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Trust in the Sure Promises of God, Not the Emptiness of Idolatry By Massimo Lorenzini Have you ever noticed that people can often begin to look
like their dogs? Or married couples, especially as they get older, begin to
look alike? Similarly, in the spiritual realm, you become what you worship.
When I was a teen-ager, one of my favorite bands was The Doors. I wore a
t-shirt that had a picture of Jim Morrison. One day someone told me that I
looked like the guy on my shirt. Nazi Scientists were firm believers in philosophical
evolution. Evolution is a cold, utterly indifferent process of random mutation
and natural selection—“Survival of the fittest!” The Nazis took evolution to
its logical conclusion as a worldview and sought to create a superior race and
move the human race to the next level in the evolutionary process. They meant
well! They were trying to help “nature” along. They began to resemble the cold,
utterly indifferent process of evolution in the way they treated people. Life as a Christian is full of tensions and opposition. In
our rejection of the values and ideas of the world we experience rejection by
the world. There’s a tension between the life of faith versus unbelief. At
times our faith grows weak. We may experience unanswered prayer. We may not
prosper materially as many unbelievers do. Our life choices are often not
understood or supported by our non-Christian friends and family members. We can
be tempted to doubt the reality and trustworthiness of God with Satan’s
accusation, “Where is your God now?” Maybe you have experienced some of this? Maybe you have been
discouraged in your walk of faith? Maybe even now you are experiencing a
spiritual low point? You may be having a hard time believing that obedience to
God provides a better pay-off in the long-term than the short-term rewards of
disobedience. It may be that your faith has grown weak, the fire of love for
God and His glory has grown dim, and if you’re honest, it’s been a long time
since you did anything resembling a radical display of faith in God. For many
of us, we can be tempted to put our hope in things we can see rather than the
invisible God. Ancient 1 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth. 2 Why should the Gentiles say, "So where is their
God?" 3 But
our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's
hands. 5 They have
mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; 6 They have ears, but they
do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; 7 They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they
have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat. 8 Those who make them are
like them; So is everyone who trusts in them. 9 O Psalm 115 is part of the Egyptian Hallel, (Pss 113-118) sung
each year at Passover. Most likely the setting of Psalm 115 is the Post-Exilic
period (cf. v. 2, scorn for idolatry in vv. 4-8). The God of Israel was no longer feared by the Gentile
nations. This Psalm is a prayer that God would display His power and blessing
upon For
whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that
we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
have hope (Rom 15:4). The lesson we can draw from What can we glean as far as principles for how to put our
trust in God rather than idols? Based on principles drawn from Psalm 115, we
can identify five resolutions that can help us rise above our present circumstances
and have confidence in the living God rather than dead idols. The first resolution
is RENOUNCE any glory for yourself and direct it to God (v. 1). Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of Your
mercy, Because of Your truth. The Psalmist began his prayer not by appealing to the
faithfulness of Isa 42:8, “I am the Lord, that is My name; and My
glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved
images.” Isa 48:11, “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to
another.” If my daughter was extremely disobedient one week and constantly picking on her younger sister, she would have no basis for asking me to take her to Chuck E. Cheese’s at the end of the week if she appealed to her behavior. Likewise, we cannot appeal to our worthiness, or our faithfulness as grounds for God’s blessing. We must give a wide berth in our heart attitude for God’s glory to be on display. “He must increase, and I must decrease.” Indeed, we have nothing else to appeal to in our petitions to God but that His glory would be seen through his mercy and truth. Furthermore, God is most glorified in us when we find our
highest delight in God. As Jonathan Edwards wrote, “God is glorified not only
by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in.” When we become
satisfied in God for all the He is for us in Christ, then we bring God the
greatest glory. Gaining a knowledge of God and delighting His glory is the
greatest antidote to all the perils of the human soul. Edwards also wrote, “The
creature’s happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and the sense of his
love.” Give yourself to seeking the most thorough knowledge of God you can
attain. Seek Him. Seek His glory. Delight in His glory and you will prevail
over the enticements of idolatry. The second resolution
is RESPOND to unbelief with humble trust in God’s sovereignty (vv. 2-3). 2 Why should the Gentiles say, "So where is their God?" 3 But our God is in heaven;
He does whatever He pleases. 4 Their
idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. We too are surrounded by a culture of unbelief. Our faith is rejected and ridiculed as an outmoded and primitive relic. Atheists and New Agers alike see Christianity as the number one hindrance to moving humanity up the scale of progress. Scoffers say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” Our own hearts can be discouraged because we have not seen God working in our lives, in our families, in our churches. We may be tempted to wonder ourselves where God is. “Does He really care about me? Does He notice me?” The Bible says, “Our God is in heaven, He does whatever He pleases” (v. 4). God has not been idle or indifferent to our plight. He has acted in history and will act on our behalf (cf. Pss 78, 105, 106). Ps 145:4-7, One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare
Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your
majesty, And on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, And I will
declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your
great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness. The only way to deal with unbelief is to fight it with faith
in God’s sovereign power and hope in His promises. Affirm His right to do as He
pleases with you. He can be trusted to do you good as He brings glory to
Himself. Heb 11:6, “But without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for
he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” The three Hebrew youths were faced with forced idol worship
of Nebuchadnezzar’s gold image. But they refused to bow to the image and chose
rather to place their trust in God to deliver them. In fact, their allegiance
to God was so strong they said they would not worship the image even if God did
not deliver them from the fiery furnace. Dan 3:16-18, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O
Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to
deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if
not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will
we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Unbelievers proudly trumpet their false ideas. We can combat their false humanistic thinking only by affirming our confidence in the living God by obeying Him even if we cannot see what He is doing or how He will deliver us. The third resolution
is RECOGNIZE that idols are empty and produce empty people (vv. 4-8). 4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. 5 They have mouths, but they
do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; 6 They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they
have, but they do not smell; 7 They
have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor
do they mutter through their throat. 8 Those
who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them. The psalmist here gives a careful analysis of the futility
of idols. A dictionary definition of futility
or futile is “having no useful
result, ineffectual, useless, vain.” The Psalmist says, “Their idols are silver
and gold.” They are literal images made with silver and gold, but most people
in our culture today would rather worship the gold and silver itself (money). First
Timothy Some people trust in human ideas and philosophies of life such as secular humanism, atheism, philosophical evolution. Some put their hope in science, medicine, and technology. Others place their confidence in politics, government, or social engineering. Still others trust in man-made religions like New Age spirituality (e.g. The Secret – “You can have whatever you ‘confess’ ” or The New Earth – “Live for the ‘now’ rather than the future or afterlife.”). These human resources and ideas amount to “the work of men’s hands.” But the maker is always greater than the thing made. At bottom, what we are dealing with here is self-worship. The Satanic Bible says, “Say unto thyself, ‘I am mine own redeemer.’ ” Idolatry is a rejection of the living God in favor of a god of one’s own creation, and to worship one’s own creation is ultimately the worship of self. The sinfulness of sin is to seek one’s meaning, identity, purpose, satisfaction in things other than the living God who made us. Fornication is sin because the fornicator is seeking fulfillment in sex and romance rather than God. Idolatry is trusting in things other than God to save us and make us whole. In Isaiah 44, the prophet of God mocks the vanity of idol worship. 9 Those who make an image, all of them are useless, And their precious things shall not profit; They are their own witnesses; They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed. 10 Who would form a god or mold an image That profits him nothing? 11 Surely all his companions would be ashamed; And the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together, Let them stand up; Yet they shall fear, They shall be ashamed together. 12 The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals, Fashions it with hammers, And works it with the strength of his arms. Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails; He drinks no water and is faint. 13 The craftsman stretches out his rule, He marks one out with chalk; He fashions it with a plane, He marks it out with the compass, And makes it like the figure of a man, According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. 14 He cuts down cedars for himself, And takes the cypress and the oak; He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it shall be for a man to burn, For he will take some of it and warm himself; Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; Indeed he makes a god and worships it; He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. 16 He burns half of it in the fire; With this half he eats meat; He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire." 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, His carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, Prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" (Isa 44:9-17) In verse 8 Isaiah wrote, “Those who make them are like them,
so is everyone who trusts him them.” Idols are cold, dead, indifferent,
useless. One writer said, “By concentrating day and night on your feelings,
potentials, needs, wants, and desires and by learning to assert them more
freely, you do not become a freer, more spontaneous, more creative self: you
become a narrower, more self-centered, more isolated one. You do not grow, you
shrink.” They become as useless as idols. Recently I heard that people who go to church, even if just for holidays, are much more likely to give to charity, even secular charity organizations. Those who trust in God become like Him: loving, giving, truthful, righteous. You can renew your faith in God as you consider the futility of idolatry. The answer to your problems ultimately is not to be found by looking inward. Deaf and dumb idols cannot hear your prayers, cannot remove the guilt of sin, cannot bring you to glory! Only the living God can do those things! We also must reject idols of the heart. These are idols created out of anything one loves more than God. We reveal an idolatrous heart also when we sin to get the thing we want, or we sin because you cannot get it. The fourth resolution
is RELY on the Lord’s grace and hope in His promises (vv. 9-15). 9 O The palmist here turns his attention to God’s people and encourages them to trust the Lord and receive His blessing. In verses 9-11, “O Israel, O house of Aaron, You who fear the Lord.” Whatever others may do, you who know God must “Trust in the Lord.” In contrast to those who trust in vain idols, we trust in the living God who is our “help and shield.” “He will bless…He will bless…” (see vv 12-15). Spurgeon said, “It is his nature to bless, it is his prerogative to bless, it is his glory to bless, it is his delight to bless; he has promised to bless, and therefore be sure of this, that he will bless and bless and bless without ceasing” (The Treasury of David). In verse 13 “both small and great” are included in God’s blessings. None who trust the Lord are to be excluded from His blessing. God will “increase more and more, you and your children” (v. 14). The blessing will not stop with us, but will multiply “more and more” to our posterity. What a blessing it is for a child to grow up in a home where the mother and father trust the Lord and receive His blessings. In verse 15 we see it is “the Lord who made heaven and
earth” who promises to bless us. Is God able to bless? Well, He made heaven and
earth, no doubt He can bless His people. The way out of your doubts, fears, and
insecurities is to fight your doubts and fears with faith in the promises of
God. There is no sin in having fears and insecurities, but in yielding to them.
If you do not fight the fight of faith, you will become enslaved to sin for the
root of sin is unbelief. Belief in the promises of God is the only antidote to
the sin of unbelief. Heb 3:12-15, Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of
you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but
exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the
rebellion.” The only way you can do what God is calling you to do is if you have faith in Him. What is God calling you to trust Him for? Salvation of a son or daughter? Reconciliation with a family member or co-worker or fellow believer? To share your struggle with a secret sin to a mature believer who can pray with you and counsel you? To continue to give to God when you don’t know how you can afford to? Whatever it is, it is too big for you to do in your own strength. You must rely on God’s power. Trust in Him! He will bless you when you do! You will find the strength to do the impossible. The fifth resolution is REJOICE in the Lord in your present situation (vv. 16-18). 16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the
Lord's; But the earth He has given to the children of men. 17 The dead do not praise
the Lord, Nor any who go down into silence. 18 But we will bless the Lord From this time forth and
forevermore. Praise the Lord! It’s true God made it all and rules it all. But He has given man a certain amount of freedom and responsibility to rule the earth and live according to his own choices (v. 16). Verse 17 is not teaching that there is no conscious existence after death. Rather, it is saying that in death, there is no ongoing testimony on earth of God’s faithfulness. The voice of praise is silenced on earth by death. Now is the time we have to glorify God as we trust in Him and are blessed before a watching world (v. 18). Even if your present situation is nothing to rejoice over,
you can rejoice because of God. We can turn to the past and see how He has
blessed and we can trust that He will bless us again. Once we depart this life,
we no longer have opportunity to magnify God’s mercy and faithfulness on earth (v.
1). Let us be reminded that God is to be trusted rather than
vain idols as our source of happiness, well-being, and prosperity. Consider the
five resolutions we have covered:
What kind of impact might we have for Christ if we took
seriously this message of trusting God rather than idols? What kind of
influence might you have in your family, neighborhood, or workplace if people
observed you overcoming by faith? Everyone has problems, but not everyone
trusts in God. What kind of influence might our churches have in our communities?
Let’s demonstrate what genuine faith in the living God can do and in so doing,
may God be glorified through us. Amen. |
