To turn to First Corinthians,
chapter 10, as I announced this morning, our subject for this
evening is idolatry, idolatry. Verse 12, this is what we've
been looking at. Wherefore, let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall. And he had given five things
that are dangers regarding falling. And tonight we're going to consider
verse seven of First Corinthians, chapter 10. Neither be ye idolaters,
as were some of them. As it's written, the people sat
down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now, here is something
that you and I should fear. And I mean fear greatly. You
and I should fear falling into idolatry. Are you afraid of that? I think it's very interesting
how John ends up his epistle, little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Is that something you're afraid
of? Giving in to idolatry? Look what he says in verse 14
of our text. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Wherefore,
my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. Run from it. Be afraid
of it. Now, what is the sin that the
children of Israel kept falling into over the centuries. Now,
if you read the Old Testament, you're going to find out that
this is what they fell back into over and over and over again. They kept going back to idolatry. Now, that was the sin that they
seemed to keep falling into. And that ought to be a warning
to you and I, a warning regarding this thing of idolatry. Now, Paul in our text quotes
a passage from Exodus chapter 32, which is one of the saddest
and the most disturbing passages in all of the Word of God. Would
you turn with me there? Exodus chapter 32. Now, this event that took place
in Exodus chapter 32 where the people sat down to eat and drink
and rose up to play, it happened just a few weeks after the crossing
of the Red Sea. Now, these people had some amazing
experiences. They experienced, they saw the
Lord deliver them with the ten plagues. They saw every one of
them. They saw the parting of the Red Sea. They saw it part
and they actually walked through the middle, seeing the water
on either side. That's amazing. They saw manna
come down from heaven and they ate it. They saw water flow from
the smitten rock. Now, these people had some amazing
experiences. And Moses had been on Mount Sinai
for 40 days receiving the law from God. He'd received the Ten
Commandments and all of the civil and the ceremonial laws and all
of the instructions regarding the tabernacle. And we read in
verse 18 of chapter 31, and he gave unto Moses when he'd made
an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables
of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger of God. Now, Moses was up on this mountain
40 days. Verse 1 of chapter 32, And when
the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount,
The people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said
unto him, Up, make us God which shall go before us, for as it
is Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
we want not what is become of him. Now, why couldn't they wait
after all they had seen? But they didn't. They gathered
themselves together. Up, make us God. And look at the content for which
they speak of Moses. As for this Moses, I can almost
hear the contempt in their voice. As for this Moses, we don't know
what became of him. Verse 2, And Aaron, Moses' brother,
said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in
the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters,
and bring them unto me. And the people break off the
golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them
unto Aaron. Now here we see the weakness
of Aaron. Aaron was a believer. He was one of God's elect. He
was somebody that God had done something for. As a matter of
fact, he's called in Psalm 106, verse 16, Aaron, the saint of
the Lord. Now, that's a high commendation.
There is no question that Aaron was a believer, but he was a
very weak believer. And he was so influenced by popular
opinion. He was just a weak man. And he
said, break off your golden earrings. Now, where there's a weakness,
It'll manifest itself in hearing. There's some typical significance
to that. Break off your golden earrings and bring them unto
me. This is where our trouble begins
when we quit hearing. And I'm not just talking about
hearing audibly. I'm talking about hearing with the hidden
man of the heart and rejoicing in the gospel where you rejoice
in what you're hearing. And it does something to you.
It makes you love those people, actually love those people that
are hearing and rejoicing There's a special bond there. And you
love the God that's being proclaimed. But when that hearing starts
to flip, there's trouble. Now look what happened. Verse
3. And all the people break off
their golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them
unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it
with a graving tool. after he had made it a molten
calf. And they said, These be thy gods,
O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Now Aaron melted the gold, he
took a graving tool, and he made a golden calf. And everybody
said, just after experiencing all these things, they said,
These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the
land of Egypt. Now, how could Aaron do this? How could Aaron
do this? Look down in verse 21 of chapter 32. And Moses said unto Aaron, What
did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a
sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger
of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people, that
they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us
gods, which shall go before us. But as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what
to become of him. And I said unto him, If there is whoever
hath any gold, let him break it off. So they gave it to me,
and I cast it in the fire, and out came his calf. When we ask
this question, how could Aaron do this? Same way you could do
it and I could do it apart from the grace of God. There go I,
but for the grace of God. Do you believe that? And this
is the same of the Lord that did this. Scripture points that
out about him. And look at the excuse he makes. Out came this
calf. Now let's go on reading. Back
in Exodus 32, verse 5. And when Aaron saw it, this calf
that he made with the graving tool, He built an altar before
it and Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast
to Jehovah. Now, he didn't say we're going
to have a feast to this golden path. He said tomorrow is a feast
to Jehovah, to the Lord. They did not deny that Jehovah
had brought them out. They said this golden path was
a visible representation. of Jehovah, something tangible,
something we can see, something we can feel, something we can
experience. They knew the golden calf was
just that, a golden calf, but it was a physical representative
of Jehovah. Verse 6 of chapter 32, And they
rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings,
and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat
and to drink, and they rose up to play. Now, we see that this
was a very fleshly act, depicted by sitting down to eating and
drinking and then rising up to play. Now, if they could do this,
this was written for our admonition and for our warning, if they
could do this, I could too. You believe that about yourself?
Do you hold yourself suspect? If they could do this, you and
I could too. Now, what is idolatry? This is
what he warns us about. Let him that thinks he stand,
take heed lest he fall. What is idolatry? Well, what
is an idol? An idol is a man-made God. What is idolatry? It is the worship
of a man-made God. Did you notice what the people
said up? Make us gods which shall go before us. Make us gods. An idol is a man-made God and
idolatry is the worship of a man-made God. And there's a real problem
with a man-made God. He's not real. A man-made God
cannot hear, cannot see. A man-made God cannot help. A
man-made God most certainly cannot save. It cannot deliver. It is
a false God. any graven image, or 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, thou shalt not
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children, and to the third and fourth generation of them
that hate me." Thou shalt not make any graven image of anything.
Right off the bat, that tells us that all religious relics
are idols. All religious relics. Pictures
of Jesus, crosses, I don't care what you're talking about. If
it's a religious relic, it's an idol. Well, I don't look at
it as an idol. I mean, I just look at it as
a representation. No, you look at it as an idol.
Every single time. All religious relics, whatever
they might be, I mean, even in a in a building. I mean, you've got the big steeple
and you've got the stained glass windows and you've got all the
trappings. It's supposed to create a mood
and so on. It's an idol. It's an idol. All
religious relics are idols. Now, why is this so wrong? Why is it so wrong to make an
idol or to make a likeness of God? Why does he forbid it the
way he does? Because God is utterly unique,
and there is none like him. No comparisons or likenesses
are even possible. He said, who are you going to
compare me to? There's none like me. Any comparison I make and
say, well, this is like God, it's bringing him down. It's
not bringing him up. It's bringing him down to my
level. thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself."
It's degrading to the character of God. Now, if I said, God is
like me, would that be a compliment or an insult? It would be an
insult, wouldn't it? Any comparison you make of God or make like
God is an attempt to bring Him down. It's an attempt to de-God
God. Now, why would men do this? Why
would men make these idols? Well, the key is seen in the
last portion of verse 5. He said, he visits the iniquity
of the fathers upon the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
and the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Now, here's why a man makes an
idol, because he hates God. Therefore, he reinvents a new
God that he feels more comfortable with, that he likes better, a
God he can relate to, a God he can understand, a God that he
can touch, a God that he can feel, a God that he can see,
a God that's tangible, a God he can understand. And the reason
a man makes an idol is because he hates God as he's revealed
in his word. You know, Barnard was once preaching,
and he was preaching who God is. God is absolutely sovereign. God saves whom he will save,
and he passes by whom he will pass by. He was preaching this
message, and afterwards a woman came up to him. This is a true
story. A woman came up to him after she heard this message
he preached, and she said, your God is a monster. And he said,
prepare to meet a monster then. Because that's the God of the
Bible, and that is the God of the Bible. And when men don't
love this God, what they do is they reinvent a God that they
feel more comfortable with and that they can like and that they
can understand. Why do men make idols? Because
men hate God. Now, can that be said of all
men? Can that be said of me? Is that what I am by nature?
Well, hold your finger there in Exodus and turn to Romans
8. This answers that question. Verse 6. For to be carnally,
fleshly minded is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, that's
the mind I'm born with. That's not just talking about
a real fleshly, sensual person who's all the time out doing
all... That's just evil. Don't get me wrong. But when
it's talking about the carnal mind, it's not just talking about somebody
that's real fleshly and sensual. That's talking about the way
I'm born into this world. That's talking about my nature. The
nature that I bring into this world, the carnal mind, is enmity
against God. It's not simply at enmity, it
is enmity itself. That's what the Bible says about
my mind. Hatred. That's what enmity means.
Hatred of the living God. You know, you don't find out
what somebody really believes about God until they hear the
truth. You know it? That's when you find out what's
in somebody's heart. When they hear the truth. When
they hear the gospel. That's when that enmity that
may be underneath, and you never see it coming out. But when they
hear the truth, that's when that enmity comes out. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. Now, understand this about an
idol, a false god, a false concept of God. It cannot save. Turn to Isaiah chapter 45, verse
20. Assemble yourselves and come.
Draw near together ye that are escaped of the nations. They
have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image,
their idol, and they pray unto a God that cannot save." Now,
just as nobody is saved by a false god and an idol. You know as
well as I do, an idol can't save you, can it? What can an idol
do for you? Just as truly as nobody can be saved by a false
god, nobody is saved believing a false gospel. And the moment
we say they are, we begin to practice idolatry. Now understand
that. Nobody's saved by a false gospel. And the moment we say they are,
we begin to practice idolatry. Now go back to Exodus 32, verse
1. And when the people saw that
Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, idolatry has something
to do with a refusal to wait on God. They saw that Moses delayed,
and they couldn't wait. They wanted to stir something
up. They wanted to make something happen. I mean, what happened
to Moses? We want something we can see,
and they try to work something up. Whenever there's idolatry,
there's a refusal to wait on God as He's revealed in His Word. Look down in verse 6 of chapter
32 once again. This is what Paul quotes in 1
Corinthians 10. And they rose up early on the morrow, and they
offered burnt offerings, and they brought peace offerings,
and the people sat down to eat and drink. And they rose up to
play. Idolatry is utterly fleshly. It's play at best. You know,
most religion is just that. It's just men and women playing. It's not truth. It's play, and
it always leads to other sin. This rising up to play has something
to do with sexual sin, because the scripture points out how
they were naked at this time, and one sin will always lead
to another, and idolatry will always lead in this direction.
Idolatry cannot trust him who is invisible. So we've got to
make a visible representation. We've got to see something. God
is a spirit, though. That means he doesn't have a
material existence. He's spiritual. He is spirit,
invisible and powerful. And faith has to do with believing
and trusting that which we cannot see. Faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now I want to show you a couple
of scriptures in the New Testament that will give us some real light
regarding this thing of idolatry. Would you turn with me to Ephesians,
Chapter 5? Ephesians, Chapter 5, verse 5. For this ye know,
that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who
is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God. Turn over to Colossians, Chapter
3. A few pages over. Verse 5, mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Now, do you want to know what
idolatry is? It is covetousness. Covetousness. What is covetousness? You know, I think it's interesting.
People always put up the Ten Commandments, but they don't
much think about this particular commandment. It's the last of
the Ten Commandments. What is covetousness? It's desiring
that which does not belong to me. As I said, it's the last
of the Ten Commandments. Look in Exodus 20. Let's read
it together. Exodus 20, verse 17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox,
nor his ass, nor anything That is thy neighbors. Now, one thing
covetousness does right off the bat, it demonstrates to us the
spirituality of God's holy law. Now, it is possible, Paul claimed
he did, it is possible for a man to, at least outwardly, keep
many of these commandments. Paul said to all these things,
I was blameless. Before God's law, I was blameless.
He thought he didn't lie, or he knew he didn't. He thought
he never stole anything. He thought he never committed
sexual sin. He thought he never committed murder. He thought
he looked pretty good before the law. He really did. But you
know one thing that covetousness does, you can outwardly, I mean
it is possible under certain conditions, you can outwardly
maybe go a day without telling a lie or go a day without shoplifting
or going on and on. There's things you can do outwardly.
But there's nothing you can do about covetousness. It pops up
and it's something inward that nobody can see but God. And He
sees. And God requires perfect obedience. And you can't stop coveting. You might be able to, outwardly
at least, keep some of these commandments. And I question
whether you've done that. But inwardly, inwardly, covetousness
shows that you've broken the whole law. every single time. It has to do with the desires
of the heart. You remember that rich young
ruler? Turn over to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. Let's
begin reading verse 16. And behold, one came and said
unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have
eternal life? And the Lord met him on the ground
that he came to him on. And he said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? There's none good but one, that
is God. And the reason the Lord said
this is because he knew that this man didn't realize he was
God. He believed he was just a good man. You're a good man.
I'm a good man. How can I reach forth to your
goodness? What can I do to be good like
you? And the Lord said, Why callest thou me good? There's none good
but one, that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. You want to come to me on that
level? Okay. Go forth. Keep the commandments.
And he saith unto him, Which Jesus said, Thou shalt do no
murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother,
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now, do you notice
which one he left out? And he talked about all the table
of the second law. Which one did he leave out? Covetousness. Covetousness. Verse 20. The young man saith unto him,
All these have I kept from my youth. Either the guy was a liar,
or he is the most moral man, as far as that outward morality
goes, to ever live. And I have a tendency to think
that he really did believe he kept all these from his youth
up. All these have I kept from my youth up, what yet lack I? Jesus said unto him, If thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the
poor. And thou shalt have treasure
in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. He was a covetous man. This young man didn't understand
that he was completely controlled by covetousness and materialism
and greed. Now what you covet, you make
a god of. You make an idol of. You can
covet popularity. You can covet power, control
over people. You can covet pleasure. There
is indeed pleasure in sin for a season. You can covet these
things. What was Eve's sin in the Garden
of Eden? What was her sin? What was the
temptation? You can be like God if you eat
this fruit. She coveted that which belonged
to God. And she took the fruit and she
ate. Now this is what the Lord used
with Paul to show him that he was a sinner. You know, you can
make an idol out of anything. It's not just a physical idol.
You can make an idol of yourself. You can make an idol of anything.
And you know that. You can make an idol of anything.
This is what the Lord used with Paul to show him his sin. Turn
with me to Romans 7. Covetousness is idolatry. Romans chapter 7, verse 7. What
shall we say then? Is the law sin? Is it a sinful
thing when it exposes me to be what I am? God forbid. Nay, I
had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust,
I had not known desire, except the law had said, Thou shalt
not covet. Now, all I got to do is say,
Don't covet. And what happens? If you have
a bit of honesty right now, there's all kinds of things that rise
up in your heart that you covet. All I got to do is say, don't
cover it. Don't cover it. And you start covering, don't
you? That's what the law does. Verse 8, but sin, taking occasion
by the commandment. It used the law for this as a
basis of operations. It wrought in me all manner of
desire. That's what that word concupiscence
means. Desire and lust. All of a sudden I started coveting.
I thought everything was great. And God said, don't covet. And
all of a sudden the covetousness just rose up in my heart. For
without the law, sin was dead. I wasn't aware of being a covetous
person. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died, and the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore,
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was
then that which is good made death unto me? Is it the cause
of my death? Is the law the cause of my death? God forbid! But
sin, that it might that it might be seen to be what it is, working
death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment
might become exceeding sinful." Now, here's what Paul found out.
When the law said, thou shalt not covet, he found out that
all he did was covet. Sin became exceeding sinful. Covetousness is idolatry and
any toleration of idolatry. is idolatry. I want to show you
another scripture, Deuteronomy 7. Somebody read this recently. It really caught my eye, thinking
about this. Deuteronomy 7. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land, whether thou goest to possess it. Deuteronomy
7. And is cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites and
the Bergeshites and the Amorites and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier
than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly
destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show
mercy unto them, nor shalt thou make any marriages with them.
Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter
shalt thou take unto thy son. They will turn away thy son from
following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger
of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. Boy, that makes me stop in my
track. If you make, now listen to me real carefully, if you
make someone that is not a believer your friend, they're going to
turn your heart away from the Lord. That will happen every
time. That is how serious and solemn
this is. Look what he says in verse 5.
But thus shall ye deal with them, ye shall destroy their altars,
and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and
burn their images with fire. Now there's no toleration there,
is there? For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God.
The Lord thy God hath chosen me to be a special people unto
himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
The Lord didn't set his love upon you, nor choose you, because
you were more in number than any people. For you were the
fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved thee." Because
he would keep the oath which he'd sworn unto your fathers,
hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed
you out of the house of Bondman, from the house of Pharaoh, the
king of Egypt." Now we see from this passage of scripture, there
is to be no toleration of idolatry. There's no toleration of covetousness.
Now, give me some help. Give me some help. What in the
world am I supposed to do about covetousness? Because I can't
control that. It comes up, all you've got to do is say, don't
covet, and I start coveting. And that's the truth. You know
that's the truth. If I tell you just don't covet at all, it's
hard to tell all the things that pop up in your mind. You try
to bat them down, you try to press them down, but they come
back up. You put them down here, they come back up somewhere else.
That's the way the law works. Give me some help. How am I supposed
to not be covetous? You probably know where I'm going.
Turn to Hebrews 13. How do I go about not practicing
idolatry. Not making an idol out of things.
I see how easily I can fall before this awful sin. How can I not
be an idolater? Well, the way you can not be
an idolater is by not being covetous. Well, how in the world am I supposed
to not be covetous? Well, let's read this passage
of Scripture together. This is a wonderful passage of
Scripture. Hebrews chapter 13. He says in verse 1, Let brotherly
love continue. My dear friends, The children
of God are my family, they're my friends, they're my loved
ones. Let brotherly love continue. You start getting slack in this,
watch out, something's wrong. You start getting impatient with
people and mad at people and just, you know, I'm not going
to take that from them anymore. I'm not going to... watch out.
Let brotherly love continue. It says in verse 2, Be not forgetful
to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels
unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, being persecuted
for the gospel is bound with them. And then which suffer adversity
as being yourselves also in the body. You know, if you love somebody,
if they're suffering, you suffer too, don't you? If you really
love them. He says in verse four, marriage is honorable and all
and the bed undefiled. But whoremongers and adulterers,
God will judge. Now, verse five, let your conversation,
your life, your walk be without covetousness, and be content
with such things as you have." Now, we all live as kings, don't
we, materially? I don't see anybody in here hurting
too much. I'm thankful for the material blessings the Lord gives
us. I mean, how would you like to be outside without any heat?
You know, what if we didn't have any heat in here? I mean, I'm
thankful for the blessings of material things. Is this talking
about Just be satisfied with whatever you have and don't look
to get anything else. Well, you know, probably I'd
say none of us need anything else. And I won't, I won't argue
against that. But that's really not what the
writer's talking about here. Be content, be satisfied with
such things as you have. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. Don't be desiring anything else.
Now, how in the world Can I be content with such things as I
have and not have any covetousness? There's only one way this can
be understood. I'm not going to covet anything if I already
have everything. In Christ, what do I have? Now, we could talk about this
forever. In Christ, I have just bottom
line, the complete forgiveness of my sins. That's a wonderful
boon, isn't it? All my sins have been washed
away. Not only do I have the complete forgiveness of my sins,
I have righteousness before God. The very righteousness of God
is mine. The obedience of Jesus Christ
is mine. I have communion with God. He's
my Father. I'm His child. I can come into
His presence and He accepts me. I've got all the blessings of
God's grace. Ephesians 1, 3, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now,
what do I have? I have everything. I have all.
Is Christ all? Does the Bible say that? Christ
is all. What is there to desire? What
is there to covet? I've got everything in Christ.
There's nothing for me to covet, and I really believe that. There's
got to be something more. No, there's not. No, there's
not. If you're looking for something more than this, you've never
seen this, because if you've seen this, you're plumb satisfied
to be saved by Christ. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. Be content with such things as
you have, for He has said, I will never leave you. nor forsake
thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I shall
not fear what man shall do to me. He is without covetousness. We have such a love to Him that
we become true idol smashers, smashing the idols that we see
rise up in our heart. That's the true iconoclast. Little
children, keep yourselves from idols. And let me also add this. The Lord would not give us this
commandment if He didn't give us the grace to keep this commandment. Keep yourselves from idols.