Key Text: 1 John 5:13-21
Story is told from ancient India, about four royal brothers who each decided to master a special ability. Time passed and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned the first said I have mastered the science by which I can take a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it.
The second said I know how to grow the creature’s skin and hair, if there is flesh on its bones. The third said ‘I know how to create its limbs’. And the fourth said ‘I know how to give life to that creature.’
The brothers then went into the jungle to find a bone so that they could demonstrate their specialities. As fate would have it, the bone that they found was a Lion’s. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs and the fourth gave the Lion life.
Shaking its mane, the ferocious beast rose up and jumped on his creators. He killed them all and then vanished contentedly into the jungle.
The point is that: We too have the capacity to create what can devour us.
Possession of things can turn and destroy us and goals and dreams can consume us, unless we first seek God’s kingdom and righteousness.vbTo a fulfilled life vision and hope are indispensable but if we are not careful, even they can turn against us.
Idolatry is a sin against God, it’s an abandonment of Him, an assault on Him, a denial of His goodness. Idolatry is evil because it says to God, ‘You are not worthy you are not sufficient.’
Idolatry is something we’ve all actively participated in. And it’s not because we lack something from God. We have to guard our hearts against hopes and desires, that are not from God.
• What do we think about when nothing else demands our attention? Where do we spend most of our money? What, if we lost it, would it make life feel worthless? What, if we gained it, would make life feel complete? Any answer not named Jesus is an idol, no matter how good of a thing it is and often it will be a very good thing.
Augustine 4th century philosopher and theologian said, ‘Our hearts are restless, until they find rest in God.’ Idols dominate our lives but they never satisfy.
One of the devil’s tricks is to get us to dream our plans instead of God’s purposes, so that we become frustrated and discouraged when they are unfulfilled. Remember God has no obligation to fulfil a cheque that He didn’t write.
It’s great to dream big dreams and plans but make sure God is in them, otherwise disappointment and disillusionment may devour us and a loss of expectation consume us. God created every human with a built-in worship centre, called the heart. And that’s a good thing because when we worship the right object, God through Jesus, our hearts come alive.
Ephesians 2:4-5 ‘But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.’ But our problem is that we often don’t worship the right thing. We should worship God but instead, we worship idols. Idols aren’t only little statues people bow down to or something segregated to a certain historical period or a particular group of people.
• An idol is anything more important to us than God. It can be as obvious as sexual perversion or the love of money. But more often, an idol is a good thing that turns into an ultimate thing, such as family, career or our looks.
Idolatry is both internal and external, personal and communal. An idol is anything that captures your heart more than Jesus and asks of you what only God rightly deserves.
On the day of Pentecost Peter, quoting the prophet Joel Acts 2:17 doesn’t say that the old men will have dreams but instead they will ‘dream dreams’. In other words they have to receive the dream from God first and then they dream it.
Our desires must be birthed out of a love for God and putting Him first, otherwise we may be creating our own idol. If we create it, it has the potential to devour us, unless we guard our hearts.
Illustration: Johan Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest composers of all time, yet his gift of music never became an idol to him. He said ‘All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul’s refreshment.’ He headed his compositions J.J – Jesus Juva which means ‘Jesus help me.’ He ended them S.D.G. Soli Dei Gratia which means ‘To God alone the Praise.’
What Is An idol?
An idol is something whether material or mental, a carving of our hands or concept in our heads which grows larger in our heart and God gets smaller, so eventually it becomes bigger than God.
An idol is anything we put before or beside God.
Anything that takes the place of God.
The first two Commandments God gave to Moses was that there must be no images or gods above or alongside Him. Yet even as he was saying this to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Israelites in the camp below were busy making a Golden calf like the idols they had seen in Egypt to bow down and worship. Human depravity and God’s judgement were the result of their sin and so began the long battle for the hearts of God’s people and the sin of idolatry. When we look in the O.T. idolatry is the sin that God condemns more often than any other.
The prophets made it clear that the actual images were lifeless carvings but operating through them were demonic forces. This is part of the deception that idolatry brings. We think we have control over what we have made but in reality we discover like the four brothers, that there are dark powers we unleash which end up devouring or ruling over us.
Psalm 106:36-39 They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts and played the whore in their deeds.
In the N.T Paul warns the church at Corinth, that demons work through idols and images. When we bow down before them, we are surrendering and opening ourselves to the evil powers behind them: we are giving those powers permission to operate in our lives.
1 Corinthians 10:18-21 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
God is to be worshipped not just as the supreme one but as the only one. Sacrificing freedoms for promises of safety and security is central to the worship of all false gods. And like all false gods, the sacrifices will never be enough.
The devil’s best plan is not to try and get us to deny or abandon God because he knows he can never successfully do it for any length of time. Instead he seduces people by getting them to acknowledge other gods and place them alongside Yahweh (Lord Almighty) and so polluting our hearts. The prophets called the spiritual adultery.
Idols In The Heart
Before an idol is created with the hand, it is carved in the heart.
Idolatry is a big deal. But Jesus is a bigger deal. Idols don’t love us but Jesus does. He let God crush Him so that when He crushes our idols, He doesn’t have to crush us along with them. So, what is our next step? Here’s the apostle John’s answer, 1 John 1:7: ‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.’
Our way out of idolatry and into the fullness of Christ is actually quite simple. All we need do is confess, and Jesus will replace our idols with Himself.
But it will not come without cost: we will have to give up building our lives on things other than Jesus and that will hurt. But if we want freedom, we’re going to have to admit to ourselves, to God and to others who we really are.
Is the Saviour of the world enough for you?Jesus offers freedom right now! Whatever we are worshiping that is killing us, can be replaced by the Giver of Life this very moment.
Before an idol is created with the hand, it is carved in the heart, so what idols are in or being formed in the heart?
Church, keep ourselves from idols. Run to Christ instead.
1 John 5:20-21 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.