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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/joel-portman/keep-yourselves-from-idols/
I want to read the last verse of the first epistle of John. First John chapter five. This is a verse that's been on my mind for some time and I trust I can condense my thoughts and express them in a manner that is understandable.
I think it's very important for us. Perhaps it's a good word to close the conference with. Verse 21 of chapter five, very simply, little children, isn't that dear? He's really speaking to them out of his heart.
He has a great love for them, he desires for them, he's a father to them. He longs for their blessing, he longs for their growth, he longs for their prosperity spiritually, he says, little children. Dear children, really, is a thought of those who have been brought into the family, those who enjoy a commonality, those who are identified with one father.
We have one relationship, we enjoy fellowship with each other, says dear children, keep yourselves from idols. There's a great possibility that this is the last word of your Bible. There's a great discussion, nobody seems to know for sure what the order of John's writings are.
Perhaps the first epistle of John was the last one that he wrote in a manner that would be addressed to assemblies. And we don't know what's addressed to exactly, probably to assemblies that were in Asia Minor, but he was very interested in and concerned about their welfare.
But we do know that he wrote from Ephesus. And he wrote with a very deep burden upon his heart, he says, little children, keep yourselves, guard yourselves from idols. Guard yourselves with a garrison, put up a wall, defend yourself, keep yourself from being involved with idols.
He doesn't say idolatry, because idolatry is a general aspect of the thing, he says, just idols, individual ones, single ones, perhaps very small ones. We know that John is writing this at the close of this first epistle.
He's writing it in an environment that was full of idolatry. Ephesus was a city that was devoted to the worship of the goddess Artemis, or Diana. And he was concerned about maintaining that status, was renowned for its evil, renowned for its adherence, fidelity to this one goddess.
You remember in Acts chapter nine, how agitated the entire crowd got because of the possibility of something that would dishonor that goddess. And so perhaps he's writing about the gods and goddesses that they were surrounded with, because every city had their gods, every place had their objects of worship.
He says, those are things that you need to guard yourself from, and keep yourself from idols. Perhaps we don't have those things today. We maybe should be thankful we don't. But now John is writing this epistle, and he's writing to them, and he's telling them about different false concepts of God, different wrong ideas concerning the Lord Jesus.
He says, there are those that are coming among you, and they would deny the deity of Christ. There were those who would deny that he is truly God, manifested flesh, keep yourself from that wrong idea, because that's contrary to the word of God.
And there were those also that were coming among them and saying, well, he was only a man, he wasn't God at all. God used him, God empowered him, God had filled him with the, he empowered him with the Christ.
But it was only a man that died upon the cross. He says, keep yourself from that wrong idea. It's totally contrary to the Lord Jesus. It's totally contrary to the word of God. Guard yourself from idols.
Dear brethren, you and I need to make sure that we hold right doctrine concerning the Lord Jesus. We need to be very concerned that we maintain the truth concerning the one who died for us, who lives for us, the one who is our Redeemer, the one who is our Savior, our Lord.
We need to maintain that. I write to a Jehovah Witness woman. She had the audacity to write to me. They don't come to my door, they just write letters, handwritten letters, two page. And so I thought, instead of throwing it in the trash can, I'm gonna write back to her.
So I wrote back to her. I said, sorry, in your literature, which I read very carefully, there's not one mention of the Lord Jesus. Not even the name Jesus in the whole thing. I said, you're missing something.
Well, she came back to me, she wrote a letter back to me. She says, yes, we believe that Jesus is in the line of salvation. I'm ready to go back. I'm ready to get on my computer again and start writing back to her because she doesn't believe that Jesus is God.
And if Jesus is not God, you have no savior. Not enough. Those are wrong concepts. That's idolatry. And that's the kind of thing that fills our world around us. People have wrong, holding false doctrine concerning the Lord Jesus.
And be careful about holding in your mind mental images of things, perhaps you pick up from the ideas that men provide. Possibly films like The Passion of Christ. That's idolatry. Stay away from it. Hold to what the word of God says so clearly and plainly.
Idolatry was a great problem that plagued Israel. The first commandment that you read in Exodus chapter 20, you know, those will have no other gods beside me. That's the first commandment. The Lord Jesus takes it up again in Mark's gospel chapter 12 and verse 29.
They were asking him, what's the greatest commandment? What's the first commandment? He says, the first commandment is this. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
He says, the second is just like it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That kind of love for God and truth and soul and mind and strength will always flow out in love for others as well. He says, that's the most important thing.
You remember in Proverbs chapter four, verse 23, the writer there says, keep thy heart with all diligence. Guard it or out of it are the issues of life. What you do in your life, how you live your life, how you serve, how you're occupied in your activities, it all comes out of the heart.
And a heart that's not devoted to the person of Christ will always have its dire results. Guard your heart with all keeping. Do it above everything else. Guard your affections, guard your interests, guard the one who has a rightful place over that you read about, the one who is indeed altogether lovely.
And so he's writing to them about that. I don't think I need to tell you, brothers and sisters, this is a world that's full of idols. Different kind of idols. Mr. Vine has said that an idol simply is that which is seen.
That's the way he defines the word idol. It's something that's seen. We can understand that in terms of an image. It's what men make to represent what they think God is. That which is seen. We are living in a world that is full of that which is seen.
Let me just say that the devil will do all to use that which is seen to attract your heart and mind. He'll do everything possible and he appeals to the flesh because that's what responds to it. And he does it so that he might rob the Lord Jesus Christ of the place that he should have in our hearts.
Keep yourselves from idols. Anything in this world, let me just say kindly and frankly and bluntly, that everything in this world has a potential to be an idol. You know the biggest idol that I have to deal with?
And you probably too, same way. It's right here. We make an idol of ourselves. What I want, what I desire, what I like, and what I am most interested in, that becomes the biggest idol of all. But you know, any object that you have in your life, it may be a farm, it may be your ambitions, it may be your desire for advancement, it could be other activities.
I know a man who's gone to heaven now. I appreciate it very much. But that man loved his car so much that he waxed the engine compartment. Well, I wouldn't go that far. I have a hard time just keeping it reasonably clean.
And when he was asked to pick up children for the children's meeting, he said, they might get my car dirty. I don't think he realized that that car was taking a place that was never intended to take. You can make an idol of your wife, or your husband, or your children, or your desires for sports and activities, or maybe video games.
I don't know what it might be. But this world is full of idols. And I have four minutes left. I want to just say very quickly, there are four results of idolatry in the life of a believer. The first thing is, you can write this down, it disturbs the spirit of God.
Why is that? Because the spirit of God is jealous over you and me with a jealousy according to God. He wants to keep you absolutely faithful to the Lord Jesus. He wants to do everything possible to keep you from straying and getting involved in things that are contrary to the Lord Jesus and his claims upon us.
It disturbs the spirit. He's not happy about that. It's not what he really desires to see in your life and mine. And so that's the first thing that can happen. But it's also degrading. Secondly, it's degrading to your spiritual life.
If you desire anything for God, desire to live for God. Do not desire to live for Christ. I can only say that the saddest thing I have in my life are the years that were wasted, not directed toward the right object.
And if you come to the end of your life or get older like I am, I don't think I'm at the end of my life yet, but I never know. When you look back in your regret, the years that you didn't spend doing the things that count for eternity.
It's not only disturbing the spirit, but it's degrading to our spiritual welfare. The third thing is, it's opposed to the work that the spirit of God wants to do. He wants to draw us to the Lord Jesus.
He wants to make us love him more. He wants to make us have greater fidelity to him and a deeper devotion to him. And dear saints of God, the longer we live, the more we ought to love the Lord Jesus. The more we ought to be so attached to him that nothing, not a sliver can get between us.
Just to enjoy his presence more and more. I don't agree with everything that A .W. Tozer wrote. And maybe you don't either. But I'll say one thing. I love what he wrote when it comes to the relationship with Christ.
He believed that there's one great thing the spirit of God wants to do. He wants to deepen your relationship with the Lord Jesus. He wants to make you so attached to him and so much in love with him that you'll not want to do anything that is contrary to his will.
I read some of his writings every day. I wish I could put them into practice. So it hinders the work of the spirit of God in your life. He wants to develop that which is spiritual, that which will draw you nearer to the Savior.
The last thing is it dishonors the Lord Jesus. Idolatry, what does it do? It dishonors Christ. You and I belong to him. You've been bought with a price. And what a price it was. He demands, he expects, he deserves everything that we are.
Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy strength, with all thy might, with all thy soul. I'll just close with this one little quotation. William Kalper wrote a number of the hymns that we have in our Bible.
A man that lived long ago. He wrote a little four lines, stanzas, that sticks in my mind. You can write it down, it's very simple. He wrote these words. The dearest idol I have known. Gotta read it. The dearest idol that I have known, whate 'er that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne.
And worship only thee. May God help us to keep ourselves from idols.