One, True, Living God

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 45

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant’s sake, and Israel, my elect, I have even called you by your name. I have named you, though you have not known me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. There is no God beside me. I will gird you, though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I, the Lord, do all these things. Rain down your heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it. Woe to him who strives with his maker! Let the potter strive with the potters of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, What are you making? Or shall your handiwork say, He has no hands? Woe to him who says to his father, What are you begetting? Or to the woman, What have you brought forth? Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and His Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands you command me. I have made the earth and created man on it. I, my hands, stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts I have commanded. I raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city and let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward, says the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord, the labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush, and of the Sabians, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours. They shall walk behind you, they shall come over in chains, and they shall bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying, surely God is in you, and there is no other God. Truly you are God, you who hide yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior. They shall be ashamed, and also disgraced, all of them. They shall go in confusion together, who are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed or disgraced forever and ever. For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who has formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited. I am the LORD, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Seek me in vain. I, the LORD, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves, and come, draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, who carry the wood of their carved image and pray to a God that cannot save. Tell and bring forth your case. Yes, let them take counsel together who has declared this from ancient time, who has told it from that time. Have not I the Lord? And there is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is none besides me. Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To him men shall come, and all shall be ashamed who are incensed against him. In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.

Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before me.

Opening Prayer

Gracious God in heaven, we do praise you and thank you for the glorious truth of your word. We know that it is our only infallible rule for faith and life, instructing us what we are to believe concerning You and how we are to serve and obey You.

We pray, Father, as we come to these passages, as we consider this first great commandment, that you would lead us and guide us to your truth, that we would be true and sincere worshipers for your Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ our Lord, giving all praise, glory, and honor to your name.

We ask, Father, for your blessing upon your word. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Introduction: The Prophecy of Cyrus

Nearly 150 years before the Persian king Cyrus issued the decree allowing the Jewish exiles to return home to Jerusalem, the Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, declares here in Isaiah 45 exactly what would happen.

One of the amazing things about this prophecy of Isaiah is that the Lord specifically names Cyrus as the one who would act as the Lord’s servant and allow the Jews to return. It’s likely that Cyrus’ parents hadn’t even been born yet. But the prophecy is very clear, and Cyrus is called by name.

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have held.

The Persians, who at this time were still far from a world superpower, knew nothing of the God of Israel. They had their own idol gods that they worshipped.

The God, the Lord God of Israel, the one true living God, chose Cyrus to be the instrument that he would use to bring the exiled captives back to Israel.

God calls this one who knew him not over a hundred years before he was born to fulfill this task.

God is able to do this because He alone is the one true living God.

This great truth He declares four times in the rest of this passage (vv. 5, 6, 18, 22):

I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God beside me.

The Lord declares this so that Cyrus, the Persians, and truly all people of all nations would know that He isn’t just the God of Israel, but He is the only God there is for Israel and for all of mankind.

The First Commandment: Its Essence

Acknowledging this great truth is really the essence of the first commandment and what it requires.

You shall have no other gods before me.

Because there are no other gods.

All people everywhere are called to reject all other so-called gods and know and acknowledge the Lord alone as the only God there is.

What the First Commandment Requires

1. We Must Know and Acknowledge God as God, Our Creator

This confronts us with a very important truth: God is knowable.

We can know about God, and we can know Him and the presence of His being. Because God is infinite and we are finite creatures, we can’t know Him fully or completely. But we can know Him truly, because He has most graciously revealed Himself to us.

Ways God Has Revealed Himself

  • He revealed Himself first when He created mankind in His image, so that we might have union and communion with Him in a very special way.
  • Even though sin has distorted this image and our ability to know God intimately, such knowledge can be restored through Jesus Christ.
  • John 17:3 – This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
  • God has revealed Himself in a general way through creation (Psalm 19 – the heavens declare the glory of God).
  • Especially through His Word (the Bible) and through the Word become flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a difference between knowing about God and actually acknowledging Him.

Romans 1 teaches that all mankind is without excuse and knows there is one true living God, but they actively suppress that truth and refuse to acknowledge Him.

By the grace of God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, hearts are softened, brought to new life, and enabled to acknowledge the Lord, leading to faith in Jesus Christ.

Even those who refuse to acknowledge Him in this life will on the last great day be compelled to acknowledge Him.

Philippians 2:10-11 – At the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

It is far better to know and acknowledge the Lord as God now, in this life.

2. We Must Know and Acknowledge God as the Only True God

  • Deuteronomy 6:4 (Shema) – The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
  • Jeremiah 10:10 – The Lord is the true God, He is the living God and the everlasting King.
  • Isaiah 45 repeatedly: There is no other God besides the Lord.

So-called gods of the nations (Baal, Moloch, Asherah, etc.) are only the imaginations of men.

1 Corinthians 8 – These are so-called gods. Psalm 115 – Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands… Those who make them are like them.

3. We Must Know and Acknowledge God as Our God (Covenant God)

  • Leviticus 26:12 – I will be your God and you shall be my people.
  • Deuteronomy 26 – You have proclaimed the Lord to be your God.
  • John 20:28 – Thomas: My Lord and my God.

4. We Must Worship and Glorify Him Accordingly

Worship is ascribing worth to God—He alone is worthy.

Matthew 4:10 – You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.

We worship in spirit and in truth.

We glorify God by openly acknowledging the glory that already belongs to Him.

Ways We Glorify God

  • In corporate worship and praise (Psalm 86)
  • In unity as the body of Christ (Romans 15:5-6)
  • With our bodies and lives (1 Corinthians 6:20)
  • Even in suffering for Christ (1 Peter 4:16)
  • In everything we do (1 Corinthians 10:31) – Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Our whole lives are to be focused on this chief end: to glorify the one true living God and Him only.

Warning for Failure to Keep This Commandment

Deuteronomy 8 – If you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

What the First Commandment Forbids

1. Denying or Rejecting God (Atheism)

  • Philosophical atheism and practical atheism (living without regard to God).
  • The fool says in his heart there is no God because he must first suppress what he instinctively knows.

2. Polytheism

There can only be one true God.

3. Denying Any of God’s Essential Attributes

Rejecting His infiniteness, eternality, sovereignty, holiness, justice, etc., violates the commandment.

4. Giving Worship or Glory to Anyone or Anything Else

  • No other gods before His face—not in front of Him, not alongside Him, not in His presence at all.
  • This includes modern idols: money, power, lust, pleasure, people, praise of men, and above all the idol of self.
  • Colossians 3:5 – Covetousness, which is idolatry.

All sin flows from idolatry, especially the idolatry of self.

Conclusion and Application

Holiness requires that we shed ourselves from idolatries and all false gods.

We must examine our hearts, seek God’s mercy, and by the power of the Holy Spirit put to death every idol.

Only through the Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit is this possible.

We must know, acknowledge, worship, and glorify the one true living God—there is no other.

Closing Prayer

Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we rejoice and give thanks to you for your word to us in this reminder.

Each of us can easily see the different idols that we have in our own lives and hearts at different times—some we have already put to death, some we may still be struggling with.

We pray for your grace and mercy to give us great victory over those idols, that there is truly nothing before your holy presence but your humble servants wrapped in the holy and righteous robes of our precious Savior, Jesus.

We pray that you would see the glory of your Son in us and through us as we trust in You, cling to the promises of Your Word, and trust in the sacrifice Christ has offered that we might have forgiveness of sins.

By His shed blood we are washed and cleansed, that we might truly know You, the one true God, and forever know You from now through all eternity.

Help us to be bold witnesses that there is just one God and to point out the foolishness of idols all around—but first to deal with those idols in our own hearts.

Impress these truths upon each of our hearts, drawing us all closer to yourself, all to the praise of your glorious name.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, amen.