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WEEKLY
Volume 1 Number 29
17 December 2006
Keep Yourselves from Idols
(Message delivered by Pr
Hien Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, Dec 10, 06)
Text: 1 John
5:18-21
We can see the world nowadays is full of
idolatry, not only in man-made religions with statues, images and
pictures but also in the hearts of men with all kinds of “idols” such as
their loved ones, their self image, name, fame, titles, popularity, high
positions, wealth, worldly entertainments and pleasures, a movie star or
a sports star, etc.
The Bible says, “For all the gods of the
people/nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens” (1 Chro
16:26; Ps 96:5). The God of the Bible is the living and true God, and He
hates idolatry as it is an abomination to Him (Deut 7:25, 16:22; 1 Thess
1:9). This is the wrath or anger of the Creator against ungodly men, His
rebellious creature, “For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men,
who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that, when they
knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful;, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted
beasts, and creeping things. Who changed the truth of God into a lie,
and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed for ever. Amen”
(Rom 1:18, 21, 23, 25). When Paul was in Athens, “his spirit was
stirred (provoked to anger) in him, when he
saw the city wholly given to idolatry” (Acts 17:16).
God is very angry against idolatry, so was
His servant Paul. How about you and me? Do we have the same spirit? On
the Judgment Day, the idolaters will be condemned to Hell together with
the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers,
and sorcerers and all liars (Rev 21:8). God commands us to “flee
from idolatry” (1 Cor 10:14), and “keep yourselves from
idols” (1 John 5:21). Then what does it mean to us?
Idols and Idolatry
An idol is an image or an object that
people adore and worship. It may be any person or thing regarded with
blind admiration, adoration, or devotion. It may be a figment of the
mind, fantasy; or a false conception or notion; fallacy (Random House
Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary). Those who worship idols are
idolaters, and idolatry is the worship of idols.
God’s first and second commandments say,
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and “Thou
shall not make unto thee any graven image…Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a
jealous God” (Exod 20:3-5). And our Lord Jesus summarizes the
first and great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thine soul, and with all thy mind, and
with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30). Truly, if we do love God
first and above all, we will worship Him alone without any image or
idol, honour and exalt God’s Name alone, keep His Day holy, and obey His
Word alone because to love God means to keep and obey His Word (John
14:21, 23).
Then briefly, if we bow down and worship
anyone or anything other than the living and true God of the Bible, it
is idolatry. If we love and obey anyone or anything more than God, that
person or that thing becomes an idol to us.
Failure to Love God and Obey God’s
Word. When we disobey or
partly obey God’s Word, it is idolatry as we love our own will more than
God’s will. King Saul was deceived by thinking that it was fine to obey
God partly, but God said to him through the prophet Samuel, “Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams. For
rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity
and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the LORD, he
hath also rejected thee from being king”
(1 Sam 15:22-23).
God has magnified His Word above all His
Name (Ps 138:2), so if we disobey His Word, we do disobey Him. If we
despise or reject God’s Word, we do despise or reject Him. If we do not
trust in God’s Word, we do not trust in Him. If we think there is
something wrong with God’s Word, we do think there is something wrong
with God Himself!
Eve failed to love God and obey His Word
when she was tempted and deceived by Satan’s seductive words. We should
keep ourselves from idolatry by not bowing down and obeying men’s words,
ideas, doctrines, or philosophies. We should rather believe and keep
God’s Word. God confirms that He has perfectly inspired and perfectly
preserved His Word (Ps 12:6-7; Matt 5:18, 24:35; 2 Tim 3:16) so that we
may keep and obey God’s Word with all our heart, our faith, reverence
and submission. Satan has cast doubt on God’s Word, and so many nowadays
are deceived and just keeping those words that seem suitable, practical
or reasonable to their own mind or thinking!
Our Lord Jesus was also tempted by Satan,
but He loved God and obeyed God above all and overcame the temptations.
Abraham was tested to offer his only begotten son Isaac, whom he dearly
loved more than himself, but he passed the test as he loved God more
than his son and chose to obey God’s Word. We should remember that God
is angry against idolatry, and disobedience to His Word is idolatry!
Failure to Exalt God’s Name Alone.
It is deceiving to think that we are glorifying God’s Name while we have
secret motives or desires to have our names praised by men. Our Lord
Jesus knew the hearts and motives of the Jewish leaders and rebuked them
severely for their hypocrisy (Matt 6:23). The proper attitude is, “He
(the Lord Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease”
(John 3:30). One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to glorify our Lord
Jesus (John 16:14), so if we are filled with and controlled by the Holy
Spirit, we will do the same. The apostle John did not need to mention
his name in the Gospel according to his name and his three epistles when
the early Church already knew him and acknowledged his writing as
inspired and canonical, but when necessary for the authenticity of his
writing he put his name in the book of Revelation. But sadly nowadays,
we see many church leaders who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit
but still desiring their names to be promoted everywhere unnecessarily.
Their name and fame become an idol to them!
Failure to Learn to Be Content in the
Lord. The Bible speaks about
“covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5) and the “covetous
man, who is an idolater” (Eph 5:5). Here, an idolater is a
person who wants more and more, he wants something that others have, a
defrauder for gain, greedy for wrongful gain, a lover of money. When a
person is so greedy for fame, power, position, money, or any precious
thing in this world, his heart and mind are occupied with those things
and there is no room for the Lord and His Word! That is idolatry!
Paul says, “for I have learned, in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Phil 4:11) as
“godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim 6:6).
Are you and I learning to be content in the Lord and choosing Him as our
Portion?
How Keep Yourselves from Idols
Then how to keep ourselves from idols? Yes,
we are to love God and obey God’s Word above all, exalt His Name alone
and learn to be content in Him, but how? In 1 John 5:18-21 we have some
precious instructions:
Be Born Again.
“We (surely) know that whosoever is born of God
sinneth not” (v 18). A person who is born again will not
continue living in sin, does not keep on sinning habitually. Idolatry is
sin before God, so a person who is born again has “turned to God
from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thess 1:9). When
he failed to do God’s will due to his weaknesses or circumstances, he
will repent right away as he loves God and wants to keep his fellowship
with God.
Keep Oneself.
“He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked
one touched him not” (v 18). The Greek Text underlying KJV is
correct with the reflexive pronoun “heauton – himself” instead of
the corrupt text “auton – him.” Surely the Lord will keep His
children from Satan (John 10:28-29), but truly born-again believers are
to keep themselves from Satan and resist Satan until he flees away
(James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8-9). Eve and Adam failed to resist Satan and his
temptation, so they were defeated and fell into sin. Our Lord Jesus
loved His Father, did not tempt His Father, but strongly resisted Satan
by God’s Word until he fled away. My friends, we cannot tempt God by
going to a place full of temptations or read a book or watch a
program/movie full of temptations and then expect God to keep us clean
and pure! “Keep yourselves from idols” (v 21) is a
commandment. We are to keep ourselves from idols by loving God,
obeying Him, glorifying Him, and learning to be content in Him.
Be of the Lord.
“And we (surely) know that we are of God” (v 19).
We belong to God as He has purchased us with the blood of the Lord Jesus
and our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so we are not of our own
neither of the world. We are to glorify God in our body and our spirit,
which are God’s (1 Cor 6:19-20). Have you and I committed our whole
being to the Lord? Only when we are of God does God keep us and use our
lives for His glory (2 Tim 1:12).
Grow in the Knowledge of God.
“We (surely know that the Son of God is come, and
hath given us an understanding, that we may know
(experientially) him (God) that is true”
(v 20). We thank God that the Lord Jesus died for our sins, and rose
again and is alive to save us, and give us understanding so that we
might experientially know the living and true God. The more we know God
the more we love Him, trust Him, fear Him, obey Him and want to glorify
Him. Are you and I growing in God’s grace and knowledge daily? (2 Peter
3:18)
Be in God and in His Son Jesus
Christ. “And we are in
him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the
true God, and eternal life” (v 20). Without the Lord or outside of
Him, we have no true life, no salvation, no peace, no joy, no victory,
no blessings! How we are to humbly and thankfully keep ourselves in Him
with faith, love, submission and dependence! “He that saith he
abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1
John 2:6).
Conclusion
God hates and condemns
idolatry. He commands you and me to worship Him alone and keep ourselves
from idols by loving Him and obeying His Word above all else, glorifying
Him alone and being content in Him. We are to make sure that we are born
again, are of Him and in Him, are growing in His grace and knowledge,
resisting Satan and keeping ourselves pure. May God help us. Amen.
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