I want to thank you for your
kindness toward me, Lord, these many years, your generosity,
your support of the ministry there, Cherokee, support of me
as a brother. I love you. Sad about Phyllis. Hard to believe about Phyllis.
She's a sweetie. She's a sweetie. Isaiah chapter 44. Beginning in verse 9, we read
the Lord's account of the mind of the idolater. They that make a graven image
are all of them vanity, and their delectable things shall
not profit, and they are their own witnesses. they see not, nor know, that
they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god or a molten
image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows
shall be ashamed, and the workmen, they are of men. Let them all
be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall fear,
and they shall be ashamed together. The smith with the tongs, both
worketh in the coals, and fashioneth with hammers, and worketh it
with the strength of his arms. Yea, he is hungry, and his strength
faileth. He drinketh no water, and is
faint. The carpenter stretcheth out
his rule, marketh it out with a line, and fitteth it with planes.
And he marketh it out with a compass, and maketh it after the figure
of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain
in the house. he heweth down him cedars, and
taketh the cypress, and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself
among the trees of the forest, he planteth an ash, and the rain
doth nourisheth it. Then it shall be for a man to
burn, for he will take thereof, and warm himself, yea, he kindleth
it, and maketh bread, yea, he maketh a god, and worshipeth
it. make it a graven image, and falleth
down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the
fire, with part thereof he eateth flesh, he roasteth roast, and
is satisfied. Yea, he warms himself, and saith,
Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. And the residue thereof
he maketh a god, even his graven image. He falleth down unto it,
and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me,
For thou art my God. And they have not known nor understood. For he hath shut their eyes,
and they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart,
neither is there knowledge or understanding, to say, I burned
part of it in a fire. Yea, also I baked bread upon
the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh and eaten it. And shall
I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down
to the stock of a tree? He feedeth on ashes. A deceived
heart hath turned him aside, and he cannot deliver his soul,
nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? This is perhaps
the most definitive expose of the willful ignorance of idolatry
in all of Scripture. even surpassing the foolishness
of the Philistines in propping up Dagon after the lifeless granite
deity was KO'd by the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. Or
the foolish Israelites at the bottom of the mountain building
a golden calf. Because here the Lord begins
to teach us of the mind of the idolater. He exposes it and shows
it to be foolish and ignorant. Reasoning has gone out the window. Intellect is suspended. And I,
like most folks, saw the uselessness of the gods of gold and silver
and stone and wood. That was the limit of my concept
of idolatry for a long time. As I read the scriptures after
the Lord revealed to me his truth, the truth of his salvation, I
began to see an assertion It was often repeated by God before
He talked about idolatry. And that was He set forth who
He was. His character and His attributes
before He told men not to raise up a graven image. I am the Lord
thy God, He said to Moses. Write that down. I am the Lord
thy God, thou shalt have no graven images before me. In this chapter, verse 6, our
Lord describes himself. Thus saith the Lord, the King
of Israel, and Israel's Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first
and the last. Beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call and
shall declare it and set it in order for me, since I appointed
the ancient people and the things that are coming and shall come,
let them show unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid. Have not I told these from the
time, and have I not declared it? Ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea,
there is no God. I know not of any." And then
he sets forth the foolishness of idolatry. Our Lord defined
Himself in such a manner that any notion of God or a God must
be held in comparison and contrast with Him. And so particular is
the description that our Lord gives of Himself that in truth
there is no comparison at all. He is God alone. God alone. There is no other God but Him. Therefore, anything or anyone
that is called God that differs to any degree from God as He
reveals Himself to be, that whatever it is, is an idol. It's an idol. This not only obviously removes
the visible gods formed by the hands of men like in the icons
and crosses and crucifixes and pictures produced in mass for
amassing filthy lucre, but most prominently addresses the mind
the mind and the thought process of any and all religions that
use the Bible, they use the Bible and scriptures to support their
false notion of the God they worship. And this is the dilemma. The way of disclosing the idol
is to listen to men and women who travel under the broad umbrella
of Christianity and Christendom as they describe the God they
worship. Listen to what men say. as they
talk about the salvation that they all proclaim, as they talk
about the work of Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree, as they talk
about the realm in which the Spirit of God operates. What
they're dealing with specifically, just as Isaiah spoke of here,
describing this false idol maker, they're dealing with the glory
of God. And specifically, they're not
saying that He doesn't have glory. They're not saying that He shouldn't
be glorified. But they do so under the fact
that they have changed His glory. That's the mind of the idolater.
That's what we deal with today. And if they fail in any measure
to match the standard that God has set in absolute terms of
sovereignty and creation, providence, and salvation, then no matter
how much scripture is quoted, no matter how many so-called
proof texts are tendered, no matter how many ersatz theologians
regurgitate their academic theories, whatever they talk about, that
is not God. It is an idol. It is an idol. God has set the standard, and
the standard is Himself. And He is thus the singular measure
of all deity, and there is no other. I know no other, He said.
This is God's hard line that He has drawn in the sand. He
has hung the plumb line in Israel, and when men refuse to acknowledge
God as He is, they are idolaters, and thus begins their journey
to reprobation and ruin. As I said, it's easy to discount
the visible gods, the manufactured gods that men make with their
hands, but our Lord in this passage discloses the thoughts and intents
of the heart, the mind of the idolater, and reveals that those
who are described must suspend reason. They must throw intellect
out the door. They must discount and disallow
the description that God gives of Himself. In order to proclaim
allegiance and faith in the God of their imagination, remember
the first part of the word imagination is image. They produced it by the power
of their hands, so this changing of the glory has to do with the
worship of the work of their hands. To the believer, the ridiculousness
of the thought process of the idolater boggles the mind and
begs the question, ìDonít you hear what youíre saying? Donít
you get it at all?î But our Lord said that. In verse 19, He said,
ìNone considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor
understanding to say, ìI have burned part of this thing.î Hey,
I bake bread on the coals thereof, I've roasted flesh and eaten
it, and shall I make the residue there an abomination? Shall I
fall down and worship it?" And we say, why don't they get that? But we must see this not in the
description of making a stone or a wooden god some finish out
of steel, but the willful thought process that manufactured the
so-called god that has permeated the pulpits and saturated the
pulpits of this nation, the airways of this world, with the idol
they call, they call, they name, the true God. So ingrained in
the mind of these who tote the Bible and quote the Bible is the invention that they've
made that the mere mention of the attributes of God in truth
As he describes himself in this book, it's tantamount to blasphemy
to their debauched and depraved minds. And there's a reason for
that. Back in our text, verse 9 begins
by revealing the substance of those who design and manufacture
a God of their liking. First, the Lord declares that
they attribute the existence of the God to the work of their
hands. And they do. That is why our
Lord said in Job the first thing he does for his people is close
up their hand so they can see his work. He shuts up their hands
and won't let them use their hands so they can see his work. Those who say make Jesus your
Lord are idolaters. Make Jesus your Lord. Those who say let God save you
They're idolaters. They have made a God that is
subservient to their wills. And God says they are all vanity,
empty, useless, groundless, all of them. They are empty, narcissistic,
self-deluded, and they possess a vacuum where the heart and
the mind should be. As it would say out in Texas,
they're all hat and no cattle. God says there's nothing to them. Nothing. Add them up to zero,
as Spurgeon said, and you've gone too high. Secondly, the
God they make is a delectable thing. Our Lord said it's delectable.
To them it's delectable and it's desirable. Not a being of delight
to the spirit, but a thing they desire for the pleasure of the
flesh, palatable to their lifestyle, and in agreement with their estimation
of the value of their own selves. Their idol loves everybody. Their
idol's son died for everybody. That love and that death, in
order to be effectual, is contingent upon their willpower to make
it so. They are idolaters and their
God is but a glamorized version of themselves. Remember, he said they make it
in the image of men according to the beauty of man. They said to David, where's your
God? See our God? We have a God. He's beautiful, made out of gold
and silver. He shines. We put Him on our
shoulder. We carry Him everywhere we go. Everybody sees our God. Where's your God, David? David
said, our God's in the heavens. Ain't nobody ever seen Him. Our
God's in the heaven. He's done whatsoever He is pleased
in heaven and earth and all the deep places, even in the seas.
And you're just like your God. He has eyes that can't see, and
ears that can't hear, and a tongue that can't speak, and feet that
can't walk, and hands that cannot handle. You're just like the
gods you made. In fact, you made Him in your image, in your own
image. They made a dastardly duplication
of depraved vanity, devoid of substance. And thirdly, our Lord
says, they are their own witnesses of the uselessness of the idol
they worship. A God who cannot see and is devoid
of knowledge. His eyes, they say, the only
eyes he has are my eyes. The only feet he has are my feet. The only mouth he has is my mouth. Moses said in Deuteronomy 32
and verse 31, they're rock. Not like I rock. They witnessed to it themselves.
They judged to it themselves. And they'll tell you that. When
you start to declare the truth of the word of God, set forth
God as he is in scripture, the true and living God, the sovereign
absolute ruler of this universe. You know what they say? That's
not my God. I know. I know. In Isaiah's look at idolatry,
there is difficulty in defining what idolatry is within what
is called Christianity, or those facets of religion that travel
under the broad scope of those that name the name of Christ
as Lord and Savior. We know some things are so because
they are clearly declared in Scripture. Our Lord said to the
false religion, of the false religion, that it is a counterfeit. It is a counterfeit, and therefore
very close in appearance to the truth. So close, in fact, he
said, if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect.
It's not possible, but that's how close it is. So this idolatry,
this form of idolatry, employs the language of Scripture. They
taught Bible, and they know Bible. They know Bible. They practice
what is believed to be commonly the life of a Christian. So this eliminates the notions
of God of silver and wood and such, though visible elements
of idolatry like crosses and crucifixes and prayer beads and
pictures and statues and icons still play a part. They really
fall into the category much like visual aids and designed to pump
up faith. When you ask people about them,
they say, well it just helps me think about God. If you need
some help to think about God, you don't know the God of the
Bible. What defines idolatry is subtle,
because it's a state of mind whereby a person worships the
works of his hands and the will of his heart as meritorious before
God, and he does it by changing the glory of God. That's how
he does it. But which God does he change? He doesn't change the God He's
created. The God of His own making that He has whittled out of scripture.
He doesn't change Him. What glory does He change? He changes the glory of the true
and living God. And it's so subtle. Calls Him
Jehovah. Calls Jesus Savior and Lord. Sings the same hymns we sing. talks about Christ as if he loves
him, says fine things about him. Remember, the idolatry we faith
in this world is not stone or gold or wood deities, but the
imaginations of the heart and spiritual wickedness in high
places. It appears as Christianity, and there is the dilemma. Turn
if you will over to Romans chapter 1. The heart of idolatry is refusing
to acknowledge God as He is. People don't refuse to acknowledge
God under the guise of Christianity. They all acknowledge God. But
they refuse to acknowledge Him as He is. And this is important.
Because this is why the Gospel is given to us. This is why God
has given us knowledge and understanding, so we could acknowledge God as
He is in Scripture. That's what it says in Ephesians
chapter 1. But in Romans chapter 1, Begin
reading with verse 16. Paul said, I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. The reason he's not ashamed is
because that's the gospel that saved his soul. You ain't ashamed
of the one that saved your soul. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, and it is
written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." Who hold the
truth. One person said, and I believe
he was right, he said, who hold back the truth in unrighteousness. The old days in the slaughterhouse,
in the abattoirs, they'd put a rope around a calf's neck and
put him on the killing floor, and there was already blood there,
and that calf would get excited and start backing away against
that rope, just hold himself in one place. They do it a lot
more nice today, but they used to take a sledgehammer and slam
him on the side of the head and kill him right there. But he
was holding back against that rope, pushing on that slick floor. That's what I'm talking about,
holding back the truth, holding back the truth of unrighteousness,
holding back against it. And it says, Because that which
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it
to them, so they know something about God. For the invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.
Being understood by the things that are made. Even His eternal
power and Godhead, this is understood. So that they are without excuse
when they change His glory. Because that when they knew God,
or knew of God, or knew God as He's revealed Himself there,
they glorified Him not as God. but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened, proficient themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like corruptible man, and later on other creatures
also. This ultimately ends in reprobation,
but I want you to look At verse 28, here again our Lord said,
they are reprobates because they did not like to retain God. If
you have a marginal reason, they did not like to acknowledge God. And God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. This ultimately ends in reprobation,
which in itself is the height of idolatry. But here's the wondrous
thing, look at verse 32. Now you think how God has described
these people, they're reprobates. A reprobate is unsavable, unredeemable,
unrecoverable. They are reprobates. And look
what he says in verse 32. Here he describes them. Who knowing
the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are
worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in
them. This is a very intriguing verse. Very intriguing verse. It speaks of one who has changed
the glory of God. And what is the glory of God?
We know from what our brother has preached to us the last few
nights, the glory of God has to do with His will and the salvation
of the elect through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary Street, that effectual redemption accomplished by Him.
That's His glory. When Moses asked him, he said,
I'll make my goodness fast before you, I'll proclaim the name of
the Lord before you, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious. And then
when he appeared over to him, when he held his hand over his
face, when he put him in the rock and showed him what he had
done, his hindered parts, he said, I will in no wise clear
the guilty, but I've kept mercy for a thousand. Mercy for thousands. This is God's glory. This is
why we're gathered here today to sing the praises of our Lord
Jesus Christ and what He's done for us on Calvary's tree. And
they changed that. They created for Himself a lesser
deity, one that serves His own self-interest. This is clearly
idolatry, but with a strange twist. The idolater in the Christian
realm, whom God has given over to reprobation, is one who yet
knows that he will be judged, knowing the judgment of God. Does he? Does he know? Scripture says he knows. Not
only does he know he continues to pursue his idol, the works
of his will, and finds pleasure therein, yet he does all that
knowing God's going to judge him. Now that's a dilemma, isn't
it? That's a conundrum, if you will. That's a conundrum. This to me is a wonder and an
amazing thing. What depravity has permeated
the mind of men that they invent a God using snippets of scripture,
falling down and worshipping the thing they have made, praying
to it, seeking salvation from it, trusting that it will save
them while believing in it and at the same time knowing that
the true God will judge them for it? Think about that. Is this not
madness? This is why such balk at the
truth and despise the gospel of God's grace down deep inside
somewhere where their brain stem lives and where rational thought
still exists. They know. They know what we say is true. They know. That's why they get
so upset. That's why it bothers them so.
I hear preachers say, well, the doctrines of predestination and
election are confusing. That's the dumbest statement
ever made by anybody. Predestination. Oh, it's a high
and lofty thing. Well, let's see. No, it's not. This morning, or last night,
I went by the desk and I said, I want to be woke up at six o'clock. That was my predetermined time
to wake up. And I went outside and had a
cup of coffee, saw one of the brethren out there, had me a
cigarette. You had a cigarette. I predestined
to have one too, but planned to do it that way. Went back
and ate me a couple pieces of toast with jelly on it because
I ate way too much to have breakfast yesterday. Determined to go back up to my
room and I went there. Determined to put on my outfit
and determined to get in the car and determined to come here
and I did all that. That's predestination. You did
it a thousand times today. What does predestination mean? To plan with intent beforehand,
that's what it means. Is that hard to understand? No. It's easy business. Easy business. Ain't no great theological term.
We all do it. Old Bettner said that, didn't
he? We're all practical predestinaries. Every one of us. Election. God chose whom he would save
before the foundation of the world. Now what part of that
is difficult to understand? What part of that is confusing?
Men make it confusion because they hate it, and they despise
it, but they know it's the truth. They know it's the truth. Down
deep inside, they know it's the truth. And no matter the religious
finery they have, no matter what they used to call Splendida Picada,
shining sins, no matter their pious practice, they know when
we tell the truth, this is what they hear. Because I've had them
say it to me. I've never said this to anybody.
I've never said, you're not saved. I've never said that to a soul.
I've been preaching 40 years, I've never said that. But that's
what they hear when I tell the truth. That's what they hear,
isn't it? Because they'll tell you, you're
saying I'm not saved. I'm not saying anything. You
know what? The truth they know. But they've changed it. to please
themselves. That's what they've done. That's
what they've done. It rolls over in self-righteous
indignation. Knowing the judgment of God.
When I saw that, I went, really? Knowing the judgment of God.
It seems impossible to the rational mind that such hodgepodge could
even exist. Much less be the practice of
men who name the name of Christ, confess to know Him, and use
the Bible as proof, while knowing the judgment of God is against
them. Barnard said that unbelief is insanity, and it certainly
contains all the attributes of certifiability, I'll guarantee. In the Old Testament, defining
idolatry was somewhat simpler. There was the invisible God,
And there was the visible gods. That was pretty simple. In this
day out, day idolatry is defined in terms of will and works done
in the name of Christ and bolstered by declarations of faith, which
is clearly defined as sincere. And this is what these fellows
said when they made these idols. They worked on hunger. They fainted. They wouldn't drink
water. This was their business. Don't
think that these folks ain't committed They are committed. So the distinction made is the
idolatry is disclosed as it is held up against that which truly
glorifies God. That is what the idolater changes
and gives to men, gives to themselves all the while claiming that their
invention is God, is the God of the Bible. It is not. How is glory changed? God says
that He alone saves. The idolater says that he can't
save you unless you let him. Doesn't say he can't save you.
Still believes in salvation. God says he loves some and hates
others. The idolater says he loves everybody. God says that he does as he pleases
always and everywhere. And He does according to His
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What
doest Thou? The idolater says that God's
hands are tied, that He cannot override the will of man, that
He must ask permission to save men, that He can't do anything
unless men let Him, that man's will is the ultimate decider
in salvation. The Bible, God says, God is the
decider in salvation. God says that Christ died for
his sheep, for his elect, for the church, and they will all
be brought into the fold one day. The idolater says that Christ
died for everybody, and that some people for whom he died
will perish in eternal flames. God says that faith is a gift,
and it's not of man, and also that not all men have it. The
idolater says that faith is intrinsic to man. a spark of divinity that
merely must be fanned with religion and worked up to a saving frenzy.
God says that he made humanity from a single lump of clay, dividing
it into two lumps. One lump he would make as trophies
of his saving grace. The other lump would be mere
utensils to be employed and discarded when he was finished with them,
each serving their purpose, according to the God who controls all things. The idolater says that man makes
his own destiny. He is the captain of his own
soul and makes a decision to come alive from the dead. God
says that he cannot be questioned for what he has done and will
not give account of his matters. The idolater says, since God
has made me what I am, how can he hold me accountable for my
sin? This is the idolater changing the glory of God and giving that
glory to man. This willful thing. and reveals
the ability of a person to deceive himself while knowing that he
will answer to the God whose glory he has changed. I entitled this message, I doubt
if it's stupid. But it's not really stupid, is
it? It's willfully ignorant. The word for ignorant is ignore. We must see this in light of
the conceit of man in changing the glory of God, the salvation
of his people, and ultimately confess that it's so wrong and
so twisted and so convoluted that it can only be declared
to be so, rather than wire ourselves out trying to explain it. The
actions of the idolater are here displayed, but it is the mind
behind it that gives us a sense of what we must face in our day, this gospel age. The glory of
God and the salvation of the elect is and always will be the
subject and substance of the entire scripture and the reason
for the existence of all things. And you think, how do you and
your mind change that? That's the question, isn't it? One man said it this way, if
any man attribute all of his salvation to anything other than
the grace of God, He knows nothing of salvation. That's the mind
of the idolater. That's what we're dealing with.
Don't worry about the crosses and the crucifix and the pictures
of Wild Bill Hickok and all that stuff. Don't worry about that. Worry about the mind of men. Paul told Titus, the only way
these things are settled is through sound doctrine. preaching the
truth of the word of God. Some people say, well that's
dry doctrine. Our doctrine ain't dry. It distills
as the dew, it's moist and wet. Brings forth life, gives life
to the earth. Doctrine. That'll settle it. And it'll show you by the response
they make. that they know you're telling
the truth. God bless you.