How God Deals With Our Idols

How God Deals With Our Idols

Let’s turn in our Bibles this morning to Ezekiel chapter 14. Last Sunday we started a new series called “Idols of the heart.” If you missed last Sunday, let me encourage you to listen to the message on the internet, or pick up a copy of the manuscript on the table in the foyer. Our text for the series is 1 John 5:21, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” We defined an idol, or idolatry, as “anything, tangible or intangible, that we love more than God, that we honor more than God, that we pursue more than God, and that we want more than God’s will.” In a nutshell, idolatry is taking God off the throne of our heart and putting something else there.

Before we go any further in our study, let me take a minute and direct your attention to an outstanding resource. A book that has been very helpful to me, and from which I am drawing some of our material, is this book, “Idols of the Heart, Learning to Long for God Alone,” by Elyse Fitzpatrick. She doesn’t spend a lot of time going in the direction we are going, but the book is invaluable for its insight into how our hearts manufacture these idols we worship, and then she describes how we tear them down. I highly recommend this book to you.

Last week in our introduction to this topic, we analyzed a classic example of an idol of the heart. It was the story of Jacob’s wife Rachel and her intense desire to have children. Hopefully I made it clear that the desire for children, in and of itself, was not wrong. Rachel’s idolatry was in taking the legitimate and elevating it to the pinnacle, or the purpose of her existence. She wanted children more than she wanted God’s will. Several lessons we learned from this story are 1, idols are very insidious. 2, idols twist our perception of reality. 3, idols never satisfy. And 4, idols will destroy you. And because of the serious nature of what we are dealing with, I ended the service by asking each of you to literally take a stand and commit to dealing with the idols God reveals to us over the next few weeks. Do you remember what our three-fold prayer is?

1. That God would reveal our idols to us.
2. That the Holy Spirit would convict us when we are at worship.
3. That God would grant us the grace to tear down the idol and put God back in His rightful place.

I want us to start this morning by looking at Ez. chapter 14. Turn there with me and let’s consider how God deals with idolatry.

Then some elders of Israel came to me [the prophet Ezekiel] and sat down before me. 2 And the word of the LORD came to me saying, 3 "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all? 4 "Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols, 5 in order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols."' 6 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations. 7 "For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the LORD will be brought to answer him in My own person. 8 "And I shall set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I shall cut him off from among My people. So you will know that I am the LORD.

These are very strong words God utters in response to idolatry on the part of His children, and I want to show you five responses that illustrate how seriously God takes idolatry. The first response is found in verse four where we see that God focuses on the idol.

I. He Focuses on the Idol – v. 4

'Thus says the Lord God, "Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols.

What God is telling us in this verse is that there is a particular way in which He deals with the idols of His children. If you come to God with a particular request, and at the same time have an idol in your heart, God’s focus is going to be on the idol, not your request.

Let’s say you have a son who needs a car, and he has his eyes on a ’67 Camaro that needs a lot of work. You look at the car with him and advise him against it because of the time involved to make it run and the amount of money he is going to have to spend to get it on the road. And on top of that, the guy selling it is asking a ridiculously high price for it. But you son isn’t in a listening mood and he buys it. All he can see is a meticulously restored ’67 Camaro. Six months later the car is still up on blocks in your back yard, your son can’t find a transmission for it anywhere, he is still borrowing your car to get to work, and he is out of money. So he comes to you and asks to borrow a thousand dollars to buy a different car. What is the wise father going to do?

He is going to sit down with his son and say, “Let’s talk about why you are asking me for $1,000.00.” Do you see how that works? There is something more important than the son’s need of transportation that has to be dealt with. The thousand dollars really isn’t that big of an issue. The real issue that has to be addressed is the son’s refusal to listen to the counsel of his father. And because of that, the wise father knows that if the “idol” isn’t dealt with, this scenario will be repeated year after year. The specifics may change, but the core issue will continue to cause problems.

That is exactly what is going on in Ezekiel’s day. The elders of the nation wanted direction from God about the future of Israel, so they went to God’s man, Ezekiel, to get a word from the Lord. But God wasn’t interested in their specific request for guidance. Now, it was admirable that they were going to God for help, that is a good thing to do, but there was a bigger issue that needed to be dealt with. It was the idols they had in their lives. This is why God says, “I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols.”
So the first way God responds to idols of the heart is to focus on the idol. You want to talk to God about your finances, God wants to talk to you about your idols. You want to talk to God about your unsaved children, God wants to talk to you about your idols. You want to talk to God about your unreasonable boss, God wants to talk to you about your idols. You want to talk to God about the economy, God wants to talk to you about your idols. You want to talk to God about the election this fall, God wants to talk to you about your idols. Are you starting to get the picture? God focuses on idols. Your finances and children and boss and the economy and the election are all good things to go to God for advice about, but something even more important than those issues is whether or not God is the sole possessor of the throne of your heart.

Now, as an interesting little side note, I want us to go back to last week when I told you that idols distort our perception of reality. Did you see that truth in this passage? Look back at verses three and four and note the phrases, “before their faces” (v. 3), and “before his face” (v. 4). I have a little experiment for us. I want everyone to spread their fingers and hold their hand about one inch in front of their face. How clearly can you see? While it is true that you can see good enough to function, your view is distorted. Your depth perception is mixed up and a fair percentage of your field of vision is obscured. That is the significance of God describing an idol of the heart by saying they are “in front our face.” Idolatry affects every dimension of our life. No matter what direction you turn, when you have an idol in your heart, that idol is distorting whatever it is you are trying to do. An idol of the heart will affect how you raise your family, how you spend your money, how you worship, how you work, how you relate to your spouse, how you serve in the church, how you spend your free time, and the list goes on and on. That is why God takes them so seriously.

So the first way God deals with idols of the heart is that He focuses on the idol. The second way God deals with idols of the heart is found in verse five, and here we see that He deals with the heart.

II. He Deals With the Heart – v. 5

In verse five we read that God will “lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols.” It is instructive that God does not say, “I will destroy the idols of the house of Israel.” He says, “I will lay hold of the heart of the house of Israel.” Dealing conclusively with idols requires dealing with the heart, because the heart not only generates idols, it also enshrines them. This is why the Bible is so full of teaching on the heart of man. It is mentioned over 700 times in over 600 verses, and I want to give you a brief synopsis of it. Don’t try to turn to all the passages I’m going to read, I just want you to listen to God’s assessment of the human heart.

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen 6:5

Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. Ps. 36:1

"But My people did not listen to My voice; And Israel did not obey Me. So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices. Ps. 81:11-12

A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a false mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, Who points with his fingers; who with perversity in his heart devises evil continually, who spreads strife. Pr. 6:12-14

For a fool speaks nonsense, and his heart inclines toward wickedness, to practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD. Is. 32:6

"The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick; who can understand it? Je. 17:9

This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Mt. 15:8-9

"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. "These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man." Mt. 15:18-20

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Pr. 4:23

If you are serious about dealing with idols, get prepared for heart surgery, because that is how God deals with it. An idol is a manifestation of a heart problem. Let’s go back to the boy buying the ’67 Camaro. The immediate need, the surface need, or the visible need is for money and transportation. He needs some money so he can buy a car so he can get to work. Will giving him $1000.00 solve his real problem? Not at all. His real problem is a heart issue. Whether it is pride, or selfishness, or arrogance, his heart is the problem. He refused his father’s counsel. So to deal conclusively with the transportation problem, the deeper issue (the heart issue) has to be addressed.

If you had a basal cell carcinoma on your cheek, you don’t want the doctor to put a flesh colored band-aid over it to help it blend in and be cosmetically pleasing. You want him to shoot your cheek full of Novocain, get out his scalpel, and cut the thing out. And then you want him to take that piece of flesh to a microscope and analyze it to see if there is any more cancer cells in it, and if there are, you want him to come back, hit you with more Novocain, and cut some more of your cheek off. You endure this because you are dealing with cancer and you don’t treat cancer with band-aids. Nor do you treat idols of the heart with anything less than heart surgery.

Dealing with idols of the heart is not for the faint of heart - you need to be prepared for the pain. If you are serious about God revealing your idols, and if you are serious about the Holy Spirit convicting you when you are at worship, and if you are serious about tearing down the idols; it will be humbling and painful. But it is worth the ordeal because of what it accomplishes.

I want to close this morning by asking you a question? Is our loving, heavenly Father obligated to come to our assistance and deliver us every time we get into trouble? Not at all! The passage here in Ezekiel 14 teaches us this implicitly. The elders of the nation needed advice from God, so they went to the man of God to get it. But God did not give them the instruction they wanted, He gave them the instruction they needed. They wanted advice about some dimension of the country, God wanted to deal with idols of the heart. I believe the implied lesson is that God is not obligated to deliver us every time we get into trouble.

But there is another passage that teaches us this explicitly, and it is found in Prov. chapter one. Listen to these verses. “They will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me. Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would not accept my counsel, they spurned all my reproof. So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be satiated with their own devices.” This is Solomon’s way of saying what Ezekiel said – God is not obligated to come to the assistance of His children whenever they call.

Let me tell you where I am going with this series of messages. Most of the people who are knowledgeable about history and the social sciences and political systems and economics believe that the United States is at a critical juncture. They believe that between now and the election in Nov. of 2012, we have a window of opportunity to bring our nation back from the brink of disaster. Right now, America is tottering on the edge of a cliff. What is at stake is the dismantling of the greatest political / social / economic / and religious system history has known. The United States of America is an exceptional country, unique in the history of humanity. But we are also being rapidly destroyed from the inside, and if we don’t fix our problems in this little window of opportunity, the damage will be irreversible. That is pretty much the consensus of opinion of conservative, knowledgeable scholars.

As a follower of Christ, and certainly as a pastor, I know that salvaging our country is impossible apart from Divine intervention. Civil reform is a band-aid being applied to a basal cell carcinoma. If our country is going to be salvaged, God’s people are going to have to lead the way. As I am praying for God to give me a strategy and direction for our church for the next 2 ½ years, there is a scenario that scares me to death. I know that part of the strategy is going to involve seasons of prayer and fasting, and I do not want us as a church to fall down before God and implore him to have mercy on our country, only to have God say, “I know that is what you want, but what you need is to get rid of the idols in your heart.” Can you appreciate the tragedy of being at this critical juncture in the history of our nation and God not delivering us because our hearts are full of idols? Let’s deal with the idols now. Let’s have God expose them now so we can deal with them.

How God Deals With Idols – Part 2

About a month ago we started considering the matter of idols of the heart. For a variety of reasons we haven’t been able to look at this for the last several weeks, so I want to take just a moment or two to get us back into the swing of things. Does anyone remember our definition of an idol? It has four critical elements. An idol is anything we love more than God, anything we want more than God’s will, anything we honor more than God, and anything we pursue more than God.
The first time we addressed this issue we considered the life of Rachel, and we learned four truths about idols. 1. Idols are insidious. 2. Idols twist our perception of reality. 3. Idols never satisfy, and 4. Idols will destroy you.
Our goal for this series involves three things. First of all, we are going to be engaged in a prayer effort that 1) God will reveal our idols to us, 2) that the Holy Spirit will convict us when we are at worship, and 3) that God will give us the grace to destroy the idols.

This morning we are going to be continuing in Ez. 14, and I want to finish up a message I had given the title “How God Deals With Our Idols.” The last time we were together we saw that when we take God off the throne of our life and replace Him with an idol, God becomes very focused on the idol. We come to Him and want advice, or help, or direction, or relief; but because He knows we need to deal with the idol, He focuses on the idol – not on what we want. We see this in the story of Ez. 14 when the elders of the nation come to the prophet of God to get some direction, and God says to Ezekiel, "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all? 4 "Therefore speak to them and tell them, "Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart . . . and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols.”

The second thing we saw last time we were together was that when God starts to deal with idols, He goes after the heart. He isn’t interested in cosmetic surgery – He is going after the organ that produces the idols. Our idols are not the result of our surroundings or culture. We manufacture idols in our heart. This is why Solomon exhorts us to “guard our hearts with all diligence - because it is out of the heart that all the issues of life flow.” So when it comes to how God deals with idols, to use a wartime image, God is going to bomb the factory that produces the tanks, He isn’t going to bomb the airfield where the tanks are parked until needed.
Now when we get to verse six we see the third way God deals with idols. In addition to God focusing on the idol and dealing with the heart, God demands repentance when dealing with idols.

III. God Demands Repentance – v. 6

In verse six we read, “Thus says the Lord God, “Repent, and turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.’” Repentance is a key factor in dealing with idols. Several weeks from now after we have identified the five main idols we worship, and we get into the nitty-gritty of dealing with them, this matter of repentance is going to come up again. God demands repentance. So, what is repentance? Is repentance feeling bad for what you have done? That is a legitimate element of repentance, but there is more to repentance than sorrow. Is repentance determining not to ever do the particular thing again? Again, that is an element of repentance, but there is more to biblical repentance than vowing not to ever commit the particular sin again. The key dimension of repentance is the mind. Let’s take a minute and see how this concept is developed in the Bible.

In the OT, the words “repent” and “repentance” comes from two different words. One of them means “to turn” or “return.” It can be used for something as general and non-religious as “returning” to your home, or for something as significant as “turning” to God. The other word translated as “repent” means to “feel sorrow for.” Gen. 6:6 says that the Lord felt “sorrow” for creating mankind because they were so sinful. The focus of repentance in the OT is on emotion and direction. You feel grief (נָּ֣חֶם) for what you have done and so you change direction (שׁוּב ).

Now, it is in the NT that we find the fullest expression of what biblical repentance involves because the word translated as “repent” means literally “a change of mind.” In Mt. 11:20 when Jesus “began to reproach the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent,” they were in trouble because they were not changing their minds about who Jesus was. In Acts 2:28 when Peter was preaching and said, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,” he was exhorting his listeners to change their minds about Jesus. Instead of the people of Jerusalem viewing Jesus as a fraud and blasphemer, Peter wanted the people to see Jesus as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. For them to do this was going to require a change of mind on their part.

So as we think about repentance, the picture that emerges from the whole of scripture is that repentance is a change of mind that results in sorrow and change of behavior. That is the definition I want us to remember. “A change of mind that results in sorrow and a change of behavior.”

To put this into the context of idols, when we are confronted with the awareness of an idol in our life, we have to first of all deal with it mentally. We have to view that idol the same way God views it. We have to bring our perception into alignment with God’s perception. Once we see it His way, our first reaction is probably going to be an emotional one – grief for how we have offended the God that loves us. But we don’t stop with sorrow, we change our actions. Remember our definition: “a change of mind that results in sorrow and a change of behavior.”

What would repentance have looked like in the life of Rachel? Let’s say someone had gone to her and said, “Rachel, your prayer, ‘give me children or I die,’ is the wrong prayer. Your prayer should be, ‘God, please accomplish your will in my life.’” If this person had gone on and said, “Rachel, you shouldn’t be relying on mandrakes and household idols for conception, you should be relying on God, the One who has power over conception.” Now that she has been confronted with an idol, what would a repentant Rachel have done? First of all, she would have dealt with it mentally. In other words, she would view the matter the same way God views the matter. She would have brought her perception of conception into line with God’s perception. Once she did that, she would probably be grieved by her pathetic attempts to play God. And that sorrow would manifest itself by a change of behavior. She would have “turned” from her desire for respect in the household, and her desire for personal fulfillment through childbearing – to a desire to be pleasing to God, with or without children! That is what repentance looks like.

And Ezekiel’s point in verse six is that God expects repentance from His people when they realize they have an idol in their life. Now in verse seven we see the fourth way God deals with idols, and that is that He deals with us immediately. Read along in your Bible as I read verse seven. “For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, [and here is the phrase I want us to focus on] I the LORD will be brought to answer him in My own person.”

IV. God Deals With Us Immediately – v. 7

Now the first thing I need to clarify here is that I am using the word ‘immediately’ in the technical sense, not the common way. The common definition of immediate is “without delay.” When a parent says to his child, “Get in here immediately,” he means that the child better not finish what he is doing before he starts to move – he better do it without delay. But the technical sense of immediate is different. We all know what a mediator is – he is a person who comes between two parties that are in conflict. Party “A” talks to the mediator, and the mediator takes that information to party “B”. Party “B” responds to the mediator, and the mediator takes that response to party “A”. In the technical sense, immediately means “without a mediator.” The prefix “im” negates the word “mediate,” just as the prefix “im” negates the word “potent.” “Potent” means “strong,” and “impotent” means “weak.”

To really appreciate this point, I want you to imagine that you have done something really bad, and you know you were in the wrong and fully deserve whatever the consequences may be. Furthermore, the person you have wronged is furious, and has a reputation for explosive outbursts of anger. Which would you rather do, meet with him in person; or have a mediator tell you what the consequences of your actions are going to be? I think we’d all appreciate a mediator. If the person you have wronged deals with you “immediately,” that means it is going to be a face-to-face meeting. Just you and him with no one to stand between you. No one to absorb some of the anger. No one to blunt the force of his words. Just you and him, face to face.

That is what verse seven says about God dealing with idolaters. He deals with us immediately. “I the Lord will . . . answer him in My own person.” The prophet of the Old Testament is not the one who conveys God’s anger. The pastor does not convey God’s feelings about the idol to the idolater. “I the LORD will . . . answer him in My own person.” God deals with the idols immediately.

I think one of the reasons we tend to have idols in our heart is because we can’t see God. We understand that He is transcendent, that He is far above us. And it is that distance that lulls us into a false sense that He really doesn’t care all that much. The message of Ez. 14:7 is that God does care, very much, and He will deal with idolatry in a very personal way.

The final point Ezekiel makes in this passage has to do with why God takes idols so seriously. Why does He demand repentance? Why does He go after the heart? Why does He deal with us in person? It is because God is very serious about preserving His glory. Look with me at verse eight where we read “And I shall set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I shall cut him off from among My people. So you will know that I am the LORD.”

V. God Preserves His Glory – v. 8

One of the truths about God is that He is a jealous God and will not stand for anything to share His glory. Six times in the Old Testament, God makes the point that He will tolerate no competition. That is the essence of the first commandment – “You shall have no other gods before me.” Another example is found in Deut. 4:23 – 24. "So watch yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God . . . and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the LORD your God has commanded you. 24 "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

One of the ways the Old Testament conveyed a person’s character was by his name. For example the name Daniel means “God is my judge,” and his character certainly exemplified his name. The reason he was willing to go into the lion’s den was because he knew God was his judge, not Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was nothing but the king of the land with power of life and death. God, on the other hand, was THE judge of all humanity, so when it came down to obeying the king or God, it wasn’t a hard choice for Daniel to make. So with this understanding of how names convey character in the Old Testament, it shouldn’t surprise us to read in Ex. 34:14, “You shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

The point here is that God will not share his glory with some other idol. He takes this matter so seriously that if the idol isn’t taken care of, God will do three things to protect His role as the exclusive sovereign of the universe. Look at the text with me and note that 1) God will set his face against the idolater, 2) God will make the idolater a sign and a proverb, and 3) God will cut the idolater off from among His people. Without taking the time to look in depth at each of these three dimensions of God’s reaction, let me just say that these responses are reserved for only the most egregious of offenses - things like offering your children as burnt offerings to the god Molech or engaging in witchcraft and demonic activity. God will preserve His glory – He will not share it with anyone or anything.

So to summarize how God deals with idols, we have seen that God focus on the idol, He deals with the heart, He demands repentance, He deals with us in person, and He preserves His glory. Is it safe to say that God takes this matter seriously?

Let me encourage you this week to continue in prayer as we travel this road together. Will you ask God to show you your idols, to convict you when you are at worship, and to give you the grace to deal with them? Next Sunday we will try to cover two major elements. The first will be to expose five basic idols we all struggle with, and the second will be a formula to determine whether or not an idol is being worshipped.