Matt 5, 6, 7 are amazing chapters where we see Jesus speaking in ways that astonished the crowds. He, in many ways, was correcting much of what had become a very dysfunctional way of thinking. He basically talked about how – as people who follow him – we must change. Those who have been born from above are new creatures – all things have become new.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also./No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Mt 6:19-21, 24)

NO IDOLS – Idols simply don’t fit in the life of God’s children.

The gospel is the the best news that has ever been and the best news that will ever be. Jesus – the perfect one – gave his life so that sinners could be forgiven. Jesus – on the cross – became our sin so that we could become right before God. Jesus is my righteousness. Jesus is my merit.

If you, this morning, see Jesus as your treasure, your Champion, the lover of your soul, your best friend, your savior, something amazing has happened. God in his mercy has opened your eyes to the magnificent beauty of Jesus. If you relate to Jesus the way you should you also know that you have no saving merit of your own – God has simply been merciful to you. We have nothing – Jesus has and is everything.

When God unites our hearts with the gospel it means that the sin that separates us from God has been removed and we can call him father. We are under God’s blessing and not his wrath. We are forgiven and he will care for us. He will always do us good and we will be with him forever. In a very real sense our final judgment has already taken place – it took place two thousand years ago. Our salvation is as strong and sure as the one who saved us.

Matthew 11:28–30 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

God’s vision in your life is a vision of restoration. Forgiven and loved by him, destiny secure, filled with the Holy Spirit – we are not only ultimately free, we are actually free. The many constraints that held us captive before Christ do not have the power they once did. There’s an amazing illustration of this in Luke 19:

Luke 19:6–9 – So [Zacchaeus the tax collector] hurried and came down and received [Jesus] joyfully. And when [Jewish crowd] saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.

The thing – money – that was the driving force in the life of Zacchaeus lost its attraction. Money’s attraction had been replaced.

As freeing as the love of Jesus is – or should be, our earthly tendency is to find amazement in God’s gifts rather than God himself. We fill our lives with hobbies and interests and distractions and purpose that create a type of fulfillment but, at best, a shallow and temporary one. We long for self-sufficiency and independence rather than God-dependency. Somehow the emptiness that is offered through our own effort seems more stable and attractive than the mighty promises of God. Finding fulfillment in things rather than God is idolatry.

In Scripture there seems to be a transition from idols as the carved images that were worshiped to the concept of putting other things before God.

Idolatry in the OT

Deuteronomy 5:8–9a – “ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…”

Isaiah 42:8 – I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

Rom 1:22-23, 25 – Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. / …they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,

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1 Cor 9-10 – Paul lets go of every privilege – everything that’s self-centered – for the sake of the gospel. He wants nothing to get in the way of his testimony or interfere with his message – he runs the race to win it. He then gives an example of the opposite – Moses and all Israel were firsthand recipients of God’s mercy – they drank it in. Yet most of them fell away:

1 Corinthians 10:6–7 – Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

After experiencing, first hand, the beauty of God, they set it aside to follow the same things the world follows. Their lives, ultimately were unchanged – they were lost.

Col 3:5 – Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness (greed), which is idolatry.

1 Peter 4:1–3 – Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

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Ps 115:2-11 – Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

Philippians 3:8a – Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…

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1 Jn 5:20-21 – And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.