Word of Salvation – Vol. 40 No.39 – October 1995

Is Your God An Idol?

Sermon by Rev. J. De Hoog on Psalm 115

Scripture Readings: Psalm 96:1-6; Exodus 20:1-6; Isaiah 44:6-23

Suggested Hymns: BoW 96; 115; 157

Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have read the first two Commandments again today, and we often say that the Ten Commandments are just as relevant for us today as they were for the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai four thousand years ago.  But let's think about the first two commandments.  What are they about?

The First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods before me."

The Second Commandment: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them...!"

Are these two commands about constructing and worshipping other gods still relevant in our society today?

We also read earlier from Isaiah.  We read his devastating critique of idol worship (44:6-23).  Remember the idol worshipper?  He cuts down a tree, uses half of it for a fire to cook his meal and warm himself, and from the rest he carves out an idol which he worships!  Isaiah ridicules such a person.  "No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, 'Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals; I roasted meat and I ate.  Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?  Shall I bow down to a block of wood?' He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself or say, 'Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?'" (Isaiah 44:19-20).

We read this passage, and we smile and say, "Exactly!  How ignorant!  We are too sophisticated for that nowadays.  Nobody would be so foolish today!"  And we don't see it in Australia today, do we!  We don't see people setting up images in their homes or on the streets to bow down before and worship.  Maybe the first two commandments aren't relevant for us anymore!

But to think that idol worship is no longer a problem in the modern age is to fundamentally misunderstand what an idol is.  An idol may be defined as any person or thing that has taken God's rightful place in any part of a person's life.  Whatever or whoever anyone seeks, honours or exalts more than the true God of Scripture in any part of life, is an idol for that person.  Is there anyone or anything in any area of your life that to you is more important than God?  Then that person or thing is an idol – that person or thing is taking the place God must have in your life.

When you think of it that way, you can see very plainly that the first commandment is still crucial.  "You shall have no other gods before me," says God.  God is to be pre-eminent.  No person or thing is to come before him.  But for most Australians, God is not even relevant!  They don't even think about Him.  Virtually everything else is more important than God.  There are millions of decent Australians who wouldn't think of breaking the 6^th or 7^th or 8^th commandments literally (they wouldn't actually murder anyone or commit adultery or steal), but who every minute of their lives break the first commandment!

Psalm 115 addresses this breaking of the first commandment.  The basic question that Psalm 115 answers is this: Who or what is worthy of worship?  Who or what should be pre-eminent?  And right at the beginning, the Psalm answers that question.  The Lord God, the maker of heaven and earth, is the only one to be worshipped.  Verse 1 sets the scene for the whole Psalm.  "Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness."

The Psalmist repeats the phrase "Not to us".  "Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory...!"  In the end all idol worship is basically a desire for self-glory.  Idols are the products of our own work or thought, they are ultimately projections of our own thinking and action.  So in the end, idol worship is self-worship.  And this is precisely the opposite of God-worship.  The psalmist emphasises – not to us, not to us, but to you be the glory, Lord!

Why should the Lord receive the glory?  Because of His love and faithfulness, says verse 1.  In the Old Testament, these are two of the most common and important Hebrew words that speak about God's character.  We could spend a whole day studying each word, but we can't do that now.  But to briefly summarise, the word translated 'love' here carries the whole idea of God's faithful covenant mercy, His grace and His loving kindness to all whom He loves.  And the word translated 'faithfulness' means God's unchanging, dependable goodness.  The point of this verse is this: God the Lord should receive the glory and our worship, simply because of who and what He is.

The nations round about Israel all have 'gods' made of gold or silver or wood, 'gods' that can be seen.  These are 'gods' that can be controlled, ‘gods' that can be understood.  But the God of Israel is not like these gods.  He can't be seen.  He can't be controlled.  So we have the question of verse 2: "Why do the nations say, 'Where is their God?'"  Of course, this is not a request for information!  The nations are sneering at God!  Where is the God of Israel?  Show Him to us!  Is He invisible?!  Maybe He doesn't exist!

A similar thought is reflected in 2Peter 3: "...in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.  They will say, Where is the coming he promised?  Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation" (vss.3-4).  This scoffing and sneering at God is a very modern thing.  Life just goes on, people think.  There is no evidence or proof that God exists.  The world just goes round as it always has, and God is just in your imagination.

In response to this sneering, Psalm 115 sets up the great contrast between the true God and idols.  The contrast is found in verses 3-8: "Our God is in heaven, he does whatever pleases him.  But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.  They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel; feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats.  Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them."

Here is God compared to idols: "Our God is in heaven, he does whatever pleases him."  We are reminded of Psalm 2, with its picture of the rulers of the earth rebelling against God.  From God's perspective, such rebellion is utter foolishness.  Psalm 2:4 - "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them."  You see, here is the real picture.  People these days might scoff and sneer at God - "Where is he, what can he do, give us some proof, he doesn't exist!"  And all the while, the One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

In the same way, Psalm 115 ridicules the man-made idols of the nations round about.  The Psalm echoes the thoughts of Isaiah.  The point is this: the maker of something is always greater than the thing he has made.  If you build a house or make a cake, which is greater, you or the house, or you or the cake?  You, of course.  The maker is greater than the thing made.  And so, since God is the maker of heaven and earth, he is greater than anything else.  We are right to worship him.  But how foolish to worship something you have made yourself!

Now I'd like to step back from the Psalm for just a few minutes to draw your attention to three basic biblical rules about human beings.  The first basic rule is this: Every person alive today is serving a god.  A person's god is the person or thing in which he finds his salvation, his deepest happiness, his resting point, the target of his goals.  The god you serve may be the living God, the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth.  But it may also be true that you are finding the resting point of your life, your happiness, your goals, your god, within the creation.

You may be seeking your god in material wealth, or in intellect, or in progress.  For example, on July 21, 1969, President Richard Nixon spoke to the Apollo 11 astronauts on the surface of the moon, and he said, "Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world."  He declared that the spirit of Apollo 11 would bring peace to all the nations.  His words betrayed a belief in the saving power of technical achievement.

Let me give you another example.  Suppose you reject something God has said in his Word because your mind can't comprehend it.  You say, "I can't understand it.  Therefore it can't be true!"  When you do that, your intellect has become your ultimate resting point, you are relying on your mind for your security.  You have chosen your god.  So, here is the first basic rule: Every person alive today is serving a god.

The second basic rule is this: Every person is transformed into an image of the god he has chosen.  The god you choose determines the sort of person you will become.  Christians, who serve the true and living God, have the promise that they are being renewed by the Holy Spirit according to the image of the living God.  But all those who choose another god are transformed into an image of the god they have chosen.

Paul describes this second law in Romans 1:21.ff.  "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator...!"

If you choose money as your god, do not be surprised to find yourself becoming a greedy miser.  If you choose progress and technique as your god, don't be surprised to find yourself becoming deformed into something like a machine.  What kinds of gods have we set up in modern Australia?  Some have given their trust over to the power of economic growth; they have put their faith in a rising standard of living.  In their eyes, nothing that does not serve economic growth is worth pursuing.

Others have devoted their lives to seeking leisure and pleasure.  Heaven for them is the land of the long weekend.  Such people become lazy and totally self-indulgent.  So you see, the second basic rule is this: Every person is transformed into an image of the god he has chosen.  What god have you chosen to serve?  You are being transformed into an image of that god.  Psalm 115 comes to exactly the same conclusion.  Verse 8 says: "Those who make them (that is those who make idols] will be like them, and so will all who trust in them."

We can laugh with Isaiah at the idol worshippers of old, those who use part of the log to make a fire to cook their meal on, and worship another part of the log after it has been fashioned into an image.  We might even be able to laugh at modern day equivalents, those who make a god of their possessions or their careers or their intellect or popularity or reputation.  Fancy putting these things first, before God!

But perhaps we don't laugh quite as hard at these modern day idolatries – after all, we often find ourselves worrying over much about possessions and careers and intellect and popularity and reputation, don't we!  This is getting a little close to the bone!  Perhaps we get just a little bit uncomfortable when we talk about these modern day idolatries.

But let me ask you another even more uncomfortable question.  Who is your god?  What is he like?  As a Christian, you serve the living God, the creator and ruler of heaven and earth.  But is this really the God you serve?  What is your understanding of God?  Is it according to the understanding found in His Word, or is your god a projection of your own fancy?

Let me explain what I mean.  At Christmas time in 1993, the Anglican Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, made the following statement.  "I am clear that there can be no hell for eternity – our God could not be so cruel.  I do not think it is possible to believe any longer in a literal second coming or the end of the world."  He went on to deny other biblical truths, like the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.  You see, Bishop Jenkins chooses to deny some of the teachings of the Bible because they do not fit in with his idea of what God is like.  Hell does not exist; God could not be so cruel!  So to that extent, the god that Bishop Jenkins worships is a projection of his own fancy rather than the God revealed in the Bible.  To that extent, Bishop Jenkins is guilty of idolatry, of defining God in his own terms, of making God in his own image.

What is your understanding of God?  J B Phillips has written a book called Your God is Too Small.  He identifies some of the images people use to visualise God: Resident Policeman, Grand Old Man, Absolute Perfection, Managing Director, Pale Galilean.  All these images of God are "too small" – God is put into a box, made to fit into our conceptions of what He should be like.  To the extent that we do this, to the extent that we try to put God in a box of our own understanding, to limit Him to what we can understand, to that extent we are committing idolatry.  We are worshipping something other than the true God of the Bible.

Here is a very serious matter.  For there is a third basic biblical rule that applies here: Idolatry is everywhere represented in the Bible as the greatest insult the creature can offer the Creator.  To put something in the place of God is the ultimate insult and the root of all sin.  That's why the Ten Commandments begin with two commandments dealing with idolatry.  Here is the most serious matter of all.

Let's think about the whole history of salvation in these terms.  In the original creation, Adam and Eve were made perfect.  They loved God above anything else.  Their world, their relationship with each other and their relationship with God was perfect.  Then the tempter came.  What did he tempt Eve to do?  Basically to commit idolatry.  To put something before God.  To put the knowledge of good and evil, and her own desire for the delicious looking fruit, before God's specific command not to eat of the tree.  She was tempted to push God out of first place and put herself there.  And she fell for the temptation.  And so did Adam.  The root of all sin is to push God out of first place.  The root of all sin is idolatry.

But mankind, in his rebellion, remains incurably religious.  The first basic rule applies: Every person alive today is serving a god.  Because of sin, in his natural state, every person born into the world is a rank idolater.  Every person is, right from birth, shouting the ultimate insult at God.  Every person is pushing God out of first place.  Every person is naturally worshipping the creature instead of the Creator.  And the second basic rule applies: Every person is being transformed into an image of the god he has chosen.  And the end of that whole process is eternal death, eternal separation from God – hell forever.

Does God simply retreat and leave us to our sin and misery?  NO!  God sends Jesus Christ into the world.  The One through whom all things were created, now Himself becomes a creature.  Why?  To set us free from our lives of idolatry.  To provide the way for us to come back into that perfect relationship with God and with each other that Adam and Eve knew; to rescue us and restore us to what we were originally, by creation, meant to be – perfect image-bearers of the true and living God.

What is Psalm 115's verdict on idol-worshippers ?  Verse 8 - "Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them."

What is the alternative?  Verses 9-11 - "O house of Israel, trust in the Lord - he is their help and shield.  O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord – he is their help and shield.  You who fear him, trust in the Lord – he is their help and shield."  The alternative to idol worship is to trust in the true God, the maker of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, the God who sent Jesus Christ to be our Saviour, the God who is right now gathering His church from every nation under heaven, and who will one day come to restore all things to Himself, so that He is all in all.  He is not a god in a box, a god we can work out and break down and fully understand.  He is not a god we can make in our own image, one we can manipulate for our own purposes.  He is our Creator and our Saviour and our Lord.

Seek to get to know Him better – He has given you His Word for that very purpose.  Do not project your own ideas of what He should be like onto Him; rather get to know Him as He is, as He has shown Himself in Scripture.  Do not worship an idol – worship the Lord of the universe.

Amen.