The Reigning American Idol..."God to Me" from March 9, 2009

David Cook is the reigning American Idol. I know this because I am an American Idol addict. I love this show. However, there is another American Idol that has been reigning across this country for many years. This idol is “God to me”. 

I was reminded of this when my teenage stepson said to me that, “I only have to listen to you when you are right.” In typical teenage fashion, this did not mean that I as a parent was being held to God’s standard as revealed in his Word. This meant that what is right or wrong was subject to his own whims and opinions. If he disagreed with me, he wouldn’t listen because he didn’t feel like it. Needless to say, he is in for a rude awakening when he gets out into the real world. 

Unfortunately, this is so much of what our current culture says. People like to believe in God, but it is not the God who has revealed himself in holy writ. He is “God to me.” This idol takes many forms. He is a loving God, because we like the idea of a God who loves. He is interested in justice, just as long as he doesn’t judge MY sin. God to me would NEVER send someone to hell. The list goes on and on. The funny thing is, if you ask them how they arrived at their picture of who God is, it ultimately comes down to…that is the kind of God I want to believe in. The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is that the Christian starts with a God who has revealed himself. The Christian looks to the self revelation of God in Jesus Christ as recorded and revealed in the Bible. It is this image of God that we accept and submit to. The unbeliever starts not with a God who has revealed himself, but with a deity who is created in his own image. The non-Christian starts with their own ideas of what kind of god they would like and create him (or her) from the eclectic ala carte of their own culture and personal preferences.

Contrast this with the words from Proverbs 3:5-8

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh 
and refreshment to your bones.

Proverbs warns us NOT to lean on our own understanding. We are NOT to be wise in our own eyes. Our obligation is to acknowledge God not for who we want him to be, but rather submit ourselves to who he has revealed himself to be. Our standard of wisdom, morality, conduct, and ontology (that means “what is or exists”) lies outside of ourselves. It is not subject to our opinion. It is what God has said it is. The Christian submits to what is. The non-Christian projects what he wishes to be.

Francis Schaeffer spoke of this in his book How Shall We Then Live. He wrote, 

“…the gods in Greek and Roman thinking were like the men and women larger than life, but not basically different from human men and women…The gods were amplified humanity, not divinity…they did not have anything big enough or permanent enough to which to relate either their thinking or their being…All their gods put together could not give them a sufficient base for life, morals, values, and final decisions. These gods depended on the society which had made them, and when the society collapsed the gods tumbled with it.”

Isaiah himself saw the foolishness of idolatry.

"All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.

The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Is 44:9-20)"

Here you see the craftsman who uses tools and raw materials to fashion gods for himself, yet uses part of the materials to feed himself and keep warm. He works by the sweat of his brow and fashions an image, only to fall down and worship it. It has eyes that can not see, ears that can not hear, a mouth that can not speak, and legs than can not move. It has no will of its own and makes no demands on his worshipers other than the demands they place upon themselves. How much is this like to today. No one stops to think! We create a god in our own image, to help us resolve the problem that is in our own image. We are sinful and fallen. No one is righteous. No one seeks after God (Rom 3:11) And yet we fashion a god in our own image because we refuse to submit to a God to whom we owe allegiance and submission. We have created our new god…”God to me.”

Sadly, this is not just a problem outside the church. Even inside the church we have fallen into the trap. John Piper spoke of this at the 2007 Ligonier National Conference in his message “Faith and Reason.”

“What does faith receive in order to be justifying faith? The answer, of course, is that faith receives Jesus Christ. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Faith saves because it receives Christ. 
But we must make clear what this actually means, because there are so many people who say they have received Christ and believed on Christ, who give little or no evidence that they are spiritually alive. They are unresponsive to the spiritual beauty of Jesus. They are unmoved by the glory of Christ. They don’t have the spirit of the apostle Paul when he said, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). This is not their spirit, yet they say they have received Christ. 

One way to describe this problem is to say that when these people “receive Christ,” they do not receive him as supremely valuable. They receive him simply as sin-forgiver (because they love being guilt-free), and as rescuer-from-hell (because they love being pain-free), and as healer (because they love being disease-free), and as protector (because they love being safe), and as prosperity-giver (because they love being wealthy), and as Creator (because they want a personal universe), and as Lord of history (because they want order and purpose); but they don’t receive him as supremely and personally valuable for who he is. They don’t receive him as he really is—more glorious, more beautiful, more wonderful, more satisfying, than everything else in the universe. They don’t prize him or treasure him or cherish him or delight in him. 

Or to say it another way, they “receive Christ” in a way that requires no change in human nature. You don’t have to be born again to love being guilt-free and pain-free and disease-free and safe and wealthy. All natural men without any spiritual life love these things. But to embrace Jesus as your supreme treasure requires a new nature. No one does this naturally. You must be born again (John 3:3). You must be a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). You must be made spiritually alive (Ephesians 2:1-4). 

Therefore, saving faith is a receiving of Christ for who he really is and what he really is, namely, more glorious, more wonderful, more satisfying, and therefore more valuable than anything thing in the universe. Saving faith says, “I receive you as my Savior, my Lord, my supreme Treasure; and I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Which is why Jesus said, “Therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). And again, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). And again, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44).” 

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/2016_Faith_and_Reason/

“God to me” is the true American Idol. It is what we confront on a daily basis. As we share our faith, we must be careful to present a full gospel message. It is not a message that says simply believe in Christ. It says to believe in Christ as He has revealed Himself. Sacrifice yourself. This is the end of you as an autonomous individual. You must now submit yourself to a God who has revealed himself. You may no longer define who God is, but rather you must surrender to the God who has revealed himself. And yet, this is a joyful surrender. This is a joyful sacrifice, for Christ is our supreme treasure. In fact, He is most glorified in us as we are most satisfied in Him. It is not enough just to believe in Him, but we are to love him above all else. We can’t wait to spend eternity sitting at his feet and hearing his wisdom and singing his praises. 

And so, I say to my son…”Hear the true wisdom from the scriptures. Do not be foolish and set yourself up as the final arbiter of what is right and wrong. Submit yourself to the teaching of our Lord. Do not violate God’s laws and say that you did nothing wrong. Your pride will lead you to destruction, but if you humble yourself and submit to God’s instruction He will exalt you. The Bible is not an ala carte buffet that you can pick and choose what you like. If you would follow the Lord, do so with all your heart. Be more in love with Jesus than anything else. I am not perfect, but I would hope and pray that if I 
stray from God’s law, that his reproof would lead me not to defiance, but repentance and remorse. Do not fall into this cultural trap of worshiping God to me. Listen to who God has revealed Himself to be."