THE ESSENCE OF IDOLATRY
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Romans 1:21
Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes God is other than He is—in itself a monstrous sin—and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this god will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.
A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God. “Thou thoughtest,” said the Lord to the wicked man in the psalm, “that I was altogether such an one as thyself.” Surely this must be a serious affront to the Most High God before whom cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.”
Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It beings in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place. “When they knew God,” wrote Paul, “they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Then followed the worship of idols fashioned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. But this series of degrading acts began in the mind. Wrong ideas about God are only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. – A. W. Tozer
The Lord's Day Services
Sunday, September 16, 2018
10:00a.m. Sunday school classes for all ages.
11:00a.m. Morning Service – Dr. Larry Saunders
6:00p.m. Pre-service prayer time
6:30p.m. Evening Service – Dr. Larry Saunders
Weekly Announcements
Wednesday, September 19th
7:25p.m. Congregational Meeting for the election of deacons. Light refreshments following the meeting.
Friday, September 21st
9:00a.m. Women’s Morning Bible Study
7:00p.m. Good News Bible Club
Advance Announcements
Sunday, September 23rd
11:00a.m. Morning Service – Dr. Larry Saunders
6:00p.m. Pre-service Prayer Meeting
6:30p.m. Evening Service – Dr. Larry Saunders
Wednesday, September 26th
7:25p.m. Prayer Meeting – Pastor Dan Greenfield of the American Council of Christian Churches. Light refreshments following the meeting.
Friday, September 28th
7:00p.m. Good News Bible Club
SPECIAL PRAYER FOR DR. MARK ALLISON
Dr. Allison is the President of Geneva Reformed Seminary and the Chairman of our Mission Board and also serves as an assisting elder in our congregation. He is currently in hospital in Greenville, SC, with two lesions on his brain and though having several tests, some extremely painful, the diagnosis is inconclusive. His wife Charlene and daughter Hannah have testified of the Lord’s presence and help and want to thank everyone for their prayers. Let us all pray earnestly for God to preserve the life of His servant and restore him to active ministry.
AMERICAN COUNCIL OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Pastor Dan Greenfield, the General Secretary of the ACCC will be with us on Wednesday September 26th, to speak about the work of the ACCC. There will be a time of fellowship after the meeting.
REFORMATION SERVICES – OCTOBER 18-21
Dr. John McKnight, pastor of Reformation Bible Church, will be with us for a weekend of special meetings, followed by the WCS Dedication Service on the Lord’s Day evening, October 21st. Please plan to attend all these meetings and pray for God’s presence and power in the preaching of the Word.
CONFORMED TO CHRIST – Donald Barnhouse
When God, out in eternity before the foundation of the world, decided that He was going to introduce the plan of salvation, He determined that all things would centre in the glory of Jesus Christ. The depth of the love of God for Jesus Christ and for those whom He chose before the foundation of the world cannot be measured. We read in the Scriptures that God gave us to Christ because He loved Christ, and that He gave Christ to us because He loved us (John 17:6; 3:16)
There was this great difference, however. Christ was altogether lovely and we are altogether filthy. It is the most amazing concept, and yet it is the very heart of the plan of God. Looking out over the race of men the Lord God definitely determined that He was going to take us from the earth and join us to Christ. The plan involved a transformation that was to make us lovely as Christ. Therein would be the greatest glory to God: we would be the foulest and would become like Christ. Our predestination was that we might be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
