God destroys idols; He is the great
iconoclast. Even good things can become
idols, and while reveling and boasting
seem good at the time, it is a grave
disservice to idolize anything or anybody.
The result is God's wrath, on you and the
idol. God will not be eclipsed.
2 Ki 18:3-4 (Amp) Hezekiah did right in
the sight of the Lord... He broke in pieces
the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for
until then the Israelites had burned incense
to it; but he called it Nehushtan
[a brazen trifle].
James 4:5 (Jer) Surely you don't think
the Scripture is wrong when it says: the
spirit which He sent to live in us wants
us for himself alone?
The Lust For Idols--A Matter of The
Heart
James 4:3-4 (Phi) You don't get what you
want because you don't ask God for it. And
when you do ask he doesn't give it to you,
for you ask in quite the wrong spirit--you
only want to satisfy your own desires. You
are like unfaithful wives, never
realizing that to be the world's lover
means becoming the enemy of God! Anyone who
chooses to be the world's friend is thereby
making himself God's enemy.
Col 3:5-6 (Jer) That is why you must kill
everything in you that belongs only to
earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty
passion, evil desires and especially greed,
which is the same thing as worshipping a
false god. All this sort of behavior
makes God angry. (Eph 5:5)
Eze 6:8-9 (NIV) "...How I have been
grieved by their adulterous hearts,
which have turned away from me, and by their
eyes, which have lusted after their
idols. They will loathe themselves for
the evil they have done and for all their
detestable practices."
Deut 29:18 (NIV) Make sure there is no
man or woman, clan or tribe among you today
whose heart turns away from the
Lord our God to go and worship the gods of
those nations; make sure there is no root
among you that produces such bitter poison.
(See also through verse 29.)
But Everyone Else Is Doing It...
2 Ki 17:15 (NIV) They rejected his
decrees and the covenant he had made with
their fathers and the warnings he had given
them. They followed worthless idols
and themselves became worthless. They
imitated the nations around them
although the Lord had ordered them, "Do not
do as they do," and they did the things the
Lord had forbidden them to do.
2 Ki 17:40-41 (NIV) They would not
listen, however, but persisted in their
former practices. Even while these
people were worshipping the Lord, they
were serving their idols. To this
day their children and grandchildren
continue to do as their fathers did.
1 Cor 10:7 (NIV) Do not be idolaters,
as some of them were; as it is written: "The
people sat down to eat and drink and got up
to indulge in pagan revelry."
Public Image--Making Idols Of Men
1 Sam 15:23 (NIV) For rebellion is like
the sin of divination, and arrogance
like the evil of idolatry.
Acts 8:9 (NIV) Now for some time a man
named Simon had practiced sorcery in the
city and amazed all the people of Samaria.
He boasted that he was someone
great...
A.W. Tozer: "Christ calls men to carry a
cross; we call them to have fun in His name.
He calls them to forsake the world; we
assure them that if they but accept Jesus
the world is their oyster. He calls them to
suffer; we call them to enjoy all the
bourgeois comforts modern civilization
affords. He calls them to self-abnegation
and death; we call them to spread out like
green bay trees or perchance even to become
stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious
zodiac."
Eze 8:12 (NIV) He said to me, "Son of
man, have you seen what the elders of the
house of Israel are doing in the darkness,
each at the shrine of his own idol?"
2 Pet 2:18 (NIV) For they mouth empty,
boastful words and, by appealing to
the lustful desires of sinful human nature,
they entice people who are just escaping
from those who live in error.
1 Cor 12:1-2 (NIV) ...I do not wish you
to be ignorant... somehow or other you were
influenced and led astray to dumb idols.
Isa 41:29 (NIV) "See, they are all false!
Their deeds amount to nothing; their
images are but wind and confusion."
Jer 2:5 (NIV) This is what the Lord says:
"What fault did your fathers find in me,
that they strayed so far from me? They
followed worthless idols and became
worthless themselves."
Ps 97:7 (NIV) All who worship images are
put to shame, those who boast in idols...
1 Sam 12:21 (NIV) Do not turn away after
useless idols. They can do you no good, nor
can they rescue you, because they are
useless.
Isa 57:12-13 (NIV) "I will expose
your righteousness and your works, and they
will not benefit you. When you cry out for
help, let your collection [of idols] save
you! The wind will carry all of them off, a
mere breath will blow them away. But the man
who makes me his refuge will inherit the
land and possess my holy mountain."
Isa 42:8 (NIV) "I am the Lord; that is my
name! I will not give my glory to another or
my praise to idols."
Do We Take Idolatry As Seriously As God?
Eze 6:4-6 (NIV) "... I will slay your
people in front of your idols. I will lay
the dead bodies of the Israelites in front
of their idols, and I will scatter your
bones around your altars... your idols
smashed and ruined, your incense altars
broken down, and what you have made
wiped out."
1 Cor 6:9-10 (NIV) Do you not know that
the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived: Neither the
sexually immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor male prostitutes nor
homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the
greedy... (Rom
1:23-25)
Eph 5:5 (NIV) For of this you can be
sure: No immoral, impure or greedy
person--such a man is an idolater--has
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God.
Spiritual Adultery
Isa 57:5-8 (NIV) "You burn with lust
among the oaks and under every spreading
tree... The idols... are your portion;
they, they are your lot... You have made
your bed on a high and lofty hill... Behind
your doors and your doorposts you have put
your pagan symbols. Forsaking me, you
uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and
opened it wide..."
Eze 23:7,29-30 (NIV) She gave herself as
a prostitute... and defiled herself with all
the idols of everyone she lusted after...
They will deal with you in hatred and take
away everything you have worked for. They
will leave you naked and bare, and the shame
of your prostitution will be exposed. Your
lewdness and promiscuity have brought this
upon you, because you lusted after the
nations and defiled yourself with their
idols.
Isa 57:10-11 (NIV) "You were wearied by
all your ways, but you would not say, 'It is
hopeless.' You found renewal of your
strength, and so you did not faint. Whom
have you so dreaded and feared that you have
been false to me, and have neither
remembered me nor pondered this in your
hearts? Is it not because I have long been
silent that you do not fear me?"
Ezekiel is Grabbed By The Hair and Shown
"Inside" The Temple Of God
Eze 8:5-6 (NIV) ..."Son of man, look
toward the north." So I looked, and in the
entrance north of the gate of the altar I
saw this idol of jealousy. And he
said to me, "Son of man, do you see what
they are doing--the utterly detestable
things the house of Israel is doing here,
things that will drive me far from my
sanctuary? But you will see things that are
even more detestable."
Eze 8:5:7-10 (NIV) Then he brought me to
the entrance to the court. I looked, and I
saw a hole in the wall. He said to me, "Son
of man, now dig into the wall." So I dug
into the wall and saw a doorway there. And
he said to me, "Go in and see the wicked and
detestable things they are doing here." So I
went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all
over the walls all kinds of crawling things
and detestable animals and all the idols
of the house of Israel.
Eze 8:12,15 (NIV) He said to me, "Son of
man, have you seen what the elders of the
house of Israel are doing in the darkness,
each at the shrine of his own idol?
They say, 'The Lord does not see us...'" He
said to me, "Do you see this, son of man?
You will see things that are even more
detestable than this."
Eze 8:16-18 (NIV) He then brought me into
the inner court of the house of the Lord,
and there at the entrance to the temple,
between the portico and the altar, were
about twenty-five men. With their backs
toward the temple of the Lord and their
faces toward the east, they were bowing down
to the sun in the east. He said to me, "Have
you seen this, son of man? Is it a
trivial matter for the house of Judah
to do the detestable things they are doing
here?... Look at them putting the branch to
their nose! [witchcraft] Therefore I will
deal with them in anger; I will not
look on them with pity or spare them.
Although they shout in my ears, I will not
listen to them."
Eze 9:1-2 (NIV) Then I heard him call out
in a loud voice, "Bring the guards of the
city here, each with a weapon in his hand."
And I saw six men coming from the direction
of the upper gate, which faces north, each
with a deadly weapon in his hand. With them
was a man clothed in linen who had
a writing kit at his side. They came in and
stood beside the bronze altar.
Eze 9:3-4 (NIV) Now the glory of the God
of Israel went up from above the cherubim,
where it had been, and moved to the
threshold of the temple. Then the Lord
called to the man clothed in linen who had
the writing kit at his side and said to him,
"Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and
put a mark on the foreheads of those
who grieve and lament over all the
detestable things that are done in it."
Would You Qualify For This "Mark" In
God's "Temple" Today?
Eze 9:5-7 (NIV) As I listened, he said to
the others, "Follow him through the city and
kill, without showing pity or compassion.
Slaughter old men, young men and maidens,
women and children, but do not touch anyone
who has the mark. Begin at my
sanctuary." So they began with the elders
who were in front of the temple. Then he
said to them, "Defile the temple and fill
the courts with the slain. Go!" So they went
out and began killing throughout the city.
Eze 9:8-11 (NIV) While they were killing
and I was left alone, I fell facedown,
crying out, "Ah, Sovereign Lord! Are you
going to destroy the entire remnant... in
this outpouring of your wrath...?" He
answered me, "The sin of the house of Israel
and Judah is exceedingly great... So I will
not look on them with pity or spare them,
but I will bring down on their own heads
what they have done." Then the man in
linen with the writing kit at his side
brought back word, saying, "I have done as
you commanded."
2 Cor 6:16 (NIV) What agreement is there
between the temple of God and
idols? For we are the temple of the
living God. As God has said: "I will live
with them and walk among them, and I will be
their God, and they will be my people."
James 4:5 (NIV) ...the spirit he caused
to live in us envies intensely...
Repent Or Perish--A Greater Judgement Is
Coming
A.W. Tozer: "Grace will save a man...
but it will not save him and his idol."
Jonah 2:8 (NIV) "Those who cling to
worthless idols forfeit the grace that could
be theirs."
Eze 14:3-6 (NIV) "Son of man, these men
have set up idols in their hearts and put
wicked stumbling blocks before their
faces. Should I let them inquire of me
at all? Therefore speak to them and tell
them, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
When any Israelite sets up idols in his
heart and puts a wicked stumbling block
before his face and then goes to a
prophet, I the Lord will answer him myself
in keeping with his great idolatry. I will
do this to recapture the hearts of the
people of Israel, who have all
deserted me for their idols... Repent! Turn
from your idols and renounce all your
detestable practices!'" (Joshua
24:14-27,
Deut 30:11-19)
1 Pet 4:3 (NIV) For you have spent enough
time in the past doing what pagans choose to
do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness,
orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
James 4:7-10 (Phi) Be humble then before
God... You are sinners: get your hands clean
again. Your loyalty is divided: get your
hearts made true once more. You should
be deeply sorry, you should be grieved,
you should even be in tears. Your laughter
will have to become mourning, your high
spirits will have to become dejection. You
must humble yourself in the sight of the
Lord before he will lift you up.
Eze 36:25 (NIV) "I will sprinkle clean
water on you, and you will be clean; I will
cleanse you from all your impurities and
from all your idols."
Eze 37:23 (NIV) "They will no longer
defile themselves with their idols and vile
images or with any of their offenses, for I
will save them from all their sinful
backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They
will be my people, and I will be their God."
1 Jn 5:21 (NIV) Dear children, keep
yourselves from idols.
1 Cor 10:14 (NIV) Therefore, my dear
friends, flee from idolatry.
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