DELIERANCE FROM IDOLATRY

F. C. Mutton

Hosea 14: 8; 1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10

I feel impressed, beloved brethren, with the great importance of deliverance from idolatry.

Satan’s constant effort is to divert us from simple occupation with the will of God and the purpose of God and devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ.

What a fine point this is which is reached at the end of this prophecy in which Jehovah’s concern and grief as to the state of the people is so evident and in which He pleads with them, appeals to them, and warns them. Jehovah was looking forward to His people reaching the point where, extricated from what would hinder, they say, “What have I to do any more with idols?” What a fine point this is for us all to reach. It implies superiority to the idols. It implies that we rise to the height of what is proper to us. “What have I to do any more with idols?” And what have we to do with them, dear brethren?—we who are called to be the brethren of Christ, and the sons of God, who are the subjects of His eternal purpose, chosen in

Christ before the world’s foundation. What have we any more to do with idols? They are to become despicable to us. There is, of course, the side that idolatry needs to be judged and named because it comes in some very deceptive forms. The enemy sees to that. But one is impressed with this idea that we should be superior to it. “What have I to do any more with idols?” They are unworthy of us.

The enemy is all the time seeking to introduce them, in new forms as well as old ones. We do not need to go over what may be an idol. What may be a danger or a temptation to me might not be to you. The enemy knows just what to present to each of us as an idol. It could be worldly things in my home, and he is multiplying these temptations. I suppose, as we think of Christians generally, radio and television are among the most powerful forms of idolatry to divert Christians from their true calling. Thank God that such things have been named among us and I am sure we are all united in our condemnation of them. But there are many others and there is a constant flow under the enemy’s direction and influence of things that are worldly in character which he would infiltrate. It might be my business, my home, or even my family. It could be what I read, sport or hobbies—something that the enemy is able to enlarge beyond its right and legitimate setting so that it diverts my affections and committals away from the Lord Jesus. Well, may we be strengthened, rising in the Spirit’s power to the status and dignity which are properly ours. And in that light we look down on these things.

We name them and we despise them as being below our dignity, and below our interest—“What have I to do any more with idols?”

Jehovah is observing this process, observing it with the greatest interest; “I answer him and I will observe him”. These struggles may be particularly found with young people. The eye of the Lord Jesus is upon us in them and He observes, observes with approval and pleasure, when one reaches this point and by the Spirit rises superior to the temptations. Then he, the believer, can say, “I am like a green fir-tree”. What a happy thing it is to be conscious of the normality of Christian life and Christian state, green in all weathers, in all seasons. We think of that when we pray for our beloved brethren in pressure, sorrow and anxiety at the present time. Oh may the divine resources be experienced! What a triumph it is that in pressure and adversity, in the winter season, this greenness is still there, as well as in times that are more favourable and congenial. A fir-tree is green all the time, the evidence of resource from without—in our case, resource in Christ and the Holy Spirit. In another sense it is resource from within, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

Then we have another divine comment, “From me is thy fruit found”. That is, instead of the barrenness and emptiness Godward of idolatry. God is the Source now of fruitfulness for His own pleasure. This is a great comfort, dear brethren. Whatever circumstances we are found in—some are in great isolation and smallness—fruit for God is being yielded in your situation and in mine. And the source of it is in the Father, in Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, fruitfulness where once there was barrenness.

I thought this was illustrated in 1 Thessalonians. We know the idolatrous surroundings of these assemblies in which the gospel became effective. We were reading in the house as to Ephesus with its gross and dark idolatry and how they burned their books of charms. What a divine operation! And here in Thessalonica they had “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God”. Well, beloved, may this be true of us. Then we can say in the spirit of Ephraim, “What have I to do any more with idols?” Our faces are now turned, and our lives are directed, in relation to God, the living and true God. These are profound expressions. The living God is not far from us; He is not indifferent to us; He has a living interest in us, and we prove that as faith is in exercise. He is true to His own work, infinitely so! “And to await his Son from the heavens”—what a preservation this is from idolatry!

May we be preserved in the simplicity of Christianity which really is summed up in these expressions. We are not serving idols now; we are serving a living and true God, and we are awaiting His Son from the heavens. What an occupation! Is it not sufficient to engage all our faculties and every resource we have? If I may so say, what a noble matter it is, what a noble attitude of mind, to serve a living and true God. It is the character of service which He has had from His Beloved, of whom He spoke as “my servant”. And then we are waiting. Our life is not here. We are maintained in greenness, like the fir-tree, and we await His Son from the heavens. He waits, and we wait. We wait for Jesus, the One who has been raised from among the dead, the centre of our life, the centre of the world to which we belong. He is now our Saviour, our Head, our Deliverer from the coming wrath. So we are to go forward, beloved, preserved from every element and claim and temptation of idolatry, held in relation to the true God and awaiting His Son from the heavens. May it be increasingly true of us for His glory. Amen.

Word in meeting for ministry, Plainfield, N.J.
29 May 1984

(The other words given on this occasion were printed in the March 1985 issue).