What is the greatest threat to evangelizing the world? At a
recent religious conference, one answer put forth was
“idolatry.” Just what is idolatry? One definition is an attack
on God’s exclusive rights to our love, trust, and obedience.
One writer had this to say:
“All humans have been created to be reflected beings and they
will reflect whatever they are ultimately committed to, whether
the true God or some other object. . .”
Beale, We Become What We Worship Note: Psalms
115:2-8
Text:I Thessalonians 1:9
“For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry
we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the
living and true God,” NKJV
I. Idolatry’s Antiquity
Romans 1:21-23
“because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him
as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their
thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the
glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like
corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and
creeping things.” NKJV
Abraham’s time – Ur Joshua 24:2
“And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord God
of Israel: Your fathers, including Terah, the father of
Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of
the River in old times; and they served other gods.” NKJV
Law of Moses Exodus 20:1-5
“And 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 bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the
Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth
generations of those who hate Me,” NKJV
Assyrian captivity II Kings 17:7,12,15
“For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned
against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of
the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of
Egypt, and they had feared other gods,” “for they served
idols, of which the Lord had said to them, You shall not do
this thing.” “And they rejected His statutes and His
covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His
testimonies which He had testified against them; they
followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations
who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had
charged them that they should not do like them.” NKJV
II.
New Testament Warnings
Paul in Athens Acts 17:16-17, 22-29
“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was
provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over
to idols, Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the
Jews and wi th the Gentile worshipers, and in the
marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.”,
“Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men
of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very
religious; for as I was passing through and considering the
objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this
inscription: To the Unknown God. Therefore, the One whom
you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God,
who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of
heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with
hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He
needed anything, since He given to all life, breath, and all
things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men
to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined
their preappointed times and the boundaries of their
dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope
that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not
far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and
have our being, as also some of your own poets have said,
For we are also His offspring. Therefore, since we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to thing that the Devine
Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by
art and man’s devising.” NKJV
Paul in Corinth I Corinthians 10:7,14
“And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is
written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up
to play”, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”
NKJV
II Corinthians 6:15-17
“And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a
believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the
temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them And walk
among them. I will be their God, And they shall be MY
people. Therefore Come out from among them And be separate,
says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will
receive you.” NKJV
Peter I Peter 4:3-5
“For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the
will of the Gentiles – when we walked in lewdness, lusts,
drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable
idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that
you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation,
speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who
is ready to judge the living and the dead.” NKJV
III. What Is An Idol?
Whatever we revere and worship; What we conform ourselves to
Greed or coveting Colossians 3:5
“Therefore put to death your members which are on the
earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and
covetousness, which is idolatry.”,
Ephesians 5:5
“For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor
covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the
kingdom of Christ and God.” NKJV
Power
Success and popularity
Recreation
Entertainment
Sexual immorality
Anything that enslaves us, anything that rules our time,
energy, thoughts. . Galatians 4:8-9
“But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served
those which by nature are not gods, But now after you have
known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you
turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you
desire again to be in bondage?” NKJV
IV. How Can Idolatry Be Removed?
Use good judgment. Use God-given minds. Isaiah
44:9-20
Use the power of the gospel.
As Wright notes in The Mission of God, “False gods destroy and
devour lives, health and resources; they destroy and diminish
our humanity; they preside over injustice, greed, perversion,
cruelty, lust, and violence. It is possibly the most satanic
dimension of their deceptive power, that is spite of all this,
they still persuade people that they are the beneficent
protectors of their worshipers’ identity, dignity and
prosperity, and must therefore be defended at all costs. Only
the gospel can unmask these claims.”
Make an active decision to turn from idols to the living
God, just like the Thessalonians. Everyone is either being
conformed to an idol or the world or to God. II
Corinthians 3:18
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror
the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same
image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the
Lord.” NKJV
Conclusion:
Everybody worships something. We become like what we worship,
for good or for bad.
What you live is what you really believe.
The Bible was written to transform your life.
God’s people are to think and act differently after hearing
the Word expounded.
You only really believe the parts of the Bible that you
obey.
