THE IDIOCY OF IDOLATRY
Notes
Transcript
Today’s text teaches us the idiocy of idolatry. The Psalmist pulls back the certain of our heart and shows us the insanity of idolatry. This song can be sung in four words . . .
TRUST IN GOD NOT IN IDOLS.
TRUST IN GOD NOT IN IDOLS.
Psalm 115 is the third song in the Egyptian Hallel. The Egyptian Hallel is made up of Psalm 113-118. These songs are sung during the Passover. Psalm 113-114 are sung prior to the meal with 115 being sung at its conclusion. We know that Jesus sung this Psalm prior to His crucifixion.
Psalm 113, is a psalm of introductory praises. In Psalm 114, King David shows how God’s providence freed the Jews from Egyptian bondage and made their survival possible. In Psalm 115, appeals for God’s assistance. In Psalm 116, we plead with God for survival. Psalm 117, invites the nations of the world to join the songs of thanksgiving for Israel’s redemption. Finally, Psalm 118 is a song of thanksgiving for the entire nation of Israel.
Remember Psalm 115 is sung at the completion of the Passover meal and it is an appeal for God’s assistance.
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Each Psalm we have studied these last six weeks remind us that all worship must begin with God. Today’s Psalm reminds us of God’s character.
GOD’S CHARACTER
GOD’S CHARACTER
HE IS STEADFAST
HE IS STEADFAST
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Iain Duguid writes: The word hesed in the Old Testament is as a description of what God does. Having entered a covenant relationship with His people, God bound Himself to act toward them in certain ways, and He is utterly faithful to His self-commitment.
Psalm 136 explores what the Lord’s hesed means in its broadest possible terms, for each line concludes with the words: “his hesed endures forever.”
Because of the Lord’s hesed, He created the universe, and He rules it daily through His providence (Pss. 136:5–9, 25).
Because of His hesed toward Israel, He redeemed them out of Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea and the wilderness into the Land of Promise. For the same reason, He hurled the Egyptians into the sea and struck down the Canaanite kings before them (vv. 11–21). Both His deliverance of His people and His destruction of their enemies are aspects of the Lord’s faithfulness to His promise to make Abraham a mighty nation, blessing those who bless him and cursing those who curse him (Gen. 12:1–3).
Even when His people sin against Him and face the consequences of their sin, they may still appeal to the Lord’s hesed, as the writer of Lamentations does in the midst of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Surrounded by the evidence of the Lord’s faithfulness to judge wickedness, rebellion, and sin, he casts himself on the unchanging character of God, affirming, “The hesed of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22–23).
In Psalm 23:6, the psalmist declares that the Lord’s goodness and hesed will pursue him all the days of his life. The word pursue normally describes the action of pillaging armies and covenant curse, but the psalmist is convinced that instead of the covenant curse he deserves, the Lord’s faithful love and goodness will hunt him down relentlessly instead.
The fullness of the Lord’s hesed is seen in the cross: there the true hesed, Jesus Christ Himself—the only human ever truly to be loyal to the Lord and to His neighbor in every aspect of life—was treated as the covenant breaker and cursed for sin so that we who are unfaithful might be clothed in His faithfulness and thus redeemed. In this way, God’s original covenant purpose to have a people for His praise was faithfully accomplished.
The Lord’s hesed will never let us go. In the midst of life’s trials and tragedies, we may cry out to our loving Lord in confidence that nothing in all creation can ever separate us from the loyal love that chose us before time began, is sanctifying us in the present, and will faithfully bring us to our eternal home (Rom. 8:28–30).
I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU - YOU FORSAKE OR YOU LEAVE NEVER WILL I
HE IS SURE
HE IS SURE
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Faithfulness reminds us that the LORD
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
and
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
HE IS SOVEREIGN
HE IS SOVEREIGN
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
This attribute of God either grants you peace or causes you to be petrified.
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
This song teaches us about God’s character which gives us confidence in the second truth concerning God from this song . . .
GOD’S CARE
GOD’S CARE
HIS NAME
HIS NAME
O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
Trust means to throw yourself to the ground, surrendering your strengths and abilities to another by leaving yourself completely open and vulnerable.
HIS NATURE
HIS NATURE
O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
HE PROVIDES
HE PROVIDES
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
HE PROTECTS
HE PROTECTS
Be not dismayed whate'er betide
God will take care of you
Beneath His wings of love abide
God will take care of you
God will take care of you
Through every day, o'er all the way
He will take care of you
God will take care of you
No matter what may be the test
God will take care of you
Lean, weary one, upon His breast
God will take care of you
God will take care of you
Through every day, o'er all the way
He will take care of you
God will take care of you
He will take care of you
God will take care of you
This Psalm not only expands our understanding of who God is but who we are.
OUR CONDITION
OUR CONDITION
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
Augustine said; “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.” Humans were made to worship. When the Lord is not worship idols will be.
IDOLATRY
IDOLATRY
ITS DEFINITION
ITS DEFINITION
“A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”
If you are not a follower of Christ then you live a life of perpetual idolatry. For those who claim to follower Christ be alert you are prone to idolatry.
ITS DANGER
ITS DANGER
Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
Idols cannot provide or protect. They are impotent. When we substitute something or someone for the living God as our object of worship we become as powerless as the god we worship. Idols cannot help because they are made by the helpless.
Idols cannot give you what you need. They can only make you like themselves - men shape their idols and their idols shape them. You heart will only produce idols that say “unto to us unto to us be the glory”. They are lifeless therefore they produce lifeless worshippers. You become what you worship. What are you worshipping.
You may not have idols in your homes but your heart is an idol making factory. Wives are helpmates not our help. Husbands are to be the head not our help. Spouses are gifts to be enjoyed not to be worshipped. Children are to be built up in the fear and admonition of the Lord not objects to build our lives upon. Wealth is to be leveraged for godly purposes not to lead us into all sorts of pains. Work is a means to glorify the Lord and not ourselves.
Idols produce nothing because they are produced. They are the byproduct of imagination - of human wisdom and invention. When man follows his heart he only produces death. Adam and Eve followed their heart and experienced death. Jesus followed the Father and he brought life through death.
How do we put idolatry to death in our lives?
ITS DEATH
ITS DEATH
For those not following Christ you must turn from you idols and trust the living God alone for salvation.
For those who claim to be followers of Christ do what the text says
Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
In C.S. Lewis book Voyage of the Dawn Treader we met a young boy named Eustace. He is a young man who has “greedy, dragonish thoughts” in his heart. While these thoughts are in his heart he find a dragon’s hoard and falls asleep. When he wakes up his thoughts have become a reality. He has become a dragon.
He doesn’t even realize he’s a dragon at first. Once he does, he goes through the first step of spiritual transformation: he embraces the truth of his own brokenness. Eustace realizes “that he was a monster and cut off from the whole human race.” He begins to weep.
Eustace isn’t immediately transformed just by realizing his own monstrousness, but then again it was clear to all his companions that “Eustace’s character had been rather improved by becoming a dragon.” He suddenly wanted to be someone better and was, in fact, “anxious to help.” He started doing reconnaissance missions. On cold nights everyone leaned against him for warmth.
Eustace discovers, we are told, the novel sensation not only of being liked, but of liking other people, too. All of this comes, quite simply, from embracing the reality of being a dragon. It’s not that he has become a dragon, it’s that he was a dragon all along. The physical transformation revealed to him the “dragonish thoughts” that had already been central in his heart. And when he embraced that, when he mourned that, when he desired change, his internal transformation began. Which is when Aslan stepped in to bring him into a new world.
Aslan never even tells Eustace his name. He simply says “follow me” and takes him to a spring of living water. Aslan tells Eustace to undress, and after the poor boy has done all that he can, Aslan says; “you will have to let me undress you.” I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So i just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And then he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt . . . Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off-just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt-and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there I was as smooth and soft as a peeled witch and smaller than I had been . . . I turned into a boy again.”
If we are going to have a Eustace experience we must obey our calling.
OUR CALLING
OUR CALLING
TRUST THE LORD BECAUSE HE IS THE SURE THING.
TRUST THE LORD BECAUSE HE IS THE SURE THING.
BLESS THE LORD
BECAUSE IT IS THE SMART THING.
BLESS THE LORD
BECAUSE IT IS THE SMART THING.
The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;
he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.
May the Lord give you increase, you and your children!
May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth!
The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence.
But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!
All other gods/idols are inanimate objects and they demand their worshippers to give them their all to be saved. Jesus, the Son of God, incarnated himself and gave His all, so that idolators can be saved.
Jesus left the upper room singing a song which appealed for God’s help knowing that His time had come and there would be no help. No one would intervene not even His Father - who had intervened on sinful Israel behalf numerous times. This time a truly innocent - one free from idolatry - one would be abandoned so that idolators could be saved.
We can trust and bless the Lord because “he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things”