At our last Bible study we took a look at Stephen’s sermon before the Sanhedrin, the sermon that resulted in his martyrdom. One of the themes of that sermon was about idolatry. We had a good discussion about this, with one particularly interesting question. Afterward, I thought it might be good if I preached about idolatry at some point. I was thinking in terms of weeks down the pike. But it seemed that the Spirit was nudging me to speak on this sooner. So, after some prayer it seemed right to preach on it today. And so, here we are. We’re going to take a look at idolatry and we’ll see how the Spirit wants to apply this to our lives.
Our text is too clear to miss. There are to be ‘no other gods’ in our lives. No idols. If you know anything about the Old Testament, you’ll agree that idolatry was a big deal for our God. It was a sin that was to be punished by execution. And when the northern ten tribes pursued their idols, they were exiled from the Promised Land by God, never to return. Idolatry was a big deal for our God. And nothing has changed to this day. It’s not surprising that idolatry is dealt with in the first of the Ten Commandments. In fact, whenever someone breaks any of the other nine Commandments he’s also broken this first one. It really is a big deal, and we all need to see it that way. So, the first thing that I need to do is to help you to see clearly why it is such a big deal, and I’m going to do that from two different, but related, perspectives.
To get at the first of these, let me ask you a question. Why are you? That is, why do you exist? Let me answer that in what might seem to be an inflammatory way. You exist to make God look good. Your purpose is to reveal God’s nature, character, personality and all the rest to everyone you meet. You exist to reveal how good God really is. The rest of His creation does this automatically. Listen. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.’ And we are called upon to join in. ‘Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name…’ This isn’t a matter of hype, just honesty. God really is good, and you exist to make that very basic fact known. Imagine a situation where you’ve enjoyed something, or a need has been met, or you’ve accomplished an important goal. What’s happened? God has done good to you. And you are to respond to that fact. You are to acknowledge God’s goodness first to God. But then, you are also to let others know how He has been so good to you. ‘Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name…’ This, pretty much, summarizes why you exist: to reveal God’s goodness as you enjoy that goodness.
A person falls into idolatry whenever that simple reason for living is ignored; when, instead of acknowledging God’s goodness before Him and others, that person gives the credit to someone or something else. He might thank his lucky stars, offer a special sacrifice to Baal or just give himself the credit. Regardless of how he does it, whenever someone fails to make God look good, he’s fallen into idolatry. You are here to make God look good because the fact of the matter is that He is good. And to refuse this purpose is to try to be what you were never designed to be. To refuse this purpose is to live a lie. This creation – and that includes all of you – is designed to point to the goodness of our God. Pursuing anything else just won’t work.
That’s one way to answer my question, ‘Why are you?’ Now, let’s take a look at another answer. God created you to enjoy a relationship of love with Him. He didn’t do this because He was in need, because He was lonely. He wasn’t. Remember, God is Father, Son and Spirit. They have been enjoying a relationship of love since forever. It’s just that God decided to include you in this relationship of love. Creating you was an act of pure grace.
One way He tried to explain this love relationship to you was by creating marriage. When God made Adam and Eve, He intended their marriage to be a picture of the relationship between God and His human creatures. That explains some things. For one thing, it explains why our God describes Himself as a jealous God. To some folk that seems wrong, beneath God, even just plain weird. But consider a husband and wife. If their marriage is going to succeed, both need to be jealous for that marriage. They need to forsake all others. A marriage of three will never work. It can’t. It was designed to work with two and only two. So, a proper jealousy for the marriage shows as each says, ‘I give myself, body and soul, to you and only to you. And I expect you to give yourself, body and soul, to me and only to me.’ Idolatry is trying to have a marriage of three. And the issue isn’t about behavior. It’s not about someone bowing down to some stone statue or the like. Marriage is first and foremost, a matter of the heart. ‘I give myself to you, body and soul.’ Getting a gift from your spouse is neat. But what good is it if you know that he or she has been pursuing another, a third? And this third doesn’t even have to be another person. It’s just some other to whom your spouse has given a portion of his or her heart. If idolatry is going to be avoided, then hearts will be given – completely given – to the one true God. Anything less is allowing some third into the relationship, some third who will steal away the affections. And so, you see why our God is a jealous God. He wants you all for Himself even as He wants to give all of Himself to you. A good marriage is just a faint picture of that.
So, do you see what’s going on? First, our Creator is good to us, so very good. He has made us to respond to that goodness, to acknowledge that to Him and to declare it to others. This is simply living according to what is true. And then, secondly, God – Father, Son and Spirit – has graciously created us to enter into an eternal love relationship and to enjoy that love forever. This is why we exist.
Now, all of that has been ruined because of sin. We should never cease to be amazed at the destructive power of sin. We refuse to fulfill our purpose of making God look as good as He is. Instead, we look for good to come from elsewhere. And because we look to our idols and thus fail to receive the good that we truly need, we learn the habits of worry and fear. We also learn to compensate by trying to fill in the gaps left by our idols. We try to be married to multiple others who have promised much and yet never really come through. No wonder we have a hard time really believing in the love of the true God. The sin of idolatry has taken something that could have been oh so beautiful and turned it into something that is not just ugly but repulsive. We are idolaters, all of us. We have broken the first and most important Commandment and breaking the other nine simply follows suit, over and over and over again.
Is it any wonder that the God whom we have spurned is so angry? We reject His purpose for our lives. We reject His invitation to love. We reject Him. We are creatures who have despised the one who has created us for His good purposes. And so, justice is coming. That’s when the Creator will deal with His wicked creatures. Justice is coming for all of us idolaters. And it would consume every last person except for one thing: Jesus has come first. He has come to rescue people who love their foolish and worthless idols instead of the God who is so good to them. He has come before final justice has come. And He will rescue all who admit the evil of their idolatry and the reasonableness of God’s justice. Those who are honest about their idolatry and then believe Jesus’ promise will be cared for. These will be forgiven their heinous sin. And that is a glorious truth. Jesus has provided forgiveness for awful idolaters like us.
But understand: even as Christians, we still fall into idolatry. But, thankfully, Jesus’ work isn’t limited to dealing with justice. It’s not just about forgiveness. It’s also about change. Jesus has also come to change idolaters like us into people who worship but one God. Jesus has sent His Spirit to renew us to our original purpose, that we may fulfill the reason for our existence. And one day, the Spirit will finish His work. We will enjoy the goodness and love of our God and make much of His kind goodness. We will make God look as good as He really is. And as we do that, we will enjoy the sense of peace and satisfaction and all the rest that fulfilling our role was intended to produce. Restored to this relationship of love, we will give ourselves fully to our God and to no other. This will be a marriage truly made in heaven because that’s where we’ll be once heaven is again restored to earth.
I mentioned earlier that there was one particularly interesting question at our Bible study. I was asked what I thought your idols are. The answer I gave was only so-so. But I’ve had some time to ponder that question. So, I’m going to expand upon what I said then. Let me start by saying that I don’t know what your particular idols are. But I do know that you have some. So, while I don’t know your idols, I do think that it’s important to give you some help so that you can identify them and then deal with them.
So, first a principle. We are affected by our culture. Anyone here normally wear a kilt or a sari? No. That’s because we live in
Let’s first look at knowledge. It was, after all, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What was Satan’s lure? ‘If you eat, you’ll know. And then, you’ll be like God.’ The lure was power, godlike power, the power of knowledge. Today, there is still the temptation of trying to gain power, control or even a sense of security by gaining knowledge. Why do your neighbors send their kids to college? If you were to ask them, what would they say? They’d talk about a better job, better options in the future and therefore a better life. What’s that but more power over what happens, more control, more security. Is going to college evil or is gaining knowledge evil? These things are not more evil than eating a piece of fruit. But remember, idolatry is first a matter of the heart before it becomes a way of behaving. So, the question of ‘Why?’ becomes important. Adam, Eve, why do you want to know? Is it to be able to acknowledge God’s goodness better? That would have been fine. But that wasn’t it. Our culture is very much given to the seeking the power of knowledge and making it into an idol. Control is an idol of our culture.
Then there’s this: ‘If you eat of this fruit, you’ll become wise.’ Now, wisdom is a skill that can be very helpful. But, again, it depends. Have you heard of someone being ‘street wise’? He knows how to how to use sin and crime to survive and succeed according to the rules of his community. Does that have anything to do with declaring the goodness of God? Those of higher social standing do the same kind of thing except it’s not about being street wise. It’s about someone being able to win and be seen as a success according to the rules of his community. It takes a kind of wisdom to achieve that. Again, success is no more sinful than knowledge or college or eating fruit. But it’s all about why you want it. Succeeding according to the rules of the community is an idol of our culture.
One more: Adam and Eve noticed that the tree was good for food. Obviously, food is a gift of God. But even this gift can be twisted. It’s one thing to enjoy a good meal and quite another to stuff your face. We live in a culture that is so very given to pleasure or better, it’s abuse. Another word for pleasure is comfort. We do not tolerate pain very well. And so, when there is a business downturn, for whatever reason, we look to our federal god to make sure we don’t feel any pain. When there is physical pain we expect some doctor to wave his wand and make it go away. When there is emotional pain there must be some pill that deadens it. Anything but pain. Comfort is an idol of our culture.
Behind all of these stands this suggestion by the tempter: ‘God isn’t going to come through for you. He doesn’t really love you. So, you’d better watch out for yourself.’ So, there’s always a Plan B – just in case – because you never know.
These are some of the idols of our culture. Whether any of these are yours is something that you and the Spirit will have to decide. But whether these or others, you have idols. That’s just a fact. But don’t despair. Jesus has come to free us from our idols. That also is a fact. And so, rejoice. One day all your idols will be gone. That’s Jesus’ promise.
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