Worship

Mar. 12 – The Heart’s False Gods — Adapted from Weighed and Wanting by D. L. Moody

Matthew 6:19-24

You don’t have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them. Whatever you make most of is your god. Whatever you love more than God is your idol. Rich and poor, learned and unlearned, all classes of men and women are guilty of this sin.

A man may make a god of himself, of a child, of a mother, of some precious gift that God has bestowed upon Him. He may forget the Giver, and let his heart go out in adoration toward the gift. Many make a god of pleasure; that is what their hearts are set on. If some old Greek or Roman came to life again and saw men in a drunken debauch, would he believe that the worship of Bacchus had died out? If he saw the streets of our large cities filled with prostitutes, would he believe that the worship of Venus had ceased? Others take fashion as their god. They give their time and thought to dress. They fear what others will think of them. Do not let us flatter ourselves that all idolaters are in heathen countries.

It is the god of money for many. We haven’t got through worshipping the golden calf yet. If a man will sell his principles for gold, isn’t he making it a god? If he trusts in his wealth to keep him from want and to supply his needs, are not riches his god? Many a man says, “Give me money, and I will give you heaven. What do I care for all the glories and treasures of heaven? Give me treasure here! I don’t care for heaven! I want to be a successful businessman.” How true are the words of Job, “If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’ if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had produced much; if I saw the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart had been secretly enticed, or my mouth had kissed my hand, this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge for I should have denied the God that is above” (Job 31:24-28).

Has the human heart ever been satisfied with these false gods? Can pleasure or riches fill the soul that is empty of God? How about the atheist, the deist, the pantheist? What do they look forward to? Nothing! A person’s life is full of trouble, but when the billows of affliction and disappointment are rising and rolling over them, they have no God to call upon. “They shall cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense; but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble” (Jer. 11:12). Therefore I argue “their rock is not as our Rock” (Deut. 32:31).