The Folly of Idolatry, Part 2

Well, I want to bring you greetings in the name of Jesus this morning. I, too, was really blessed by the and convicted by the devotional meditation this morning. One of the things every time that I hear that story read is how quickly I identify with the Samaritan.

I mean, how many times do we read that and identify with the other two? So it brings about some soul searching. I mean, and I think we do that a lot as we read things. We automatically sort of gravitate toward the side that we know is right. Deep in our heart, we know that was the right response. And yet we have to ask ourselves the question, "Is that really who I am?

Is that my natural is that my response? Is that the way I respond?" And that same attitude, I think, on the subject we had this morning, I think we have to ask ourselves the same question. We sang the song this morning, "The dearest idol I have known, whatever that idol be, help me that idol to be thrown and worship only Thee." And that is the subject this morning. If you'll recall, the last time we looked at Isaiah chapter 41 to 48, and we looked at the contrast between idols and the true and living God.

And that whole idea of taking a tree and cutting it down and taking part of it and using it to cook your food, using part of it to warm yourself, and then taking the residue and making a god and bowing down to it. And I tried to help us realize that we very quickly kind of pat ourselves on the back and say, "Well, certainly, of course, that's silly.

I don't want to I would never do something like that. I want to serve the living God." Again, that's sort of where we identify with, "I'm going to serve the living God." But I just want us to, again, remember the warning that John gives in 1 John chapter 5. And I'm going to reread that.

1 John chapter 5, right at the end of this little epistle, he gives us some things that we know. He says in verse 18, "We know that whoever is born of God does not sin. But he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

So in spite of the fact that we know all these things, that's who we want to be, John still gives out a clear warning and says, "Keep yourselves from idols."

So this morning, I want to make it a little more practical to us. And so the title of the message is "The Folly of Idolatry, Part 2." We had part one the last time. In Acts 17, Paul goes to Athens, and it says that as he was there and he was observing everything that he was seeing in Athens, he says he noticed that it was a city given over to idols.

And I wonder today, when God looks down on New York City, when he looks down on Los Angeles, when he looks down on Chippenburg, is that what he sees, a city given over to idols?

Today, I'd like to ponder three questions. So what is, when you boil it all down in its essence, what is idolatry? Number two, do I have any idols in my life? And number three, how do we or I flee idolatry?

In order to understand what idolatry is, we have to understand something called worship. And there's a truth that we need to get a hold of, and that truth is that everyone worships something. There is not a single person that has ever been born that does not worship something.

It's not the question, "Do I worship?" The question is, "What is it that I worship?"

Someone has said, "Worship is our response to whatever we value most in our lives." And so now we're getting into this whole idea of what is important to us, what we value. And again, it's not what we say we value. It's what we truly value. And sometimes there's a discrepancy there. We say we value these things, but what is it that my life is proving that I truly, truly value?

And the question is, "Well, how do I know? How do I know what I value most?" A tourist once asked an Amish man, if he was a Christian, and he had a very simple answer. He said, "Go ask my neighbor."

And sometimes we can maybe that give us a more clear answer than our own judgment. What do the people around us, what do they see? If my neighbor was saying, "What value would what do you think is the most important thing in his life?" what would they say?

It's not so much what I think my values are. It's what other people see, the things that they see. What would my family say if you would ask them, "What is it that your dad or your mother or your brother, what is it that he values the most?"

In every heart, there's a throne. Someone is on that throne. And God created man in his image to be a reflection of the glory, his glory. God ruling and us reflecting that rule. That's how he created us to be. That was his original intent in the garden. Except that Satan persuaded Adam and Eve that being an image bearer of God, to bear his image, was less desirable than to be like God, which was the false promise that they made. And so they pushed him out off the throne and climbed on themselves. And so self became on the throne. And every one of us that are born are born with that tendency to put self or born with self on the throne, and God wants to be there.

So what is idolatry, then? Idolatry is anything, any person, any idea that relegates God to anything less than being on that throne of our hearts. Number one. Anything, any person, any idea that takes him off the throne and puts something else there is to us an idol, which to me is very, very sobering.

Again, it's not what I think. We're masters of self-delusion. We're masters of making ourselves into someone that we're not. And so I guess my burden for this message this morning is just to turn our eyes inward to our own hearts and recognize that it's a serious thing.

God says, "I'm a jealous God. I must be first." And we cannot be both. We cannot serve God and something else. He must be number one. And so if anything puts him down off of that place that he deserves and we place something else, then we're living in idolatry.

And that is not a good place to be. Greg Beale says, "What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration."

You can turn to Romans chapter 1

to illustrate what he's saying there. Romans 1, I think I read this last time as well. I'm going to reread it. Verse 18.

And we're thinking about image here. The word image is used twice in Romans here, once in the negative sense, once in the positive sense. So this is in the negative sense. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they know God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." So in this case, we take God and we make him into our own image.

Because of the things we revere, the things we hold important, we bring God down into that level. What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration. And in this case, if we make God into an image like corruptible things, that puts us on a trajectory to ruin.

Worship and affections are pointers to our future. They sort of show forth the direction that we're going to end up on. Back to Romans chapter 8.

Verse 28. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that we might be the firstborn among many brethren." So there we see the other trajectory.

And for some reason, we as human beings are drawn to something that's tangible, some kind of and that's, I think, why so often society has gone to some kind of an image or whatever. And of course, John says that Christ we're able to touch, we're able to handle.

He's the living word. And here he talks about the image of his Son being conformed to that. And that puts us on a trajectory to restoration. And I think that's where we all want to be. And so it's no wonder that John says, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols," because he realized, I think, just how easy it is for us to make God into an image of our own choosing rather than being conformed into the image of Christ.

So are there any idols in my life? Or what could it be that I've elevated on the throne of my heart that has displaced God? And I'm going to begin with one that the Bible clearly says is an idol. And that is found in Colossians chapter 3, verse 5.

"Therefore put to death your members, which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."

Greed, materialism, the American dream, very easily can become who we serve and our idol.

What is the American dream? A nice house on an acre or two.

Enough money to live comfortably. Maybe advancing a little bit in our

standard of living. Maybe something to enjoy ourselves on the weekends. You can pretty much look around and see that that is the goal of many, many people. And so it is just something that we have to honestly look at. Is it possible that my pursuit of the American dream has dethroned God? And again, what Satan knows is that we need certain things. We need houses. We need shelter. We need food. We need clothing. We need all these things. And they're not bad in and of themselves. But very quickly can take over. Luke chapter 8, in the parable of the sower.

Luke chapter 8, verse 7. I'll start at verse 5. "A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold." And when Jesus gives the explanation of this parable in verse 14, he says, "Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with the cares, riches, and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity."

So there he plainly says that he was dethroned by the cares and riches of this life.

Hebrews 13, verse 5. I'm going to be reading a fair amount of scriptures here.

Hebrews 13, verse 5.

"Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, for He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you,' so that we may boldly say, 'The Lord is my Helper. I will not fear what men can do to me.'" Another thing about the pursuit of riches, the pursuit of covetousness, is that we relegate God to a lower position because He says, "I want to be your care. I want to be the person you look forward to." And part of the deceitfulness of riches is we are looking to that for our security. So that's another consequence of being caught up in all this, is that we actually lower God to a lower position.

Again, we take Him off the throne, off of His rightful place where He belongs, and we place something else there instead. 1 Timothy 5, verses 6 through 10.

1 Timothy 5.

2 Timothy 5.

Okay, I must have written something down wrong there. So what was that? 1 Timothy 6. Okay.

Yes. 1 Timothy 6. "Now godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." So I just want us to be aware that if we're going to put if we're going to pursue the American dream, if our life is summed up by covetousness, that is indeed dethroning God and putting Him to a place where we cannot put Him.

Another thing that I think we need to guard against or is something that we need to that could very well be an idol to us is busyness. And that has to do with our time. Most of us complain about being busy. So obviously, that's not an idol to us, right?

We're so busy. We just have I just wish life would slow down. But there is a sense in which we also get a sense of importance from how busy we are. I'm busy. And deep down in, the busier we are, we kind of complain about it, but it gives us a sense of importance. And God gives us a certain amount of time per day, and we're responsible in that time to make wise use of that. And if we translated that into dollars, we have $86,400 seconds in a day.

And if we translated that into a dollar and said, "Today you have $86,400 to spend," end of the day, it's gone. How would you relate? How would you spend those time? I think we would be very careful to make every moment count for what is real. And so a lot of us get busy. And the thing I want to say about all these things is they have tentacles that it's all like a big matted mess, all these things that we can get involved in, because one leads to another. The tentacles reach into that. And so busyness, a lot of times, has to do with our pursuit of maybe the American dream. Maybe it's our pursuit of getting the things we want.

And so we're so busy. So how are we using the time that God has given us? 1 Thessalonians 4:11.

"But we urge you, brother, that you increase more and more, that you also aspire to lead a quiet life and to mind your own business and work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly towards those who are outside and that you may lack nothing." Ecclesiastes 4:6.

Ecclesiastes 4:6.

"Better a handful with quietness than both hands full together with toil and grasping for the wind." And that's just sometimes how it feels. I mean, just grasping for the wind. And he says it's better for a handful with quietness than to get caught up in all that.

Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God." And so busyness can it's possible that busyness could dethrone God from where He belongs. What about the idol of fear? Did you ever think about fear being an idol?

The passage we read last time in Isaiah, over and over again, in that same context of idols, says over and over again, "Fear not. Do not be afraid." Why? Because I am your God. I'm going to be with you.

And so if our lives are categorized by fear, if that's what sort of takes precedence in our lives, what does again, what does that do to God? What are we doing to Him? We are lowering Him and placing our fear above Him, which is a form of idolatry.

And God wants us to He's so desperate. He says, "I'm with you. I'm your God. Do not fear. Do not be afraid."

As with other ones, this fear has many, many tentacles that spread out. So what about approval? What about the idol of approval? So if the thing I fear the most is rejection, then the thing I'm going to pursue is approval.

That's what I'm going to pursue. I'm afraid of rejection, and so I pursue approval. Matthew 6. Jesus warns us against that.

Matthew 6, verse 1, "Take heed that you do not your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them." Verse 5, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men." Verse 16, "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting."

So we can very quickly the motivation of our life can become approval. This is especially hard, I think, for young people, on older ones as well, but peer pressure, just that idea of, "I need to fit in." What about the idol of control? So if my biggest fear is uncertainty, I don't like the I'm afraid of the future, one of the ways that we deal with that is to try to control everything.

And so we take matters into our own hands, and we become very, very controlling out of our fear of uncertainty.

What about comfort? Maybe our idol is comfort. We don't like to feel in any way uncomfortable. Maybe it's technology. Is your cell phone your idol? I'm just going to ask these questions because each one of us, it's something that we have to answer honestly in our own hearts.

What about food? Is food an idol? Can food be an idol? I'm kind of amazed we don't have television here, but there are literally dozens of cooking shows on television from what I get into homes and whatever. It's amazing. And it's like, what is the how can we take this to another level?

Anthony Bourdain was a chef, had a hit show, and he traveled all around the world sampling the most unusual, disgusting cuisine that he could, things like

cobra hearts and maggot fried rice and things like that. The ironic part is, within the last, I don't know, year or so, Anthony Bourdain took his own life. He hung himself in a hotel in Paris, in France somewhere.

What does God look when He sees and looks down and He sees these big humongous buffets?

Could it be that He sees a temple to gluttony? I mean, think about it. There's this huge building, and it's all designed for people to indulge. So just something to think about. Pleasure. The Bible says, "Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." And we live in a pleasure-crazed society where it's all about, "What can I do to bring me that next high?"

What about our families? What about our wife, our husband, our wife, our children? Is it possible that they could become an idol?

What did Jesus say in Luke 14? Luke 14, verse 26, Jesus said

somewhere I must have been tired this morning. I wrote down the wrong.

It's the verse I was after was where He says, "If anyone you have to lay aside your father, your mother." Oh, I'm in John. No wonder.

Yes. Luke 14:25, "Now the great multitudes went with Him, and He turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.'" John Piper, on the occasion of his son's wedding, wrote a poem.

The title of the poem is, "Love Her More, Love Her Less." And I'm just going to read some excerpts from it. It's pretty long, so I won't read the whole thing. But I wonder how some of you guys would have responded if your dad would have got up and encouraged you to love her less. "My Son, a Sermon Poem. Its theme, 'A Double Rule of Love That Shocks: A Doctrine in a Paradox.' If you now aim your wife to bless, then love her more and love her less.

If in the coming years, by some strange providence of God, you come to have the riches of this age and painless stride across the stage beside your wife, be sure in health to love her, love her more than wealth.

And if your life is woven in a hundred friendships and you spin a festal fabric out of all your sweet affections, great and small, be sure, no matter how it rends, to love her, love her more than friends." And He continues on, "Love her more than ease. Love her more than sex. Love her more than art. Love her more than fame.

Love her more than breath itself." And then He says this, "Yes, love her. Love her more than life. Oh, love the woman called your wife. Go love her as your earthly best. Beyond this venture not. But lest your love become a fool's façade, be sure to love her less than God. It is not wise or kind to call an idol by sweet names and fall, as in humility before a likeness of your God.

Adore, above your best beloved on earth, the God alone who gives her worth. And she will know in second place that your great love is also grace and that your high affections now are flowing freely from avowal beneath those promises first made to you by God, nor will they fade, for being rooted in the stream of heaven's joy, which you esteem and cherish more than breath and life, that you may give it to your wife. The greatest gift you give your wife is loving God above her life. And thus I bid you now to bless. Go love her more by loving less."

And I think that's sometimes it's hard to understand that verse. When we read that verse, it says, you have to hate your father. You have to hate your mother. That's what He's talking about. We have to love them less. God has to still be number one.

So that sort of makes it gives me the transition. So how do we flee idolatry? The list we could stand here all morning. The list could go on and on of things that can take God out of the picture as number one. So how do I flee idolatry? 1 Corinthians 10:14 says, "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry."

And one thing I know, that flee means flee. Not like Timothy Treadwell. This is kind of a grizzly, grizzly story. Timothy Treadwell was known as the Grizzly Man or the Bear Man. And for 13 years, he would go up to Alaska, and he would live with the bears on an island.

And he was warned over and over by the park service that he was it was a dangerous thing to do. And one year, he was with his girlfriend. He was on this island, and he stayed later than any year than normal.

And he noticed that the bears were getting a little more aggressive, and so he called for the airplane to come in and take him out. There was only one way out, and that was by plane. And the airplane came, and they couldn't find Timothy Treadwell or his girlfriend. What they did find was the remains of Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend.

He did not flee. Most of us, when we'd see a grizzly, we would turn and run, run the other way, and we would flee.

But there was actually an audio tape or videotape that the camera was running. It was in a bag, so there was no footage, but the audio is there of their last moments. And when the Bible says we need to flee idolatry, He doesn't mean that it's something that we need to wean ourselves off of. I think too often that's our approach. Well, yes, I know this thing's a problem. I'm going to kind of slowly wean myself. No, when He says flee idolatry, He means to turn and run from it.

Fleeing means to flee. And so many people try to do that other the other thing, and they end up like Timothy Treadwell as a casualty to full-fledged idolatry. So how do we flee? Do we just say no? Remember that back in the '80s, the drug campaign? It's just say no.

There was a man named Thomas Chalmers, and he was one day riding on a coach in the highlands of Scotland up on a mountain. And it was on a they were coming around the narrow edge where there was a precipice on the side, and the horse there was four horses, and the lead horse became very frightened and was threatening to pull the whole works over the edge. And the coachman began to whip the frightened horse with all his might.

And the horse became very fearful and began to pull in the traces and pulled the coach out of danger around the corner. So later, he asked the coachman, "Why? Why did you beat that horse so hard?" And he said he had to beat the horse so hard to make him forget his fear and have a higher something higher that called him forward. And this picture so impressed him that he went home, and he thought about it, and he preached a sermon called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.

And I guess that's the I want to leave us today on a very, very positive note, and that is that we can grit our teeth, and we can say, "Just say no to all these things that are tempting to us to place that we place above God, the idols in our life."

But the secret to winning over idolatry is that greater affection. It's to put on the new man. That's what He talks about in Colossians. And I'm going to go back to Colossians, and I want to read that passage of Scripture.

Colossians 3:1-17, "If ye then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you shall also appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

Do not lie one to another, since ye have put off the old man with his deeds. And here's the secret: have put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free. But Christ is all and in all." And it's sort of the same idea as you have a leaf on a tree, and it hangs on for dear life and the wind and all that. But when the new life comes forward in the spring, those leaves all fall.

It's interesting. If you have young people in your home that are dating, you sort of get a picture of that new affection. When affection comes along and it captures this new affection comes along, it changes everything. The calendars get rearranged.

Your priorities change.

Just very evident that when your affection changes, it changes how you live. We've all seen examples of maybe an elderly person, maybe an old widower, and he finds a companion in his old age, and his rheumatism is better. I mean, he just has a spring in his step.

It's a new affection, and that new affection outshines and outweighs the things that were holding him back.

We can it's going to be very difficult for us to we don't make a lot of progress in fighting against the world by telling how bad the world is.

But if we look at it, maybe sometimes we don't really think about what is the allure of sin? What is it that causes people to sin? It's because sin promises something. Sin gives a promise. And He says that there's a pleasure of sin for a season. It's for a short time.

But God has promised us something so much greater. And when faced with the temptation, the immediate gratification almost always triumphs over the fear of the long-term consequences. That's why so many people live in sin. Because they're after that immediate gratification.

But the beauty of the Kingdom of God is that placing Christ on the throne of our lives is a superior pleasure. It's a pleasure that outweighs and outflanks any other pleasure that the world can offer.

There's a hymn in our hymn that we sing.

"Show me thy face, one transient gleam of loveliness divine, and I shall never think or dream of other lives, other loves save thine. All lesser light will darken quiet, all lower glories wane. The beautiful of earth will scarce seem beautiful again."

That's what I'm calling myself and all of us to here is let's put our life into the higher affection. Let's put on the new man. He doesn't tell us just grit your teeth and put the old man off, but to put the new man on.

And we go back to doing what we were originally created to do, and that's reflecting the image and glory of God. And we're the happiest when we're doing what God created us to do. And that's the beauty of the Kingdom of God. The beauty is that He's called us back to do originally what we were created to do. And that brings about a satisfaction and a pleasure that the world knows nothing about. They cannot understand that.

Luke 12:22-34.

"Then He said to His disciples, 'Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn. And God feeds them.

Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you can, by worrying, can add one cubit to His stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you, even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.

For after all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows what you need that you need these things. But seek the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you." See that higher love? "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags, which do not grow old. A treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things are going to be added to you.

And I'd like to end then with just a verse in Psalm 16:11.

This is a promise that He gives us. So as we as we go through our life, remember, an idol is anything that takes God away from the number one spot in my heart, which makes it very serious and very something that we need to really take seriously.

And the secret to dethroning those idols is to have an affection. Set our affection on things above. Not on the things around here, but have an affection. Have a love for Christ that so outshines these things around us that those things grow what's the song say? "The things of the earth will go strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."

Psalm 16:11, "You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hands are pleasures forevermore." And that's the encouragement I want to leave with us. In our fight against these things that want to so easily dethrone Christ, remember, set our affections on things above because He wants us to give us pleasures forevermore. In a sense, we fight pleasure with pleasure, a higher pleasure, a higher love.

So may God give us grace as we do that, and may God give us wisdom to know whatever that idol be, help me that idol to dethrone. And that's what I would want for my life today and for everyone that's here. Does anyone have any comments before we close?

I occasionally.