Do men make their own gods?

(Charles Spurgeon)  Play Audio!  Download Audio

"Do men make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!" Jeremiah 16:20

One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and we who are the spiritual Israel are vexed with a tendency to the same folly! We no longer bow down to sticks and stones—but Mammon still intrudes his golden calf; and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. SELF in various forms, struggles to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion. And the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space for them.

Children are often the cause of much sin in believers. The Lord is grieved when He sees us doting upon them above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us, as Absalom was to David; or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows—let them dote on their children!

It is truly said that "they are not gods," for the objects of our foolish devotion are very doubtful blessings. The solace which they yield us now is dangerous, and the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed.

Why then, are we so bewitched with vanities?

We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone, and yet we worship a god of gold! Where is the vast superiority between a god of wood, and one of flesh? The principle, the sin, the folly is the same in either case. Only that in our case, the crime is more aggravated because we have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity, but he has never known the true God. But we commit two evils, inasmuch as we forsake the living God, and turn unto idols! May the Lord purge us all from this grievous iniquity!

"The dearest idol I have known,
 Whatever that idol be;
 Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
 And worship only Thee!"