Commandment #1  No Other Gods Before Me

Exodus 20:2-3

       Ex. 20:2-3 “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”

          I. Vs. 2.  Before God gives us any commandments, He prefaces it with Who He is and what He did for us.  


      A. He is God, all powerful, all knowing, ever present, eternal, unchanging.  He is the creator of the universe and all that is in it.   Only He has the authority to command anything and everything. 

     B. He brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

    1.  Out of Egypt.  For us that was a spiritual desert.  Satan’s lies and our own pride and complacency blinded us to God’s hand in everything, from creation to the people God brought into our lives.

          2.Before we accepted Christ’s sacrifice personally, we were slaves to our sin. In Jn.8:34 Jesus tell us, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”  And Paul writes in Eph. 2:1 “And you were dead by reason of your trespasses and sins.”


But when Christ, God incarnate, died on that cross, Christ took upon Himself the punishment for all our sin, forever. 1Pet. 2:24 “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”

C. When He took the punishment, He set us free from the penalty and of the pull of sin.  So now we are free.  As Jesus told the Pharisees in John 8:35-36, “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Through Paul He told us in Romans 6,  5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7for he who has died is freed from sin.

And The crucifixion  set us free because we now have the Holy Spirit to help us live for God.    Jesus told the disciples, in John 14:16-17 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” and in John14:26 26“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

    Further, Jesus tells us in John 16:7-13  7“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

12“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth

If we only will listen to the Holy Spirit within us, He will help us overcome any temptation to sin.  As God told us through Paul in 1Cor. 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

          II. You shall have no other gods before Me.


          A.  God has proven over and over He loves us. Beyond freeing us from the power of sin, from our slavery to sin, He has given us the promise of eternal life with Him.  As Jesus told us in John 3:16-18, 16“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” 


                He loves us so much and has done so much for us, how can we not love Him back?   No human can love us and do so much for us as God has.  It follows, because we love Him and trust Him, we will do whatever He asks.  Keeping the commandment is not optional.  They are not ten suggestions.  Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

          B.You shall have no other gods before you. This is the first and most important commandment because it is only in putting HIm first, loving Him the most, trusting Him the most, learning of Him through His word, our Bibles, praying to Him and only Him, can we fellowship with Him and  only with God’s help can we keep all the other commandments.


    We do not live in a culture that makes statues to which we bow down, thinking that statue has power to do anything.   Yet, our culture tries to replace God with many things.      Self: For example, we are told to be self reliant and that we can have control over our lives.  “I am the captain of my fate.”  No way.  Jesus told us in John15:4-5 4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.  Apart from Him we can do nothing,  but with Him we can to anything.  As Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”  If you are trusting on your own instincts, on your intelligence or strength, give it up.   It is only with His wisdom, His knowledge, His strength we can to anything.  We can collect college degrees but will still be unfruitful.  We can have strong bodies and still crumble in adversity. 

      Money and possessions:  Money comes and goes.  The value of stocks rise and fall, markets crash, jobs are lost.  We are not to worry.  Jesus told us in Matt. 6:25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Jesus warned us in Luke 12:15 “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”  We must heed His warning. We do not want to be the merchant in Luke 12:16-23 16And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. 17“And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ 18“Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ 21“So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

22And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. 23“For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

    Education:  All we can acquire through education is knowledge, not wisdom or understanding.  Proverbs 2:2 says,  Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding. And in 3:5-7 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.7Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

We need all three, instruction, which is education, knowledge, wisdom and understanding.  As He tells us in Proverbs 23:23,  Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.  Our education alone will not be enough.

       Relationships, other people:  This is, perhaps, the most foolish of all.  Unlike God, people change.   He tells us, in Mal. 3:6, “I the Lord do not change.” People we depend on get sick, they die. People leave. People will disappoint us. They are only human. Only Christ in all who have ever lived was without sin.   2Cor. 5:13 says, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

          III.Conclusion:  Because of His great love for us, of all He has done for us, we cannot help but love Him.   We can and must trust HIm in all things.   As the song says, “Trust and obey.”  Put nothing before God.