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Promises Of The Law - Part 8

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• Deuteronomy 5, verses 6 and 7. This is number 8 on the promises of the law. We will be dealing with the first commandment today. Notice Deuteronomy 5, verses 6 and 7: "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me." I think by this time in this series we have seen the utter impossibility of unhitching from the Old Testament and especially from the Law of God.

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• As I pointed out before, there is a continuity in the Bible. And you cannot deny or destroy one part without denying and destroying the other part. In other words, once you begin to deny and destroy any part, you actually destroy the whole. Moreover, as I've pointed out so far in this study, without the law we would have absolutely no knowledge of sin. For by the law is the knowledge of sin, Romans 3 and verse 20. Moreover, without the Law we would have no knowledge of salvation, because I pointed out how Jesus Christ kept the Law of God perfectly in order that He might work out a perfect righteousness for us. We not only need forgiveness, we need righteousness. Now also I pointed out that the Bible teaches in Galatians chapter 3 that the Law is our schoolmaster to bring us into faith in Jesus Christ. Without the Law we would have no idea about sanctification according to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And the last two messages I brought I shared with you without the Law we would have no knowledge of sanctions.

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• And in the Bible there are negative sanctions and there are positive sanctions. When you look at the Ten Commandments you will notice there are a lot of negatives, "thou shalt not, thou shalt not." In fact there are only two positives. And that is "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" and "honor thy father and thy mother." Everything else is cast in negative terms. The problem is sometimes when we look at the negative we just focus on the negative and we never think of the positive. Or when we see a positive we think only of the positive and we never think of the negative. I've pointed out before every negative has a positive and every positive has a negative. Moreover, when we see something in the Bible that is clearly expressed, usually what we look at is that which is expressed and we never think about that which is implied or that which is the opposite of that which is expressed. So usually when you think of the Ten Commandments you're thinking in negative terms because eight out of the ten are cast in negative terms.

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• Now I'm not going to be teaching on this today. I will get to it in the not too distant future. But when you think of the Ten Commandments... Everybody thinks about the fifth and practically everybody can quote the fifth commandment, especially when you get to Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1-3, where the Bible says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that your days may be long upon the earth which the Lord thy God hath given thee." So, anytime we think about that we hear this is the first commandment with promise. And we tend to think that the Fifth Commandment is the only one with promise, a promise attached to it. Well, the truth of the matter is if you understand the Fifth Commandment then you are going to also understand that each of the other commandments also have a promise implied in each one of these. Moreover, when you look at Ephesians 6 and verse 2, the Greek word, when he says this is the first commandment with promise, the Greek word for first is the word protos.

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• which is translated in our Bibles as chief, or it could also be translated as principal. It does not mean singular. So when you read the first commandment with promise, it is the chief commandment with a special promise that has been annexed to it. A. T. Robertson in his Greek New Testament talks about the little word en, E-N, Epsilon Nu in the Greek we would spell it I-N. But he actually says the Greek word literally means accompanied by.

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• So that would be this. This is the first commandment or the chief commandment that is accompanied by a special promise, indicating other promises are there but this one has a special promise. So I want to give you a couple of quotes to begin with today. The first one is from Albert Barnes and Barnes is commenting on the fifth commandment being a commandment with a promise. I want you to listen very carefully. He says, "which is the first commandment with a promise, with a promise annexed to it. The promise was that their days should be long in the land which the Lord their God would give them. It is not to be supposed that the observance of the first four commandments would not be attended with a blessing, but no particular blessing is promised. It is true indeed that there is a general declaration annexed to the second commandment, God would show mercy to thousands of generations of them that loved Him and that kept His commandments. But that is rather a declaration in regard to all the commands of God than a promise annexed to that specific commandment.

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• It is an assurance that obedience to the law of God would be followed with blessings to a thousand generations, and is given in view of the first and second commandments together, because they related particularly to that honor that was due to God. But the promise in the fifth commandment is a special promise. It does not relate to obedience to God in general, but is a particular assurance that those who honor their parents shall have a particular blessing as a result of that obedience." So he is saying, look, it is indeed a special promise in the fifth commandment, but that does not negate the fact that there are promises in all the commandments. So once you understand that the fifth commandment is the commandment that has this special promise annexed to it, then you can also be ready to understand that there are implied promises in all of the commandments, although they are not necessarily annexed to each of the commandments like the fifth one is. Now, I want to give you one more quote.

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• This is from the Westminster Confession of Faith. It's chapter 19 on the law of God, and I'm reading this paragraph so that I can emphasize one or two sentences in it. Listen carefully. "Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them, as well as to others, in that as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to

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• walk accordingly, discovering all the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives, so as examining themselves thereby, they may come to a further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of His obedience. It is likewise of use to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin, and the threatenings of it serve to show what their sins deserve, and what affliction in this life they may expect from them, although freed from the curse thereof, threatened in the law." Now listen, "the promises of it," talking about the law, "the promises of it in like manner show them God's approbation of obedience and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof, although not as due to them by the law as the covenant of works."

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• So as a man is doing good and refraining from evil because the law encourages the one and deters from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law and not under grace. So all he is saying, all the confession is saying so far is this, here are the promises in the law. As long as we obey the law God gives us these promises, these blessings. But just because we're obeying does not mean that we are under the law as a covenant of works. We are still under grace.

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• I'm going to go forward, listen to this. Here's the last sentence in chapter 19: "Neither are the aforementioned uses of the Law contrary to the grace of the Gospel, but do sweetly comply with it, the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully, which the will of God revealed in the Law requires to be done." In other words, the confession is just simply saying that it is God who not only saves us in His grace, but it is God's grace that enables us then to be obedient to the Law.

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• Now, some time back, I gave you a brief quote. And in fact, it was a little longer than I'm going to give today. But I'm going to repeat it, because most of you are old enough to have seen Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. You remember that? Well, Cecil B. DeMille came out on the stage when that show was first coming out, and he made several statements. Of course some of this was recorded in a catalog that was given to those who happened to have attended. And here is what he said talking about the Ten Commandments.

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• He said, "The theme of this picture is whether men ought to be ruled by God's law, or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Ramses. Are men the property of the state, or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today. The Ten Commandments are not laws, they are the law. Man has made 32 million laws since they were handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai more than 3,000 years ago, but he has never improved on God's law."

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• So here is Cecil B. DeMille coming out and saying, here is where we are. We are either going to be under God's law or we are going to be under man's law.

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• Now here is another quote that may surprise you. This quote is by President Harry S. Truman. You remember he was the president that had the motto on his desk, "The buck stops here." And when he and Bess, I think his wife's name was, when he ceased being President they just drove off in their little car and went to their house, no secret service protection, and no pension. I mean it was just, it was over, his service was over and he was there. But Harry Truman said this, listen carefully, "The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and Matthew and Isaiah and Paul. I don't think that we comprehend that enough these days. Now listen, if we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the rights for anybody." Wow, that's just about where we are today.

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• Because we have neglected the law of God. Now when we seek to understand God's law, you must understand that it is not necessarily just a spiritual exercise. It is that, but it should also be a personal, a political, and a societal exercise as well as a spiritual exercise. And the reason being is because God is absolutely sovereign and His law applies to every area and every sphere of life. It is our standard by which we are to live, by which we are to govern, by which we are to do anything and everything.

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• Now, let me mention something before I get started today in showing you the Scripture. It is not my intent to expound each one of these Ten Commandments. We are going to look at each one of the Ten Commandments. But it is not the scope of this series of messages to go into detail to every commandment. Rather, the scope of this series is to show you the promises that are implied or inherent in each one of these commandments.

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• I would encourage you if you do not have the book to buy the book, R. J. Rushdoony, on the Institutes of Biblical Law. It is a book just about this thick, but it is a great exposition of the Ten Commandments. It is reduced in little chapters of three or four pages each that can be easily understood and read in 15 or 20 minutes, something like that. There are two other volumes, but the first volume is really important if you want to understand and comprehend the Ten Commandments. So, it is just simply the Institutes of Biblical Law by R. J. Rushdoony.

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• Now, when we look at the First Commandment you will find it in verse 7 of Deuteronomy 5. It is also found in Exodus chapter 20. But it is very simple and it is very straightforward, "Thou shalt have none other gods before me," or "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." So in this commandment God enjoins that He alone is to be worshipped and He requires a worship that is free from all superstition.

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• Now I want to give you once again three quotes and then we are going to start looking at Scripture. The first one is Matthew Poole. Matthew Poole is commenting on this first commandment and he says this, "He forbids the worship of all others not only in opposition to Him, but also in conjunction with Him, or in subordination to Him." So, what he is saying, this first commandment not only forbids you worshiping someone who is opposing God, that is a false god, or someone in conjunction with Him, polytheism or along with Him, or someone who is subordinate or under Him. No, he says none of that is to be done, it is God and God only. Then Keil and Delitzsch says this, "...the sentence is quite a general one, and not only prohibits polytheism and idolatry, the worship of idols in thought, word, and deed, but also commands the fear, love, and the worship of God the Lord."

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• Nearly all the commandments are couched in the negative form of prohibition because they presuppose the existence of sin and evil desires in the human heart. Now, I believe there are other reasons as to why the commandments are couched in negative terms, but certainly that is one reason. And then Adam Clarke says this, "This commandment prohibits every species of mental idolatry and all inordinate attachments to earthly and sensible things. As God is the fountain of happiness, and no intelligent creature can be happy but through Him, whoever seeks happiness in the creature is necessarily an idolater, as he puts the creature in the place of the Creator, expecting that from the gratification of his passions, and the use or abuse of earthly things, which is to be found in God alone. The very first commandment of the whole series is divinely calculated to prevent man's misery and promote his happiness by taking from all false dependents and leading him to God Himself, the fountain of all good." Each one of these commentators are saying different things about the first commandment, but yet at the same time they're basically saying the same thing, that God is one and that God alone is God and God is to be worshipped totally and completely and Him and Him alone. Now since this very first commandment

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• teaches and demonstrates that God alone is to be worshipped, let me point out three things and then I'm going to make some applications and show you the truth based upon the scripture and show you the implication and the implied promise in the first commandment. When God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," this simple commandment, number one, demonstrates the exclusiveness of God, the unity of God, and the sovereignty of God. Now when I talk about the exclusiveness of God, I simply mean this, that God is God alone and beside Him there is no other. There be many that are called gods and many people try to make gods not only of their imagination but out of wood, stone, silver, gold, whatever, but they are not gods and God is exclusively the one true and the living God. And beside Him, there is none else. So let me show you.

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• Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Isaiah 43 to begin with. Isaiah 43. And notice, if you would please, verse 11. Isaiah 43 and verse 11. Look what the scripture says, Isaiah 43, verse 11. God speaks and he says, "I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior." God is God alone, beside Him there is no Savior. Look in Isaiah 44 and verse 6. Isaiah 44 verse 6, "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God." Here we're talking about the exclusiveness of God. He is God alone. Skip down to verse 8, Isaiah 44, "Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any." Now you must remember that God is omniscient. He knows all things, everything, and God says there is no God.

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• I know it. I am the only one true and living God. And if you look at Isaiah 45, verses 5 and 6, God is speaking to Cyrus and he makes this statement in Isaiah 45 verse 5. He says, "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else." I am the Lord, and there is none else. Look if you would please in verse 21 of Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45 verse 21, "Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me." So we're talking about the exclusiveness of God. In the book of Hosea chapter 13 in verse 4, let me just quote it, God says, "Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me: for there is no Savior beside me." In other words,

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• God is saying I am the exclusive God, there is none else. Now since the first commandment is "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," it means that God is God alone. He is exclusively God and there is none beside Him. The second thing that we see in this commandment is the unity of God. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." When we talk about the unity of God, we mean that God is one. There are not three gods. There is one God. And the burden of the Old Testament is the unity of God.

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• There is a passage in Deuteronomy 6 in verse 4 that is known as the Shema Israel. Every Orthodox synagogue usually begins their service with this passage. "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord." Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And then verse 5, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might." So, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

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• Now, when it comes to understanding God, you cannot understand God. Just stop and think about this. God is infinite. And if you really, truly understood God, you would have to be God yourself. You would have to be infinite yourself.

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• Now, there are a lot of things in Scripture that we are not able to understand particularly. But the truth of the matter is, we can believe them and we can bow to them even though we do not necessarily understand them. And when it comes to the unity of God, this is exactly what we're talking about. Because God is one God and yet He's revealed Himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When you get home today, I would encourage you to look up what is known as the Athanasian Creed. Athanasius was a Christian who wrote this creed in the 4th century. In the 4th century. Because there was a great debate over Jesus Christ, God. And so he wrote this Athanasian Creed. I am not going to be reading the entire creed. Would encourage you to read it. It's very beautiful. It's only a couple pages long, but it's very, very beautiful. Let me just say this before I read it. I'm going to be using the word Catholic and when I use the word Catholic, please understand it does not refer to the Roman Catholic Church. The word Catholic just simply means universal.

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• I remember years and years and years ago when I was a teenager and I went to a Presbyterian church and they were quoting the Apostles Creed and it came there, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church." I said, "I'm not going to say that, I don't believe in the Roman Catholic Church." Well, I didn't know the word Catholic just meant universal. That's all the word Catholic means. So, he's going to use that word here but it just simply means universal. It has no reference to the Roman Catholic Church. Listen carefully. "Whosoever will be saved, before all things, it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith," that is the universal faith. "Which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance." Now I'm going to stop right there. He says we worship one God in Trinity, three persons, and Trinity in unity, one God. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.

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• Okay. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. You cannot confound the persons. There are three distinct persons. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Nor, he said, dividing the substance. In other words, you cannot say that God the Father is part God, God the Son is part God, God the Holy Spirit is part God. You put them all three together and you have one God. No. That is heresy. You cannot divide their persons, neither can you divide their substance or essence. They are of one essence. So he goes on to say that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated.

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• The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. Yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal. Also, there are not three incomprehensibles, but one incomprehensible. Nor three uncreated, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy Spirit almighty. Yet there are not three almighties, but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, yet there are not three gods, but one God. So likewise, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord, and yet there are not three lords, but one Lord. So, when you understand, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," it's not only talking about the exclusiveness of God, it is also about the unity of God. There is just one God. There is just one God.

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• Now I want you to see this. Turn your Bibles to John chapter 14. John chapter 14 and I want you to look if you would please at verses 8 and 9. Because Jesus is telling His disciples that He is about to go away. He was going away and Philip makes a request. John 14 and verse 8, "Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" Now the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, yet they are one. And if you'll look back in John 10 and verse 30, you will see our Lord make this statement very plainly. John 10 and verse 30, for there He says, "I and my Father are one."

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• So we have the exclusiveness of God, we have the unity of God. We also have the sovereignty of God. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." When we talk about the sovereignty of God we're talking about the supremacy of God, that God is absolutely totally supreme and as supreme and as sovereign He does as He pleases, only as He pleases, and always as He pleases because He is God. Now one of my favorite verses is found in Psalm 115 in verse 3, and it goes like this. "But our God is in the heavens.

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• He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." That's exactly what God does, whatever He pleases. It demonstrates the fact that we are not God and we will never be God because we cannot always do as we please. Only God can do that. That's why the Bible says in Daniel 4 and verse 35, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest thou?" No one can stop God. No one can question God and hinder God or thwart God in any way whatsoever, because God is sovereign.

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• So when you look at the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," we're not only talking about the exclusiveness of God, the unity of God, but we're also talking about the sovereignty of God.

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• Now you're going to ask, what kind of promise is implied in this? Well stop and think about it. God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." If we have no other gods before Him, in conjunction with Him, in subordination to Him, I believe clearly the promise is this: He will be our God and we will be His people. Now I'm going to show you this. Because what was the ideal in the Old Testament turns out to be the reality in the New Testament. So let me show you. I want you to turn in your Bibles if you would to the book of Exodus chapter 6. Exodus chapter 6, we're going to go through a few passages just momentarily. Exodus chapter 6. And I want you to see what God said to the children of Israel.

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• He is about to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Why did God redeem the children of Israel from the land of Egypt? Well there are a number of reasons. I suppose it could be given. But one of them is revealed to us right here in Exodus chapter 6, if you will look at verses 6 and 7. Exodus 6 and verse 6, "Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." Now look at that. God said, "I'm going to redeem you. And you're going to be to me a people. And I'm going to be to you your God.

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• And you shall know me." If you would turn right over to the book of Leviticus chapter 26. Leviticus 26. And notice if you would please verse 12.

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• Leviticus 26 verse 12, here He states it again, God says, "And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people. If you would turn over to the book of Jeremiah chapter 7. Jeremiah chapter 7, I want you to look at verse 23. Jeremiah 7 and verse 23. Jeremiah 7 verse 23, God says, "But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you." Wow, that's even a promise right there. If you obey me it's going to be well unto you. But notice He said, "Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people." Look in Jeremiah 11 and verse 4. Jeremiah 11 and verse 4, He says, "Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey

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• my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God." Now Jeremiah 30 and verse 22. Jeremiah 30 and verse 22. Jeremiah 30 verse 22 simply stated, "And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." Now I want you to turn over to the book of Ezekiel chapter 36. And I want you to keep this passage in mind because we are going to see a reference to this in the New Testament. So look at Ezekiel chapter 36 beginning there with verse 26. Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 26, we'll read through verse 28. Ezekiel 36 verse 26, God says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." Now look carefully at verse 27.

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• He said, "And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." And then in verse 28, "And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." I want you to note if you would please this is a double promise and a double blessing. God will be our God and we will be His people. What He promised in the Old Testament has become the truth and the reality in the New Testament. We know that Israel after the flesh did not keep God's law. He judged them over and over for violating that law. They claim to be a covenant nation, and yet they forsook Him and they forsook His law over and over. But just as He delivered Israel from slavery and the Egyptian bondage, so now in grace and mercy, He's delivered us from ourselves and from our sins through Jesus Christ. He not only regenerated us and converted us and saved us, He has made us His people and we are now called by His name,

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• Christians. He is our God. He is our Savior. He is our Redeemer. He is our Lord. He is our Sovereign. He is our Father. He provides for us. He protects us. He defends us. He preserves us. His providence rules over us. He loves us and has mercy upon us. And as David said in Psalm 23 and verse 1, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." One child paraphrased it and said it like this, "The Lord is my shepherd and that's all I want." Well, if the Lord is indeed your shepherd that's all you need, that is for sure.

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• So that which was intended as the ideal in the Old Testament has now become the fact and reality in the New Testament. Remember if you would please in Ezekiel 36 He said, "I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statutes." With that in mind turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 8. Look in Hebrews chapter 8 and notice if you would be getting there with verse 10. Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 10. Watch carefully. Hebrews 8 and verse 10. This is a direct reference to Ezekiel 36. Hebrews 8 verse 10, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I

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• will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Note what God said, "I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." And there'll be no need to teach everyone, "Know the Lord," why? They shall all know me. How shall we know Him? Because He writes His law in our hearts. Look in Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Look if you would please and let's read there beginning with verse 16. Hebrews 10 verse 16. Here you have it again. "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Wow. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them.

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• So here is the promise of "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." If I have no other gods, nothing above, nothing beyond, nothing under, nothing along with the one true and the living God, then He is my God. And the evidence that He is my God, and that I belong to Him, is that He's written His law in my heart and in my mind, and He's given me His Holy Spirit, which enables me and causes me to obey. I cannot help but to love the law of God and to obey, not perfectly because we're all sinners, but the general tenor of our lives is that of obedience. He is my God. And the evidence He is my God and that I am His is He wrote His law in my heart and I obey Him.

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• I confess Him, I acknowledge Him, I acknowledge His Word. Now you will probably hear me say more about this later on so I want you to hear this right now. One God and one law reveals the truth of the First Commandment. One God and one law reveals the truth of the first commandment. If God is God and He is, He is one and His law is one and He says here's how you will be identified as mine. I will write my laws in your heart and in your mind. And if God is our God, we should want nothing else. Now, let me make some applications. I want you to listen carefully. The first one is this.

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• Just the promise and the thought of the exclusive triune sovereign God being our God should produce joy and rejoicing in our hearts and our lives. Psalm 144 and verse 15, "Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord." He said it should produce joy and happiness because He is our God. And Isaiah 25 and verse 9, "And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God;

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• we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." So if we understand that God is our God, it should cause great joy and happiness in our hearts. The second application is this. Has the thought ever entered into your mind? Has the thought ever reached the depth of your own soul that the sovereign God of heaven and earth is your God?

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• Stop and think about that. He is our God. Do you remember what our Lord said in John 17 in verse 3? He said, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." This is life eternal, what? That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. So eternal life is a personal intimate relationship with God. Eternal life is personally knowing Him. Let me show you something. Turn in your Bibles to John 14. John 14, and let's begin reading there with verse 21. John 14, verse 21. John 14, verse 21. Look what our Lord said. I'm talking about the fact, the thought, the reality that God is our God. Our Lord said, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father." Wow.

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• "And I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." Whatever our Lord says, if you love me you're going to keep my commandments, and if you keep my commandments we're going to come and make our abode with you. We're going to manifest ourselves unto you.

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• You will know that the one true and the living God is your God. So, when God, by His Holy Spirit, enables you to obey and bring your life into conformity to the Word of God, that is just evidence. That is proof that the exclusive, triune, sovereign God of the Bible is your God. The reality of this should excite each one of us. Here's the third application. Based upon the fact that I am His and He is mine, I have complete assurance that He will never leave me or forsake me. The Bible says in Psalm 48 in verse 14, "For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death." Then Hebrews 13:5, "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." And Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 1 in verse 12 says, "For the which cause I also suffer these things:

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• nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." I'm absolutely sure that He's my God and He will never let me down. I want to show you two other verses. I want you to turn to the book of Jude, the last book right before Revelation. Very short verse, or two verses, I should say, very short book. I want you to look at Jude 24 and 25. Here are two verses that I've basically used as a life verse for 50 years or better. But look at it. You're talking about assurance and that our God is able. Jude verse 24, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling,

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• and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." If we have no other gods and we worship Him and obey Him in the way that He commands, the very implied promise is He will be our God and we will be His people. Have you ever stopped to think that the God of the Old Testament, the God of the New Testament, the God of the Bible, is our God?

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• And He does not change. Everything that He's promised, He is able to perform. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. Father, we do not want, we do not desire any God except Thee, for we confess that Thou art God alone. Thou art the true God, the sovereign God, the exclusive God, and we bow before Thee in and through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit, and we worship Thee and give Thee all honor and glory and praise. Give us grace to serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray, Amen.

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• so

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:13:43Z