So it's time for us to wrap up our study of the book of First John this year. One more verse this morning. First John chapter five, verse 21. It's our sermon text today. When you found your place there, please stand for the reading of God's word. Let us pray. And now, Lord, we quiet ourselves in this house of worship and as an act of worship. would give careful attention to the teaching of your word. We understand, Lord, that the words of your servant John were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the same Holy Spirit who's with us now speaks to us today by this word. And so, Lord, may we take it to heart and live it well in our lives by faith in Jesus Christ, who we follow and serve always. Amen. 1 John chapter 5 verse 21, hear now the word of God. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Christians, the Lord our God is loyal to his people whom he loves. It's one of the many wonderful things that you will discover about God in the Bible. In theology, we usually speak of this as God's faithfulness. Today, I'm going to be speaking of it as his loyalty. And loyalty is a fine trait in a person. It's one of the things that I've come to appreciate most about my wife. If you happen to be fortunate enough to be among the number of what she calls her peeps, meaning her people, then you have a fiercely loyal friend in Amy. Loyalty here doesn't mean that she'll tell you you're right when you're wrong. It doesn't mean that she'll praise you for wisdom when you're acting like a fool. That's what Donald Trump means by loyalty, apparently. That's not what we're talking about with my wife. Loyalty means this, that when the lines are drawn in life and others are abandoning you, Amy never will. If you're one of her peeps whom she loves, she would rather go down with you than to ever be disloyal to you. And again, that is a fine trait in a person. And the Bible shows us that. God is like. He's fiercely loyal to his people whom he loves. That's what we hear him saying in Isaiah 43 to listen to this. Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I've called you by your name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire. You shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Saba in your place. Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honored and I have loved you. And therefore I will give men for you and people for your life. Fear not. I am with you. That's loyalty. Loyalty. The loyalty of our God. And what does loyalty like that deserve? The answer is it deserves loyalty in kind. The God of the Bible is worthy of a people who are loyal to Him as He is loyal to them. People who will serve Him in this world with an undivided heart. The disloyalty of Israel in the Old Testament, we read about it. It bothers us. And it should. And the disloyalty of Christians under the New Testament is no less troubling. So this is a regular prayer of mine these days. That all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, that we might serve this glorious God who went to the cross for us with all of the love and devotion of truly undivided hearts. I think he's worthy of that. John's first epistle closes with an exhortation, which is very much the same spirit. It's about loyalty. He says in verse 21, little children, keep yourselves from idols. So John, here again, sees himself as a spiritual father to these Christians. He's speaking out of fatherly concerns, offering fatherly counsel. And he says to them, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. The Greek here, eidolon, refers to images. And by implication, the worship of other gods represented in pagan temples by images, gods like Apollo and Athena. This line is, as I mentioned before, sort of an awkward end to this epistle. It really isn't a conclusion. John hasn't once mentioned idols before this in this epistle. He never uses the group word, eidolon, in either his gospel or his three epistles, except here. So as I said previously, verse 21 feels like the postscript of an anxious father, or the way my own father would often say to me as I head out the door to go back to the University of Georgia with all its temptations. He would always say, finally, say your prayer. Did he really need to say that? He did. The Apostle John has said in verse 19, You remember that the whole world lies in the sway of the wicked one. And a sure sign of that is the idolatry that was everywhere in ancient Greco-Roman society. That, if you understand the spiritual realm, was evidence of satanic deception, and it was a means of satanic control. As Christians, we can't get the idols out of the world. But John says that we can keep ourselves from them while we are in the world. And these Christians needed to do that, as all Christians do. They were to be loyal to the true God whom they knew, the true God that they were called to serve with an undivided heart. John may have exhorted these Christians this way a thousand times before, who knows? But such are the times, you see, that it was not overdoing it for John to exhort them here once again. And so he does. Before he lets them go, John says, finally, little children, keep yourselves from idols. And of course, John is only saying what the Bible says many times and in many ways. You might almost say that the Bible is one great warning about the sin of idolatry. The first two of the Ten Commandments are prohibition against the worship of idols. Moses repeatedly warned Israel that turning to idols in Canaan would be their downfall. The later prophets hammered the same theme as the wayward Israelites were being drawn toward the Babylonian captivity. And all of the apostles of Jesus Christ, not just John, issued the same warning to Christians in the first century. Paul said to the Corinthians, flee idolatry. What is it to be a Christian, he pointed out to the Thessalonians, but to have turned from idols to the worship of the living God. You now are the temple of the Holy Spirit. There's no turning back for you. So have nothing to do with the worship of idols in this world. That was the decree of the Jerusalem Council, the unanimous decision of the apostles of Jesus Christ in guiding the churches of the first century and beyond. So you've heard of this before. Many times, you're hearing it again, Christians are, God is loyal to us, he's chosen us, he's called us to be his own, he loves us with an everlasting love, he died for us at Calvary, he is and will be with us in everything, when we walk through the fire, when we pass through the valley of the shadow of death. And we then ought likewise to be loyal to him. He is worthy of such a people. Don't you think? And therefore let us keep ourselves from idols, the other gods that other people in this world worship because they are deceived by the devil in a way in which we are no longer deceived by him. That is the exhortation from John. So I have three questions then about this for us this morning. And I'll go ahead and go through those questions before we seek to answer them. What is the abiding allure of idolatry to us? If we have turned from idols to the living God, and if we know Him and have His Spirit as John affirmed that these Christians did, then what is it that's still so attractive about idolatry that that we might be drawn back into it and have to be warned against it. That's the first question. The second question is, what is a sufficient definition of idolatry to keep us away from it in all of its forms? I remember that whenever the subject of idolatry came up in family worship, Wesley, as a boy and an aspiring musician, would always want to know How much love for and devotion to music is too much? And you probably wondered the same thing or similar thing. So how can we define idolatry in such a way that the line that we are not to cross is clear? On the third question, then, is this one. What is a good strategy, then, for keeping ourselves from idols, as we're exhorted to do, especially in a world that's full of them? Paul admitted to the Corinthians that we would have to leave the world altogether to avoid rubbing elbows with idolaters. So, spiritually speaking, how can you and I keep ourselves away from what, in some sense, we cannot get away from? That's the third question. So let's begin with the first one. Which is, again, what is the abiding allure of idolatry? John has affirmed that these Christians are truly Christians. They know God. They have his spirit. They have recently come through the Gnostic controversy with their Christian convictions and commitment intact. And still, John will not leave them here without a warning about idolatry. So, we assume that the allure is still there. So what is it about the worship of idols that's so attractive, that continues to be attractive even to us? My answer this morning is this. Idolatry is familiar, ubiquitous, popular, pleasurable, and something else that I cannot quite put my finger on. So let's go through those quickly. The idolatry out there is familiar to us, not strange. We came out of it. So when we came to Christ and we can fall back into it pretty easily. It's still comfortable to us. It still feels like us, like the old us. Sort of like the old sweatshirt that we used to love and to wear all the time and thought was pretty cool. That's how we feel about idolatry. Idolatry is also ubiquitous, which means it's everywhere. It's not the sort of temptation that you only have to resist occasionally. Everywhere you go, you face it, and it wears you down that way. A constant fight will do that, and you have to resist the sin of idolatry constantly in this world. It's also popular. It's familiar, it's ubiquitous, and it's popular. There are social advantages to being a part of it. And there's a social cost to pay if you refuse. 1 Peter 4, 3, Peter said to Christians in his time, We have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles. They think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. Why do they speak evil of you? Because they think you're weird. And just for not doing what you used to do and what everybody else is still doing. They think you are strange and revile you. Since becoming Christians, you don't show up at the party anymore. Idolatry is familiar, it's ubiquitous, it's popular. And being like a party, it's also pleasurable. All the pleasures of a party. Pagan temples were special places. Special events took place there. They were beautifully adorned, filled with music and dancing. There were speakers, and it was a pleasure to hear. And there was usually something like a feast in these temples, a banquet feast, prepared for the celebrants, like a fabulous barbecue. Only a portion of the brisket had just been sacrificed to Dionysus. But these seemingly harmless social pleasures were also interwoven with forbidden pleasures in the idolatry of the ancient world. In other words, pagan parties were not just barbecues, they were orgies. 1 Peter 4.3, again, Peter says, For we have spent enough of our pastime doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatry. All the same lifestyle. Sometimes all the same event. And that's the seedy side. of the idolatry of this world. It involves the gratification of the lust of the flesh, but sanctified as spiritual oblation to the gods. Our pleasure is their pleasure, that's the idea. And that was no small part of idolatry's appeal to sinners in the ancient world. So idolatry is familiar, ubiquitous, popular, pleasurable, and yet I'm not content that that's a full description of the allure of idolatry. Idolatry, I think, is sort of like coffee. You can talk about the color, you can talk about the smell of coffee, you can talk about the enhanced focus that you feel, but we all know there's something else in there. that gets its hooks in us so that we find ourselves needing coffee and praising coffee. What is that? Now I'm asking not in coffee, but in idolatry, and I don't know. But the point is, don't underestimate it. It's powerfully attractive and potentially addictive stuff. So if these Christians needed to be repeatedly exhorted to keep themselves from idols, I assume we do as well. Paganism and its cults are no less familiar and comfortable, no less ubiquitous and popular, no less pleasurable and strangely appealing to us now than they were to these Christians then. So beware. But as Wesley's question reminds us, if we're to keep ourselves from idolatry, we need a sufficient definition for it. So secondly, let's work on that. A sufficient definition of idolatry must avoid two opposite extremes. On the one hand, it must enable us to see all of the idolatry in the world, even in its subtler forms. Of course, to bow down to an image, to worship another god supposedly represented by that image, which is in a Hindu temple, clearly that's idolatry. As Christians, we're to have nothing to do with something like that. But the Bible doesn't stop there, and so neither should we. For instance, twice the Apostle Paul in his epistles tells us that covetousness or greed is idolatry. Covetousness is the same thing that Paul elsewhere calls the love of money. So if a greedy, money-loving capitalist is an idolater, and the material excesses of the American dream are idolatry in God's sight, Plainly, the existence of an actual image, an overt recognition of a God who is being worshipped, is not essential to this sin. The spirit of idolatry can be present where these things are not. And so we're going to need a definition of idolatry that is broad and penetrating enough to comprehend the more subtle idolatry of these sorts of excesses. But on the other hand, A proper definition of idolatry should leave plenty of room for the wholesome, God-approved enjoyment of the good things of this life. That's equally important, and here's why. In Satan's deception of Eve in Genesis 3, a subtle change takes place in God's prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said to Adam, you shall not eat of it, But when asked about this by the serpent, Eve said, we may not eat it nor touch it. So for some reason she made God's command seem more strict than it really was. And perhaps felt for that reason that God was being overly strict. And maybe that played some role in her eventual defiance, feeling that that was justified. The point is, it's spiritually dangerous to portray God as overly strict. So we want to be careful not to do that. So our definition of idolatry must not make it seem as if God forbids what, in fact, God approves. So we can make money as Christians. We can have money. We can spend money. We just can't love it. That's the line. We can love other things in life, like people. We can love them a lot. We just can't worship them. That's the line. And as Christians, we can and should appreciate and enjoy things like music, barbecues, Saturday afternoon football game, but we can't and we shouldn't elevate these things to the level of a cult. That would be taking a good thing too far. And you Georgia football fans know what I'm talking about. So what is idolatry? Here's the definition. Idolatry is the worship of other gods in a world where really there are no other gods. And that means that idolatry is giving the worship The love and the honor of which only a God is worthy to other things and other people instead of the true and living God. People and things which are not worthy of worship. And nothing and no one else is worthy of worship but God. So you see, when it comes to discerning idolatry in our world, in our own lives, we're dealing with ideas like kind and degree. So, for instance, yes, love your wife. But not with that kind of love. Not with that kind of devotion, as if nothing matters in the world but pleasing her. She's great. She's not worthy of that. Only God is worthy. And also, for instance, yes, enjoy food, but not that much. There's an enjoyment of food that is wholesome and God-glorifying, and then there's gluttony, which is way too much food. It's perversely seeking something for food that food was never meant to be, plain. It's not healthy. So yes, if you understand me, literally anything can be an idol and become one if people worship it. And I'm afraid that the unseemliness of idolatry is everywhere in our world and our society. And as Christians, I'm saying we ought to be able to see that. Paul speaks of the covetous man as perfectly identifiable. His love of money is obvious enough. And money is not something that a man ought to love. And seeing money become an idol in a person's life is, and ought to be to us, a grotesque spectacle. Not fabulous. Shameful, grotesque. Just as seeing food become an idol in a person's life is a grotesque spectacle. And the same thing goes for anything else that people perversely worship as a god. So I don't think this is as hard as we make it out to be. I'll give you an illustration, which may be helpful. It's an illustration about a man's love for his wife. As a Christian man, I am to love my neighbors, and half of my neighbors are women. So I am to observe the golden rule toward them, just as I would their husbands. To love them as I love myself. As a Christian man, I am also to love my fellow Christians with brotherly love. And half of my Christian brothers are actually sisters. So the same tender affection, care that I should show toward the men in my congregation, I should show toward the women too. But of all the women in the world, and all the women in the church, I am only married to one woman as my wife. And that is Amy, my loyal wife. And as my wife, there is a kind of love and affection and a degree of devotion that belongs to her and does not belong to any other woman in the world. And my point is, nobody has a problem seeing the difference. If you should observe me, even in the slightest degree, showing the kind of love and affection and devotion to another woman besides her, that really belongs to her, it would bother you. And rightly so. And you would say, I don't think that Amy would like that. And you would be right about that. It's the same way with this thing that the Bible calls idolatry. So let's not act like we don't know it when we see it. It's all around us. In fact, it's been there in some form. It has to be there in some form where the true God is not truly worshipped. And as Christians who are to serve our loyal God with an undivided heart, when we see it, we're to have no part in it. So how do we do this? How do we keep ourselves from idols? That's the exhortation. So that brings us to the third point this morning and the last one. Which is, let's work out a strategy for this. John's exhortation is, as all exhortations are, an exhortation to do something. So what is it that we are to do? How should we do it? If we're not to fall back into that from which we have come, in coming to know the true God in Jesus Christ. I'm going to suggest a three-part strategy. The first thing is this. We have to learn to think and speak about idolatry in biblical terms. even when no one else is. And when we see idolatry in the world, we have to be alarmed by it because no one else will be. That responsibility falls on us. Let's say you find yourself in the midst of an idolatrous event where way too much is being made of something because the people who are gathered, they all worship it. Do you think that they're going to be alarmed by what they're doing? What did Moses hear in the camp when the Israelites were worshiping the golden calf? Do you remember? He heard singing. People engaged in idolatry are not alarmed by what they're doing. They're enjoying it. They're excited. They think it's great. They wish they could do this thing all the time. Because this is really living and probably the only thing they know worth living for. So if there's going to be any sense of alarm here, it's going to have to come from you. One Christian, like Moses on the mountain, seriously uncomfortable with the unseemliness of this scene below when everybody else is fine with it and thinks it's grand. Second part of this strategy. We also have to learn to see the idolatry before us as God sees it, and so be appalled by it. It ought to elicit that sort of visceral reaction from us. What is idolatry? According to the Bible, it's a lot of bad things. It's a transgression, it's foolishness, it's degrading, it's an abomination, all of these things. Consider each one quickly. Idolatry is a transgression. There's a line and people are crossing it. And so as they have crossed that line, this thing ceased to be okay. An innocent trip to Walmart ceases to be an innocent trip to Walmart when you put something in your purse without paying for it. Now it's a crime called shoplifting. And so it is with idolatry. It's a transgression. Idolatry is also foolishness. One of the ways that the prophets of the Lord fought the spread of idolatry in Israel was by ridiculing it. You'll find that in many places. They ridiculed the idea of making a god. They ridiculed the idea of bowing down to a block of stone. They ridiculed the idea that a dumb idol could teach you anything. or an easily toppled image could somehow save you. And really, people should be embarrassed for worshiping a football team, or their girlfriend, or for loving money or power, or for living for food, or living for fitness for that matter. This is just foolishness. It's ridiculous. It's embarrassing. And you should be embarrassed to be a part of that. Idolatry is also degrading. It's a transgression, it's foolishness, and it's also degrading. The Bible teaches that we become like what we worship. Worship God and you become godly. Worship a squirrel and you become squirrely. That's the principle. But seriously, what do these pagans think would happen to them if they regularly bowed down to the image of animals? or even the image of men. Worship animals, you're gonna wind up acting like an animal. Worship men, and you act like men who think they're gods. Either way, character is destroyed and every conceivable sin will follow and the degradation is severe. That's Paul's argument in Romans chapter one. So idolatry is a transgression It's foolishness, it's degrading, and finally, and maybe most forcefully, the Bible teaches us that idolatry really and truly is an abomination. How dare men who bear the image of God who gave them life, whose glory is all around them, suppress the truth of the almighty and unrighteousness and fall down to worship and serve a creature? rather than the creator. This is an appalling spectacle in the eyes of heaven and high treason against the most high. It's no wonder that the apostle Paul declares that idolaters shall not enter the kingdom of God. Rather, he says in Romans 2 5, they are storing up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds. And there is no deed so foul as idolatry. So remember that. Before you treat something as a God, even if other people are doing so. The sin of idolatry and all its perverse excesses is, according to scripture, an abomination. So the third part of our strategy then is this. We have to be resolved then to live with and to love our choice. It's your choice what God you will serve. As Joshua said to the Israelites, choose this day whom you will serve. And if you are a Christian, I'm pointing out to you, you have made your choice. If you've been admitted to the Lord's table as a commuting member of this church and that's what you're receiving this bread and this cup means, among other things, we heard you of your own volition. Declare your choice. Swear before God in this congregation. that you had received and now rest upon Christ and him alone for your salvation and were resolved as a member of his church to live as becomes his followers. Thy is your choice. So you want to go after a God? Then go after your God. By all lawful means, with all your heart, go after him. Go after the true and the living God, whom you know, Christians. Walk in his spirit, whose spirit you have from him. The Apostle James says to us, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And that promise is true today. Jesus says to us, as he said to the Christians in Laodicea, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. That's not actually an evangelistic verse. Jesus is speaking to a church there. But it happens to be a church that was pretty well off materially, self-satisfied and towards God lukewarm. Don't be lukewarm. Go after your God. You want to be immune to the allure of idolatry. That's what we're talking about here. Here's a verse from the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 27, 7. Listen. A satisfied soul loathes The honeycomb. But to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. Be satisfied with your God, Christians, and even the sweetest pleasures of the most alluring idol in the world will have no power to draw you away from him. And I remind you, he is that God in whose presence is fullness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore. So there's your strategy. Now, you have to sort all this out in your own heart and in your own life. John exhorts you. I tried to offer you some guidance this morning. Now go and do the work. You serve a loyal God, a God who died for you, a God who will be with you in the fire. Serve him loyally, saints, with an undivided heart. Do so in this world. Do so in this life. He is worthy of that. You know that he is. So what is the work before you? I'm gonna leave you with a picture. And it's a picture of the pictures in my house. In my kitchen, behind my seat at the head of the table is a wall full of pictures. Family portraits. There's one of Amy as a teenager, there's a couple of us on our wedding day, and then lots of pictures of our four children. But there is, if you'll notice, one picture on this wall is different from all of the others. It's not only a lot bigger, but it's also a different kind of picture. It's a print of an Andrew Wythe painting that Amy and I bought at Kirkland's a long, long time ago before any of you had ever heard of Kirkland's. It's a painting of a dog curled up on a bed taking a nap. Some of you have noticed that picture. Symbolically, And of course, I see it symbolically. Symbolically, it represents what the whole wall is meaning to celebrate, which is our family's home. It is to us a peaceful place and a comfortable place to be. So when I first constructed this wall, I made a decision that turns out to have been a very wise one. I had all the pictures there on the table and I started with the wife print and I hung it on the center of the wall. And having done that, only then did I begin to arrange all of the family portraits around. You see, if I had started with any other picture, even the one from our wedding, then the wife print would have ended up off to the side or down in a corner. And the whole display would have felt out of balance because it would have been out of balance. And for years thereafter, everyone around the table would have looked at me and the portrait wall behind me with their head turned to the side, trying to compensate for the feeling that they were falling. The other portraits, I could have arranged them differently than I arranged them. There were options there, but the Wyeth portrait had to be central because of its visual gravity, because it was so big and because it was unique. And so to be sure of its centrality, I had to hang it first. And so that's what I did. And I've never moved those pictures since. because I have never felt the need to. It's just right, just like it is. So when you keep yourself from idolatry, saints, that's what your life will look like. God, your God, will be first, and he will be central. You will be discernibly different, larger than everything else, and all of your other lesser loves and joys will be arranged around Him. That's the balance that we strike in life when we serve God with an undivided heart. And it feels right because it is right. And I think we know it. So if your life feels out of balance this morning, it may be because it is out of balance. And if so, you need to do something about that. It's possible that all it will take is a little rearranging to restore the balance, but then again, things may be so badly arranged right now, so seriously out of sorts in your life that the best thing to do is take it all down and start from scratch. But however you get there, do get there. And when your love and devotion to the living God, what we call worship, is central, and you have it right, then guard that jealousy. Specifically, if you're following some interest, and you find yourself among people who are taking it way too far, I say get out of there. Whatever the interest is, it's not worth going with them where they're going. Maybe we'll do a Christian version of this thing, one that doesn't cross the line into idolatry. Christian book club, Christian theater group, Christian tennis team, whatever. We can organize stuff too. We don't have to give up our interests as Christians. That's not what the first two commandments are telling us. God's world is full of interesting things to explore. We are interested creatures. Explore it to his glory. But we just have to put the pursuit of those interests in their little place on the periphery and not Try to keep pace with other people pursuing those same interests for whom this thing is a god. Doing things our way, it won't be expensive, it won't take an exorbitant amount of time, and it definitely will not meet on Sunday. This is what I call Christian community. And I think it's probably something that we need right now as our own society moves towards paganism. This is how we work together to keep ourselves from the idols. And if we're serious about serving God with an undivided heart, then that's the sort of thing that we'll do. Whatever we must do to keep ourselves from idols. Amen. The Apostle John says, Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this book of the Bible, this sermon series and all that you have taught us through the words of your servant, John. And as we close, Lord, and prepare now to go back to our lives, to put it in its proper order, we pray, God, help us to see clearly the lines that are crossed when men cross into the realm of idolatry. May we, Lord, come to put you first, to keep you central, and to truly, Lord, love you with all our heart and soul and strength and mind, even as we enjoy your good gifts in this life. There is a way to do that. We trust and pray that you would continue, Lord, to enable and guide us by your Holy Spirit and for your glory. For it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.