then we preached about a specific kind of idolatry of the millions of different kinds that there are that Satan has invented. Idolatry is the plague of mankind. And we have today then millions of forms of idolatry. Sometimes we have to preach specifically on one idolatry as we did last week, but sometimes we have to also, the Lord commands us to preach about all of the millions of other kinds of idolatry that there are as it applies to our lives today. Our scripture reading for this morning then is going to be understanding idolatry. There is a great difference between physical idolatry and spiritual idolatry. Yes, since 586 BC, Israel as a general has forsaken all physical idolatry. Nothing is more offensive to them than physical idolatry. But God says there is a much greater idolatry that is a spiritual idolatry, an idolatry that we hold in our hearts. And when we hold something in our heart that it is dear to us, yes, so dear that we are offended when someone shall bring up There, our idolatry, when someone shall apply with our idolatry. I think of a friend that I had many years ago. He knew the Bible inside and out and could debate religion with the best theologian. We had many fruitful conversations, but when I pointed out to him the obvious idolatry that was very evident within his own life. Then he wanted nothing to do with me, and he has never spoken to me since. But so it is when we apply, apply idolatry, apply God's word, apply his commandments to our lives. God says these people in false Christendom, they speak of me with their mouth great swelling words. They sing of me with their tongues beautiful songs. But their hearts, their hearts are far, far from me. And we'll see this in our scripture reading in Ezekiel chapter 14, the great difference between physical idols and spiritual idols. And spiritual idols are zillions of times worse than physical idols. Yes, that's zillions with a Z. Christians who have idols are millions, zillions of times worse than the heathens who may not even worship physical idols. Yes, idolatry is the sermon focus of this morning. We're going to be looking at spiritual idolatry. in Ezekiel 14, beginning with verse 1 to verse 11. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, These men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired at all by them? Therefore speak Thus saith the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel, that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols. that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord, Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. for every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separates himself from me, and sets up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before me, before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire of him concerning me. I, the Lord, will answer him by myself, and I will set my face against that man, and I will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from all the midst of my people, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And if a prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him. that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, saith the Lord God. Thus far the reading of God's holy and infallible word. God condemns all people. all humanity that places idols before him. Idols, not only physical idols, but here in this chapter, these are the leaders of the Christian church who come before Ezekiel, asking to speak face to face with the Lord. and to receive commandment from him. And the Lord says, oh, read it again. These men have put a idols in their own hearts and they have put the stumbling block before my face. Oh, and what is that stumbling block? That stumbling block is the refusal to hear the word of God. A refusal to recognize that we are idolaters, that we are the ones who have sinned against God, that we bear the iniquity. Where shall we hide our guilty faces? For we have set up millions of idols within our hearts that are not open idols, perhaps. but they are just, no, far, far more deadly than idols that the heathen bowed down and worshiped. Oh yes, then we see Jesus taking the apostles to Caesarea Philippi. There was a special center all the idols of the known world were gathered together in that great cave which could be called the mouth of hell. Yes, I visited Caesarea Philippi some years ago and saw some of the 318 idols, physical idols, that were brought from every land to present there so that if A person were to come to Caesarea Philippi to ask God for advice for what to do. If one false god did not answer him, he could go to another, yes, to 318 other physical idols that were there. it was a horrible place. And the Lord Jesus brought the apostles there to that center of iniquity. And he said to them, see all these idols, see all the people worshiping these 318 idols known throughout the world from every country of the world. Then he says, look at them, now look at me. He says to his apostles, whom say ye that I am, I am the greatest prophet of the world. I am the son of God. Those who hear me hear words of living words. of grace, of mercy. Those who bow before these 318 idols, they are false gods. Oh, he says to his apostles again, look at me. Whom say ye? Whom say ye that I am I am standing here in the midst of all of this cesspool of idolatry, the world's idolatry all gathered together. Whom say ye that I am? Oh, then we read the apostles. Only one of them speaks up and says, Peter says, thou art Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Oh, what about the other 11 apostles? It seems as if Peter and James and John, they are in acquiescence with Peter and they nod agreement with Peter, but we don't hear their voices like Peter's voice, crying out, thou art Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus came proclaiming that he was the Son of God. Many people wanted him to be a great man. Many of them wanted to be listened to him as a great preacher. Many of them wanted to hear him as a great prophet. But they refused to hear Him. All of Israel eventually rejected Him as the Son of God. And when you separate the Son of God in His human nature from His divine nature, you have another idol because the human nature of Jesus Christ is created created before the earth ever began. In the Council of Peace, we read of that creation of the human nature of Jesus Christ that would be placed in Mary's womb for a thousand more years in the future. Yes, in the Council of Peace, before God ever created the universe, we read in Hebrews 10, verse 7, that Jesus Christ would assume a human nature and come to earth born out of the womb of Mary after the law of God, after the law of men, after the order of men? Yes, we see that Jesus Christ was promised then long before creation Lo, he said, Father, I come, for in the volume of the book it is written of me, and there the Father, there the Son, there the Holy Spirit have decreed what roles each of them as the persons in the personhood of God were to fulfill. Jesus was the human nature of, the human nature that assumed, was assumed to the divine nature. Yes, it was Jesus Christ that stood before the apostles there at Caesarea Philippi. When Jesus said, Whom say ye that I am? Then we only have Peter recorded. What about, and James and John more than likely nodding in agreement. But what about the other nine? Amongst them was Judas Iscariot. Oh, would he acknowledge that Jesus was the son of never, never, that enmity of Genesis 3 verse 15 was strong because Judas Iscariot was a devil? But what does Jesus say to Peter? Blessed art thou, Peter, for flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, that I and the Father are one, that I am the Son of God. I have assumed a human nature and am standing before you. Blessed art thou, Peter. Yes, and that same blessing must come to you and to me, that we must acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. in both his human and his divine nature. Oh, Israel to this day does not do that. And they have suffered 2,000 years of the rejection of God. And God says, I will not come again until Israel can say, blessed is he who comes in the name of God. Yes. Jesus must be worshiped in his human and his divine nature at the same time. You cannot separate what God has joined together else you make an idol. But that isn't even the subject that we're addressing specifically today. We're addressing idols of the heart, idols Millions of them that infest human lives know we will look at the greatest of these idols, that great idol, me, my, and I. Oh, let me say it again, that great idol, me, my, and I. Some time back, the telephone companies have assessed every word that was spoken over the telephones, over the lines. The word me, my, and I dominated every chart, every research chart. Me, my, and I points to the idols we have made of ourselves. Yes, there in the Garden of Eden, we knew God. We walked with God. We saw God. Jesus Christ in his Old Testament nature walked amongst us, and we have rejected him. Yes, there We embrace me, my, and I, idle. There we embraced our will, that our will be done, not God's will. There we have embraced our own free will, instead of God's sovereign will. Oh, do you know that fact? Has the Lord Jesus, has the Lord ever taught you? that I, I am the chief of sinners. There is no sin that I will not willingly do. Because in the garden of Eden I was a king. God made me a king. God made all human nature kings in paradise as the masterpiece of his creation. Yes, of all the wonderful and the beautiful and the incredibly diverse things that God has created in the universe. Man was the king. He made man the king. All the animals obeyed him. Yes, the dinosaur came and bowed before Adam, our covenant head who represented us. Yes, the spider, the grasshopper came before man and were subject to men. Yes, can you imagine that picture in paradise where Jesus Christ stands and walks in that beautiful garden. Adam and Eve, that adoring, their adoring eyes following him, praising him, leaping and skipping in joy before him. But not only Adam and Eve, but also all the animals, all the birds, all the insects, all of creation. Worship Jesus walking in the Garden of Eden. Oh, in our day, then, so many people say, oh, if I could only see Jesus, then I would believe. Oh, Adam saw Jesus. Worship Jesus for how many days? We don't know. But that same joy that Adam and Eve and all of creation had, that same joy was in heaven where all the good angels, those who had not fallen, round about the throne of God, crying out continually, holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts. That's what it was like in paradise. Oh, do you ever lament that fact that you and I lost that righteousness, lost that holiness, lost our kingship, and embraced a false king, embraced Satan, embraced our own foolish will? Oh, if you have never lamented that, then there is serious question whether you are even a Christian. Listen what Martin Luther said. He said, unless you lament our deep fall in Adam, where we once were righteous and now we are unrighteous. Once we were able to see Jesus and praise him in all of his glory, might, majesty, and honor. And now the whole world is in enough about it, and for those of you who are tired of hearing it, know this, that all of God's children, true children, are very happy to hear this, very content to hear this, for they know it in their heart, that I am the chief of sinners, And even though the Lord has come with his grace, with his might, with his majesty, and the Holy Spirit has made me born again, a new creature in God, yet I also know that in me dwelleth no good thing, that old nature within me was not slain. That old nature will live and will so often seek to dominate God's children. That's why they are Beatitude, children, that's why the litmus test of Beatitude, children, so fits them. Blessed are they who mourn. Blessed are they who seek after righteousness. Blessed are they who are persecuted. Yes, that is the stumbling block that we have read here. If you cannot stand to be reminded of what you have been in paradise and what you have become, oh, then the fear of God we may fear is not in you. For God's children recognize it. Yes. Oh, he came to Jesus, running he came. He wanted righteousness. He wanted holiness. He imagined that he was good. He said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? the pathological approach of a teaching method. He gets right to the core and he says, why call ye me good? Because if you are calling me good, then you are calling me the son of God. Because only the son of God can forgive sin. Oh, then he asked the rich young man, probing questions of his heart. Then the rich young man could not stand that exposure, could not stand that light, could not stand to be drawn out of his darkness to see the light of Jesus Christ. Oh, when Jesus used You want to know God? He is known only through me, the Son of God. But here he gives the litmus test to the prodigal son. If you will sell all that you have, take up your cross, and follow me. exposed, saw the stumbling block that we have read about in Ezekiel 14. Man cannot stand to be exposed to the light of Jesus Christ. Man cannot stand to have his sin exposed. Oh, last week when I preached about the idolatry of are involved in professional idolatry, especially the Super Bowl. Oh, how many were offended at this? How many rejected hearing me ever again? But I must say, every minister who is popular by saying smooth things, things that you want to hear, He is a false prophet. True prophets, they speak what God gives them to speak. And no, I am not a prophet. Oh, never, never say something so ridiculous. I am the chief of sinners. But by grace, God has commanded me to teach This morning about what idolatry is, that greatest idolatry, me, my, and I. Yes, when we look at the idolatry of our day, self, self is the great enemy of yourself. And if you cannot stand the probing of God's Word, exposing what you are, oh, if I cannot stand it, then it is a very, very, very bad sign. As I opened the sermon with him this morning, a friend long ago, whom had an open, obvious idolatry. But when I mentioned it to him and applied what he knew so well, then it became too much for him. Oh, I fear that it is in Christendom today the same. Many, many ministers preach smooth things from the tongue that people want to hear. But God says, those who love me hate the world. Those who love me obey my commandments. And they hear the word of God with trembling. Yes, God says that so clearly. To this man will I look, he who reads my word. because that word is applied to our hearts. Yes, we must apply sin, apply idols to our heart, confess them before the throne of God, lay them open before him pleading for Lord, here are my sins again of this minute, of this hour, of this day, that so well up within me from my old nature. Here are my terrible thoughts, O Lord. Here are my ill-spoken words. Here are my heart idols. And oh, how I hate them. How I hate them! How I hate them! Take them away, O Lord! Sink them away in that ocean of blood that thou hast shed upon the cross, that in thy dying death I may be buried with thee, buried in thy wounds, When the Trinity may look at me, they may see instead of this unrighteous wretch, the chiefest of sinners, they may see Jesus Christ. Yes, try to fathom that incredible thing. God's children are made holy, They are made conformable to the image of Jesus Christ by the application of sanctification, by the Holy Spirit working in their heart, cleansing that indwelling sin, that old nature, more and more. until the moment that we die. Yes, sanctification is a continual work. It is a work that every child of God experiences. And if you are not experiencing that, then I must be honest, then I must be true, then I must speak what Those who love me, obey my commandments. They don't create caveats. They don't create exceptions. They don't create yabbas. They don't create, oh, God will wink at this little sin. God will wink at that. God will forgive me because I have a good heart, they say. God knows that I love Him, they say. God loves those who love Him, and those who love Him obey His commandments, not trying to create new idols, not trying to worship new idols, and especially not me, my, and I. the idols we became in the deep fall of Adam. Oh, let us look at our life for a moment. Yes, we've seen already, self is the greatest idol. And the Lord Jesus says, those who will cleanse themselves by grace in sanctification, in striving to follow God's word, laying their sins before the throne of God in the blood of righteousness. Those shall be saved and they alone, that God's will may be done. may be smashed. For John the Baptist has said, he must increase, I must decrease. But as we said then, let's look at the other idols inside of me, mine, I. Oh, we make pride our idol. Pride is what has like God. Pride is alive and well in human nature, in your nature, in my nature today. The striving for wealth. Oh, how men desire to be rich. How mankind desires much. And the love of money is the root of all sin. God says, be content with whatever I give you. Paul might know that great gift in whatever circumstance he found himself in, whether it was in a prison, or in a church, or being whipped, or being in the Colosseum fighting lions. He was content that this was the will of God, and not his will be done, but God's will be done. Oh, that awful idols of pride, of wealth, also of health. Yes, we must strive to be healthy. We must eat well, eat right, We must do all of the things that are necessary to keep a healthy body. And no, that does not mean jumping out of airplanes for recreational purposes. No, we may not take life into our own hands. We may not do thrill searching. But we seek so often maybe not just wealth, because if we owned, Jesus said, half of the world, what would we give for our soul? Your soul is more important than anything else of a thousand worlds. Yes, to be comfortable. Yes, and that means so often to be constantly hearing God's word applied to our hearts? Comfortable enjoying the things of the world and the delicacies of the world? No, God does not want us to be comfortable. God wants us to be uncomfortable. Oh, look how God condemned the Laodicean church He said, because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out. Because you are comfortable in who you are, what you are, believing you have a good heart, believing you have a good religion, believing that you are going to go to heaven, even though You have no reason to believe so. Oh, I know a man who seldom went to church in 70 years, seldom read the Bible, yet when I talked with him, he said, I know I'm going to heaven. I said, oh, how do you know that? Well, some Billy Graham type person told him he was going to go to heaven because he said with his mouth, I accept Jesus Christ as my savior. I admit I'm a sinner. And that man said, now you are saved. Now you're going to go to heaven. And for the next 70 years, he has lived as imagines he is a good Christian. He still imagines he's going to go to heaven. Oh what an awful, awful awful awakening. We cannot say it without tears so many, many, many false Christians will experience in the moment that they die. And they must meet a closed door. Heaven's door is closed. And though they shout loudly, Lord, Lord, let us in. We have preached in thy name. We have done miracles in the street. Millions of people have listened to us and called us great prophets. Lord, open to us now the gates of heaven. Oh, then they shall hear those awful voices. awful words which also everyone else in this world shall hear if you are not a true child of God. You shall hear, depart from me ye workers of iniquity, depart from me for I never knew you. Oh imagine that not just this man that I was telling you about that was living as a heathen, imagining he was a Christian, but I'm speaking also to those who go to church regularly, who read the Bible regularly, who give much money to mission work and to the poor, do all kinds of godly things. If you have not come in the grace of God. If God has not conquered you, then you are still on your way. Yes, then it is not only our will that is such an idol, it is not only our wealth that is such an idol, it is not only our pride that is such an idol, but we see that our career, our job has become We see peer pressure is the great idol of our day. We live in conformity to society and in conformity to the false Christian church doctrine today. if you believe any of the 29 false doctrines that we have identified in the Holy War in the 10 years that I have preached to you. Yes, peer pressure is what makes you not willing as Satan's idol Not willing to bow before Jesus Christ, confessing your sins, and instead walking away as a rich young ruler. Peer pressure. John Bunyan, who was converted in, he said, when I became a new creature, when God planted his rebirth in me, All my friends, my Christian friends left me because I tried to apply what I had learned. And they did not want sin applied to their lives. They only wanted to hear about it with their ears. They only wanted to speak about it with their mouth, but to apply it to their hearts. Never, never, never. And they rejected John Bunyan. Oh, imagine that. He writes about it in his book, Holy War. Where we have the name of our church, he writes about it in Pilgrim's Progress. Oh, the city of destruction where I found I lived in. They cried after me as I ran after Jesus Christ, as I ran after eternal life. Yes, Bunyan. was willing to leave everything to find the pearl of great price. Oh, are you willing to suffer everything to embrace the pearl of great price, to fall at Jesus' feet as the world's greatest sinner, to be drowned in the blood of righteousness, Are you willing to stand the peer pressure of the world, the peer pressure of false Christendom? Yes, these were the elders that we read about in God's Word this morning, the elders of Israel, who should have known the Word of God. God tells Ezekiel, they have idols in their hearts. They have the stumbling block in their heart where they refuse to bow before me. Yes, no, this. Every knee shall bow before God. Every knee of every person in the world. Yes, you may be a great sinner, who says God will never tell me nothing. I reject God. Oh, I must tell you, one day you shall bow before Jesus Christ in all of your hatred. But I must also tell false Christians. If you refuse God's Word, to listen to God's Word, and pervert God's Word, as has happened in this generation of Christendom in 29 different ways, you will go to the same place as that person, that atheist, who has rejected God. Yes, you will go to a deeper and a hotter hell because you have sinned infinitely more. To sin as a Christian is far, far greater than to sin as a heathen. Yes, that poor atheist shall go to hell. But you who claim Christianity Yet do not obey the word of God, we'll go the same place. O King Saul of Israel, then he told his armor-bearer to kill him. He said, I don't want to perish with the uncircumcised Philistines. Oh, what a foolish as the uncircumcised Philistines. Yes, worse. He was going to a lower level of hell, and there are levels of hell. We must say it with weeping. We scarcely dare to say it, but we must. At the bottom of hell are false Christians. False Christians. apply the Word of God to their hearts. And so that reason is the reason then, in our text, Jesus speaks about that stumbling block. When idols are applied to your life, as we have tried to do in this morning, applying not just words, not just thinking, No, applying God's word to your real life in rubber meets the road, truth. Oh, then you see so many reject it like the rich young men. Yes, what good shall it do for us to know the whole Bible through in and throughout to memorize every verse? if the Holy Spirit has not regenerated us, or that he has applied those sins that we do in our lives to be sanctified, to be cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Yes, the world is full of idols, self-will, wealth, pride, health, comfort, our career, peer pressure, pleasure. Oh, how many people live for pleasure? How many people live for the three-day weekend where they can cut loose and living for pleasure. God says something different. Blessed are they who mourn. Yes, happy are they who mourn that they find this sin in themselves, these idols in themselves. And then we still have not come to the last one. Beauty. Oh, how we seek beauty in the world. The seven wonders of the world are things that are very important to see, very beautiful to see. But once you've saw them, you saw that they are the creation of man. The real beauty is the beauty of Jesus Christ. To know him, in his greatness, in his power, in his majesty. Oh, I ask you, have you ever seen him? There is beauty, him who is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. Oh, I lift him up before you today that you might seek after him, bowing at his throne of grace. begging of Him for a new heart, a new will. To take away all these idols away from me, that I may know Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection, whose face shines as a thousand suns. Oh, for lost sinners, hopeless sinners, seeking sinners, grieving sinners, weeping sinners, beatitude sinners, who know the idols, know the idolatry of your heart. I lift up this Jesus Christ for you. Oh, with one look such ones may be healed, too, as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness. So God's ministers may lift up Jesus Christ,