The Consequences of Idolatry and God's Compassion

Turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 32, the song of Moses. Last week we were talking about idolatry and what it means, what its parallel is for today. You don't go to anybody's house and see them have a statue of a Buddha or some other god. But idolatry is not dead. Idolatry is simply the replacing of the authority over your life. Replacing God as the authority over your life with something else in the world. And you, when we talked about that, you gave several indications of things you saw that people let control their mind, their choices, lifestyle, and behavior. And some of you mentioned money was one. Maybe you can remember back then and say them again. But I remembered money was one of them. And yourself, I think someone mentioned that. Jobs people have, work that they do. If you remember any others or not. Pardon? Sports, okay. What God said to the people of Israel was, you have allowed the things that you have here to control the way you live. And when people allow something in their life to control their lifestyle and choices, when they have to choose between doing what they want and what God says, that's where the conflict comes in. And whenever you let those things get control of your life, so that money, or work, or sports, or whatever else it might be, becomes so important that you begin to violate the instructions of God. Either about worshiping Him, coming to church, or about reading the Bible, or about your time of prayer with Him, or making decisions that you know are contrary to the clear instructions of God, then idolatry occurs. God doesn't always strike people dead whenever they worship other things other than Him. But He has said to them here that what I'm going to do is withdraw my presence from you. So that I will no longer provide the guidance for your choices. You'll make choices, but they're not going to be choices of wisdom that I give you. They're your own. They'll be choices based on the God that controls your life. So that you do everything that you do so that you can have whatever it is that's controlling to you. And when you think of those things we just mentioned, you can see people who get so caught up in sports that there's nothing else for them except that just consumes their life. They're people that work so hard that they don't have time for church. They don't have time for God. It's people that get caught up in these things so that the things that God tells us to do, they push aside. None of those things are wicked necessarily. They're simply idols that control their lives apart from God. Even your family life can be that with you. If you give time to your family that God asked you to give to Him, it suddenly becomes an idol for you. Many of the things that we talk about that are idols in the Bible, we're told to make those things important to us. But whenever they become so important that they replace God, then they become idolatry. Now, what God said to the people of Israel was that these things would take control of their life, these idols, until they went away from Him and were no longer obedient servants of His. I want to begin reading at verse 36. He's talking about, in the verses previous to that, He said, I need to read that, I guess. I'll begin reading at 28. They are a nation without sense. There is no discernment in them. If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be. How could one man chase a thousand or two put ten to flight unless the rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them? He's saying, how do they think that my people have captured their land when they were smaller in numbers without God giving them the ability to do that? Then how would they think that they were able to turn around and drive His people out or capture His people if it wasn't that the Lord Himself had withdrawn His power from helping them? For their rock is not like our rock. The rock or the foundation on which these pagan societies were built are not the same as God, Yahweh God. As even our enemies concede, their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, their field from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, their clusters with bitterness. Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras. In verse 34, have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults? It is mine to avenge. I will repay. So he says, all these things have happened, but I'm going to take vengeance, and I'm going to make sure that people pay for what they've done. In due time, their foot will slip, their day of disaster is near, and their doom rushes on them. Everyone who gives themselves to worship false gods will find themselves someday tripped up. They'll fall down. The day of disaster will come to them. Doom will overwhelm them. That sets the stage for what he wants to say in verse 36. Verse 36 is talking about how God deals with rebellious people, with His own people who are rebellious. The Lord will judge His people and have compassion on His servants. He's letting us know that even though the nation of Israel has turned their back on Him, He's not going to turn His back on them. They may turn away from Him, but He's not going to turn away from them because He's made a promise to Abraham, and He's going to keep that promise. The Lord will judge His people. He will pass judgment on them for what they've done. And the Lord then will also have compassion. Judgment and compassion may seem to be in conflict with each other, but it's not. For what God's judgment is, is to do the thing that's right. And compassion also leads someone to do what's right. God is always going to do what's right. Now, sometimes what's right is painful. For example, if you raise your children and they don't do what you tell them to do, you might discipline them because it's the right thing to do. The child being disciplined may not think it's a fun thing to do, but he may also know that it's the right thing to do. You think back on your own life and the days you were disciplined growing up, and you probably earned every single thing that happened to you. And maybe more, they found out those things. As kids grow up, you find out when they're 30 and 35 and 40, sitting around the table talking about things they did that you didn't know you did. Then you say, sometimes I felt bad that I punished them so hard, but now I can see it wasn't near enough. I should have been harder on them. They were doing things I didn't know about. But God was helping me, making sure that they got punished for the things I saw, at least. Here are the things that God does. His justice is the same thing as His compassion. I do not want you to stray from me. So, I'm judging your straying, and in my compassion, I'm going to correct you. So, those things are not opposites, but they fit together. When He sees their strength is gone, and no one is left, slave or free. See, what God's judgment is, is not always necessarily an aggressive thing. That's why sometimes it's so hard to see. It's sometimes just turning loose, and letting the consequences of our behavior have its own effect. I've warned you that the things that you're doing, if you do these things, it will be destructive to you. I've told you about it. I've sent you prophets to remind you. Every year you read through the law, you know what's right and wrong, but you continue to do it. So, what I'm going to do, is just let you go, and let the result of your own behavior bear its own fruit and its consequence. So, He sees their strength is gone. They lose their strength. He sees that no one is left, slave or free. Everyone is caught and engulfed in the process of this rebellion. See, He's talking about a society, a whole culture, that is misdirected. You know, as you look around yourself, some of you are old enough to remember times when this culture was different than it is now. And you see, that much of that is the result of people saying, we no longer believe that it's necessary to do the things the scripture says we should do. And so, there's a compromise here, a compromise there, a compromise somewhere else. And suddenly, the world is dramatically and powerfully different than what it was before. It doesn't happen overnight to a culture. It's a long process of small changes that result, in the end, in dramatic changes. A lot of you can remember when some of the things that now are big, important issues in our culture were unbelievably resisted 40 years ago. Slowly, slowly, the culture changes. And it's no secret that the less people read the Bible, attend church, and give themselves committed to Christ's obedience, that the less they do that, the more these changes take place in our culture. That's what God's talking about. I'm going to turn you loose. You want to let sports control your life? Well, go ahead and let it. You want to let your own ego and vanity and pride control your life? Go ahead and do it. You want to let money control your life? Go ahead and do that. Give yourself to these things. See if in your life you become stronger. See if your family becomes better. See if your relationships with people grow like they should. Look and see what happens to your life. And it's not always immediate that this takes place. But many of the stories you see about disaster are the result of people who spent many years appearing to be very successful. You know, the investor that was investing so much money, and he wasn't really investing it, he was just taking it for himself, was it Madoff, is that his name? For many years, he was seen by all the investment world as one of the greatest investors ever. People clamored to get to invest their money with him. He was even on the board, I think, of one of the stock exchanges. He was one of the people that the government looked at as a kind of model for how people should do in investing. And now he's in prison. And all because of greed. He wanted more and more money. And as he got more and more money, he became more and more famous. And people thought he was better and smarter than anyone else in the world. And now, he's so shameful to his parents, to his family, that one of his sons killed himself, rather than be a child of a man like that. People are suing him. He's in prison. He's in disgrace. You can look at almost every area of life, and you see people who are caught up in this, and how the toll it takes on them. They may not make the newspapers, but you know them, and you see what happens to them. Day by day, they dig a hole deeper and deeper in false security. So, I'm going to watch my people, he said, and I'm just going to watch what happens to them. They're going to fall into this trap, and they're going to get weaker and weaker and weaker. They're going to finally fail to do the things that they need to do. Their strength is gone. And everyone, from the most powerful to the weakest, are going to find themselves enslaved. He will say, this is God now. He sees all this terrible stuff happening to them. He doesn't rush down to rescue them. He's simply letting them go, letting them learn on their own. He will say, now, where are their gods? What's your money doing for you now, Mr. Madoff? What's all this popularity doing for you now? And in the end, you see, whether they're sports heroes that are now seen as drug addicts instead of heroes, one after another, people who shaped their lives this way find the judgment of God is simply to leave them alone and let them dig the hole that they want. So, where are these gods now? Where is this rock you built your life on? Where is this confidence that you had before? Where is the rock you took refuge in? The gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices, what is it, all this, that you've given your life to in the business world, in the investment world? What's it going to do for you now that you're locked in prison and your money is taken away from you? The offering you gave to your God, money, is it giving you anything back? No, it won't do anything for you. And drink the wine of their drunk offerings. He's saying, the thing you give your life to will let you give all that you want to it. It will just suck it out of you. And when you're in desperate trouble, it will never give anything in return. Let them rise up to help you. Let them give you shelter. What will you do about that? Gideon, in the story of Gideon in the Bible, Gideon's country was overwhelmed by the enemy. They'd gone through one of these times when they drifted away from God. And the angel came to him and said, Mighty hero, God has chosen you to lead your people to victory. And he's going to destroy the enemy and drive them out of the country. Gideon's response to him was to say, How can I believe that? Because look at the condition our nation is in. They've been taken over by the enemy. People are hiding. He was hiding in a cave trying to make some, trying to harvest his crop. Look at what God has done. There is no help here for us. You see, his appeal was, We're in this sorry condition because God has failed in his job. Look at how bad things are. Now, you'll find the same thing true with people who get in these circumstances today. If you go talk to someone who's dug a hole in their life because of their failure to follow God, but invested their life instead in one of these other gods that shaped their lives, what they'll tell you is, I don't believe in God. Look at what's happened to me. They think that God is going to rescue them, empower them, take care of them, even though they've ignored him. They'll point to fallen marriages. They'll point to children who've strayed. They'll point to the financial failure they have. They'll point to all these things. Where is God when all this disaster has come to me? And they don't stop to recognize the source of the disaster. Many people are mad at God because God failed them. They live a life without God. They get in disaster. And they say, look at what God's done to me. Why should I follow him whenever these disasters come to me? When oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes, they're the consequence or result of their worshiping something other than God. That is, letting something other than God control their behavior and their lifestyle. See, that I myself am he. There is no God beside me. I put to death and will bring to life. I have wounded and I will heal. And no one can deliver from my hand. God reaffirms the simple reality that the consequences of trusting something other than him will always result in disaster. He alone can provide, protect, guide, and make life full and meaningful. No one but God can do that. And whenever we allow whatever these things are that seem to make life full for us, if you'd interviewed Mr. Madoff, you know, ten years before all this came to pass, what is your life like? He'd say, it's great and wonderful. If you'd interview any of the athletes that have trusted in their drugs to get to where they are before they were found out, Mr. Armstrong, how's your life now? He'd say, great, nothing could be better. You see, in the process of falling, life always seems like it's great. But when disaster comes, then the reality is there is no help from the very thing that you've trusted to get you where you want to be. What God asks us to do is to look to Him, to make sure that our lifestyle is built on what the Bible says is right, to make sure that our choices are guided by God's Holy Spirit, to make sure that Scripture is the basis on which we choose the things we choose. And when we do that, we trust in God alone, then we are assured that the reality of what He wants to do for us will come to pass. Removing that simply allows this world to take over everything that we do and have. God wants us to recognize that He is the final authority. There is no one but myself who can help you. There is no God beside me. I put to death, I bring to life. I have wounded, and I will heal. No one can deliver from my hand. No one. And when we trust anything else in our life to be able to make life full and meaningful for us, we'll discover in the end the failure of it. And when the failure comes, God might rescue us, but the consequences of our mistakes of putting something ahead of God oftentimes is very damaging to the people we love most. And they may not have that ability to see God and turn to Him in that last moment, that even we might. The consequences of allowing anything to control our lives other than God are deadly. When you grow up reading the Bible and hearing preachers preach about the importance of doing this, you think that the judgment of God is instant. Like if I take a drink, I'll kill over dead. You know, you're a kid growing up. I grew up in a county where you couldn't even buy alcohol, so that was a big deal. If you go out and get a drunk, you're going to die. But what you discover is that you can do that and not die. And then you think you're home free. I can do whatever I want. So kids in my class, some of them end up alcoholics. Broken marriages, destroyed lives, destroyed health. Not because God didn't want them to turn into drunks, but because they craved the alcohol more than they craved God. And he said, okay, if that's what you want, you can have it. There is one person in this world who can help you, and it's me. When you turn your back on me, I will let you. But you'll pay. Would you bow your heads, please? I'd like to ask you to think of someone you know who's caught in this vicious cycle of putting something in charge of their life other than God. I'd like you to pray for that person. Not just tonight, but ask God if this is someone you should pray for daily. And as you pray for this person, ask God if he would give you the opportunity to help them know the danger that they're in. They may not stop today, but when the time comes when their God destroys them, they will remember. God will bring it to their mind that there's another way. We are thankful that you warn us about the dangers of life without you. Theoretically, we can see these things, but help us to see them in reality, that we might learn that the truth you tell us is a truth to live by. Help us to trust you alone for value, meaning, and significance in life. And all the other things that demand our attention, that they would be second to us compared to you. In the name of Christ, we ask it. Amen.