All right then, so you've got your bibles there opening 1st Corinthians chapter 10.
1st Corinthians 10, look at verse number 14. 1st Corinthians 10, 14, the bible reads,
Wherefore my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. The title for the sermon tonight is,
Flee from Idolatry. Flee from Idolatry. Now if you can please go back to 1st Corinthians 5.
I just, that's what I wanted to take out of that chapter, okay, in 1st Corinthians 10.
But please go back to 1st Corinthians 5 for me. Verse number 11. 1st Corinthians 5,
11, you know, the title of the sermon, like I said, is Flee from Idolatry,
or sins that will get you kicked out of church, part three. Sins that will get you kicked out
of church, part three. Look at 1st Corinthians 5, 11, the bible reads, But now I have written
unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or a covetous
or an idolater. So that's what we're up to here, part three, the idolater or a railer or a
drunkard or an extortioner with such and one known not to eat. Okay, so sins that will get
you kicked out of church, part three. Reverend, one of these sins that is considered wicked here,
one of the sins that will get you kicked out of church here, is if you're into idolatry.
You know, if you have idols and you worship idols. Now here's the thing about this sin,
I actually don't expect anybody in this church to have an idol. Like honestly, like some of the
other ones, yeah, you know, you might covet sometimes or these kinds of things, right?
But when it comes to idolatry, if I believe in this church, we are made up of born-again
believers, saved believers, you know, especially if you've come out of some of these, you know,
churches like the Roman Catholic Church or some of these others where they have images, where they
have these idols, you know, when you turn to Christ, you have to turn away from those false
gods. You turn away from having your faith upon those things, turn away from having your trust in
those things, and if you do trust graven images, if you do trust idols, then that is idolatry,
you know, and we're commanded not to have fellowship with someone that is called a brother,
a member of this church, and they're doing such practices, okay? Now, like I said, I probably
don't expect most of you to do this, but I do want to, at the end of the sermon, I do want to
tie this topic into something we probably all struggle with, okay, which is very similar to
idolatry. Now please go to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus in your Bible, Exodus chapter 20.
Let's get a biblical definition for what idolatry is. Exodus chapter 20 verse 1,
Exodus chapter 20 verse 1. Let's see what this is tied into with these commandments of God.
Exodus 20 verse 1, the Bible reads, And God spake all these words, saying,
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage. So we know that God is now setting it very clear to the Old Testament nation of Israel
that he is their God, and they are his people, and as he enters this old covenant, you know,
this covenant with Israel is making it very clear who their God is, which God is it that brought
them out of the land of Egypt. It's the Lord God. Verse number three, it says, Thou shalt have no
other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
This is a very clear commandment. God says to have no other gods before him, and then he
continues saying, well don't have these graven images. Don't have these objects of likeness
or things that are in heaven or things that are in earth, the things that are in the water like
fish or whatever, these animals. He says don't create these images. Don't create these idols.
Now the first thought that might come to your mind is, oh, hold on, in my house I've got,
someone gave me a little gift and maybe it's a little bird or I've got a painting on my wall
and it's got to have a giraffe or whatever. You might have these little ornaments in your house
that have been created and they depict animals or depict other things. Your first thought might be,
well, are these gods then? Is this idolatry? I know these are questions that cross my mind
when I would think about this, but it's very clear the context which he's been speaking of.
It's said there in verse number three, thou shall have no other gods before me, and so I don't
believe there's anything wrong with having your little trinkets and things like that,
you know, or just pictures or something like that of an animal or something like that,
as long as it is not your god, as long as it's very clear. Look, let's keep going, verse number
five, he makes it very clear. It says here, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them. So look,
I don't know, do you have a little, maybe some of you ladies, you know, you collect your little
things, maybe you've got a little animal figurine in your house, are you bowing down to that thing?
No, no, this is where idolatry comes in, right, when you're bowing down to these things. Verse
number, let's keep going, verse number five, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of
them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Brethren, if you love God, you must have him as your one true God. If you set any other gods
before you, he says, what did it say at the end of verse number five, visiting unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me. If you create an idol, if you bow down to that idol,
if you serve that idol, you trust in that idol, God is saying you hate the true Lord God of the
universe, okay, and by making that mistake, it's going to have an effect on your children
unto the third and fourth generation, and if you turn your hearts away from the God of the Bible,
you set up some other god as your false god, that's going to have lasting effects to your
children, your children's children, your children's children, children, unto that fourth
generation. So this is a very important doctrine, right. Now again, I really don't expect anyone in
this church to become an idolatress, but when you read the Bible, when you read the Old Testament,
how many times did Israel turn to their false gods, to those false gods, to those idols. You
know, King Solomon, great example, you know, a man who was faithful to God, but later on when
he had his multiple wives, the wives turned his heart toward these idols, toward these false gods,
okay. So this was a big problem in the Old Testament times, but I don't expect that same
problem to be. Now I'm not saying it'll never be there, you know, these instructions of kicking
someone out of the church, this is New Testament times, you know, we may have, who knows in the
future, someone coming into this church, bringing their idolatry, bringing their idols, and trying
to turn our hearts away from the God of the Bible unto those things, okay. So this is something,
you know, even though you may say, well this, I'll never face this, well it could happen in the
future, and you know what we're commanded to do, we're commanded to kick that person out of the
church, okay. So we are, not to have any other gods before us, please go to Leviticus 19. Leviticus
19, because as we read Exodus 20, we didn't actually see the word idol in that, we saw
graven images, right, we saw that term being used, the graven images, but let's go to Leviticus 19
verse 4, because God reiterates this same command in Leviticus 19 verse 4, in fact this is the first
mention in your Bible with the word idols, okay, the first mention of the word idols in your Bible
is found here in Leviticus 19 verse 4, the Bible reads, turn ye not unto idols,
nor make to yourselves molten gods, I am the Lord your God. So it's very clear here, the molten
image, the idol that you create, idolatry is when you make that your God, when you place your faith,
your worship, your service onto these objects, okay, God reinforces, you know, not the graven
images and again not the idols, you guys are in Leviticus, please go to chapter 26 now,
Leviticus chapter 26, let's look at the second mention of the word idol in the Bible, here in
Leviticus chapter 26 verse 1, the Bible reads, ye shall make ye shall make you no idols nor
graven images, okay, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you put up any
image of stone in your land to bow down unto it, for I am the Lord your God, okay, so once again
he's telling us what an idol is, what is this graven image, when you create these things and
you bow down, you worship these things, these are idols and it makes it very clear at the end of
verse number one, for I am the Lord your God and look, our Lord God is a jealous God, what does
jealous mean again? It means you're protective of those things that belong to you, right,
and when it comes to us being God's people, when it comes to the Old Testament Israelites being
the people of God, you know, they were the people of God and their worship was to be directed to
the Lord God himself and when that worship was given to some other objects, some creatures,
some false God, that brought God to jealousy, that would bring God to anger because that is
what righteously belongs to God, the worship of the Old Testament Israelites and your worship
Reverend, you know, when you come to church and you sing your songs, you lift up your hearts,
you sing with your heart, with your mouth, hey, that's worship, that's service to the Lord God,
okay, that's a good thing to do, to open our minds, to give him worship, to serve him and listen,
how do we serve him in the New Testament times? You serve in the local body, you serve in the
church, this is the body of Christ, if you serve one another, you serve Christ, listen, when you
go and you preach the gospel to the lost, you're doing the work that Christ has left us to do,
this is the service, this is the worship, this is the sacrifice that we do to the God of the Bible.
Now here's what's quite interesting about, you know, false religion, when you think about every
major false religion, guess what, they all have idols, every major false religion in this world
has idols, you know what that tells me? That tells me it doesn't matter if you're not born
in a Christian home or not, there is something in human beings that seeks a deity, there is
something in man that says there must be a God, there must be something and they seek something
to worship and when it comes to these false religions of course they set up the wrong things
to worship, okay. Now when you think of Buddhism, okay, Buddhism, I mean I'm sure you're all familiar
with, I'm sure you've seen certain houses having statues of Buddha, okay, and there are different
Buddha statues, okay, and you know sometimes you find a very fat Buddha, sometimes you'll find a
very skinny Buddha, I mean there are different styles of these statues and each of these statues
represents something else, like you know one statue is for maybe to bless you financially,
another statue might be to scare away evil spirits or something like that or bad karma or something
like that, right, but what is this? This is an idol, say well I never see the, you know, you know,
for the Buddhists, they're trusting that idol to help them, they've got their faith in those idols
to do something positive for them, hey that's idolatry and you know what's weird and I'll talk
about this later, but on the Sunshine Coast there's like an epidemic, isn't it Tim, of Buddha
statues everywhere, now here's the thing, when I used to go soloing in Sydney and I'd go to
someone's house and I find a Buddha statue on the front lawn, guaranteed you're going to knock on
that door and the guy's Buddhist, okay, on the Sunshine Coast there are statues everywhere,
when I started there, I mean look at all these Buddhists, what's going on? And then you knock
on the door, I know I'm Catholic, I'm, you know, I go to a Pentecostal church or you know and I'll
tell you later on why that is, I'll get into that later, otherwise I'm getting off topic.
What about Hinduism? Hinduism, you know, they've got their thousands of gods and you know the two
main gods that I can think of is Ganesha, I don't know if you guys know what Ganesha is, if you've
ever seen like an elephant god for the Hindus, hey, they set these things up and they worship
these things, they see them as gods, you know, like an animal, they take an animal and they try
to make it look like a human being and they worship it like gods, the other one that I'm
familiar with Hinduism and again they've got thousands is Durga, I don't know if you've ever
seen the woman with the many arms, you know, one of those women with many arms, that's,
her name's Durga, you know, that's another idol that Hinduism has and you say well what about
Islam, you know, I'm pretty sure Islam doesn't have idolatry you might say, well are you sure
about that because, you know, in Mecca what do they have? They have that cube, what's it called?
Does anyone know? Sorry? Kaaba. Kaaba, that's what it's called, it's called a Kaaba and what do they
do? You know, they go on these pilgrimages, there are Muslims by the tens of thousands, you know,
bowing down their heads toward Mecca, toward that cube, box, whatever it is, hey that's an idol,
you know, it's an object, what are they doing? They're bowing themselves to it, right, what did
God say? Not to bow yourself to anything except the one true God, that's idolatry as well, what
about Judaism? Are they bowing to some object? What's going on in Israel? You know, the western
wall, the wailing wall, you know, Judaism's praying to this thing, bowing their head to this wall,
to a wall brethren, to a wall they're bowing their heads to, not even to something that looks like
some creation, to brick walls they're bowing, they've got idolatry as well and of course when
you think of the, you know, the word of Christendom, you know, Roman Catholicism, number one, right,
when it comes to that, you know, when it comes to Australians, the majority of Australians,
like about a third of Australians have no faith but then when it comes to the Christendom umbrella,
you know, a third of them are Roman Catholics and what are they filled with? They're, you know,
their churches are filled with idols, people's homes are filled with idols, you know, they've
got those, those prayer, I can forget what they're called now, sorry, rosary beads, they've got their
rosary, you know, these things are idols, these are the things they're trusting in to make their
lives well, to give them, you know, safety and security from evil spirits, every false religion
brethren, every major false religion in this world has idols except for the true God of the Bible,
he says no idols, you know, we are not to create statues that represent God or represent some
other thing and bow ourselves unto those things, that is idolatry. Now please go to the numbers 21
for me please, numbers 21, numbers 21. Idols are just objects that are worshipped outside of the
one true God, okay, that's what our idols ultimately are but please go to numbers 21
and I want to show you a mistake that was made by the Israelites, something that was meant to be
good, okay, and look when it comes to Christianity there's a lot of good things that we do, okay,
there's a lot of good preachers that you may listen to but you know what a lot of people make
mistakes of? They elevate the preacher, they make the preacher into an idol, they turn their pastor
into an idol, they think their pastor can do no wrong, they think this man of God can do no wrong,
when you're a carnal Christian, when you're new to the faith, it's very common for someone to
make a mistake of elevating a man almost like an idol, almost to think that this is a representation
of God on the earth rather than having their hearts and their minds set on the God of the
universe but look at this here in numbers 21, numbers 21 verse 4 and we have the story of the
bronze serpent, this is why we sang look and live, if you know the story here, numbers 21 verse 4,
the Bible reads and they journeyed from Mount Hore by the way of the Red Sea to come past the
land of Edom and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way and the people
spake against God and against Moses, wherefore have you brought us out out of Egypt to die in
the wilderness for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light
bread, so the people of God they've been taken out of Egypt and they're complaining, they're whining,
right, they're complaining against Moses, they're complaining against God, verse number 6,
and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people
of Israel died, this is the God of the Bible, okay, if you're whining, you're complaining
about his provisions, God may very well just step in and chastise you, to the point even unto death
when it comes to these Israelites, right, what does he say, he sends these serpents,
these fiery serpents to bite the people, now listen we live in Australia, I don't know,
we've got like, you know, don't quote me on this but we have like seven of the top 10
deadliest snakes in the world, right, and when I first moved to Queensland I was surprised,
I hardly saw snakes around Sydney but when I moved to Queensland we saw plenty of snakes,
sometimes you're just driving your car and you just see a dead snake that's been hit by a car,
and I remember when we first moved to our house, you know, we saw like a red-bedded
black snake in the backyard, right, and like Christina was freaking out, like she's not used
to seeing that, right, neither am I, but look when it comes to normal snakes, you know, they're more
afraid of you than you are of them, honestly, like if they hear noise, they hear footsteps of a human
being, they're gone, all right, they're unlikely to strike at you unless you're like about to step
on them or something like that, right, unless, you know, you've accidentally gone into the
territory or they're protecting something, they're protecting their space, that's when they'll lash
out, but generally speaking these creatures will run away, will slither away as soon as they even
hear, you know, they'll be gone before you even see them because they've already picked up that
as a human being, but when it comes to these snakes, God's done something to these snakes
where they go where the humans are and they just start striking, okay, they've been empowered by
God to some extent and it just shows you the hand of God, you know, how God can get angry,
how he can bring judgment on God's people when he's hanging up, you know, these complaining people,
anyway that's not so much a point, let's keep going, verse number, it said there at the end of
this number six, and much people of Israel died, much people of Israel died, verse number seven,
therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord
and against thee pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us and Moses prayed for
the people and the Lord said unto Moses make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall
come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live and Moses made a
serpent of brass and put it on a pole and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man when
he behold the serpent of brass he lived, so it's a miracle, these snakes come, they bite these
Israelites, they're dying, right, they've got the venom that it's killing their bodies but then
Moses creates this bronze serpent so look if you just look at this serpent you're going to be
healed, okay, and of course if you know the story this bronze serpent was a type, was a picture of
Jesus Christ being brought up onto that pole that was a picture of Jesus Christ that would ultimately
be lifted up on the cross you know that he'd be lifted up and all we need to do brethren
to be saved from the venom of sin all we need to do is to look upon Christ in faith and we too will
be healed from that and the reason why there was a snake on that pole you know when you think about
it it was the snakes that came to bite those Israelites and then he asked for a snake to be
lifted up okay why is that it's because we have that venom we have the venom of sin right we have
sin in us and here's the thing when Christ went and died on the cross he died for all our sins
he took all of our sins upon his body took the sins of the whole world everyone that's ever lived
upon him the bible says he became sin for us okay and so just like those serpents strikes the
serpent was lifted up well just like us with the sin that we're strong with well Christ became sin
for us on the cross he paid for all of our sins so that serpent it's a good thing it's a good thing
it's a reminder it was a picture of the coming messiah it was a picture of jesus christ and then
it says here in john 3 and i'll well before i read john 3 can you please go to second kings
you start turning to second kings and i'm going to go to john chapter 3 you go to second kings
you go to second kings john chapter 3 these are the words of jesus he says and as moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life so what does jesus compare himself to he said as
moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up okay
so what do we learn there jesus christ confirming the type the type of the bronze serpent was a
picture of what christ would do to us okay second kings 18 second kings chapter 18 please
it'll come together now as we read this story here and why this ties into idolatry
but brethren is there anything wrong with the bronze serpent no it points at people to christ
okay it's like the sabbath days in the old testament it points at people to the rest
that we can have in christ that he would you know do all the work necessary for us to be saved that
we don't have to add any work we can just rest there are so many things in the old testament
so many things that were practiced and done that would just point people straight to jesus christ
there's nothing wrong with the bronze serpent okay it's it's actually a good thing to point people
to christ but what happens you know it's many hundreds of years later here in second kings 18
verse 1 second kings 18 verse 1 now it came to pass in the third year of hoshia son of elah king
of israel that has a choir the son of a has king of judah began to reign very quickly the person
that we're going to be focused on here because we had a few names is hezekiah he's going to become
the king he's becoming the king of judah and he begins to reign right it says he is the son of
verse number two twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned twenty
and nine years in jerusalem his mother's name also was abi the daughter of zechariah now just
just something for your information when you're reading through the kings and you and you see this
line and they reign for this long that long when they mention the mother's name take notes okay
because his father in verse number one was ahas and ahas was a wicked king
okay an ungodly wicked king he did not do that which was right in god's eyes okay
but here we have the mother mentioned okay and god does this because what you find with hezekiah
that he was a good king he didn't get from his dad you know where he got it from he got it from
his mother okay his mother was influential in his development and this is why his mother's name here
is mentioned you want it's um the mother's name is not often mentioned only when you have this
godly king to show you hey the mother was the one that taught him these things but look at
verse number three it says here about hezekiah and he did that which was right in the sight of
the lord according to all that david his father did so hold on didn't the bible say that he was
his father was ahas yeah because but ahas was wicked right and so when god thinks about the
father of hezekiah god says no his father was king david why because king david was a righteous man
king david's heart you know was to seek the things of god right he uh he was a man after god's own
heart the bible says and so spiritually you know hezekiah was more like david you know david was
more as a father spiritually to hezekiah than what his his biological father ahas was and in
verse number four it says he removed this is what hezekiah does he removed the high places
he break the images and cut down the growth what's he doing he's getting rid of idolatry
he's getting rid of the idols of the false of the worshipper toward the false gods it says here and
break in pieces the brazen serpent that moses had made hey hezekiah what are you doing hey that was
a good statue was it not that was a good pole thing and that was poisonous to christ but what
does he do he destroys it why does he destroy it let's keep going um for unto those days the
children of israel did burn incense to it and he caught it he trusted in the lord god of israel
so that after him was none like him among all the kings of judah nor any that were before him so
what's the story there brethren we have something good something that god said to do to make that
brazen serpent something good that pointed us to christ but what did the israelites do to it they
made it into an idol you know instead of having their eyes set on god on the coming messiah son
of god they started to worship the idol they started to worship that bronze serpent which
god said to do but now that they're worshiping it now that they're burning incense to it's become
an idol unto them and so this righteous king just goes and destroys it okay what i'm trying to say
to you brethren here is that something that is good can become an idol you know there are men
like i said there are many good preachers many good men that you can look up to but don't make
him an idol okay he's not perfect he's not god he's going to make mistakes i'm going to make
mistakes as your pastor i'm going to let you down sometimes because i'm a human being don't make me
an idol you know serve god that's the god that we all worship we're all striving to worship god
together where one body doing the works of god set god you know have your heart set on god have
your heart to worship god have your eyes set to only please god and not to please man okay and
there are many things that god has done for us that are good but don't turn them into idols you
know god has given us so many possessions you know we're talking about covetousness you know on uh on
sunday so many things that god has blessed us with but you can turn all these things into idols you
can you can start having your heart set on possessions your heart set on other things other
than god hey these things can start becoming idols even though they started off as a good
thing to have but you've been foolish to make it into an idol okay now when it comes to other idols
i just thought this was interesting and i talked i mentioned about the buddha satchels right
but more often than not when you go to someone's house one thing that you'll comment i don't know
how common it is these days but i remember seeing them a lot when i was a child they were the garden
gnomes remember them the little garden gnomes the little little old looking men they kind of look
like they look like babies but they were old men right with hats and a lot of people have these
garden gnomes in the garden say well what's wrong with that well the thing about the gnomes i just
i'll just read a portion here to you that i did some research here it says that small gnome
statues began appearing in europe in the early 1600s but the garden or lawn gnomes as we know
them today appeared in germany in the mid to late 1800s say well what's that it's just decoration
right well it's that then says here the gnome was used because local myths suggested that underground
gnomes came alive at night to work in the garden and protect the gardens from evil sorcery so what
are the gnomes then you know people started to put gnomes in their gardens to protect them from
this evil sorcery to protect them from evil spirits or something right so what are they
trusting in them are they trusting in the god of the bible no they started to put their trust
in these gnomes in these little objects on these little things of clay these little baby looking
men they made them into idols brethren okay this is idolatry as well it's like their lucky charm
this will protect us this will protect our house that's what the gnomes represents
and you know i truly believe if you've got gnomes in your house get rid of them okay because they
were created for that purpose they were created to be trusted in that they would combat evil
sorcery okay and then as i mentioned to you you know the buddha statues that's the big thing now
you know the new age movement you know the gnomes have almost like been replaced by the buddha
statues and like i said i can't believe how many there are on the sunshine coast you don't have to
be buddha it's become like the decoration it's not the gnomes anymore it's the buddha statues
it's all over the place and once again those buddha statues were there to help you know so
called protect people give them wealth give them finances protect them from evil things and again
that's idolatry you're putting your faith you're putting your trust on those objects rather than
having all your faith and trust on the god of the bible now please go to first corinthians 10 for me
first corinthians 10 where we had the reading from first corinthians 10
and while you're turning there i'm going to read to you from psalm 135 you go to first corinthians
10 because as christians as say born-again christians i mean do idols give you fear
do you think an idol can hurt you do you think if you walk past an idol it can put some bad
spill on you or something like that do you think it can curse you or something like that
no it can't you know i'll just read a passage here in psalm 135 verse 15 psalm 135 verse 15
it says the idols of the heathen are silver and gold the work of men's hands they have mouths
but they speak not eyes have they but they see not they have ears but they hear not neither is
there any breath in their mouths listen when it comes to an idol it's an object of nothing it can
do nothing to hurt you can do nothing to harm you okay that's just the first thing i want you
to understand right and and look even if he had some type of power of some evil spirits you have
the holy spirit living inside of you you're a child of god you've been born again the bible
says great is he that is in you than he that is in the world the bible says okay so even if it could
the bible says look he can't anyway there's nothing that an idol can do okay and here's
what's crazy about it it can't do anything but the people still worship it i mean it just shows you
and this still happens in 2020 you know it just shows the heart of man shows you the wickedness
of man but also the desire to worship something and you know it's our job to say oh you're
worshiping the wrong thing let me tell you about jesus you know you know even though it's so wicked
our hearts should yearn for these people that are desiring something they know there's more to life
than just the material they know there's something more but we need to tell them who it is we need
to tell them about jesus christ but go to first corinthians 10 i think it might be already there
because even though the idol can do nothing to harm you you know and there's still
something more to an idol than you may realize okay look at first corinthians 10 19
the bible says what say i then that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice
to idols is anything but i say unto you that the things which the gentiles sacrifice they
sacrifice to devils and not to god and i would not that you should have fellowship with devils
so let's think about this for a minute what did it say in verse number 19 is the idol anything
the idol is nothing okay but here's the thing when people worship when they sacrifice to these
things what does it say it says they sacrifice to devils listen when people have an idol yes the
idol is nothing but when they worship when they do then they serve and they trust in that idol
that worship that trust that sacrifice is being received by devils okay so even though the idol
itself is nothing there are devils behind that you know that have influenced people to bring
that into the house that have influenced people to worship those images and that worship is going
to false gods it's going to idols breaking you know and you know i honestly you know if you've
been saved say from the catholic church if you've been saved from some religion that has idolatry
if you still have it in your house get rid of it get rid of it okay because even though it's
nothing it did receive at some point some worship you know there was some demonic issue there some
type of spirituality that took place where that was received by devils now the reason i say this
is because and you guys know i got christina saved you know she's the first soul that i
ever got saved but christina was a roman catholic okay and and her family was very much into
idolatry and very much into roman catholicism all right i think her mother would go to the church
every day every single day all right to have the communion and all that stuff right and her house
and this was the influence of the next door neighbor because they were catholics as well
you know their house is full of full of idols just just full of mary's and full of i think
there's like a picture of jesus and the saints and all these images you know christina's bedroom
was full of these things like the rosary beads um escapulas i don't know i don't know if you
guys want a scapular is it's kind of like this fred where it's got these two images of saints
and you kind of put it on around your shoulder around your neck i don't know what and like you
have one image of a saint on one on your back and one image of the saint on the other side
i mean they were deeply into idolatry deeply into roman catholicism and not only that because
christina has a portuguese background you know in portugal they're very catholic and one of the
reasons is because you know portugal had you know apparently had a a special apparition of mary you
know but they don't call it mary they call it the lady of fatima you know a lot of nations have had
like a special revelation of mary and they have their own kind of mary i don't know if you guys
are really familiar that uh it's very a very famous story the lady of fatima that appeared
to some children there's also something about a dancing sun that apparently thousands of people
saw or some miracle that mary did right and so when it comes to like the portuguese especially
they're very catholic you know all the way all the way into idolatry and as i said christina's
bedroom was full this up she was very superstitious you know was trusting in these idols and then you
know she got saved praise god you know she she went from a false jesus she came and trusted
on the true jesus of the bible and you know and within you know i don't know how long it took
maybe a few days maybe a couple weeks eventually she had the conviction to get rid of that stuff
in her bedroom she couldn't get rid of the stuff in her house belonged to her family right but she
got rid of the things she got you know she threw them out and um and what happened next as best as
i remember the story because it's quite a long time now as best i remember i was either on the
phone with her or we were chatting on the computer i can't remember exactly what it was but i'll
never forget this situation because i've never experienced this but i i trust her 100 that this
story is true and i remember because i was there experiencing it find what's going on right she
got rid of the statues she got rid of all that stuff and then like let's just say we're talking
on the phone i can't remember exactly talking to her and then she goes quiet she stops communicating
to me for a long time i'm like you said are you there i don't know if again it could have been
typing i don't remember but you know i was like what's going on right and it took a few minutes
but she eventually got back you know back to me and said you won't believe what happened she goes
you won't believe what happened she goes the reason i stopped communicating with you is because
i heard a rumbling like a deep thunder rumbling i was like what is that and she was playing some
music on her like she was trying to become more christian she got rid of her you know hip-hop and
her r&b music and started to listen to you know heel song you know she's trying right she just
got saved she's a baby cry she's trying right so she thought it's a stereo and so she turns it off
and then the rumbling continues right she's just rumbling this this this massive sound and then
she looks at her bedroom door and it was her bedroom door and she says it was shaken and it
was like violently shaken and it wasn't just shaken it was defined the laws of physics
she says it was it was like waving it was just it's it's a wooden door it's a solid wooden door
right and it was like waves it was rumbling it was shaken and have you ever been so scared
that you just freeze and you don't know what to do well that's what happened to her that's why
i couldn't communicate with her she just froze she was looking at this door just violently shaking
rumbling and all that came out of her mouth eventually is jesus help me and as soon as she
said jesus help me it stopped it was gone and then she came out on the phone and i just said
i mean i never really heard a story like that because obviously and i got one of born in
christian home um but i have no doubt that all that worship the family these idols her own
worship her own service to these idols had gone to devils i have no doubt there were devil there
was a presence of some devils in that house and they were not happy that she had got rid of them
they weren't happy that she had turned to christ they weren't happy that she became a believer and
maybe they tried to scare her into bringing them back i don't know what it was okay but she caught
on christ she she named his name and it was finished and then she opened the door she went
outside her family was in the living room she asked the family were you guys shaking my door
and they're like what are you talking about that's what happened that's the story say why why that
happened because these idols receive devils the worship is received by devils please do not have
these objects in your house are you guys in first samuel did i tell you to turn there can you go to
first samuel please first samuel 15 first samuel 15 first samuel 15 as i said i probably i'm kind
of not expecting any of you guys have idols okay so i do want to take uh something out of this that
you can sort of apply to your lives as well because there is something that the bible
compares to idolatry that we're all probably guilty of okay and this is then an area that
we need to fix you may not have those physical objects you might not have those molten images
or those graven images but you might be like soul here okay let's have a look at this first samuel
15 verse 1 uh samuel also said unto soul the lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people
over israel now therefore harken thou unto the voice of the words of the lord thus saith the
lord of hosts i remember that which amalek did to israel how he laid weight for him in the way
when he came up from egypt now go and smite amalek and utterly destroy all that they have
and spare them not but slay both man and woman infant and suckling ox and sheep camel and ass
so samuel gives this direction from god to soul he says look it's time for the amalek class to
be destroyed go and wipe them out what did it say who are they to slay men women infant suckling but
little babies not just not as the people the ox the sheep the camel and the ass get rid of all
destroy them all is the direction from god okay let's go to verse number eight what happens
and he took verse number eight and he took agag the king of the amalekites alive did soul pay
attention did he do what god asked him to do my god said wipe them all out slay them all he takes
the king alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword but soul and
the people sped agag and the best of the sheep look at this and the best of the sheep and the
oxen and the fatlands and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them but
everything that was vile and refused that they utterly they destroyed absolutely so god says
destroy all the animals and as they've done it they defeated that they defeated the amalekites
well these are good sheep these are good oxen let's take them for ourselves you see the
disobedience toward god that we're seeing here with king soul let's keep going verse number 10
then came the word of the lord unto samuel saying it repent of me that i have set up soul to be king
for he is turned back from following me and have not performed my commandments
and he grieved samuel and he cried unto the lord all night and when samuel rose early to
meet soul in the morning he was told samuel saying soul came to karmel and behold he set
him a place and he's gone about and passed on and gone down to gilgal and samuel came to soul and
soul said to him blessed be thou of the lord i have performed the commandment of the lord
and samuel said what mean of them this bleaching of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the
oxen which i hear so sol says i've done everything that god asked me to do and samuel says well i can
hear these animals what's going on didn't we tell you to destroy them verse number 15 and soul said
they have brought them from the amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep
and for the oxen to sacrifice unto the lord thy god and the rest we have utterly destroyed so
what's soul saying hey we kept it so we can serve god so we can sacrifice these things unto god
you know does god want sacrifice or does he want your obedience he didn't obey the commandment
of god verse 16 then samuel said unto soul stay and i will tell thee what the lord have said to
me this night and he said unto him say on and samuel said when thou was little in thine own
sight was thou not made the head of the tribes of israel and the lord anointed thee king over israel
and the lord sent thee on a journey and said go and utterly destroy the sinners the amalekites
and fight against them until they be consumed wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of
the lord but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the lord and soul said unto
samuel yay i have obeyed the voice of the lord what and have gone the way which the lord sent me
and have brought agate the king of amalek and have absolutely destroyed the amalekites
but the people of the spoiled sheep and oxen the chief of the things which have been uh
have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the lord thy god and gilgal now this is the point of
the story here verse number 22 and samuel said have the lord as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice
and to hearken than of the fat of rams listen if you do not do the things the way god asked you to
do but you say yeah but i'm going to serve god i'm going to sacrifice those animals we were talking
about this last night brother a pastor i just want to serve the lord yeah but you haven't got
the children the bible says the qualifications for a pastor it's our faithful children but god
didn't give it to me i want to serve god what does he want your sacrifice or does he want your
obedience right listen yeah this happens in souls time this happens today this happens in
passes in independent baptist churches okay they do not obey the word of god look at verse number
23 this is the point of the whole thing let's bring it back to idolatry it says for rebellion
is this is as the sin of witchcraft look at this and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry
listen when you are stubborn when you rebel against what god asked you to do you know what
that's the same as the sin of idolatry what does it say there it is that stubbornness is as
iniquity and idolatry listen braven you may not have the statues okay but when you disobey when
you're stubborn when you rebel against god you've committed a sin just like idolatry okay why let's
keep going because thou has rejected the word of the lord and have also rejected thee from being
king okay he have also rejected thee from being king so what is that when you're stubborn when
you rebel when you don't do things in obedience oh but i'm sacrificing i'm serving god but no
you're contrary hey it's like sin of idolatry that's it's the same level of sin and brevin you
know like i said you probably don't have the statues but all of us when we sin guess what
when we do what happens when we sin we're rebelling against god commandments when every
time we sin you know we're rebelling we're being stubborn against what god has asked us to do this
is why we need to learn to get the sin out of lives right you know getting sin out of your life
is not salvation but once you're saved and you're in the process of sanctification we should be
driven to get rid of those sins we should be driven to do away the stubbornness and the
rebellion against the lord god because it is as the sin of idolatry the bible says because it has
rejected the word of the lord let me bring this a little bit closer to our church how would i kick
someone out of the church yes if they try to get us to worship bibles i i doubt that we would be
tempted to worship bibles right after knowing the god of the bible and knowing what he believes
about this but here's the thing if someone causes us to reject the word of god it is as a sin of
idolatry what is the word of god the bible which bible do we use in this church the king james
bible okay we believe that the king james bible is perfect it's pure it's preserved it's a perfect
translation of the original greek and the original hebrew okay and these other modern bibles hey
they're perversions they aren't bible we shouldn't even call them bibles they aren't the word of god
okay and here's what happens when someone comes with a false bible okay now listen if someone's
a visitor first time and they bring their niv you know don't don't be hard on them okay they're
ignorant they don't know any better all right in due time i will take that off them and i'll give
them a king james bible for free don't worry about that okay but if someone comes to this church
keeps coming and just says no i don't believe that king james bible is right i'm going to keep
reading my niv i'm going to keep reading my new king james bible well they've rejected what did
it say there in verse 17 15 23 because that has rejected the word of the lord hey if someone's
coming to this church and they're rejecting to use the king james bible for us as english speakers
if they're rejecting that i'm also going to kick them out of church because it is as a sin of
idolatry okay now i'll give them a king james bible for free i'll take them i'll burn it for
them if they want okay well someone else can burn it for them if they want but listen someone comes
with another version and he's demanding and saying i'm going to use this in in church no
you need to leave the church okay you are rejecting the true word of god which we've
been given thankfully as english speakers people english-speaking people in the king james bible
now let me just show you a little bit about this because i want to think about these other versions
when it comes to idolatry rejecting god's word the stubbornness the rejection of god's words
right the rebellion against god's word there are so many new translations coming out all the time
okay and this is the last thing that i want to talk about here but there was a version that came
out just a couple of years ago just i think two years ago it's called the pure word translation
that sounds good the pure word translation okay and let me just read to you a portion about this
bible this is just a very new bible and again every year there's new bible's coming out all
the time but it says here uh when they talk about this bible it says we've more than 20 years of
research led by dr harry miller and brent miller senior to develop more accurate process our
processes for english translation so they think well we're going to have a more pure we're going
to have a better translation than what you have the pure word now offers the world's first and
only hermeneutics-based monadic greek to english translation that can save scholars now look this
is the advantage of this new bible apparently to save scholars pastors and bible students from the
countless hours needed to retranslate the original greek meanings for all 27 books of the new
testament now for those that have preached i'm a pastor i was named as this this apparently
this pure word bible is made for me so i don't have to spend all these hours retranslating the
bible from greek i've never translated the bible from greek i've always had the perfect bible in
english they're not saving me time they just want my bucks they want my money right let me keep
going it says here um as a result the pure word is not intended to replace your preferred version
of the bible but rather to be used alongside it by anyone wanting to dive deeper into the
new testament scriptures okay so this is they're not trying to take away your old bible they're
not trying to take away your king james bible they just want you to use it alongside oh man i'm glad
someone's trying to help me apparently okay well let's have a look at this you know let's uh let's
look at the pure word translation let's look at john 3 16. you guys know john 3 16 in the king
james for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever what believer
right in him shall not perish but have everlasting life what a great verse how many thousands how
many hundreds of thousands of people have come to faith in christ just because of that verse knowing
what christ has done that he's been given by the father that is just believing on him it's just
faith there's nothing else jesus wow what a great message all contained in john 3 16 right
ah but don't worry the pure words has come out to really help you understand it now
okay the pure words bible is going to really help you now understand the fullness of john
3 16 so this is what it says here in the pure word translation i'm going to read it to you
word for word because god has loved in such a manner the satan's world i'm not misreading that
that's how it's written because god has loved in such a manner the satan's world
so that he gave his son the only begotten risen christ
and then this is the bit where it says believe right now now you can understand what believing
means in order that whosoever is continuously by his choice committing for the results and purpose
of him should not perish but definitely should by his choice that could be continuously having
eternal life oh man now i get john 3 16 now it's so clear because of the pure word the putrid word
translation okay how did it start there because god has loved in such a manner the satan's world
does god love satan's world brethren is that why he came to love satan's world no that's blasphemy
god doesn't love satan's world god loves human beings god loves your soul that's why he came
to die on the plate they come for satan's world or satan's kingdom how stupid right what else did
it say that he gave his son the only begotten risen christ in order that whosoever is continuously
by his choice committing for the result and purpose of him i'm just going to keep serving
just i don't even know what this means brethren understand just have the result and purpose for
him please that's how you get saved according to the putrid version right should not perish
it doesn't even say believe but definitely definitely should by his choice look as long
as you keep the choice you should continuously be continuously having eternal life continuously
if by your choice you no longer do it you've given up eternal it's loss of salvation is what
this putrid version teaches brethren this is rejecting the word of god this is idolatry
as idolatry i should say okay as you said rejection the stubbornness of man to think they
can come with a better version this is the nonsense that's coming out these days brethren
to apparently help pastors and preachers and people that are studying god's word actually
thankful for the pure word translation of course not it's it's it's rubbish okay it's rubbish
and the bible says in revelation 22 18 for i testify unto every man that hears the words of
the prophecy of this book if any man shall add unto these things and what do they do they added
a lot of things all right god shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book and if
any man shall take away from the words of this book of this proper what they take away the
believing they took that away god shall take away his part out of the book of life and out
of the holy city and from the things that are written which are written in this book
listen this dr henry miller this brent miller you know what's happened to them right now
their name that their names their their part in the book of life has been taken away they're
reprobate now okay and they're going to die they're going to go to hell god's judgment's
going to be upon them and the plagues that are written in the book of revelation are going to be
added to their torments when they're burning in the flames of hell okay you see the wickedness
you know idolatry is wicked but so is rejecting god's word so it's tampering with god's word
this is why the king james bible is so important anyway brevin let me just conclude with first
john 5 20 you don't need to turn that just read it to you quickly first john 5 20 it says and we
know that the son of god is come and have given us an understanding that we may know him that is
true and we are in him that is true even in his son jesus christ this is the true god and eternal
life and then it says in verse 21 little children keep yourselves from idols amen and brevin that's
my message to you tonight little children keep yourselves from idols amen let's pray