Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.They that make them shall be like unto them; Yea, every one that trusteth in them.
3 sermons cite this verse
… gives sinners over to the dishonoring of their bodies. We become what we worship. Psalm 115, 8, those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. And look at this language of image. You see verse 23, images, icon in the Greek. Whenever Paul uses icon, he relates it somehow to being made in the image of God, which makes me think that verse 23 is not just about replacing the object of our worship that's true, but it's about losing the glory that we were to have as those made in His image. And this makes sense of the continuing exchange in the verses ahead. Think about Genesis. God made them, He made man in His image, male and female. Their man is given as the head of the human race and then clarified, he made man in his image male and female. It was God's design. It was God's idea in order to show the full extent of his image in some ways that maybe we're still trying to figure out. He said, I can show my image. I can only totally show this in the human race with a male and a female. No, it's not that a man is half the image and a woman is half the image, otherwise Jesus Christ would not fully have been in the image of God. But there was something in His creation. They wanted male and female together to image His glory, which is why this foolish exchange, what happens as we go through Romans 1? You know that men exchange natural …
… but do not smell, hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, eyes but do not see, and those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. That's what the psalmist says about the gods of the nations. People make idols of wood and stone and gold and silver, and they're inert. They can't do anything. They don't see anything. And when you make an idol, you become like an idol. You become what you worship. And so these people, just like the idols they worship, they don't have any spiritual eyes. And so, this Jewish person in Paul's words is saying, look, people out there are lost. They need the truth. I'm going out on O nights every other week. I'm showing them the way. I am a guide to the blind. Number two, I'm a light to those who are in darkness. I learned as a kid, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. …
… As we worship, we start to become more like the thing that we are worshiping. Psalm 115 verses four through eight say this. But their idols are silver and gold made by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, noses but cannot smell. They have hands but cannot feel, feet but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. those who make them will be like them and so will all who trust in them in other words if you want to be deaf and blind and lame and dumb and dead then go worship an idol but if you want to have life and life to the fullest then worship the king of kings and the lord of lords whose name is Jesus Jesus Christ. You are what you worship. You are what you worship. And I can't help but think of the story of Peter, the apostle. You know, at one point, the disciples had just finished some ministry with Jesus, and Jesus said, you guys go ahead to the next stop. I'm going to go and pray. And so they get on a boat, and they cross the Sea of Galilee. And as they do, a storm begins to rage to the point that they don't even know if they're going to make it out alive. …