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Colin Smith: He is jealous to guard against all images because He wants nothing and no one to distract attention from the one true image by which He has made Himself known. Jesus Christ is the one true image of God.

Steve Hiller: You’re listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. Last time, Colin, we began a message entitled, “Your Struggle with Worship,” really a message about idolatry.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and we saw from Augustine, the great Christian leader and thinker. He’s got a marvelous definition of idolatry. He says it’s using what should be worshipped or worshipping what should be used.

In other words, like creative things that should be used, putting them up on a pedestal and living for created things for this material world. That’s idolatry. But then there’s another way in which we can be idolaters, and that is trying to use the One who should be worshipped. That’s, “Hey, God, what are you going to do for me?” when in actual fact I should be before Him in worship and in adoration. I’m His servant, not Him being my servant. That’s very perceptive as to how idolatry works out in our lives.

Steve Hiller: It is perceptive. I think that for many people, they may not even necessarily be aware that that's something that they're doing.

Colin Smith: Yeah, I think a lot of folks have the idea that idolatry is hammering out some wooden image or carving something and so forth. So it seems like it's from another remote and early kind of world.

But actually, it speaks right into our world today, where so often you hear people say, “I like to think of God like this.” In other words, I’m the one who says who God is and defines Him and makes Him up in a way that’s comfortable for me. God says to us, “No, wait a minute. I am who I am.” And of course, it’s in the scriptures that He makes Himself known, and supremely in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Steve Hiller: And that’s why we’re going to turn to the scriptures right now. We’re in Colossians chapter one, verses 15 through 23, as we continue a message, “Your Struggle with Worship.” Here’s Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So the question is, Lord, how do you want me to use what you have given to me? Don’t let it become a god to me. And maybe the most important question that an individual has to ask is, what am I for?

I mean, am I just a machine to be fine-tuned for physical performance? Am I a temporal soul to be expanded for endless experiences of pleasure? No, you and I are special creations of God. We are made intentionally by Him in His image for His glory. That is why you cannot find the fulfillment of your own self or purpose apart from becoming a worshipper of Him. And that’s the second commandment.

Are you worshipping what should be used? That’s idolatry. But it’s only the first part of idolatry, and the second, if anything, I find is an even greater temptation and struggle for me. Let’s look at it. Not only is it taking what is given to be used and putting it in the place of worship, but it’s taking the One who should be worshipped and it’s attempting to use Him. That also is idolatry.

Now, God comes to us and He invites us into a personal relationship. This is a wonderful thing, but you know there is something instinctive within our fallen nature that when God invites you or me into a relationship with Him, something within us says, “Ah, this could be useful.”

I mean, if we have a relationship with God, we could get Him to protect our country. We could get Him to bless our family. We could get Him to give the things that we don’t have and the things that we very much want. We could ask Him to keep the Dow Jones going up. We could ask Him to have a great big church and multiply ministry.

Yahweh invites us into a relationship of worship and there’s something instinctive within us that sees Him as a resource to be used. And so we begin to come to Him rather like Aladdin’s lamp. Remember Aladdin and his lamp? Great thing to have the lamp, you see. You can get anything you want when you rub the lamp.

If you or I approach God like that, that is idolatry. It’s taking the One who is to be worshipped and it’s attempting to use Him. I ought to tell you that this is my biggest struggle with worship. I want to worship God authentically, but there is something within me that wants to use Him more than worship Him.

I want, of course, that He’ll forgive my sins. I want Him to get me into heaven. I want Him to give me good health, long life, an intimate marriage, success in my career, healthy children, multiple grandchildren. The list is unending, and if I find that I go out without one of these things, I then have a problem with God.

See, that’s why we keep coming back to this truth that the greatest worship you ever offer to God is loving Him in the middle of something you don’t understand, loving Him in the middle of a pain you would rather be without. Because what that is saying is, Lord, I love you and I will come as a worshipper, not as a user, but as one who offers myself to you in the pain, in the disappointment. I love you still. That’s worship.

Remember, the whole of the Ten Commandments are an exposition of what it means to love, to love God and then to love our neighbor. One writer puts it very helpfully. The explosive power of the living God cannot be harnessed. He is never at our disposal. We cannot bargain with Him. He is there to be worshipped, not to be manipulated.

And you see, idolatry tries to bring God under my control. Worship places myself under His control. There’s all the difference in the world. And of course, there’s no area where this is more sensitive to us than the area of prayer. Somewhere deep within us there often lies this idea that if I really pray, if I pray for a year, if I have a half-night of prayer, if I pray all night, then God must come through for me. And if He doesn’t, we get very frustrated.

Prayer is not a tool for manipulating God. Prayer is not an Aladdin’s lamp to get everything that I want. True prayer is offered in the name of Jesus Christ. That means in submission to Him. That means that it is subsumed under His purpose, and that is always the spirit in which I come to the One who loves me, and for that reason I’ve come to begin to love Him.

Idolatry then is very much closer to home than we often think. Taking what’s to be used and worshipping it. Taking the One who’s to be worshipped and attempting to use Him.

Now, that’s the second commandment. Why is it so serious? Why would this issue be the one that God would single out for the second commandment? It’s clearly a big issue, much bigger than we normally realize. Let me just offer three comments in the time that remains, all of them from the text here.

First, idols are offensive. They are deeply insulting to God. Look at verse five. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

Now, here we can use something that we learned last week. Notice that the word "Lord" there, if you look in your Bible, you’ll see "Lord" is printed with four capital letters. And remember we saw last week that if the word "Lord" is printed in four capital letters, it means that the Hebrew word Yahweh, the name that God gave to Moses, is being used, and that name means, “I am who I am.”

So let’s put that back into the text and read it again. You are not, verse five, to bow down to them, that’s to the idols, or worship them, for... so He’s going to give us a reason. Here’s the reason coming on why you’re not to bow down to idols. You’re not to bow down to them or worship them, for I am who I am.

That’s what the text says. That's what God literally said. You’re not to bow down to idols because I am who I am. I am not whoever you want me to be. And loving God means embracing Him as He is, and any attempt to pretend that He’s something other than He is, is profoundly insulting and offensive to God.

Now, maybe we can get a handle on just how offensive and insulting this is from a human analogy. We all know that trying to reshape another person according to your fantasy is just about the most insulting thing that you can do. But let me paint for you an imaginary scene.

I’ve chosen two names here, Hamish and Heather. This is a Scottish proposal of marriage that we’re going to describe here. And I want you to imagine, get in the romantic mood here, a candlelit restaurant, nice table, and Hamish has saved up all his money, and he’s bought the ring, and he’s about to propose to Heather.

With the candlelight flickering in the restaurant, Hamish gets down on one knee. “Heather,” he says, “will you marry me? You’re not what I was looking for, but you’ve got potential. I’d like you to lose a little bit of weight. I need you to change your wardrobe; it’s dreadful. Your laugh really irritates me, and you’re going to have to do something about that appalling accent. What will she say?”

She will arise from the table, slapping him roundly in the face, she will say, “Hamish, you don’t love me at all. You’re in love with a glittering image that exists only in your imagination, and I cannot and I will not fulfill your fantasy.” You almost want to applaud for her, don’t you? Of course she would say that because she has been insulted in just about the deepest way a person ever could be.

“I am who I am,” Heather would say, “not whatever you want me to be.” Our postmodern culture is saying to us, “God is whoever you want Him to be,” and nothing in all the world could be more offensive to the God who says, “No, no, no, no, I am who I am.”

Steve Hiller: Well, we have to pause right here, but don’t go anywhere. You’re listening to Open the Bible Weekend and a message called, “Your Struggle with Worship,” part of a larger series, The Ten Greatest Struggles of Your Life. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online at openthebible.org.

Well, I know we’ve got a lot of podcast listeners out there and so we’re excited to let you know about a new podcast. It is a companion to Pastor Colin’s book called Hike Through the Bible.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and each week I’ll read a chapter from the book and then I get to discuss it with some friends. So if you join us on the podcast in 50 weeks, we’ll cover 50 chapters of the Bible together and in a year, you’ll have hiked through the entire Bible story. Now, if you think hiking sounds like hard work, don’t worry, I promise you, this hike will be an easy, gentle pace, and it’s not too late for you to get started. So join me. You can subscribe to the Hike Through the Bible podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts, and you’ll find more information at openthebible.org/hike. That’s openthebible.org/hike.

Steve Hiller: We do hope that you will check out that podcast and that you’ll subscribe, not just on the audio podcast but also the YouTube channel as well. Let’s get back to the message. Again, here’s Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Secondly, idols are destructive. They’re offensive to God but they’re destructive. Look at verses five and six again. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. What on earth does that mean?

Well, this is certainly not saying that God punishes children for sins they didn’t commit. Be absolutely clear about that. God makes that clear in Ezekiel 18 and verse 20 if you want to follow it through. The son shall not be charged with the guilt of his father, nor the father with the guilt of the son. God does not impute sin to other sinners.

But the reality is that while the child may not be punished for the father’s sin, it is an observable reality that time and time and time again the child follows the father’s sin. He copies it. He repeats it. The father hates God, the son hates God. It is an observable reality in any society that a community reaps what it sows. That the more we replace the living God with idols as substitutes for Him, the further and further we end up in the cauldron of the effects of our own departure from God.

Look at how our society has changed in the last 40 years with the release and multiplication of promiscuity as something which is to be used has been put in the place of God. You see the breakup of family life, the multiplication of disease. We reap what we sow. No one sins in private. Every sin has a domino effect on those God has placed around us.

The Bible faces up to the reality that all of us know that we’re affected by the sins of others. You go to any counselor, you present a problem. In all likelihood they will ask you about your past experience. Why? Because they recognize that there is an influence that comes into our lives from our past experiences and from the sins of others.

And that is why I am so grateful for the privilege of being a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the good news of Jesus Christ says that the grace of God can reach into these otherwise continuing lines.

And some of us have known that. We’ve come from incredibly dysfunctional backgrounds. We’ve suffered from the example and perhaps the actions of others. But God’s grace has touched you, and because God’s grace has touched you, a new line begins with you. Light comes into a dark place because of you. A different kind of example touches your neighbors, your friends, your children because of you.

And it’s the grace of God bringing an entirely new beginning. He breaks the power of canceled sin, we sang earlier. He sets the prisoner free. He forgives sin and He breaks its power, so that in Jesus Christ as we embrace Him and He embraces us, we no longer need to live under the power of a bad example.

That’s the release of the gospel. And notice that while the breaking of God’s commandments sows weeds that afflict society for ongoing years and generations, it is also true that when a person comes to know and to love this living God, the influence of that spreads into the lives of others and it will never, never, never, never end.

Idols are offensive, idols are destructive, that’s why we need to flee from them. And lastly, idols are useless. The idea of course of inventing your own god seems very attractive because I could then invent a god who endorses everything that I want to do. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Yes, except that such a god exists only in my imagination and therefore is unable to do anything for me. He lives only within my mind, he’s produced as a figment of my own creativity, he dies with me.

Listen to this from Shirley MacLaine. I quote her because she has done so much to popularize the New Age religion that is sweeping our culture in many, many subtle ways. And I want you to see clearly where that thing is coming from and where it is going to. This is Shirley MacLaine, and I quote.

"I know that I exist, therefore I am. I know that the God source exists, therefore it is. Since I am part of that force, then I am that I am."

Wow. If Shirley is the "I am," I feel sorry for the rest of us. And more than that, if Shirley is the "I am," I feel dreadfully sorry for Shirley because who can she turn to? Who can do her any good?

The history of the last 50 years in the Western world has been the story of an attempted dethroning of God in order to enthrone the individual. And I want us to see with stark clarity where that leads. In God we trust becomes we trust in ourselves. One nation under God becomes one nation pleasing ourselves. God bless America becomes, hey, let’s all bless ourselves.

See, that’s the tragedy of what we saw on the video earlier, isn’t it? That intelligent people in the early 21st century asked a simple question about who you worship in the street could seriously say, “I worship the air,” “I worship my little dog.”

There is a world of a difference between the postmodern idea that is all around us that says God is whoever you want Him to be and the revelation of the Bible that says He is who He is. And I tell you I’m so glad that I can speak about the living God who is there, who is the Creator.

The God with whom we sometimes struggle but the God who is able to reach out to us in love in Jesus Christ. And if you want to know the ultimate reason why the second commandment is so important, surely it is this: that God is jealous. He uses that word. He is jealous to guard against all images because He wants nothing and no one to distract attention from the one true image by which He has made Himself known. Jesus Christ is the one true image of God.

That is why Christian worship must always center around the word and must always focus on Jesus Christ because this is how the God who is has made Himself known. Not through a projection of our experience, not through a cultivation of our imagination, but in the word and in the flesh of His Son, who is the image of the invisible God, the exact representation of His being, and that is why He could say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

You will not find God through an endless exploration of spiritual experience. That is a labyrinth from which you will find no exit. You will find God through Jesus Christ. This is why He has come into the world. The one eternal God reaches out to you in Jesus, and if you will embrace Him as He is in Christ, He will embrace you as you are in Christ. And that is the beginning of worship. It’s the beginning of eternal life.

Steve Hiller: What a powerful reminder of what true worship is and why it’s so important that we look to Jesus and to Him alone and how when we put anything in His place, that is idolatry. You know, as you’ve been listening to this message, maybe you’ve been reminded of what a relationship with Jesus is all about and why it’s so important that we look to Jesus and to Him alone and how when we put anything in His place, that is idolatry.

You know, as you’ve been listening to this message, maybe you’ve been reminded of what a relationship with Jesus is all about and why it’s so important. Maybe you’ve been convicted of the idols in your own life and God’s used this to encourage you in your walk with Him. But maybe for others of us, it’s been a reminder that we have never put Jesus first in our life.

We have allowed other things to take His rightful place and maybe as you’ve been listening to today’s message, you’ve come to the conclusion that you do want Jesus to take that preeminent spot in your life. That these other things that you’ve tried to put in His place are really just coming up empty and you want to begin that relationship with Him. If that’s the case, I’d love for you to contact us here at Open the Bible Weekend. We’d be so encouraged to talk with you, pray with you, introduce you to Jesus. You can reach us by calling 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. And again, our website is openthebible.org.

For Pastor Colin Smith, I’m Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you’ll join us next time. Open the Bible Weekend is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

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