1. There is a big controversy going on in our country over whether or not public schools, court houses, and other government buildings should be allowed to display plaques listing the Ten Commandments.
2. The ACLU and many other liberal trouble-makers are fighting against the Ten Commandments. Conservatives (especially Christian conservatives) are fighting for the right to post the Ten Commandments.
3. My opinion is this: we are living in such a wicked day and age that I believe the Ten Commandments should be on the wall of every schoolroom and every courtroom in America!
4. And let’s not stop there. How about every hospital room, every post office, every town hall, every police station, every fire house, and even every pool hall?
5. Today I am going to preach on the first commandment.

I. IF WE GET THIS FIRST COMMANDMENT RIGHT, OBEDIENCE TO THE OTHER NINE SHOULD FOLLOW.

1. The first commandment leaves no doubt as to the position God demands in our lives. There is no room for any other gods.
2. Over 100 years ago, the great evangelist, D.L. Moody, made this statement: "You don’t have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them." What would this great preacher think if he were alive today?
3. According to the Bible, there is only one true God and all other gods (whether they are called Vishnu or Allah or whatever) are demons and devils (cf. Deut.32:17,18; Psalm 106:37; I Cor. 10:19,20).
4. Worshipping idols and devils is not the only way people violate the first commandment – Seeking happiness without God is a horrible sin and is very prevalent today in our pleasure-crazy society.
5. The apostle Paul speaks of those who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God" (II Tim.3:4).
6. Paul also condemns those "whose God is their belly" (Phil.3:19). Most people today are engrossed in self-indulgence, sensual gratification, eating and drinking, movies and television, shopping, vacations, and worldly pleasures. They are nothing but slaves to their sensual appetites (cf. Rom.16:18).
7. To many people, sports is their religion, and the various athletes are their gods. How sad when you consider that most of these athletes are lost souls, immoral men and women who have denied God, who play their games on the Lord’s Day, insuring that multitudes of people will not go to church and will not hear the Gospel. In other words, these rich, selfish athletes are leading millions of lost souls down the road to hell.
8. Many of these athletes are drunkards and dope addicts. Some are even sex perverts.
9. Another false god that people put in front of the true God is fame and popularity. There are some big-name preachers today who have denied and disobeyed the Bible in order to get big crowds. God help them.
10. A famous religious villain immortalized by William Shakespeare is Cardinal Wolsey, the crafty priest who dominated the English government during the reign of King Henry VIII. Shakespeare has him crying out at the end of his miserable life, "Oh, Cromwell, Cromwell, had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king He would not in mine old age have left me naked to mine enemies!"
11. Which brings me to my next point.

II. MONEY IS GOD FOR MOST AMERICANS TODAY.

1. A story in one of McGuffey’s Readers tells of a miser who had under his basement a secret sub-basement that no one else knew about. Down there he hoarded large sums of silver and gold. Every day he would go down there secretly and count his money and stack it in piles. He loved to run his fingers through the coins and listen to the sound it made. He would even sing love songs to the money: "O my Beauties, O my Beauties!" he would sing sweetly to the coins. One day while he sat worshipping his money, a strong wind blew the door of the sub-basement shut. A spring lock that could only be turned from the outside locked him in. Years later the old house was being torn down and some of the workmen found his skeleton stretched out over the pile of gold and silver. He was destroyed by his false god!
2. Again, let me quote the great apostle Paul: "The love of money is the root of all evil" (I Tim.6:10). Why is there such a problem today with gambling? -- the love of money!
3. Why is there such a problem with people working on the Lord’s Day? -- the love of money!
4. America has become a very materialistic country and God will judge us for it. As I go out knocking on doors I often meet people from other countries who tell me that they went to church faithfully back home but since they moved here all they do is make money and buy things.
5. A man was trying to teach a boy a lesson when he saw him walking home with a loaf of bread.

"What have you there?"    "A loaf of bread."
"And where did it come from?"    "From the baker."
"And where did the baker get it?"    "He made it."
"Of what did he make it?"    "Flour."
"Where did he get the flour?"    "From the miller."
"And where did he get it?"    "From the farmer."
"And where did the farmer get it?"
Then the boy finally got the point. The truth dawned upon his mind and he replied: "From God."

6. But notice that God was only acknowledged at the last resort. That’s the way it is for so many – when all else fails, I will remember God. The typical man says: "I work hard to support my family." Not exactly – God supports him and your family.
7. God says: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex.20:3).

III. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT CAN ONLY BE PROPERLY BE OBEYED IF ONE KNOWS THE TRUE GOD OF THE BIBLE.

1. In the first commandment, God is condemning polytheism. There is no commandment against atheism.
2. Why? Because atheism is not a big problem. Anthropologists and historians as well as Christian missionaries tell us that even among the most primitive tribes way out in the deepest jungles there is a yearning and reaching out for God.
3. The problem is that mankind is born with a fallen, sinful nature and does not know the true God of the Bible. Again, please allow me to quote D.L. Moody: "Man does not need to be commanded to worship, as there is not a race so high or so low in the scale of civilization but has some kind of god. What he needs is to be directed aright."
4. Hundreds of years after God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, David wrote in Psalm 14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."
5. And then 1,000 years after King David, the apostle Paul visited Athens (Acts 17:22-34). Paul preached the true God of the Bible, and told them that this true God "hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained…" (Acts 17:31).
6. Are you ready to stand before this God?

CONCLUSION:

1. God said: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex.20:3).
2. Eventually Moses died and was succeeded by Joshua. And eventually Joshua grew old and was getting ready to die. But before he died, he gave one final message to the children of Israel (Joshua 24:14-16).
3. Joshua said: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Josh.24:15). What is your choice?