Wednesday, July 31, 2013

95-Biblical Instructions in an "Old-School Luther-Style Disputation-Sermon" on the Evil Satisfaction and Mind and Heart-Corrupted Furtherance of the Sin-Filled Shadowy Darkness of Idolatry: A Sermon on the All-Corrupt and All-Blinding Power of Idolatry in the Thoroughly Depraved Nature of Sinful Man

1.  The biblical teaching of idolatry is described as spiritually irrational (Acts 17:29).

2.  The scriptural teaching of idolatry is described as spiritually degrading (Rom. 1:22-23).

3.  Idolatry is the worship of man-made objects or idols (2 Kin 17:16).

4.  Idol-worship is demon-worship (1 Cor. 10:20-21).

5.  Idolatry is depraved defilement (2 Cor. 6:15-18).

6.  Idolatry is complete enslavement (Gal. 4:8-9).

7.  Idolatry is a complete abomination (1 Pet 4:3).

8.   Pope Francis I put "World Youth Day" in 2013 to the Virgin Mary's care, but the Bible says God alone is our hope because it is an act of worship and a matter of ultimate glory (Ps. 62:5).

9.  Idolatry enhances the totally blindness of sinful man (Mt 23:26) that has bound his mind and heart in total abominable corruptions (Ps. 53:1).

10.  David Powlison author of "Seeing With New Eyes" wrote, "We are meant to long supremely for the Lord Himself, for the Giver, not His gifts. The absence of blessings – rejection, vanity, reviling, illness, poverty – often is the crucible in which we learn to love God for who He is. In our idolatry we make gifts out to be supreme goods, and make the Giver into the errand boy of our desires."  (reference, P&R Publishers, 2003, p. 134-135).

11.  "When the loss of any temporal enjoyment casts us into excessive despondency and dejection it is evident that what we have lost, was the object of our inordinate love. The most innocent attachments cease to be innocent, when they press too strongly upon us! To cleave to any created object, and to look for happiness from it – is to make an idol of it – and set it up in God's place. Should this object be a friend, a brother, a wife, or a child, the idolatry is still odious in the eyes of that God, to whom we owe our chief affection. Our warmest passions, our most fervent love, desires, hopes, and confidences should always have God for their object. It is His desire that our happiness should not center in any of the good things of this life." (John Fawcett, Christ Precious).

12.  "Either we will love and serve God, or we will love and serve our idols. Idols exist in our lives because we love them and invite them in. But once idols find a home, they are unruly and resist leaving. In fact, they change from being the servants of our desires to being our masters" (Edward T. Welch, Blame in on the Brain? P&R Publishing, 1998, p. 194).

13.  "Idolatry" is the practice of seeking the source and provision of what we need either physically or emotionally in someone or something other than the one true God. It is the tragically pathetic attempt to squeeze life out of lifeless forms that cannot help us meet our real needs."  (Scott Hafemann The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 35).

14.  "O ye sons of men, think not that God is blind. He can perceive the idols in your hearts; He understands what be the secret things that your souls lust after; He searches your heart, He tries your reins; beware lest He find you sacrificing to strange gods, for His anger will smoke against you, and His jealousy will be stirred. O ye that worship not God, the God of Israel, who give Him not dominion over your whole soul, and live not to His honor, repent ye of your idolatry, seek mercy through the blood of Jesus, and provoke not the Lord to jealousy any more."  (C.H. Spurgeon, A Jealous God, Sermon 502, March 29, 1863).

15.  "To whatever we look for any good thing and for refuge in every need, that is what is meant by “god.” To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in him from the heart… To whatever you give your heart and entrust your being, that, I say, is really your god."  (Martin Luther, Luther’s Large Catechism).

16.  "You don’t have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them. Whatever you love more than God is your idol"  (D.L. Moody).


17.  The biblical teaching is that the practice of idolatry began in man's apostasy (Rom 1:21-25) like the fall of Satan (Is. 14ff).

18.  The radical fall and rebellion of Satan (Lk 10:18; Rev 12:7) involved a complete and willful submission through the changeable mutability of his will to the evil and blind commission of self-worship in utter corruption (see Is. 14ff) against the self-existent God (Is. 54:18).

19.  Christians are warned in the infallible Scriptures against company with those who practice idolatry (1 Cor. 5:11).

20.  Christians are called to completely flee from the thinking and working of the practice of idolatry (1 Cor. 10:4).

21.  Christians are to have no fellowship with idolatry (1 Cor 10:19-20).

22.  Christians are meant to be kept from idolatry (1 Jn 5:21).

23.  Christians testify against idolatry (Acts 14:15).

24.   Christians are called to completely turn away from idolatry (1 Thess 1:9).

25.  Christians kneel in worship to Christ (Acts 7:60; 20:36).  That is, we are called to kneel in worship to the Triune God alone: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit because He alone is from everlasting to everlasting  and alone worthy of glory.

26.   Idolatry is in the background of the unregenerate heathen (Josh. 24:2; Ez. 16:44-45).

27.  People are enticed to idolatry through contact with idolatries (Num. 25:1-6).

28.  Enticements happen by idolatry through intermarriage (1 Kin 11:1-13).

29.  Idolatry is man-made imaginary spiritual goodness (Jer. 44:15-19) because man's mind and heart are completely bent to corrupt practices (for example the heart of man in Rom 1:21-23).

30.   Idolatry is removed through divine punishment (Deut. 17:2-5).

31.  Idolatry is removed in ancient times also like today because it is not powerful by the literal nature of the graven image (1 Sam 5:1-5; 1 Kin 18:25-29).  Rather it is powerful through satanic spiritual power that is a foreigner to the worship of God in spirit and truth (Jn 4:23-24).

32.    Idolatry should be removed through spiritual reasoning (Is. 44:6-20).

33.  Idolatry is removed by the supernatural display of God's awesome power of powers (2 Kin 19:10-37).

34.  We are to denounce idols that take us away from God (Mic 1:5-7).

35.  Idols are removed through exile (Hos. 8:5-14; Zeph 1:4-6).

36.  Idolatry is removed through spiritual rebirth in non-baptismal regeneration but cosmic and divine regeneration by God's supernatural intervention (Hos. 14:1-9; Amos 5:26-27; Tit 3:5; Jn 3ff).

37.  Idol making is described by Isaiah in Is. 44:9-18.

38.   If someone says like Pope John Paul II that Mary rescued him from death, it is the same as making a "graven image" in attributing divine help from it (see Ex. 32:4).

39.   If you kneel to a image of the Virgin Mary, a particular saint or angel, it is contradictory worship (Ex 32:8) because God alone demands all the glory in worship.

40.   If the image as some kind of spiritual power, it is not of God but is a graven god apart from the holy living of God (Ex. 34:17; Phil 4ff).

41.   Do not seek direction from an image of a saint or a statue, because God demands exclusive attention (Lev 19:4).

42.   Image-honoring or image-veneration is a sign that a sinner has "corrupted themselves" (Deut. 9:12).

43.   Clement of Alexandria said "works of art" are not godly.

44.  Tertullian said demons are concerned with images of deceased people.   I think it means in light of a "religious practice" of some sort.

45.   Why kneel to a statue when you can kneel and worship God alone in your prayer closet?

46.   Worshiping God alone is the way of growing in the peace of God because everything is brought to Him alone.

47. Idolatry is praying to the Virgin Mary on your knees.

48.  Idolatry is praying to a particular angel on your knees.

49.  The worship of the consecrated Host in the Roman Mass is idolatry because it is the work of man's hands.

50.  Thinking there is other merit besides Christ alone is cosmic idolatry.

51.  A preeminent pope like Diotrephes in 3 Jn is leadership worship.

52.   It is not idolatry to ask a friend in Christ to pray for you to God alone for a particular need because we are called to bear one another's burdens.

53.   Idolatry is a actual transgression against God and His holiness.

54.   Idolatry is complete unrighteousness.

55. Idolatry is not from a Spirit and Word-born faith (Rom 14:23).

56.  The source of idolatry is man's corrupt heart.

57.  The other source of idolatry is Satan's rebellion.

58.  Christians should acknowledge sin before God (Ps. 32:5).

59.  Christians should confess sin before God (Ps. 51:3-4) because He alone forgives sin (1 Jn 1:9).

60.   A furtherance of idolatry creates a greater degree of sin.

61.   Idolatry is not the unforgivable sin among the sons and daughters of Adam.

62.  The rebellion of Satan and fallen angels have no spiritual cure because there is no Redeemer for the angelic race.

63.  Those who are permanently-bound to reprobation by God's divine choice also do not have a divine Redeemer because Christ only intended to die for God's elect alone (example, Jacob (elect) and Esau (non-elect), or Judas Iscariot (non-elect) and Simon Peter (elect).

64.  Idolatry creates a greater sin of spiritual mind-control against the things of God in the worshiping-exaltation of Jesus alone.

65.  People should only worship the Blessed Trinity alone for that is not idolatry but consistent biblical truth.

66.  Those who say the "Hail Mary" commit idolatry.

67.  Those who think the Virgin Mary is more compassionate than Jesus Christ commit cosmic idolatry because there is no one who forgives and understands like the Savior and God-man than Jesus Christ.

68.   Those who think Muhammad is the last and greatest prophet and mistaken, because Jesus was not only a prophet but He is Jehovah God in human flesh.

69.  Joseph Smith thought he was greater than Jesus Christ.  That is, it is idolatrous treason to think such things in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

70.  The Eastern Orthodox say the way of knowledge and atonement of Jesus leads to dedication.  But the Bible says that man is not god but God is God and man is man.   Such teachings are idolatry.

71.   No one should worship that which is not self-existent.  That is, no one should honor, venerate, esteem or worship in a religious context that which is not from everlasting to everlasting.

72.  The elect angels in the Book of Revelation command us to worship God alone.

73.  Peter commands us to worship God alone and not saints in the Book of Acts.

74.  Idols do not necessarily come to us in a statue or a image of a saint.  Rather an idol is something you place ahead of God.

75.  Is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit first in your life?

76.  Who do you seek salvation from?  God and man?  Or God alone?

77.  To kiss the ring of the pope in a religious context is contrary to the angelic command in the Book of Revelation "WORSHIP GOD."

78.  The Bible is the supreme infallible and final authority, but no one should worship it.  Worship God alone.

79.  It is idolatry to think the baptismal waters pardons sin.

80.  It is idolatry to think we can somehow merit salvation.

81.  It is not idolatry to love your neighbor as yourself.

82.  It is not idolatry to love your enemies instead of hatred.

83.  Sin is basically cosmic treason of idolatry.

84.  Worshiping Allah is a practice of idolatry, because He is not the one true God.  Rather the Blessed Trinity is the One true God.

85.  It is better to love God than love an idol.

86.  It is better to get things from God than an idol.

87.  It is better to worship God alone than honor a saint in prayer.

88.  It is idolatry to believe "purification of sins" occurs through meritorious sufferings in this life or in the torments of purgatory.

89.  It is better to believe the Cross alone "purifies sin" than anything else.

90.  The Westminster Larger Catechism says, "Q. 104. What are the duties required in the first commandment?  A. The duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God;[446] and to worship and glorify him accordingly,[447] by thinking,[448] meditating,[449] remembering,[450] highly esteeming,[451] honouring,[452] adoring,[453] choosing,[454] loving,[455] desiring,[456] fearing of him;[457] believing him;[458] trusting[459] hoping,[460] delighting,[461] rejoicing in him;[462] being zealous for him;[463] calling upon him, giving all praise and thanks,[464] and yielding all obedience and submission to him with the whole man;[465] being careful in all things to please him,[466] and sorrowful when in any thing he is offended;[467] and walking humbly with him.[468]."

91.  It further says,  "Q. 105. What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment?  A. The sins forbidden in the first commandment are, atheism, in denying or not having a God;[469] idolatry, in having or worshipping more gods than one, or any with or instead of the true God;[470] the not having and avouching him for God, and our God;[471] the omission or neglect of anything due to him, required in this commandment;[472] ignorance,[473] forgetfulness,[474] misapprehensions,[475] false opinions,[476] unworthy and wicked thoughts of him;[477] bold and curious searching into his secrets;[478] all profaneness,[479] hatred of God;[480] self-love,[481] self-seeking,[482] and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him in whole or in part;[483] vain credulity,[484] unbelief,[485] heresy,[486] misbelief,[487] distrust,[488] despair,[489] incorrigibleness,[490] and insensibleness under judgments,[491] hardness of heart,[492] pride,[493] presumption,[494] carnal security,[495] tempting of God;[496] using unlawful means,[497] and trusting in lawful means;[498] carnal delights and joys;[499] corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal;[500] lukewarmness,[501] and deadness in the things of God;[502] estranging ourselves, and apostatizing from God;[503] praying, or giving any religious worship, to saints, angels, or any other creatures;[504] all compacts and consulting with the devil,[505] and hearkening to his suggestions;[506] making men the lords of our faith and conscience;[507] slighting and despising God and his commands;[508] resisting and grieving of his Spirit,[509] discontent and impatience at his dispensations, charging him foolishly for the evils he inflicts on us;[510] and ascribing the praise of any good we either are, have or can do, to fortune,[511] idols,[512] ourselves,[513] or any other creature.[514]"

92.  Why would anyone stay in a religion of idols when the Bible speaks against it?  Mediate on God's written Word alone.

93.  It is idolatry to say "I believed in Jesus on my own because of libertarian free will" because only God saves.

94.   No one should worship a Cross but remember it in our minds to focus on Jesus and His work.

95.  Idolatry is powerful.  Some believe images of Jesus are acceptable while others believe they are not acceptable.  The simplicity of worship to God is to go to God alone that is revealed in divine revelation (the Holy Scriptures).  

All praise to God, who reigns above,
The God of all creation,
The God of wonders, pow'r, and love,
The God of our salvation!
With healing balm my soul he fills,
The God who every sorrow stills,
To God all praise and glory!
What God's almighty pow'r hath made
His gracious mercy keepeth;
By morning dawn or evening shade
His watchful eye ne'er sleepeth;
Within the kingdom of his might,
Lo, all is just and all is right,
To God all praise and glory!
I cried to him in time of need:
Lord God, O, hear my calling!
For death he gave me life indeed
And kept my feet from falling.
For this my thanks shall endless be;
O thank him, thank our God, with me,
To God all praise and glory!
The Lord forsaketh not his flock,
His chosen generation;
He is their refuge and their rock,
Their peace and their salvation.
As with a mother's tender hand
He leads his own, his chosen band,
To God all praise and glory!
Ye who confess Christ's holy name,
To God give praise and glory!
Ye who the Father's power proclaim,
To God give praise and glory!
All idols under foot be trod,
The Lord is God! the Lord is God!
To God all praise and glory!
Then come before his presence now
And banish fear and sadness;
To your Redeemer pay your vow
And sing with joy and gladness:
Though great distress my soul befell,
The Lord, my God, did all things well,
To God all praise and glory! (TH, 4).

Grace and peace unto you!


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