Idol Worship

Sermon Topic Sunday 1/27/13 Idol Worship
There will be a great end-time deception sent by God (2 Thessalonians 2:11 and Isaiah 66:4), People will bow down and worship the IMAGE of the beast (Revelation 13:12, 15).
The enemy wants to DRAW God’s children away from God. A former Wiccan stated that the one thing that pleases the enemy more than anything else is when he wins away the children of Christian parents.
What is an idol? … an image regarded as an object of worship, a false god, a person or thing blindly or excessively adored.
Exodus 20:4-6 … 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity7 of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
God does not want ANYTHING to take His place … He made the earth, and hangeth it on nothing (Job 26:7) … as the joke goes, He told the scientists who said we don’t need Him any more, “Get your own dirt!”
From the beginning, man has wanted an image of God to pay homage to and worship, to see and touch. They also wanted His name; though they did not have it until God revealed it to Moses (Exodus 3:14) … Joshua even mentioned the gods that the people had served “on the other side of the flood” (Joshua 24:15)
John 4:20-24 The Samaritan woman at the well asked Jesus about which location was the correct one for worshipping God
Exodus 32:1 The Israelites in the wilderness decided that Moses wasn’t coming back, and asked Aaron to make gold calf for them to worship (probably the Egyptian god hathor, which they would have been very familiar with).
Galatians 4:4-6 God’s image would be represented on earth in the due appointed time of the Father. He did show the Brother of Jared that representation on the mountain (Ether 1:80-81)
Colossians 1:15, 19 Who is the Image of the invisible God … in Him should ALL fulness dwell
Joshua 24:14-27 The Israelites under Joshua made a solemn covenant with God that they would worship no other god, and set up an engraved stone as a witness
2 Kings 18:4 Hezekiah had to destroy the brass serpent of Numbers 21:8-9 because the people were worshipping it
Many idols became a snare to the … Ishtar (Easter, the pagan fertility goddess … her worship was associated with the “groves” of the Old Testament); Baal; Molech (which demanded infant sacrifice); the Jews of the exile were forced to bow down to the image of of Nebuchadnezzer, and the Roman empire forced all its subjects to bow down to a statue of the emperor.
Isaiah 1:2-4 … rebellious Israel has gone away backward; Isaiah 2:7-8 the land of Israel is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands
Mormon 2:16 The description of how far the once-righteous people had fallen … sacrificing captured prisoners to their idol gods
In the Old Testament, God’s fury was swift and catastrophic; His justice was appeased by divine sacrifice (the Blood of Jesus) and is held at bay by mercy
Alma 16:210-217 the sacrifice must be an INFINITE and ETERNAL sacrifice, a great and last sacrifice, to fulfill the Law of Moses, and bring about mercy
The New Testament church faced a plague of idol influence … pagan Gentile idol gods were numerous and EVERYWHERE. Acts 19:24-35 … worshippers of the Roman goddess diana (Greek artemis) in Ephesus … verse 27 in particular, the manufacturers of idols of diana were concerned about the loss of their business, and incited the riot that followed. (The apostles also had to deal with the question of eating meat from an animal which had been sacrificed to an idol god, and then served at a banquet or sold in the marketplace msl)
1 John 5:21 Little children, KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS.
Romans 1:20-23 mankind changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into images of corruptible humans and animals.
Acts 15 The Jerusalem Council discussed the problem of what the Gentile believers needed to observe to avoid offending Jewish believers … one stipulation was to avoid fornication, which was not only a personal problem but also a part of idol worship
These days, many people acknowledge that Jesus lived, but they speak of “the Jesus I know” rather than follow Jesus the Messiah of Scripture. And there are many pagan cultures around the world that worship idols and created things.
2 Timothy 3:1-4 mankind in the last days are lovers of pleasure (and of themselves msl)
We actually worship another golden bovine creature … the statue of the bull on Wall Street … our wealth is often our idol, but most of it is not real but virtual (cyber) … one click of a hacker; an EMP weapon, and *poof*
We are even still looking for the Ark of the Covenant. (what would we do if it were found? msl)
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers … how can God’s people fellowship with the enemy’s?
Alma 16:235 The Lord dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous….
No tool or man-made device can change the mind, or the heart of man, to love God … it is your decision to obey and come to the untooled (Exodus 20:25) altar of God
2 Corinthians 3:2-3 and Jeremiah 31:33 … God will write His love on our hearts instead of His law on stone