DBD - Idolatry

Series: Don’t Be Deceived

Lesson Title: By Idolatry

INTRODUCTION

We are continuing our series titled Do Not Be Deceived. this is one of the many dangers that we face as we go out into the world on a daily basis. Whenever we are go to work or to school or college, Satan is on the prowl and wants to see us be deceived. He brought deception into existence, and he has been hard at work since the beginning deceiving God’s people. He deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree that God had forbidden, and even at the time of Paul and the other apostles, the fear of God’s people being deceived by Satan was present. We need to keep in mind the ways in which we can be deceived, whether that be directly by Satan or by our own self-deception.

For our lesson this hour, I would like us to consider how we can be deceived by the sin of idolatry. This is a sin that God warned His people to be careful to not fall into so many times in scripture. For instance, He told Israel in :

“16 Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them…” (, ESV)

This is a sin that we can be guilty of tolerating too much in our lives and it is not something that you often see Christians confront each other about. But this sin is just as much a danger for us as any other. We can say that we are worshippers of God, but give our hearts to so many other things in this life.

POINT 1 - What is Idolatry

Whenever we think about the idea of idolatry, one of the first things that may come to our minds is Old Testament practices — people bowing down to statues, making gods in the image of man or animals. We may think of how some nations sacrificed their children to these so-called gods. We think of these things and may be willing to say, well, I don’t do these, so I am not guilty of idolatry, when in reality, we may be deceived and just as much an idolator as these people who worshipped a block of wood that was carved into something…

Sometimes our view of idolatry can be to limited. It is more than just bowing down to something or someone. It is more than worshipping a false god of another religion.These things are surely included. It is about what or who we give our hearts to. Idolatry is about who our ultimate allegiance belongs to — who our master is in this life. Idolatry is about giving our devotion, service, and worship to any created thing instead of God. Idolatry can happen just as much in the mind as it can in our actions.

Whenever man creates for themselves in their minds a god that is similar to the one spoken of in the Bible, but they make him more palatable — more comfortable, this is just as much idolatry than bowing down to a block of wood.

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.

This is what Paul warns the Corinthians about in . We have looked at this passage a couple times already in this series, but not the whole passage. Look at Paul’s fear for them…

“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (, ESV)

Paul’s fear was that false teachers may come in and lead them into idolatry by teaching a Jesus, Spirit, or Gospel that is different from those spoken of by himself and the other Apostles. They were in danger of accepting a Jesus that may not have been divine, or maybe a Jesus who approved of specific sins or allowed them to do things that the Jesus Paul spoke of did not approve of. This is the type of thing that happens often today, even in churches.

POINT 2 — Other things that can become idols

But there are other areas that we can be deceived by the sin of idolatry. You can commit idolatry in almost every area of your life today.

We can idolize people — governing authorities, family members, preachers and teachers. We can idolize entertainment — sports teams, television shows, the internet, and video games. We can idolize hobbies, education, and work. There are things in this life — many types of addictions that we can allow to become our master: food addictions, drug and alcohol addictions, pornography, etc… etc… We could do lessons on all of these specific areas where we can be guilty of idolatry. But for today’s lesson, I would like us to focus on one specific area of our lives where we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are doing well spiritually, but in reality are guilty of this sin.

IDOLATRY OF POSSESSIONS

One big area where we can fall into idolatry and be deceived into thinking we are just fine spiritually is idolatry of possessions. Materialism and covetousness are sins that we can often overlook in ourselves.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (, ESV)

Don’t be deceived… We want to keep up with everyone else. If we see someone else with the latest phone or watch or cool toy, then we gotta have it also. “We just cannot live without it.”

THE RICH YOUNG RULER ()

It may be the case that we would be much like the rich young ruler. From the looks of things, when he comes to Jesus, he has many of good things going for him.

HE WAS A RELIGIOUS MAN. When Jesus told him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life: " 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER' " (v19), he answered by saying that he had been practicing these things since his youth. He had been taught the word of God and trained to obey it in these areas. Obviously he wasn't perfect at it. If you would have asked him, he probably would have said such, just as the majority of people would. But he was trying to do what was right.

But in spite of this, there was still something missing. We are not told why he came to Jesus, but it seems to me that it was because he felt that there was still something missing in his life. There was still something that seemed to be missing to him. He still did not know if he had eternal life, and he wanted the answer to what he needed to do.

HE WAS EAGER. It is encouraging to see how he approaches Jesus. He didn't just walk up to Jesus. He ran up to Jesus. He wanted an answer to his question, and he wanted it quickly…

HE ALSO DISPLAYED SOME HUMILITY BEFORE JESUS. He knew that he did not have the answer to the question he asked Jesus, so he came to the One who he believed would have the answer. And when he got to Jesus, verse 17 tells us that the rich young ruler fell before Jesus. This would have been unusual with the difference in social status and dress between him and Jesus. Here the rich and powerful man falling down before the poor and lowly.

HE WAS YOUNG. He may have many years to work on all of these things. Just think, if he had risen to the position where he is at so early in his life, this man shows a lot of promise of being able to grow in all of these things and being a great servant of God.

HE WAS RICH AND HAD INFLUENCE. He had a lot of resources to use for the kingdom if he would dedicate it to the Lord, and because he was wealthy, many may have looked up to him at that time. He could have used his influence for kingdom work.

I think it is safe to say that if we met this young man, we would see him as a great candidate for the gospel and for the kingdom. He is a religious, young man who could have made a difference in the kingdom. He would make a great Christian. We may feel that he is a good guy and a lot like us.

BUT HE MISSED EVERYTHING!

He had some major issues and sin that got in the way of this happening. When Jesus says that this young man only lacked one thing, it may be easy to be tempted to think that this man was "pretty close" to being kingdom material. This one thing that kept him from choosing to follow Christ was a big thing. He held too tightly too His stuff. His possessions had too much of His heart. The "one thing" he was missing was that he was an idolater. He was missing the fact that it is impossible to serve both God and his possessions. He was in reality serving money while wearing the "I am a religious person" mask. The same mask you and I can be guilty of wearing!

We need to keep in mind what Jesus says after His encounter with this young man:

“And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.””

If we put ourselves in the rich young ruler’s shoes, how would we respond? How would you respond? How would I respond? May we have the same type of attitude towards our earthly possessions as the rich young ruler? It can be easy for us to wear the religious mask and deceive ourselves into thinking everything is OK in our spiritual lives when in reality we are materialistic and have our hearts given over to idolatry. Do not be deceived.

POINT 3 - 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:

“58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.” (, ESV)

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 and eating meats sacrificed to idols, Paul asks, “22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy?” (, ESV)

Let us not think that we, as members of the bride of Christ, His church, that we cannot commit spiritual adultery against our Lord. That is what we do whenever we commit idolatry and make other things our master.

CONCLUSION

So as we bring this lesson to a close, I would encourage you to ask some important questions to yourself in regards to your 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.”