Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20091018.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part II: God's Training Israel To Heed Him, Exodus 15:22-40:38
F. God's Giving His People Their Moral And Civil Law, Exodus 20:1-17
1. The First Four Commandments: Loving God, Exodus 20:1-12
a. Commandment One: Holding To The Bible's God Alone As God
(Exodus 20:1-3 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    In today's world, we need to know what God to worship!

    (1) Ever since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the view has advanced that Muslims and Christians worship the same God:

    (a) Karen Armstrong, a former Roman Catholic nun, converted to what she calls "'the truth found in all religions'" after the 911 attacks. (Chuck Sligh, "The Bloody Legacy of Islam," The Biblical Evangelist , Nov.-Dec. 2001, p. 1)

    (b) Pope John Paul II in Turkey, said: "'I wonder if it is now urgent, precisely today when Christians and Muslims have entered a new period of history, to recognize and develop the spiritual bonds that unite us.'" (T. A. McMahon, "Catholicism & Islam: Ties That Bind," The Berean Call, November 2002, p. 2)!

    (2) Some believe that Christianity's God is compatible with or even reflected in the ideology of Socialism, Marxism or Communism.

    As Douglas Hyde studied to be a missionary, he was drawn to communism by a book by a Quaker titled, The Challenge of Bolshevism that assured him: "'In Communism the sincere Quaker found honesty of purpose, intellectual integrity, a higher morality and a system which would prepare the way for a Christianity purified and reborn . . ." (Douglas Hyde, I Believed, 1951, p. 22-23 as cited in Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, 1991, p. 328)

    (3) Others claim the deities of all faiths that hold to a transcendant Entity of some kind are compatible deities, or the same God: Pope Benedict XVI told a crowd in St. Peter's Square in Rome on November 30, 2005: "'Whoever seeks peace and the good of the community with a pure conscience, and keeps alive the desire for the transcendent, will be saved even if he lacks biblical faith.'" (The Berean Call, February 2006, "Q&A", p. 5)

    (4) Even "some evangelicals . . . argue that the non-Christian religions of the world can be revelatory and even redemptive . . ." (The Coming Evangelical Crisis edited by John H. Armstrong, 1996, p. 35)



    Thus, we may ask, "What GOD are we to WORSHIP today, or, DOES it EVEN MATTER?!"

    Need: "In view of the great 'mixing' of religions today, what GOD is the TRUE God for me to worship, or DOES IT EVEN MATTER?!"

  1. The FIRST command of the Ten Commandments directs WHICH GOD the people of Israel were to WORSHIP! (Exodus 20:1-3)
  2. It COUNTERS ALL OTHER gods ACCEPT the GOD of the BIBLE:
    1. Exodus 20:1-3 commanded that the God Who had delivered Israel out of Egyptian bondage was the only God she was to worship:
      1. [The phrase "before Me" in Exodus 20:3 (KJV, NIV, ESV) literally means "in My sight," and means either "in addition to Me" or "in opposition to Me," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Ex. 20:3.
      2. Actually, both ideas are included in the wider context: (a) Exodus 20:23 prohibits putting other gods along with the One true God and (b) Exodus 23:13 prohibits Israel from worshiping other gods.]
    2. This call as couched in the phrase on God's delivering Israel out of Egyptian bondage answers the question of WHAT GOD to worship:
      1. Hinduism claims God is undefinable, the impersonal Brahman, Ibid., McDowell, p. 274. Yet, Exodus 20:2 with Exodus 2:23-25 reveals He took a personal interest in Israel's welfare to deliver her from Egypt, so Exodus 20:3 calls us not to worship the Hindu god!
      2. Buddhism denies a personal God exists, Ibid., p. 282. Yet, Exodus 20:2 with 2:23-25 claims He took a personal interest in Israel to aid her, so Exodus 20:3 calls us to worship Him opposite Buddhism!
      3. Shintoism claims there are many deities (Ibid., p. 294), but Exodus 20:2-3 calls us to worship only the God of the Bible.
      4. Islam holds there is no God but Allah, but this claim greatly errs:
        1. One of the world's great historians, Will Durant, in The Story of Civilization, vol. IV, p. 160-161, reports "'(w)ithin the Kaaba, in pre-Moslem days, were several idols representing gods. One was called Allah . . . three others were Allah's daughters -- al-Uzza, al-Lat, and Manah. We may judge the antiquity of this Arab pantheon from the mention of Al-ilat (Al-Lat) by Herodotus [fifth-century B. C. Greek historian] as a major Arabian deity. The Quraish [Muhammad's tribe . . .] paved the way for monotheism by worshiping Allah as chief god . . .'" cited in Dave Hunt, The Berean Call, February 2000, "Q&A".
        2. Also, Islam's "Allah" is so transcendent, "He acts impersonally" opposite the Exodus 20:2 revelation that God showed mercy on Israel by saving her from bondage; Ibid., McDowell, p. 311.
        3. Besides, Muhammad asserted Allah was sole deity in A. D. 610 2,010 years after the God of the Exodus told us in 1400 B. C. to worship Him alone, Exodus 20:1-3! ("The Man From Mecca," SIM NOW, July-Aug. 1989, p. 2; Ibid., Ryrie, p. 90)
        4. Thus, Allah originated in pagan polytheistic idolatry as a false deity, and there is no true God but the eternal God of the Bible.
      5. Secular Humanism claims there is no God, so there is no divine design, purpose or providence for man, Ibid., McDowell, p. 321. Yet, Exodus 20:2-3 in light of Exodus 2:24-25 reveals God exists and delivered Israel from Egypt in keeping with His past covenant, so we must worship the Bible's God versus Humanism's view.
      6. Marxism denies God exists and devalues individual liberty for the sake of society, denying private ownership and its resulting denial of personal worth. (Ibid., p. 329; Edward M. Burns, West. Civ., 1963, p. 703-704) Yet, Exodus 20:2 with 2:24-25 claims God exists and so valued Israel, He rescued her from Egypt, and Exodus 12:35-36 claims He led the Egyptians freely to give of their wealth to Israel for her to own in great contrast to Marxism, so Exodus 20:3 calls us to worship the Bible's God versus heeding Marxism.
      7. Paganism holds to multiple nature gods, but since God opposed Egypt's pagan gods to deliver Israel in the Exodus (Exodus 12:12), Exodus 20:2-3 calls us to worship Him alone, not pagan deities.
      8. Ecumenism asserts one may worship any religious idea or concept of God since all religions eventually merge. ("The Kentucky Monitor," Fellowcraft Degree, p. 95 as cited in Jim Shaw and Tom McKenney, The Deadly Deception, 1988, p. 128) However, since the Bible's God countered Egypt's pagan gods in freeing Israel from bondage (Exodus 20:2 with 12:12), and Exodus 20:3 charges us to worship Him instead of worshiping any other god, we are to worship the Bible's God alone opposite the belief of ecumenism!
Application: May we (1) trust in the Bible's God, and trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, for salvation, John 3:16. (2) May we worship that God alone versus worshiping any other god or kind of God!

Lesson: We must worship the God Who exists and so personally valued Israel that He fulfilled His promise to Abraham to deliver her from bondage, causing the Egyptians freely to give of their wealth to her.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

 In our sermon introduction, we reported how a man named Douglas Hyde who was studying to be a Christian missionary became a Communist after reading a book by a Quaker titled, The Challenge of Bolshevism .

Wonderfully, the story does not end there! Hyde soon found that he could not continue to be a Marxist and an orthodox Christian at the same time, so he quickly abandoned all faith in God and became a militant atheistic Communist, Ibid., McDowell.

However, he along with his wife then began to realize that without belief in God, "'the universe itself made nonsense. We had discovered with some surprise that the great thinkers and philosophers of the church had made out a better case for God's existence than Marx and Engels had done for His non-existence.'" (Ibid., Hyde, p. 248 as cited in McDowell, Loc. cit.)

Hyde and his wife each then made personal professions of faith in Jesus Christ, Ibid.

In the end, he wrote: "'I lost my Communism because I had been shown something better . . . My God has not failed.'" (Ibid., Hyde, p. 303 as cited in McDowell, Ibid., p. 329)



May we uphold faith in THE BIBLE'S GOD, the GOD DEFINED for us in Exodus 20:2-3, and trust in His SON, the LORD JESUS CHRIST as revealed in the Word of God for salvation from sin. Then, may we cleave in faith to this God alone, and worship and serve Him for blessing!