Rejecting Idolatry: Embracing a True Christian Worldview
Devotional
Sermon Summary
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All who fashion idols are nothing and the things they delight in do not profit, their witnesses neither see nor know that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold all his companions shall be put to shame and the craftsmen are only human. [00:15:57]
The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line, he marks it out with a pencil, he shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. [00:20:40]
He cuts down Cedars or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. [00:24:48]
Half of it he burns in the fire, over the half he eats meat, he roasts it and is satisfied. Also, he warms himself and says AHA I am warm, I've seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a God, his idol, then falls down to it and worships it. [00:28:36]
He prays to it and says deliver me for you are my god. They know not nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot understand. No one considers nor is there knowledge or discernment to say half of it I burned in the fire. [00:31:20]
He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart has led him astray and he cannot deliver himself or say is there not a lie in my right hand. It's a remarkable passage and I want us to look at the passage before we even think about the reality of a worldview. [00:35:40]
The judgment of this passage is what's found in those last verses. The man asks shall I make the rest of it an abomination, shall I fall down before a block of wood? And the declaration he feeds on ashes, a deluded heart is led astray, he cannot deliver himself nor say is there not a lie in my right hand. [00:40:02]
The horrifying reality of this passage is that the ideas and the worldview, the fundamental presuppositions of the ideology are here. It leads him to hold a lie in his hand, to feed on ashes. Now as I said, this is Holy Spirit-inspired satire. It's also a very accurate description of exactly how idolatry happens. [00:51:41]
The great temptation against which Isaiah is preaching, it wasn't just don't be an idolater. Don't let idolatry creep into your thinking, don't let idolatry creep into your gospel, don't let idolatry creep into your worship. That is the temptation of Israel. [00:55:52]
The temptation of Israel was to try to find some synthesis, some way of accommodating idolatry, some way of gaining the assets of the idolatrous worship and worldview without totally departing from the worship of Yahweh, Jehovah, the one true God. Isaiah points to that as an impossibility. [00:59:34]
Every worldview but for that matter you might say every thinking person has to ask and answer four fundamental questions. And then there are more questions, but there are no less than these four. Every single thinking, sentient person has to ask these four questions. [01:02:51]
The first one is why is there something rather than nothing? Everyone has to operate on the basis of some understanding of how the cosmos came to exist because that's the big question. And it implies the smaller question, why do I exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? [01:06:41]
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The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line, he marks it out with a pencil, he shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. [00:20:40]
He cuts down Cedars or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. [00:24:48]
Half of it he burns in the fire, over the half he eats meat, he roasts it and is satisfied. Also, he warms himself and says AHA I am warm, I've seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a God, his idol, then falls down to it and worships it. [00:28:36]
He prays to it and says deliver me for you are my god. They know not nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot understand. No one considers nor is there knowledge or discernment to say half of it I burned in the fire. [00:31:20]
He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart has led him astray and he cannot deliver himself or say is there not a lie in my right hand. It's a remarkable passage and I want us to look at the passage before we even think about the reality of a worldview. [00:35:40]
The judgment of this passage is what's found in those last verses. The man asks shall I make the rest of it an abomination, shall I fall down before a block of wood? And the declaration he feeds on ashes, a deluded heart is led astray, he cannot deliver himself nor say is there not a lie in my right hand. [00:40:02]
The horrifying reality of this passage is that the ideas and the worldview, the fundamental presuppositions of the ideology are here. It leads him to hold a lie in his hand, to feed on ashes. Now as I said, this is Holy Spirit-inspired satire. It's also a very accurate description of exactly how idolatry happens. [00:51:41]
The great temptation against which Isaiah is preaching, it wasn't just don't be an idolater. Don't let idolatry creep into your thinking, don't let idolatry creep into your gospel, don't let idolatry creep into your worship. That is the temptation of Israel. [00:55:52]
The temptation of Israel was to try to find some synthesis, some way of accommodating idolatry, some way of gaining the assets of the idolatrous worship and worldview without totally departing from the worship of Yahweh, Jehovah, the one true God. Isaiah points to that as an impossibility. [00:59:34]
Every worldview but for that matter you might say every thinking person has to ask and answer four fundamental questions. And then there are more questions, but there are no less than these four. Every single thinking, sentient person has to ask these four questions. [01:02:51]
The first one is why is there something rather than nothing? Everyone has to operate on the basis of some understanding of how the cosmos came to exist because that's the big question. And it implies the smaller question, why do I exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? [01:06:41]
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