Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Father, I ask that the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts, would be acceptable in your sight. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Sometimes the providence of the Lord is amazing. This week was a point in case I was planning to teach on the Ten Commandments. I was having lunch in a restaurant, and there were two workmen who were at the table very close to me and within earshot. Apparently, one of them was trying as best as he could to talk about religion and some of the frustrations that he had trying to be religious. He said, you know, I’ve tried religion. It’s real hard. The Ten Commandments, they’re impossible to keep, and I just don’t want to be a hypocrite.

And my ear picked right up, and his friend, who seemed to have very little interest in religion at all, looked at him and said, I haven’t thought a great deal about religion. I’ve heard about the Ten Commandments. What are they? And this fellow who supposedly had tried to live his life by the Ten Commandments and found himself to be a hypocrite. He said, well, the Ten Commandments, you shouldn’t steal. You shouldn’t lie. You shouldn’t commit adultery. And the others. And isn’t that the truth? There was a college class that was given the assignment of taking the Ten Commandments and rank ordering them in the order that they felt was of most importance to that which was least important. And so each student was busy ordering the commandments. And the majority of students did something like this. Number one, thou shalt not kill.

Seems that we have a great awareness of that sin. And anybody who would kill and murder, it’s a terrible thing. Number two, thou shalt not steal. Number three, thou shalt not commit adultery. It wasn’t until they got to the very bottom of what they perceived to be the most important of the commandments. At the bottom of that list, the least important and what was listed, thou shalt not have any other gods before me. Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain. And the least important of all, thou shalt honor the Sabbath. Jesus was asked to rank order the commandments. He was asked, what is the greatest commandment? Jesus said, this is the first and the greatest commandment. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. And the second is like unto it.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself what a contrast. Jesus lists loving God as first, and it should come as no surprise to us that in the ten Commandments that is the first commandment, that we are to have no other gods before the living God, the true God. I wonder how many christians, if asked to compare the commandments, would come up with a quite different rank ordering than that which is presented in the scripture and that which was declared as primary by Jesus Christ. In your own mind, very practically, is it a worse sin in your mind for a person to steal, or is it a greater sin for them to use God’s name in vain? Which are we more accepting of? Which are we less upset about when it happens?

Is it a greater or lesser sin for someone to lie or for them to neglect the Sabbath? I think if we’re honest, even within the church, we have reversed the order of the Commandments. And the things that are obvious of sinning, adultery, murder, seem to us to be great, terrible sins. But if someone wants to neglect the Sabbath, well, that’s your freedom. If someone would use God’s name in an offhand manner, it may upset us personally. But when was the last time that you heard christians talking about those who use God’s name and are concerned about it in the same way that if they had learned that someone had lied to them, Jesus Christ was eternally wise. And Jesus Christ placed the first duty of man to have no other gods, to love God and to know him primarily first in our life?

The first commandment that was given to Moses begins with a preamble, God says, 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. Now, often we slide over this preface to the commandments, but I would want us to spend a moment and reflect on it. Why did the Ten Commandments begin with this preamble? Why did he remind them that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage? I believe it’s very simple, and it is the key to begin understanding how you and I, as Christians, begin to apply the Ten Commandments in our own life.

God was telling the Hebrew people, do you remember when you were in Egypt, you were under bondage for all of those years? Who was it that saved you? Who was it who redeemed you? Who was it that gave you freedom? And rhetorically, the answer should have been, why? It was you, Lord. It was Jehovah. It was the living God. And that becomes the preamble, a reminder of the salvation that they had received through the living God. Because I have redeemed you, because I have saved you, therefore have no other gods apart from me. You see, in the keeping of the commandments. Today has a similar preamble. Who is it who has saved you from your sin? Who is it that has brought you out of darkness into light? Who is it who has made you new? And rhetorically we should answer, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ has made me a new person. Jesus Christ has redeemed me. He has forgiven me. He has saved me. Therefore keep my commandments, says the Lord. Thou shalt not have any other gods before me. Man through the centuries has been very busy inventing and creating all manner of gods to worship. Whether it is atheism that believes a world without God, or whether it is pantheism, a world that is God, or deism, a world that is on its own but was made by God, or polytheism, a world with many gods. Man has been very busy creating and manufacturing gods of all types. Romans chapter one says that the wrath, the anger of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. What is the sin that everyone in the world is guilty of?

Why is it declared in scripture that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? The apostle Paul makes it clear that the anger of God is against all of mankind because all of mankind is busy suppressing the truth about the living God. We would rather push and shove all that we know about this living God from his creation into a small closet and keep him removed from our life, rather than to open and to see that God and to begin to see the implications in our own life. Why in previous generations has missions been such a focus of the church of Jesus Christ? I believe it is because Christians through the centuries had a very clear understanding of the first commandment, thou shalt not have any other gods before me.

And one of the primary motivating forces behind the great missionary movements of the ages have been people who truly believed that anyone who worships a false God is breaking one of the basic teachings of the revealed word of God. And as a Christian, I have a responsibility. Wherever I would see someone worshiping and bowing down to a false God, to go to them like Paul and to say, I see that you worship a God who you say is unknown, I want to tell you his name. And so in previous generations, whether it was Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, the animists. Whatever religions of the world were gathered, Christians felt the great responsibility of going and sharing about this living God, that mankind would not be enslaved to the worshipping of false gods. It’s the work of the church.

Wherever people are worshipping false gods, it is the work of the church to go and to tell them about Jesus Christ in our land today. The United States. There are currently some 4 million Muslims in the United States. By the latest poll, 23% of Americans believe in reincarnation. We seemed to be absorbed in some type of spiritual journey during this generation. And for about the past two decades, the eastern religions that were tied to India and the east have been progressively moving west, and they have aggressively been seeking converts. Now, it seems a new kind of ecumenical movement has begun. It’s an ecumenical movement of the eastern religions. There was a time when there was great confusion and bewilderment about what did they believe in the east? And we knew something about consciousness raising. We knew something about mantras and the repeating of words.

We knew something about reincarnation. But these were the very teachings that christians went into the world to begin to instruct against, that they might begin to know the living God through Jesus Christ. And now this new ecumenical movement of eastern religions, talking about the occult, talking about consciousness raising, networking together in what is referred to as the New Age movement. Such personalities as Diana Ross, John Denver, Richard Chamberlain, Yoko Ono have become part of this new age movement, this movement that is sweeping across the land. And perhaps there is no greater or outspoken supporter of the new age movement than Shirley McLean, who recently seems to be virtually omnipresent in the media, as she is on radio and television and in print. She was, over the past several years, converted to the new Age movement.

Recently there was a special program, a two part miniseries devoted to her book, which is called out on a limb here. She talks about her body, out of body experiences. She speaks about reincarnation, channelling, where she has come in contact with some previous spirit from another age. We say, well, what is the place of that in the worshipping of no other gods? Well, there is one concept that is essential to this new age movement. It is the belief that all is one and one is all. It is the belief called monism. Monism believes that there is no difference between a carrot, a rock, man, or God. And the teaching of the new age movement is that you are God and God is you. And in its own way, it sounds very familiar.

As you and I meet continually, people we’re talking about growing to that point of total self awareness, that point of understanding. Do you know, following that series, the bookstores in America were sold out of Shirley McClain’s book. Lest you think that this is just a passing thing, she will be charging some $300 for people to come to hear her give lectures. $100 for the mind, $100 for the spirit, and $100 for the body. An interesting tuition. Monism is alive in our land. The belief not that someone else or something else is God, but that I am God. You are God. And romans one, verse 25, tells us of the foolishness of man, where we worship the creature rather than the creator. Well, perhaps some of you are saying, well, I don’t worship Buddhist gods. I’m not Hindu.

I’m not going to join the new age. How have I ever broken this first commandment? Because Jesus said, we have all broken the commandments. No one has kept the commandments. Well, in the larger catechism of our book of confession is to be found the question about the first commandment. And how is it that you and I have broken this commandment? The first commandment forbids, and I quote, atheism in denying or not having a God. Idolatry, worshipping more gods than one. The omission or neglect of anything due to the living God. Ignorance, forgetfulness, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts about God. Bold and curious, searchings into his secrets, self love, self seeking, immoderate setting of our mind, will or affections upon other things, and taking our mind, will or affections off from God. Unbelief, heresy, misbelief, mistrust, despair, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting God.

Luke warmness and deadness in the things of God. Praying or worshipping anything other than God. Consulting with the devil, disobeying God and his commandments, resisting and grieving his spirit, discontentment and impatience with God. Charging God foolishly for the afflictions he brings in our life, believing that whatever good things we have come from, either luck, fortune, or ourselves. And if there has been a time in your life where you say, I have done that, then to know that you and I, every time that we have done one of those things, we have broken the first commandment. Thou shalt not have any other gods before me. Every one of us stands under this commandment. Every one of us has broken it. Untold times in the Old Testament, there were a number of gods. The God of Baal, who was the God of sensuality.

Well, we don’t have temples devoted to Baal today, but we do have sensuality at such great proportions where the pornography business is growing at such a rapid rate. There are scores of temples, magazines, businesses that are our version of the temple to Baal. There was also in the Old Testament, the God of mammon. He was the God of money. Jesus said of that God. You cannot worship God and mammon at the same time. In the Old Testament was the God of Moloch, that God of cruelty. And every time that there has been a child abuse every time there has been the taking of the life of an unborn child cruelty has been at work. The God of Malik is again worshipped to all of these false gods. The living God says, I am Jehovah, your God. You shall have no other gods beside me.

You see, when Jesus comes one of the great problems, he faces is his belief and his teaching that he is God. That he, as the son of God, has come into the world. And in the beginning was the word, the scriptures tell us. And the word was with God. And the word was God. And the word became flesh. It was Thomas who saw the resurrected Jesus and declared, my lord, my God. To see Jesus is to see God. And when the scriptures declare, thou shalt not have any other gods before me. To look to Jesus is the single point of focus for the worshiping of God. How can you and I know this God? There is only one way. It is by faith. It’s by trusting in Jesus Christ alone that he died on the cross for your sin.

That he was raised from the dead. That you might have eternal life. That he is seated right now at the right hand of the father and that someday he shall return. This is the God in clearest and sharpest picture that we have. That we might come and worship him. And when the scriptures declare, I am Jehovah, your God you shall have no other gods before me. I would hear Jesus Christ say, I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other God beside me. Let us pray. Our God and our father. We stand condemned by this first of your commandments. In word or thought or deed. We have broken this commandment often. But we thank you that by faith in Jesus Christ we have been restored.

And that through Jesus Christ as the centrepiece of our faith we would come to worship the true and the living God. Help us, we pray to keep this commandment. That we would have no other gods beside the God of the scripture who is revealed in Jesus Christ. And we give you thanks in his name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. You we would like to thank Rones web Development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.