Well, it's lovely to see you
all here. Why don't we turn in our scriptures to Psalm 111. Our topic for today is the Day
of Righteous Judgment out of Acts 17.31. And the antidote
to idolatry and the antidote to all false religion is for
us to declare the glories of our God as he's revealed in the
scriptures. And if you've seen him, you'll
praise him. If you meet him, you'll worship
him. Psalm 111, praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.
The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. His work is honourable and glorious,
and his righteousness endureth forever. He has made His wonderful
works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. He has given meat to them that
fear Him. He will be ever mindful of His
covenant. He has showed His people the
power of His works, that He may give them the heritage of the
heathen. The works of His hands are verity. The works of His hands are truth
and judgment, and all His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever
and ever. They are done in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption unto His
people. He has commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do His commandments. His praise endureth forever. Whenever you read that word covenant
in the scriptures, you need to remember that it's a title and
a description of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise ye the Lord. He's the one that praises God
with his whole heart, and we in him praise him. The works
of the Lord are great and sought out of all them that have pleasure
in them, therein. His work is honourable and glorious,
and his righteousness endureth forever. He has made his wonderful
works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. That's our God. He's made His
works to be remembered. All of the works of God are yay
and amen in our Lord Jesus Christ. His works of grace and His works
of compassion are all in Him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do come before You again praying that you would cause us to acknowledge
and to be aware of our utter dependence upon you and to be
mindful of your glory, Heavenly Father, your glory revealed in
your Son, your glory revealed in redemption accomplished, redemption
brought to your people. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to the hearts of
your people. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
that all of your people were saved eternally, and they were
saved righteously, and they were saved justly. And now, Heavenly
Father, all of your children stand before you in hymn, holy
and spotless and unblameable and unapprovable. for their sins
are gone, gone forever because of your just and righteous works. Heavenly Father, cause us to
remember them and cause us to look to your Son and see him
in something of his glory again this morning. Father, we do pray
for the proclamation of your Gospel throughout this world.
The only hope for fallen sinners is the declaration of who the
Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's done. We pray for our brothers
and sisters around the world. in all of those congregations
where you have gathered them together and we pray for those
who are away from us today, Heavenly Father, and we're particularly
mindful of Simon and Jenny and their family and the situation
with Simon's father at this time, Heavenly Father, we pray that
you might be gracious and bless them and cause them to know your
love and your hand of grace upon them. We commit ourselves into
your hands, Heavenly Father, trusting that our Lord Jesus
Christ would be preached to us, that he would declare himself
through his word. We commit ourselves, Heavenly
Father, into your hands in his precious name. Amen. We're going
to sing. We're going to sing in number
53. Proclaim your Saviour's name and show His matchless worth.
Make known His saving fame till His praise fills the earth. ? And when silence calls, no pain
is gained ? ? Until the Savior comes again ? ? Peace, mercy,
and grace combine ? ? With all the truth and love ? ? Most hosts
exalt Thee, life through breath and soul ? ? A surety friend, my God, the
priest and King ? ? Faced all the wrongs and fits, to Christ
alone I cling ? ? His precious blood redeemed my soul ? ? He
fell, He made, and made me free ? ? Resonance and hope ? ? Teachers
of love and grace ? ? For He is all we know ? ? In life and
death ? ? Thy faith we sing ? ? Thy key is precious for us ? If you turn in your scriptures
to Acts chapter 17, Paul wandered around Athens.
He heard what they proclaimed. He went to their church. and
heard what they proclaimed. It's interesting to note that
in Athens there is no evidence from the Holy Spirit that Paul
was even invited to speak in their synagogue. We're not given
any reason why. But Paul walked around Athens,
his spirit was stirred in him, Acts 17, 16, when he saw the
whole city, the city wholly given to idolatry. And notice that
he wasn't excluding the Jews from that the very next verse
begins with, And therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the
Jews and with the devout persons, and in the market-place with
them that met him. Then certain philosophers of
the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him, and some said,
What will this babbler say? he seemeth to be a set-aforth
of strange gods." And this is what he did. Wherever he went,
he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. So when you
read in the New Testament, beyond the gospel accounts, and you
read Jesus without his titles, The Holy Spirit is indicating
to us that that's the description of all of his life. Paul proclaimed
the Lord Jesus, his birth, his life, his ministry, his time in the garden, his time
before Pilate and Herod. He's hanging on Calvary's tree,
he's burial in a tomb. It's all to do with the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, his resurrection. Let's go down to verse 24. They took him into the Areopagus
in those intervening verses. And he proclaims to them a God
who is unknown, a God they ignorantly worship. Him I declare unto you. And then he describes God to
them. He describes our glorious God. He's describing the Lord Jesus
Christ, of course. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives
life to all. gives to all life and breath
and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men,
for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined
the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation,
that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after
him and find him, though he is not far from every one of us.
For in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also
of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like under gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's
device. And the times of this ignorance
God winked at, God tolerated. But now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. This is the culmination of his
sermon, isn't it? This verse that we're looking
at today, the righteous judgment of God. This is why God commands
all people to repent of their idolatry. to turn from their
ignorance, because he has appointed a day, he set a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he has given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead. There is an appointed day and
God is going to judge the world and he's going to do it with
perfect righteousness. Paul goes to this city and he's not there
applauding their wisdom and applauding their philosophy and applauding
them as being the place where democracy began in these halls
there. He's not applauding them for
their pretended ways. It was a judgment hall, the Areopagus. One of the things that was fascinating
is that they used to judge in the dark. The judges, including
Dionysius down there at the end of 34, they used to judge in
the dark so that they wouldn't be looking at man's face at all. They would just be judging on
the basis of the facts. Paul goes there in the light,
declaring the light and declaring that what they're doing is absolute
idolatry. It grieved his heart. It's idolatry. And it's idolatry that's been
tolerated by God. It's idolatry that's by the judgment
of God on people to be left to their idolatry. And now there
is no longer any excuse. The Athenians have no excuse
any longer. God has given assurance to all
men that he raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. It's a
fearsome topic, isn't it, to contemplate the righteous judgment
of our God. It's a fearsome thing to contemplate
When we think of what lies before people in this world, it's a
fearsome thing to contemplate when you think of what happened
to the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. Righteous judgement has
been executed and righteous resurrection has been brought forth. One of the good things Good things
about delving into a topic like this is that you know you're
going to fail before you start. Fail to bring the gravity of
it to bear on people. Fail to bring the wonder of that
judgment falling upon the Lord Jesus Christ and all of us in
Him having had that judgment fall upon us. We're going to
sing number 63. ? The fountain of salvation, it
rains on the Lord ? ? His strength for your faith, in His hands
shall endure ? ? Your hope can be saved if you believe ? In every condition, in sickness
and health, In hardness, in sail, or abounding in health, We're
called for a broiler, the land of the sea, We'll still feel the ache of
strength and fear is Here down to old age, O my people,
shall prove My sovereign eternal love change the whole world,
And when holy heads show their temples adorned, My person shall
still do my cruelty own. The soul that on Jesus' deathly
gory earth I will not, I will not descend to his foes, Righteous judgment of God, let's
look at that verse again. He's appointed a day, 1731, he's
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he has given assurance
unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead. There is This
is where Paul goes when he's confronting idolatry, when he's
confronting religious idolatry, pagan idolatry, when he's confronting
the best philosophers this world has ever seen, the most wonderful
builders that now people are still in admiration of. That
great city. He confronts them. He confronts
them with the one thing that matters. There is just one thing
that matters. All of this creation and everyone
in this creation has an appointment. You see it there in our verse.
It's an appointment. Appointed day. There is an appointed
day. Cole told me just a little while
ago that there's someone who expects, told him the other day
that the end of the world is coming before the end of the
month. It is just nonsense, isn't it?
Anytime anyone ever says that they know any time, they are
wrong. But those who dismiss the fact
that it won't happen are doing an extraordinary injustice to
their eternal souls. There is an appointed hour. There
is an appointed hour. And as we gather here, Simon
and Jenny are with their father and the decision is being made
at some time yesterday or today or maybe tomorrow, I haven't
heard about whether they turn off his life support system. You see the moment someone dies,
instantly they become the most intelligent being. that there
ever is in all creation. All of their ignorance has gone
completely in a millisecond. You leave this world and instantly,
instantly you are aware of the holiness of God and instantly
you are aware of the sinfulness of man in a heartbeat. So Paul, some people have criticised
Paul because he hasn't focused on the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. I disagree with them strongly.
I think he talked about it a lot. But in this remarkable sermon
that he has before this pagan world, he wants to bring them
as quickly as he possibly can to the righteous judgement of
God, because it is the one thing that matters. Our God is going
to judge the world in righteousness. He'll judge the world in righteousness. When God brings judgment upon
this world, it will be manifestly seen to be righteous. When everyone comes before that
great white throne of judgment and the books are opened, it
will be perfectly righteous. It will be perfectly righteous.
All of God's judgment will be perfectly righteous. It will
be perfectly righteous for God to send you and me to hell. If
he does so, it is good and right and proper. And if he takes us
to heaven, it will be righteous. It will be good and right and
proper and manifestly so. Our God is a righteous God. That word righteous is the same
root word of the word justify. Our God is a just God and a saviour. He declares that, shall not the
judge of all the earth do right? That's in the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Will God be right in what he does? God
is right in everything that he does, all of the time. Everything
he does is right, all of the time. And that's why he says
to his judges in Leviticus 19, you shall do no unrighteousness
in judgment. You shall not rest judgment. You shall not respect persons.
The judges of Israel in Deuteronomy 25 shall justify the righteous
and they shall condemn the wicked. He shall judge, the quote that
Paul uses there is a quote from Psalm 9 verse 80, he shall judge
the world in righteousness. He shall minister judgment to
the people in uprightness. He shall judge the world with
righteousness. He'll judge the world in a person. I love quoting those verses in
Revelation 19 which describe our Saviour in something of His
glory. If the Lord would allow us to
enter into the glorious pictures of our Saviour in His faithful
and true He saw heaven open, Revelation 19.11, and behold,
on a white horse, and he that sat on him was called Faithful
and True, and in righteousness does he judge and make war. He's clothed with a vesture dipped
in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. He has on his
vesture, verse 16, and on his thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of lords. He is the one who will execute
judgment. If you turn to John chapter 5,
you'll see that the Lord Jesus Christ declares that he is the
judge because God has made him the judge. Verse 22 of John 5, for the Father
judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ, who walked
on this earth, was touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
was a man, is the judge. When you meet Him, you'll know
that He is the judge, and rightly so. The Father has committed
for all judgment unto the Son, verse 23, that all men should
honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which has sent him. Verily,
verily, I say unto you that he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. and shall not come into
condemnation. That word is the same word as
judgment. He shall not come into judgment, but is passed from
death to life. Verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live." In preaching the gospel, we are like John the Baptist.
We're raising up the voice. We are just declaring who he
is, and his people will hear his voice. Paul was there in
the midst of that Athenian court. And people mocking him brought
him there to mock him more, called him a babbler. But Paul just
gets up there and he declares the Lord Jesus Christ, because
he knows wherever he declares the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
God will have his people and he'll bring them out. Who would
have known that the leader of that court of judgment of men
would actually be a child of God? He may well have been mocking
like the others and saying, what's this babbler going to tell us,
and what about these strange gods? God works in the hearts
of his people in righteousness and judgment. Verse 26 of John
5, and just as the father, for as the father has life in himself,
so he has given this to the son to have life in himself. And
he has given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he is the son of man. because He is the Son of Man.
He judges because He is the Son of Man. He has walked our paths. He has lived in this world. He knows the feelings of our
infirmities. He knows what temptation is.
He is the Son of Man. Verse 28, marvel not at this,
for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall
hear his voice. and shall come forth they that
have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of my own self
do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just. because I seek not mine own will,
but the will of the Father who has sent me." It's a righteous
judgment. It's a righteous judgment. It's
been committed into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
a righteous judgment because it's righteousness preached.
It says in Psalm 40 verse 9, I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. Psalm 40 verse 10, and I have
not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy
faithfulness. I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the great congregation. Our God is a God
who is perfectly righteous. He loves righteousness. You can read it in Hebrews 1
in Psalm 45, 7. He loves righteousness and he
hates wickedness. Therefore thy God has anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. The heavens
shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. There's a righteous judgment,
and Paul has laid out before these Athenians that righteous
judgment. There's a righteous judgment
because God is holy. There is a righteous judgment
because God is a person. Sin is a personal affront. That's what David said, didn't
he, in Psalm 51? He says, against thee and thee
only have I sinned. He'd murdered Uriah. He'd caused
the death of a son. He brought a sword of God's affliction
upon his family and upon his nation. And he stands up and
he says, against thee and thee only have I sinned. And done this evil in thy sight. Paul has declared that a God
who is omniscient. He knows all things. You read
what he said in his sermon. He gives life to all and he's
made of one blood all the nations. For in him we live and move and
have our being. God is present. God is near. And God is glorious. God is glorious. I encourage you to go and read
Isaiah 40 and following. Isaiah 40 begins with those remarkable
words about the comfort of God's people. Comfort ye, comfort ye
my people, saith your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she has received the Lord
hand double for all her sins. What a remarkable declaration
from our God. He preached righteousness in
this great congregation. He preached righteousness to
the people of God. But he had a twofold message,
like all of God's people do. All of God's servants have a
twofold message. You can read it there in verse
6 of Isaiah 40. Cry, and he said, what shall
I cry? All flesh is grass. And all the goodliness thereof
is as of the flower of the field. The grass withereth and the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. O Zion, O the Church of God,
that bring us good tidings, get thee up in a high mountain, O
Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings, lift up the voice with
strength, lift it up, lift it up to the grass, and be not afraid,
and say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God, behold your
God. See, that's the problem, isn't
it? That's what grieved Paul. As he went into that synagogue
and heard the preaching and he went down there to the marketplace
and he saw the 30,000 idols they had and he saw all the great
temples that Athens had and all the things that they could boast
of, all of their history that they could boast of, all of their
philosophy that they could boast of. He was grieved in his heart
because every little tiny bit of it from the synagogue to the
temple of Athena was all was all a diminishing of the glory
of God. And yet, the extraordinary thing
is that in the declaration of who our God is, we are reminded
again and again that He comforts His people. I love verse 11 of
Isaiah 40. He shall feed His flock like
a shepherd. He'll feed his flock like a shepherd.
He'll gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom
and he'll gently lead those that are with young. So that's what
Paul is saying. God is personal. God is personal. Your idolatry is an affront to
a personal God. Your images are an affront to
a personal God. Then he describes in Isaiah 40
verse 12, he starts describing how big God is. how big he is. I'm wanting us to see the wickedness
of idolatry, the wickedness of the imagination of the thoughts
of men's hearts that diminish God down to something like a
man or even less than a man. Verse 12 of Isaiah 40, who has
measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Who can hold the
sea in the hollow of his hand? Who has meted out the heaven
with a span? Who can actually hold up his hand? These are just
reminders to us of how infinitely above and how infinitely great
our God is. We have no idea how many stars
there are. We have no idea how big the universe
is. God knows the name of every single
one of them. He spoke them into existence
and he knows them all. He made out the heaven with a
hand, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and
weighed the mountains in the scales, and the hills in the
balance. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? Who has been
his counselor? What have you taught him? That's
what Paul's saying to these Athenians. You ignorant worship. With whom
took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path
of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Who's taught him anything? Our
God is omniscient. He never learns anything. He
knows all things all the time. There is not a new thought, there
is not a new event to our God. And then, Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket. One tiny little drop of water
falling from a tap into a bucket. That's how big the United States
of America is. And that's how big Australia
is. And that's how big the Roman Empire is. That's how big China
is. It's a small, they are counted
as small dust on the balance. You can blow them away. Behold, he taketh the isles as
a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All the
nations before him are as nothing. They are counted to him as less
than nothing and vanity." And then this is the question that
necessarily comes out of all that. This is a question to the
idolaters of this world. This is a question to the religious
idolaters, the pagan atheistic idolaters, all of the idolaters.
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare
unto him? See, Paul is going to these Athenians
and he's showing to them that all of their idolatry, whether
it's in the synagogue or the temple, is a cause for the righteous
judgment of God upon them. And that's why in verse 41 he
says, you keep silence, you keep silence before me, oh islands,
and let the people renew their strength. You change your strength,
you have your strength in your wisdom and your righteousness
and your works and your philosophy, you change your strength. Let
them come near, let them speak, let us come near together to
judgment. God is saying to people, come
near together for judgment. Who has raised up the righteous
man from the east and called him to his foot and gave the
nations before him and made him rule over kings? He gave them
as a dust to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow. He
pursued them and passed safely, even by the way that he had not
gone with his feet. Who has wrought and done it?
calling the generations from the beginning. That's exactly
what Paul's saying in Isaiah, isn't it? He's made of one blood
all the nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and
he's determined the times before appointed, verse 26 of Acts 17,
and the bounds of their habitation. And they brag about the bounds
of their habitation. The Athenians thought that they
sprang miraculously out of the earth. They're no different,
we Australians, to think we're special because we have a whole
continent given to us. Don't we? We do. We think we're
special. We get upset when people offend us. Verse 4, Isaiah 41, for I the
Lord, the first and the last, I am He. It's exactly what the Lord Jesus
said to those religious idolaters in Jerusalem, the ones called
the Pharisees. He says, unless you believe that
I am, I am He, you'll die in your sins. There is a way of
escape. is holy. Our God is personal. Our God is present all the time,
everywhere. Our God knows and sees absolutely
everything that goes on. Our God is glory. And God must
punish sin, because sin is an infinite affront to his glory. That's why hell goes on forever.
That's why hell must go on forever. The crime is against an infinite
holy God. That's the glory of the gospel,
brothers and sisters, isn't it? That the offences that you and
I have committed, the offences that you and I are committing
right now and will commit tomorrow, against the glory of this holy
God, because we have an imagination, we have an image, And our image
is a tainted image of his glory. And all of that sin, all of that
sin, and all of that affront to the holy glory of our God
was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he suffered hell, brothers
and sisters. He suffered the infinite wrath
of God, infinitely. A holy God slew his holy son
with holy justice. Until the very justice of God
says, enough. It is finished. It is finished. And their sins are gone. The
only hope you can have of standing before a holy God is that your
sins are gone. You must be as holy as God is
to live in the presence of God. And that's the glory of the Gospel.
That's what Dionysius believed. That's what Damaris rejoiced
in. They went from idolaters one minute to being believers
the next. It's a remarkable gift of God,
isn't it? The Gospel is powerful. See,
God must punish sin. He must punish sin, or it means
that he doesn't care about his glory, and he doesn't care about
his name. Now, under the Lord Jesus Christ
said, glorify your son. And the father responded from
heaven, he said, I've glorified it, and I'm gonna glorify it
again. Glorify your son. The idolatry. Idolatry is anything
in your imagination that is less than the God of Revelation. It's any notion of God that is
less than the God of Revelation. And the God of Revelation is
revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, our idolatry began in the
garden. It began at the fall. And the end result of Adam's
fall in Adam's life and Eve's life and the rest of their race. It's described, isn't it? You were dead, you were spiritually
dead to the glory of God, dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians
2 verse 1 says. And in time past you walked according
to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, we had our way of life in times
past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath,
even as others." See, man is an idolater by birth. Man is an idolater by nature
unless the but God intervenes. But God who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead, he's raised us, he's made us alive together with Christ. And he's raised us up. In every
created environment the creature has fallen. But the angels, I
don't know what, I can't possibly conceive of what it must have
been like in heaven, to have been an angel in heaven and to
see the God, see the God of glory in all of his majesty. And to
be there and he said a word and the universe came into existence.
He spoke a word and light was. He spoke a word and there was
this creation and it was filled and it was glorious. And you
saw all of that. and they fell in heaven. Adam and Eve were just a heartbeat
in the garden. It might have been the first
evening, and they fell in the garden. Noah is given a creation,
untainted by the rest of humanity and all of their wickedness.
And in no time at all, just a few generations, there they are at
the Tower of Babel, and God has to send judgment upon them. You
see, The miracle and the wonder and the reason Paul was prepared
to go and proclaim the gospel wherever, no matter what people
said of him, was that the glory of the gospel is the one thing,
it's the power of God under salvation. It didn't matter how much evidence
they had. Noah had a bucket load of evidence
and all of his family with him. In no time at all, their idolaters
building a tower to get themselves out of flood's way. No amount of evidence, no pleading
of the Lord's servants helps stem that tide into idolatry. No feelings of pain or suffering
awakens dead sinners. No examples of mercy and grace. What examples did Noah have of
mercy and grace? In no time at all they bred a
nation of idolaters. God came and rescued them out
of Egypt with a mighty hand, fulfilling promises made to Abraham
hundreds of years beforehand. No sooner did they get out, away
from that bondage of Egypt, work, work, work, work, work, toil
in the hot sun and no reward and no letter. No sooner do they
get out of there, and they're whinging and complaining and
creating in their minds a God who was just an idol. And at
the foot of Mount Sinai, what do they say? You make us gods. And what did Aaron say? He didn't say this is an evil idol,
when that golden calf miraculously popped out of the fire, as he
said. He said, this is the God that's
brought you out of Egypt. No wonder in Exodus 20, idolatry
has a tone. And I keep wanting us to be reminded
that idolatry is anything, anything that declares God in name to
be less than God in revelation. But in Exodus, You are to have
no graven images. You shall not make, you shall
have no other gods before me, you shall, verse 4 of Exodus
20, you shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness
of anything that is in heaven above, that is in earth beneath,
that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord, am a jealous
God. That's why he punishes sin. But
then he describes idolatry. He says, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that if you make an idol, God says, you hate him. It's hatred of God. Idolatry
is hatred of God. Isn't it remarkable that with
all of that, all of the revelation of the
awesomeness of God, to make an image of him is a capital offence. Such is his glory, such is his
majesty. See, idolatry, is the evidence
of a fallen man, it's an evidence of a heart that hates God. It's
the evidence of the judgement of the sovereign God. Wherever there is idolatry, And
it's easy enough for us to think of the idolatry in this world.
It's all over the place. There's a little thing that they
have at the back of the hall here. It's called a wishing jar.
This is what you do with a wishing jar. You write down your wishes.
Isn't this lovely? You write down your wishes on
the scroll inside. Sit down quietly on the full
moon light. Fairies take flight and wishes
come true. Someone made that and someone
brought it here. Is there any difference between
that bit of nonsense and the notion that this God that we're
talking about is a God that's unable to save people unless
we assist him? This God of modern religion that
loves everyone but his love can't get them into heaven, This God
that desires to have these people saved, but his desires are frustrated
by man's omnipotence. This God that would put his son
to death on Calvary's tree, but his death not save them. It's
idolatry, brothers and sisters. It's hatred of God. But also, we have read of the
awesome sovereignty of our God. It's hatred of God and it's a
sign of the judgment of God. Wherever there is idolatry, there
is the just judgment of God. That's what Stephen said as they
put him to death, prepared to stone him to death. It says,
to whom our fathers, Acts 7.39, He spoke of God, and he spoke
of the presence of the Lord Jesus with his church in the wilderness,
and the angel that spoke from Sinai, and the giving of the
law in verse 38. To whom our fathers would not
obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back
again to Egypt, and said to Aaron, Make gods to go before us. For as for this Moses which brought
us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become
of him. And they made a calf in those
days and offered sacrifices unto the idol and rejoiced in the
works of their own hands." Then God turned as a result of their
rebellion against him and he gave them up. God gave them up. When they worshipped the host
of heaven, it is written in the Book of Prophets, you took, in
verse 43, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your
God, Rephan, figures which you made to worship them. Wherever there is idolatry, there
is the open, revealed judgment of God upon it. As he says in Psalm 81 verse
12, that my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel
would have none of me. Verse 12, so I gave them up unto
their own hearts' lust, and they walked in their own counsels. God gave them up. I used to say to the children
that we were caring for in Hebron, I said, we have no idea what
you guys are doing in your dorms. We have no idea. But what I do
know from the Word of God is that the worst thing that can
ever happen to you is for you to sin and get away with it. The worst thing that can ever
happen to you. See, the wrath of God, Romans
1 verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Idolatry
brings the wrath of God. Idolatry is the judgment of God
upon people. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. They have held the truth down. They have held the truth of who
God is. They've held the truth of his
son. They've held the truth of the
glory of who he is. Because all men descended from
Adam, and all men came out of the ark. All men trace their
lineage back to the Tower of Babel. All men are not ignorant,
and they're not ignorant, brothers and sisters. They're not ignorant,
and they're not innocent. You listen here to what God says. They hold the truth down, they
suppress it is what that means. Verse 19, because that which
may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it
to them. God has shown it to them. To
these Athenian idolaters and the idolaters of Australia right
now, God has shown it to them. They say they're ignorant and
they say they're atheist. God says they're liars. God says
you're lying. He says He's shown it to them.
Then in verse 20, for the invisible things of Him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they knew Him when they came out of the garden. Cain and Abel
knew about God. They knew about Him when they
came off the ark. They knew about Him at the Tower
of Babel when they knew God. They glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination, their
foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise. This is
Paul speaking to the Athenians. You profess yourselves to be
wise. Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and all that, you profess
to be wise. You become fools. You become
fools. And this is the beginning of
idolatry, isn't it? And you've changed the glory
of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man. Made like to corruptible man. That's the image, isn't it? They
pray, to a God that cannot save. Their minds are empty, says Paul. The vanity of their minds, the
ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their hearts.
They speak lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared
with hot iron. Idolatry is an affront to the
glory of God and therefore God must punish it. Idolatry is very
broad. Do you know what Paul describes
as idolatry in Ephesians 5? Covetousness is idolatry. looking upon something that someone
else has and desiring to have it for yourself. It's idolatry. There is a breadth to idolatry. There is a strength to idolatry.
Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived on this earth. Solomon
had the most remarkable privileges that you could ever wish to have
as a human being on this earth. And Solomon's heart was led astray
by the idolatry of his wives, and he joined into it. See, you
can make an idol out of anything. There are, and I pray they're
not here, but there are people who make an idolatry out of their
knowledge of true doctrine. There's an idolatry called the
Five Points of Calvinism. There's an idolatry called Reform
Theology, isn't there? People are proud, people are
proud that they're not like those dreadful Armenians who believe
in free will. There's a subtlety, there's a
strength, and there's a breadth to idolatry. Our God, our God is unique in
creation. His great charge against all
humanity is, you think that I'm altogether like you. We reduce His glory. That's why He says, only thou
art holy. There is none like Him. There's
none like Him in righteousness. There's none like Him in sovereignty,
in power, in omniscience. There's none like Him. He's unique,
our God. In every way he's unique. That word holy means to be separate,
to be other. The God of revelation is unknown
to this world and is unknowable apart from divine revelation. He's unknown and he's unknowable. Lord Jesus, we looked at it a
few weeks ago in Matthew 11. He rejoiced. He rejoiced in spirit. Because God has hidden things
from the wise and the prudent. And he's revealed them unto babes. Even our confession of him. Who
do you say that I am? And those people gave him some
great company, didn't they? Put him in some great company.
You're like Elijah. You might be Elijah. Who would
you say I am, Simon Bar-Jonah? You are the Christ, the son of
the living God. And what did he say? Blessed
are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. Because you didn't learn that
because of your wisdom. The Father revealed it to you. Revealed it to you. The real
Lord Jesus Christ is the great and glorious and holy God, and
you can't compare Him to anything. He's a jealous God. He's intolerant
of any rival. He will not share His glory with
another. All the gods that man have created
by their devices are not the real and living God in any way,
shape or form. Any God is not a God of absolute,
eternal and complete predestination, a God of election, a God of particular
redemption, a God who is absolutely sovereign. The people that create those
gods and follow them will be like them. There is a judgment
of God. Not unto us, says Psalm 115,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,
for thy mercy and thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where now is their God? But our God is in the heavens.
He is done whatsoever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. They are mouths, but they speak
not, eyes, They have, but they see not. Ears, but they hear
not. Noses, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet, they have and they walk
not. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusts in
them. Paul has taken this Athenian
crowd that came there to judge him to the one place that really
matters. He's taken them into the presence
of the true and living God, and he's taken them to the judgment
of God. He's taken them to the one place,
the one place where they will go, every one of that crowd,
met the Lord Jesus Christ 1,900 years ago. Two of them, two of them named
and others with them, heard those words and heard them as the very
words of God, Dionysius and Demaris and others with them. Because
God had revealed himself in the person of his dear son, in the
glory of his redemption. He turned their hearts away from
their idols, and he's turned their hearts to the true and
living God. May that be our portion. Let's
have a break.