Respectable Sins: Idolatry
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INTRODUCTION
We come to our final lesson in our series on ‘Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins that we Tolerate.’ My prayer is that these lessons have been helpful to you. Obviously, there could have been many other sins that we could have talked about… I would be happy to hear what sins would have been on your list that I did not cover… I will be accumulating a list so I can preach another series like this one in the future…
Today’s lesson is the much tolerated sin of idolatry… This is one that you hardly ever hear confessed among Christians or hear churches disciplining members over, but it is one that is present, if I may dare to even say, in EVERY congregation of the Lord’s people…
DEFINING IDOLATRY
Let’s for a moment define what we are talking about. Plainly stated, idolatry is giving worship, service, and devotion to any created thing instead of God. It is making something other than Him our Master… puts it this way:
“Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures… 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever” (, ).
This passage defines it closely to the definition I just gave. Paul says that they exchanged God and His truth; for something else that is of His creation. And the reason why is given in this passage also. It is because man in His pride loves his sin. He suppresses the truth in unrighteousness and chooses to serve and worship himself and his desires. They are loving the things that God has created for them and blessed them with in place of the Lord. They are loving themselves instead of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Our Lord tells us in the sermon of the mount that we cannot serve more than one Master. God must have our allegiance; no competitors. If He does, we are guilty of idolatry. We cannot be double-minded. We cannot try to straddle the fence. God must have our full allegiance if we are going to be His covenant people.
Whenever we think about the sin of idolatry, we may think that we are ok because we have an incorrect picture of what this sin is in our minds. We may think to ourselves, “I am ok. I do not bow to the gods of other religions. I don’t worship Baal and Ashtoreth as the Israelites often did…” I don’t do what God speaks of many idolaters in … This passage speaks of those who plan a tree, then once it is grown, cut it down, make some of it into firewood to warm themselves, and then make the other part of the tree into an idol that they fall down and worship and plead with for deliverance… We look at this and may say, “This is clearly ridiculous and I would never do such a thing.” We are way too sophisticated to bow down to a piece of wood, right? It may be the case that you may not make an idol with your own hands to worship, but this does not mean that you have never been guilty of violating this passage. It not only deals with an action, but also the thinking that is behind idolatry. You may, as many do today, form a God that is not the true God, not with your hands, but with your mind. This is a much more subtle form of idolatry that happens a lot today in our post-modern world. Everyone wants a god, if one exists of course, to be comfortable for them and to not stop them from doing anything they want to do. We hear phrases like:
· “My Jesus is a God of love. He would not condemn anyone.”
· “My Jesus did not teach against things like divorce or homosexuality. He wants those people to be happy and live/love whomever they want”
My answer to all of these is, “You are right. Your Jesus would not do these things. He would not condemn anyone and won’t stop us from being happy, however we may define happiness. He won’t do these things. Do you know why? Because your Jesus does not exist. He is a figment of your imagination; a god you have created (which is not the Biblical God), so you can believe and do what you want. My brothers and sisters, so many people believe in the god I have described here, and when they do, they are believing a lie. They have replaced the true God for a God they have molded in their own minds. They may not mold a god out of metal or wood, but it is another God nonetheless. Paul told the Corinthians about the danger of worshipping a different Jesus or a different Spirit than the Jesus and Spirit they were taught about… This happens often in our culture today, and we need to be aware of it!
But this is not the only way we can commit idolatry today… There are many areas of our lives in which we can give too much love and devotion to the things of this life. Here is one such example:
VIDEO ON MODERN IDOLATRY… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPil9Br-5lE
Whether it is a football team, a basketball team, a baseball team… or any other team (including teams our children are on), this video sure does show the kind of devotion that we can put into being a fan of their favorite sports teams. A fan… I don’t like this word at all… It is a shorter version of another word: a fanatic; which is defined as one who is completely devoted; usually in irrational ways, to a certain person or cause. How devoted are to your favorite sports teams or sports figures? I remember the time before I became a Christian. So much of my life was spent watching football and other sports. I would get so into the games, so frustrated, angry, and even depressed when things did not go the way I wanted them to. Whole days and even whole weekends would be spent in front of TVs at bars and at home making sure I caught every moment. Of course, when I became a Christian, the places where I watched the games changed, and I didn’t get as angry when my teams were not doing well, but it still did affect me. I had to almost completely stop watching sports because of the kind of hold it had on my heart. Probably one of the only times I sit down and watch a whole game is when I am get together with brethren to do so.
This is just ONE of many examples of modern idolatry… Almost any form of modern entertainment can be idolized… Our work, our money and possessions, education, our nation (the constitution and bill of rights), politics, addictions, people and relationships… etc, etc… We can devote ourselves to almost anything in this life… We may think it is ridiculous that someone would cut up a tree and worship part of it as “god”, but we are not too much different when we fall into idolatry…
WHAT GOD THINKS ABOUT IDOLATRY
God tells us what He thinks about idolatry in . He tells us that idolatry makes Him jealous, and that it will lead to His judgment of those who are guilty of it. Whenever we think of jealousy, it often has a negative connotation. It has overtones of selfishness, suspicion, and distrust, and resentment towards others. We view jealousy as a horrible trait and we hate it. Then we read that God is jealous and think, “A jealous God? How can a God who is holy, just, loving, gracious, merciful, and long-suffering possibly be jealous?” I believe there is a side to jealousy that we miss when we think of it this way. There is also a positive way to look at jealousy. In reference to God, it is a rightful anger that is associated with an intense zeal or fervor over what is precious to Him. In fact, many times in the Old and New Testaments, the word ‘jealous’ is instead translated as ‘zealous’. Being jealous and being zealous are essentially the same thing in the Bible. God is zealous—eager about protecting what is precious to Him; what is rightfully His.
The church is referred to as the bride of Christ. No man wants to share his wife with another man, and is rightfully jealous when he has a competitor, The same is true with God. He expects exclusive devotion from those that are His. When His people go after other lovers, that is, when they commit idolatry, they are making Him jealous. says:
“For they provoked Him with their high places, and aroused His jealousy with their graven images.”
This is also shown to us in the book of Hosea, where God uses the relationship of Hosea and Gomer as an illustration of the unfaithfulness of Israel, His bride. She committed harlotry in loving other men instead of Hosea just as Israel played the harlot in chasing after other Gods and giving them credit for everything that God had blessed them with. They committed adultery against God, of which God was rightfully Jealous…
That same idea is present in the New Testament. After a discussion of idolatry in the church of Corinth, Paul asks, “Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?” (). Let us not think that we, as members of the bride of Christ, His church, that we cannot commit spiritual adultery against our Lord. When we become a Christian, we are told by Paul that “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (). This is serious stuff! If we commit idolatry, we, who are one Spirit with Christ, are joining ourselves to another as our husband! We do this with all sin, but especially so with idolatry. We commit adultery against the Lord! We take the things that He has given us as blessings, things of this creation, and cheat on Him with them…
EXAMINE OURSELVES
This is obviously a big deal, and this is why we need to make sure we honestly examine our hearts!
“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” ()
We need regular spiritual checkups. Just because we are being faithful to God now does not mean will be faithful to Him next week or next month. Idolatry can enter our lives quickly. We need to keep on asking ourselves some important questions in regards to our relationship with God:
· What is it that gives my life meaning, purpose, and fulfillment?
· What would I not give up to serve the Lord?
· What am I most passionate about (what consumes my time, energy and affections)?
· What is it that I let displace God’s rightful place in my life?
· Are there sins (barriers to my relationship with God) that I need to confess to Him and repent of?
These are some important questions that we need to answer honestly. They will show us whether or not we have an idol (or many idols) in our lives that we may need to take radical measures to rid ourselves of. This too often is a sin that we play around with, thinking that we will not fall into it. We need to learn to do what Paul speaks of in : “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”