enjoy the pleasures of this world. He has richly given us all things to enjoy. The Bible does say that. But there is a difference between enjoying these things and making these things our gods. The faith of the Bible, however, is quite different, isn’t it? When we read about Moses, who was the Prince of Egypt, he could have continued enjoying the luxuries of Egypt, but the Bible tells us he chose, rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. He chose the path of hardship (Hebrews 11:23,25). And I wonder how many of us would be willing to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Worship of Praise and People

We can worship not only pleasure, but we can worship praise or praise can become our gods.  Applause or the commendation, the “well done(s)”, the “good job(s)”, they may drive us. They may be the reasons why we do what we do. This is why you devote yourself to your careers, and you will not serve God. This is why maybe some of us in ministry work hard. Because maybe it’s not about serving God, but making ourselves look good before others. It can happen even for a pastor. It can happen for a church worker. It is true in the days of Jesus amongst the Pharisees it can be true for any one of us today. Something we ourselves know, because instead of worshiping God, praise has become my God.

Or maybe it’s really a literal person. A God today can be a literal person, some star, some singer, some dancer, some actor, he can become your idol. I saw this really humorous clip about some lady in KL and she was fawning and just all enthralled with this China or Chinese actor. Do you all know who this actor is? Even if you know, you don’t dare to say I know. But she was all enamored over this actor, the cut out. It’s hilarious, because she took her scarf, she stood in front of the cut out. She took her scarf and put it around his neck, and then she started to caress his head. I’m not kidding, that’s what she was doing. And then she even [kiss] the cardboard. And after a few smooches, she took out her handphone [to take selfies] until the retail assistant has to chase her away. I can tell you who her God is. It’s this man. If only she can get this man to marry her, she will say, “I will die happy.” But maybe some of you are laughing. “Where got girl like that?” Actually, I think there are. But where got people like that? Because every day I see people, sometimes worshiping people. They may not all look like this, handsome young man, it can look like this [Baby photo]. This is your God, your baby, your kid, your child. He is your God.

But you know what Jesus said? Jesus said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” [Matthew 10:37-39] Oh, Christianity is so harsh. Christianity is teaching us to hate our parents and hate our… no, no, no, please don’t get me wrong. Please don’t get the Bible wrong. Please don’t get Jesus wrong. He’s not saying that you should not be filial. He’s not saying that you should not love your kids. I think if you truly believe in Jesus, you will care and love for them even more. But he’s saying, in comparison to your devotion to me, you hate them. In that sense. It’s a comparative statement. In fact, he says, if you do not hate yourself, if you do not take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of me. You have to lose your life, because this is a question of, who is your God. [Matthew 10:37-39] So there are competitors today to the God of the Bible. These are the other gods, 100,000 gods, plus a million more. It can be your Tesla, your good class bungalow. It can be your Birkin bag. It can be a stupid car bumper. Can be anything, but these may be our gods. Some of us today are behaving like a married man holding the hand of our wives, but thinking of another woman in our hearts. That is what Christians can be guilty of. These are the competitors.

The Call to Worship the True God

But finally, I have not much time, I want to end off with the call to worship. So, we are made with the capacity and drive to worship. We recognize that there are many other gods, but God says you shall not have other gods before me. Now I want you to know that the word before doesn’t mean in front of me, but that it means in the presence of me. So, God is not saying I need to be number one. God is saying I am the only one, you get that? Worship God first. No, it’s Worship God alone. That’s the point. You shall have no other gods, no other gods in my presence. I’m not just number one. I’m the only one. Worship Me alone. Why? Because in Deuteronomy, we have just learned in chapter four that there are no other gods, even the supposed other gods are useless gods. They are gods made by man’s hands, made from stone, made from wood, and they cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot eat your offerings. They cannot smell your offerings. They are unresponsive, useless gods. Why worship these things? Oh, I worship my car. I tell you, the moment someone opens the door and bang your car and you see a dent there, the car is no more your god already. That’s speaking from a man’s point of view. I think women may not get it, but I guess if women your back got a slash, you also won’t love your bag anymore. Correct, correct, huh? (In Chinese: A woman’s heart is deeper than the Ocean depths”, very hard to understand, but I think it should be like this. These gods do not ultimately satisfy or fulfill you.

On the other hand, God tells Israel why they are to worship him alone. He says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery”, and therefore “you shall have no other gods before me.” [Deuteronomy 5:6-7] Worship me alone because all the other gods can’t save and deliver and bless you, but I alone have done so. I freed you from Pharaoh. I brought down war with the 10 plagues. I parted the Red Sea. I provided for you 40 years, and I defeated the Kings Sihon and Og. I am the only God who has brought you out of Egypt. No other gods can do it. Maybe you must be saying, “Oh, but this is for Israel, and has nothing to do with me.” But there is a wonderful passage that speaks about Paul in this city called Athens. You can still go Athens today, and there he saw the people given over to the worship of many idols, and he was very distressed. He started to preach. He preached about Jesus and His resurrection, and how through Jesus, men and women may be saved. And this is what he says in his sermon. He says to the people gathered there that you are all very religious, very good, in a sense, but you all ignorantly worship what you do not know. Because he remarked, I was walking around and I saw an altar with the inscription to the unknown God. I realize that you all are ignorant about who you worship, but let me tell you about this God who you should worship. And so, Paul, in this text, in Acts 17, says, number one, you worship this God who is our Creator. Because in Acts 17, verse 24 he says, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth…” Let me tell you who you should worship, the Creator God. Everything that you see is made by this God. Worship Him.

Number two, not only is God Creator, He is Sustainer. Because in verse 25 he gives himself, or he himself gives to all mankind, life and breath and everything. And quoting from one of the Athenian prophets or poets, ‘…in Him we live and move and have our being…’ [Acts 17:28]. You are alive today because God sustained your life. The moment he stops sustaining your life, you die. Do you know that?  No one can guarantee he is going to be alive tomorrow. No one can guarantee that you can wake up in the morning. Every day we live is because God has sustained.

Number three, God is our judge, because he says in verse 31 “…he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness.” (Acts 17:31) Why do I worship this true God? Because he created all things. He sustains all things. I am dependent on Him, and He will judge all things. He will judge all men according to their acts, to their words, whether they live in righteousness or sinfulness.

And I think implicitly, Paul is also highlighting that this God is the Savior of the world because He gave His Son Jesus and raised Him from the dead for the forgiveness of sins of the nations. This same God who made all things, sustains all things, will judge all men, will be the same God who gave His Son to save us from our sins. So why do we worship God? Because all other gods are false. No one can be this true God who is all creator, sustainer, judge and Savior. And when we see who God is, we see His faithfulness, His generosity, His power, His wisdom, His might, His compassion. And how can you and I not worship this God. And as Jesus would say, “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10) because he is altogether worthy of our worship.

The Role of God’s Spirit and Jesus

I received an email yesterday from one of our church members asking, “How did I know I should serve God with my life?” I said in my reply, when I was just saved, I had a very simple thinking. I’ve shared that many times already, and that is, if God is not real, then my motto in life is to enjoy myself, do everything so that I have a comfortable, pleasurable, enjoyable life. But if God is real, then it makes no sense to live life for anything else than for the glory of God. It’s a simple decision. So, who do you serve today? Is it worth it? From eternity’s point of view, you giving yourself to a bumper, to a bag, to a project, to a career, to a good class bungalow, to a Ferrari. Is it worth it? Well, if God is not God, if there is no God, then go. But if God is God, why do you do what you do? Choose today who you will worship, because God says to you, you shall have no other gods before me. And I think when you get this right, you will get the rest right. When you have the right God you worship, I think you will be able to keep the rest.

I have met people today who want to kill each other in a family, in a marriage, because they have committed adultery, and really it is so bad that they want to kill each other. And when it is so bad, they ask, is there any hope for me? I say there is only one hope, the only way you can forgive, the only way you can do so is if you know the love of God for you. And you know something their lives change, because now their God is the God of the Bible. They know Him and His love and His forgiveness. And they experienced and tasted this love, and they bend it outwards, towards their spouse and towards those around. You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, no chance if you do not know God. But if you know God, there is every possibility of victory there. I have spoken to you about how Ephesians talks about the thief who used to steal, but Paul says, not only do you not steal, but now you work hard so that you may give. “Thou shall not steal”, possible when you have the right God in your life. It was St Augustine who tells us, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Your heart is way too big for a Ferrari to fill. Your heart is way too big for a good class bungalow to fill. Your heart is too big for any man, any boyfriend, any girlfriend, to satisfy. Your heart is made for God to fill, and you just jump from bag to bag, shoe to shoe, car to car, always restless. You will always be restless until you find your rest in God.

How can I do this? How can I worship God alone? Oh, Moses knew the problem. So, Moses says, “Oh, that they had such a heart …” (Deuteronomy 5:29) It all begins in the heart. And the good news of the Bible is that God is not just someone who tells you, this is your problem. Solve it yourself. No, because this same God, knowing the terrible grip of sin upon our hearts, says to us, says to Israel and says to all of us, one day God will give a new heart. One day God will cleanse out the sinful attitudes of the heart. He will circumcise your heart so that you may now love God (Deuteronomy 30:6-8). And that’s what God is willing to do.

And so, he’s calling you to humble yourself and to call unto God. You can’t make yourself Christian, you can’t make yourself saved, but you can call out to God in humility and say, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I thank you that Jesus died. And ask him, by His Spirit to cleanse you, wash you, change you. You see, not only does God’s Spirit do this amazing work in our hearts, I want to remind you what God’s Son does for us. Remember Jesus, He’s the king who will lead us to a true worship of God. Because when he was tempted in the wilderness, the devil came to him, saying, if you will fall down and worship me, I will give you all these kingdoms, all these glories, just bow and worship me. Satan says. And even though Jesus was terribly afflicted all these 40 days in the worst physical state possible. He said, “Be gone, Satan!” (Matthew 4:9-10) Quoting from Deuteronomy chapter six, he says, “…You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him only shall you serve.”  Jesus, God’s Son, lived a perfect life, tested in many points, but sinless in every count. And this is the true king who can lead us to really love and worship God. And this true king gave his life to wash away your sins so that his spirit may come and change you and bring you back to God.

Conclusion and Call to Action

I hope today, if you are not a Christian, you think about who your God is, and realize today that the true God of the Bible is willing to bring you home. He gave His Son to die for you. Look to Him, cry out for mercy, cry out for his saving grace. And I think he will change your heart. For all my brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope today, as Elisabeth Elliot says, you will experience how God is breaking your idols one by one. Fight hard for faith. Fight hard in Scripture, in prayer, in community. Love God. And if you today have left off your first love, come back to the first works. It all begins. You shall have no other gods before Me.

Let’s bow for a word of prayer together. Father, bless your word to the hearts of your people. May sinners humble themselves and be saved, and may saints be encouraged by your love to repent and to give up the idols of our lives. May we love you and serve you alone. We pray in Jesus, name. Amen.