God often allows the ungodly to amass great wealth--to their destruction. But if you are one with whom God is dealing and if you put the pursuit of riches (or anything else) before service to Christ, God may take away those riches (and other things) until you turn to Him. Some years ago Donald Grey Barnhouse was counseling a young woman on the sidewalk in front of Tenth Presbyterian Church following an evening service. She said she was a Christian and that she wanted to follow Christ. But she wanted to be famous too. She wanted to pursue a stage career in New York. "After I have made it in the theater, I'll follow Christ completely," she said. Barnhouse took a key out of his pocket and scratched a mark on a postal box standing on the corner. "That is what God will let you do," he said. "God will let you scratch the surface of success. He will let you get close enough to the top to know what it is, but He will never let you have it, because He will never let one of His children have anything rather than Himself."
Years later he met the girl again, and she confessed that this had indeed been her life story. She had dabbled in the stage. Once her picture had been in a national magazine. But she had never quite made it. She told Barnhouse, "I can't tell you how many times in my discouragement I have closed my eyes and seen you scratching on that postal box with your key. God let me scratch the edges, but He gave me nothing in place of Himself."
Beloved this morning who is God in competition with in your life, for your time and your heart? As we have heard our illustration this morning this gives you and I a great truth that God is in complete competition with others when it comes to His creation. Here we have the God that created us, formed us, gave us life and yet we can be guilty to place things that have no profit for our souls before Him. Beloved God will not share you with anyone or anything. He wants you all to Himself. Who is our Savior competing with this for your life this morning?
“I gave you my heart in writing”
Beloved this morning if we could be honest with God we have beyond a shadow of a doubt have violated the very first commandment of which was given us. Yet in this God is in pursuit man. What commandment is that Pastor? The commandment of not placing anything before our God. As we look at our generation I see that they have become independent of God and have become Gods in their own minds, in their own hearts and in their own beliefs. Now how could that have happened beloved? I want this question to sit with you this morning and ask yourself, how could this have happened? See God gave us His heart in writing when He gave us these commandments. Well, beloved the answer is simple, because the generation before did not place God first He was made last to those who He saw who was first in His sight.
Exodus 20:1-3
1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3“You shall have no other gods before Me.
As we look at our scripture this morning what we have is a commandment written by the hand of God for His people not only of that time but also of today. Beloved we serve a jealous God who is rightly to be so as we have been formed and created by His word, in His image to give Him glory and Him alone.
It is a law of His own speaking. God has many ways of speaking to the children of men once, yea twice--by his Spirit, by conscience, by providences, by his voice, all which we ought carefully to attend to; but he never spoke, at any time, upon any occasion, as he spoke the Ten Commandments, which therefore we ought to hear with the more earnest heed. They were not only spoken audibly, but with a great deal of dreadful pomp. This law God had given to man before (it was written in his heart by nature); but sin had so defaced that writing that it was necessary, in this manner, to revive the knowledge of it.
Never had God spoke to men in such a way that He made His voice heard by many concerning His command. As we see here God wrote on tablets what was in His heart for His people.
He proposes himself as the sole object of that religious worship which is enjoined in the first four of the commandments. They are here bound to obedience by a threefold cord, which, one would think, could not easily be broken. Because God is the Lord--Jehovah, self-existent, independent, eternal, and the fountain of all being and power; therefore he has an incontestable right to command us. He that gives being, may give law; and therefore he is able to bear us out in our obedience, to reward it, and to punish our disobedience.
The first four of the Ten Commandments, which concern our duty to God (commonly called the first table), we have in these verses. It was fit that those should be put first, because man had a Maker to love before he had a neighbor to love; and justice and charity are acceptable acts of obedience to God only when they flow from the principles of piety. It cannot be expected that he should be true to his brother who is false to his God. Now our duty to God is, in one word, to worship him, that is, to give to him the glory due to his name, the inward worship of our affections, the outward worship of solemn address and attendance. This is spoken of as the sum and substance of the everlasting gospel.
In other words beloved how can we love our neighbor without loving our God who loved us first? See we have a commandment that was placed to us for our own good for we have a heart that we are not sure of but the life giver understood who we were and placed these here to accommodate those things we lacked within ourselves, true love and obedience.
The first commandment concerns the object of our worship, Jehovah, and Him only: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The Egyptians, and other neighboring nations, had many gods, the creatures of their own fancy, strange gods, new gods; this law was prefixed because of that transgression, and, Jehovah being the God of Israel, they had to entirely cleave to him, and not be for any other or not to cleave to any other, either of their own invention or borrowed from their neighbors. This was the sin they were most in danger of now that the world was so overspread with polytheism, which yet could not be rooted out effectually but by the gospel of Christ. The sin against this commandment which we are most in danger of is giving the glory and honor to any creature which are due to God and God only. Pride makes a god of self, covetousness makes a god of money, sensuality makes a god of the belly; whatever is esteemed or loved, feared or served, delighted in or depended on, more than God who is Jesus in the flesh, that (whatever it is) we do in effect make a god of, will by all means anger the true and living God of our bible this morning.
Exodus 20:4-6
4“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
What we have in our scripture are gods we create of our own, the god of materialism, the god of our flesh, money, cars, women, men, work, family, friends or sports whatever it may be whatever is placed before God is very much a tearful truth for Jesus. Beloved who can stand with God? Why is God the underdog?
“The world hates Me”
Romans 1:21-24
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
Beloved as we see what the world craves for, we can agree it has not been Jesus. There are more people that hate Jesus than love Jesus for it is written that they will. People today have refused and rejected God for things which do not profit the soul. God warns us to flee from those things for they bring destruction. And although some may not speak it with their mouths they say it with their lives.
Jeremiah 25:6
6 Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.
As this scripture is brought to life this morning God is speaking of your labors that will be in vain. We work with our hands to get those things which once again do not profit us but for the moment, though they are necessities when placed before God almighty they are considered gods that we worship and that we have served and have made with our own hands.
How easily we become ensnared to provoking God by ignoring His word and His command also ignoring His love for us as it is seen throughout scripture as He would use a man who was not of such doings to speak the word of God to them to help them turn from their evil dealings and even so today as He who is Jesus loves you and I so to help us not fall into those things that put God in the backburner, those things that place God as the underdog yet we cannot by whatever means ignore this warning as scripture reads in:
Jeremiah 35:15
15 I have also sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way, amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them; then you will dwell in the land which I have given you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear, nor obeyed Me.
Church how long will we be asleep?
Beloved in other words repent, the world has hated correction and has also hated the chastening of the Lord for it is a sad day in America when they show this hatred in ways not noticeable to the Christian. America has neglected Jesus not just by ignoring to come to church on His day, but by refusing to serve Him and honor Him with their lives. America has neglected Jesus by not reading or spending time with Jesus in prayer, America has hated Jesus by living unholy and grieving God in a place where we have placed Him back on the tree and yet He still loves us. Beloved if we are honest when we hate something we ignore it and want nothing to do with it. Thank God even through our ways He would still died for us and reached out for us to show us what love is that we may change our way.
As healing is in our reach we can call out to Him no longer ignoring Him but embracing Him as we so need Him who is Jesus in our lives, our broken lives, broken families, broken marriages our broken hearts. The only healing is by the precious blood of Jesus Christ who is worthy of praise and glorious in His character. Jesus beloved wants to heal your life and wants to embrace you as you are.
“Healing”
Healing of our minds, our hearts and our souls is desperately needed today, knowing that the Lord of host who is Christ has justified us through His blood if we would just call out on Him. Ask Him to cleanse us of our error, heal our situation.
Romans 3:21-26
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all[a] who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Come short of glorifying God. Man was placed at the head of the visible creation, actively to glorify that great Creator whom the inferior creatures could glorify only objectively; but man by sin comes short of this, and, instead of glorifying God, dishonors him. It is a very melancholy consideration, to look upon the children of men, who were made to glorify God, and to think how few there are that do it. Come short of glorying before God. There is no boasting of innocence: if we go about to glory before God, to boast of anything we are, or have, or do, this will be an everlasting estoppel--that we have all sinned, and this will silence us. We may glory before men, who are short-sighted, and cannot search our hearts,--who are corrupt, as we are, and well enough pleased with sin; but there is no glorying before God, who cannot endure to look upon iniquity. Come short of being glorified by God. Come short of justification, or acceptance with God, which is glory begun--come short of the holiness or sanctification which is the glorious image of God upon man, and have overthrown all hopes and expectations of being glorified with God in heaven by any righteousness of their own. It is impossible now to get to heaven in the way of spotless innocence. This is why we have an intercessor that can help us get there and His name is Jesus.
It is by the faith of Jesus Christ, an anointed Savior, so Jesus Christ signifies. Justifying faith respects Christ as a Savior in all his three anointed offices, as prophet, priest, and king--trusting in him, accepting of him, and adhering to him, in all these. It is by this that we become interested in that righteousness which God has ordained and which Christ has brought in.
It is to all, and upon all, those that believe. In this expression he expresses that which he had been often harping upon, that the accepted and the rejected of man, if they believe upon Christ, they all stand upon the same level, and are alike welcomed to God through Christ; for there is no difference. It is offered to all in general; the gospel excludes none that do not exclude themselves; but it is, upon all that believe, not only tendered to them, but put upon them as a crown, as a robe; they are, upon their believing, interested in it, and entitled to all the benefits and privileges of it.
Jesus Christ is the great sacrifice that brought forth the mercy seat through the blood shed for us on Calvary’s tree. He is our throne of grace, in and through whom atonement is made for sin, and our persons and performances are accepted of God. He is all in all in our reconciliation, not only the maker, but the matter of it--our priest, our sacrifice, our altar and our all. God was in Christ as in his mercy seat, reconciling the world unto himself. Repentance is what is sought that we may be with Christ as He wants us to. Healing from the condemnation of neglecting Christ knowing that we have been forgiven and set free. We need to be liberated and justified to move on in Christ first knowing that we can be accepted in Christ by giving Him our sins and receiving His holiness at this altar this morning.
