Confronting Idolatry
July 05, 2006
Pastor Matt Black
Midweek Service
Acts 17:16-34
Discipleship: What are the Ten Commandments of God’s moral law?
(Quote them.)
Introduction: Open your Bible tonight to Acts 17. We come this evening to a passage of Scripture that instructs us how to deal with idols. The title of tonight’s message is “Confronting Idolatry”.
[Read Acts 17:16-34]
John Calvin said the human heart is an “idol factory.” And he is right. The heart is constantly making God into the image of man. If we do not like something about God, we imagine Him to be something that He is not. We may not like that God is a God of justice, and so we worship a God who will forgive everyone except the “really bad” sinners. This is really a breaking of the second commandment, which says:
Exodus 20:4, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth…”
John the beloved Apostle closed his First Epistle with some strong words, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen” (1 John 5:21). John was saying basically that the root of all sin is idolatry! Stay away from it. Flee from it in all of its forms.
Acts 17:16, “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.”
I. Our hearts should be stirred because of the idolatry around us.
A. Our heart may not be stirred because idolatry is personal, that is it may be that you are in the blindness of idolatry yourself. How may you know that you or someone else is an idolater?
· Charles Spurgeon gave these tests:
1. If you love anything better than God you are idolaters.
2. If there is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol.
3. If there is anything that you seek with greater fervor than God-that is your idol.
4. Conversion means a turning from every idol.[1]
· What are some idols of self?
1. First there is the idol of gluttony. Paul says there are some “whose god is their belly” (Philippians 3:19). Paul goes on to say in the next verse that we ought to have a different perspective, “our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 20).
2. Some people comfort themselves with food instead of tasting and experiencing for themselves that the Lord is good!
3. Some people comfort themselves with fancy clothing. Their first thought of the day is “what shall I put on”? And before they go to bed, they think, “what shall I where tomorrow?” But that is idolatry! We should “put…on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh” (Romans 13:14).
4. Some love their family more than they love God. I have seen this especially in the case of children in our circles. Our family and our belongings can be idols. Turn over to Mark 10.
Mark 10:29-30, “Jesus…said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
What are some idols that our Lord tells us are common and that need forsaking?
· Our house and possessions
· Our family, whether it be brothers or sisters, father or mother, wife, or children.
· Our investments (lands)
What should we do with all these things? We should forsake them! This means we should give control of all things to God. The root of all idolatry is self-love. We ought never to love these legitimate things that God gives us more than Him. We ought not to comfort ourselves with them in the place of God. That goes for churches and preachers too. All preachers are expendable and replaceable! All churches can have their “candle” put out by the Saviour if they are not faithful.
Is your heart stirred because of the idolatry around you? It may be because you yourself are blinded by idols! But notice that Paul was not blinded. He saw something about this city, that… “the city wholly given to idolatry” (verse 16b).
B. Our heart should be stirred because idolatry is universal. Paul said, “the city wholly given to idolatry” (verse 16b). Do you know that lost people are in constant sin because they are given wholly to idolatry? That is they are given to it completely. Everything they do is idolatry. Proverbs 21:4 tells us that, “an high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” Calvin was right to say that the human heart is an idol factory! The law of humanism is that you can do whatever you want as long as you do not hurt anyone else. Many people will say—I have sinned, but only to help other people. This is nothing more than an idolatrous smoke screen to cover up the root of all idolatry—self love.
Anonymous quote: Someone said, “Idolatry has more to do with where one’s trust lies. Economic indicators, stock prices, and mutual funds may become just as idolatrous as asherah poles if people value them above God. Modern man bows before things as fleeting as sensuality, fame, health, power, and money.”
When you look around, do you recognize this idolatry in every person? Do you see that every person is in slavery to idols?
Illustration: I saw a story recently that Noah’s ark may have been found in the mountains of Iran. Do you know what people will do if they truly have found it? People will go there for a piece of gopher wood and worship it!
Throughout the dark ages, monks and priests in the Roman cult would produce a piece of wood from Jerusalem from some hill, and they would say it was from the cross of Christ (of course it wasn’t). And what would people do? They would worship it. Not many years ago people supposedly found what they said was the grave sheet to cover the Lord’s body, they called it the “Shroud of Turin.”
Man, if given the chance will always “change the truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
So our first question was this: Is your heart stirred because of the idolatry around you? Yet it’s not enough to be stirred! Are you ready to confront idolatry with the Gospel? To do that you must speak!
II. It’s not enough to be stirred, you must speak for the Lord!
So what did Paul do to confront idolatry? Look at verse 17: “Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.”
· He spoke with religious people and non-religious people
· He disputed in the religious arena and in the market place!
And how did he speak to them? He confronted their idolatry.
A. He ripped away all their false conceptions of God.
Listen to verse 22 and following: “22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;”
B. What did Paul do after that? He gave them the Law of God. Look at verse 30.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead
And what was the result? Look at the next verse.
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Some believed!
Conclusion: Are you stirred for people in idolatry? Jesus wept over Jerusalem! He loved the rich young ruler. Paul’s heart was stirred for Athens! But he
didn’t just stay in his nice synagogue and hope for people to come to him. He
went out and confronted their idolatry. Are you doing the same?
Video
Q & A
Closing
Hymn: 415 Seek Ye
First the Kingdom of God