SoLo Lives! Ministry

“And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:20-21).

Is there anything wrong with “American Idol” or “Philippine Idol,” or being a fan of boxing champ Manny Pacquiao? Idols are not necessarily sinful things, but good and basic things elevated into being ultimate things. As D. M. Lloyd Jones puts it: “It is anything in our lives that occupies the place that should be occupied by God alone.” Rev. Adrian Rogers submits: “An idol is anything you love more, fear more, value more, or serve more than you do Almighty God.” In Martin Luther’s view, “Idolatry is not only the adoration of images …but also trust in one’s own righteousness, works and merits, and putting confidence in riches and power.” God will not tell us to be careful about idols if He did not see the dangers:

1. Idolatry Dishonors God. With no apologies, God detests idols. His foreword before the Ten Commandments is simply a reminder of who He is and what He has done. “Then God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…’” (Exodus 20:1-5). He saved us, therefore, in love, gratitude and respect, we ought to worship and serve no one else but Him.

God’s heart of love is written in His commandments, given for our own good, as a sign that we are truly His people. “Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form– only a voice …So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure…” (Deut. 4:12; Deut. 4:15-16). What can be more explicit than that? Hence, it is clear why His anger was roused when His people bowed down to the image of a golden calf (Exodus 35).

Being Spirit, God has no form. We are guilty of mental idolatry when we make images or representations of God. It insults and dishonors Him when we elevate what is merely created to the same position as the Creator and true God. Nothing and no one can equal God, not even the most beautiful and best creation. We cannot put God in a box. His Deity, greatness and attributes cannot be contained in any mold of any size. It should sober us to know that when we bow down and sacrifice to idols, we are, in fact, worshiping demons. “What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons” (1 Cor. 10:19-20).

2. Idolatry Darkens The Mind. “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). Our mind is deceived when we worship a lie, which is what an idol is. To have Jesus is to gain everything, so why would we settle for anything less? We are selling ourselves short by believing in a phony, a phantom or a figment of our imagination. Our faith gets displaced on the wrong object. Our allegiance is transferred from where it should be to where it should not be. Why exchange the Living to the lifeless? Who alone can grant salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal life? We have the real thing in Jesus Christ. He is risen and very much alive and active, hence the absence of the crucified figure in the Christian cross. Religion or an inanimate object cannot do for us what Jesus has done and could do today and in all our tomorrows.

Some people believe that Feng Shui (the Chinese word for air and water), when applied in the design of their homes, will make prosperity flow, trusting in it rather than God. In idolizing money, people sacrifice health, family and spiritual matters, and yet it fails to buy them happiness; the suicide rate in rich, developed countries bears witness to this. Bill Gothard defines idolatry as “trusting people, possessions or positions to do for me what only God can do.” We may not be found culpable when it comes to the adoration of images, but we may be found at fault when it comes to the idolatry of possessions, relationships, approval, positions, work / ministry.

3. Idolatry Is Deadly Because It Is The Root Of Other Sins. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them” (Romans1:21-24).

Idolatry has a telling effect on our life. Who or what we worship and how we worship controls our behavior. When our hearts run after false gods, sinful desires – greed and covetousness – are born. Greed and covetousness, being forms of idolatry, give birth to all kinds of evil. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col. 3:5). The Bible warns us: “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Ephes. 5:5).

We cannot develop a real hunger for God if we are full of the counterfeit. Can we claim that there is no one in heaven for us but God, and that there is nothing on earth we desire but Him (Psalm 73:25)?

David Powlison’s words should speak to all of us: “The most basic question which God poses to each human heart: Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to my heart’s functional trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear, and delight?”

To identify the idols of our hearts, we need to ask ourselves the following questions: What is so important to me that I must have but in reality I do not really need? What is so important to me that if I don’t have it, my world will fall apart? What makes me angry? What makes me worry? What makes me afraid? What makes me depressed? Know, beware, surrender – getting rid of our idols is a must!

Date given: 9/23/2007
Speaker: Ptr. Peter Tanchi