Love God, not Idols

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Call To Worship

Say: Let us now begin to worship the Father the Son, the Holy Spirit, Our Call to worship Comes to us from Reading

John 12:12–13 ESV

12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

Introduction

Charles Spurgeon tells this story

300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon Confiscated Berries (Job 1:21)

A child came home from the common with her lap full of brightly shining berries. She seemed very pleased with what she had found, but her father looked frightened when he saw what she had and anxiously asked her, “Have you eaten any of those berries?”

“No, father,” replied the child, to his great relief.

Then he said to her, “Come with me into the garden,” and there he dug a hole, put the berries in, stamped on them, and crushed them, and then covered them with earth.

All this while, the little one thought, “How unkind father is to take away these things that pleased me so much!” But she understood the reason for it when he told her that the berries were so poisonous that if she had eaten even one of them, she would in all probability have died in consequence.

In like manner, sometimes, our comforts turn to poison, especially when we begin to make idols of them. It is kind on the part of God to stamp on them, and put them away from us, so that no mischief may come to our souls

We are going to look at our older brother Jesus as he stomps out the idols and teaches how to truly love the father and so for th next few weeks we are going to look at this section of scripture.

Text

Mark 12:28–34 ESV

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Observations/Background

Holy Week Jesus in his prophetic office is showing only what God can know. He is agreeing with Moses more and applyfying the point.

A prophet knows what God is and knows the truth about God that isn’t knowable to men outside of his divine revelation

We see as we saw last week the another central point of our faith We see the Shema

Mark 12:29 ESV

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Deuteronomy (Mentor Expository Commentary | MEC) Chapter 18: The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:3–9)

In Hebrew it reads: Sh’ma Yis’ra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad. That is the basis of true godliness; the gate to heaven. It is known in English by the Hebrew word shema meaning ‘hear’ or ‘listen.’

the shema is tied to the love of god -

Hear only the Lord your God. This For us Christian is ties to confessing JEsus as Lord. You must hear only God, the Triune God.

Listen to him alone.

This leads us to when you fail to hear God alone which is idoltry.

When Jesus explains the Shema the scribes would have known right away.

So We are going to exaime Idoltry

this is a point about idolatry. When you have idols you can’t love God and others

The Bible warns us repetecdley to not embrace idols

Exodus 20:4–6 ESV

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

1 John 5:21 ESV

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

This theme is constant throughout scripture.

It is how Jesus starts his answer here with the scribes, the learned men who just saw jesus handle the Sadduescees.

When you read Jesus say Mark 12:29

Mark 12:29 ESV

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

He is giving God alone the worship and none other. We are to listen to Jesus. Christ the Christian Israel is calling us to hear our God, our One God.

The issue is that we have given our ears, our bodies, our time, talent and treasure over to idols.

Let;’s examine when you don’t love God alone

what is idolatry today

So what us idoltry? Let me tell you what it isn’t.

It’s not loving your family, it’s not always your work, it’s most likely not your sports team.

Let me define it. When you make a created thing into a god-thing.

Romans 1:21–23 ESV

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

You can do this with many things.

The Bible gives us a clues as to how bad idolatry is

The Bible relates idolatry to adultery. The violate of the marriage covenant. Ever been cheated on, that feeling , that thinking. Ever been the cheater? That wicked desire. Moses warns this way

Exodus 34:15–16 ESV

15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

Most of Deuteronomy and Exodus are just the case law outworking of the Ten Commandments.

The ultimate heartbreaking book on idolatry is Hosea. God uses that prophet to demonstrate what idoltry looks like.

Now Hosea is a very difficult book, it paints the breaking of the Shema is hard but clear words. This is God’s word, he says hard clear truthe to make soft Christians, Christians that are willing to be lead by their heavenly father.

Now remeber that God gives us the OT so that we may learn so this is for you to learn from, so hear these words and learn from them, not from doing as they describe in your own life.

what idolatry does to a person

Fruitless prayer

Idolatry can lead to the fruitless prayers. You and I are called to Matt. 7:7

Matthew 7:7 ESV

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

But because you have an idol in your heart your prayer are fruitless. You trust more in your checkbook numbers then the God of the stars. You hedge your bets. Your like the Hindu man I worked for in college. Went to catholic church, but also kept an alter to Shiva in his office. Are you trusting in Jesus and hoping your luck will hold out? Repent of your idols.

Want a quick gut check. Ask the Holy Spirit if you have an idol in your life.

Fills you with Love for debased things

Romans 1:28–32 ESV

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

You then approve of them in others.

They’ve done studies that show that when a Ccouple gets divorced in a friendship circle sometime the parties will encourage the others to get divorced. You may have experinced this in other things.

What’s that song “The sinners have much more fun, because only the good die young.” As he is trying to convince this young girl to go with him and to forget what she believes.

Some of you known that to well.

The Reality of your Idols

1 Kings 18:27 ESV

27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

Elijah when dealling witht hte Prophets of Baal knew the truth, that these idols have no power, yet demand the whole of a person.

Satan wants all of you and you will recive nothing but death for your worship of him and the false things he puts infront of you That will kill you!

How to Repent of Idolatry

Listen to our fathers words

Hosea 14:1–3 ESV

1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2 Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 3 Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”

The word Return in (v1 and 2) are a command from God to you. This word in the Hebrew is used in two sense throughout the book of Hosea, one as demonstrative of Israel’s refuasal to return, God’s commenatary on them and the second is God calling them to return! He is calling you back! Listen oh dear Listen!

You have stumbled because of your love of idols (v.1)

The word for iniquity here in the Hebrew is so strong, it is the type of sin that you should be sentenced to death by the sword. The kind of sin that brings destruction.

Your sin is so wicked in the sight of the Lord it should be punished with death. The Bible teaches just that.

This is how God sea idoltry. We should be given death, but Jesus took that on for us.

Verse 2 - JEsus himself is the offering, the one time for all offering on your and my behalf.

You don’t need to make any offering He doesn’t need your works, he has done them.

You must repent of these idols (v.3) You can’t trust in Daddy governmnet (assyria)

You can’t trust in your things to keep you safe. It will all burn, it will all rot, it will all fall apart. Your bank account isn’t safe, your car, your home. The work of your hands will fail you can do nothing. Repent of lifting your hands up in worship of these things instead see the end of this section.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

In you the orphan finds mercy.”

Our God is a God who will take you back. Oh Orphan of your own hands, he will take you up again.(v.3) Our God through his son will pick us up again! Idols are not true God’s they don’t speak they can’t love you, your heavenly father has made a way for you.

Fruits from repenting Idoltary

Let me show you the sweet fruits of repentance in this life and the next for

Hosea 14:4–9 ESV

4 I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. 5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; 6 his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. 7 They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. 8 O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit. 9 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.

He will heal you from the results of your idoltry,(v.4) maybe in this life certainly in the world to come.

His anger at your sin will be turned from you (v.4) This means that you will not experince the judgment of sin that will happen.

This means today, God is not mad at you Christian. When he see you he sees his son, the apple of his eye. He poured his hatred of sin out on Jesus and, Jesus clothed you in his righteousness. When God sees you in loves you like he loves his son. So God isn’t angry with you, he can’t be. that anger was poured out on the cross.

If you have consorted with apostates and false teachers, if you have taught falsely He will freee you from that (v.4)

You will experince the increase of our God (v.5-7)

New Membership Section

(Call up new members)

(Introduce New Members)

Read -

Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank our God for the grace that was given you and that you all publicly confess your faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ. We rejoice that God, in his gracious providence, has brought you into this congregation and given you a desire to unite with us. We ask that you testify before us to the faith that you profess by giving assent to the following questions.

(ask)

(1) Do you believe the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, to be the Word of God, and its doctrine of salvation to be the perfect and only true doctrine of salvation?

(2) Do you believe in one living and true God, in whom eternally there are three distinct persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—who are the same in being and equal in power and glory, and that Jesus Christ is God the Son, come in the flesh?

(3) Do you confess that because of your sinfulness you abhor and humble yourself before God, that you repent of your sin, and that you trust for salvation not in yourself but in Jesus Christ alone?

(4) Do you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your sovereign Lord, and do you promise that, in reliance on the grace of God, you will serve him with all that is in you, forsake the world, resist the devil, put to death your sinful deeds and desires, and lead a godly life?

(5) Do you promise to participate faithfully in this church's worship and service, to submit in the Lord to its government, and to heed its discipline, even in case you should be found delinquent in doctrine or life?

(Ask the Church)

(Take the Vote)

Wonderful! Now My charge to you church:

As [name] is received into full communion in the church, the whole congregation is obligated to receive (him/her), for in Christ we are members of one another. Christ claims this (brother/sister) as his own and calls you to serve (him/her) in love. Therefore, you ought to commit yourself before God to assist [name] in (his/her) Christian nurture by godly example, prayer, and encouragement in our most precious faith and in the fellowship of believers.

(Speak to the New Members)

To my Brothers and sisters in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I welcome you to all the privileges of full communion with God's people, and in particular to participation in the sacrament of the Holy Supper.

I charge you to continue steadfastly in the confession that you have made, humbly relying upon the grace of God in the diligent use of the means of grace—especially the Word of God, the sacraments, and prayer.

Rest assured that if you confess Christ before men, he will confess you before his Father who is in heaven.

May the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, and strengthen you. To him be the glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

(Say)

Now let’s all stand and receive the Lord’s Benediction

Benediction

Say: As we close our service of worship dear brother and sister please stand for our benediction and receive by faith this blessing from God

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 ESV

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.