In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of facing the consequences of our sins and the need to turn to a holy God. He highlights the Ten Commandments as the law that governs our relationship with both God and our fellow human beings. The preacher shares a personal experience where he disturbed a congregation by challenging them to examine their idols and put them on the altar. He emphasizes the commandment to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. The sermon concludes with the message of turning away from false gods and idols and waiting for the return of Jesus Christ.

Our dear Lord, we are so grateful tonight for this little family of faith and for this faithful group. Lord, we've learned to love them over the years and months that we've known them. And we're looking to Thee to give us blessed hours together. And our Father, we're looking to You to lead us and to guide us and to make us all that we ought to be to the people of God. That they may be developed and that they may be saved so far as the life is concerned and to have a full reward. Oh, we pray in Christ's lovely name. Amen and amen. Now, I want to speak to you tonight on a subject that's going to disturb you and disturb you badly. But I know of no way to help you except by doing that. Some time back, as Dennis was filling my tooth, I started going down and down and he just kept going. After a while, I reached the point of no return. He just kept going. He said, Mr. Galwell, I have to hurt you to help you. And he said, you being a minister, you ought to learn something of this. You ought never to stop with that old sinner until you can bore the devil out of him and then you may fill him with the grace of God. If I fill your tooth before I bore to the cavity, deep depths of the cavity, you'll lose the filling and you'll lose your tooth. I'm coming tonight to speak to you on false gods. And none have more false gods than those who never dreamed they had any. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 3, Thou shall have no other gods before me. I want you to underscore that statement and then I want us to read verse 1, 2, 3 and 4 and they all go together. And God speak all of these words saying, I am the Lord thy God which I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shall have no other gods before me. Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shall have no other gods before me. As we bring the message on false gods, I trust that you will not be offended at me tonight but that you hear me and hear me well as I deal with the sin that has destroyed the nations of the past. Some time back I made a study of the rise and fall of empires and one of the outstanding things that I learned was that nations learn nothing from the past. The thing that has wrecked every nation in the past, the thing that wrecked the Babylonian empire the Assyrian empire, the Greek empire and the Roman empire, all of the great empires of the past have all been wrecked because of the sin of idolatry. So we are coming tonight to bring you a message on false gods. Thou shall have no other gods before me. God can be Greek. God can be provoked to jealousy. God can be provoked to wrath. And God will not permit a rival. God must have the first place in your life. He has no place. As we come to deal with the message tonight on false gods, I want to ask four simple questions and I want you to listen to it with all of your mind, body, soul and spirit. Question number one. What are some false gods? I have studied the Old and New Testament and church history for the past 2,000 years and I have arrived at many false gods that people have. And I'm talking about the Lord's people. Ten commandments were not given to the wicked, not given to sinners, but to the Lord's people. As we come to look at one of the commandments tonight, the commandments, Thou shall have no other gods before me. The Bible tells you that God is a jealous God. He is also a zealous God. And when you provoke God to jealousy, He goes frigid on you. When a man provokes his wife to jealousy, she goes frigid on him. Then there can be no mutual relationship. The only relationship can be is a forced relationship, which always is detrimental to both parties. When God goes frigid on you, there's no use to you to pray, no use to you to make love to God until this idol has been moved out of the way. What are some false gods? First is a God of prayer. That's the biggest God that church people have today, is a God of prayer. Prayer doesn't get God to do anything. That becomes a God, is a God of prayer. Second is a God of the Bible. We've made a God out of this. Our Catholic friends have a man in Rome, that's their Pope. We have a paper Pope, the Bible. You get nothing out of the Scriptures. Life comes out of Christ. Life comes out of Christ. Liberty comes out of Christ. Salvation comes out of Christ. The Bible is only a record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The Jewish people in the days of our Lord have made a God out of the Scriptures, and that God so blinded them until they never saw the light of day. They followed the Scriptures and killed the Lord. The most deadly God that you can have is a God out of the Bible. Now, I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, but it's a record. And so, that's a God. Next is the God of self. Oh God, I may be sitting on the throne of your heart. That's the most difficult God that you've ever dealt with is the God of self. Next is, idol is a God of processions. When you worship our processions instead of the procession, a God of procession. Many Christians today are worshiping the gifts of the Spirit instead of the giver, and it always blinds you and wrecks you from seeing truth. Next is a God of pleasure. That's America's number one God. And that God has got to be killed, or we've got to be killed. Next is a God of position. Wonderful that you have a high position, but you must not make a God out of that position. Next is a God of virtue. This is a God that all women have to battle against. Because you're a virtuous woman, and that's wonderful, and it's prized above rubies, and yet at the same time, God does not count your virtue. Your virtue is no more than the virtue of the harlot that walks the streets before her salvation is concerned. You need to know that. Make a God out of virtue. Next is the God of morality. I'm going to heaven because I'm not so bad. Talking to a man the other day, well, he said, I'm not so bad. I said, you're about not to go to hell, and that's pretty bad. The God of morality. Next is the God of the church. Many church people making a God out of your church, and God's going to have to deal with us. He may have to burn up all of the churches, may send a cyclone and sweep them all down in order to kill that God. Our steeples, our beautiful buildings are being worshipped today in stead of the Lord. We won't admit it, but it is so. You can go in the ordinary church, and you can kick the Bible out of the church, kick the Holy Ghost out, kick Jesus Christ out, and they'll never raise away. But you say one thing against the denomination or program and against that building, and all hell breaks loose because you have touched their idol. Next is the God of the preacher. World of God's people today and the church people unable to see truth, unable to get in the light because they have made a God out of the preacher. Now, Isaiah chapter 6, the great prophets of God got caught on that matter. Isaiah chapter 6, it says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. God had to kill that king before Isaiah could see anything. And I am preaching, ladies and gentlemen, and telling the people. Nobody loves the local church any better than I do. But I want to help them. Unless we can stop making a God out of the church, unless we can stop making a God out of the preacher, God will have to reckon, and He's going to. The thing is crawling now. And the churches have been spewed out, and that's the reason. And the Holy Ghost has been withdrawn, and that's the reason. And I challenge any preacher in the state of Georgia, and I'm going on record to debate this question with me. I challenge him to do so. They criticize me to my back. Why don't they come up and face this old man? Let's look at it. The churches have spewed out, and the Holy Ghost has been withdrawn in His power as restraining. He's no longer there. And therefore, we are in a pitiful plight. We know there's something wrong. We don't know what to do. And it's because that we have made a God out of the preacher. The ordinary church today is the preacher. And if the preacher dies, then they're dead, because they've got preacher religion, and they're dead. If he dies or is called to another church, they go into one thing and spin into another. That congregation is thrown into a consternation because that preacher has died or is retired and then moved to another field. It's because they do not have their eyes on the Lord. They're looking at a man instead of the God-man, the man Christ Jesus. Next is a God of a demon. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 16 to 22, He speaks of the cup of demons. He speaks of the fellowship with demons. I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons. Many, many people have a God of demons. That demon is controlling their life. That demon is coloring their life. That demon is moving in a terrible way, and that demon is having rule over them. Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 13 said, Other lords besides thee have had dominion over us. Haven't any idea how many church people today are under the domination and the influence of a demon spirit. And that becomes your God. You may not be conscious of it, but that is so. Question number two. What is an idol? Now, remember that back of every idol is a demon. Now, what is an idol? Well, I'm going to give you several things tonight that's an idol, and this is the most difficult word that I've ever tried to conquer. I have Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Young's Analytical Concordance, and I deal with the Hebrew and the Greek on every word that I study. And this word, idol, is the most terrific, the most difficult thing I've ever tried to control. I mean to corral, to bring it down so the ordinary mind can get it. But what is an idol? Here it comes. Anything between you and God is an idol. Might be a pack of cigarettes, might be a poodle dog, might be your automobile, might be your wife, might be your children, only God knows what it is. Anything that's between you and God is an idol. In the second place, anything that takes the place of God is an idol. Now, is there anything that takes the place of God? For God to be your Savior and Redeemer, He must tell you where to go. He must tell you what to do. He must be the one that dictates the policies of your life. If not, then there's something that's severed you from God. In the next place, what is an idol? Anything you worship is an idol. So worshiping a thing means to adore it. You can even worship the Bible. You can worship your possessions. Anything that you worship will get you in trouble sooner or later. In the next place, what is an idol? It's anything you put before God. God must have first place in your life, or He won't have any place. God does not play the second fiddle. What is an idol? It's anything you love better than God. What is an idol? It's anything you love better than God. Now, Abraham was on the verge of almost a great catastrophe. Isaac was put in his home. Ever that beautiful little boy put his arms around Abraham's neck and no doubt played with his beard. That little boy patted around the house. And God looked in on the scene. Said, Abraham, I want you to go to Mount Moriah. Take you three days to get there. So you'll have plenty of time to think it over. I want you to put that son on the altar. See, you've got to put your Isaacs, your idols on the altar. And if you do, if they're worth anything, then God will take them away from you and then turn around and get them back to you. That'd be wonderful. Is your automobile an idol? If so, God will take it away from you. But if you give it to God, then he may give it back to you and let you enjoy it in a new way. Anything that you love better than you love God. In the book of Mark, chapter 12, verse 29 and 30, Jesus said, Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. You have to give God all of your heart. Not a part of it. He must have the first place in your life, in your heart. If not, you are an idolatry. And God is a jealous God. He frees on you. And you'll find yourself not enjoying your religion, not enjoying the Scriptures. You go to church and hear the man of God preach. Well, he preaches too long. And he's too dull. And he doesn't have good pulpit manners. No, your trouble is you've got an idol in there, your problem. Oh, if we're where we ought to be, the man of God preaching the time element fades away. What is an idol? It's anything that has first place in your life. What has first place in your life? Is it your wife? Is it your children? Is it your church? What has the first place in your life? Whatever it is other than God, you are in trouble. Matthew 6.33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Put God and His kingdom and His righteousness first, and all of these things shall be added to you. You won't have to pray for nothing. Why should you ask God for anything? In fact, you're asking God for something false to prove He affects me. You're not in the high tower. God said, I'll add. And He's taking care of the snowbird, says that He has feathers in the wintertime, and He has an air-conditioning system in that bird in the summertime, and He says He gets His worm in due time. So God takes care of the bird. And the bird doesn't have to do a thing but sing. And you don't have to do anything but sing, and God can give you songs in the night. But we spend all of our time praying, and God's paying more attention to you than a dog barking at the moon. Why should you beg God for anything? You don't have to beg. God's going to add to you for where you ought to be, and if you're not, He won't pay any attention to you. So, ladies and gentlemen, we've got to see that evidently there's a nighter that's come in that's separated you from your God, and you are in trouble. Question number three. What does idolatry do to us? I'm talking about the Lord's people. What does it do? Now, every sinner is an idolater. No question about that. But this is a sin that even the Lord's people get in. And God must break your idol, He must bring you to Himself, or put you in the ground and take you there where He can be with you a little bit more ever. Hmm. I remember when I was an old sinner. We ate a can. I'm sorry to confess it, but I fell to drink, and I was getting pretty heavy on the bottle. Stayed out one night all night long, drunk, drinking, rousing. Came home about daylight next morning. I woke up to the fact what I was up against. I came in. I expected my wife to jump on me, but she was too wise for that. I came in. She never said a word. Fix me a good warm breakfast. I ate it. I said, my, surely the sentence of death is placed upon me. Ate a good breakfast and drank a cup of coffee and was feeling some better. I started to work. She said, just a minute. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. I knew the hulk had left. Sit right there. I'm going to sit right here. Now, you can settle it. You can take me or the little brown jug. You can't have both of us. I'm not going to raise a bunch of children with an old drunken husband. Now, you settle that now. I mean it has to be settled right now. Not five minutes from now, but now. I took you by the hand years ago and we got one child born in the home, and I don't want to raise up some more with an old drunken husband. Now, you can settle that. You can take me or the brown jug. Whichever you want. I took you by the hand and prayed for God and man that I'd be a good, faithful, and dutiful, and affectionate wife to you, and I've tried to do that. Now, you're going to settle it this morning. It's all about getting on the mourner's mind. Oh, my. Has it got worse than that? I got a death house. Said, you're going to settle it and settle it now. I said, honey, by the grace of God, I want you. Three months from that time, I was a converted man. I never tasted anything. That was her salvation. It was my salvation. See, that thing had become an idol and was pushing us apart. And she knew it, and she was wise. What idolatry does to us. Here are several things that a Nigel will do to you. Idolatry will black out the mind. The reason we can't have Bible study, the reason we can't have a revival, the reason we can't pray and get our prayers answered, the reason that we cannot understand the Scriptures, we don't have the mind of God. We have a blackout in our mind. Second thing that idolatry does for us, it destroys reason. You take a poor person, that's in idolatry, he can't even reason, can't even read the Scriptures. And you undertake trying to reason with that individual, and it's the most pitiful thing in the world, like trying to reason with a hog, with a cow, with a stump. You've got no reason. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, and he's talking to the Lord's people there, he said, come and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, though they be red like crimson, they can be made as gold. Didn't say you, he said your sins. Isn't that something? God washed your sins. That's what he said. Your sins will become as gold. Come and let us reason together. The pole is the risen idolatry, and the book of Isaiah deals with idolatry, there's no other book in the Bible. And the Lord's people have blinded themselves, they have dulled their vision, dulled their mind, and they could not reason with Almighty God. And God had to let them be captured, and carried to Babylon, where they got enough of idolatry. And did you know something tonight? Tell you something you may not know. The Jew has never worshipped idols since Babylonian captivity. Never has worshipped idols. Gentiles did, but not the Jew. He got his dose of idolatry, and God gave him his fill of it. The next thing that idolatry does, it's the cause of trembling. We're trembling today, like a man gets in trouble, and every time he sees a policeman, I wonder if he's right to me. There's a man with a badge, he's there looking for me, he's trembling all the time. And we're in idolatry, and we're not certain what God's going to do with us. And I'm not either, but I'm here to tell you tonight, if you're God's child, you're going to break that idol of God, you're going to break it, as certain as God is in heaven. Not only that, but it's a cause of grief. You can hardly find a happy Christian today, and God has no happy old people, and God's supposed to have a happy old people. In Psalms 92, he speaks about buying fruit in old age. Wonderful picture. Not only that, but idolatry gives place to demons. When you get in idolatry, you invite the demons to come into your home, to come into your business, and to come into you, and to come into your children. And we're in a desperate hour, because we're in idolatry. Now, let's be honest tonight, children. Tell me, you look at it. What is your idol? Do you have it? Every skeleton's got to go. Every idol has got to be broken, or God will break you. Back of every idol is a demon. Back of every unnatural lust is a demon. An unnatural lust can become an idol. In the book of Philippians chapter 3, Paul speaks of a group of people who said, your belly is your God. Isn't that all? Your God is your belly. And that's one of our big gods today. One of the big gods of American people is their belly. They live to eat and eat to live. That thing has become a terrific sin. Not only that, but idolatry will brainwash you. You get so brainwashed, and so anemic, and so wobbly, until you're unable to look straight and to think straight. Not only that, but idolatry causes God to be frigid. When God becomes frigid with you, there'll be no warmth of spirit. There'll be no flowing of love. There'll be no giving of your gifts freely. Everything we do has got to hang to it, or hang to it. And it's because God has become frigid with us. Something else that idolatry does, it deceives the idol worshiper. Every individual that's in idolatry is a deceived man. Not only that, but idolatry will alienate you from God. Not in the sense of being lost, but in the sense of getting your prayers answered. Isaiah chapter 59, verse 1 and 2, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither is it heavy, that it cannot bear. But your iniquities, that is your God. The word iniquity means a false God. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have he hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Oh, how we need to come, as Israel did of old, and look up in God's face. Say, God, I'm sorry that I've grieved you. I'm sorry that I've provoked you to jealousy. I'm sorry that I've allowed all of these things to come in and usurp the place that you ought to have. You and God ought to be two of the happiest people in the world. Man and his wife ought to be two of the happiest people in the world. Your home should be a heaven on earth. But in many cases it's a hell on earth. Oh, how it grieves the heart of God to see his children not having his brightest and best. So after God took Israel out of Egypt, he gave them the Ten Commandments. And this is the first one, see? Then there's nine more that come right up. The first one is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And the second one is, Thou shalt not make entity in a graven image. The graven image is a god. If you have other gods before you, after a while, that god may be a phantom of your mind, or it might be a figment of imagination, but after a while it will take a definite concrete form. Sooner or later, that god will be something that you can see. I'm asking question number four. How to get rid of your false gods? What you call, well, I want to get rid of my false gods. Can you tell me what to do? Yes, I think I can. There it is. First thing to do is to repent. You mean the child of God has to repent? Yes, repent till you're dying day. Second thing to do is to believe the gospel. If we believe the gospel, believe the word of God, then we believe that God will ultimately deal with us in due time. And none of us want to be dealt sternly with God. Next thing to do is to kill every false god. Kill that god, you kill it. If you don't, God will. Kill every false god. Exodus chapter 20 verse 3, Thou shall have no other gods before me. If the gods come in, kill, do away with them. Because ultimately God is your best friend. God is a great lover. He wants you to love him and he wants to love you. But there's got to be a mutual relationship. You must go the way that God is going. Kill every false god. Next thing to do is to destroy every item. Anything that's an item. Okay, what's this? Destroy it. If you don't, God will destroy it and he may destroy you with it. Ezekiel chapter 9 and verse 6, You shall slay utterly. Kill every false god. Slay utterly. Old and young. The old sins and the young sins. Old maids and little children. And women. But come not near any man of whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary. What is God's sanctuary? Church? Oh no, that's idolatry. What is God's sanctuary? Your heart. Begin at the sanctuary. My God, start at your heart. Say, idol, you get out of my heart. And if there's a demon in there, demon, get out of my heart. Begin at my sanctuary. Your heart is God's sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient man. Which were before the house. The ancient man means the old sins. Them old sins began. And destroy every idol. Any sin continues. After a while it becomes a little sin, becomes a big sin. After a while it becomes an idol. The next thing to do is to face God and the truth. One of the greatest things that any man or any woman ever did in this world is to face God and the truth. And a good way to do it is to go into the bathroom and look in the mirror. When you look into the mirror, you're looking at the meanest man that ever walked the face of God's kingdom. You're looking at a treacherous man. You're looking at a hypocrite. You're looking at a false man. When you look in the bathroom. Do you believe so? Face God and the truth and look into that mirror. Say, God, why in the world did you save me in here? Oh, my God. Here I am, I provoke God's jealousy. I make God go frigid on me. No relationship is worth having. I have pleaded God. I've allowed another lover to come. Face God and the truth. Next thing to do is to face a burning hell. No man or woman is ever worthy or to be when you come to face a burning hell. And know, Brother Casey, that nothing but the grace of God keep you out of hell. Nothing but God's grace can keep you, B.B. Caldwell, or anybody out of hell. Face a burning hell. Next thing to do is to face an awesome judgment. Oh, the great judgment warning. What will it mean? Will I be saved by fire and my works all burned up? What will the judgment mean? Well, it means this I'm certain. Your little day is done. Life has been lived and you can't relive it. You're going to face eternity if you're saved with a great reward. Or you'll be saved by fire and your works all burned up. Next thing to do is to face eternity without God. What does it mean to face eternity without God? I've tried to imagine that. I've tried to think. I've stood in this world sometimes in my lonely hours. And in my mind I go out somewhere where heaven and earth places away. Time is no more. And I'm looking out in the long, long eternity. Life is past. Little day is done. And face eternity without God. Oh, what is hell? Hell is to be separated from God. That's hell. Hell is eternity without God. Next thing to do is to face going to hell wedded to your sin. Revelation chapter 21 and verse 8 enumerates eight different kinds of people that are going to hell. And one of them is an idolater. I'm telling you now, you're saved. You either kill that God or God will kill you just as certain as this person. If there isn't a fire in a home that isn't what ought to be, sooner or later, sooner or later, face going to hell wedded to your sins. Next thing to do is to face a holy God with a broken law. Exodus chapter 20, you have one law but ten places to it. Not ten commandments, just one commandment with ten places to it. Six of them have to do with you and your relation to your fellow man. Four of them have to do with you and your relationship to God. And the first four have to do with you and your relationship to God. The other six have to do with you and your relationship to your fellow man. I was in Augusta, Georgia preaching some time back. I noticed a person who got shook all to pieces and turned pale and green and every kind of color. Got back to the motel and said, Mr. Caldwell, you disturbed my people tonight. I said, I did, yeah. I said, that's what I meant to do. But I said, how about you, were you disturbed? He said, yes. You dealt with the law, the ten commandments. Don't you know that we can't keep the law? I said, no, I didn't know that. It wasn't given to sinners, it was given to the saints. There's another one of the ten commandments you can't keep, another one of them. Thou shall have no other gods before me. You mean you can't keep and build a new little god? Thou shall not make unto me any graven image. You mean you can't keep and do that? Thou shall not lie. You mean to tell me you can't keep and tell lies? Thou shall not commit adultery. You mean to tell me you can't let the other man's wife know? Thou shall not steal. You mean you can't keep your hand out of the other man's pocket? My God. Caldwell, what? I said, no, son, just wait a minute. You want to close this meeting? Now that you do, I'm ready to go home. He ain't making a goat out of me. Ladies and gentlemen, listen. The ten commandments were given to govern them. We've ignored the ten commands like many other things. And we are in. And the final thing to do, how to get rid of all of your false gods, is to turn to the true and the living God and wait for his son from heaven. In the book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 9 and 10, I want you to turn with me and let us read it together. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we have unto you, and how ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath of God. Then turn to 1 John, chapter 5, and verse 21. And what do you read? Very interesting verse. And you know this. He's talking to the Lord's people. 1 John, chapter 5, and verse 21. Very interesting verse. I want you to look at it. And I want you to memorize it. And I want you to read it. And keep reading it. 1 John, chapter 5, verse 21. Little children. I can add stuff. Little children, keep yourself from what? What does it say? You reckon God knows what it says? Little children, keep yourself from idols. I'm going to go preach it on you. And when he does, you can have it. Now what I want each one of you to do, don't come to me and say, Preach it. What do you think about this? Or what do you think about that? I'm not going to be ugly, but don't come to me. You know. You know. What I want you to do, I want you to face God and the truth, and drag out every skeleton out of your closet, kill every idol, and began, let God circulate your heart, and slay each. Glory to God, I'm going to slay every idol. I want God at first place in my life. Shall we pray? Our Father, take the message of the hour and use it to slay us tonight.