Sermon # 126            Series: Isaiah

 

Title: “Is There Not a Lie In My Right Hand?”

 

Text:  Isaiah 44:9-20

 

Subject:  The Folly of Idolatry

 

Date:  Sunday Evening – August 16, 1992

 

Introduction:

 

I take the last words of verse 20 as the title of my message tonight, “Is There Not A Lie In My Right Hand?”  In verse 8 the Lord God declares “There is no God beside me.”  Then, he shows the sin and folly of idolatry, and his utter contempt for it.  But idolatry has such a death hold upon men that, though it is contrary to all reason, it is never questioned.  Being deceived by his own heart, the idolater cannot deliver his soul from the bondage of his idolatry, and he never asks the question, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

 

Why does the Lord God, in this chapter, go to such lengths to expose, ridicule, and denounce idolatry?  Basically, I think there are four reasons.

 

1.      To prepare his people for the Strong Temptations They Must Face.

Israel was to be taken into Babylon, a land of idolatry.  In fact, through the Scriptures Babylon is synonymous with false religion.  While in Babylon, where everyone worshipped idols, Israel would be tempted and pressured to join them.  If you live among idolaters, if you want to get along with them, you must humor them and at least recognize their gods as God—God’s saints must never make that mistake.

 

2.      To Cure Them from Their Own Inclination Toward Idolatry.

We are all idolaters by nature.  Calvin said, “Man’s mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forgive some idol in his own brain.”  “God made man out of the dust of the earth and man makes a god of the dust of the earth”- (Thomas Watson).

 

3.      To Furnish His Saints with Something to Say in Response To The Heathen in Babylon.

When Israel’s Chaldean task masters insulted them and blasphemed God, saying, “Where is your God?”  They might ask, “What are your gods?”  “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased!  But your gods are nothing and can do nothing!”

 

4.      To Preserve Them from the Fear of the gods of their Enemies.

Because we are all idolaters by nature, we are all prone to have some respect for and fear of the gods of men.  But an idol is nothing.  If he cannot deliver those who worship him, he cannot hurt us who despise him.  Let us fear God.  But let us never fear the gods of men.

 

Proposition:  All idolatry is both foolish and blasphemous, and destructive to the souls of men.

 

Divisions:  Tonight, I want to show you the folly of idolatry in three directions.

 

1.       The Folly of All Paganism.

2.       The Folly of All Freewillism.

3.       The Folly of All Materialism.

 

I.                   The Folly of All Paganism.

Our text is a ridicule of paganism.  Israel was going down to Babylon.  Babylon was a land of pagans.  Pagans are people who worship any false god.  They may worship a totem pole, or a Bhudda, or Ala, or the Virgin Mary, or a crucifix.  It does not matter.  Those who worship Jehovah are pagans.  They may be illiterate; barbarian heathen, or they may be refined, educated, and influential men of our own society.   All who worship false gods are pagans.

 

A.     In verses 9-11 the Lord God challenges those who worship idols to clear themselves of the charge of shameful folly and senselessness.

 

1.       They that make a graven image are vanity.

  1. They use their richest, delectable things (silver, gold, and jewels) to make a god that is altogether useless- Their gods can neither supply them with good nor protect them from evil.
  2. Men who have to protect their gods are witnesses against their gods and against themselves- (Acts 19:23-27).

 

B.     Next, the Lord God narrates the making of a god with stinging sarcasm (vv. 12-17).

 

1.       The people who make gods are talented, precise, and diligent in their work- (vv. 12-13).

 

To make an impressive god, you have to have a good blacksmith and a good carpenter.  And good god makers are devoted, zealous people.  The will not even stop to eat and drink until they have finished making their god!

 

2.       The form in which men make their gods is the form of a man (v. 13).

 

Man is a poor, weak, sinful, dying creature.   Yet, man is the pattern by which gods are made!  However, the god maker does use the noblest, most beautiful figure of humanity he knows.  He makes his god like the man he most admires.  He makes his god like himself!

 

3.       The gods men make are always house gods—They “remain in the house.” (v. 13).

 

They do not greatly interfere with what the man wants to do!

 

4.       The gods of the heathen are made out of mighty sorry stuff—The stock of a tree!  (vv. 14-17)

 

 

a.       He falls down before it.

b.       He is excited and warmed by it- “Aha!  I am warm, I have seen the fire!” – His god makes him feel so good!

c.       He worships and prays to his god (v. 17).

 

C.     In verses 18-20 the Lord God tells us that all idolatry is the result of God’s judgment upon men.

 

1.       Because they refused to worship him God has shut their eyes and hardened their hearts (v. 18; Rom. 1:21-28; II Thess. 2:10-12).

Note:  You who despise the truth of God flint with utter reprobation!

2.       Idolatry is not only the forsaking of God, it is the forsaking of reason- (v. 19).

  1. Idolatry will destroy a man’s soul (v. 20).

He who is so deceived by his own heart that he worships idols feeds on ashes.  He can never deliver himself from his superstitions, because he never questions the worth of his god!  He is sure he is right.  He is sure that his god is God.  He will die to protect his god!

 

Having said all that, interesting as it is, you might be thinking, “Don, what’s the point?  We don’t have any pagans here tonight.  There are no pagans in Danville, or Lexington.  I don’t know anyone who worships the stock of a tree!”  You are exactly right.  Let’s leave the pagans alone.  Let me see if I can apply this text to our day and to us.   Our text is a ridicule of idolatry, all idolatry.  We have seen the folly of all paganism.  Now, let me show you…

 

II.                 The Folly of all Freewillism- (Gal. 1:6-8).

 

What is the one thing, the one characteristic about the god described in our text that seems to stand out to you?  He can’t do anything.  He is profitable for nothing.  You know where I am going; but don’t go to sleep on me.  I want you to pay attention to me.  I lay this charge at the door of all freewill, works religion.  It is sheer idolatry.  You see- “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are not worthy of him” (A.W. Tozer).  An idol in your mind is as offensive to God as an idol in your hand.  If you have ideas, thoughts and conceptions of God that are unworthy of God and make him “profitable for nothing,” you are an idolater.

 

Recently, Bro. Todd Nibbert went to hear a man preach who claimed to believe the doctrines of grace.  He made a statement that infuriated Todd and equally infuriates me.  He said, “I’d rather bow the knee with an Arminian who believed in freewill, but had a warm hearted love for the Lord Jesus, than with one of those cold hearted Calvinists who say, “As long as I believe the five points, it doesn’t matter how I live.”  Let me talk about that for a minute.

 

For one thing, I have never met, heard of, or read after any man who said, or even implied, “So long as I believe the five points, it doesn’t matter how I live!”  Believing the doctrines of grace does not promote licentiousness.  The man who thinks it does, I fear, does not know what grace is!  I have never met that green-eyed monster who says, “Let us sin that grace may abound!”

 

And I will tell you something else I have never met; I have never met an “Arminian, who believes in freewill and has a warm hearted love for the Lord Jesus!”  I grant that the Arminian, freewill, works monger has a warm-hearted love for his god; but his god is no God at all, but only the idolatrous figment of his depraved imagination.

 

The gods of the heathen are all failures, “profitable for nothing!”  And the god of the Arminian is a failure.  He tries to do what he fails to do.  And that superstitious zealot who worships a failure is an idolater.  The man who worships a failure is a fool!

 

It is written, of God our Savior, “He shall not fail!” (Isa. 42:4).

 

 

Why are we so tenacious about this?  Why must we refuse to make any allowance for Arminian, freewill religion?

 

 

Paganism is folly!  Arminianism is folly!  And, thirdly, I want to show you the folly of one other form of idolatry.

 

III.               The Folly of Materialism

 

Covetousness is idolatry too (Col. 3:5).  Oliver Cromwell was right on the money when he said, “Idolatry is anything which cooleth thy desires after Christ.”  Beware of covetousness!  “Love not the world.

 

 

Application:

 

1.       “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”

 

 

2.       Flee from idolatry!

 

 

Note:  The Mark of Distinction is Baptism.

 

 

Total Depravity!

Unconditional Election!

Limited Atonement!

Irresistible Grace!

Perseverance of the Saints!