Fighting Idolatry
In this series of teaching on stewardship, John Cole revised and taught from a published course made available without copyright by local church pastors shared for churches like ours. Read the handout notes here...
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THE ENEMY OF STEWARDSHIP
Every gift of God is a candidate for idolatry.
IDOLS ARE WORSE THAN WE THINK.
Stewardship proclaims the truth about God; idolatry lies about Him.
Does your stewardship reveal your faith in God’s promises? And, as a result, does it show off the reputation of God?
Stewardship can be a safe-haven for legalism, where we use our money, our time, our bodies, our skills just enough for God to feel like we’re being righteous when in fact we are deceiving ourselves.
God cares about your stewardship in as much as it shows your faith and love for Him.
Idolatry is evil because it proclaims that something is better than God. That makes poor stewardship not sub-optimal but heinous. Evil.
HOW CAN I FIND IDOLATRY IN MY HEART?
1. Can I imagine being content if things turn out differently than what I hope?
2. Is my fear out of proportion to the situation at hand?
3. Am I faithful as a steward today?
4. Do I feel I’m better than others because of my stewardship?
5. Do I feel God has cheated me out of what was mine?
6. What are my most unyielding emotions? Which emotions—like hatred, anger, guilt, and so forth—would I most like to escape from but can’t?
7. Where do I feel like I am not being a very good steward?
FIGHTING IDOLATRY
I. Repentance
RECOGNIZE
1. Desire —>Demand ( often as a need )—>Disappointment (v1b-2b)
… your lusts [pleasures, passions] that war in your members? Ye lust [desire], and have not… desire [jealously, enviously covet] to have, and cannot obtain… yet ye have not…
2. Restlessness —>Disobedience—>Division (v1-2b)
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war…
3. Unfaithful & Unscriptural in Prayer (v2c-3)
… ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4. Adultery against God (v4)
James 4:4-5 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
BELIEVE
1. God Gives Grace
James 4:6a But he giveth more grace. . . .
2. To the Humble
James 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
ACT
1. Repent with Submission to God (v7-8a)
James 4:7–8a Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. . . .
2. Confess Your Sin in True Repentance & Humility (v8b-9)
James 4:8b–9 . . . . Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Luke 7:47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
RESULT
1. You Are Near God (v8a)
2. God Exalts You (v10)
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
II. Faith and Enjoyment
1 Timothy 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
1 Timothy 6:17 …God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
You can enjoy things in an idolatrous way—where you focus only on the gift and not the giver. But one of the chief delights of the Christian life is learning to enjoy the gifts of God as worship .
As you train your heart to see proper enjoyment as worship , you will progressively shake your heart free from idolatry and learn to enjoy God—the reason you were created in the first place.
CONCLUSION
May we train our hearts to delight in the goodness of the Master so that our lives might become beautiful portraits of His excellence, sufficiency, goodness, and glory.
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INTRODUCTION
A few weeks ago, we looked at the enemy of stewardship—idolatry.
In the way it was originally written and shared by faithful, generous pastors, that lesson and this one, was one lesson. That is the case with much of this series on stewardship. In my revisions and edits, I managed to turn a 13-week series into a 23-week one!
At the core of the previous lesson, we considered how the sin that remains in our hearts entices us to serve gods other than the true God, and that is the root of our difficulties with stewardship.
Here’s a concise summary since it was several weeks ago and since today’s teaching highly builds upon that one.
THE ENEMY OF STEWARDSHIP
Remember we started with Abraham and his son as an example of God purifying him from the temptation of turning his son into an idol? That is because God’s gifts can be turned into idols.
…these men have set up their idols in their heart…
Every gift of God is a candidate for idolatry.
IDOLS ARE WORSE THAN WE THINK.
Stewardship proclaims the truth about God; idolatry lies about Him.
Does your stewardship reveal your faith in God’s promises? And, as a result, does it show off the reputation of God?
Stewardship can be a safe-haven for legalism, where we use our money, our time, our bodies, our skills just enough for God to feel like we’re being righteous when in fact we are deceiving ourselves.
God cares about your stewardship in as much as it shows your faith and love for Him.
Idolatry is evil because it proclaims that something is better than God. That makes poor stewardship not sub-optimal but heinous. Evil.
HOW CAN I FIND IDOLATRY IN MY HEART?
1. Can I imagine being content if things turn out differently than what I hope?
2. Is my fear out of proportion to the situation at hand?
3. Am I faithful as a steward today?
4. Do I feel I’m better than others because of my stewardship?
5. Do I feel God has cheated me out of what was mine?
6. What are my most unyielding emotions? Which emotions—like hatred, anger, guilt, and so forth—would I most like to escape from but can’t?
7. Where do I feel like I am not being a very good steward?
Now to…
FIGHTING IDOLATRY
So, what do we do about this enemy of stewardship: idolatry?
How can we fight it to be better stewards?
In this final lesson from within the series on stewardship, we’ll consider both a reactive and a proactive approach to fighting idolatry.
First is how we react to idolatry.
We discover: repentance.
I. Repentance
On this subject, we will go through James 4:1-10. In November 2022, I preached three sermons, going through this text. You can find the first one in our app and website, and I highly commend that sermon to you. The other two did not record properly… back when we had our temporary recording set up.
In two portions tonight, I will repeat several paragraphs from one of those sermons that did not record properly. I will indicate when.
James 4:1–10
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Let’s consider here four observations related to our repentance from idolatry: recognize, believe, act, and result. We’ll begin with recognize.
RECOGNIZE
Now, be careful about turning this into a formula and rigid sequential process.
But, notice with me how these problems are so connected. It all begins with desires…
1. Desire —>Demand ( often as a need )—>Disappointment (v1b-2b)
According to verse 2, idolatry begins with a desire—and this desire can often be for a good thing.
Paul Tripp talks about how a desire becomes a demand, which is expressed as a need[1]. When that need’s not met, it sets me up for disappointment.
… your lusts [pleasures, passions] that war in your members? Ye lust [desire], and have not… desire [jealously, enviously covet] to have, and cannot obtain… yet ye have not…
Do you see how desire changes as we move through the passage?
Desire—>demand—>disappointment… have not.
Your desires have grown into uncontrolled passions, jealousy, envy, and covetous!
And it doesn’t end there. It grows from mostly internal to external in its manifestation and effect.
2. Restlessness —>Disobedience—>Division (v1-2b)
So far all this has been in my head. But now it breaks out into action. In the case of James 4, I act out by quarreling and fighting, even murdering. Let’s look at those same verses with more of it’s context…
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war…
I can’t have what I want, so I’m going to do whatever it takes to get it—regardless of what God has told me in scripture and the wise advice I have received from His people.
Or, maybe I have intentionally avoided advice about this area because I don’t want to know what God and His people think about it. I take a side job working Sunday mornings to earn some more money. I compromise my integrity with matters like my schedule, biblical instruction, my money, and my morals.
I push and push to make it happen. Just get the job done whatever it takes! There is a lot of evil in that mindset—even when the goal is something good. The ends do not justify the means!
And James writes that much of this foolish grasping is a fruit of not praying as instructed in scripture.
3. Unfaithful & Unscriptural in Prayer (v2c-3)
John Bunyan is known for saying…
Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan. Prayer will cease a man from sin; or sin will cease a man from prayer.
Charles Spurgeon said in a sermon…
When you feel disinclined to pray, let it be a sign to you that prayer is doubly necessary! Pray for prayer!
The Sealed Hand-A Winter Sermon, Volume 58, Sermon #3289 - Job 37:7
James writes by the Spirit…
… ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Do they pray or not? James first says they don’t, and then he says they do pray but wrongly.
Both are true, and both are attempts to fulfill your own desires apart from God and His purposes.
They faithlessly try to get what you want without asking God for either His direction or His supply.
They wickedly demand of God His supply without His direction.
Both are overcome by faithfully praying for what God has instructed in scripture and by evaluating your other desires against scripture. Their prayerlessness and uncontrolled desired have become…
4. Adultery against God (v4)
Then James throws us for a loop by taking what had been a horizontal problem and reframing it as a vertical problem. Even if the result of my disobedience has been murder, James still sees the root of my issue as one of idolatry.
He calls me a spiritual adulterer (verse 4) because I want something more than God. And in doing that, I’ve made myself God’s enemy—for all the reasons we discussed earlier.
James 4:4
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
And this is what James calls “friendship with the world.” That term and worldliness gets thrown around a lot in some churches without biblical definition.
Worldliness is not:
•Having friends who are not Christians (unrepentant, professing Christians is another topic in scripture)
•Enjoying good physical aspects and pleasures of our world that are gifts of God (without the mixture of gluttony, uncontrolled desires, and covetousness)
•A choice of instruments used in music (that fits the purpose and context, serving others not self)
•A style preference of clothing (that remains modest, appropriate, and a means of serving others, not self)
•Etc
Wordliness is the sort of prideful desires, thinking, and actions described here by James that does not have God in its thoughts, the gospel and Spirit as its source, and the good of others as much of its goal. That’s friendship with the world. Friendship with the way of the world’s system.
Examples would be:
•Your financial and personal goals are elevated as primary goals that direct your thoughts and life. You live disciplined now so that you can leave a legacy in the future. You plan and execute your personal mission, vision, and values. You make friends and influence people. You predict where you will be in 10 years and what your legacy will be in 50 years or more. And no one, not God, can mess with your plans.
•You seek a position of influence in the home, church, workplace, or community. You do all you can to push, demean, jest, jockey, present, and make deals to get what you desire. You know you will do good with the position—or better than others at least—so you covet, strive, and reach for the “prize of the high calling you have put forth.” If you are a wife, your preferences are more important than showing respect and honor to your husband and helping him lead. Control over both small and big matters is more important that the lofty calling in Christ that includes such things as biblical marriage, submitting to authorities in the workplace and society, or reflecting the beautiful mindset of Christ’s humility.
•Being driven by prideful fear of man, self-centeredness, or fear of circumstance, you begin conducting and dressing yourself in such a way that you draw more attention to your body than to your virtues and character in Christ. Getting attention for the hard work or money you have put into your body and clothing drives you. Or you let the desire for attracting a spouse you don’t have consume you. You post pictures of your progress. You dress so that others must notice your shape. You are blind to how much true worldliness has influenced your comfort with and desire to show—rather than cover—your body. More than point people to Jesus, you desire to point people to yourself. And you don’t mind the fact that such selfish vanity stirs up jealousy or covetousness in others, gives reason for faithful Christians and young people to have to look away, and becomes a source of lust in the hearts of weaker people who may be battling a sin of lust that presently clings to them.
•You covet having the vacations, home, and things that people you know or see have. Grasping for what you think those things will give you, you forsake your God-given responsibilities, quality relationships with family, partnering with your church in the gospel, and seeking first the kingdom of God. You endlessly research and think about those things. Those things become your god because you must have them, and they rule and restrict your life so much so that you worship them over God. You might justify it with your adherence to legalistic deeds, but you have forgotten or neglected that stewardship requires 100% of us. Whatever we keep for ourselves should truly better show off the glory and goodness of God than if we had given away.
•You can’t get enough entertainment—whether it be news, TV series, social media, video shorts, or novels. You can’t wait to end your family time, a church gathering, or fulfilling your responsibilities to go consume what often turns into covetousness, lust, or fear.
So, James writes:
James 4:5
Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
James is alluding to a host of OT passages that refer to the sin in our hearts striving and envying.
That’s the low point of this passage. Enmity with God.
So thank God for verse 6!
BELIEVE
1. God Gives Grace
But he giveth more grace. . . .
When we are powerless to fix our idolatry, God still acts. He’s still our savior.
And our response to God is not yet an action, but a posture. Humility.
2. To the Humble
James 4:6
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
How do we get there? Verse 7:
ACT
1. Repent with Submission to God (v7-8a)
Now, the order of James’ words here is telling. If we were writing this, we’d probably jump right to verse 8 where James tells us to mourn over our sin.
As in, confess your sin to move near to God, and in forgiveness He’ll move toward you.
But in practice that’s just not how it works, and James sees that. When my desires are full of idolatry, it’s really hard to see my sin! Let alone confess it.
So what’s the command James gives me in verse 7? [Submit.]
In humility, I decide that I’m going to submit to him, no matter the cost. I make the decision to repent.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. . . .
For a couple paragraphs, I am going to restate what I wrote and preached when preaching through James here. It explains the text clearly.
(vs. 8) Draw nigh to God, (in humble, repentant submission and with whole-hearted trust)
We do this in prayer, while hearing preaching, and in our daily devotions.
We do this in a silent prayer while in the moment and finding ourselves tempted of sin.
While the devil has reason to flee from God, His repentant children have reason to run to Him. We run to Him again and again and again.
Because we mess up again and again and again.
While God is calling us to maturity and perfection in Christ, He knows we will continually fall short. He does not expect any of us to attain perfection while still in this fallen world.
And he will draw nigh to you. (as a loving Father watching, waiting, and calling for your return)
Not only does God tell us to draw near to Him in full assurance of faith, but also God draws near to us.
God is the author, initiator, and securer of our salvation. We are never coming to God on our own!
But even though God knows we sin and he calls us to draw near, He really means it when He says to come in true repentance. Don’t just come; come leaving what you sought after in place of Him.
[End quote from my sermon.]
Then, as I draw near to God in humility and away from the devil, God promises to draw near to me.
No matter how idolatrous I have become. That’s amazing! He will always draw near to me.
As I draw near to God, the way I’ve made zero debt to be an idol gradually becomes more clear to me. I commit myself to following him in obedience as best I can, and as I continue to walk that path of obedience, I see more ways in which I can obey.
2. Confess Your Sin in True Repentance & Humility (v8b-9)
But James isn’t done, is he? Now is the time for confession.
. . . . Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Confess Your Sin in True Repentance & Humility
Once more, here is another portion from that same sermon I preached on this text:
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; (Rid yourself of morally and ethically sinful conduct—those things that oppose God.)
purify your hearts, ye double-minded. (Give your heart entirely to God without divisions. Have only one Master. Love God, not the world.)
(vs. 9 Notice the many imperatives in this verse. They are calls to repent, and the word-usage reveals the internal struggle it will be to do so. Don’t think your situation is just too hard to repent from; sin is always difficult to turn from.)
Be afflicted (in misery with lament and godly grief and sorrow), and mourn and weep: (wail and cry before judgment, rather than afterwards)
let your laughter (as a fool who casually does not take correction seriously) be turned to mourning, (lament) and your joy (delight in sin) to heaviness. (thoughtful sadness, sorrow, and gloom)
[End quote from my sermon.]
You’ll never get rid of idolatry simply by thinking differently. You need to understand it as sin—and explore your heart so that you can confess the sin that’s there.
That is so contrary to our natural inclinations! We want to move on, to think about things better, to forget and hope we’ll change. That’s not what James has in mind. “Be wretched and mourn and weep!”
Why? The French philosopher Blaise Pascal put it well.
“Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.”
Jesus said in Luke 7:47 that we love God to the extent we understand the depth from which we’ve been forgiven. So if we never explore that depth, we will never know our true forgiveness and we will never really love him.
Luke 7:47
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
RESULT
1. You Are Near God (v8a)
2. God Exalts You (v10)
Then, as we see Luke 7:47 take effect in the humility of confession, we find the exaltation of Christ’s love for us. We are forgiven much, and so we love much.
James 4:10
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Now, freed from my idolatry, I can move forward as God’s faithful steward. Not because I’m driven by fear and desperation. But because I am driven out of love.
Love for God who has entrusted me as steward his money.
This motivation of love for God is key to worshipful stewardship!
•Why do you want to order your home and train your children so well?
•Why do you want to have a godly marriage?
•Why do you want to be productive with your work and wise with your finances?
Is it out of love for God because of the grace He has given you?
James 4 is a phenomenal guide to use when you are caught in idolatry, when you want to repent and escape. That’s the reactive way we fight idolatry.
But lastly, let’s consider the more proactive way to fight idolatry…
II. Faith and Enjoyment
A proactive approach. An all-of-life approach. There are two main ways we bring glory to God in this life.
1.Faith is one, which we’ve talked about a lot in this series.
2.The other we’ve talked about too: enjoyment. Faith and enjoyment.
We can fight idolatry as we follow God in faith even when things don’t quite make sense, risking everything that He’ll be true to his promises. And when things do make sense, we show off his worth by enjoying his gifts with thanksgiving…enjoyment as worship.
Let’s take faith first. What happens when you’re deprived of those things you’ve been called to steward? (Your health takes a toll. Someone steals your money.)
Do you trust that God has bigger plans for you? Or do you rage at him? A key tool that God uses for freeing our hearts from idolatry is to take away the gift we’re tempted to treat as god.
Every time you choose the path of faith amidst deprivation, trusting God’s good purposes despite what you’ve lost, you’re moving your heart one step closer to whole-hearted, delighted service to your master.
Of course, quite often in the Christian life deprivation isn’t initiated by God but by us. You give money to your church. You give time to a struggling brother or sister. You give of your strength, of your skills to serve others.
Every time you’re a “cheerful giver” you’re exercising faith that God’s blessings (when you give up what this world values) are worth more than this world’s blessings.
Faith, in deprivation and in generosity, is a key way we can continually shake ourselves free from the idolatry of our hearts.
But in God’s kindness, faith isn’t the only way we bring glory to him. This Christian life is not one of suffering as much as we can possibly bear. At least not normally.
So let’s consider enjoyment.
1 Timothy 4:4
For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
Notice the key condition… “if it be received with thanksgiving.”
It’s God, later on in chapter 6, verse 17, who “richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
”
…God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
So, things can be enjoyed as a part of our stewardship. Even more, we are instructed to enjoy things out of worship and thanksgiving to God.
We are instructed not to act like God’s good creation is evil, like Gnostics. God created the material world for His glory.
You can enjoy things in an idolatrous way—where you focus only on the gift and not the giver. But one of the chief delights of the Christian life is learning to enjoy the gifts of God as worship .
Enjoy that time of rest, that great meal, that time on your bike, that beautiful work of art with thanksgiving. Not as idolatry but as worship.
Use the goodness of God’s gifts, through thanksgiving, to reveal the goodness of God himself.
You cannot fake allegiances and worship in God’s sight. He knows where your heart lies.
As you train your heart to see proper enjoyment as worship , you will progressively shake your heart free from idolatry and learn to enjoy God—the reason you were created in the first place.
CONCLUSION
Well, there you have it. Poor stewardship is idolatry: loving, trusting, serving something more than God.
We fight idolatry through repentance and confession, James 4.
And we fight it every day as we walk in faith when times are hard and with worshipful enjoyment when times are good.
And with that, we close our series on stewardship.
May we train our hearts to delight in the goodness of the Master so that our lives might become beautiful portraits of His excellence, sufficiency, goodness, and glory.
• [1] War of Words page 59 in the 2000 edition.