Modern Day Idols

TEXT: I Kings 11:1-13

TOPIC: Modern Day Idols

Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Icard, April 14, 2002

BIBLE SURVIVORS SERIES, Message 23

The Bible clearly teaches, “the Lord our God is one God. It says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” The first of the great commandments is a warning to man to have no other gods before the one true God.

If you were to turn to your friend beside you this morning and ask, “Are you an idolater?” He or she would quickly respond, “Of course not! I believe in God.”

But do you worship Him and Him alone? Do you think so? It might surprise you to learn that for many of us, we set before the One true God many other gods, lesser gods, that capture our time, our attention, our devotion and our loyalty. To them we often pay our tithes, and make sacrifices just to please these lifeless deities. Many in our churches today, and that includes some of you here this morning, worship “modern-day idols.”

What other gods do you worship today? In 1 Kings 11, we find the failure of one of God’s greatest men to keep the very first commandment of God, “to have no other gods before me.”

(READ 1 KINGS 11:1-13)

I find it amazing that King Solomon, whom the Bible calls the wisest man who ever lived, acted so foolishly in his lifetime. The King to whom God appeared not once, but twice, the King who on his knees before the altar of incense, lifted his voice so beautifully to pray the longest recorded prayer in the Scriptures, fails so miserably.

But before we are too quick to blame poor ole Solomon, let’s take a look in the mirror of self-inspection. What we will see is that we have much in common with ole King Solomon. For we all often fall down before the gods of our own love relationships,

1. THE GODS OF LOVE RELATIONSHIPS

1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites— 2 from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. 4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, 1 Kings 11:1-5, NKJV

I think it is appropriate to recognize the fact that Solomon’s downward spiral began when he invested his interest in many foreign women, verse 1. The KJV says, Solomon loved many strange women.

Now let me say something to Mr. Daddy Cool out here today. Listen Sparky, I’m going to give you some good advice. Any woman that you’re messing with that is not your wife, is a strange and foreign woman!

I just don’t understand these men who cannot be satisfied with the wife of their youth. God’s word says when you pledge yourself in marriage, that you are to leave all other relationships and cleave to your wife.

I haven’t done a lot of things right in my life, but there’s one thing that I have not failed in. I’ve never failed my wife. I’ve kept my vows. I’ve been true and loyal to her throughout our marriage. I intend to keep it that way.

There’s not another woman I care to have. I’m satisfied! The Bible says Solomon failed at the point of worshipping the god of love relationships, Solomon loved many foreign (strange) women. And his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, verse 4.

I think it’s appropriate to say this is the one place where we can change the word love, or loved, with the word sex. Solomon collected women like some men collect baseball cards. They were simply objects to be used once and discarded.

Listen young people, young ladies, don’t you sell yourself for an empty promise. You’re worth far more than that. You keep yourself for that young man who will love you enough to respect you and honor you enough to wait until marriage if he really loves you.

God’s word says, “you are not your own. You’re body is a temple, a temple of the Holy Spirit. (That means that if you are a Christian, that God goes with you wherever you go.)

You’ve been bought with a price, as with the precious blood of Jesus. Therefore glorify the Lord with your body and with your spirit. Solomon violated this law, this commandment of God, again and again. And we’re told in this passage today that, God was angry with Solomon, verse 9. The Bible says, God is angry with the sinner every day. Isaiah 57:21 ILL. Alex White said, "Sin yourself if you will sin. But do not make others to sin. Break the Sabbath law, neglect God's house, do despite His grace drink, gamble, pollute yourself, blaspheme -- your soul is your own – make your bed in Hell if your will have it so. But as God will smite you for it, let alone the young, and the innocent and the pure and the unsuspecting." One more thing, verse 5 indicates that Solomon offered sacrifices to the goddess of the Zidonians, the goddess Ashtereth. Ashtereth was identified with the Greek goddess Venus, the goddess of sensual love, sex, maternity, and fertility. Licentious worship was practiced in her honor. The Hebrews changed the pronunciation of her name from Ashteroth to Ashtereth adding the Hebrew suffix which means, “shameful.” We face the goddess of shameful idol worship whenever we put any love relationship before complete devotion to the Lord Jesus. That means husbands, wives, children, boyfriends, girlfriends, can all become idols of our worship if we continually put them before our worship of the One true God. Jesus said a person must be willing to exchange his or her first love for others for a full, and total love relationship with Him. He said like this in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes after me and hates not his father, and mother, his wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes even his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” I like the way the Living Bible puts in a more positive light, “Anyone who wants to be my follower must love me far more than he does his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters—yes, more than his own life—otherwise he cannot be my disciple. Living Bible T/S Not only do we often worship the modern-day god of other love relationships, but we also worship the gods of power, prestige and popularity.

2. THE GODS OF POWER, PRESTIGE AND POPULARITY

Solomon wanted all of these. That’s why, on the one hand, that he sought his many wives, 700 in all, and 300 concubines. I won’t touch that. These women were simply pawns. Tools he used to gain political advantages, and special favors with powerful men from neighboring nations. Solomon also exerted high taxes and tariffs from his people. He placed a heavy burden upon Israel to satisfy his thirst for power, prestige and popularity. Verses 5 and 7 mention the gods Milcom and Molech. Molech was the god of the Ammonites and was honored by the profane sacrifice of children who were made to pass through or into burning furnaces of fire.

Excavations have uncovered evidences of infant skeletons in burial places around such heathen shrines. Hebrew law strictly forbade Molech worship yet Solomon built an altar to Molech in the valley of Hinnon.

The New Testament refers to Hinnon as Hell. Jesus used this powerful illustration. The valley of Hinnon, which lay just outside of Jerusalem, had become the dumping ground for all human filth, and waste. This garbage pile was constantly burning off rubbage where the smoke and flames never abated. Such was the depth of moral compromise and failure that Solomon was willing to go to in order to gain power, prestige and popularity.

What are we sacrificing on the altar of our lives, our dignity, our integrity, in order to achieve what we want, what we think will make us happy. Jesus said, “What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his soul?”

T/S Last of all, we may not realize it, but we often worship the modern-day gods of convenience, comfort and neglect.

3. THE GODS OF CONVENIENCE, COMFORT, AND NEGLECT

Do you know what happened to Solomon? He became comfortable. He became comfortable with his kingdom, his accomplishments and he began to neglect his moral standards and responsibilities.

He sought to pamper his many wives and concubines, so yet another temple of worship was built in Jerusalem, this time in the Mount of Olives just across from God’s own temple. That made it convenient. That way Solomon could offer his sacrifices in worship at the temple in Jerusalem while his pagan wives offered their own sacrifices in worship next door.

How many times have we bowed down to the altars of convenience, comfort and neglect. We worship, or serve the Lord, as long as it’s convenient. As long as we make it comfortable for us. We worship and serve God as long as it’s the way we like it or want it.

Tickle my ears. Scratch my back. Make me feel good. Our worship is far too often me-centered rather than God-centered. We are far too focused on what we want, not what God expects.

Romans 12:1-2 says it is our appropriate duty to worship God. It is expected. Listen to how the New Living Translation puts it, And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

Hear, O Church, the Lord our God is one God. “You shall have no other gods before me.” Are you worshipping modern-day gods? Are you an idolater?