In the sermon titled 'Our Other gods and What Now,' Jason Dohm explores the theme of idolatry, using Psalms 119 as the foundational text. The sermon emphasizes that the human heart is like an 'idol factory,' continually producing false gods that compete with devotion to the one true God. Dohm outlines a five-point pattern for understanding the first commandment, which requires exclusive worship of God, forbids atheism and polytheism, and teaches about God's worthiness, holiness, and jealousy. The sermon discusses how people often misplace their trust in wealth, pleasure, or other earthly things, which can become idols. Various scriptural examples illustrate how these misplaced affections lead to spiritual failure. Dohm contrasts human failure with the perfect obedience of Jesus, who fully embodies the first commandment by loving God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. The sermon concludes with an invitation to humility and happiness through recognizing our shortcomings and embracing the grace available in Christ.

Good morning. Today's sermon text is Psalms 119, the first 16 verses. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. They also do no iniquity.

They walk in his ways. They have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep your statutes. Then I would not be ashamed when I look into all your commandments. I will praise you with uprightness of heart.

When I learn your righteous judgments, I will keep your statutes. Oh, do not forsake me utterly. How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. With my whole heart I have sought you.

Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth.

I have rejoiced in the way of the testimonies. As much as in all riches I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. The title of the sermon this morning is Our Other Gods and What Now.

I come here today hoping to attack your fake gods. Calvin says that The human heart is an idol factory. No sooner have you been jolted awake by the fact that God has rival affections in your heart and you smash that idol, then another one is forming, another one is on the way. That really is true. I think those of us who have walked with the Lord for a long period of time understand that this is a discouraging fact, that our hearts really are idol factories.

It's a blessing when we have an opportunity to put our finger on the idle so that we can smash them. It's a blessing anytime we're brought to something that would make us vigilant and to look carefully for rival affections to the Lord. For most of the Ten Commandments we'll be having two sermons per commandment. Last week was the first sermon on the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. And I said last week that I'll be having a five point pattern for pretty much each one of these commandments.

In other words, as we preach through the commandments, we'll have a steady pattern of how we systematically work through the truths associated with each commandment. So here it is with the first commandment. The first three were last week. One, what the first commandment requires. Two, what the first commandment forbids.

Three, what the first commandment teaches about God, and then this week we'll handle four, how we have failed to obey the first commandment in 5. How the Lord Jesus has perfectly obeyed the first commandment. We'll actually end with a little bit of good news. A quick summary of last week. First, what the first commandment requires.

It requires me to have the one true God as my God. Now you might say, well the first commandment is framed negatively. It's a thou shalt not. How did you get to there requiring that? Well, it's because of what Jesus said when he was asked which is the greatest commandment in the law.

He said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And he ends up saying on these two commandments, love for God and love for neighbor, hang all the law and the prophets. In other words, you don't understand a law at all until you understand how it relates to love. So many of these commandments are framed negatively. Don't do this.

Thou shalt not. But at their heart isn't what you shouldn't do. At their heart is what you should do. So what does the first commandment require? It requires that we take the one true God as our God and we worship Him.

Two, what the first commandment forbids. In short, it forbids atheism and polytheism. It forbids saying there is no God. Psalm 14, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. You must take the one true God as your God.

And so it forbids atheism. Can't say there's no God. That's forbidden by the first commandment. And you can't have fake gods. There is only one true God, so a multiple god scheme will never do.

God cannot abide it because there really are no other gods. The rest of them are just fake. So the God in heaven is not content just to be the top one of your grouping of gods. There's to be no grouping. Three, what the first commandment teaches about God.

Last week I said three things, I'm sure there are more. One, God is worthy and only He is worthy. That's really at the heart of the first commandment. God is worthy to be worshipped with all the heart, soul, and mind. And only He is worthy.

The rest are fakes and counterfeits. Why would you ever divert any of your love or trust to those things? Two, God is alone. He is separate. He is other.

He is holy, holy, holy. He's not the best in a category, He is a category by Himself. And three, God is jealous. He will not share His glory. He will not be robbed of His glory.

So as we come to points four and five, let's ask the Lord to help us. God, in our saner moments, in the quiet of our hearts, we know that you are worthy of all praise, of all worship, of all cheerful obedience, a lifetime of cheerful unbroken obedience. What we see in the life of Jesus is what you're worthy of. Anything less than that is So defiling. Why?

Why? It is madness. Our sin is madness. You alone are worthy. The other gods are fake gods.

Do pray that you would come and help us to put our finger on them today. You put your finger on them today and help us to smash them. Help us to be vigilant, looking for Rival affections rising up in our hearts. Help us to see them and deal with them before they become idols. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Number four, how we have failed to obey the commandment. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, failed, fills in the blank. How we have failed to obey the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. In the introductory sermon that I preached, I said this, mankind has become absolutely expert in shrinking the law.

We're pros. We know how to whittle it down and qualify it to death so that it ends up being some shrunken thing that is manageable, it's doable. We can say We obeyed that commandment, but what we see in Matthew chapter 5 and Matthew chapter 6 is Jesus just exploding that by taking the law into our heart motivations, our thoughts, and even the words that we speak. He says, oh no, no, no, no. Murder is not just an external act of depriving someone else of their life.

It goes to your thoughts, if you hate your brother, that is a violation of the law against murder. If you speak against your brother, that is a violation of the law against murder. If you lust in your mind, even though you've never touched her, if you lust in your mind, you've violated the law against adultery. So man's always trying to shrink the law and whittle it down into something that's manageable and doable so we can say I obeyed that law but Jesus is having none of it. Jesus is expanding it out to the limits of what God has always intended for these, extending it into our motivations, our thoughts, the words that we speak.

So it won't do to think, I'm not a Muslim or a Mormon or a Jehovah's witness, I'm complying with the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me, I'm obeying. This is about giving away God's place. You get that. The first commandment is about giving away God's place. The place of absolute preeminence.

Absolute, unrivaled place of honor. Preeminence. Place of worship, preeminence to anything else. You can't give away that place. He owns that spot and he will not be robbed of it by his creatures.

By the way, giving away that place, the place of absolute preeminence, the place of honor to something else, happens in the heart. It can be totally undetected by everyone else around you. But it's happened in the heart. And your spouse doesn't know it, your children don't know it, your parents don't know it, your neighbors don't know it, your friends don't know it, but you gave away the place that only God is worthy of. Let's look at some scriptures that will appropriately expand our understanding of the first commandment.

I'll take us to three primary texts. The first is Philippians 3. Please turn to Philippians 3. I want you to see this. Philippians 3 verses 17 through 19.

Philippians 3 verses 17 through 19. He's talking about the walk, That means patterns of life, consistent patterns of the believer. And then he contrasts it with the walk, the patterns of life of the unbeliever. Listen how he does this in Philippians 3 verses 17 through 19. Paul writes, Brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern.

For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame. Who set their mind on earthly things. Paul is describing people who are enemies to the cross. How can you be saved if you're an enemy of the cross? The cross is the only thing that will part you from your sins.

Oh, tremble at the thought of being an enemy of the cross. You're an enemy of the one remedy for your soul, there is no other remedy. If you're the enemy of this medicine, you can never be healed. Verse 19, he says, their end is destruction. Is destruction.

But he says this, whose God is their belly. They have a fake God. Their belly is their God. He gives a further description. They set their mind on earthly things.

God isn't in their thoughts. Their thoughts are just on this plane. Their eyes never turn up. We have a clear example of this in Genesis 25. It's an example that you read it and you say, I can't believe this happened.

If this wasn't in the Bible, I would reject it outright, but it even seems absurd to me, even in the Bible. What's in Genesis 25? It's Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a meal of stew. He's been out hunting, he comes in, Jacob's been cooking, he has lentil stew. Esau's famished and he agrees to sell Jacob his birthright for a meal of stew.

Here's a question for you. Do you think Esau loved stew? I'll give it all away for the stew. My brother makes the best stew. I don't think that's it at all.

I think It could have been almost anything. In Romans 6 verse 12 Paul says this. This is Romans 6 verse 12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts. That's what's happening in Genesis 25.

Sin is reigning in his mortal body. You have a body of corruption since Genesis chapter 3 and the coming of sin into the world you're bent towards things that God hates and you're backwards towards things that God loves and so sin is reigning in your mortal body and you obey it in its lusts, meaning it craves something and you go serve the craving. I'm hungry, I'll sell everything, I'll sell my birthright for a meal of stew. I don't think it was that Jacob made the world's best stew, and it was worthy of his brother's love. I think he was just hungry.

Sin was reigning in his mortal body, and so He was just obeying its lusts. And the birthright was out there somewhere, but the stew was right here. And his lusts were demanding to be served, so he served them. Their god is their belly. This goes so far beyond food.

The belly is shorthand for cravings. Lusts. Lusts can be sexual, but it doesn't have to be sexual. It's a craving after any earthly thing. Your sinful nature craves something, it demands to be served, and you sell your birthright.

Have you ever given up something for nothing? Have you ever given up something valuable for something that looking back on it, I gained almost nothing. I gave up that for this. Because the that was out there, and my lusts were demanding to be served. So I traded something of value for nothing because it was at hand.

Have you ever done that? Esau isn't alone in his insanity. Oh, believe Genesis 25, it happened. Sin is reigning in our mortal bodies. Paul says, don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies.

Christians don't have to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. We don't have to serve our lusts. When we set our minds on earthly things and God is out of sight, we'll sell it all for nothing just because it's at hand. Second scripture, just listen to this one. I'll say it before you can even get there.

Proverbs 10 verse 15. The rich man's wealth is his strong city. Proverbs 10, verse 15. The rich man's wealth is money, is his strong city. I said last week that the essence of having another God was to redirect my affections or my trust away from God who alone is worthy to something which is unworthy.

Jesus said this, and again I say to you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, that's almost impossible, that's impossible, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples can't believe he said that. They say, who can be saved? Jesus says, with man it is impossible, with God all things are possible. Now why is it so impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God because he doesn't feel his need?

He trusts in his riches. His wealth is his strong city. But wait! God is the strong tower of his people. The righteous run to God and they're safe.

That's Proverbs 18, 10. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe. Not the rich man. His wealth is his strong city.

He runs to the wrong refuge and so he's lost Because he diverted his trust from God who was worthy of it to his money because it looked so solid It was not worthy of his trust He had a fake God He had a fake Christ He said this money will save me the money will not save you. Only Christ will save you. Thomas Watson says, it's idolatry to redirect trust to the arm of the flesh. My strength is enough to redirect trust to wisdom. My understanding is enough.

I can think my way through this thing. To redirect trust to duties, my goodness, My attention to religious activities is enough! It will see me through! Thomas Watson says, all that's idolatry. You've got a fake god in there.

You have a fake savior in there. That's a fake Christ. Has your trust ever been diverted off of God who is completely trustworthy and placed on something that in the end will fail. That ever happened? You trusting anything right now?

That's not worthy of your trust. Second Chronicles 16-12, listen to this, this is King Asa, he's not a very well known king of Israel. Second Chronicles 16-12, this is the end of his life, in the thirty ninth year of his reign, he reigned a long time in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet and his malady was severe, yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord but the physicians. Now earlier in the chapter Israel is under attack and he goes and hires the Syrians. And God sends a prophet to say, is there no God in Israel?

You hired the Syrians? At the end of his life, he's very diseased. He doesn't seek the Lord, but the physicians. Is it wrong to go to the doctor? That's not what that verse is saying.

It's wrong to trust the doctor. Go to the doctor and trust the Lord. Third verse, third passage. Turn to 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3 is famous for all scripture is given by inspiration of God.

This is earlier than that. 2 Timothy 3 verses 1 through 5. Look at what Paul writes, 2 Timothy 3 verses 1 through 5. Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, Without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traders, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness but denying its power and from such people turn away.

Aha! Verse 4. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. A redirection of affection to pleasure rather than God. Verse 5, right on the heels of it, it's a form of godliness but no power.

You can be respectable to everyone and love pleasure in your heart rather than God. And you can have all the forms so that everyone says, Someone says, look at that great lady. Look at that great man. Stuffed together. She got her stuff together.

Form of godliness. Everything in place. Eyes dotted, T's crossed. Everything in order. Only she loves pleasure rather than loving God.

He loves pleasure rather than loving God. God's place has been given away. Only He is worthy of your affections. It is only lawful to have subservient loves. It is only lawful to have subservient loves.

Underneath serving loves. Subservient loves. Serving loves, subservient loves. It is lawful to have a governing master love of God and then to have other loves which bow to that love. Marital love is that.

Designed by God to be that. Marital love is designed by God to be beneath the governing master love of God. You love God more than any other love, but then you love your spouse, but that bows, that bows, it is a love that bows to your master love for God. God has many good gifts. God gives many good gifts.

They're pleasures. They really are. The sweetest pleasures are in God. They are to be received with thanksgiving. But be careful!

The most lawful, noble pleasures can supplant God. You can give away His place to them. You can give away God's place to Enjoyment of food, lawful recreations, they are to be received with thanksgiving, but be careful. But be careful. Have you ever found that you had rejected, had you ever found that you had redirected your highest affections to even a lawful pleasure?

There are ways to There are ways to diagnose this. Your thoughts. I love Lord, but I talk about my favorite movies. Time. I love the Lord, but my hobby gets my time.

I'm a news junkie. I'm an exercise junkie. I'm a friend's junkie. I'm so busy I can hardly scratch out any time to pray or read my Bible. Oh, but I love the Lord.

Expenditures. Where's the money going? I love the Lord, but my money's on vacation, literally. I can't wait for that vacation. I will not be deprived of that vacation.

I picked some things in there in that list that should hurt me. I do want to touch my sacred cows. You know what the sacred cows are? They're literally sacred cows in India. I mean, they've become a figurative reference for something else.

But they're real sacred cows. Starving people in India won't touch the cows because they're sacred. And if you were to slaughter one to eat and feed the hungry, you would be lynched. I've come here to touch my own sacred cows and yours today. Not afraid to kill and eat that cow.

God wants us to kill and eat the cows. Those sacred cows that, it gets tense when we start actually listing things. It's okay to preach these things as long as we don't apply them. No brethren today we're applying it. Luke 14, 26, Jesus says, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life he cannot be my disciple.

What are those relationships? They are the closest relationships. They are lawful relationships. They are pleasurable relationships. Your relationship with your father and your mother, your wife, your children, your brothers and sisters, your own life, you better hate them compared to your God.

You can't be his disciple. He's not calling. It's not a calling to be a super Christian. Not a calling to be a special Christian. It's a calling to be a Christian.

A real Christian. A biblical Christian. Oh friends, he will not share. He will not share his place. He will not be robbed of his place, of preeminence, of ultimate honor.

He must have the ultimate honor. He must have the ultimate trust. Now let's consider the greatest commandment. This time from Mark. Mark adds one.

Mark just makes it more difficult. Listen to Mark 12 verse 30. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all Your strength. The heart, yes. All the heart.

The soul, yes. All the soul. The mind, yes. All the mind. Your strength, yes.

All your strength. This is the first commandment. Thomas Watson says this, listen to this, many heathens have worshiped their false gods with more seriousness and devotion than some Christians do the true God. Let us abhor ourselves for our deadness and formality in religion. How we have professed God and yet have now worshipped Him as God.

You got a little taste of this my freshman year in college. I roomed with the valedictorian in my high school class. A Muslim. He had his faults God and he was devoted to Him in a way that put me to shame. They're serving an unworthy God with so much vigor!

And we languish in our worship of the one true God so half-heartedly. Will you not be ashamed of it? Will you not abhor yourself for it? Oh my. Where does that leave us?

Point five. So point four was how we have failed to obey the first commandment. Point five. How the Lord Jesus has perfectly obeyed the first commandment. I think the obvious place to start is Matthew 4.

Turn to Matthew 4. It's the last place we'll go together. Matthew 4. This just goes directly to the point. Satan tells Jesus to worship him.

I don't know how you get a more direct line than that. Matthew 4, follow along as I read verses 1 through 11. And Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. When he had fasted forty days and forty nights afterward he was hungry. Now when the tempter came to him he said, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread.

Jesus answered and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, It is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God." Again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory and he said to him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him." Give way to something, Jesus, anything.

Give way to food. Give way to presumption. God will save you. Give way to ambition, Jesus comes back with scripture. This is how you treat your idols.

You quote the Bible to your idols. You quote the Bible about your idols. You let the Bible smash your idols. Jesus didn't have idols. Jesus wouldn't pick up an idol.

We've just been through the Gospel of John, we've seen over and over and over and over again that Jesus said only what his father gave him to say. Jesus did only what his father gave him to do. The perfect representation of this is John 12, 27 and 28. You'll remember this. John 12, 27 and 28.

Now my soul is troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. The same in Gethsemane.

Jesus agonizing over the prospect of being made sin. Not my will, your will. Many examples in the Gospels of Jesus going away just to pray. Oh, Jesus had cravings. He craved fellowship with his Father.

That was the craving that Jesus served. To go away and be with his Father. In all these instances, what is Jesus doing? He is loving his Father with all of his heart, and with all of his soul, and with all of his mind, and with all of his strength. He left heaven to take on flesh and keep the law so He could give His righteousness away.

That's what you're watching in the Gospels. Equality with God was not something to be grasped for him. He relinquished it, he took on flesh, he cheerfully obeyed and worshiped God every day of his life, his Father every day of his life. He perfectly kept the first commandment so that he would have a righteousness to give away. It's precious to see him not having any other gods before him, subjecting his own will, his own desires to the will of his Father, for the love of his Father, so that he could have a righteousness to give away.

He was the Son of Man. He came and obeyed as a man. He was the God man. He took on flesh and obeyed the first commandment perfectly to have righteousness to give away. Applications.

Give you two. Now apply 2nd Corinthians 521. We're back to 2nd Corinthians 521. If you haven't memorized it yet, you'll have it memorized by the end of the Ten Commandments. You can believe that.

Believe that. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Think about how impossibly rigorous the command to love the Lord your God with all your heart. You love God from the heart? Yes.

You love Him with all your heart? Makes you catch your breath. With all your soul. Do you love God with your soul? Yes.

Do you love Him with all your soul? Makes you catch your breath. All your minds. Do you love God with your mind? Yes.

Do you love God with all your mind? All your strength. Do you love God with your mind? Yes. Do you love God with all your mind?

All your strength. Do you love God with your strength? Can I even say that? All your strength? No.

I cannot say that I love God with all my strength. God made His perfectly undefiled Son. He knew no sin to be sin. He put All of these sins against God, not loving Him with all my heart, my soul, my mind, my strength. All of that He heaped upon His Son.

So that His Anger towards me for giving away His place would be placed on the Son. He would drink the last drop of the cup of God's fury and leave that cup dry. Nothing left for me to drink. I might become the righteousness of God in him as if I had thought like Jesus thought, spoken like Jesus spoke, did like Jesus did. How much favor from God must come to you if you live an entire life without one dot of sin, one stain of sin.

How much favor must come to you that favor can be yours But let me back up in second Corinthians chapter 5 listen to second Corinthians chapter 5 earlier in the chapter verses 9 through 11. Paul writes, Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. A day is coming when each of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Oh no! You can have Christ's life substituted for your life. Christ's record substituted for your record. Christ's full, complete, cheerful obedience substituted for what you have. You know, you know if this is the standard what the verdict must be.

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men you'll stand before that judge and there is an eternity of eternities after that. Endless ages. At the end of age upon age upon age you will never be any closer to the end than you were at the beginning. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, hell extends forever. The stakes couldn't be higher.

The joys that are offered in Christ are beyond conception. Eye has not seen. Ear has not heard the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. But the terrors extend forever and there is nothing in between. You either have Christ and His merit and all the joys and pleasures planned for His people for eternity, or you have an eternity of separation and torment and there is nothing in between.

Secondly, finally, be more humble, be more happy. I hope to give some sense today of how far short of the first commandment we are. Just think a layer deep and then a layer deeper than that and a layer deeper than that. All the heart, all the soul, all the mind, all the strength. One hour of your life have you obeyed the first commandment.

It should humble us. But be more happy. The more you realize the mountain of your sin, The sweeter God's grace is to you. The sweeter the rest in Christ is to you. Let this study make you more humble.

Let this study make you more happy. It is not coincidental that you shall have no other gods before me is the first commandment. There is a sense in which the breaking of any other commandment is a breaking of the first commandment. When you commit adultery, you're breaking the first commandment. When you speak ill of your brother and break the command against murder, you're breaking the first commandment.

When you covet, you're breaking the first commandment. When you lie, You're breaking the first commandment. You haven't done, you have done what you shouldn't have done. You've allowed rival affections. You've given away God's place.

You should never have done it. You haven't done what you should have done. God is worthy of white hot affection. Who can say my affections are often white hot? Even often, let alone comprehensively, Who can say my affections are often white hot?

Even often, let alone comprehensively, who can say my affections are often white hot? Oh yeah, that describes it. More often than not, white hot. Yep, that describes me. Jesus died for sinners.

He gives His righteousness away to people who throw themselves upon Him in His work on the cross. Be more humble, be more happy. God, there is a goodness to being laid low by the truth of your word. That's not to be despised. There is a happiness from coming and seeing how completely necessary grace is.

Then to rest in the arms of a real Savior. Not a fake Christ, a real Christ who delivers to the uttermost those who come to God by faith. Oh God, make us humble, make us happy. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.