They pray to Jesus. and goofy and sneezy and grumpy and anybody else they want to pray to. That's a disqualifying feature. Man has no right to make up things about God whether A teaching or a representation have no right, and when they do, it is an idol, and it is an idol instantly, and it is anathema. It is against the first commandment.
And the second, no graven images unto me.
So among other things, an idol is really man in God's place. putting himself there. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Ricky is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through a topical series.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio. specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick as he continues his message called Roles of the Godly. Spiritual brawn. contributes to spiritual stability.
You know, just like I'm going to have to be tougher. I don't like to hear that either. I don't want to just, you know, toughen up, you know. I don't want to do that. One of the nice things about going to bed.
is you really don't have to toughen up unless you got some you know body aches or something going on But ideally having to be tough is a challenge. Be friends, have friends. You don't have to have close friends, but you should have. You should be friendly enough. To not darken the room when you come in.
Be blameless, be responsible. And all you have to do is always do your job. Just do your job. You know it, whatever and wherever it is. Don't be a spiritual minimalist.
when maximum effort is called for. How do I get these things? Say it with me. Genius Sheer genius Of course not. I think about, you know, what have I seen over the last 40 years as a cream?
What have I experienced? What works? What doesn't work? Why? Why was that person such a pain?
Why was that person such a vessel? in the hands of Satan in the church. And that's how you're going to be in a sermon one day. Yeah. Remember Lot Relative of Abraham.
Lot the believer. He lived closer to man's world than God's kingdom. What was the outcome? His compromise destroyed his family. Death.
His sons-in-law, probably the wives of those two sons, in addition to the other two daughters, if you factor it that way. For sure, he lost his wife. She really wanted to stay. Back in Sodom. Noah, on the other hand, his conviction and consecration saved his family.
and the human race. Abraham's faith produced Patriarchs of the faith. In Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob was a bumpy ride. Jacob was not this born, this you know, evangelist. He was every bit of an opportunistic individual.
And then the day came when he wrestled with God. I have tried to wrestle with God and get get the blessing. The blessing has been, hang in there, kid. It's like, what? I don't want to endure.
I'm coming to you. I can handle the easy ones. I need you to get the big ones. But yet, you know, the dust settles and there you are. God could have wiped out the Egyptian army that was chasing the Jews without potting the sea.
God could have given all of those who came to arrest Samson a bad belly ache that day. Nobody had to come.
So we just, you know, my pastor used to always say, often say, blessed are the flexible, they're not easily broken.
So we could put out maximum effort and still fail to achieve ambitions, and that's painful. I threw myself into this. I poured myself, and this is what I get back. Not worth it. The other guy, he doesn't do half this, and he gets back, you know, tenfold.
Elkanah was the husband of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. He applied all he had to please his wife Hannah. And yet she craved more. No fault. Elkanah the husband, or really of Hannah.
She didn't do anything wrong that we know of. If anything, Panena, her wife-in-law, she did do stuff wrong, and she had kids. And that proved that The inability to bear children was not Elkanah's fault, the husband. It was Hannah. It was on her.
She could not bear the children. She had to bear this load in a society that was not very. kind to you. It put a stigma on you.
Now, if you look, we talk about Bible characters. If you look at Panina and you say, that is not Christ's likeness, do not be like her. provoking everybody, needling Hannah, ha ha, you can have kids, I do. Pick that up in 1 Samuel chapter. 1 verses 4 and 5, and whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Panina his wife.
and to all her sons and daughters. She is prolific. A fruitful womb. And he was providing and protecting without provocation. But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although Yahweh had closed her womb.
And then it goes on. Then Elkaner, her husband, said to Rahanna, Why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?
Of course he is blameless. But it wasn't what was on her heart. And the tears, tears always indicate something bigger is happening on the inside. I don't know about laughing until you cry, that's a special time. That's in another category.
Who doesn't want to laugh until they can't breathe? It's a weird thing about us. It doesn't happen all too often in life, and it should not be forced. But that's not what I'm talking about when I talk about tears. Whether they're sorrow or tears, you're filled with the Spirit, whatever it may be, tears are an indicator.
The tears are a shadow of the thing. And the shadow of the thing is not greater than the thing itself, it's lesser.
So, the godly husband, the godly man, the godly woman, the godly wife, in both cases, one size fits all, be Christ-like. And that's going to call for you to pay attention.
So advice to husbands and wives and daughters and dads and moms and sons Get around other Husbands and wives, dads and moms and sons and daughters. And Don't overestimate. A best selling author's words Even if he's using God, don't overestimate what's coming out of that. Those who are serving Christians. Are the ones to pay attention to versus the self-appointed sages?
There are those that think they're just the self-appointed ones, and they're the ones that need to dole out the advice. In the early days of ministry, giving out advice seemed to come easy. But as the years go went by, it's very difficult. And my approach is just Be down to earth. Don't fluff anybody.
Don't look for what they want to hear. Look for what God is saying. And if He's not saying anything, then don't say anything. And if you don't say anything, you'll not be considered profound. Can you live with that?
Every time I come into the pulpit, I try to have something profound to say. From the Lord, but I don't force it, I try not to, and I'm not talking as though I've mastered this at all. I'm telling you what goes on in my head. I try to hit a home run at every pitch.
So you should know them if you They won't be the ones that are boasting. And if you don't boast discernment, I don't know. It seems like to me, more often than not, when someone says, I have the gift of discernment, they don't. They don't. If they did, they wouldn't say that.
I I can think of them and and you go to what church?
Okay, let me write your name down. How do you spell that? Is that two T's? Anyway.
Solid Christians. are not specialist. We're Christ-like. or we're trying to be Christ-like. And try to remember that the other Christian that truly loves the Lord, but it may be irritating you a little bit, they want to be Christ-like too.
First Corinthians thirteen, love suffers long and is kind. You catch that end is kind. I think a lot of Christians forget that part. They forget the part about suffering long, too, because we don't like it. I think a lot of Christians go to a church, they don't want to hear that.
They don't want all the truth. It continues. Love does not envy. Which is one of the reasons why you have people that want to be, they want to go to churches where the pastor is a preacher, not a teacher.
so that they could be the teachers. Because they're envious. I'm just telling you what some I my take is on some of them. Love does not parade itself. is not puffed up.
So you're looking for that Christ-like character.
Well, they're not promoting themselves. They're not puffed up with knowledge trying to impress you. They know how to just be quiet sometimes. When there's nothing to say, they suffer long, they are kind. Anyway, Christ's likeness will leave behind more than a godly testimony.
It will leave behind people who miss you.
So, I get two verses to go with all of this, and then we'll get to the next question. Ephesians four. 432 I love this verse. I memorized this verse long before I really understood how valuable it is. Be kind to one another.
Tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. What is an early indicator that that feature is not working in you? When you start rolling your eyes. And the other person. Yeah.
Now you're in it. It's that it's on. And you need to catch that. Lord, help me not make habit of this. Or you start talking, mumbling under your breath.
or complaining. And say, well, what's the antidote? Love suffers long, and is kind. Proverbs 16, 7. When a man's ways please Yahweh, or the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him Yeah, when you're around certain enemies.
Certain enemies, they're monsters. But there are those enemies that they're just decent people enough. that they'll leave you alone.
Well, the next question is. And this actually is a We'll only get part of the question, so I'll read the first part. We'll get next session, we'll go back to Part A and B Idols, high places, gods, and how they may apply to us. Today. Idols You don't appreciate the little breaks like that.
I do.
Okay. First one up.
Well, what is an idol? And there's a lot of ways to answer that. Paul said, idol is nothing, the rhetorical question: what is an idol?
Well, it's a representation, it's a symbol, it's a thought of an object to worship.
Something in your head to worship that doesn't deserve it. That's created. Only God is self-created, self-existent, and eternal all at the same time. Always been there, nobody put him there, always will be there. But an idol is not like that.
Somebody had to make this thing. And it starts out. With a thought. And the thought doesn't start on earth. Starts in the spiritual world.
And it migrates. It looks for those who are willing. uh to let it perch within their heads and hearts. These are false gods. And Jeremiah spent his Life.
Fighting these. Will a man, you know, Jeremiah was so bad, God said, I don't want you taking a wife in this place, I don't want you to have any kids here. Great suffering is coming to this place because of how they treated me. That's Jeremiah's life. Will a man make gods for himself which are not gods?
So you read that in prose, and that's how it reads. Will a man make gods for himself which are not gods?
But if you poetically or you put some life into it, you animate it, Will a man make gods for himself? Which aren't even gods? Not me. This is you know the tone, the inflection.
So we do not pray to the cross. We do not worship the cross. That would be idolatry. The complete opposite of what the cross symbolizes. We worship and we pray to the God of the cross.
Who made The symbol points. point to something greater than itself. who reduced the symbol to a shadow. And he is also the God of creation. As I mentioned, these idols, they originate in hell.
They're passed into the minds of people Want A creature god. There's more license that way. You can pick and choose things that you prefer. You become the God. You're shaping God in the image of your choice.
versus God making you in his image. Hell is on the prowl for these types that will be these open vessels, and he loves. He loves to take young adults. Because those young adults, you know, they start off as little children and they're dependent on their parents and they grow. And they start to form opinions of their own, and then they get into their teen years, and you're constantly like.
They're like a typewriter, those old typewriters. You know, you get to the end and you have to hit the bar and it scoots back and then you start again. Uh but you keep on with new thoughts as you're typing, and that's kind of the teenager. But once they get to adulthood now, That lever to pull them back is no longer in your hands. You're hoping they'll be able to do it themselves.
And if they go to the universities particularly They may not. Because after all, everybody in university is smarter than anybody in church. And it's of course being facetious. or then the workplace. could be the guy on the job that is the Ace, he is the star.
and everybody wants to be his friend, even though he's a reprobate. And they don't know that when they're young adults. They've got to learn these things.
So often they get into their latter years of life and they look back and they say, you know, I didn't appreciate the church that I was in. How much nonsense they kept outside. How much they work to stay true to Acts 2:42. And of course, I've had this church in mind. There are others like this, of course.
And then they get older and they realize it. And trying to get them to skip that step of missing out, because there are those young adults that go through the youth and adolescence, and then they become young adults, and they don't take the bait. They stay the cost, they serve in the church, they make friends. They become people to look up to.
So, hell, of course, looking for anybody who will It can plug into like a video game.
So it can play you. And once they find them, they download these grotesque ideas into the imagination. of the ignorant and the disobedient, Deuteronomy 32. They sacrifice to demons. Not to God.
to gods they did not know. To new gods, new arrivals. That's what Moses said. Johnny, come lately. This is the same thing.
You go to a university, they got these new ideas. They're chunk! I mean when they come against your God You know, you say you go to a university, you want a degree in structural engineering, and he's telling you about religion. When you go to church, the pastor doesn't try to tell you about structural engineering. He's trying to tell you about God.
or stir up those who already know. 1 Corinthians 10:20 to show you that this is alive and well in the New Testament. Rather, Paul said. That the things which the Gentiles, the unbelieving ones, sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship/slash friendship with.
with demons. Don't think their gods are cute. Don't think well, you know They also have a Bible. They pray to Jesus. and goofy and sneezy and grumpy and anybody else they want to pray to.
That's a disqualifying feature. Man has no right to make up things about God, whether A teaching or a representation have no right, and when they do, it is an idol, and it is an idol instantly, and it is anathema. It is against the first commandment. And the second, no graven images unto me.
So among other things, an idol There's really man in God's place. putting himself there. In Scripture regards, in case you missed it. Scripture regards idolatry as devil worship. And you say to yourself, well, when am I going to use that?
Anytime you have someone listen to you tell them about Christ, and they disagree and say, Yeah, well, I think God is. That person is an idol worshiper, whether they know it or not, and it's up to us to try to get them to see that. Without violence. without rudeness. Leviticus 7, seventeen.
They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons after whom they have played the harlot. They shall be. A statute forever for them throughout their generations. God says, there's no end to this, this is permanent.
Something that's false is false. It's not going to recover.
So stay away from it. You're complete in him, Paul said to the Colossians. You have no need of Philosophies and All these empty ideas. that go against scripture. You want to have good ideas about something, that's fine, as long as it doesn't contradict God's word.
And that's why we put so much emphasis on going over God's Word. In distress, in hard times, in spooky days when his life was being threatened, Saul, King Saul. Where did he go? He turned to the underworld. to spirits to fallen beings.
to try to get the future. Fear forced. him to do this. Because that's what was in him, fear. Forces out of us what's fabricated in us.
It expresses, it squishes like a grape. It squishes, put pressure on it, it'll push what's on the inside to the outside. Colossians 3.10. Put on the new man. Who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him?
That's what Saul did not do. Saul did not run into the arms of Yahweh, he ran into the open arms of Satan, and God did not forget it, so much so, hundreds of years later, well, not that many, but about a hundred years later. God made sure it got into print. 1 Chronicles 10.
So Saul died for his unfaithfulness, which he had committed against Yahweh, because he did not keep the word of Yahweh, but also because. He consulted a witch for guidance. A medium. Ladies back then didn't mind telling you what size they were. Medium, small, okay.
So, an idolater is one who departs from the truth about God. Four. anything else. Doesn't matter. King David Nothing to do with this stuff.
And this is what we look to. This factors back into being a godly, Christ-like servant of the Lord. David was one of those. What does he say about idols? In Psalm 16, he says, Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another God.
Their drink offering of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips. I won't even give them respect. King Josiah. Second Kings. twenty three.
Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel And the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel sin. How would you like that?
So if you just hear me say that, especially your teens, you say, what does that have to do with anything? Has this to do with it? His family was shamed because of him. Would you like to bring that kind of shame on your family?
So coming back to Jeroboam and what happened with Josiah. Who made Jeroboam made Israel sin? had made both That altar And the high place. He broke down. Josiah is breaking these things down, and burned the high place and crushed it to powder.
and burn the wanted image. He crushed it to powder. He put effort into this. He made a profound statement.
So the pagans would show up the next day looking for their shrine. And there'd just be this dust. Where he just obliterated it. 2 Chronicles 34, when he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder and cut down the incense altars throughout all the land, he returned to Jerusalem. He's this crusader.
He goes around smashing an iconoclast, smashing these idols. And he just goes home. Then there's the apostate king Jeroboam that gave him The idols to crush. This is the negative now. 2 Chronicles 11:15.
Then he appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the demons. and the calf idols which he had made.
So we're talking about the treatment of demons, the activity of demons. They are real. They don't have to show up and make you speak in a deep voice or something crazy like that. All they got to do is get you to contradict God. That's what they want.
The Old Testament writers were notorious for describing idols as dung gods or gods of dung, and I'm being polite. their disposition towards Those gods were contemptuous, and it shows up in their language. Ezekiel's the greatest, Moses did it too, others did it also. Instead, there was an alternate.
Sometimes the Jewish writers, when they talked about these idols, they would use the Jewish word for image. That's not the dung gods. But the same thing, but they're just using a different word. But when they really wanted to lay on You, what they thought of these gods. They'd use a different Greek Hebrew word.
Which meant Don't. Waste. Because idolatry is identity theft. They're messing with God's people, they're populating hell, and the prophets didn't care for that. Psalm 106, but they mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works.
Yeah, like when a good Christian child goes into the workforce or goes into the university, they learn the works of the devil and they change teams. Thanks for tuning in today to Cross Reference Radio, where Pastor Rick has some answers for various questions that have been asked. We can't fully express how grateful we are that you've been with us today. But if you're ever looking for more teaching and content from us, you're welcome to subscribe to our podcast. Just go to your favorite podcast app and look for Cross-Reference Radio.
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