What Is Idolatry?

00:00:00.000 | In our circles, Pastor John, we hear a lot about idols. So what is an idol? What is

00:00:11.460 | idolatry? Why is idolatry dangerous? And what does an idol look like in today's

00:00:16.980 | world? Maybe the best way to get at this, instead of trying to reach out to the

00:00:21.780 | whole Bible and pull all the pieces together, which is not a bad thing to do,

00:00:27.040 | here, let's just go to one verse, one passage of Scripture, because I think in

00:00:32.520 | this verse, namely Colossians 3, 5, and 6, the answer to all three questions are

00:00:38.480 | there. What's an idol? Why is it dangerous? What do they look like today? So here's

00:00:45.360 | the verse, Colossians 3, "Put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality,

00:00:52.080 | impurity, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these,

00:01:00.200 | the wrath of God is coming." So, answer to the question, "Why are idols dangerous?" is

00:01:11.440 | because the wrath of God is coming upon idolatry. Nothing is more dangerous than

00:01:20.840 | the wrath of an omnipotent, all-righteous God. And Paul says, "The wrath of God is

00:01:28.400 | coming on idolatry." Now, why would that be? Exodus 20, listen to this, "You shall

00:01:35.480 | not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness or anything that is in

00:01:39.840 | heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is under the earth. You

00:01:45.040 | shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous

00:01:51.840 | God." The wrath of God comes on the idolater because God is jealous. There is

00:01:59.640 | a righteous and holy jealousy and an unrighteous and weak and insecure

00:02:05.960 | jealousy. And God's jealousy is not only righteous, that is, he deserves our

00:02:14.200 | deepest and strongest affections and admiration, but he's loving. It's a loving

00:02:19.000 | jealousy because we were made to find our greatest joy when he is our greatest

00:02:25.280 | treasure. He's jealous that he be honored by being treasured, and he's

00:02:31.960 | jealous that we be satisfied by treasuring him. So, he is jealous in a

00:02:38.320 | loving way, and he's jealous in a righteous way. And if we find God to be

00:02:45.200 | so boring or so negligible that we must put other things in his place that

00:02:54.240 | really satisfy us more than he does, then we not only offend him, but we also

00:03:01.080 | destroy ourselves. And those two things make God angry. He doesn't want to be

00:03:09.040 | offended, and he doesn't want us to destroy ourselves. And idolatry

00:03:15.160 | contradicts both of those things, and so his wrath comes upon the idolater. So,

00:03:20.880 | that's the answer to the first question, why it is so dangerous. And the

00:03:26.640 | other two questions can be taken together, I think, something like this,

00:03:30.480 | "What is an idol, and what does it look like today?" Paul says, "Covetousness, which

00:03:37.480 | is idolatry." So, what idolatry looks like today is the activity of the human heart.

00:03:45.480 | This is not a deed of the body that follows like fruit on a branch. It starts

00:03:52.800 | in the heart, craving, wanting, enjoying, being satisfied by anything that you

00:04:00.160 | treasure more than God. That's an idol. Paul calls this covetousness, a disordered

00:04:08.280 | love or desire, loving more than God what ought to be loved less than God, and

00:04:17.320 | only for the sake of God. But covetousness is the condition that this

00:04:24.040 | disordered heart is into, an act of loving too much what ought to be loved

00:04:32.120 | less, and that's why the wrath of God is coming. That's what idolatry looks like

00:04:38.360 | today, and it's everywhere in our culture. So, finally, what is an idol?

00:04:44.880 | Well, it's the thing. It's the thing loved, or the person loved more than God,

00:04:51.880 | wanted more than God, desired more than God, treasured more than God, enjoyed more

00:04:59.040 | than God. Could be your girlfriend, could be good grades, could be the approval of

00:05:06.440 | other people, it could be success in business, could be sexual stimulation,

00:05:11.160 | could be a hobby or a musical group that you're following, or a sport, or your

00:05:18.400 | immaculate yard. I was looking for some yard stuff the other day, and I

00:05:25.760 | clicked on a video ad for a yard service, and three people came on, and all of

00:05:32.560 | them made the point that this yard service enabled them to brag that they

00:05:37.960 | had the best yard in the neighborhood. What a motivation! I want to be number

00:05:43.240 | one in green grass. So that could be an idol, or your own looks could be an idol,

00:05:49.200 | could be anything. So Paul puts it like this in Romans 125, "They exchanged the

00:05:55.780 | truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature." Anything that's

00:06:03.320 | created, rather than the Creator. But there's no wrath for the

00:06:10.240 | children of God. And why is that? Because Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 1, "You turn

00:06:17.040 | to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son

00:06:22.760 | from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to

00:06:29.440 | come." So when we turn to Christ from idols, we escape the wrath of God, because

00:06:36.000 | he's for us, God is for us in Christ on the cross. Yes, amen. Thank you, Pastor

00:06:42.960 | John. So does Christian hedonism, this thing we're all about, a desiring God,

00:06:47.320 | this idea that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him,

00:06:51.040 | does this lead us to make an idol out of joy? It was the question raised and

00:06:55.720 | answered by Pastor John in episode number 120, be sure to check that out in

00:06:59.240 | the podcast archive. The entire podcast archive of over 400 episodes is most

00:07:04.000 | easily found on a mobile device in the Ask Pastor John app for the iPhone, the

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00:07:21.480 | on the "Donate" tab at the top of the page. Thank you for your partnership, we

00:07:24.720 | appreciate it. Well, we want to obey God's will, but that can be really hard on a

00:07:29.680 | daily basis. How do I know who God wants me to marry, or what car to buy, or what

00:07:35.040 | career path to choose? Tomorrow, Pastor John will explain the single most

00:07:39.120 | important key to knowing God's will. I'm your host Tony Rehnke, we'll see you

00:07:43.560 | tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:07:47.240 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What Is Idolatry?

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