IDOLS THAT GIVE NO HOPE Jeremiah 2:11-13, 26-28

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1 June 1, 2014 Providence IDOLS THAT GIVE NO HOPE Jeremiah 2:11-13, INTRODUCTION: Is idolatry a relic of the past or are people just as likely to engage in it today as in the days of the prophets? The answer is in what qualifies as idolatry, in biblical days or in modern days. Which is more idolatrous? A Hindu priest offering sacrifices to enjoy the favor of a statue of Shiva or a basketball coach wearing the same shirt and tie to help his team win through the power of superstition? Is having a Buddhist shrine in your house more idolatrous than having a trophy case for your accomplishments (actual trophies or diplomas or photos, etc.)? Since the prophets condemned idolatry in all its forms, and since the apostles also included it in their lists of things that characterize those who are excluded from the kingdom of heaven, we need to take seriously the question of whether we indulge ourselves with idols in our lives today. Since the Ten Commandments begins with prohibitions against having any other gods, some have noted that all the commandments that follow after come as a result of having violated the first ones we commit adultery because sex has become a god from which we seek satisfaction we steal and covet because gaining worldly possessions makes us feel better about ourselves. THESIS: The human heart drifts constantly from the One True God and manufactures false gods and idols which hold our devotion more than any we are inclined to give to Him. Today, let s confront our idols and replace them with God Almighty through His Son, Jesus Christ. I. GOD AND GOD ALONE --The first two of the Ten Commandments establish the basic foundation for all that the Prophets had to say, all that the Apostles taught on the subject and all the examples throughout Scripture of any people who rejected a premise upon which there can be no compromise: 1. You shall have no other gods before Me. 2. You shall not make for yourself an idol you shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God [Ex 20:3-5; Deut 5:7-9] --As the only God who is, the Lord God has no patience with His creatures manufacturing their own versions of deity, making gods in the image of created things. ILLUS. Whether the idol is one made by hands, imagined in our minds or indulged by our hearts, God hates idolatry and will never share His glory with anything or anyone. II. GOD AND HIS PREPOSTEROUS COMPETITORS --Trying to find a word to describe the gods adopted by the human race proves to be very difficult they cannot be said to compare to God contend against God or even compete as a legitimate alternative to God. A. HAND-MADE SCULPTURES CANNOT BE GOD Hab. 2:18-19 What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. 19 Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, Awake! To a dumb stone, Arise! And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it. ILLUS. Will the work of our hands be our hope? Will what we have created and carry about prove to be the answer to the life we long to live?

2 2 Is it too much of a stretch to suggest that we can recognize just such a tendency in our addiction to things that rule over us even when they prove to endanger us instead of improve our lives. Smart phones are fantastic tools, when used in moderation and for specific tasks. But when they control us, and we obsess about keeping our lives on a tight leash, available to everyone all the time incapable of leaving our s alone, our texts unanswered, our words with friends game untouched for a while. Computers that command most of our waking hours, either laboring at work and home, or just staring at useless trivia and thinking that we are enhancing our lives! Smart TVs and instant access to all that entertains instant access to all the music we could ever desire and on we could go! Have such things replaced stones and pieces of wood as the focus of our lives? Are we more dependent upon them than the ancients ever were on their household, home-made idols and gods? --Even though we think that we are too advanced to idolize objects, the truth is that we are no better than the ones who first read the words of Isaiah. ILLUS. How foolish to think that the same wood used for a fire then for a piece of furniture then for some other common purpose could suddenly be shaped into a graven image and become a powerful god! Isaiah 44:19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood? Psa. 115:4-8 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. 7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. 8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. B. HOME-MADE BELIEFS CANNOT REPLACE GOD --Most people from contemporary culture would laugh at the thought of worshiping and living for a little idol made by hand. --But they would seldom consider that their own beliefs have been constructed in their minds and hearts as idols just as surely as craftsmen shaped little sculptures and invested them with power and worth. ILLUS. A. W. Tozer once wrote, The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. Whether the unworthy thoughts are unbiblical characterizations of God or if they depart from God entirely and substitute vain superstitions they are still idolatry! --Any belief about a god that originates in your own thoughts and imagination, drawn from your own musings and speculations, is nothing more than idolatry it is creating a god, even if just in your mind, as a substitute for the One True God revealed in Christ and His Word. --Even those who protest loudly that they don t even believe in God have developed a stable of thoroughbred idols, little gods of mistaken trust and belief, upon which they build their lives. III. GOD AND OUR MISDIRECTED AFFECTIONS --The problem most modern Christians face is that we dismiss as foolish those who would worship figurines and statues and be suspicious of the theology of anyone who would re-form the God of the Bible into an unrecognizable mental idolatrous image.

3 3 --What we are not so adept at doing is recognizing all the misplaced affections and trusts of our own hearts we cannot see how certainly we have become our own enemies by our tendency to make our own idols. ILLUS. Tim Keller wrote, The human heart is indeed a factory that mass-produces idols. (Counterfeit Gods, p. 123) The human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them. (p. 13) A. MAKE OURSELVES OUT TO BE GODS --One of the most frequent idols we embrace is not outward, but an inward adoration and trust of ourselves as all we need and what we love most. ILLUS. With the death of poet Maya Angelou this week, the nation mourns a woman of great gifts and insights. However, in one of her Tweets, she makes the case for the prophets, that we harbor in our own hearts the foolish notion that deity is found within us. Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God. (May 23, 2014) If I am listening only to myself, then I fall into the trap of thinking that what I hear is indeed the voice of a god me! The sentiment permeates our culture as the highest authority in the lives of many is their own individuality. William Ernest Henley, British poet ( ), wrote the poem Invictus, required to be memorized in schools all over the English-speaking world (first, last verses): Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul It matters not how strait the gate How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. --Like the idolatrous elders of Israel, we have retreated from God into the darkened halls of our own imagined gods, visualizing our own successes by our own powers and placing our hope in our own futures according to our own determination and will! Ezek. 8:12 Then he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures [ carved images, or shrine of his idol ]? For they say, The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land. B. BOAST OF OUR OPEN-MINDED ACCEPTANCE OF ANY GODS. --The universal cry of the age in which we live is that we all be open-minded willing to believe that in the realm of faith, there are many legitimate alternatives. --The only faith-based premise that is approved by the culture is that everyone may be right and nobody should be considered wrong. --The prophets had a name for that premise idolatry! --The idea that all gods should be accepted and all beliefs should be affirmed has redefined the meaning of the word tolerate, changing it from its original intent neither prohibiting, hindering, or preventing beliefs or practices contrary to your own to a new meaning suggesting that all beliefs and practices must be embraced as equal and valid.

4 4 --That has become a matter of fanatical zeal and any faith that suggests otherwise is declared to be hateful, intolerant and narrow-minded. --Advocates of this new openness are far more demanding and loyal to their religion of universal sameness as any who ever stood firmly for their faith in the One True God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Jer. 2:11-13 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. 12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. ILLUS. I recently had a conversation with a couple who wanted prayer for some hard times they were experiencing. When I asked about their faith background, they made it clear that they were not Christians they practiced another religion. But then, to cover all the bases, they quickly affirmed that they think Jesus is great too, and praying for them in His name would be totally acceptable! So, yes, I did pray for them in the matchless name of Jesus, and asked that He would open their eyes to see that beyond Him there is no other and besides Him there is no other! You see, being open to other possibilities when He Himself has said there are none is not to be open it is to be defiant and willful! It is to become an idolater who worships any gods other than the Lord our God. It is to reject the One True God! C. GIVE AWAY OUR BEST PASSIONS AND AFFECTIONS TO FALSE GODS --What gets you excited and ignites your passions? --Whatever does that for you is a good place to start when you ask God to show you if there are any idols in your life! ILLUS. Do you get as passionate about worshiping and serving and knowing God, as you do about your favorite sports teams or sports activity? your kids or grandkids? the extra-curricular achievements of your kids your latest purchase (car, electronics, clothes, home) your promotion and raise at work your successful investments your obsession with the rich and famous, the stars To listen to the average conversation of any one of us would imply that nearly everything matters more to us than worshiping, serving and knowing God! We never miss a home game, never leave home without pictures of those we love, never would think of going to work unprepared but can be easily satisfied with the bare-bones when it comes to the things of God! Anything that gets more, is loved more, excites more, and consumes more of our energy and thoughts than the Lord is nothing less than idolatry! D. FALL PREY TO WORSHIP IDOLS OF THE HEART --For most followers of Christ, the danger of either fashioning a graven image as an idol, or chasing after false gods from other religions seems to be a fairly remote possibility. --But that in no way diminishes the threat of developing a host of idols in our hearts after all, the human heart is capable of being quite an idol factory.

5 5 1John 2:16 For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world. --Flesh becomes our idol (sensuality, sexuality, gluttony, sleep, body conditioning, etc.); eyes fixed on the world s affluence (houses, jobs, investments, gadgets and toys, etc.); hearts set on achivement (prestige, position, power, reputation, fame, etc.) 1 John 5:21 guard yourselves from idols. TIM KELLER as noted already, offers an insightful study of idolatry in its modern forms. As an example of the insidious and subtle ways idols are formed in our hearts, Keller highlights several major categories common to us all: romanticized love money and wealth successful careers power and glory patriotism individualized freedom physical beauty and so on. An idol is something that we look to for things only God can give The reason we sin in other areas of our lives is that we give in to the idolatrous notion that there is something you feel you must have to be happy, something that is more important to your heart than God himself more important and valuable to our hearts than the grace and favor of God. CONCLUSION: So how can you identify the idols you have gathered in your own heart? Ask the Lord to search your heart with you and show you what He has seen, what He wants to change in you. KELLER again 1. Look at your imagination, the things you daydream about, the things your mind drifts toward when at ease. 2. Look at how you spend your money and time and you will see patterns that reveal what you love most. 3. Look for what Keller calls your functional Savior, the god who is master of your emotions when things go wrong what you get angry or despondent about when you don t get it exposes idols that matter more to you than God Himself. David Powlison Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart s functional trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and delight? Idolatry is just as real today as in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel s day. And it is just as deadly to your relationship with the Lord as it has ever been! What are you idols? Will you leave them behind and turn to the only True God will you abandon your broken cisterns which can hold no water and embrace by faith the fountain of living waters who alone can give satisfaction and joy to your soul? He is the Lord and will not share His glory with another. Trust in Him and Him alone as you seek Him with all your heart. Come to Him in the name of Jesus Christ His Son and find rest and peace for your soul! June 2, 2014 Providence Baptist Church David Horner, 2014 Sermon outlines are copyrighted in the event of future publication. They may be used for preaching and teaching purposes but may not be published or sold.