Idolatry is the sin behind every sin in our life. We must aim at the root, not simply the fruit. This message was given on February 21, 2016 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, please visit: www.newcitychurch.ca

1. Licensed to Kill
Killing The Sin That Kills Our Joy
“The Idols of the Heart”
Romans 1:18-25

2. Licensed to Kill
Killing The Sin That Kills Our Joy
Romans 1:18-25

4. “Honestly, my thought in the medical room: I was sitting in the
corner and was like, 'What am I anymore if I'm not this?
Literally sitting there thinking about killing myself. In that exact
second, I'm like, 'I'm nothing. What do I do anymore? No one
[cares] about me anymore without this.” ~ Ronda Rousey

5. “The whole Bible is written as a
full-scale assault on idolatry.
Ligon Duncan, President of
Reformed Theological Seminary

6. “The relevance of
massive chunks of
Scripture hangs on
our understanding
of idolatry.”
~ David Powlison, Author & Counsellor
Christian Counseling &
Education Foundation

7. “Idolatry is the most
discussed problem in
the Bible and one of
the most powerful
spiritual and intel-
lectual concepts in the
believer’s arsenal.”

8. Licensed to Kill
Killing The Sin That Kills Our Joy
“The Idols of the Heart”
Romans 1:18-25

9. 18 For the wrath of God is revealed
Romans 1:18-25
from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteous suppress the truth.

10. Wrath? Shouldn’t we
just think of God as
“loving?” After all,
doesn’t the Bible say
that God is love?

11. 18 For the wrath of God is revealed
Romans 1:18-25
from heaven agains all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteous suppress the truth.

12. 19 For what can be known about God is
Romans 1:18-25
plain to them, because God has shown it
to them. 20 For his invisible attributes,
namely, his eternal power and divine
nature have been clearly perceived, ever
since the creation of the world, in the
things that have been made. So they are
without excuse.

13. “I want atheism to be true and
am made uneasy by the fact
that some of the most intelligent
and well-informed people I
know are religious believers. It
isn’t just that I don’t believe in
God and, naturally, hope that
I’m right in my belief. It’s that I
hope there is no God! I don’t
want there to be a God; I don’t
want the universe to be like
that. My guess is that this
cosmic authority problem is not
a rare condition....”
Thomas Nagel, The Last Word
Prof. of Law & Philosophy
New York University

14. 21 For although they knew God, the did
Romans 1:18-25
not honor him as God or give thanks to
him, but they became futile in their think-
ing, and their foolish hearts were darken-
ed.

15. “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no
longer walk as the nations do, in the futility of their
minds. They are darkened in their understanding,
alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance
that is in them, due to the hardness of heart. They have
become callous and have given themselves up to
sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
~ The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:17-20

16. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became
Romans 1:18-25
fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the
immortal God for images resembling
mortal man and birds and animals and
reptiles.

17. Idolatry begins with the counterfeiting of God,
because only with a counterfeit of God can people
remain the center of their lives and loyalties,
autonomous architects of their futures. Something
within creation will then be idolatrously inflated to fill
the God-shaped hole in the individual’s world.
~ Richard Keyes
“The Idol Factory”
“

18. An idol is anything we
substitute for God.

19. “The greatest adversary of love to God is not His
enemies, but His gifts…. They are your basic
meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening
and reading and decorating and traveling and
investing and TV watching and internet
surfing and shopping and exercising
and collecting and talking. And all of
them can become deadly
substitutes for God.”
~ John Piper, Hunger for God

20. “The next person who
phones is a reporter. I tell
him that I’m happy about
the ranking, that it feels
good to be the best that I
can be. It’s a lie. This isn’t
at all what I feel. It’s what I
want to feel. It’s what I
expected to feel, what I tell
myself to feel. But in fact I
feel nothing….

21. “...I spend many hours
roaming the streets of
Palermo, drinking strong
black coffee, wondering
what the hell is wrong with
me. I did it — I’m the
number one tennis player on
earth, and yet I feel empty.
If being number one feels
empty, unsatisfying, what’s
the point?”

22. ~ CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
“God cannot give us a
happiness and peace
apart from Himself,
because it is not there.
There is no such thing.”

23. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the
Romans 1:18-25
lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the
dishonouring of their bodies among them-
selves, 25 because they exchanged the
truth about God for a lie and worshipped
and served the creature rather than the
Creator.

24. “Every one of us is,
even from his
mother’s womb,
a master craftsman
of idols.”
~ John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion

25. “The human heart
is a factory
of idols.”
~ John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion

26. “Idol Factory” by Douglas Williamson

27. Idolatry is the sin
behind every sin.

28. “Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked,
be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my
people have committed two evils: they have
forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
~ Jeremiah 2:12-13

29. “…the most basic
question which God
poses to each human
heart: ‘Has something
or someone besides
Jesus the Christ taken
title to your heart’s
functional trust,
preoccupation, loyalty,
service, fear and
delight?’
~ David Powlison, Author & Counsellor
Christian Counseling &
Education Foundation

30. Diagnostic Questions
* What do you love? hate?
* What do you want, desire
crave, lust for, wish for?
* What do you fear? What
is your worst nightmare?
* Where do you find refuge, safety, comfort,
escape, pleasure, security?
* Whom must you please? Whose opinion counts?
* What do you see as your rights? What do you
feel entitled to?

31. Idolatry
success
approval
image
achievement
materialism
family
relationship
work
ideology/politicsreligion
irreligion
independence
comfort
control

32. “Jesus must become
more beautiful to your
imagination, more
attractive to your heart,
than your idol. That is
what will replace your
counterfeit gods.”
~ Tim Keller, Redeemer NYC

33. “Little children, keep yourself
from IDOLS.
The Apostle John in 1 John 5:21

34. image credit: greebie
https://www.flickr.com/photos/greeblie/3338710223/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
flickr images courtesy of:
images used for educational purposes
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting http://www.mmafighting.com/2015/4/4/8346069/walmart-reportedly-refuses-to-sell-ronda-rousey-book-because-shes-too
http://www.worshipmatters.com/2008/08/21/friday-night-at-worshipgod08-david-powlison-on-the-imprecatory-psalms/
http://massline.org/PhilosDog/N/Nagel.htm
http://douglaswilliamson.com/artwork/3407279_Idol_Factory.html