Well, I invite you tonight to turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 18, 1 Kings chapter 18 that's found on page 353 as we're looking sort of briefly at the incident with Ahab and Elijah with the prophets of Baal and this event on Mount Carmel. And I invite you also to take those forms and prayers book to turn to page 240. And we're just going to, we're going to be looking now, we're transitioning into the, into the, we have been for the past weeks on the third section of our faith here, on the gratitude section of how we live before the Lord, thankfully. thankfully, and we have looked at in this third section what gratitude is, what good works are. We have looked at what is genuine repentance or conversion and the dying away of the old self and the rising to life of the new, what good works are. Now we're going to look at what those good works look like in the life of the believer as we consider the law of God. And so we go through an exposition of the Ten Commandments, and tonight we come to the first. So there on page 240, we're just going to say out loud the first commandment. That's it, and then we'll turn over to 93 and 94 and 95. So just the first commandment tonight, what is God's law? God spoke all these words, the first commandment, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. Now you can turn over to 93. How are these commandments divided into two tables? The first has four commandments teaching us how we should live in relation to God. The second has six commandments teaching us what we owe our neighbor. What does the Lord require in the first commandment? That I, not wanting to endanger my own salvation, avoid and shun all idolatry, sorcery, superstitious rites, and prayer to saints or to other creatures, that I rightly know the only true God, trust Him alone, and look to God for everything, humbly and patiently, and love, fear, and honor Him with all my heart. In short, that I renounce all created things rather than go against God's will in any way. What is idolatry? Idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God who has revealed himself in his word. And now 1 Kings chapter 18 beginning at verse 20 tonight, again page 353. So Ahab sent all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I only am left a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bowl and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your God, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. All the people answered, it's well spoken. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose for yourselves one bowl and prepare at first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it. And they took the bowl that was given to them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. There was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped about the altar that they had made. And at noon, Elijah mocked them, saying, Cry aloud, for he's a God, either he's musing or he's relieving himself or he's on a journey or perhaps he's asleep and must be awakened. And they cried out and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until blood gushed upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the ablation, but there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. And Elijah said to all the people, come near to me. And all the people came near to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be your name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar as great as could contain two seas of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bowl in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. and he said, do it a second time, and they did it a second time. He said, do it a third time, and they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. And also, and at that time, the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back. Then fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word tonight. My goal in this particular section tonight, as we have transitioned to the ten words and the ten commandments, is to walk you through these so that you would understand their meaning and appreciate this. Jesus was very clear in the Sermon on the Mount that those who teach the law and explain the law and understand the law, this is something that pleases the Lord. We, of course, have to understand the intention of the law. You remember back in the first part of the catechism that the law has that great first function of showing us our sin and our misery, doesn't it? That's the first great use of the law of God, is that it really does level the playing field. It shows all of us how far we've missed the mark and how dangerous and bad the predicament is before a God who is completely holy. So that was the first section as we studied our sin and our misery. But now it is helpful to see how the Heidelberg puts the law in the third section and explains that as a way for righteous, holy, blameless living. This should be our response to the grace that we have received in the gospel. We spend a lot of time working through the grace section here to understand what Jesus has done for us. And now this is our life. This is what being called to a righteous, holy, pure life in pursuit of that in sanctification. these themes run together today don't they and that's what we're doing with the law we're looking at it in that what we call third use a way of gratitude a way of thankfulness a way of saying Lord since you love righteousness since this is a reflection of your holy character this is my pursuit in life and that's where we begin tonight with this first commandment this overarching important commandment that says I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. You were in bondage in Egypt, and it wasn't just because there were oppressors. You were in bondage to false gods that they served, that I shattered for you. That's what the plagues all expose. This is what I've done, and here's the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. I don't want in the course of your lives for you to put any other gods beside me. There is no other god beside me. Now, maybe you've felt like me a little disconnected from this commandment as an American Christian. You know, I have sometimes struggled, you know, to how to articulate this best and to wrestle a little bit to help people to understand, well, what is idolatry, and how do I know that I'm really having that problem? One very well-known pastor said, it's interesting, in a large city in this country, he said he could, he couldn't get as far with people who didn't want to accept the Christian faith just talking about sin. But when he mentioned idolatry, it seemed to ring for people. They seemed to have a connection when he explained idolatry that they were doing that at least, Just to generalize sin, but here we get to a specific of sin. What is a specific that really shows us how sin materializes and develops, and what is the worst form of it? And this scene he said to connect with people. Every nation, as I said, when we try to wrestle through what are idols and what is idolatry, every nation in Israel's day had their own gods, and they had those little figurines, and they would carry them around in pockets. So it's pretty easy to spot them, isn't it? Israel was used to this. This is why the plague series was so enjoyable, because the Lord was systematically hitting all the gods of Egypt. When frogs popped out of the water and frogs hit the land, that was because there was a frog god called Heget, and little frogs on all their mantles would sit there, and they would pray to the frog god. This is what they would do in Egypt. The Moabites had Chemosh and the Ammonites had Milcom. And everywhere Israel saw this kind of idolatry. Everywhere there were figurines made. I don't think that's as foreign as it used to be in this country, but I think you can walk to some doorsteps and you'll see a little statue sitting there of maybe a Buddha. You can see people still have and trust in these sort of things. But I think we have to go to the essence of what idolatry is. We have to understand what idolatry is. And we might be tempted to think that this was easier for Israel because they could at least see the idol and say, ah, I'm called just to put that away, put that God away. But it was a much deeper struggle. It was a bigger struggle. In fact, in many ways, I would say that your struggle is there's so many idols to pick from. And there's so many things that we bow down to that our struggle is just as real and just as difficult as Israel's was. And that's what we've got to spend a moment on with tonight. Why then were people giving so much attention to little figurines and crafted things and things that did not talk and things that did not speak? Why were they doing that? It's because something was associated with that idol. Something was believed about that idol. You see, everybody has a faith component to what they do and how they think and what they look at in life. To every false god, there was attributed some power, something that was real and experienced to them, That was channeled through the image that was created. That's how they looked at idols. That's what they thought about idols. I mean, think about what Israel went out when Pharaoh would go to the Nile every morning. And this is what we know. We have the prayer where Moses goes and confronts Pharaoh at the Nile. And he went out and stood at the Nile. We have this recorded prayer. I don't know if there's any better prayer throughout history that really captures the essence of idolatry than pharaohs actually dug up prayer over there at the Nile. Here it is. Oh, all men who hold thee in need, fear ye the majesty of his Son. The all Lord has made by making verdant two banks. So it is, verdant art thou. So it is, verdant art thou. So it is, verdant art thou. They had 7-Eleven songs too, let me tell you. Verdant art thou that makes man and cattle to live. Wow. He's worshiping the Nile, isn't he? There's a reason God turned that thing to blood. He struck right at the heart of what they believed. So they're praying to these idols. They're associating real power behind these idols. They're associating powers of creation with these idols to hold people. So behind the idol, whatever supposed benefit there was or power, it was attributed over people's lives that held sway over them. Because they believed. They gave devotion. They gave recognition. They believed that the idol could accomplish this. Israel had watched God systematically knock over every single idol in Egypt and then the first thing he does when he gets when they get to the mountain and he brings them out and he delivers them the very first word of commandment is there are to be no other gods before me. It's very important. We're getting some indication of what the problem of idolatry is from the command itself, right? In the cases of Israel's history of idolatry, it wasn't that they went on denying that the Lord existed. This is the great, it was full syncretism at its best. They didn't deny the Lord existed. You hear it captured in the essence of the commandment itself? There's no other God alongside of me. See, that really helps, doesn't it? There's no other God alongside of me that you are to put your trust in. Placing alongside my glory and my majesty and my honor, they were taking another God and putting it before the face of God. And it got so perverse, remember in the golden calf event, that they held up that little Isis bull. And they actually tried to replace God with that bull saying, this is Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt. I mean, unbelievable, isn't it? Well, there's one scene tonight just briefly to run through that puts on display the power of idolatry in people's lives. And then we'll apply it as we've presented it here. And I read with wicked King Ahab. Ahab was a terrible king in Israel, and it links together, you know, the wicked reign of Ahab, saying that it had been awful enough that Israel walked in the sins of Jeroboam, who was the biggest idolater in Israel. But Ahab took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbel, king of Sidonans, and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. So here's one of Israel's own leaders, one of their kings, who went to do this. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria, and Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. Samaria was a grand temple devoted to Baal. Baal was the storm god, remember? Baal was the god of fertility. Baal was the god of lightning and rain and thunder. We have these action figures we call the god of thunder. Some people worship these little things, trust me. Some of you young ones are laughing right now because you know who I'm talking about. Thor, am I? See, this is exactly what happened in Israel. So what does God do? He stops the rain. That's exactly what happened in Israel. Baal was supposed to be the great provider of fertile fertility to give rain for the land, and the Lord shuts the whole thing down. By the way, that doesn't stop today. Whatever people are putting their trust in, in the world, he is systematically overturning. I would suggest, if you read Revelation 17, that's a lot of what we're facing right now. But people don't look at it that way. Well, what does God do? Hits the idol again in Israel's history. He attacks. He takes it down systematically. And the question then is, is who was angry, Baal or God? The people think Baal must be angry. So we've got to appease Baal. and Elijah's had enough. The great showdown happens on Mount Carmel and he gathers together and calls the 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Asherah and asks the question as Elijah comes near, how long are you guys going to keep limping between two different opinions? So he's gathered together all of Israel and Ahab at Mount Carmel. Ahab has. If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, go ahead. Follow him. But you can't choose God. You can't choose two. You see, this is an important point for our day too. There's only one true God. In a culture that says there's all these answers, it's just not true. You can't limp between two opinions. You've got to declare yourself at some point. Who is your God? Reason tells you there's only one. But more importantly, Scripture tells you there's only one. True God. So here we are in this great moment. The word here means a totter or limp. They are going back and forth between these opinions. you could just see him. Well, who do you think the true God is? God or Baal? Unbelievable, isn't it? The power of idolatry. How in the world could Israel, who had been delivered from Egypt and seen this kind of deliverance, ever get to a place like this? And I think that's an important question. You remember this morning when I said there's two sins the Lord tells you to flee? the Bible. One is sexual immorality and the other is idolatry, which tells you it has a huge power and control over people. Look at the power of idolatry. Oh, Baal, hear us. From morning until noon, they dance around this altar, but there was no voice. they leaped about the altar which they had made. They leaped about it. 450 prophets, 400 of Asherah. I mean, this is quite a gathering. Six hours from morning until the time of the evening sacrifice. Really, it captures it, doesn't it? Kind of understand Psalm 115. Our God is in the heavens. He does all he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak, eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear, noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel, feet, but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them, this is a powerful verse, become like them. How so? Dead. You die with your idol. It has a deadening effect on all spirituality, you see. O Israel, trust in the Lord. We'll get there. He is their help and their shield. So after all this nonsense, Elijah walks up, and there's one phrase here that hurts, that Elijah, you can picture this sad scene. Elijah has to go up and rebuild the altar of the Lord. Nobody had been calling out to him. Which I'm going to get to in early application. When idolatry, and we have something that's gripping us that's an idol, there will be little prayer. There will be little prayer. Prayer is your greatest defense against idolatry because it's an expression of trust, isn't it? So here we are. God had done so much for them. He had delivered them from bondage. He had made a promise. He had helped them. And they're torn now between two opinions. Elijah says, come here. And praise. O Lord God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you're God in Israel. That might be a prayer we need to pray a lot again. Let it be known again that the Lord is God who made the heavens and the earth. And that I am your servant. And that I've done these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know you. What did Heidelberg say tonight? The first thing that has to be recovered, if there ever is to be any kind of knowledge of the true God in worship, is a knowledge of him. I have to know him. Pray that they may know you, O Lord, that they may know that you're God and that you have turned their hearts back. As soon as he says this, can you imagine the scene? After all these hours of dancing and cutting themselves, I mean, they really became like this idol, dead. They were dying, cutting themselves. Fire drops out of heaven and consumes the sacrifice, burning up everything. You can imagine the instant revival, if we can say that. And they all began to say, the Lord is God. The Lord is God. Now that's the story. These are the command. This is the command. No other gods before me. Understand the essence of idolatry? It's a powerful, sin is deceitful. It's a powerful domineering force over somebody's life that they've engaged and entered into. The essence of idolatry is to divide your loyalties. To divide your loyalties. So that you have multiple loyalties. That's in the heart of the commandment itself. No other God beside me. And when we start to ask the question of what is idolatry and what does that look like, it's a very simple answer that any ongoing sin in your life that you are running to is an idol. That's an idol. I'm not talking so much about sins of omission. You know, there's certain things we should do and we don't do. I'm talking about that category of sin that we run to knowingly and willingly. And we keep finding relief in it when we do it. There's your idol. And that's what we have to ask. What am I running to that I know that I shouldn't be? That's the idol. what am I bowing down to when I know I shouldn't be? That's the idol. And that's why Elijah was saying, listen, this is, when he was calling Israel, you can't falter between two opinions. Sometimes I think we chalk off these things and say, well, it's not like the idols of the Old Testament. And that's exactly not what the New Testament is saying. They're saying, no, draw the lines. Our Heidelberg's so good on the first commandment, isn't it? That we should shun all idolatry. Now listen to this. And sincerely acknowledge the only true God and trust in him alone. Look to him for every good thing in this life. Humbly and patiently love him. fear him, honor him with all my heart. That's the goal of the commandment. That's the call of the commandment. And when it speaks of idolatry as having something that one trusts in, in place of, or alongside of the only true God who's revealed himself in his word, it's simply saying there is to be nothing else that we are trusting in. Nothing. Now that is the most freeing message for us because every other thing we've run to has failed us. Every other thing we've put our trust in has failed us in some way. We don't have to be dancing around a bale. One pastor said, idolatry is the most discussed problem in the Bible and one of the most powerful spiritual and intellectual concepts in the believer's arsenal. Yet for Christians today, it's one of the least meaningful notions and is surrounded with ironies. Perhaps this is why many evangelicals are ignorant of the idols in their lives. Contemporary evangelicals are a little better at recognizing and resisting idols than modern secular people are. There really can be no believing communities without an unswerving eye to the detection and the destruction of idols. You know, what are the last words of John in 1 John? Little children, right? Flee idolatry. Stay away from idols. Run away from idols. It's the last words of that little epistle. Keep yourself from idols. There's not a better time, I think, at the moment than to speak of idolatry. I was reading with regard to COVID, and I'm not a doctor, and I don't have any wisdom on this. I just, there's so many things that we all know are confusing about this thing. But among many of the doctors who are writing, they are saying this. One of the things that's actually killing people the most right now is fear. Fear. Look at the fear governing people today. This last year and a half should have been a lesson for us in the exposure of idolatry. Everyone's trying to save themselves. Everyone's trying to find an answer. Everyone's running everywhere. And the government is heralded as the one who's supposed to solve this, everything. You see, it's alive. And if you want to get even more, idolatry shows up everywhere. I always think when Jesus was talking to the woman at the well, he exposed the first commandment. Go call your husband to me. I have no husband. Oh, you're right. You have no husband. The one you have now is not your husband, right? Somebody else's. And you've had five of them. See, what that exposed was, she was jumping. From man to man to man to man to try to find love and couldn't find it. And the Lord was there. Love me. I'm here to care for you. We have this spirit in our society right now of babble. Come, let's reach a tower that reaches, and make a tower that reaches to the heavens and build a name for ourselves. We have made the idolization of man. And God recognizes in that pursuit there is a drive for independence from him to conquer anything that stands in our way. I'll hike Mount Everest, and I'm going to do it to say I did it. Beyond all curiosity is a power that you are seeking to be filled with. An answer. Something to fulfill you. And that's why we jump to idol, to idol, to idol. We don't deny God. But we give him half devotion. Now that's what the scriptures define as idolatry. You can say to gold, Job 31, you are my confidence. That's why Jesus said you can't serve God and mammon. Why Colossians says, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is what? Idolatry. The summary is, is where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Now, that's the command itself. And what I love about reminding us about where this command is put in the catechism is it's in the third section, isn't it? Having been set free from all your sin and misery, having been forgiven of all your sin and misery, that bondage has been shattered. You understand that principle of Romans 6. The bondage to sin has been shattered. The present still remains. The bondage is shattered. And what the new life is, what the life of the Christian is, is now to enjoy having been set free and the truth having made you free, to enjoy the positive dimension of this. And what is the positive dimension of this commandment. It is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Enjoy him. It's not a burden. This is a good God to you. And you know what he did for you? He gave you his son. You see, when we look at Jesus, and we look at Jesus coming to this earth, and we look at him doing everything that was necessary to deliver us from all sin, And that he would actually go in the wilderness and be presented with every idol under the sun by Satan himself. And live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord, which is what our Heidelberg says. What we see is our champion who set us free. We see our good God who delivered us. And he is calling us to love him in response. I have a good mentor friend who died a few years ago, John Rainbow, and he wrote a great book on the resurrection. It's just a phenomenal book, but I never, I'm just summarizing it, but I remember reading it, putting it down almost in tears because of what he suffered and having brain cancer and dying. But the thing he said at the end of the book was, if Jesus would love me in this kind of way, to come down here and to set me free and to live a perfect life for me and to actually fight off and beat idolatry in the wilderness for me as the true Israel. If he would go to that length and do that for me and fulfill all righteousness and give himself and love me that kind of way, well, what an entirely reasonable calling upon my life to run away from idols. What a right thing to do. What a thankful thing to do. So think about that with regard to idolatry. Christ gave himself for us as he did, and God has us declared completely righteous in him. It's a privilege to stop dancing around the altar of Baal. Baal will never help you. Baal will never answer you. Whatever you're running to in sin will never satisfy you. That's why you keep running to it. But once you drink living water you don't go back to that other fountain. Hopefully that helps us tonight to understand what idolatry is and why we should flee it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we confess we have bowed to too many idols. And we have given our devotion and trust to other things. And we ask for your forgiveness for this. Thank you for loving us through the love of your son who would come down and fight this way for us to set us free so that we might now love you and enjoy you in life. That's what we need. We need a heart that enjoys you. So take these stupid idols that don't speak and don't deliver us and don't help us that we run to and make them so unattractive to us. Let us see their folly and give us the strength by your Spirit to love you, beginning to taste now what it is to love you with our heart, soul, mind and strength, knowing in the resurrection that we will put off all sin and love you in perfection. Thank you for loving us with an everlasting love in Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.