GALATIANS 5:20a | SINS OF IDOLATRY
Notes
Transcript
TEXT: GALATIANS 5:20a | SINS OF IDOLATRY
TEXT: GALATIANS 5:20a | SINS OF IDOLATRY
INTRO
INTRO
EXPLANATION: Last time we found ourselves in Galatians 5, we found ourselves dealing with the sins of immorality.
EXPLANATION: Last time we found ourselves in Galatians 5, we found ourselves dealing with the sins of immorality.
Adultery, Fornication, Uncleanness, and Lasciviousness.
To summarize those sins, they are all sensual sins that are participated in outside of the God ordained bounds of marriage.
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
God makes clear that physical intimacy is to be confined to the bounds of marriage.
The world in Paul’s day and ours as well is trying to corrupt the beautiful marriage relationship of a husband and a wife, and to turn it into nothing more than self gratifying indecency.
And what Paul is telling these Galatian believers here in chapter 5 is “stay away from these things!”
These are outward actions of the flesh that are sure to destroy your life and the lives that these things touch.
Don’t forget what Jesus said in John 10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
These works of the flesh are guaranteed to lead to destruction!
And Paul is bringing a few of these works of the flesh to our attention to help keep us from ended up with a destroyed life.
APPLICATION: How sad it is they we could go through the room this morning and I’m confident every person here could tell a story of a life that was destroyed by one of these works of the flesh mentioned in these verses.
APPLICATION: How sad it is they we could go through the room this morning and I’m confident every person here could tell a story of a life that was destroyed by one of these works of the flesh mentioned in these verses.
How does it happen?
How do people who were once in church with a happy life and a happy family and yet now it’s all been destroyed get to that place?
It’s because they have believed the lie that they can handle it.
You see it isn’t that they just woke up one day and chose to throw everything away.
No, it was a small decision here or there that they thought they could handle it and get away with it.
Friend, don’t play that game!
Learn the lessons from these verses that Paul points to and choose to crucify your flesh like Paul says and deal with the places where you find yourself walking in your flesh!
EXPLANATION: As we come to v.20, Paul once again is diving into some more works of the flesh that we must be careful about and strive to avoid.
EXPLANATION: As we come to v.20, Paul once again is diving into some more works of the flesh that we must be careful about and strive to avoid.
These are works that at the heart ask the question, “who is in control.”
This week we are focusing on the first two works that we find in v.20
I. THE SINS OF SUBMISSION
I. THE SINS OF SUBMISSION
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
ILLUSTRATION: Recently I was talking with Caleb and Alyssa about Butte, and someone made mention of the statue up on the mountain.
ILLUSTRATION: Recently I was talking with Caleb and Alyssa about Butte, and someone made mention of the statue up on the mountain.
And without missing a beat, Caleb responded, “Oh you mean Lot’s wife?”
EXPLANATION: The first word Paul mentions in v.17 is the word “Idolatry”
EXPLANATION: The first word Paul mentions in v.17 is the word “Idolatry”
At the time when Paul penned that word, idolatry, there were undoubtedly statues that he could point them to.
When Paul was in Athens Greece in Acts 17, he mentions seeing all the statues to various gods.
People that would bow themselves to those idols
Pagan practices performed for those idols.
They were submitting themselves to the control of those idols.
The second word that Paul uses here is the word “Witchcraft”
There is no question that there is an unseen spiritual battle that is taking place all around us.
Paul writes about this very thing in Ephesians 6:10-12
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Just beyond the realm of what our eyes can see is the spiritual world in which very real battles are taking place.
Battles for the souls of man
Battles for the hearts of teenagers
Battles for the passions of the Christian.
We are walking through doctrines in our small groups and when we get to the study of angels in a few weeks we will delve deeper into this spiritual world.
But what we know is that while the angels of God are battling for the purposes of God, there is a very real devil and his demons battling against all things godly.
Over in Ephesians 2:2 Paul writes
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
For a time, Satan has been given the ability to move to and fro throughout the earth seeking to blind this world to the gospel and to influence people to stand against God!
And when we think of Satan moving about seeking to make people choose to do things that oppose God, Hollywood has let you to believe that Satan is just this little man in a red suit with a pitch fork and a tail that sits on your shoulder.
And he whispers into your ear to do things you shouldn’t, and that is the way he influences people.
But if that were the case, wouldn’t Christians just choose to brush the old deceiver off of their shoulder?
You see idolatry and witchcraft are more similar than they initially appear.
Idolatry implies submitting to someone other than God.
But the Greek word for “witchcraft” here in v.20 may shed additional light on things for us: “Pharmakeia”
It’s where we get our English word, “Pharmacy”
You see the people in Paul’s day were submitting themselves to the false God’s in their life and to help them in their deviance, they used “witchcraft” or “Pharmakeia”
They used substances… drugs as part of their submission and worship to their false Gods.
It literally had the idea of “poisoning oneself”
And it doesn’t take much searching through the bible or through historical accounts to find that one of the primary forms of “worship” to these false deities, was to sacrifice the most vulnerable.
In John Noonan’s book “An Almost Absolute Value in History”, he wrote: “Pharmakeia was a common term for abortion-inducing drugs, borne out by its recurrence in other early Christian writings.”
They were using drugs to kill the precious life contained within the womb in an act of ritualistic pagan worship.
And we find that oftentimes, the young lives weren’t protected outside of the womb either.
ILLUSTRATION: In the OT, one of the evil kings that came to power was Manasseh.
ILLUSTRATION: In the OT, one of the evil kings that came to power was Manasseh.
But did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
Also he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.
And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
The statues for Baal were made and worshipped and submitted to.
And in one of the most disgusting acts of pagan worship, they sacrificed their children to their idols.
APPLICATION: Friend, I want to give a careful but clear warning today, because idolatry and witchcraft are rampaging in our world.
APPLICATION: Friend, I want to give a careful but clear warning today, because idolatry and witchcraft are rampaging in our world.
The devil and his wickedness desires to control your life and for so many they are willingly submitting to the god’s of this world.
You see friend, idols and witchcraft aren’t just some statue or a Ouija board.
The devil wants to get an in into your life through any means necessary.
He’s just as interested in destroying your children today as he was back in the reign of Manasseh.
And he will do it through the god’s you allow in your life and the drugs you choose to swallow.
Yes, for some, that is talking about the use of substances that place you out of the control of God and under the control or something else.
And if that is your battle today, I want you to know their is hope in Christ, and I’m going to talk more about that in a moment.
But for others, it isn’t a substance you are placing into your body that is your god… most would recognize that as something they shouldn’t be controlled by.
For many Christians it is the idols we have made that have become our “drug” of choice.
The idols that we feel comfortable excusing.
Like what we watch on TV
For so many Americans, the TV has become a way to numb themselves from the realities of life.
The average American spends 2 hours and 48 minutes per day watching tv or playing video games.
That equates to a little over 42 days of watching tv out of every year.
Literally about a month and 11-12 days.
And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the actual things that people watch that corrupt the hearts and minds.
But we excuse it… because it’s our “drug of choice”
Or what about the music that we listen to
I’ve heard it said before, it doesn’t matter.
Did you know that before Satan fell from heaven, when he was one of the archangels of God, his body was literally composed of music instruments.
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
His body was literally made of instruments.
I think Satan knows a thing or two about the power of music.
And yet so many say, “Music doesn’t affect me”
Because it’s our “drug of choice”
We feel comfortable excusing the idol of allowing ourselves to be our God.
This is at the heart of it all.
ILLUSTRATION: Back over in 1 Samuel you find the life of the first king of Israel, Saul.
ILLUSTRATION: Back over in 1 Samuel you find the life of the first king of Israel, Saul.
He was a man that stood head and shoulders above everyone else.
He was a naturally born leader!
And God used him to lead Israel for a time, but then came the battle against the Amalekites.
And God had commanded him to utterly destroy them and all of their stuff.
In the midst of the battle, Saul makes a life altering decision, 1 Samuel 15:9
But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
Saul determined that he knew what was best… he knew better than God.
I mean he probably wouldn’t have said it, but his decision made it clear who it was that he was concerned with pleasing.
APPLICATION: You would never say it… but for so many, it is clear who they are actually concerned with pleasing.
APPLICATION: You would never say it… but for so many, it is clear who they are actually concerned with pleasing.
We make ourselves and our comfort and our enjoyment, our God!
That doesn’t mean you have to sell everything and go live under a bridge to be right with God.
No, the key is understanding that your joy and your contentment will only be found in the Lord and pleasing Him, not in living for yourself!
It can be so easy to make good things, “god” things” and to live for the idols we have created in our lives:
Whether that be a job.
Our kids
Our spouse
You can make all kinds of excuses for your drug of choice that you are allowing to control your life… but at some point we have to get honest with ourselves and with God!
Because when we choose our way and plans over God’s, it’s nothing short of rebellion.
And do you remember what God told Saul about his choice to refuse to obey and let God be God?
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.
So how do we make sure we aren’t falling into the trap of the sins of submission?
II. THE DECISION TO SURRENDER
II. THE DECISION TO SURRENDER
EXPLANATION: Friend, the reality is we are all going to submit to someone of something… but can encourage you that God makes the very best master!
EXPLANATION: Friend, the reality is we are all going to submit to someone of something… but can encourage you that God makes the very best master!
Paul knew what it meant to put people into prison.
That is what he was doing when he first comes on the scene in the book of Acts.
But what Paul didn’t realize was he was a slave to his pharisaical beliefs.
It wasn’t until Paul stopped worshipping himself and let go of the drug of his pride, that Paul found how good a Master God is!
Paul would go on to describe himself in Ephesians 3:1
For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
He did it again in Philemon 1:1
Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,
yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Paul knew that he had to make the decision to either serve the gods of this world or he could serve the God of Creation!
And so Paul willingly submitted himself to God!
APPLICATION: Friend can I encourage you today, forsake the idols of this world… forsake the witchcraft and drugs seeking to destroy your life… and choose to surrender to God!
APPLICATION: Friend can I encourage you today, forsake the idols of this world… forsake the witchcraft and drugs seeking to destroy your life… and choose to surrender to God!
So many are holding tightly to the idols and the drugs of this world!
Can I remind you have a verse Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth?
Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
Friend, run from the gods of this world that desire to keep you in bondage as Paul has discussed throughout this book of Galatians, and run to the only One true God Who can bring you fulfillment.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
If this morning you can see these works of the flesh present in your life, wont you do as Paul said in Galatians 5:24
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Friend, nail those things to the cross, and choose to surrender to Christ!
ILLUSTRATION: Tressa and I were talking to a sweet older Christian lady from Russia some time ago.
ILLUSTRATION: Tressa and I were talking to a sweet older Christian lady from Russia some time ago.
Somehow the discussion of the statue in Butte came up and she gave her opinion on the subject…
She said, “Why hasn’t someone gone and blown it up?”
At that moment we began to question if we should be in that conversation.
APPLICATION: You know, when it comes to the idols and the witchcraft in our life, it’s real simple what you need to do with it…
APPLICATION: You know, when it comes to the idols and the witchcraft in our life, it’s real simple what you need to do with it…
Just blow it up… destroy it in your life!
And choose today to surrender to a loving God, and decide today to walk in His Spirit!