Therapeutic Idolatry

Isaiah’s Courtroom Scene and the Folly of Idolatry

Please turn in your Bible to Isaiah chapter 41. That can be found on page 601 of your pew Bible. Isaiah 41. Please stand when you have that for the reading of God's word. Isaiah 41, verses six and seven.

Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother,.

Be strong.

The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith and he who smooths with the hammer, him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, it is good. They strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask today that you would open up your word to us, that you would show us our own hearts, that our souls be revealed before us, that we would know ourselves by your word.

We pray that you would show us the heart of idolatry so that we may be able to avoid it and follow in your law. In Jesus' name, amen. So in this previous passage, we saw the courtroom scene that was given where it said, listen to me in silence, O coastlands, et cetera, and then the coastlands have seen and are afraid and they draw near together.

So God has called the whole world together in judgment. They all draw together in judgment. And this is describing what the nations do while they wait in judgment. It's describing idolatry, that they work together on their idols, encouraging one another, saying to one another, be strong.

The craftsman is strengthening goldsmith, telling him that he's doing a good job. The goldsmith tells the craftsman you're doing a good job. The one who uses the hammer, the one who uses the anvil, speaking of the one who does the soldering, good job.

It is good.

The Control People Seek Through Idols

So they all encourage each other in this. This last part where it says, and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved. It's possibly some kind of base to this thing, having it nailed down so that it cannot be moved.

Is it interesting that they're trying to find their stability in something that they are giving stability to. They expect to be made stable by that which they are trying to make stable. And this is the folly of idolatry.

It is the irony of trying to get stability from that which you can only give stability, you cannot get it from. So why do people go to idols? What do they want other than just the broad category of stability?

Part of it is control. People like idols because they can control them. You consider how they are manipulating this idol, they are fashioning it just as they would like it, they're placing it just like they would like it, they're being excellent craftsmen and doing the things that are needed.

This is why people like idolatry. It's because when they are facing difficult circumstances, when they are facing things where they are not in control, they like to have something where they are in control.

This is how a lot of people approach the relationships where they are not in control. They try to get control. You consider masters and servants, right? The servant might try to have control over his master and manipulate him in various ways so he has to do less things, but this makes the household less of a productive household.

You have parents, or excuse me, children who manipulate their parents, try to get their way. A lot of kids are very successful in doing this. They're wrapped around daddy's finger, they're getting all the things they want, they're being very spoiled and literally spoiled, being made rotten so that they are not getting good parenting.

And so by being in control, by reversing that control, they're ending up ruining themselves. But they like control rather than not being in control. Wives do the same thing with their husbands. A lot of times, wives will have a particular complaint.

Well, if he wouldn't lead, then I wouldn't try, I would try to be in control. Sometimes there's some truth to this, but even Genesis three tells us this is a guarantee of something that there will be a tendency to happen.

Your desire will be against him, but he will rule over you. Women trying to take control of their husbands in ways that only makes it so they cannot benefit from that leadership. Well, this is what people want.

When they cannot, when they are not in control, and God is in control, they want to be in control by having gods for themselves, their own sort of gods, or even trying to address the true God in such a way where they feel that they can have more control.

Consider all the ways that people do this, even without physical idol, just in setting terms on their own obedience, saying that, okay, this is your law, but I will only obey it if you meet these circumstances.

I will only do hard things if there's not too much danger, there's not too much difficulty. You know, there are people who choose not to be open about their faith because they are afraid of the difficulty that there will be, and so they choose to be like Peter in the passage that we just read about, where they would prefer to keep everything on the down low because they're afraid of what being associated with Jesus would do to them.

There are people who refuse to gather and encourage the saints because it's too much of a inconvenience on their schedule. There are all kinds of ways that people put terms on obedience so that they would only follow God's law if he meets their standards.

They try to have control over the situation by demanding these things. They do this with contentment as well. Say, I will only be happy if these circumstances are met. I will only be happy if God gives me the things that I want.

I will only be happy if my relationships are the way I want them. And so a lot of people justify their discontentment. They justify their grumbling, things that are very wicked things in the eyes of the Lord, by their circumstances as though they are the one in charge and they get to decide the terms upon which they will obey, the terms upon which they will be happy in their service to the Lord.

They want control, and these are idolatrous behaviors to want control when you are not in control. Another way of considering this stability, this peace that people want out of idolatry is that it's therapeutic.

Therapeutic Religion and Therapeutic Language

What people are seeking with idolatry is some kind of therapy. Consider that with a literal idolatry. With literal idolatry, there is something physical that you can see, that you can touch, that you can sense.

A lot of times this will be associated with sounds, right? There will be particular sounds involved in idolatry, you know, like the singing bowls or, I don't know, bells, things like that. Oftentimes there will be incense associated with it where every sense is being engaged because it's a kind of therapy to distract you from those truths that you don't like.

You know, these situations where you are not in control, having the senses of something and going to God in a way where your senses are distracted, it's very therapeutic. People do this in worship also.

You know, the pattern in many churches is to have worship that is specifically designed to be as therapeutic as possible, right? The music and the lighting are all designed to be very therapeutic. If you listen to Christian radio stations, how do they usually brand themselves?

Positive music, right? It's primarily therapeutic music. It's not really focused on the truth. It's not really focused on what is needed for the believer, but what is positive, what is uplifting, what is therapeutic.

And even the messages, even the messages that are often preached from many pulpits avoid at all costs things that would be difficult because that would be contrary to the idolatrous goal of therapy. So people take, so not only is this the case with literal idolatry, it is also the case with idolatrous worship, where you're worshiping the true God, but you are putting your own priorities to it to have control, to have a distraction, to have some kind of therapy for your situation.

And this is why a lot of people go to religion in general, whether it be Christianity or any other religion, is for some kind of therapeutic effect. It's for validation, whether it be social validation, whether it be moral validation, to let you know that you're okay, you're a good person because you're a part of this group, or you're okay, you're a good person because you have this religion that has told you that you're a good person for these various reasons because you have met these particular bars.

That is what a lot of people find very therapeutic. I've probably mentioned this story before, so forgive me for repeating it, but when I was in high school, I took an acting class where Pauly Shore, if you know who Pauly Shore is, his father came and taught a lesson at this acting class, or at least gave his personal history.

And one of the things he said, he was a gay man, one of the things he said was that he was Southern Baptist, and he stopped there when he said he was Southern Baptist. He says, now you might be wondering how I can be a gay man and be Southern Baptist.

Well, religion is there to make you feel good about yourself, and this is what makes me feel good. So he was just straight up, like religion's not there for truth, it's just there for therapy. This is why a lot of people, why a lot of people approach religion is for the therapeutic effects of religion, to make them feel better about themselves.

Repentance, Sin, and Biblical Speech Versus Therapeutic Euphemisms

Now, not only is idolatry therapeutic, but I would argue that almost everything that is therapeutic is idolatrous, because unless it is, not that we can't enjoy the good things in this life, not that God hasn't given us pleasures to enjoy here, but anything that is outside of what he has given us to enjoy, all of it is trying to replace him to get a sense of peace, to get a sense of stability and control, to distract our senses, to make us feel calm.

This is just frequently, yeah, frequently the case. Consider how vocabulary from the Bible is often replaced with therapeutic words designed to help people approach things in a more neutral way, in a more uplifting way, or whatever you might call it.

For one thing is that a lot of people replace the word repentance with processing, right, where instead of repenting from sin, you know you're processing things. All right, and so there's not this implication that you ever did anything wrong, right?

You're a victim of these circumstances and you're just working through them. Okay, so there's nothing wrong that you did. We don't want to suggest that you did something wrong. We don't want to hurt your feelings in that way.

Rather, we want to affirm you and say you're just processing this. A lot of people replace the word sin with brokenness, right? There's nothing, you didn't do anything wrong if you're just broken. You're more of a victim in that case.

But if there's sin, you did something wrong, so they've replaced the word sin with brokenness. Or a lot of times when someone is in bondage to sin, and this is, I think this is something that Christians, even me, are guilty of doing a lot to validate people in their sin, is speaking of struggle, someone struggling with sin when they're not struggling at all.

Like a lot of times, struggle refers to them failing to struggle, right? Like, oh, he's really struggling with this particular sin. No, he's giving himself over to it. Like, that's the problem. But for some reason, we call that struggling with sin.

So this is another example of a way that people validate someone rather than speaking truthfully about bondage, bondage and sin. A lot of times, people will take someone who is absolutely shameless in the way they approach things.

They're speaking in unhindered ways where they, yeah, are brash with their words, where they are rude to others. We call that authentic rather than shameless. That's authentic. And so there are, there are just all kinds of things.

You know, a lot of people will pursue isolation. We'll call that setting up boundaries, right? There's just a lot of, a lot of ways that you take biblical language, you replace it with maybe language that sort of sounds biblical, but isn't with essentially therapeutic terms.

And what this is doing is taking the concepts that God has given us, taking his truth, replacing it with our own truth that makes us feel better. Because with his truth, he's in control. He has told us what is right.

We must abide by his word. And if he is in control, then we are not in control. And a lot of people feel very comfortable with not being under, in control because they are under his judgment. They are under his judgment if they are not in control.

So they want to be in control, and that makes them feel like they are not subject to judgment. If you are in control, right, if you have all this therapy affirming you, et cetera, then you feel that you are not under judgment.

The reality is that this doesn't fix anything because you, God still is in control. He still is above all things. None of that therapy, none of that distraction can actually change the reality that he is in control.

The only peace one can have is turning to the Lord Jesus Christ, is having forgiveness from their sins, releasing control, trusting in God. And you will not find peace by seizing control for yourself because there is no control to be had.

You will only find peace in aligning yourself with the one who is in control. It is only in aligning yourself with him, it is only in having his forgiveness, having his favor in Jesus Christ, being a son of God through the only begotten son of God, that you can be at peace with God.

Do not pursue peace by therapy, by idolatrous means. Pursue peace with God directly through Jesus Christ. It is through him that you can have peace with God. It is through him that you can not have control in your own hands, but rather trust the one who does have control in his, God himself.

Knowing God’s Wisdom, Prayer, and Submission to His Terms

Ways that you can do this. You can go to the word, and as you go to the word, learn more about the one who is in control, right? If you feel, or if you believe that God is wise and he knows what he is doing, you are going to have a lot of confidence and a lot of comfort with him being in control, right?

Like I mentioned, the woman who might say of her husband that, well, I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't try to, I wouldn't be such a control freak. If he would just lead more. That might be, have some truth to it in that relationship, but it's never true with God, okay?

God is never guilty of failing to lead as he ought to lead. And the more that you do not understand his leadership, the more you are going to want to be in control, the more that you might be susceptible to lies that he is not wise and he is not doing the right thing, the more that you are going to claw on to idolatrous things, the more that you are going to seek therapeutic means that he has not given in his word, the things that he has not offered us.

So read his word to know him better so that you would not, in your mind, falsely accuse him of any kind of lack of wisdom so that you would have the comfort to trust him and be at peace in the matter.

Also pray, pray to the Lord. It says in Philippians 4, 6, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

You should pray to the Lord. This is how one stops trying to take control for themself is they, in prayer, acknowledge that God is the one in control. Okay, if you're in control, you don't need to talk to God.

If God is in control, well, you need to talk to him. So this is what prayer is. Prayer is an acknowledgement that God is in control. You can't not engage in prayer and think that God is in control, okay?

Those are inconsistent things. If you believe God is in control, you will go to him in prayer. And do not set terms for when you will obey, when you will be happy, when you'll be content. Rather, let him set the terms and submit to them eagerly, eagerly.

The therapeutic means that people pursue. Avoid those and consider how broad this might be. Like I said, you know, God has given us pleasures in this life to enjoy. Those are good things. You even see stuff like, you know, I think of Isaac going into the tent in Rebekah, and, you know, this comforts him in his mother's death.

But there are, but beyond those means that God has given for us to pursue to be, yeah, to be comforted, any other kind of therapeutic means is more sinister than you may initially imagine. Beyond just the literal idolatry, even beyond the idolatrous worship where a lot of people are coming to God for good feels, for positive vibes, things like that, even beyond that.

Did you know that adult coloring books are a $150 million industry? That is how obsessed people are with trying to have some kind of therapy for themselves, right, adult coloring books. Rather than deal with my problems in a very adult way, you know, I'm going to, and, you know, perhaps ironically, draw mandalas, you know, idolatrous figures.

Like, that's what those are, those symmetric figures. They come from pagan religions. All the people who would try to solve their problems by gluttony, right, overeating, you know, the scene of the woman with ice cream just sitting there crying, you know, eating the whole gallon of ice cream.

Or these are very common ways that people deal with their problems just by distracting their senses, filling their senses just like the idolater would go to something that he can touch, something that he can smell, something that he can see, because these are filling his senses with things that are distracting him from the truth.

The truth is too difficult. Let's deny the truth. Let's just encourage one another in the situation, uplift one another, rather than facing the truth. Real courage comes from facing the truth. Real encouragement comes from telling your brother or sister to face the truth.

And so face the truth, believe the truth, whether it be about the truth of the trial you're in, or do not deny the reality of your trial. A lot of people, you know, engage in all kinds of denial. They refuse to speak about things.

This is something that in our culture is very normalized in a way that I don't think should be, is if somebody is going through a hard time, it is, you have to be very careful about the way you broach the topic to speak to them about it.

And if they say, I don't wanna talk about it, they have every right to keep you out. You have to be invited in to their life, right, in order to speak to these things. What's going on there is denial, right?

It's this situation where someone doesn't like reality, doesn't like the fact that they're in control, and so they're focused on this other thing, and they don't want their mind to be on that truth at all.

I believe in those situations, you should resist the culture on this point. You should not permit the normalization of that kind of thing where I will only speak if I, or you are only allowed to speak to me about this if I invite you into my life.

If we're brothers and sisters, if we have to watch out for one another, if we're called to encourage one another every day as long as it is called the day, there is no, well, there might be some room for space.

I'm not saying there's no room for people having their own personal space. The idea that I could be so spiritually private that you are not allowed to speak to me about this topic because I am too emotionally sensitive about this, and you talking to me about it is contrary to my therapeutic aims right now.

You should work against that, and you should encourage them to indeed speak to you about it so that they can face truth in a mature manner. And speak truthfully about sin. I've noticed a lot of times people will do this where they really don't like calling things sin, that are sinful.

And this, I mean this in a lot of ways, and I know you all are familiar with things where the unbeliever doesn't like calling something sin because of the baggage associated with that. But there's a lot of ways that the Bible uses the word sin.

Here's one, James 4, 17. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. I've been in a lot of situations where I'm discussing something.

There's a matter that maybe for everyone would not be sin because they wouldn't know the right thing to do. But in this circumstance, this person did know the right thing to do. And so all their wisdom, all the things around them are telling them the right thing to do, and they choose not to do it.

And so I speak of this as sin because this is the way Scripture speaks of it. But then others may get upset because how dare you label something sin that wouldn't be a sin for every single individual, right?

But if someone knows the right thing to do and they fail to do it, to him it is sin. It is sin. We shouldn't have to clothe every unwise activity with some label other than sin just because for some people who would not have the same level of understanding, it would simply be something that you would say is unwise and you wouldn't be in a position to judge, right?

There are some times when people do have enough information and you have enough information that you are in a position to judge even if that's not the case universally. And resist this kind of vocabulary, this vocabulary that would replace biblical notions with other notions designed to be therapeutic, designed to uplift.

These are all essentially idolatrous, essentially idolatrous because they replace God's truth with something else. Instead of going to him for peace, you're going to something else for peace. Instead of him being in control, you want to be in control and you're doing that with the very words that you're using to affirm truth.

Isaiah 26, three says, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you. The one who is trying to give his idol stability, you know, is really invested in upholding this denial, really invested in pushing out the truth and working so hard to keep the idol stable, to keep him stable, it'll never be stable.

Who is the one who has peace? The one who has peace is the one whose mind has stayed on the Lord because he trusts in you, because the Lord is perfectly stable. So if you have trusted in the Lord through Jesus Christ, if you have been cleansed from your sins so that you are no longer under his judgment but are rather on his side, all his activities are for your good so that you do not need to pursue any kind of therapeutic end to make yourself feel better.

Rather, you can have perfect peace because the truth is good, because the truth itself is something that proclaims peace to your soul because you are at peace with God in him.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the perfect peace that we can have in Jesus Christ. We ask that we would know that peace more this week as we contemplate these truths. We ask that you would keep us from idolatrous means, that you would keep us from pursuing anything that would be contrary to those purposes that you have given us.

I pray that we would not overindulge in any good thing as a way of giving ourselves peace but rather that we would embrace your truth wholly and find peace where it ought to be found. In Jesus' name, amen.