Romans 1:21-23 The Depravity of the Idol Worshipper

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou brought

out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. (Exodus 32:7) Moses came down

with the Ten Commandments and found the people breaking them.  They had constrained

Aaron to make a golden calf and were worshipping and offering sacrifices to it.  Besides

violating the commandments concerning worship the people violated those concerning

morality and “sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” Aaron alibied and said to

Moses, thou knowest the hearts of the people, that they are set on mischief.” Their hearts were set on idolatry.

Men have a strong tendency to worship idols.  When we view the history of the ancient world, we find people worshipped idols everywhere.  Among the ancient nations Israel is distinguished for her prohibition of images in worship.  The prophets denounced idols.

Though they had been taught differently, the people of Israel still worshipped idols until

they were carried captive into Babylon.  Only by living through that terrible experience

were they purged of image worship.

In ancient times, men made idols of all kinds.  The idol maker could cleverly fashion an

image to resemble some creature God has made.  When you look at the handiwork of God

is it amazing what strength and powers can be found in living things.  Thus the Egyptians

worshipped figures of the crocodile, the, ram, the ox, and the goat.  Their fascinations

with such creatures stern from their admiration of God’s handiwork.  But the creatures

were exalted above measure.  Even flies were worshipped in Egypt.  If you have ever

swatted one, imagine offering sacrifices to such things.  Some images used in worship are

pretty.  Some are ugly.  Crudely fashioned objects of worship are found in many parts of

the world today.  There are still some cleverly done icons that more “advanced” people

bow before and worship.

The idols men made were subject to corruption.  God’s true image is incorruptible.  Hebrews advises us to pursue....” holiness, without which no man is able to see the Lord.” Thus not only worship but the worshipper was perverted and degraded by idols.

This corruption is seen not only in the worship of the ancient idols.  Modem people

display it as well.  That is why we should not consider ourselves in our day to be free of

idol worship.  Whatever takes the place of God, that receives the adoration and worship

and devotion that belongs to God, becomes a man’s god.  In times past people made idols

of stone, wood and clay.  They fashioned images and bowed down before them.  For the

sophisticated people of our day and time this is too obvious a violation of God’s

commandment.  We cannot pretend to believe the Bible and worship an image made by a

man.  But we can take things that were not intended to be idols at first, like money,

success and sex, and turn them into idols.  Then we can deny that they take the place of

God and that we worship them.  Our worship may be passed off as admiration or

appreciation, and our exaltation of these things is never seen as being tantamount to

worship.  But an idol is an idol.  If we worship the church, the preacher, or the Bible,

however worthy these things may seem it is still idolatry.  As men in the past idolized

living creatures and plants, mountains and other things we can make something into an

idol today.

Why does God hate idols so?  The Bible condemns idols throughout.  Though strictly forbidden men are so prone to it that it is common and seems natural.  It does not seem harmful to man.  The Christians of Bible times were considered foolish because they would not bum incense to Caesar.  Some would not eat meat offered to an idol god.

Pagans look for the harm and declare there is none.  “Why do you consider your Go as a

‘jealous’ God?” They ask.  Jealousy is an emotion we don’t like to ascribe to God.  Yet

viewing God that way can be healthy.  It is better to conceive of God as angry than to

conceive of Him as indifferent to our idol worship.

What you and I think God is like is important.  Like it or not, your conception of God

determines your thought and behavior in and out of the church.  What you think God is

like is crucial to your character and your work in life.  The academic people of this day

relegate theology to a subordinate role.  Divinity schools are frowned upon in many

places.  Philosophy, science, mathematics, history, and the like are necessities at our tax-

supported schools.  But theology is undesirable.  People are able to get along in this world

without it.  Even the church seems to be con-Ang around to this attitude.  But God feels it

is important for us to view Him as we should.  Our morals, our outlook, and our behavior

depend on what we think God is like.

The corruption of the idol worshipper is deep.  His mind is basically unsound.  Paul in his

epistle exposes the degradation inside the man who makes and worships idols.  In his

picture the idolater’s depravity is laid bare, showing the inner marks of their depravity

and corruption.  In this text there are five things that he sees in the life and thinking of the

idolater.

1.     They have lost sight of the glory of God.  They refused to worship the true God.  When we see a person worshipping an idol, we immediately assume he is ignorant, and therefore innocent.  But the idol worshipper has knowledge of God.  Paul says that, they knew God.  They knew God well enough to worship Him as God.  Yet they did not want to do it.  Men must worship something.  So they worshipped idols.  Yet the worship and the service of idols is missing one important thing-glory.  It is a matter of the will.  Though we see a glimpse of the greatness of God, we still must magnify Him in our own minds if we are to retain the impression.  Though we see the truth we must honor and value it to keep it.  Though the path of righteousness be plain to us, we must see the glory to walk in it. Its true that we must glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are God’s, if we are to abide in Him.  Without God’s glory, we are lost.  All creation tells us the glory of God, but men everywhere are impervious.  The human body is a Temple, wherein we should glorify God, and He has set eternity in men’s hearts.  This wonderful capacity to glorify God is a gift from God and we should cherish it. exercise it, develop, it, and enjoy it. But though man is actually created and designed for the purpose of glorifying God, when he meets his Maker, he refuses to worship Om.  He turns aside and glorifies something else.

I would think that the image of God all men see is the image of a Creator.  God is not the

seen but the Maker of the things that are seen.  To a sensible person, God is Sovereign Ruler of this world.  He is the Giver of all good things.  God is not the seen, but the, unseen.  Idol makers don’t seem to like that.  There was something unsatisfactory to them about a God who is found beyond creation.  But men must worship something.  Thus contrive a substitute and try to make a more acceptable god to worship.  Convenience and expediency have too much to do with our worship.  Too often, they determine not only how but whom we worship.  Yet no contrived idol can show the glory that is due to God.

2.     They are ungrateful.  Ingratitude is perversion and depravity.  The person without it is

twisted and dysfunctional.  The blessings men have are obvious but they don’t count them and they don’t want to trace them to their true source.  Ingratitude is manifested in many Disgruntled feeling spring up and we are not satisfied with what we have.  We somehow think we are entitled to more.  Murmuring in the desert against Moses, the Children of Israel were far from giving thanks to God for delivering them from bondage.  They were expecting more than that.  Gratitude likewise shows itself in impatience.  Like Saul with the Amalekites, men cannot wait on God, and thus become disobedient, Laziness is another means by which ingratitude manifests itself.  Slovenly forgetfulness breeds ingratitude.  Joseph was supposed to be remembered by the man whose dream he interpreted (Gen. 41:9-12).  All but one of ten lepers that Jesus healed were in too much of a hurry to come back to give thanks.  But failure to be thankful always will be accompanied by a false sense of values.  Proper appreciation will always be accompanied by thanksgiving.  Any person who is not grateful to God is missing one of the basic ingredients of life.  He is not in a good relationship with God, and not in a proper relationship with himself and others.  He is unhealthy.

Giving thanks is the response that God has a right to expect from men when they know Him.  Ingratitude is a transgression and a sin of omission.  When God speaks to us we should be thankful.  Our response to God when He makes Himself known should be gratitude.  Are we thankful for the Bible?  Are we thankful for the Spirit?  Are we thankful for worship and the opportunity worship God in our own way?  What about prayer?  If men know God it is not because of their own efforts.  If God shows Ms glory to us we cannot say we have earned it.  Thanksgiving is forthcoming.

3.-Their imagination is vain.  They have filled their minds with nonsense.  A wild

imagination can run to anything, and can believe anything.  Futile speculation leads a

person to embrace beliefs that are both harmful and ridiculous.  Some cults in our day are

built on speculation.  Someone let the imagination run wild and invented things that are

somehow attractive to others.  Multitudes of people hold fast to beliefs that can neither be

refuted nor verified.  Walking through the drug store you find a sign over a counter that

says “Notions.” It means various and sundry items that you might buy.  But how many

beliefs of men are based on “notions?” People can come to think that their notions are

true.  A cultic group recently commited because they though there was a spaceship

following behind the Halle-Bopp Comet.  It was supposed to pick them up and take them

to a higher level, a better place.  So they took their lives.  I think this came from someone

who just had a notion. imagination plays tricks on us.  The imagination is much more

seductive and deceptive than people think.  Imagination causes panic and riots.

Imaginations and notions cause real sickness and make real cures for sicknesses

ineffective.  Some baseless unfounded speculation can lay you flat on your back, paralyze

you and make you completely helpless.

Things people imagine and think up can be considered a revelation sent down fromgod

to inform not only us, but also others we are commissioned to tell.  Then futile

speculations can be aggressively proclaimed and made convincing by the determination

and talents of the persons who proclaim them.  Thus men can imagine that little gods do

big things.  Th attributes of our little gods show that our thinking is based more on wishes

than on logic, revelation, observation, or trusted authority.  Men fancy they can bring us

rain, success, victory, or happiness.  We can give them credit for what God actually

does.  Thus they said to Jeremiah, “But since left off to bum incense to the queen of

heaven, and to pour out drink offering unto her, we have wanted all things, and been

consumed by the sword and by the famine.” (Jer. 44:18) Men can go on believing that

their idols give them what they want though such beliefs are based only on futile

speculation, wild imagination, and empty thinking.  Yet they make the spell of the idol

stronger.

The inventiveness of idol makers is inexhaustible because speculation about the unknown is endless.  Men are ever learning and never able to come to knowledge of the truth.

There is always another idol to turn to when the one you worship fails you.  If your

favorite is broken you can break up with it and find another.  But how sad is the plight of

those whose hope and faith is based on futile speculations.  That person is frustrated

without knowing why.

4.     Their hearts were darkened.  Darkness is great depravity.  One who walks in darkness

does not know where he goes, Darkness is another name for ignorance.  It is a name for despair and hopelessness.  It is also what we call evil intent.  According to some psychologists, all men have a dark or shadow side.  Dark is the heart that is without hope and love.  The heart is the will, where we make up our mind and form our intentions.

Jesus said, “If thine eye be single, thy whole body will be full of light.  But if the light

that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness?” The light of the body is the eye,

and it is the shutter that lets in the darkness from the idol.  When men focus on the idol,

the switch is thrown to “o@.”

I was once in a church when the preacher rose to read the Bible and the lights began to

dim.  It was a mistake that somebody made with the rheostat.  But I thought this might be

taken as an insult.” I hate to think that I might get into the pulpit one-day see the lights

growing dimmer and dimmer in the auditorium.

What happens when nations are on the brink of war?  Think of a world going dark.  Lights

going out everywhere one after another.  In the dark days before World War 11,

Mobilization of armies cut off some light.  Negotiations were stopped, shutting off

another light.  Ultimatums were issued, throwing another switch.  The world got darker

and darker.  Think of the lights going off in your world.  God’s voice cannot be heard in

the Scriptures and through your prayers.  Fellowship with God is broken.  The joy, of

salvation is missing.  Your experience with God fades in memory.  The glory of God is

not so brilliant anymore.  If you, as a Christian, can lose the luster of life when an idol

captures your thoughts and imagination, think how much more the pagan idol worshipper

will be in darkness.  When one beholds the face of God, illumination occurs.  But when

one fixes his gaze upon an idol; the opposite comes about,

5.     Their wisdom is foolishness.  Men are the biggest fools when they think they are wise.

A self-image of a sage can make you the biggest fool ever seen.  Be careful about thinking

you are smart.  Never think your enemy is stupid or you will underestimate him.  Don’t

call yourself smart or you overestimate your self Be careful when someone else tells you

how smart you are.  He may be trying to con you.  When men have the concert of

intelligence, they go far afield.  Making an idol is so foolish that those who do it must

think they are smart.  It is not possible to become so big a fool unless you think you are

wise.  Isaiah ridiculed people who made idols they burned part of a tree and used the other

part to make an idol and worshipped it.  They became fools all right.  But idol

worshippers think they are smart.

There is no doubt that idol makers are cunning in some ways.  They are bright when it

comes to artistry, and when it comes to dazzling men’s eyes.  They know how to get your

attention and how to hold it.  They can fool you as they fool themselves.  There are many

illusions and one of them is success.  It is only a partial success.  It is only success in a bad

thing, but is what the world calls success.  When people get what they want that is called

succeeding, even if it is not worth having.  There is an illusion of permanence.  The idol

may make you feel it will be there forever.  But all idols are temporary.  The idol makes

you think you are winning when you are losing.  Idols create the illusion of happiness that

is misery and fullness that is emptiness.  Those who worship idols, those who create them

will always think themselves pretty slick.  That is the depravity of the idolater, that he

becomes a fool while he professes to be wise.

Idols are still being created in our day.  A recent magazine article says we all may be worshipping at the shrine of technology.  But if men glorify God as God then the proper response will be made.  Idolatry can only be replaced with real worship of the one true God, done in spirit and in truth.  This one can do by coming to God through Jesus Christ.  His Son glorifies Him and will lead and guide you to do the same.

Ed Baily / PRBC