C147 9/14/58
© Project Winsome Publishers, 2000

"PUTTING LIFE IN TRUE PERSPECTIVE"
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Ex. 20:1-3

When the French Monarch, Louis XIV died, his funeral service was held amid great pomp and glory in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The famous preacher, Boisset, was commissioned to deliver the oration. As he mounted the pulpit stairs, he looked out upon a congregation composed of the great and near-great from all of Europe. Crowded into the magnificent sanctuary were kings and queens, barons and noblemen, princes and princesses, the high and the mighty, from every nation on the continent.

In the chancel lay the king regaled in ermine robes. Above his head stood a single candle, the only light in the massive room.

In the eerie half-shadow, half-light, one could see a golden scepter held closely in his lifeless hands, symbolic of his power as a king. On his breast lay a jeweled crown, emblematic of the glory that was France.

Before Boisset began to preach, he slowly descended the pulpit stairs, stretched forth his hand, snuffed out the candle that flickered lonesomely above the head of the dead monarch, and then, through the oppressive darkness that enveloped the room, he uttered these solemn words,
"God alone is great."

How desperately we need a prophet to say that to our smug, but uneasy generation. How urgently we need a Boisset to snuff out the feeble candle of our own self-importance and remind us once again that "God alone is great."

How critically we need a Moses who, fresh from a soul-shattering Sinia encounter with God, will stand before the people with God and cry with an authoritative ring in his voice,
"Thus sayeth the Lord, thou shalt have no other gods before me."

Like the generations which have preceded us, like the Israelites of old, we have forgotten God. Bloated by an exaggerated sense of our achievements, we have relegated him to the scrap-heap of quaint, but useless relics.

We have swaggered across the face of the earth, beating upon our puny chests and bragging, "We can get along without God." Only to discover in one awful moment of awakening that we cannot get along without God. Our arrogance has only led us to the brink of moral, social, emotional and spiritual disaster.

We have lost our way! And yet, by a strange twist of circumstances, it may be our very lostness which is the key to our salvation. For perhaps we are prepared now to give ear to the incontestable voice of history as it declares, "God alone is great."

Of course, he has always been great. God does not change. He is immutable. From everlasting to everlasting -- he is God. His laws do not break. They are unyielding. From age to age they remain the same. It is we who are broken on his laws. It is for us to submit to them and live or resist them and die.

And the primary reason for the mounting tension, the swirling discontent, the gnawing sense of futility which has gripped us, is that we have tried to shut God out of his own world.

We have tried to improve upon his laws only to discover the Ten Commandments will not budge. We have come to the humiliating discovery that if we would be right with our world, we must first of all be right with our God.

Everything in life relates to your thoughts and feelings about God. As H.G.Wells declares, until we find him and are found by him we "began at no beginning and work to no end."

God is central. He is fundamental. He is inescapable. More than anything else in life, is your attitude and idea and response to him. It governs everything you have done, are doing and yet may do.

It enters into every act, word and deed. It colors every attitude, thought and feeling. It touches every area, time and phase of life.

That's why this first commandment has been rightly called "The Cornerstone" upon which the others rest. It is the fountainhead from which the others flow. It takes priority, literally and practically, for until you are right with God, you cannot be right with anything else.

Look, then at our text:
"I am Jehovah, thy God, which has brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

Now what was the purpose of this law? Was it to bludgeon you into submission? Not at all! It was given, not to burden, but to bless. Like all of God's laws, it was established to lead you into a experience of happiness -- here and now.

Examine the laws with which God governs the physical universe. They are not designed to suppress you, but to release you. They are so ordered that when you abide by them, you are free to move about in radiant self-realization. It is only when you attempt to ignore them, that you stumble upon disaster.

The same is true with the laws of the Spirit. This first commandment, like the other nine, was not given to suppress you, but to release you. It was given, not so much as to govern, as to guide. And this is very important. Like the Israelites of old, you and I stand upon the threshold of a land of promise. If we can keep from blowing ourselves to oblivion, we shall enter, in the next fifty years, into an era of such incredible bounty as to make "the milk and honey" of the Canaan seem as dregs in a stale and sour cup.

But before we can cross our own river Jordan and tread triumphantly into that twentieth century Canaan, we must first kneel down before the Lord, our maker.

We must acknowledge him as God. We must cry out with the prophet of old, "The Lord God omnipotent reigneth." We must offer up the sweet incense of our worship, no because he needs to receive it, but because we need to give it.

This introduces a side and spirit of the Ten Commandments which I want to enunciate in weeks to come. As we wrestle with these scriptures, I hope to help you see them, not as divine statutes established to oppress you, but as divine covenant created to release you.

I want you to see them as the God-given conditions upon which you can enter into the land of promise, the land of peace and plenty, which, in truth, is the place of happiness -- here and now.
I know there are those who would have us believe these commandments were given to the Jews alone, and that as Christians we are no longer under obligation to them. Not so! Take this first commandment as an example. When God says:
"I am Jehovah, thy God,"
he is not addressing a single race of people. He is addressing you and me. He is the God of the gentiles, as well as, the Jews.

We believe in the unity of the God-head. Therefor, who is Jehovah, but the living Christ who said, "I and my father are one; he that hath seen me, hath seen the father."

We believe in the universal summons of our Savior who said,
"Whosoever will my come."
Therefor, who are the children of God? They are those to whom Christ himself has said,
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."

As Paul declares unequivocally,
"He is not a Jew, who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God" (Rom. 2:28-29).

Or as Jesus himself declared in one shining sentence,
"As many as received him, to them God gave the right to be called his children."

So, you see, when God says,
"I have delivered you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,"
he is describing and experience through which every Christian has passed.

For what is the land of Egypt, but a symbol of the dry and dreary wastelands of self-indulgence from which Jesus has released us.

And what is the house of bondage, but that sad and sorry state of slavery to sin from which our Savior has redeemed us.

Oh, my friend, lay hold this glad and glorious truth, when God says,
"I am Jehovah, thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage . . ." it is not a voice out of the long, dead past speaking to a single race of people to which you do not belong. It is the living Christ, who has redeemed you from the bondage of sin, who has released you from the desert lands of despair, and who says,
"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve."

So, here is a way of life designed and drawn by the finger of God for all his children. For as Christians, we are not so much free from the law, as we are free in the law through the empowering grace of Christ who enables us to do all things.

We Are Incurably Religious
What then, does this first commandment say to us? To begin with, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me, " declares that we are incurably religious. We must worship something. We were made to bow down and adore. There is within each of us and incurable, inexplicable longing for Something or Someone greater than ourselves.

There is ever and always a striving after. A reaching for. A clinging to. Embedded within our being is what someone has called "a God-shaped blank." And, until God Almighty comes in the person of his Son to fill that void, there is a wretched restlessness which propels us onward in an anxious pursuit after anything which seems to satisfy.
There was a time when, out of ignorance, people fashioned gods according to their superstitions. They peopled each physical phenomenon with a demon to be appeased or a god to be worshiped. They did obeisance before the wind, the lightening, the air and the storm. They erected altars to the sun, the moon and the stars. They made idols of the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.

Thank God, our enlightenment has changed all that. Our scientific study has liberated us from the shackles of superstition. We have discovered that the mysterious sights and sounds of nature which so frightened our forbearers are not mysterious at all. They are only the natural and inevitable results of systems of law. So we revel in our new-found emancipation and we smile condescendingly at the inadequate gods of the heathens.

But, are we any less in need of this first commandment? No! For upon the pedestals of our present-day pantheon stands a whole new breed of alien gods. We have not escaped from idolatry. We have simply refined it. We have not obliterated heathenism, we have merely raised it to a new and loftier plane.

For instance, there are those among who bow down before the god of science and knowledge, and how great full we are for the stupendous strides which have been made in scientific research in recent years. How delighted we are in the liberation which has come through the elimination through ignorance and the conquering of disease.

But, to make science our god and knowledge our goal is to be guilty of the saddest of sins. For there is no stability or substance in either. That which science seemed so sure of yesterday, is now known to be false. That which it asserts to be true today, may well prove to be erroneous tomorrow. So rapid are the shifts of our scientific pursuit, many of last year's of text books are already out of date.

Perhaps that's why Paul, one of the great intellects the world has ever known, disdained to make science and knowledge his god. Instead he issued the solemn and warning,
"Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

There are others who do obeisance before the god of youth and beauty. And certainly we must lend nature a hand if we are to look our best. Who was it that said, "Beauty is only skin dope?"

But the tragedy is that each year the adherence of this particular god placed upon their altar, a cosmetic counter, more money for aides to beauty than is spent by all of the members of all of the churches of all the denominations for all of the King's causes.

And, when these people have spent all, like the prodigal son, they have discovered that they have dealt in a coin which must inevitably tarnish. For the god they serve cannot really satisfy. Instead, it is destined itself to dry up and fade away.

There are others who give worship to the gods of materialistic possessions. One of my fellow pastors told me recently of a couple in his church who declined to make a commitment to the on-going ministry of the church because, "We can't afford it." He went on to say, "I could not help but observe that in the year since they refused that commitment, they have purchased a summer home, a boat and motor and just last Sunday drove up to church in a brand new car." Should someone charge that young couple with idolatry, they would proclaim their orthodoxy with great vehemency. Yet, it does not take a prophet or a son of a prophet to recognize the god to which they give their true allegiance.

And what is to be said of those who do ??obescence before gods of wealth and fame, pleasure and power or that galaxy of lesser deities which find sanctuary within the walls of their private pantheon. You see, the real atheist is not the person who says "There is no God." Rather, the real atheist is the person who says, "There is a God," and then lives as if God did not exist.

Therefore, the pressing question which clamors for an answer from each of us this morning is "To what and to whom am I giving my allegiance?" For this first commandment declares that we are incurable religious, and if we do not worship the one true God, we will worship something else.

God Is All We Need
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me," also declares that when we have God, we have all we need and more besides. Only a fool would deny God's right to reign. We know that. We know that he has made us and we are his by the act of creation.

We know that he has saved us and we are his through the act of redemption. We know all that. We acknowledge his double claim to our allegiance. We admit his double right to rule our lives. But that is not the question. What we do not seem to know and apparently cannot get through our thick skulls, is that apart from him we can never be truly happy -- here and now! For apart from him we can never live truly integrated focused lives.

We persist in believing we can improve upon his plan for us. We maneuver and scheme, we struggle and strain trying to feverishly to find an answer to the aching void within us.

And, all the while, the Lord God omnipotent stands patiently waiting to give freely that which can never be bought: happiness -- here and now.

When will we learn that God always has something better for us than we can plan for ourselves?
When will we learn that only by aligning our lives with his law can we enter into the promise land of peace and plenty?
When will we learn that we can never break his commandments, but are only broken on them?
When will we learn that, in having God, we have all we need and more beside?

How tranquil would be the soul of the average Christian who still bows down before the altar of stuff, if he would only pause to realize in Christ he already owns the greatest treasure of the universe and, therefore, some things are not worth the price he must pay.

There is a story about a man of great wealth who developed a magnificent garden on his estate. Each year, hundreds of people came to see its beauty. One day a visitor asked one of the caretakers, "How much is this estate worth?" The worker replied, "I don't know how much it is worth, but I can tell you how much it costs. It costs the owner his soul."

There are many people who are not necessarily rich as men count riches, who nevertheless, worship before the gods of material possessions. How wise they would be to heed the words of Jesus,
"What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?"

Yes, we know that God has the right to rule our lives. At least, we know it in theory. But, how rich and radiant our lives would be if we put our knowledge into practice. If we put him first. If we would "bring down every idol and cast our every foe" until there were no other gods before him.

You see, my friend, God has no greater gift to give you than himself. When you possess him, and are possessed by him, you are rich beyond all measure. You are free from stress and strain. You are liberated from turmoil and tension. Life moves into true perspective. You are whole. You are complete. You are at peace.

The Matter Is Squarely Up To You
How foolish then, to forsake that which alone can satisfy that which must inevitably decay and rust away. And this suggest a final word. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" makes it clear that the matter is squarely up to you.

As I have said, this is not a commandment, but a covenant. It is God's promise to bless you -- if! And therefor, it is still your prerogative to accept of reject his offer.

The alternatives are clear. You can submit and live, or resists and die. "No man can serve two masters" said Jesus. "Either he will hate the one and love other, or he will cling to the one and forsake the other. Ye cannot serve both God and mammon."

And the prophet adds, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." You cannot serve both God and mammon. You cannot be loyal to both Jesus and your ??baser self. You cannot be committed to the force of good and the force of evil simultaneously.

To be loyal to one you must be disloyal to the other. You cannot give allegiance to both more than you can go east and west simultaneously. To attempt to do so, can only destroy you. Therefor, you must choose.

Bishop John Oxham comes at it this way,
"To every man there openeth a way,
And ways and a way.
And the high soul takes the high
And the low soul takes the low.
While in between on the misty flats
The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth
A high way and a low.
And every man decideth which way
His soul shall go."

How can you tell which way you are going? Which God do you worship?

May I suggest that you forget for a moment what you know about the Apostles Creed and instead, take a long, hard stare at your daily calendar. That's right! Consult your date book. For that to which you give your time is the thing in which you really believe.

May I suggest that you put down your Bible for a moment, and pickup your budget. Consult your spending habits. For that to which you give your money, is the thing in which we believe.

May I suggest you ignore, for a moment, you say with your lips and examine what you do with your life. Consult your daily round of activity. For that to which you give your strength and energy, is that in which you really believe.

Let me show you what I mean. Two businessmen were traveling through New England and lost their way. They stopped at a farmhouse to get directions. The farmer said, "Go down the road until you come to an intersection and turn right."

The man who was driving the car preceded down the road and, when he came to the intersection, he turned left. His traveling companion said, "But the farmer told us to turn right." The driver smiled and said, "I know. But he pointed left. And when what you say does not coincide with what you do, you mean what you do!"
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Here is a word for you who are seeking a fuller, richer, more oriented life.
Here is a word for you who want release from inner tension and outer turmoil.
Here is a word which brings life into true perspective, which gives the initial key to happiness for you -- here and now.
Here is a word that declares a profoundly simply and yet simply profound, truth that when a person is right with God, he or she is right -- period!