“Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is-in itself a monstrous sin-and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.” (A.W. Tozer)
Tozer says that idolatry is one of the sins “which the human heart is prone” and John Calvin said that the human heart is an idol factory. Jesus Christ said that no man can serve two masters. Man is born in sin and opposed to living to the glory of God as a life of worship. All that man does is an offering to his chief love which is his real God or god. If man does not love God in what he does, then man is really offering what he does in worship of himself. Man cannot escape the inner pressure to have a primary or terminal love in all that he does. As seen in Romans 1:18-32 every sin that man does is an exchange of the truth of God for a lie. All that man does in seeking his own glory is really exchanging the glory of God for idols. In other words, finite and sinful man is constantly in full worship of himself and in doing so he is rejecting the real and true God. That is idolatry.
While many want to focus on the outward works of man and leave the heart untouched, the heart is really the seat of worship. The outward man is simply the offering of the inward man. The outward man is the activity that expresses the intents of the heart. If this is correct, then we must examine what worship in the church really means in light of idolatry. It is imagined by many that worship is singing words to God that are correct and have at least an element of praise in them. There is a bit of truth there. However, the heart is the true seat of worship. A person can be singing with energy and excitement a song with great words and have zero worship in the singing. The focus of the heart can be on the feelings generated and how wonderful the person feels. The person can also be mindful of his own singing and what others are thinking of him. The person’s mind can be far away dwelling on the things that he truly loves. That is idolatry.
The reason, I think, that idolatry is worse within Christendom than anywhere else is because it is choosing self and things for self over God with more knowledge of God. While the un-churched unbeliever rejects the truth of God as revealed in nature, those who attend church are exposed to a greater amount of revelation about God. Their idolatry, then, is worse since it is a rejection of more information about God. It would appear from the Old Testament that God hates it when true worship of the external kind is offered up and the heart is not fully His. In the New Testament we see the stringent outward morality and religiosity of the Pharisees and yet Jesus condemned them with the harshest words. Christians claim to bear the truth of God through Christ. When they choose ways and attitudes that do not honor Him, they are in idolatry.
Preaching is also idolatrous when it does not focus on God and His glory. It seems as if idolatry in the pulpit may be the worst kind of all. The preacher is to be proclaiming the truth about God and yet he would rather fill the pews by tickling the ears of the people. I heard R.C. Sproul say in a lecture one time that a woman came to him and with anger or frustration said that it appeared to her that her pastor was trying to hide the truth of the character of God from the people. Whether she was right or not is not the issue, but we can say with great sorrow that this does appear to be the case in many places. Why are preachers so afraid to stand up and declare with conviction that God is really God? One reason might be because they will lose their position as CEO and lose the honor and the salary. Paul said that he was innocent of the blood of all men because he had preached the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:26-27). That is an incredibly powerful statement. We could also say that not to preach the whole counsel of God is to be guilty of being ashamed of God and His Word. This would make preachers guilty of idolatry and of the blood of men. If a man is not going to preach the whole counsel of God, then he should simply get out of the pulpit so that he would stop his idolatry and be guilty of less blood. While these words may sound harsh, I believe that I am trying to declare the whole counsel of God on idolatry. Religious people are guiltier of idolatry than anyone. Preachers are even guiltier than them all because of leading others into idolatry by not declaring the truth about God. Perhaps we need fewer preachers rather than more if this is the case. Let us remember what God says about false prophets in Jeremiah. How wicked it is to be an idolater leading others in idolatry all the while smiling and proclaiming something that is wrong as the truth of God. That is idolatry. Another Reformation is needed.
God Loves... Himself 
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