1. Lesson 7

2. Aim: Why does God forbid us to have any other gods?

3. What is God protecting with the First Commandment?
Isaiah 45:21
Declare what is to be, present it— let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.
The God of the Bible is the only true God.

4. What is God protecting with the First Commandment?
Isaiah 42:8
“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.

5. God, the only true God, is protecting his glory with this commandment.
Key Point #1
God, the only true God, is protecting his glory with this commandment.

6. How does God want us to give him the glory due him?
Proverbs 8:13
To fear the LORD is to hate evil…
FEAR God
Put God’s Word above the word of anyone else.

7. How does God want us to give him the glory due him?
Matthew 22:37
Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
LOVE God
Love God more than anyone or anything else.

8. How does God want us to give him the glory due him?
Psalm 37:5-6
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
TRUST God
Rely on God more than anyone or anything else

9. Key Point #2
God wants us to give him the glory that is due him by fearing, loving, and trusting him above all things.

10. How do we disobey this commandment?
Romans 1:23,25
…and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Open Idolatry
by giving God’s glory to an idol

11. How do we disobey this commandment?
John 5:22-23
Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
Open Idolatry
by not giving glory to Jesus

12. How do we disobey this commandment?
Psalm 62:10
Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Secret Idolatry

13. How do we disobey this commandment?
Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
Secret Idolatry

14. How do we disobey this commandment?
Jeremiah 17:5
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Secret Idolatry

15. How do we disobey this commandment?
Matthew 10:37
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
Secret Idolatry
by letting someone or something other than God take first place in our lives

16. We disobey this commandment by open or secret idolatry.
Key Point #3
We disobey this commandment by open or secret idolatry.

17. An unbelieving husband forbids his Christian wife to go to church
An unbelieving husband forbids his Christian wife to go to church. What would you do if you were that woman?

18. It’s wrong for me to want to make as much money as I can.
Evaluate…
It’s wrong for me to want to make as much money as I can.

19. Show in each of the following examples how the First Commandment serves both as a mirror (to show us our sins) and as a guide (to show us how to thank Jesus for taking all our sins away):

20. a. My boss at work tells me to do something dishonest, for example, to lie about a problem with a product the company sells.

21. b. I’m facing a very difficult test, and my friend tells me, “You’re smart enough to pass that test on your own without any trouble.”

22. For each of the following examples from Jesus’ life, tell how he saved us from our sins against the First Commandment by keeping it perfectly for us…

23. a. Jesus is tempted by the devil.

24. b. Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane.

25. c. Jesus’ last words on the cross commending his spirit to God.

26. Lesson 7
God forbids me to have other gods because he wants me to give him the glory that is due him by fearing, loving, and trusting in him above everything.

27. Vocabulary…
“Idolatry”
worshiping a false god