“Idolatry”

In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a tale from ancient India: Four royal brothers decided each to master a special ability. Time went by, and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned.

“I have mastered a science,” said the first, “by which I can take but a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it.”

“I,” said the second, “know how to grow that creature’s skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.”

The third said, “I am able to create its limbs if I have flesh, the skin, and the hair.”

“And I,” concluded the fourth, “know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete.”

Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialties. As fate would have it, the bone 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 arose and jumped on his creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle.

We too have the capacity to create what can devour us. Goals and dreams can consume us. Possessions and property can turn and destroy us—unless we first seek God’s kingdom and righteousness, and allow Him to breathe into what we make of life.

Today we are dealing with many forms of Idolatry and many of us would be quick to acknowledge that they are there. Especially if you remember when we looked at the 1st command in our 10 commandment series. There are many things that would steal our hearts away from the Lord. And it has always been this way. It has always been a problem for mankind. And what we have today is a warning and a warning that we have needed and will continue to need in the future.

1 John 5:21 NLT

Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

1. The Guard

2. Idol Factories

3. Accept No Substitute

The first thing we will look at today is the nature of what John means when he tells us to have our guard up. The second thing we will briefly discuss are the many different forms of Idols in our world showing just how much the human heart is an Idol Factory. Finally, we will see that all things in the world do not come close to being a substitute for our Lord Jesus and his Gospel.

Thesis: Though sin, the pattern of this world, and the false teachers cause us to be more and more unguarded against the Idols in the world, it is the truth of Scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit that will cause us to embrace the reality of abundant life with Christ and not to seek any substitute for what He is and what He will forever provide. Accept no substitute.

I. The Guard

- The lost art of self-accountability.

A. Interesting and, for some, a perplexing way to end this letter. Not your tipical farewell address of the magnificent epistles of the NT but it does accomplish what I believe is the intent. I drives home the warning.

B. Many times we struggle with warnings. I dunno if we are desensitized to them because there are so many. So many because companies and institutions are covering themselves from lawsuits. But many of the warnings are real and it does pay to heed them.

- Argentinean race driver Juan Manuel Fangio discovered that after the opening lap of the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. As he approached a dangerous bend for the second time, Fangio noticed that something was wrong. The faces of the spectators, which he usually saw as a whitish blur as he drove by, were all turned away from him.

 "If they are not looking at me," Fangio thought, "they must be looking at something more interesting around the corner." So he braked hard and carefully rounded the bend, where he saw that his split second assessment had been accurate. The road was blocked by a massive pileup. 

C. How much more should we do all that we can do to heed the warnings that we get from the mighty scriptures. Here we have a warning given to us by the apostle John. He tells us to keep ourselves away from Idols or those things that take God’s place in our hearts. But when he talks about keeping away he uses the Greek work Phlaxate: to be on guard. To protect. Like in Luke 2:8

Luke 2:8 NLT

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.

D. The Idols are coming are you ready for it? Even though there are lots of tactics and metrologies that are used, the very first and most important step in guarding against Idols is getting your guard up. Many things in this world want to take our heart and devotion from God to them and make us slave. It wants to win. If we knew that would we keep our guard up? Do we see why our guard should be up?

- One day in kickboxing class… We we practicing what is known as head movement and how important it is in a fight. At the end of class we did the common 4 hit sparring drills. Each person get to hit four times and we practice what we have been learning over time. For some reason I was under the impression that we were supposed to be working on our head movement. So I did not put my hands up and did my best to try and dodge the shots of my opponent… man that was a long 3 minute round. My opponent did put his hands up, so I figured he just was not listening. After we were done he said man you really got to put your hands up. Then I told him were weren’t supposed to. He said I misunderstood the rules.

- That is how hard it is too guard against shots with our guard down, but at least we know that its coming. What if our guard is down and we are not expecting anything.

E. How many of us are walking around everyday with our guard down. Expecting to get hit. Thats bad enough but what if we are walking around with our guard down not expecting. You are just standing there talking to someone and pow. Probably would be really really bad.

- I remember when I was at bible college at CCU my OT professor asked who did what when it comes to adultery. How many of you are positive that you will never fornicate or commit adultery? Most of the hands in class went up. Then he asked who is not really sure that you will never fornicate or commit adultery? A small number went up. Then he asked who knew for a fact that you could actually fornicate or commit adultery. Me and 2 other people raised our hands. Then my professor said, I am not worried about the three of you. Because you know it can happen, you will always be guarded.

F. Dr. David Allen writes, “The world, the flesh, and the devil, our three great enemies, constantly play their siren music in an effort to cause Christians to bow down to whatever is idolatrous in their lives. To fulfill this command, “keep yourselves from idols,” will take constant daily vigilance in our thought life. We will have to guard how and where we spend our time, to what we give our money and other resources, and how we think about the world system.”

G. More specifically for us today… we have got to say no to ourselves. Self accountability or Sophronismos or self-control. Being able to control our selves. When we want to do something that we know is a no no we have to be able to say no to ourselves. When we know that this is not a good thing to do, because it could lead to sinful heart stealing behavior or desires, we gotta say no. If we struggle with the idolatry of alcohol, we need to be able to say no to hanging out in a bar. If we struggle with the idol of pot smoking, we need to be able to say no to our desire to live across the street from a park in Boulder Colorado. We gotta say no. When we are angry and want to take it out on someone, we have to be able to say no to ourselves. When we want to lie about something, we have to say no to doing that. We gotta be able to say no.

II. Idol Factories

- “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” - John Calvin

A. This final imperative is puzzling right here at the end of the book. But if you really think about it, it is quite fitting in my opinion. The whole book has been trying to communicate the reality of Christ the Son of God… all other things are substitutes or more specifically, idols. Only Jesus is the true God who is eternal life. If we remember the sermon on the 1st commandment we saw that Luther was right. Luther was right when he said that the first of the Ten Commandments begins with idolatry because the fundamental motivation behind breaking God’s laws is idolatry.

B. In John’s time, the false teachers were actually promoting idolatry with all of their false teaching. Back then as well as today to teach a false view of Jesus is idolatry. If we are worshipping a Jesus that is not the Jesus of the scriptures we are worshipping something that is not God and it is idolatry. All of the false teaching that John addressed in this letter was in essence combating idolatry.

C. The false prophets whose teaching originated with the spirit of antichrist were engaged in idolatry. The failure to love others indicates we are making self an idol. The failure to live righteous lives is motivated by many things, but the heart of it all is idolatry.

D. Idols aren’t only or necessarily little statues made out of wood or metal that the people pray to. An idol can be anything. Anything you fear above all else. Anything you love above all else. Anything you trust above all else. Matter of fact, the gods of today that substitute for God in your life are so ordinary that many of us don’t even give them a second thought.

E. Understand today family, the false gods of today don’t go by the name of Baal, or Molech, or Ashtoreth. They are our bank accounts, they are our homes and our families, or relationships, and they are careers, our countries, our tv and our smartphones. And we do our bowing and kneeling to them with our schedules, our credit cards, our thoughts, our imaginations, and our work.

F. Martin Luther the reformer wrote, “Whatever thy heart clings to and relies upon, that is properly thy god.” Thomas Watson wrote, “To trust in anything more that God, is to make it a god.”

G. The apostle is giving us a command… keep ourselves, guard ourselves from Idols. And maybe for some of us… even exterminate the idols in our hearts now.

- The early Italian Reformer Savonarola is well known for his desire to cleanse Florence of materialism and immorality by having people cast away their material possessions that tempted them to have an immoral lifestyle in the “bonfire of vanity.” Savonarola once saw an elderly woman worshipping at a statue of the Virgin Mary. He observed her daily trek to pay homage to the statue and was impressed with her devotion and virtue. A fellow priest, however, warned Savonarola that things are not always as they appear. Savonarola learned that this woman in her youth had been the model for the artist’s sculpture of Mary. She had worshiped at the statue ever since. In the Christian church today we need a “bonfire of vanities” in our heart. All idolatry begins in the heart and must be exterminated there first.

H. We have got to flee from idols, we have got to guard against them, we cannot treat this issue lightly. The love of money must die in our hearts, anger must died in our hearts. Pride which is the god of self must die in our hearts. Sensuality which makes our appetites our god, must die in our hearts. The pattern of this world and the sinfulness of mankind deep in our own hearts are capable of so much idolatry. We create them Idols. Lots of the evil things in our world, we like to blame on the devil, but we are capable of very wicked things ourselves. We are blaming the devil and the devil is saying that he had nothing to do with it. Like Calvin said, our hearts are idol factories.

Genesis 6:5 ESV

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

I. In our hearts today… It is the self that demands power, profit, pleasure, and popularity. CS Lewis’ widow Joy called it sex, state, science, and society. It is the problem today with individualism and rejection of authority. The motivation to do what we want, when we want, how we want all is well. This must died in our hearts. Christian we must guard against this. We cannot be a part of this.

J. We must guard against it, if it has a hold of us, we gotta rid it from our hearts. What are those things taking us away from our Lord today? What are those things that are making us disobey our Lord today? What are those things that make us feel fulfilled apart from our Lord today? They must die. They are all substitutes. And let me say today… Family, in Christianity, there is no room for substitutes. Substitutes are Idols.

III. Accept No Substitute

- With Christ, there is no substitute.

A. Alexander McClaren wrote, “In our weakness we can never afford to neglect to keep ourselves from all false worship. These golden words in their simplicity, in their depth, in their certainty, in their comprehensiveness are worthy to be the last words of John’s letter. They stand through the ages as the solid foundation and the shining apex of Christianity.

B. This is a warning and a warning that we need to be reminded of on a daily basis. Keep ourselves from all the things that take God’s place in our hearts. But for many of us today, we find that our hearts wander. We sing it… prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. What is this thing? Why do we do this?

Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

Romans 7:21 NLT

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

C. For many of us we carry the burden of our wandering heart. Some of us might have come today realizing that our hearts have wandered. We did not guard against Idols and we are struggling with giving away what belongs to the Lord. For many of us we are struggling with idolatry. Something that is taking God’s place in our hearts, that something could be someone even. Thou shall have no other God’s before me.

D. If this is us today… I have good news for you. There is forgiveness for us. Forgiveness of this stuff does not come with substitutes. There is no substitute for Christ in salvation. It is Christ and Christ alone that we can find hope.

E. We have hope because Christ paid the penalty for sin. The wages of sin is death. And Christ died the death we should have died. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures… the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus.

F. The Bible makes it clear… repent and believe. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins ....All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe...

G. What a salvation we find in Christ, what a salvation we have in Christ… there is no substitute. Nothing comes close to being able to be compared at all to our King of kings. Guard against Idols, but in reality why would we even want them, he has come to bring life and life more abundant.