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Pastor Sherard

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IDOLATRY

THE DESTRUCTIVE EXCHANGE

LESSON 2

IDOLATRY 2 – see my notes/outline in book

Review from Last week - Spiritually lifeless

Psalm 15

· Eyes to see

· Ears to hear

Psalm 15:1 ESV

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

-8

o Don’t be anxious

Romans 11:8 ESV

as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

I. THE DESCENT INTO THE DESTRUCTIVE EXCHANGE(S): -ff)

A. The Slippery, Downward, Slope Into Idolatry

B. Idolatry does not happen accidentally.

1. The Wrong Handling of the Word Which is Equal to A Wrong Handling of God

a. According to Paul it begins with a false embrace of the truth and or a willful rejection of truth.

The words, false embrace of the truth and or willful rejection of the truth to highlight the deception we need to be mindful of as professing followers of Christ. Here is the deception:

i. If I am in the church, under the preaching of the word, I am better than those who are willfully rejecting the Lord and the Word. I am doing the right things and therefore, I cannot be walking in idolatry.

b. Why is it dangerous for Christians to have this kind of thinking reflected in the quote?

i. Idolatry does not mean absence of the knowledge of God. But a willful rejection of God. They Knew God (v.21)

“While this is surely not an exhaustive revelation of all there is to know about God … it is sufficient to hold all mankind accountable, rendering humanity “without excuse,” or more literally, “without a defense.” … Man knows, but man suppresses. He knows he is accountable to God, and owes to God a debt of honor and gratitude for life itself, but he refuses to give it” (White, J. R., & Niell, J. D. pg. 113, 2002).

c. How do you know you are in the arena of idolatry?

i. Suppressing the truth by unrighteousness (v18)

Ø Suppression implies possession: We cannot suppress that which we do not already possess.

Ø Suppression is better understood, not simply holding something down, but twisting something to fit our desires.

ii. Refusing to honor God

iii. Invaded by spiritual decay and death ,

Ø Futile thinking

Ø Foolish and darkened hearts

II. THE DESTRUCTUVE EXCHANGES

A. The Exchange Of Glory (21-23)

1. They knew God (19-21)

While this is surely not an exhaustive revelation of all there is to know about God … it is sufficient to hold all mankind accountable, rendering humanity “without excuse,” or more literally, “without a defense.” … Man knows, but man suppresses. He knows he is accountable to God, and owes to God a debt of honor and gratitude for life itself, but he refuses to give it.”

ii. “shown it to them” (v19)

iii. “clearly perceived” (v20)

2. Man twists (rebels) against what he knows about God and puts something / someone else in His place.

a. Their thinking is empty (v21)

b. Their passions are increasingly evil (v21)

ii. Their passions are increasingly evil

c. They are fools (22)

iii. They are fools (22)

B. The Exchange of Truth (24-25)

1. Man exchanges (twists) the truth for a lie or, literally, the lie

a. Exchanging the truth is an act of rebellion

“Though man was not made to tell, or embrace, untruth, in his rebellion he sets his affections upon what is unnatural: a lie. And while he knows it is a lie, he prefers the lie to the truth that brings conviction of his rebellion and sin. He works to convince himself he loves this lie, and in time, he is successful”

b. Exchanging the truth is not a dismissal of truth but a distortion of truth

Ø ,

Galatians 1:6 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

Galatians 1:7 ESV

not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

“Fueled with a desire to redefine love and sex for a new age, these intellectuals argued that Christian sexual morality was inherently repressive and that true liberty could only come to human beings if the sexual morality derived from the Bible was overthrown and subverted” (Mohler, We Cannot be Silent, pg 9)

Redefinition is for the goal of endless self-expression of sin-saturated desires. Redefining anything is always driven by a goal of self-affirmed action, attitude or thinking

…Then the truth – not as a concept or idea – but as a universality, is given up. (they still believe in the concept of truth, but not the Bible

c. Exchanging the truth is an act of worship (v25)

i. Man was created to worship and will always worship

ii. Exchanging the worship that belongs to God for something else is always idolatry

Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place… Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true” (A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy)

(A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy)

C. The Exchange of Passions (26-27)

1. Note the logical downward spiral:

a. Man exchanges the God given knowledge of being a dependent being and acts unnaturally like independent being

b. Man exchanges the God given affirmation of the truth for the unnatural affirmation of the lie

c. Man exchanges the God given use of his passions for the unnatural use of his passion

III. The ACTIONS OF AN OFFENDED GOD

To give up the natural (truth) for the unnatural (lie) leads men to using the natural outside of its unnatural order (fornication) (naturally disorderly) and changing the natural for the unnatural

III. The ACTION OF AN OFFENDED GOD

A. God’s Wrath: Giving Those Who Engage In Idolatry What They Deserve

ROMANS 11:8

Romans 11:8 ESV

as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

1.God Gave Them Up - Abandoned Them. (v24, 26, 28)

a. God gave them up… to the dishonoring of their bodies (v24)

1. God gave them up… to the dishonoring of their bodies (v24)

Romans 1:24 ESV

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

b. God gave them up to dishonorable passions (v26)

Romans 1:26 ESV

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

- this is where all of the other sins in verse 28ff come in

c. God gave them up to a debased mind (v28)

Romans 1:28 ESV

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.

1 28

2. What Do You Know You Have Been Abandoned?

a. You don’t want or feel the need to stop

b. You justify your behavior and or thinking

B. Gospel Grace: Giving Those Who Repent of Idolatry What They Don’t Deserve

2 Chronicles 12:1 ESV

When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.

2nd Chronicles 12:1-7

2 Chronicles 12:2 ESV

In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem

2 Chronicles 12:1–2 ESV

When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem

2 Chronicles 12:3 ESV

with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. And the people were without number who came with him from Egypt—Libyans, Sukkiim, and Ethiopians.

2 Chronicles 12:4 ESV

And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 12:3–4 ESV

with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. And the people were without number who came with him from Egypt—Libyans, Sukkiim, and Ethiopians. And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 12:5 ESV

Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah, who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, ‘You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.’ ”

2 Chronicles 12:6 ESV

Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous.”

2 chronicles 12:

2 Chronicles 12:7 ESV

When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

2. Isaiah 6:5-7

Isaiah 6:5 ESV

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Isaiah 6:6 ESV

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

Isaiah 6:7 ESV

And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isiah 6 6

3. Isiah 53:3-5

Isaiah 53:3 ESV

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53:2 ESV

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:4 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

3. Isiah 55:3-5

Isaiah 53:5 ESV

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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