Idolatry and Biblical Counsel

Idolatry and mans heart

Would it seem odd if I told you sin is not a behavioral or thought problem?

What if I told you the best way to address sin in someones life or your own life is not to look at the Bible as an answer book to address that particular sin?

You’d likely give me funny looks.

The next question that flows from the previous statements would be, what kind of problem is sin and what is the solution to sin?

I will have answers for these questions at the end of the sermon.

Counseling

You may be asking yourself why this theological concept is important to you. Why should you care what kind of problem sin is so long as you know how to deal with sin in your personal life?

We should care because we are all counselors and we should all be biblical counselors.

Now wait a minute, I am not a counselor!?

But, you really are. Everyone is a counselor at some point in their life.

When someone asks you for advise and you provide them with an answer you are providing them with counsel.

In the secular world you are a simple counselor.

When doing as we all should and living a biblical worldview and incorporating Scripture into our everyday lives, you might answer inquiries with a biblical perspective. Now you are a biblical counselor.

Now you might find yourself sitting here thinking I still don’t understand why I care about this theological concept.

Simple answer is that to effectively deal with sin for the long term in your life or someone else’s life you must be able to correctly diagnose the problem and not just the symptoms.

Imagine you go to a doctor because you are sick and the doctor sees a plethora of symptoms and begins treating your symptoms, but never treats the root illness. You will stay sick and constantly need to re-visit the doctor because they are merely treating the symptoms.

The same goes for sin. If you merely treat your symptoms or a friend’s symptoms and never really identify the root problem, you will never get better and progress in your spiritual maturity.

My goal in this sermon is to show you how to diagnose the root problem and how to fix it.

It is my belief that all sin begins with idolatry. I feel that I can support this claim rather well and will endeavor over the course of this sermon to support this assertion and to answer the questions already posited. I will also endeavor to show you how to fix the overarching problem of sin, idolatry.

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans People Will Either Worship God or an Idol

If man does not give his highest respect to the God that made him, there will be something else that has the possession of it. Men will either worship the true God, or some idol. It is impossible it should be otherwise; something will have the heart of man. And that which a man gives his heart to may be called his god.

Jonathan Edwards American Puritan preacher and theologian from the mid 1700’s.

Now that I have told you sin is an idolatry problem, lets discuss this from a biblical theology perspective.

Biblical theology is merely a means of studying and approaching the Bible from a holistic perspective where one sees the OT and NT as a unified narrative that tells a unified story.

Creation

We all recognize that Adam and Eve were created by God in a perfect world and created in a perfect condition. We know this because Genesis 1:31 “31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” Adam and Eve were created in 1:27.

Since good declared His creation good, we can assume it was perfect.

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

The significance of being created in the image of God, for our purposes today, is that mankind was created to glorify God through their lives.

Thus we are not defined as humans by our actions or our thoughts, but by whom we worship. We were created to worship and are to serve this purpose and in serving this purpose glorify God in the process.

The Fall

In Genesis chapter 4 we see the fall of man and the descent into a depraved life filled with the effects of sin. The fall marred the image of God in mankind and thus sin took hold and began it’s process of devolution on mankind.

The fall resulted from a form of idolatry. Adam and Eve placed their desires and their reasons for disobeying God ahead of their commitment to God.

Romans: Idolatry, Sin, and the depraved mind.

Merriam Webster defines idolatry as:

1: the worship of a physical object as a god 2: immoderate attachment or devotion to something

In the first chapter of Romans Paul discusses idolatry and sinfulness.

Open your Bibles to Romans 1:21-23.

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.

In context Paul is writing about pagan gentiles that refused to worship God.

VV. 21 Paul is stating these individuals knew God, but refused to worship Him.

vv. 22-23 These people exchanged worshiping God for worshiping of Idols.

You may be saying, wait… I don’t worship bird figures or animal figures. I don’t worship another person. This is not necessary to worship idols. Look at your life and ask yourself, is there something that you put before your worship of God? If the answer is yes then you are guilty of idol worship.

Re-Read Johnathan Edwards quote again.

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans People Will Either Worship God or an Idol

If man does not give his highest respect to the God that made him, there will be something else that has the possession of it. Men will either worship the true God, or some idol. It is impossible it should be otherwise; something will have the heart of man. And that which a man gives his heart to may be called his god.

Jonathan Edwards American Puritan preacher and theologian from the mid 1700’s.

Romans 1:24–25 ESV

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

VV. 24 God gave them up!

God turned his back on man due to their idolatry. Let that sink in for a minute. God turns His back on people for idolatry.

The Greek word is paredoken, which is a legal term meaning to hand someone over to their prison sentence.

Paul viewed this as a prison sentence. As a legalistic adjudication of guilt and condemnation.

What happens when we turn to idolatry?

God gives us up to our lusts and the impurity of our hearts in response to us turning our backs on Him in idolatry.

Romans 1:26–27 ESV

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

VV. 26-27 God gave sinners over to homosexuality.

Remember this is a result of not worshiping God and thus committing idolatry.

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.

vv. 28 we see God once again is not against turning sinful people over to their just punishment for sin.

Now you might ask; Why would a loving God do that? It is because God is a just God and by His own characteristic of being just He must punish sinners.

vv. 29-32 Paul provides a list of depraved sinful behaviors. Paul then says man has gone a step farther in their depravity, they are no longer just committing sin they are encouraging people to commit sin by giving them approval.

Andrew L. Whitehead, with the department of Anthropology and Sociology at Clemson University, states that in a recent study 48.9 percent of Americans believe gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry.[1] According to Pew research, in 2014, the same year the aforementioned article was written, 71 percent of America’s population identified as being Christian.[2] These statistics support the idea that is being made in the preceding paragraphs that sin furthers the depravity of mankind even to the point that “Christians” support or do not take issue with sin.

[1]Andrew L. Whitehead, “Male and Female ‘He’ Created Them: Gender Traditionalism, Masculine Images of God, and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Unions.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53, no. 3 (2014): 479. [2]“Trends in Religious Compositions in U.S. Adults,” Pew Research Forum, Accessed March 3, 2022, https://www.pewforum.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2019/10/Detailed-Tables-v1-FOR-WEB.pdf

Solution

Now that we have established idolatry is at the root of sin, we can come to the conclusion that idolatry is an issue with worship. We find ourselves worshiping something or someone other than God. Whether it be ourselves we are worshipping, athletes, sports teams, actors or actresses, etc. It doesn’t matter who or what it is that is consuming time and energy, but if it comes in the way of God and worshiping God it is an idol.

How does one fix a worship problem?

We make it our goal to reflect the image of Christ. To become more Christlike.

We can only become more Christlike through the reception of the Holy Spirit and it’s redemptive work. Overtime we will undergo sanctification as we progressively grow closer to the image of Christ.

We must accept the Gospel message through repentance and faith.

Application

So, how does one apply this to their day-to-day life and how does one apply this as a counselor?

First we must recognize merely fixing the behavior or ideas will not work and even if it helps it will not fix the root cause.

In Matthew 12:34 Jesus tells us the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart. Thus a counselor needs to be concerned with the heart condition of the person.

Matthew 12:34 (ESV)

34 For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.