No One Like Our God [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

The difference in our God versus idols is our God carries us, but idols, you've got to carry them. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Remade, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I sure want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Don't miss it. Contact us at PastorAlan.org.

That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. We're going to give you more on all this later in the program. But right now, let's dig in and get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? This whole long, awful pandemic has brought at least one good thing. The idols of our hearts have been rattled and are coming tumbling to the ground. I'm talking about things that we trust for our sense of security, our well-being, whether it be the human intellect or a political empire or popularity or prosperity. We've realized how fragile all that is and unreliable.

And here's the good news. When idols get exposed, then we much more easily depose them. And when we dethrone the idols, our hearts fall in love with God more than ever. We're in a series on Jeremiah I've called Remade because what God does is more than tweak our character to make it a little better. When God gets hold of something, he can just remake it into something totally new and wonderful.

Like a potter who is spinning clay on the wheel, discovers an impediment and does not throw it away, but reforms it, throws it back on the wheel, spins it and spins it until he's made it into its perfect design. God can do that in our lives. And we're in Jeremiah 10 today for one of the many passages that highlights the folly and futility of idolatry.

And there's so much to learn of what God wants for us, for our very best for us in the exposure of idols. Jeremiah 10 verse 1, hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord, learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vanity, it means empty. Don't be dazzled by Babylon when you get deported there. Don't be dazzled by the wizardry of their astrologers.

It's all empty. And then the mockery starts. Sometimes the best thing you can do about an idol is just mock it.

I think that's OK. Sometimes, you know, the idols of our culture just mock them. Watch the Super Bowl, enjoy it. And when there's something that's completely ridiculous, ungodly and meaningless and empty, just mock it. This is what the Lord says, a tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold.

They fastened it with a hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field and they cannot speak. They have to be carried for they cannot walk.

Just mark this. The difference in our God versus idols is our God carries us. But idols, you've got to carry them. Don't be afraid of them. They cannot do evil.

Neither is in them to do good. There's none like you, O Lord. You are great and your name is great in might. Who would not fear you, O king of the nations? For this is your due for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all of their kingdoms, there's none like you.

They're both stupid and foolish. The instruction of idols is but wood, beaten silvers brought from Tarshish and gold from Uffaz. They're the work of the craftsman of the hands of the goldsmith.

Their clothing is violet and purple. They're all the work of skilled men. But the Lord is the true God and he is the living God and the everlasting king. It is wrath the earthquakes and the nations cannot endure his indignation. Thus shall you say to them, the gods who did not make the heavens and earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens. It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Every man's stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his images are false and there's no breath in them. They're worthless, a work of delusion. At the time of their punishment, they shall perish. Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things. And Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.

The Lord of hosts is his name. I think I earned a little TV husband watching points over vacation, watching the stuff my wife wanted to. So I mentioned a few weeks back, see her favorite movie is Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's a joke in our house. Every time we're like, what do you want to watch? I said, how about Raiders of the Lost Ark? But one night while on a little vacation, I said, hey, you want to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark? She said, are you serious? I said, yeah. We watched the Raiders of the Lost Ark. I had to get some chips for that.

And then to add to it, she'd been saying for a long time now, could we watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Well, I've got to I got to confess that don't boo me off the platform, but all you fans. But I just I just hadn't been that big a fan. I just I just didn't have the time. I didn't have the time, the time. They are so long.

And there's so many weird names. And you put me if I'm after a hard work day and sleepy and you put me in front of that. And it's three hours.

And the problem is you can watch three hours in the movie ends and you're just left hanging. It just didn't it didn't. I'm like, what's that?

What's that? It just stopped. It just stopped. You got to watch all three hour movies in a row or else. So I said, honey, I said, you want to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy? She said, are you serious? I said, yeah. So we watched.

And I have to admit, they are epic and I loved them. If you're not familiar with the Lord of the Rings, it centers on this ring. It could have been anything. That's what's genius about it. Why a ring?

It didn't matter what it was. It just was a ring. And this ring has the power that was inanimate, but it has a power associated with it to infatuate its beholder. So that the one who beholds it becomes too fascinated by it. And the one who possesses it ends up being possessed by it. The one who wants to be in control of the ring is controlled by the ring. And what's interesting is that it can distort its beholder and its owner, whether that one is bent towards good or bent towards bad. Gollum was once a healthy young man and he gets the ring and eventually he withers into a pitiful little monster named Gollum.

Sounds like you're clearing your throat. Gollum. Gollum.

That's what he is. He just, his life's turned into Gollum. Who all he cares about is the ring, my precious. My precious. To the point of his own death, he'd rather have my precious. Lie, cheat, kill in order to have my precious. But Frodo, who's such a noble little hobbit who wants to carry out the mission to set the whole land free, even though he's so noble and so good, what the ring does to him is that it makes him obsessed with his mission to the point that he will abandon his best friend and believe a known liar.

It's a great picture. Tolkien was genius. It's a picture of the power of an idol. An idol is not a respecter of persons, whether bent towards good or bent towards evil. An idol can take over. It becomes the, it becomes the thing that you feel like you've got to have. And what it does in the end is it controls you. And I want to just talk to you today about what an idol is and why in the world we would make idols, why they're so destructive and how do you get rid of them? What's an idol? Why do we make them? Why are they so bad?

And how do you get rid of them? It's all here in Jeremiah Chapter 10. In the biblical picture, I'd say an idol is a human made object of worship that is falsely believed to bring security, blessing or strength. They are summarized in verse 11.

I love this. The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth. Our God is the God who made the heaven and the earth. And so every other God is the one who didn't make the heaven and the earth.

It's a wonderful satire. It's interesting how in the biblical text, we know that there is a great, great passionate exhortation, as is demonstrated in Deuteronomy six, hero Israel, the Lord your God is one God. That there's only one true living God. So why would the text and the prophecy speak of other gods? Well, it's not because they are gods, but it's because what people worship is a God to them. And they are by contrast to the creator of the ends of the earth.

They're the ones that didn't make the heavens and the earth. And so an idol is something that is trusted in. It may be completely powerless idea, or it could actually be connected to a demonic power.

Because Paul said in first Corinthians 10 in this discussion of sacrifices to idols, he said at 10 20, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. So the idols of our hearts can end up leading us into real demonic powers. You know, if you want something so much that it becomes the obsession of your life, you see, then it can be an invitation for it to take over your life.

They don't have to be physical. They can just be idols of the heart. Ezekiel 14 2, the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. So an idol is not something that has to be crafted of wood or gold. We don't make these in our culture, right? You can go to other places in the world and you'll see idols everywhere, right? When I travel to India, there's idols everywhere. You see idols just sitting out, people put food in front of the idols, idols sitting in public places and at people's doorsteps. We don't do that, but we have idols in our hearts.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a favored foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. They aren't necessarily a substitute for God. They might just be an addition to God. In fact, that's the more normal course of things. Interestingly, we don't have time to look at the whole story, but in the famous story of the people of God making a golden calf while Moses is gone to get the law on the mountain, while they make that golden calf, they say they do so because the next day they're having a festival to the Lord.

The golden calf was a supplement. And I think that's often what it is, is that the idol doesn't mean, that's why even a Christian can have an idol. It's like, I'm not saying I don't believe in God.

I just need this also, you see. It will say more about later about how you identify, but you could start with this. If you start filling in the blanks here with something other than God and His gospel, then it could be an idol. If you say, if I only could blank, then I'd feel good about myself. Or if I only had blank, then I'd be at peace.

Or if I only, and whatever you fill in the blank, then I wouldn't feel ashamed anymore. Well, that could be an idol. So what Jeremiah does here, the word of the Lord, it just mocks it all. It's a tree that's cut down from the forest. It's worked with an axe. It's put together with hammer and nails. It can't move.

It can't speak. It's just so silly to think of it. It's like a lumberjack goes out into the woods and chops down a tree and comes back and whittles it down and then hammers it wood and calls it a god. And we look at that and we go, yeah, that is so silly we could hurt.

But what I want to show you today is our heart can do the same thing. That's just as silly, just as foolish, just as ridiculous. They have to be carried. They can't carry you, verse five. They can't do evil or good.

They're both stupid and foolish. They're worthless, verse 14, a work of delusion. Which is why verse 14 then becomes very surprising when we read every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. Because wouldn't it seem that if there's something that's worthless and powerless, it has no eyes, no ears, no feet, no arms, can't move, can't talk, can't think, can't exert any real power, how could it be then that it has the power to shame its maker? Because that's a power.

That's what we want to answer. And why don't we make idols? I think verse two is a big key. Thus says the Lord, learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them. The customs of the people are vanity, the way of the nations.

Learn not the way. So in other words, what's going to happen is the people of God are going to experience the ransacking of their homeland. Jerusalem's going to be torn down. The wall's going to be torn down. The temple's going to be torn down. All their way of life's going to be destroyed. Their houses are going to be burned. And many of them are going to be deported to Babylon where they're going to see big structures, the beautiful palatial buildings. They're going to see the wizardry of the astrologers. They're going to see a lot of dazzling things in Babylon. You know, it's a very tempting thing when it feels like your life's falling apart and you've trusted in God and things seem like they're falling apart. And then you go to Babylon and everything looks like it's sparkling there. And the Lord is saying through Jeremiah, do not be dazzled.

Learn not the way of the nations. I think the first reason and we end up making idols is we're not even aware we're doing it. We're just taking in the culture around us. I read this week in a recent study that young adults today will spend something on the order of 43 to 45 hours a week on a screen. I'm not saying that everything on the screen is bad. I'm not saying at all. In fact, I'm really not one of those that's like, oh, you know, if you're a real Christian, you won't even have a TV. No, we got the Super Bowl today and I've got me a new big TV and it looks good.

And the Olympics have been pretty good and I like my shows and you know, we watch stuff. But what I am saying though is what's really dangerous is to consume culture's content uncritically. This is where parents and learn like you're watching something.

I don't care if it's a Disney movie, you put it on pause and say, let's talk about the message that just came forth right there and why it is completely opposite of what God says. In other words, to learn not the way of the nations is to know that you are living like an alien in a foreign place and we don't think like that and we don't believe like that and we don't act like that and we don't just take it in and just eat the junk food and eat it and eat it and eat it so that it just becomes part of us because the way of the world is idolatrous. Don't be dismayed at the heavens.

What it means is don't be dazzled and impressed. Their gods are empty. So that's part of the reason I think we make idols. We don't even realize we're doing it sometimes. It's just we just fed it all the time. Just fed. I mean, just the commercials just alone are enough to feed us into idolatry, right? This stuff doesn't matter.

But it's deeper than that. When the children of Israel made that golden calf Exodus 32 one, here's what happened. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what's become of him. In other words, when they made their idol, they were wondering, where is God? Moses has been gone too long and we hadn't seen God do something lately. They forgot the Red Sea.

They forgot the Passover. We can't feel God right now. And so let's make this golden calf. In other words, the idol is born out of fear. I'm afraid that things aren't going right.

I've been trusting in God, but I don't feel him right now. And so I need something else. That's the factory that builds idols. That's the factory of the heart. Alan Wright and today's good news message. No one like our God. It's from the series that we're in.

It's called Remade. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Live before the end of the month. We'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a favored foreigner. You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Like you're now with Pastor Alan in the studio with our parting good news thought for the day and no one like our God. You know, growing up and I heard about idols and grew up in church and heard about that and it seemed kind of foreign because you know, we don't have these golden things necessarily in the way my mind's eye pictured it. But we do, don't we?

We do actually still have things that we cling to. Anything that you put in this blank, if blank, if I have blank, if I could blank it. Anything you put in that blank that fulfills that statement, if blank, then I would really be fulfilled. Well, anything other than God has a real good chance of being an idol. And it's not just, Daniel, it's not just that God is offended by our idols because yes, He is a God who demands our exclusivity. And when we have idols, we're like a spouse who's gone after another lover. And so it hurts the hearts of God. But I just, what I want us to see as we continue this message tomorrow is how much it hurts us. What G.K. Beale says, whatever you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or for restoration. So there's a way in which what you idolize, you become like it and you give it power over you. And so we must learn how to get rid of idols. And we're going to be talking about that tomorrow. Thank you.