640. The Ten Commandments - #1 - You Shall Have no Other gods before Me - September 13, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:21] Let's open and prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today.

[00:00:27] Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them.

[00:00:34] I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Proverbs 13, beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:42] A wise son, heeds his father's instruction but his scoffer does not listen to review.

[00:00:50] A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth but the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.

[00:00:58] He who guards his mouth preserves his life but he who opens wide his lips shall have this instruction.

[00:01:07] The soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.

[00:01:15] A righteous man hates blind but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.

[00:01:22] R purchaseness guards him whose way is blameless. The wickedness overthrows the sinner.

[00:01:31] There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing and one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches.

[00:01:39] The ransom of a man's life is his riches but the poor does not hear review.

[00:01:47] The light of the righteous rejoices but the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

[00:01:53] By pride comes nothing but strife but with the well advised is wisdom.

[00:02:00] Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished but he who gathers by labor will increase.

[00:02:09] Hope deferred makes the heart sick but when the desire comes it is a tree of life.

[00:02:16] He who despises the word will be destroyed but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.

[00:02:24] The law of the wise is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death.

[00:02:32] Good understanding gains favor but the way of the unfaithful is hard.

[00:02:39] Every prudent man acts with knowledge but a fool lays open his folly.

[00:02:46] A wicked messenger falls into trouble but a faithful ambassador brings health.

[00:02:52] Poverty and shame will come to him who distains correction but he who regards a review will be honored.

[00:03:03] A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul but it is an abomination to fools who depart from evil.

[00:03:12] He who walks with wise men will be wise but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

[00:03:20] Evil pursues sinners but to the righteous good shall be repaid.

[00:03:27] A good man leaves and inheritance to his children's children but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

[00:03:37] Much food is in the follow ground of the poor and for lack of justice there is waste.

[00:03:44] He who spares his rod hates his son but he who loves him disciplines him properly.

[00:03:54] The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul but the stomach of the wicked shall be in want.

[00:04:01] Friends today I'd like to close out the week by looking at verse 10 and proper 13 verse 10 says this by pride comes nothing but strife but with a well advised is wisdom.

[00:04:19] Friends today I'm going to begin a 10 week study on the ten commandments this is something that the Lord has revealed to me that he wants me to put out there.

[00:04:33] So this is going to only be on Fridays.

[00:04:39] So what I'm going to do is this will be over the next 12 weeks I think because on the last Friday of each month my wife Judy comes on so that is not going to change the last Friday of both September and October.

[00:05:03] I will have her on so this probably will go on for 12 weeks instead of 10 weeks but the Lord told me Bill you need to go over this and a lot of times we've we tend to forget about the ten commandments and listen to how stringent they really are.

[00:05:22] And the thing about it is back in the time when Moses was around and of course this happens during the book of Exodus but before we begin today I'd like to just go over a few things.

[00:05:35] First of all the original ten commandments are found in the book of Exodus chapter 20 and it spans from verses two through 17.

[00:05:47] Next if we go to the book of Deuteronomy chapter five verses six through 21 that passage of scripture is entitled the ten commandments reviewed.

[00:06:03] And the third time is after.

[00:06:08] The people had made an idol they had gone to Aaron and said I don't know where this man Moses is but what we want you to do is to make an idol for us and they made that calf of gold.

[00:06:24] And then after that in the 34th chapter of Exodus we review the new covenant and the covenant is now renewed.

[00:06:37] So they go into great detail about each of these ten commandments in verses 11 through 26 and they bring it out and they just make more emphasis on this and this and this what we're supposed to do and what we're not supposed to do.

[00:06:53] But what I'd like to do to begin with is just go over the ten commandments.

[00:06:59] So let's read in the book of Exodus chapter 20 beginning in verse two.

[00:07:06] I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

[00:07:15] You shall have no other gods before me.

[00:07:18] 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.

[00:07:34] You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.

[00:07:39] 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.

[00:07:53] But showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.

[00:08:01] You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

[00:08:06] For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

[00:08:14] Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

[00:08:18] Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

[00:08:21] But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

[00:08:27] In it you shall do no work.

[00:08:30] You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

[00:08:45] For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.

[00:08:56] Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

[00:09:03] Honor your father and your mother.

[00:09:07] That your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

[00:09:13] You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[00:09:24] You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

[00:09:31] Nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbors.

[00:09:44] Now, friends, what I will be doing during this study is literally going over each of them in fine detail.

[00:09:54] And today we're going to take a closer look at the first commandment and let's review in chapter two.

[00:10:03] It says, you shall have no other gods before me.

[00:10:09] Now, friends, I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible.

[00:10:14] And what I'd like to do before going over the first commandment which is found in verse three,

[00:10:22] I'd like to review verse two first.

[00:10:26] It says, I and the Lord your God.

[00:10:29] First, the great king identified himself by speaking his name.

[00:10:36] Now, this is God actually speaking through Moses the prophet who brought you out.

[00:10:46] Then, God reminded the Israelites of his gracious actions on their behalf.

[00:10:53] In ancient treaties, a king would describe the history of relations between his kingdom and the one being contracted.

[00:11:03] In this treaty between the Lord and the Israelites, God described his gracious deliverance of Israelites from cruel slavery.

[00:11:17] And many of you know this was over a 400-year time period.

[00:11:23] Now, we all know the story about how Moses had taken the people of Israel out of Egypt into the promised land.

[00:11:36] And the Israelites began murmuring and complaining and saying,

[00:11:42] I wish we were still in Egypt, three of them.

[00:11:46] They had the greatest food.

[00:11:47] They had leaks. They had this and they had this.

[00:11:51] And God was so sick and tired of their murmuring.

[00:11:57] They had been in bondage or slavery for over 400 years.

[00:12:05] And he had delivered them from that, and yet they would grite and complain because they didn't have leaks.

[00:12:13] Or because they didn't have garlic. It was absolutely amazing.

[00:12:20] So let's go to verse 3, this is actually commandment number one.

[00:12:26] You shall have no other gods before me.

[00:12:30] Look at the commentary, God was not to be viewed by Israel as one God among many.

[00:12:38] Nor as the best of the gods. He was and is the only living God.

[00:12:49] He and he alone was to be worshiped, obeyed, and adored by the Israelites.

[00:12:57] Now friends, it's important that I bring this up because for over 400 years the Israelites had been living in the land of Egypt,

[00:13:06] where they had many gods.

[00:13:10] So God is making a real depiction here, and he's saying, listen, you are used to being among many gods, where you're from.

[00:13:23] But I am the only god there truly is.

[00:13:30] These other things are not real. I'm real. I am alive.

[00:13:34] I see what you're doing. I acknowledge that sometimes you do the right thing, sometimes you do the wrong thing,

[00:13:42] but God watches everything we do every single day. He watches us.

[00:13:49] But what I really like to do is just kind of overview the 10 verses again.

[00:13:55] The 10 commandments. Number one, you shall have no other gods before me.

[00:13:59] Number two, you shall not make for yourself a card damage.

[00:14:03] Any likeness of this. Number three, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

[00:14:09] In other words, what people do over and over and over again, almost all the time, we're not supposed to do that.

[00:14:17] Number four, remember the Saturday to keep it holy. Many people don't even think about taking a day off work.

[00:14:24] A lot of people wouldn't even imagine doing a whole day and not doing any work at all.

[00:14:33] Number five, honor your father and your mother.

[00:14:37] Now those five, if you truly follow those, if you look at God and worship him and do everything to God as ask you to do,

[00:14:47] if you honor your father and your mother, then the last five, you wouldn't even think about doing.

[00:14:56] You shall not murder. Why would you murder if you were honoring God?

[00:15:00] If you were honoring your mother and father, you shall not commit adultery. You wouldn't even think about committing adultery if you honored God and if you evade his commandments.

[00:15:15] Number eight, you shall not steal. Why on earth would you do that? That doesn't bring honor to God.

[00:15:21] Number nine, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[00:15:26] Friends, if we love God and if we love our neighbor, we are not going to bear false witness and lie about our neighbor to people that don't even maybe even know us or our neighbor.

[00:15:41] Why would we do that? And finally, you shall not covet.

[00:15:45] And, Gali, I'm not going to go into detail right now but my gosh, how many times do we break that commandment?

[00:15:56] To covet means to see something that someone has and wish you had it. Oh, my goodness.

[00:16:09] Most, if not all of us are guilty of that from one time to another.

[00:16:17] That is all I'm going to go over for commandment one.

[00:16:21] We will be going over the second commandment next Friday.

[00:16:26] And until then, before we close, I'd like to go back to our verse of the day.

[00:16:34] And today is the 13th of September. I have chosen verse 10 and it says, by pride comes nothing but strife.

[00:16:44] But with a well advised is wisdom. Now what I'd like to do is go over the commentary for this verse.

[00:16:54] It's such a powerful verse. The word pride does not refer to self-esteem or to a positive, metal attitude but to arrogance and a refusal to glorify God.

[00:17:12] Such pride is self-serving and leads to conflict.

[00:17:18] And, friends, I'm going to remind you what it says in the Bible in both the book of James and the book of First Peter.

[00:17:25] It says that God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble.

[00:17:31] So friends, we are to have in a life of humility where to walk in humility and not in pride.

[00:17:45] If we walk in pride, God is going to resist us.

[00:17:48] If we go to God in prayer and we're in pride, he's not going to hear our prayers.

[00:17:54] You need to remember that. You really do. But what it's say and let's break the first part of this first down by pride comes nothing but strife.

[00:18:06] Strife, friends, you don't want strife. Where there is strife, there's not going to be any peace.

[00:18:12] If you have strife in your home, between a husband and a wife, it's going to be ugly.

[00:18:19] And if the husband and wife are in strife, then the kids are going to be a product of that.

[00:18:25] They're going to go, oh, mom and dad are fighting again. You don't want strife in your life.

[00:18:31] And that is what pride causes. It causes strife. Now let's look at the back end of First-Hem.

[00:18:39] It says, but with the well-advised is wisdom. Friends, if you want wisdom in the book of Job, it describes wisdom as having the fear of the Lord.

[00:18:54] Friends, if we have a fear of the Lord and a healthy reverence for God and who we is, we will not walk in pride.

[00:19:05] We simply won't. So my call to action today is, once again, not that simple to do.

[00:19:14] And friends, I kind of feel like I've been beating up on you a little bit if you've been listening to this podcast, especially over the last two to three weeks.

[00:19:23] I am asking you some very, very difficult questions.

[00:19:27] And my call to action is just basically being aware of where you are. Do you walk in pride?

[00:19:41] I want you to think about it. And a very easy question to ask is this, do you feel that you are better than other people?

[00:19:52] And let me be honest here. I'm talking about people like migrant farmers, people from foreign countries who like work, menial jobs.

[00:20:06] Friends, we are not better than they are. God loves every single one of us. Give that some thought as we enter the weekend.

[00:20:16] Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:20:26] And if you would, and you've never set that prayer before, but you feel God tugging at your heart.

[00:20:32] You're going to say I really like what this guy is saying. You know, he's talking about the goodness of God and wow, we need to really lay hold of these 10 commandments.

[00:20:45] We need to do what the Bible tells us to do. If you are interested in joining the family of God and learning more about his son Jesus, repeat this simple prayer after me today.

[00:21:00] Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner and a need of the Savior. I invite you to come into my heart. I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life.

[00:21:14] I make you my Lord and Savior. Friends, if you said that prayer, you are now a bona fide member of the family of God. Welcome to the family.

[00:21:26] But this is only the first step. If you said that prayer, I invite you to go online, find a local church in your area, preferably one that preaches directly out of the Bible.

[00:21:39] You need to surround yourself with like-minded individuals, people who are Christians and they can help you in this new walk of yours with God.

[00:21:49] Friends, we can't isolate ourselves. The devil is real and he will come after you if you are not strong and have people lifting you up every day.

[00:22:04] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make us faith shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:22:12] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Friends, this is the weekend. Please go out with your spouse, have a good time.

[00:22:23] Take the kids along with you. Have some good family time. Let them know how much God loves them and how much you love them and I will see you back on Monday as we further explore.