1st Commandment – You Shall Have No Other Gods

Our families cannot survive apart from a moral base, which is why it takes God to make a home. In this message, Adrian Rogers refers back to the timeless Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5, to reveal God’s plan for our homes in this morally corrupt world.

God’s Messages

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

We complain if the 10 commandments are not posted in public places today.
But the question is how many parents here today know the 10 commandments?
The question is how many of us have the 10 commandments posted in our home?
God told Moses Moses tell them to put these laws upon the door post of their house.
And God said, fathers, it is your responsibility, not the governments nor the school teachers to teach these commandments to your Children.
It’s a good place for an amen profound truth. Simply stated.
This is love worth finding with pastor teacher and author Adrian Rogers.
I want you to take God’s word today and turn to Deuteronomy chapter six and understand here that God is telling us how we are to keep these commandments and to teach these commandments.
Look, if you will in chapter six and verse one.
Now these are the commandments, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you that you might do them in the land, whether ye go to possess it, that thou might is fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and His commandments which I commanded thee, thou and thy son and thy son, son, all the days of thy life that thy days may be prolonged.
God says, if you want your home and your nation to last, then take these commandments and hand them down from father to son.
Now read with me if you will as to what God says that fathers are to do and mothers are to do in their home.
I’m going to Deuteronomy chapter six and verse four here.
Oh Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord.
Now he’s restating again the commandment that I just gave to you. I am the Lord, thy God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me here.
Oh Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
And these words which I command the this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shall talk of them when thou sits in thine house and when thou walks by the way and when thou lies down and when thou rises up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be as frontlet between thy eyes and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates.
And it shall be when the Lord thy God hath brought the unto the land which he swear unto thy fathers to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob to give the great and goodly cities which thou build is not and houses full of all good things which thou fill us not.
And wells did which thou dig not and vineyards and olive trees which thou plant is not.
When thou shalt have eaten and be full. Then, then Israel listen, then America listen, then beware less.
Thou forget the Lord which brought the fourth out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage.
Now, this passage that I’ve read to you, the Jews consider to be the most important passage in the book of Deuteronomy.
If not in the entire Bible is called orthodox Jews would repeat this at least twice a day.
They repeat it in the congregation here or Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might and teach this fathers to your Children.
Now, we complain if the 10 commandments are not posted in public places today.
But the question is how many parents here today know the 10 commandments.
The question is how many of us have the 10 commandments posted in our home?
God told Moses Moses tell them to put these laws upon the door post of their house.
And God said fathers, it is your responsibility, not the governments nor the school teachers to teach these commandments to your Children.
That’s a good place for an amen fathers. It is your responsibility.
It is not the responsibility of the school, it is not the responsibility of the government.
It is the responsibility of dads to see that these commandments are handed down. This is God’s priority plan.
God says that the home is to be so supercharged with spiritual truth and godliness that these things will go from one generation to another.
For the most part, a juvenile delinquent is a child trying to act like his parents.
And the great problem today is not drop out kids, but drop out dads and misguided mothers who have failed to hand down these truths from one generation to another.
Now, before time gets away, I want us to look very carefully, very carefully at verses four and following listen, this is Deuteronomy chapter six here o Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord.
Now that I call the great revelation, one Lord, if you make notes, that’s the point.
I want you to write down the great revelation. One Lord.
Now, not just one God, one Jehovah, one Lord, you know, everybody’s gonna believe something and in some kind of a God, but we’re not just talking about the God of your choice.
We’re talking about Jehovah God. We’re talking about the one who made it all who said I am the Lord, thy God.
Thou shall have no other gods before me. The great revelation is one Lord.
How do you know Pastor Rogers? Well, number one scripture declares the fact of God.
You might think the first commandment would say thou shalt not be an atheist and uh thou shalt not believe in atheism.
But it doesn’t do that. The Bible never even argues the fact of atheism.
The Bible just begins Genesis 11 in the beginning, God sweetly sublimely surely in the beginning, God, God only gives one half of one verse to atheism.
Psalm 14 verse one. The fool had said in his heart, there is no God.
I’m not here today to try to prove God to you.
I’m not here to argue with you about it.
I’ve learned never argue with a fool in public.
Somebody standing around won’t be able to tell who’s who the Bible says.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
The Bible simply states God a man who denies facts as a fool and a man who denies the supreme fact is the supreme fool.
The scriptures declare the fact of God.
Have you ever noticed when you try to teach a little child about God? How simple it is.
When you try to teach a child, there is no God.
How convoluted the arguments become one atheistic father was trying to teach his child. There is no God.
And after He’d gotten finished with this long drawn out explanation of how everything just happened, the little child looked at the daddy and said, Daddy, do you think God knows?
We don’t believe in Him? You see that is innate in the human heart.
The scriptures declare the fact of God and creation displays the hand of God.
We talk about the laws of science. They’re not the laws of science.
You look at creation, these are the laws of God that science has discovered and the scientists are no more capable of creating those laws than Columbus was capable of creating North America.
He simply discovered what was already there.
Now, how do we know that there’s one Lord, the scripture declares it friend.
Creation displays it and faith discovers it. Faith discovers it. Nobody’s ever argued into believing in God.
You people accuse us of being believers. Oh, they say you’re a believer, friend. Everybody is a believer.
The atheist is a believer. He says to me, prove there’s a God. I say, I can’t.
He just laughs. I say prove there is no God. He can’t either.
He says, well, I, I don’t believe there’s a God. I said that makes you a believer.
You believe there is no God and you believe by faith, there is no God.
I believe there is a God. I believe by faith. There is a God.
But I believe with evidence, I have the external evidence. I have the internal evidence.
I have the creation and I have the witness of God in my heart.
And if you want to believe in God. You can believe in God.
The matter is not in your head, it is in your heart.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. He doesn’t have intellectual problems.
He has moral problems because he does not want this God to rule over him.
Now, here’s the second thing I want you to see. Not only the great revelation but the great response.
What is the response to that revelation? Hero Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord.
Now here is the great response, verse five and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
That my friend is the great response.
The great revelation, one Lord, the great response, one love, one love.
You are to love him supremely.
Now you’re to love Him with a sincere love with all of your heart.
Jesus spoke of people who honored the Lord with their words, but he said the heart is far from me.
Do you know what your Children need to see in your home?
They need to see a sincere love.
They need to see in you a burning passionate, emotional sincerity.
When it comes to the things of God, kids can spot a phony a mile away and they know whether or not you love God with all of your heart and it is the funniness of parents by and large that turn kids off to the things of God.
There was a young Jewish boy. He and his father lived in Germany.
His father was a successful merchant and they were practicing their Jewish faith and they moved from Germany to England.
And the boy was surprised to see that his father joined a Lutheran church.
My boy said, dad, why did you join a Lutheran church?
And the father said something like this.
Well, son, we, we live in a different place now and there’s so many Lutherans here in this particular place in this particular town.
It would be good for business, be good for business.
That boy who had a deep interest in religion lost it all his name.
Carl Marks who wrote the Communist Manifesto in which he said religion is the opiate of the people.
Kids can spot a phony.
You are to love God with a sincere love. I’ll tell you something else.
Not only you to love him with a sincere love, but folks, you are to love Him with a selfish love because the next word says with all of your soul, with all of your soul, your soul is yourself.
And what’s he saying? The whole self, the total self needs to be given over to God.
There needs to be no area in your life that is off limits to God.
How are you going to teach your Children?
There is one Lord they are to see in you that one love.
They are to see in you a sincere love and a selfless love for our Lord.
Do you know how I can measure any man woman, boy girl in this church pretty well?
Just look at two books that are in your home and I’m not talking about this book.
I’m talking about your checkbook and your date, book, your calendar and your bank account.
Where are you putting your time? Where are you putting your money?
You are to love God selflessly. There’s to be a sincere love, a selfless love.
And there’s to be a strong love because you are to love God with all of your might, every inch, every ounce, every nerve, every sin.
He’s not just talking here about physical strength.
He’s talking about whatever strength you have emotional strength, financial strength, intellectual strength.
Now there’s one lord and one love. Now, here’s the third thing.
Watch it very carefully because there is one Lord. That’s the great revelation. One love. That’s the great response.
Then. Friend. There is the great responsibility. One law.
Now follow one Lord, one love and one law. Look.
Now if you will in verse six and these words which I command the this day, these are not 10 suggestions of voluntary initiatives.
These words which I command the this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shall talk of them when thou sits in thine house and when thou walk is by the way.
And when thou li is down and when thou rises up one law, now, your home is to be a law school.
You’re to teach the law of God. The professors in that home are to be mom and dad.
But primarily dad go up, back up to verse two.
He says that thou might is fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, thou and thy son and thy sons, son.
The emphasis is upon the father. The great problem today frankly is fathers have abandoned their role.
Drop out dads. A leading psychiatrist said, and I quote, if the husband or father is not the head of the family, there can be nothing but chaos.
The father is God’s person to lend stability and character and strength to the home.
We have dads today that are interested in sports and business and sex. They’ve forgotten.
They’re God given assignments to teach the 10 commandments.
There are powerful forces today that are trying to shape and mold the mentality of today’s youth.
Many of them come home, shut the door, go to the bedroom and turn on a moral sewer called MTV.
They watch it. Somebody says, well, what they see does not affect them.
If you believe what they see doesn’t affect them, you’ve got rooms to rent upstairs, unfurnished.
Let me ask you a question.
Why with any company pay $1 million for 30 seconds time at the Super Bowl.
If what people see doesn’t affect them, I mean, smell the coffee folks, they cannot sit there and watch that without it affecting them.
And, and, and our Children are being systematically seduced.
I am telling you that the professors in this law school are the dads.
The students are the Children. Look, if you will in verse seven, thou shall teach them diligently unto thy Children and the Children need to be enrolled early Francis Xavier, Roman Catholic leader said this quote.
Give me the Children until they’re seven and anyone can have them afterward.
Begin early Isaiah 28 verses nine and 10.
Whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand doctrine them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast for precept must be upon precept, line upon line here a little and there a little.
Now the the professor is the father, the students, the Children.
The curriculum is God’s 10 commandments verse six.
And these words which I command in this day, he’s talking about the 10 commandments.
That is the curriculum in the school. Now, how do you teach the 10 commandments?
Why are we having this series to teach dads to teach the 10 commandments?
Not that Adrian is going to do it from the pulpit?
Oh, what to God that I can show you your responsibility?
How do you teach the commandments in the home? Number one, convincingly, look, if you will.
In verse six, they shall be in thy heart. Folks.
If you don’t believe it, if you don’t practice it, just hang it up, you’ll never teach it.
Don’t send them down here to Sunday school. Don’t send them to the public school.
Don’t send them to the Christian school and think you have done your duty. It must be in your heart.
You teach it convincingly because you’re convinced, teach it creatively.
Uh verse seven says, thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children.
Shall talk of them when thou sits in thine house and when thou walk us, by the way, we have four grown Children, all of them love God.
They’re teaching their Children to love God. How did Joyce teach these Children? How did we teach them?
How did I teach them? Bible, reading Bible stories, Bible games, Bible memory, Christian books, Charlie Jones, a great motivator had a boy who was 14, gonna be 16 before long.
He said, son, when you get to be 16, you’re gonna want a car and I’m gonna help you buy a car.
And he said, there’s some books that I want you to read and give me a report on, I’ll select the books, you read the books, write me a report.
And for every book you read that I sign to you, you get $10 for your car fund.
And then he said, if you read like a bum, you’ll drive like a bum.
That’s good. Put some, put some incentive in this thing you say, I don’t believe in bribing kids.
That’s not a bribe. It’s a reward. Do you know the difference between a bribe and a reward?
A bribe is an inducement to do evil? Our reward is recognition for doing good God rewards.
Parents should reward Christian magazines, Christian music albums and tapes out goes that filth in comes the word of God.
It should be taught convincingly. It should be taught creatively. It should be taught consistently or diligently.
Look, if you will in verse seven, thou shalt teach them diligently. Line upon line, precept upon precept.
Hear a little there a little over and over and over again. Don’t think. Well, I told them that.
Now what’s next? It should be taught conversationally.
Look, if you will in verse seven, thou shalt talk of them when thou sits in thine house and when thou walk us by the way and when thou lies down and when thou rises up, look in verse 20.
And when thy son ask thee from time to time saying what mean?
These testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God have commanded you.
Then shall thou say when listen, when the curiosity factor is high answer, it doesn’t have to be dull.
It’s caught as well as taught. Now, here’s the final thing and I must close.
Not only should it be taught conversationally, but it needs to be taught conspicuously look if you will in verse eight and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine head and they shall be as frontlet between thine eyes.
What does that mean? Well, the Jews took this so literally that they built little boxes, they call prates and put the scripture in and, and would take a ribbon, a piece of leather and with the scripture in that little box, they would tie it around their head.
I was on an airplane and I watched the Jewish orthodox man. I was blessed watching him.
It was time for him to have his quiet time with God.
He got out his scripture and he began to read and to bow his head.
But before he had done that, he took out his out of his little box, his Phil put it around his head and tied it on.
Then he took the rest of the scripture and wrapped it around his forearm there on his right hand.
Uh And then he not caring what I thought or anybody else thought.
And frankly, I was very blessed, very blessed as I watched that man. He didn’t care what anybody thought.
There was the word of God, there was the word of God.
Now, did God mean to do it that way? Literally, perhaps he did.
But what I think he meant was between your eyes to show that all that you think is controlled by the word of God on your right hand to show all that you do is control by the word of God.
And then He said, you take the scripture and you put it on the door posts of your house.
They call that and put that there and that, that scripture there on the door posts.
What is He saying? He is saying, ladies and gentlemen teach the word of God, not only conversationally but teach it conspicuously.
We’re to teach the word of God consistently. We’re to teach the word of God creatively.
We have to teach the word of God compellingly.
We’re to teach the word of God so that our boys and girls will know that we believe what we believe.
Let’s bow our heads together in prayer heads are bowed, eyes are closed. No one moving.
God says, I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other Gods.
That means there is no rival. That means there’s no rebuttal. That means there’s no refusal.
Did you hear that? No rival, no other God, no rebuttal, no argument, no refusal, whatever he says, I’ll do now.
Friend, don’t say it won’t work if you haven’t tried it.
These are God’s laws for living and God’s laws are not for our punishment but for our welfare.
He loves us. And every time God says, thou shalt He’s saying, help yourself to happiness.
And every time He says, thou shalt not, he’s saying, don’t harm yourself.
I wonder how many here today could say Pastor Rogers.
I know that I know that I know if I die today, I would go straight to heaven because I have repented of my sin.
I have received Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.
I’m not trying to be saved by keeping the 10 commandments. I’m saved by trusting the Lord Jesus.
And I know that he has saved me while heads are about and eyes are closed.
If you can give me that testimony, would you lift your hand? Just I know that I’m saved. Praise God.
Wonderful. Take them down. Now, if you couldn’t lift your hand, today, would be a wonderful day for you to give your heart to Jesus.
You could pray like this. God.
I’m a sinner and I’m lost and I need to be saved and I want to be saved.
Jesus come into my heart, forgive my sin and save me, save me Lord Jesus and he’ll do it.
Father. I pray that many today will say yes to Christ and these who could not lift their hand.
I pray. Oh God, I pray dear God that even right now they might say Lord Jesus, oh Lord Jesus, I need you.
I want you come into my heart and save me in his wonderful name. I pray.
Amen.