Well, to that text, 1 John chapter 5, please, 1 John chapter 5. And we will do what the preceding speakers have done and have you stand, please, and this time I'll have you help me. We're looking at 18 through 21, four verses. And the last one is our text. I'll read verse 18, you read verse 19, and we'll alternate back and forth. And you'll find that my custom is to read with the people who are reading out there, because if you don't, they get out of sequence. So the truth is, I'm going to read all the verses. You're going to read half the verses. Life is not fair. You come in on verse 19. Verse 18 says, we know. That whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true. And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. And that's it. Read that one more time and that's our message and we can go have supper. Supper ready? Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Father, I pray that you help us now as we think about that charge from the old apostle, writing in his aged years, writing to us down through the centuries, although he never imagined that we would be here or could comprehend of a place like America or Minnesota. And I pray, Lord, that we might recognize that These words are timeless truths because they're inscripturated in the holy book that you've given us. And I pray that we might take heed to that book and to these six words and the significance that they bring to our hearts. I pray that you help me to say something worthwhile and that thy word above all might be heard in our hearts. We pray for Jesus' sake. Amen. Thank you. Be seated, please. I was trying to recall just exactly when Brother Ketchum contacted me, I think it was by email, about having a slot and preaching on the subject of separation. I was reading in this area in 1 John and had noticed this particular phrase in that 21st verse, the last words of his first epistle. And I thought, well, that will make a good message on the subject of holiness, biblical separation. And I said, I will preach on that. And so I started to dig into it and preached it in Brother Grimaldi's church while he was gone in July, our home church there in Rochester now, Midwest Bible Baptist. And I don't think this is going to sound quite like that because I keep revising it, but my hope is that all the preachers in the crowd, which is most of us, will get some ideas and run off on little rabbit trails as I'm talking. I noticed in my little program there. I've got 20 lines if you count the blank space at the bottom and the blank space at the top. I know I've got eight interesting things about idols here in a little bit, including this question, how many idols are there? And this one, how do I know that this is my idol? So hang on, that's to keep you awake until we get to the third page of the notes. Well, there's really two outlines, and this is the simple part of the sermon, and it gets more complicated. And the really complicated part about idols, I've left most of that out. You can't preach everything in the Bible on idols. Even if it's a series, it's a long series. It's worth your while to wade into it because I certainly got a lot of things to think about, and hopefully I put some on paper that I can convey to you. There's a warning here. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. That's a warning. And then later on, there's a remedy, and we'll come to that after a bit. For those who like alliterated outlines, like Brother Grimaldi, here are the people of the warning, little children. Here's the precept of the warning. Keep yourselves. Here's the problem. Idols. You say, well, Brethren, why are you preaching on idols? We're not living in a Buddhist country or a Hindu country or even the folks in Japan. Their society is filled with idols. Surely our society, our culture is not full of idols. Well, then why does the Word of God continue to say to us down through the centuries, little children, keep yourselves from idols? I've got a page full of things here. The nice thing about a computer, one of the preachers in the hallway was saying that he still writes his sermons out by hand, and I do too. I could type them. I know how to type. And I do have this nice printout because that's easier than Strong's Concordance. And it comes up on your search and you just print the thing. This is all the references to children, although just a simple word search doesn't do it. Because in chapter 3, there's the sons of God. That's the same idea. I suppose if you really wanted to get into it, you could include all the references to those who were born of God or begotten of God, and that's an even longer list. Quite frankly, 1 John always confuses me. Amen or amen? It's the simplest of the language. I'm sure that you did what I did when you took Greek. You had these little cards and they came out of 1 John. It was the vocabulary cards for beginner Greek. The simplest kind of stuff. I found over the years that the simplest kind of stuff is the most profound stuff. And I always think of 1 John like a tangle in the woods where two or three grapevines grow up a tree, and it goes like this, in and out, and in and out. It's the same ideas, but they keep entwining themselves. Just these four verses that we read. If you were to preach everything that's in those four verses, you'd have yourself a series. And maybe you noticed that as we read that. There's a lot of stuff right there. It's a good thing we're sticking to just six words in verse 21. I'm not even preaching on the Amen. Amen? The little children, that's Christians. It starts in chapter 2 and verse 1, my little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. Oh dear, I got myself in trouble before I started pastoring with that verse, but I'll not go into that. I write unto you little children, verse 12 of chapter 2, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. And then this is the section I run into you, fathers and young men and little children, and same in verse 18, little children, it's the last time. 228, and now little children abide in him. That's a good verse about the second coming, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence before him and not be ashamed. Some will be confident, some will be ashamed. And so it goes on, chapter 3, 1 and 2, we're now the sons of God, we should be called the sons of God. We shall see him as he is." I'm skipping through because, again, I'm preaching to the choir. You guys know these things. This is not to the unsaved world. It's to the Christian world that John says, little children, keep yourselves from idols. You say idols are a problem for Christians? Born-again believers? I mean, look, we're independent fundamental Baptists here. We held up signs up here and everything. We demonstrated this. We had the old war and the modernists and the compromisers and the fundamentalists won. Well, in some sort of a way. We haven't won numerically. And the battle's still raging. Brother Corman preached about the battle, and Brother Sorensen preached about some of the consequences and the doctrine of leaving behind separation and denying it and ridiculing it. My particular thrust, I think, is going to be, how does that happen? Little children, keep yourselves. That's the warning. Keep yourselves. And notice in verse 18, it says, we know. Verse 19, it says, and we know. Verse 20, it says, and we know. That's interesting right there. Right straight in a row, three verses. We know, we know, we know. Well, there must be something that's worth knowing. Something that's worthwhile to know. We know, verse 18, that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. I think that's verse 21, before verse 21 gets there. Go back and look at it again. The context, the immediate context, often will help you with verses that are difficult or you're uncertain. You back up and you say, little children. Middle of verse 18, he's the begotten of God. Little children, keep yourselves. The one begotten of God keepeth himself. And that wicked one toucheth him not. Keep yourselves from idols. The idol is the way the wicked one reaches in and touches us. He touches us with an idol. It's deceptive. It's probably attractive. That's the way it was in the Garden of Eden. That's how far back this idol business goes. And by the way, if you're going to search the thing about idols, you're also going to... well, I'll save that when we get down the list. Now we're to the problem. There's the people. There's the precept. Keep yourselves. It's verse 18, I think, and verse 21 are replicas of each other. And now we've got the problem. This is where we're going to spend most of our time. So we have until 5.30, 6.30. What time does that evening service start? 7. That clock isn't going around and around and around like it was when you showed me a while ago. It's the funniest thing. I thought that was the deacon's clock a while ago. It was going like this. It must have been resetting itself. Amazing. But the corpsman has got really something here. Did you know anything about that clock? That clock would do that? You ought to show your dad that trick. Number one, an idol is something that takes the place of the true God. Notice in verse 20, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God. Everything else is idols. This is the true God. and eternal life. And I think that's the same thing, by the way, as going back in verse 12, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. There's some amazing helpful statements just in this fifth chapter of 1 John. So, an idol is something that takes the place of the true God. Maybe we should go back at this point and get into Exodus chapter 20. You know what that's about. Exodus chapter 20. Pastor Mark, you have good lights up here. Old eyes appreciate good lights. I can actually see my Bible. Brother Gamaldi's got it so dark out where I sit in the congregation, I have to get my magnifying glass. The verses that talk about idolatry in the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20, verse 1, and God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord Jehovah thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Number one, thou shalt have no other gods before me. You know where that verse comes into the Bible? I'm not going to preach on that, but I'm throwing out things for you to think about, you preachers. who always like some new free sermon. You're welcome. Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now, wait a minute. God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and Eve were there, and we have the serpent, and the serpent is talking to Eve about gods. Who's he talking about? He shall be his gods. Adam and Eve, I mean, it was a common reference. They must have known who these gods were. Who are those gods? It wasn't an idol. We're going to see a little bit more about that as we come on. Number two. Oh, there's another one here too about idolatry. The commandment that's never preached on now. Verse 17. Commandment number 10, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. Isn't that an interesting commandment? Why name all that stuff? Why? Indeed. And I think those three commandments talk about idolatry. Number one, an idol is something that takes the place of the true God. Number two, an idol, I wrote down, is an image. There's a whole world in that one. An idol is an image. Look at verse 19 in our text. And we know. And we know that we are of God. That's ek, out from God. We have our origin and source from God. We are from God. We're not from the world. We're not from the wicked one. The whole world lieth in wickedness. We're from God. That's who we are. We have our source. We have the essence of our being. We have anything that counts for anything from God. If it isn't from God, it doesn't amount to anything. There's only two parts to my Christian life. My part and His part. His part's everything. My part is all the bad stuff. Now, I'm not going any farther than that. That could be explained and eliminated a number of different ways, I suppose. I contribute the bad things. He contributes everything good. Having Christ is eternal life. This is the true God and eternal life. And here he says, we are of God. There's the image of God restored in Jesus Christ. That's why we're called Christians. Because we're called to be saints. And some folks who are called to be saints ain't. There's the image. And you can trace that image thing. The image of God, the image of God was in Adam. The image of God is restored in us through Christ. We are to be conformed to the image of His Son. But these images, these images that represent the false gods, and we'll come to that in just a minute, Those images are contraband. Those images are forbidden. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Did we stop and read that? I think I skipped that in my commentary. But you saw it. Commandment number 1, commandment number 2, and commandment number 10. So, an idol is an image. Now, come with me to the 21st century. Not the 20th century, Joe Biden. The 21st century. And how many images are there? You can't count them. So there's not only voices, and I've preached for years about all the voices. And in the midst of all of the voices, contradictory and clamoring, you've got to keep listening for what Elijah heard on Mount Horeb, that still, small voice. If you want to walk with God, preacher preached it today about Enoch, walk with God. I don't think God shouts. That's why you have to enter into your closet and shut the door. And that daily visit with God. I'm not opposed to preaching. I'm doing it right now. I've been a preacher all these years. I've preached a lot of times. But I don't think the preaching is the key to keeping us from idols. I think it's that daily quiet time with God. And I think one of the tasks that the preacher has, and our preacher pushes and pushes and pushes on that, as all of us do, meet God in the morning. The Word of God and prayer and that quiet time so that He can speak to us. The image of God. And all of these voices and all of these images, what our ears hear, what our eyes see, it helps us to fight that battle, to listen to His voice and ignore so many, many, many voices. Now, that was an image. Number three interesting thing, 1 Corinthians chapter 8, and you need to turn and look there because we'll get to chapter 10 in just a second. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, an idol is nothing. Now that flat statement I don't think is actually the sentiment of the Apostle Paul, although it comes up in chapter 10 again. An idol is nothing. I think when he says that in chapter 8, he's saying it to people who profess to have great knowledge. And he says to them, knowledge, verse 1 of chapter 8, 1 Corinthians, knowledge huffeth up, but charity edifieth. He said if you approach this thing on the ground of knowledge alone, you can say about an idol, an idol's nothing. And this goes back to what Brother Sorensen was talking about, meat's offered to idols. An idol's nothing. Get the cheap meat, take it home, no problem. The Apostle Paul says in this chapter, if you do that, you may hurt people without even realizing that your compromise or your carelessness or your puffed up knowledge hasn't given you the compassion to think about that weaker brother that's going to do what you do, and he's going to stumble, and he's going to fall. And I'm not getting into all of that, that business, you know, Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 8's been argued up and down and up and down and up and down. But I think that much is clear. And he says, notice in verse 4, concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there's none other God but one. And again, there are many passages in the Scripture, Psalm 135 and other places in the Old Testament and New Testament that talk about an idol being nothing. Here's Dagon, and the Ark of God comes into the presence of Dagon, and Dagon falls down because he's nothing. Next time he falls down, he breaks his head off. Good enough for him. May fall down again and break something more. The idol is nothing. It has a mouth, it has ears, it has eyes, you know, all of that litany of things. It's nothing. But skip to chapter 10. And verse 19, chapter 10 and verse 19, what say I then, the Apostle Paul says, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idol is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. That verse, by the way, doesn't even have idols in it, but it's talking about idols. They're sacrificing to idols. And behind the idol is what? A demon. A demon! Most of the time in the New Testament, devils, plural, is daemonion, demons. It's not the name of Satan. My wife asked me a question today, and in Luke 9, the word devil, because we've been talking about this, the word devil is there, not devils, plural, and it's still daemonion, so it's a demon. It's the demon that cast the child in the fire. The disciples came down off the Mount of Transfiguration. And this kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting. The demon. And so behind that, and I thought to myself, I need to look around and have an object lesson here to keep people awake. It's almost supper time. I've got to have an idol. I had it in my pocket. I didn't realize that. This is my credit card carrier. Oh, my driver's license is in there too, so there's an image. What a wonderful thing. Here's the idol. Now, I realize you can't see it, really, but there it is. Because this is the next thing that occurred to me. An idol is nothing. But number four, the idol is the tip of the iceberg. An idol is something that takes the place of the true God. We didn't talk about worship and service. Put that off to the side someplace. Whom you worship, Him you serve. If you worship something, you also serve it. And we'll come back to that maybe in How do I know this is my idol? An idol is an image. An idol is nothing in the world. An idol is the tip of the iceberg. It may be nothing, but behind it is something. So, up here, I want you to draw right across the organ an invisible curtain, and just behind this idol opens up a whole world, a spiritual world. And in the spiritual world that exists behind the idol, is spiritual wickedness. We don't ever think about spiritual wickedness, but we're told we wrestle not against flesh and blood. There's spiritual wickedness in high places. The devil is a spirit, the demons are spirits, and that's what's behind the idol. And what popped into my head was that This part is sticking out through the invisible curtain. It comes into our world and we see it, but it's connected back into that world of who knows what. Not very much is said in the Bible about those kingdoms and principalities and powers, but obviously Satan not only has many demons, he has them organized. He has a plan. He has a program. He has willing workers. He has a wit about him. He's depraved, but he's not stupid. And I've thought different times, you know, when we sing in Sunday school, and if the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack. We take him a little too lightly. Because I don't think that we're thinking seriously about this business of idols and what's behind them Another analogy would be that what we see is the worm, and we don't know that the worm is connected to the hook, and the hook is connected to the line, and the line goes up to the reel, and the devil is holding the pole. He's dangling it down there to see if you will bite. And again, Brother Sorensen, you know, got on that, and he said, but it's just such a little thing. That was exactly how that was presented. He dangled it down there in front of Eve and Adam with her. And so all of us born in sin now and makes us susceptible to biting the worm and the hook. To be taken captive by him, Timothy says, to fall into the snare of the devil, all of those warnings that come to us are connected to that other world, and because we don't see that other world, if I ask you, do you believe in the devil? Why, of course. Do you believe in demons? Why, of course. I don't remember who was looking at my missionary curios. I guess it was in my office, probably at 37th Street. I might have been before that. This might go back to the church in Kalkaska that Brother Brown was talking about. But some missionaries, I had a bunch of friends from Africa, Ben Kendrick, and Carl Lyman, and Stan Britton, and I don't know, Les Zerbe. Good night. I shouldn't mention heretics like that. Somebody nodded about Zerbe. But those guys lived in a culture that was surrounded by demons and people that believed in demons. And they told me stories that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. And I don't have time for stories, because it's almost time for supper. Well, not yet. Hold on. They were looking at my curios, and they said, you know, Pastor, I don't think you ought to have this one, because I think this may be a genuine idol. This is made for the tourist, and this is made for the tourist, but I'm not sure about that one. I wouldn't have it in my house, said the African missionary. And what does the American pastor say? Ha, an idol is nothing. I mean, it's part of the sermon, right? Brother Anhar said it, I have it right in my notes, an idol is nothing. But Brother Anhar also said that it's the tip of the iceberg and it's connected back into a world of demons. That's what you're fussing with, that's what you're fighting, that's what's dangling the attractive bait in front of your eyes. And Brother Clark said to us, think about that thing which could be your idol, your besetting sin. Think of that which causes you to stray and to fall and to disobey God and to leave the reservation and do stupid things. An idol is the tip of the iceberg. It sits on the edge of an unseen world. It's connected to something. Behind the idol are the demons. Let's take a little tour here. Deuteronomy 32. And again, I don't have time to get into these angles, because these are angles. But it backs up this business about demons. The reference in Deuteronomy 32 is another one in 2 Chronicles, and they're both crucial items. Deuteronomy 32, verse 15. I'm not sure why I can't get to 32. There it is. Deuteronomy 32. 17, this is the Song of Moses, actually. 32, 15, but Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. Thou art waxed and fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods. With abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils. And what event is he talking about? He's talking about, thank you, that's right, he's talking about the golden calf. Talking about the golden calf. Because not only are you not to worship any God but the true God, And we think of idols, but you're not to make a representation or an image that represents the true God. That would be worshiping the right God in the wrong way. You can worship the wrong God, but you can also worship the right God in the wrong way, and we've got a bunch of that today. Is this a Christian church? Well, yes, this is a Christian church. Look, it says right on the sign. I mean, we're just as Christian as you are. They say that to you kindly. Because you're so, as Sorensen said, legalistic. We've got to keep going. 2 Chronicles chapter 11. 2 Chronicles chapter 11. This is another big turning point in the history of Israel. These are the terrible twins. Jeroboam and Rehoboam. Well, they're not really twins, but it sounds like they should be. 2 Chronicles 11, 14, for the Levites left their suburbs and their possession and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons in the northern kingdom had cast them off. from executing the priest's office unto the Lord." And you recall the ploy, how that Jeroboam, the former general of the army, and this is in a judgment against the sins of Solomon that came down upon Rehoboam, his son, and Jeroboam took the northern tribes and to keep them from going down to Jerusalem, he set up worship centers in the north. And what I found interesting was the worship center's description in verse 15, and he ordained him priests for the high places and for the devils and for the calves which he had made. A calf in the north at Dan, a calf in the south at Bethel, so they wouldn't go down to Jerusalem and worship in the worship center that Jehovah God set up. And David gathered materials and Solomon built. to keep them out of Solomon's temple and not worship the true God in the right way. He said, oh, we worship the Lord, too. We're Israel, too. This is the northern kingdom, and we're worshiping God. And we have these worship aides. We have a golden calf. Well, what made you think of a golden calf? I guess Aaron invented that. I still wonder why Aaron didn't get in more trouble than Aaron got into. May I say the mercy of God is great? And as I've said a number of times, it's a good thing I'm not God on a number of fronts. So, there's a whole lot of things there. And idols are the tip of the iceberg and behind what's thrust into our vision. Whoops, I've got to go get that idol and put it in my pocket before I forget. worship that image. Oh, I didn't have as much gray hair then. What year was that? Never mind. Number five, an idol is fully in the realm of flesh. And we can skip right on to number six. An idol will have zero appeal to the spiritual man. An idol is fully in the realm of flesh. It may be connected to that spirit world back there, but an idol always has to do with something tangible, touchable, visible, and there is an invisible side to it, but I don't... I mean it has to do with the fleshly side of you and I. The part that our first preacher preached on, out of Romans 7, O wretched man that I am, for I know That's in the same chapter, verse 18. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's what you're worth, sir, ma'am. No good thing. That's what's in your flesh. Well, you see, I've been a Christian all these years. Guess how far you've come in your flesh. It's still worth nothing. No good thing. We'll come to that in a moment, if I don't forget. On the other hand, an idol will have zero appeal to the spiritual man. Spiritual things have no appeal to the natural man, but spiritual things the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, they're spiritually discerned. And we've seen that again and again. We forget the dichotomy that we're living in every day, we're so used to this, We don't notice when we switch from the flesh to the spirit, the spirit to the flesh. If I were to ask you, and Baptists are famous for, if you know that you're saved, trusting Christ on the way to heaven, raise your hand. We're not afraid to ask that. Here's the question that's never asked in Baptist churches. If you can say, I'm filled with the Spirit, I'm empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, I'm filled with the Spirit, this minute, Raise your hand. You'd be insulted that I would ask you for such a thing, besides which you're not sure if you are or not. How close did I come? Yeah. We live in that two-part being, flesh and spirit. We live, Romans chapter 7, it's a good thing Brother Clark started out right there. We live in Galatians chapter 6. It's interesting, and maybe we can go, just take a little hop there, Acts chapter 17. I jotted that down as a proof text about the spiritual man and the idols. Acts 17.1. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonian, came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Whoops, I'm sorry. We've got to get him to Athens. And they conducted Paul and sent him to Athens, and receiving commandment unto Silas, for to come to him with all speed they departed. Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, and the apostle Paul found himself bowing down in front of one of the idols. Do you believe that? No, he did nothing of the kind. The idols repelled him. The idols made him think, how illogical are these people? Here's one, and he tells him in a little while on Mars Hill, here's what I found to the unknown God. He said, since you don't know Him, I want to preach to you about the God that you do not know, and His Son Jesus Christ, and how He raised Him from the dead and made Him judge of all men, and right there they stopped listening. But you know the story. Brethren, as I went through that and looked at these idols and made this list, it dawned on me that we are living in a society wholly given over to idols, and we are preaching on Mars Hill, may God give us boldness, to say what needs to be said about the idols to the idolaters. Now today, I'm preaching to the choir. I'm preaching to the folks that, I guess, don't believe in idols. We don't know that for a fact, but I'm guessing that. Except I know my heart, and besides that, Brother Sorensen preached on that, or was that Brother Poorman? I think it was Brother Poorman. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So five, an idol's in the realm of flesh. Six, an idol will have zero appeal to the spiritual man. Now, seven and eight are really interesting. An idol finds appeal through our lusts, through our flesh. Matthew 19 and Mark 10 are parallel. Let's look at the Mark passage because it's got a word I like better. Not that there's anything wrong with the other one. Mark 10 and verse 22. Mark 10 and verse 22. Let's go back to verse 21. This is the rich young ruler. And Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him, remember now the rich young ruler thought that Jesus was ruining him because of what he said. He wasn't ruining him, he was going to make him. He was going to help him. He loved him. One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. and come and take up thy cross and follow me." And he was sad at that saying and went away. Here's the word I wanted to get in conjunction with this. Mark uses it, Matthew doesn't. He went away grieved for he had great possessions. We're living in a world that's full of people, including people in our churches, including people in our pulpits who want to have great possessions. We want to have great pleasures. We perhaps want to have even great passions. We want to have great positions inside the church and inside the fellowship. That's why we've got this fellowship today. We're having a contest to see which of us, brethren, is going to sit at the right hand in the kingdom. Go ahead and chuckle or throw stones, I don't know. But you know as well as I do that in our ranks there are those who are destined to be the Pope among Baptists. God's called them so. Great possessions, that's right here in our text. And from that I take great pleasures, great passions, great position, great power. Luke chapter 12, you're in Mark, Luke's not far, just hop, skip. Luke chapter 12, about the same place you were in Mark 10, 12, 12, 15. This is just before the story about the man God called a fool. Thou fool, this night. 12, 15, and Jesus said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." And I wrote down verse 34, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And there we find something else, and I didn't make a separate item for it because I put this underneath the appeal of the flesh. There's only one sin that I could find in the New Testament that's identified with idols. That's it. And that's commandment number 10, which isn't preached on these days, because if we preached on it, we would offend too many people in our church. We might offend ourselves. We are living in a materialistic age. We are all more materialistic and covetous than we would ever care to admit. And when I jokingly pulled out my credit cards, there's two credit cards in there because sometimes they don't like American Express, but I like it because it gives me money back. Why? Because I'm covetous. And there are two bank cards. I never want to be failed by plastic. And then there's that driver's license with that image. That's the idol that we looked at. And I'm joking, but you know, with some people and their credit cards, it's not a joke. And the amount that's run up on the credit card and what they're going to do about it, that's not a joke either. That's an unmitigated disaster. It wrecks homes. It keeps people from not only giving, but tithing. Just can't afford it. I think our preacher said that yesterday in his message. Just can't afford it. Covetousness is idolatry. And let's take another little tour. A little skim off the top here, Ephesians 5, Colossians 3. Ephesians 5, Colossians 3. Oh, there went Galatians, we didn't get to that. Oh well, I said there's more stuff here than you can wade in. This is deep water, brother. Ephesians 5, 5, Colossians 3, 5. Ephesians 5, 5, Colossians 3, 5. Ephesians 5-5, for this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, I guess I wouldn't want to be covetous or called covetous just because of the company they're keeping right there. That's a bad crowd. Nor covetous man who is an idolater. So there you have it. Hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And then Colossians. Chapter 3 and verse 5, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. A list of things that are commonly preached on, but I'm not sure about the covetousness part. But the Bible says that is idolatry. Well, let's come to this next thing, number eight. Galatians 5, oh, we're going to get in Galatians after all. That's good. I wanted to be there. Galatians 5 and verse 20, and I'll tell you where the idols come from. Where do the idols come from? And it'll also help us answer the question, how many idols are there? Where do the idols come from? And idol, I put down number eight, is a creation or projection of something inside our flesh. Now, number seven, it finds appeal. We find a temptation in the flesh. We'll respond to the bait on the devil's hook because it looks good to us. That goes clear back to Eve. Still happening. But that's not the end of the story, because when it describes the flesh, it says this in Galatians 5.20. Now, the works of the flesh are these, verse 20, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, seditions, heresies, endings, murders, drunkenness. There's quite a list of things, but notice that first one in verse 20. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, idolatry. The origin of idols is in our flesh. Now, mark that down someplace because that is a very important principle. The origin of idols. Somebody else didn't make this idol and sent us over here and we found it and we said, oh, I'm glad that somebody made me an idol. I think I'll bow down and worship it. The idols can be of our own making from within ourselves. And that then, brethren, sisters, answers the question, how many idols are there? Can you tell me? As many as there are people. And then, you can have more than one. So, in America alone, that's 300 million times 2, 3, 4 times 10. How many idols are there? Nobody knows how many there are. Why? Because they keep being generated. And, and, Am I to that part yet? Yeah, I guess so. Back to our warning, little children destroy all the idols. Did it say that in our text? Little children destroy all the idols. Somebody tell me what would happen if we went out and destroyed all the idols, knowing what we know in Galatians 5.20. There'd immediately be more made the next day. And so you go down, you can be an iconoclast. That's a historical term. I read that one time when I was in college. Iconoclast means a knocker down of idols. And a lot of the kings went through and they destroyed the girls and they destroyed the idols. And our preacher preached on that. Back to Bethel. Jacob went and he said, get rid of your strange gods. And he made the comment, Jacob had been living there long enough that his children had taken up with strange gods. He said, get rid of the strange gods. And they also didn't look good and didn't, you know, there were other things in the verse that talked about how they were living. We're going back to Bethel and go to the house of God. Well, that's good preaching. And the gods came in there again. The idols came in there again. So you can destroy all the idols, but there'll be new ones made tomorrow. Let me close with this. Good night. How did I get that late? It's six o'clock. Oh no, it's five o'clock. I'm sorry. I made a mistake. But you need to jot this down just so your notes are complete when you preach this on Sunday, okay? How do I know this is my idol? Now, I'll admit I made this up. So, it's for whatever it's worth. Number one, an idol demands worship and service. That's what it's about. An idol demands worship and service. And it's not just worship. And I was going to go back to Matthew 4 and you can do it yourself. The devil said to Jesus, all the kingdoms of the world I will give thee. That's another thing about the God of this world. Could he really deliver him that promise? I think he could. He wanted Jesus to take a shortcut and bypass the cross. All the kingdoms of the world will I give thee if thou wilt bow down and worship me. Jesus said, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou. The devil said nothing about service. But worship and service go together. So, we can say, whom you worship, him you serve, and what you serve, that's what you worship. If you give me your checkbook and your calendar, I can tell you a lot about your worship and your service, because I can calculate your time and your money. And the church doesn't get a lot of time and the church doesn't get a lot of money compared to all the money and all the time that's flowing in all kinds of directions. And I'm not talking about unsaved people. And if you're pastoring a church, actively pastoring, you know that's true because that's an everyday battle that you face. How am I going to get people to put in more time and more money? I would guess that you might conclude that they're off somewhere worshiping idols with their time and their money. How do I know this is my idol, whatever it is? Because there's a lot of worship and service. There's a lot of reverence. There's a lot of respect. There's a lot of time and energy. There's a lot of attention. There's a lot of stuff flows toward that whatever it is, that idol. Number two, it detracts from the Lord. We said that's the definition. It takes the place of the true God. So it involves worship and service. It detracts from the true God, His worship and service. And number three, here's the one I think's the tip-off. If I put my finger on your idol, you will get hot under the collar and passionately defend your idol." And I'll say to myself, whoa, I guess I hit the idol button. Now, can you think of those things in our churches, in our constituency, and even amongst us preachers that there'll be a flare-up? and a vehement, passionate defense? I thought about music. I thought about doctrine. I thought about big-name preachers. But that's been preached on already. For the ground's out on that. And you weren't even supposed to be preaching yet. What is the matter with you? How do I know this is my idol? Worship and service, number two, detracts from the Lord, number three, it's passionately defended. And you might be doing that just inside your own heart. But I think those are warning signs, and you're free to add to any of that that you want to. Let's close out in Colossians chapter 3. We could do it in Galatians 5, it's there too, but it's so clear here. Deuteronomy chapter 6, you don't need to turn. This is the second giving of the law. And this is the first commandment as Moses gave it to the people after the 40 years. Deuteronomy 6, 5, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And that includes all of your love and all of your devotion. It's not to go anywhere else. No other gods, no other idols, no other things behind which may lurk a world of demons to snare you and entrap you. Colossians 3, verse 1. If ye then be risen with Christ. Boy, that's full of meaning right there. If you're not saved, you're not risen with Christ. And think about what happened before you were risen with Christ. First you are dead and then you are risen. The reason more folks ain't risen in our Baptist church is they ain't dead. The dying comes before the rising. They'd have been better off if when you were burying them in water you'd have left them buried. They were to rise and walk in newness of life. Newness? Newness of life? Him? Her? What happened? If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead. That's how you got risen. Now, that's another whole sermon. That's back in Romans chapter 6. It is... I don't know what my time is, but I've used it up. But I want to say that to you, that that is God's radical solution for the idol. The solution for dealing with the idol is not to go over here and take the idol off his pedestal. God's solution is to kill the worshiper. God has only one solution to the flesh, and that's crucifixion. We say it all the time. Everybody in here could repeat it with me. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I. Not in my flesh. I'm not living like that. Yet not I. But Christ liveth in me. Why? Because He is my life. This is the true God and eternal life. He that hath the Son hath life. It's not life before the cross, it's the life that He had after the cross. First He died, then He rose, and friend, you died, and then you rose, and that's why you're baptized the way you're baptized if you're a Baptist. And by the way, you're planted. I like the planted. I'm a gardener. When you plant something, you expect something to come up. You plant one, you get a bunch. There's the laws of the harvest. Dead. That's the trouble. Not enough dead Christians. Not enough dead preachers. If you were dead, you wouldn't care about the idol. Now, I know how preachers are. I have thought to myself, I was having a particularly bad week with somebody, probably a deacon, Maybe some woman, I'm thinking now. There are a lot of people. And I think to myself, one of these days, there's going to be a coffin up here and they're going to have the preacher's funeral. And they're going to file by my coffin and they're going to say, he really was a pretty good fellow. And their salty tears will fall on my cold, dead face. They'll be sorry then that they treated me the way they treat... How many have ever had that funeral? Let me see your hands. But I'll say one thing about the dead man in the casket, whether it's me or somebody else, you can offer him anything you want to offer and he's not taking. He might have had some habits, he might have had some vicious habits, but you can offer him anything out of his old life and he won't take it. If he reaches a hand up out of there, Let me out of here. He's dead! And that's, I guess, where I want to quit. For ye are dead. Beginning of the chapter, Colossians 3.1, you can look at it. If ye then be risen with Christ. But you can't be risen with Christ unless you're dead with Christ. And here's something else just to throw in the mix, and I've got to quit. You say, Brethren in heart, I'm going to Before we have supper, I'm going to get in a quiet place and I'm going to crucify the flesh. Don't bother. Don't bother. The flesh cannot crucify the flesh. The flesh cannot cast out the flesh. God dealt with your flesh, Romans 6.6. Our old man was crucified with Christ. That's why it says Galatians 2.20, I am crucified. For ye are dead. And from there, then you rise and walk in His life, and you say, well, preacher, I did that one time. That's another myth, and I don't have time for that list. It's not one time, it's an everyday thing, and that's why it's that meeting with God. One more. Brother Brown had a lot of by the ways. I'll get one more. Colossians 2 6 as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him How did you receive him? He did all the work you believed it How you gonna walk in him? He does all the work you believe it That's why Romans 6 says reckon ye yourselves therefore to be dead indeed Unto sin you didn't do the deading But one more thing about that when you say I'm going to allow Christ, I'm going to reckon it to be true that I'm dead with Christ immediately when you say that in this meeting or any place in your devotions. God will send along that day a dead tester to see if you're dead. And I've flunked a lot of those tests. This time I'm not going to lose my temper. I'm not going to lose... I'm not going to... Yes, hands. Brother Brown, you better come. I got to quit. I hope this is as full of thoughts for you as it is for me, because there's more preaching here than what I preached. But we've come to the end of our strain. Father, I pray that you help us. We're just poor preachers. And Lord, you know that's the truth. And I pray that you'd help us to realize that all we have is Christ. Help us to put ourselves in the position of John the Baptist, and to say over and over again, He must increase. I must decrease. I'm not much. I know it. Lord, it's true. I am weakness, full of weakness. Humbly at Thy feet I bow. Fill me with Thy hallowed spirit. Come, O come, and fill me now. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.