I just want to, in our little
time we have together here, and the last time I have to speak
from this place to my friends until they come back again, I'd
like us just to look at those verses that Paul began with there
when he spoke of this God. He spoke about the unknown God
and he spoke about their ignorant worship. He looked at their devotions. and his spirit was stirred in
him. And then in verse 24, he declares the God who is unknown,
the God who is unknown to the Epicureans, the God who is unknown
to the Stoics, the God who is unknown, believe it or not, to
the Jews in the synagogue and to the devout there. He says
in verse 24, he describes our great God 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 worshipped
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things. The Athenians were sat
there and wherever you were, basically in Athens, you looked
up and you saw that magnificent Parthenon, that extraordinary
building that people are still writing books in awe of in this
day, those magnificent buildings. So God causes Paul to deal with
two areas of idolatry which were prevalent in Athens and are just
as prevalent today. May God protect us from looking
down our noses in any sort of self-righteousness or pride of
knowledge and say, we're not like them, we're not like them. We have on display in the idolatry
of this world what Adam's heart unrestrained will do. And Adam's flesh is what we are,
brothers and sisters. So woe to us if the things that
are declared in the scriptures and the things that we hold dear
to us become a source of pride. and are used in an arrogant and
a self-righteous way. Because that's what the Jews
were doing there in Athens in those days, no doubt. So there are two areas of idolatry,
isn't it? There's the idolatry of building
and the idolatry of worship. And in these couple of verses
we have those two revealed to us in the light of who our great
God is. He's the builder. He's the builder. And he is the one that ordains
his worship in this world, because, as the verse goes on to say,
he's a giver. So I just want to look at those
three things briefly. As we so often quote, don't we,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm going to build my church. I'm
going to build my church. And the gates of Hades, the gates
of Hades, gates are defensive weapons. They're not offensive
weapons. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes into this world, into this
world where Satan believes that he reigns. He reigns on a very,
very tight leash. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes
into this world. And in his journey, in his incarnation,
and in the journey throughout the Old Testament, in that journey
throughout this time until he returns again, he goes into Satan's
palace, where Satan keeps his goods at peace, and he says,
I have that one, that's mine. That one's mine. It might be
Rahab the harlot. It might be Ruth the malabitess. You think of the wonderful, extraordinary
pictures of grace throughout the scriptures, and nothing could
cause us to be more expectant and to more rejoice. The most
unlikely person to be a gospel preacher in all of that place
and time was this man called Saul of Tarsus. What was his
pedigree? A murderer. a blasphemer, and
a violent man. Religion. Religion had caused
him to climb as high as you could climb in the Jewish tree. All
he was waiting for was those above him to die, and he would
have climbed as high as it was. He was esteemed so highly by
all those people. And he heard the preaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ from the lips of Stephen and possibly
from the very lips of the Lord himself, and he was as cold and
dead and as far as you could imagine from God and his grace
and his glory as you could possibly imagine. Imagine standing there
and operating as they did in the face of the evidence that
stood before them. 500 people at the Sea of Galilee
saw the Lord Jesus Christ resurrected. Every time they opened their
scriptures, there were passages there about the Lord Jesus Christ.
How can you read Isaiah 53? How can you read Psalm 22 after
the resurrection and not think that you were there saying those
very things? And yet, our God Our God builds
in a way that man never builds. Our God builds by revelation. Our God builds by the work of
His Spirit in the lives of His people. Our God builds. I will build. See, He builds
the house. He builds the house that He dwells
in. I do love that verse in Ephesians
chapter 2. It's remarkable, isn't it? It
says in verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes
far off, how far? How far are the people that we
love and care for? How far are they? How far was
Paul? As far as you can possibly imagine,
and what's happened? are made nigh, they are made
near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who has
made both one and has broken down the middle wall of petition
between us, having abolished in His flesh The enmity, that
enmity that we have when we come forth from our mother's womb,
we have an enmity against God. We say over and over again, I
will not have that man rule over me. I will sit on my throne and
I'll have him to serve me. I won't have that man to rule
over me." And he's abolished this enmity. Even the law of
commandments, the law of commandments were there to exacerbate the
enmity, to show you, to show sinners how far they were from
God and how completely unable they were to build or to create
anything. to make in himself, verse 15,
to make in those two a new man, one new man, so making peace,
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity, and came and preached peace to you
which were far off." He's the preacher, brothers and sisters.
If you're ever going to hear from God, you're going to hear
from The Preacher. He preached peace to them that
were far off and to them that were nigh. For through Him we
both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore
are you no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. verse 20, and are built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed
together grows. groweth unto a holy temple in
the Lord. Then it says this, remarkably,
brothers and sisters, where God's gospel is proclaimed and His
Son is lifted up and the Son gathers these people to Himself.
It says, in whom you are also builded together for an habitation
of God. What a remarkable thing. God
dwelling in people, a habitation of God through the Spirit. If
you go on and look in that chapter and try and find something that
you do, it's not there, brothers and
sisters. What you did is in chapter 2 verse 1, isn't it? You were
dead in your trespasses and sins. where in time past you walked
according to the course of this 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 had our conversation,
we lived our lives there in times past, in the lust of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath. even as others." See, when God
builds, it's going to be on the basis of Him, isn't it? It's
the but God that does the building. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved and has raised us up together and made us. to sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us. through Christ Jesus. For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
See, God builds his house, brothers and sisters, and what's he got
to work with? What are these stones that he
works with? There's nothing in them. There's
nothing in them of any merit whatsoever. No wonder the wisdom
of men. The wisdom of men in Athens stirred
Paul's spirit. And he didn't say anything complimentary
to them at all. He told these most brilliant
people the most brilliant philosophers the world had seen, and they'd
gathered all that brilliant philosophy for hundreds of years and accumulated
it together and made it as pretty and as nice and as appealing
to the hearts and the flesh and the wisdom of man. And Paul says
it's stupid, superstitious nonsense. Fancy worshipping an unknown
God, having an altar to an unknown God, and then turning around
and saying, how brilliant I am. Dear idea. Paul is there as a
champion of the gospel, as a declarer of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is, the great God of this world. And he says, you're doing all
this building, you've built your buildings, you've built your
philosophy, you've built your religion, you've built all this
stuff, and it's worthless, useless. In fact, it's worse than that.
It is damning to your souls. But God is a builder. Look what
he goes on to say, isn't he? God made the world. God made
the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven
and earth, and he doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. What silliness to try and think
that you can bring a God who created this universe down and
have him fit in a temple. That's what Solomon said, didn't
he? Solomon knew it when he built that temple. He knew that every
little tiny part of that temple was a reflection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he said, this isn't big enough. This is built
according to the pattern that we ought to build it. But it's
not big enough to contain him. It's not big enough to contain
him. See, Paul goes back to creation because creation is a picture
of salvation. Creation pictures the salvation
of God. See what happened in Genesis
chapter 1? Paul is referring to it in Genesis chapter 1. He
refers to it in reference to the Corinthians, who we'll meet
with just a little while later, isn't it? The great declaration
of grace in the Bible is, in the beginning, God. And therefore
everything else that happens in this universe is the result
of in the beginning God, always. Not in the beginning man, in
the beginning God. And the spirit moved on the face
of the deep and God spoke a word. God spoke a word in this building
of his people together and he spoke a word, let there be light. Let there
be light. Paul says exactly the same thing.
That's why in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, those remarkable verses that
are just full of the most extraordinary statements from our God. He says,
if our gospel's hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom
the mind God, 2 Corinthians 4, 4, in whom the God of this world
has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine upon them. This is why we're not preaching,
for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and
ourselves, your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts. God shines in the hearts of his
people. has shined in our heart to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And where do you see the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God? In the face of Jesus
Christ. For we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. The building that Paul was interested
in is the same building that God is interested in because
God's spirit moved him. He's interested in a spiritual
building. He's not interested in man-made
buildings. He's interested in a spiritual
building that God had ordained from the foundation of the world.
God created the body, didn't he? He says, a body you have
prepared for the Lord Jesus Christ. That body is the church. He is
the head, we are the body. A body you have prepared for
me. And in that creation of the Incarnation, when the Lord Jesus
Christ came and dwelt in that womb of Mary, exactly the same
words that are used in Genesis 1, the Spirit moved over the
Virgin. The Spirit moved over the Virgin.
See, God creates the body of Christ. And when Christ is formed
in a sinner, the body becomes the temple of the living God. Such is the wonder of the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So glorious is his work in purifying
the hearts of his people in declaring that he was going to do what
he promised to do, and that was to take these people, these sinners,
these ones that are dead, these ones that have no life in them,
no spiritual life in them whatsoever, to present you. You see, he takes
this body, he takes this bride, and it's his task to present
you as Colossians 1.21, in the body of his blessed through death,
to present you holy, and unblamable and unapprovable
in His sight. He creates this body, He is the
builder. God's children in this world
are perfectly fit places for that holy, awesome God of Mount
Sinai, that God who is a consuming fire, that God who holds this
universe in His hands. They are a perfectly fit place
for Him to dwell because of the work of His dear Son. What blasphemy it is to add our
building to his building." See, he builds, and each living
stone is into a holy temple, a habitation of God by the Spirit. And when John saw that celestial
city, there was no temple in that city. There's no temple
there, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple.
And every elect child of God is transferred by a sovereign
hand of God from that kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of the light of his Son. Paul's spirit was stirred when
he saw the idolatry. Idolatry is presenting God as
in need of sinners' strength for them to be made the temple
of God. But somehow you have to add your
little bit to it. There's a sculptor I heard of
many years ago, and the sculptor sculpted someone who had a hammer
and chisel in his hand, and he'd actually done a reasonably good
job on his face, and he was working his way down his body and polishing. it as he went. I think it's just
a great picture of what man is trying to do in this world, and
man in religion in particular. May God protect us from false
prophets, from philosophy, from all the anti-Christ religion
of this world that presents God as being in need. The great declaration
of our God is that he shall not fail. He cannot be frustrated. His purposes which he purposed
in eternity can't be stopped. It is easy for him to create
a universe. And somehow we think that these
blades of grass, these little bits of flower that will be here
one day and gone the next, can stand and shake their fist in
the face of Almighty God and tell Him what He can and cannot
do. It's extraordinary, isn't it, when you hear these people
say, well, I'm going to invite the Holy Spirit in. They have
this thing called worship these days, don't they? Every time
I hear this idea that we have worship leaders and that worship
is somehow all about dancing and singing and making lots of
emotion, I just cringe. I just cringe. Somehow that God
is lacking power, that God is somehow unable or in need. It's idolatry. And the greatest
idolatry, isn't it, is that God owes me because of what I have
done. You builders, you builders, says
Peter, you builders rejected this stone, this tried stone,
this corner stone, you builders rejected him. The idolatry of
our building and the idolatry of our worship God doesn't need
anything. He doesn't need anything. He doesn't need anything. If He needed anything, He couldn't
make anything. He's absolutely sovereign. He doesn't need anything. The saints of God knew it. Nehemiah said in that great prayer
of his, when God had brought him back and they were building
the walls around Jerusalem, those walls that pictured the Lord
Jesus Christ. and they were built in such a
way that there was no question about who was doing the building.
Even the enemy said that this is God's hand and this has been
done in such a way. And he speaks and prays this
prayer, he says, stand up and bless, praise the Lord your God
forever and ever, and blessed be thy glorious name which is
exalted above all blessing and praise. In Psalm 16, Our God reveals
that He needs nothing and He gains nothing because
He's perfect in Himself. He was before the foundation
of the world. That prayer of the Lord Jesus
Christ in Psalm 16, Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put
my trust. O my soul, Thou hast said unto
the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to
Thee. But, where does he goodness go? But to the saints that are in
the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. That's how he describes his people.
So he's neither worshipped as the idolatry of building and
then the idolatry of worship stirred Paul's heart. He's neither
worshipped with man's hand as though he needed anything, seeing
he giveth all life and breath and all things. See, false religion
begins with man building the temple of God by their own hands. That's exactly what the Tower
of Babel was about, wasn't it? What did they do at the Tower
of Babel? There are two ingredients in that great tower of man's
idolatry that God destroyed. One was the bricks that they
made with their own hands, and the other was the mortar between
the bricks. It was called slime. The word is propitiation, atonement. So what they were doing was mixing
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and mixing the work of man's
hands, and God saw it. and destroyed it, and called
Abraham out of all of that, and created out of Abraham, out of
Abraham's loins, the faith children of God. See, false religion begins with
man's hands, and what you begin with is what you finish with. So the gospel you believe that
you were saved under is the gospel that you believe. And if the
gospel that you believe is the gospel that began with man's
activities, you will be wanting to finish it for the rest of
your days with man's activities, unless the Lord comes away and
destroys your tower of Babel. No wonder, no wonder in this
religious world and in this Jewish synagogue in Athens there's so
much speech talking about sanctification and holiness. But in doing so,
in doing so, so often they're just denying the glory of God's,
Christ's finished work as the builder. They're denying the
glory of the Spirit's continuing work in the hearts of His people
to lead them into all truth and to take the Lord Jesus Christ's
finished work and reveal it to them. They're denying the Father's
electing, covenanting work. See, worship is not the things
we do in church, brothers and sisters. And worship is not our
outward morality of touch not, taste not, handle not. I delight
in the singing and the reading and the prayers. But see, true
worship is created by God the Spirit, and it's entered into
by the power of the Holy Spirit. So we do all of these things,
and God's people are zealous for good works. But true worship,
as according to Philippians 3, are worshipping God in the Spirit
and they have no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in your
fleshly activity, no confidence. Those that worshipped God in
our Lord Jesus Christ when he was in this world worshipped
him with tears, worshipped him with their need, worshipped him
when he declared himself to be God. That Syrophoenician woman
in Matthew chapter 15, she came to him in the most appalling
situation. She had a demon-possessed daughter,
and she had nowhere else to go, and no help from anyone else. And she met him, didn't she?
And he met her. And she calls out to him, have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. And how did he respond? He answered
her not a word. They said to send her away. And he said to her, I'm not sent,
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What did she
do when she heard that? She worshipped him. She said,
I'll take my place as a dog at your table and I'll wait for
a crane to fall. Like Mary weeping at the Lord's
feet. See, God draws his people into
true worship. by the preaching of the gospel. And that's why I want to finish
with this lovely thought, isn't it? That God is the giver. If
you're going to worship him, if you're going to be built by
him, he's going to be the giver. He's the giver. He giveth to
all life and breath and all things. He giveth to all. He giveth to
all. He doesn't need anything. He
gives to all. Our God is so glorious that He
is not in need of anything and He gives to all. Paul finished
that amazing section in Romans with those verses that ought
to be memorised, isn't it? Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, Romans 11.33. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out, for who has known the mind of
the Lord, or who has been his counsellor? Or who has first
given to him that it shall be recompensed unto him again? For
of him and through him and to Him are all things, to
whom be glory for ever." See, our God is majestic, He's solitary
in His majesty, He's unique in His excellency, He's peerless
in His perfection, He sustains everything, and He Himself is
independent of all. So you cannot worship a God who
is not absolutely sovereign. You cannot worship a God who
has the destiny of this world in his hands, yours and everyone
else. You're a dependent. And God's
children are happy dependents. They come as babes. Just think
about the glorified saints in heaven for a moment. Abel's been
there for a long time. Abraham's been there for a long
time. Sarah's been there for a long
time. Moses and Elijah were there. When they came to the Mount of
Transfiguration from heaven, they had a real existence, a
real and recognisable existence, did they not? Peter knew who
they were. One was Moses and one was Elijah. And such as it
is with all of us when we get there, brothers and sisters in
Christ, we have a real existence. What sustained Moses being in
heaven for that 1500 years before he came to the Mount of Transfiguration? What sustained those saints in
heaven when they sing the songs of the Redeemer right now, what
sustains them? What gives them their being?
What gives them the power to worship? Who or what gives them
the power to even ask questions? They're asking questions, how
long? How long are you going to wait? How long is this world
going to go on? See, what and from where does
their energy for worship come from? The answers are really simple,
aren't they? It cannot possibly come from them. See, whatever
the spiritual economy of heaven is, is in reality the spiritual
economy of earth. We sing the same songs here,
brothers and sisters. We are sustained by the same
power. So God creates and He rules and He sustains all. God of the scriptures sustains
it all because He purposed it from the foundation of the world.
And He makes a covenant in the blood of His Son. and he makes
this universe and he makes this creation so that his son could
come and die outside of Calvary and every tiny part of human
history is ordered for one purpose in the mind of God and that's
for the glory of his son. To reveal to his people his holiness,
to reveal to his people his sovereignty, to reveal to his people that
he's a just God and a saviour. He will not save anyone without
the absolute satisfaction of his justice. He's a God who speaks,
a God who speaks in promise, a God who signs and seals those
promises with the blood of His Son. And that's why the children
here, like those in heaven, they are kept by the power of God
through faith. You cannot keep yourself. We're
kept by the power of God through faith. We're kept in love for Him because
He first loved us. He creates love. This notion
of common love is useless love. This notion of common grace is
useless grace. There is an eternally elected,
accepted people. And they're accepted in Him.
And the only way we can be accepted in Him is because of grace, because
we have nothing to offer Him whatsoever. We're held in His
hands, we're carried in His arms, we lean upon the arm of His strength,
and He predestinates every event that comes into this universe
to make sure that His purpose is that purpose. in eternity
is fulfilled. Every tiny little thing in this
universe is moved that He will bring His people to Himself and
together with Him. It's all to the praise of the
glory of His grace. There is no glory in common grace. It's all to the praise of His
wisdom. He found a way to make sin to be in His presence no
more. And he found a way where he would
exalt his justice, he would exalt his mercy, he would exalt his
truth, he would exalt his faithfulness in the just transfer of sin from
us to him because it was his. It was his by covenant promise. It was his by union with his
own. It was His, by His love and His
ownership and His declaration that she is His. It was a just
transfer. A righteous, holy God made our
sins, brothers and sisters in Christ, to be His sin. And a
just and righteous, holy God made His righteousness, the very
righteousness of God, to be our righteousness. and we don't add
to it. Nor, as we read in Romans 8,
can we take away from it. Nothing. can separate us. So it's a glorious redemption,
a glorious redeemer that we worship, an absolutely sovereign God that
we worship, one who has perfectly cleaned his people, one who now
causes them to be accepted, fully forgiven. We have fully kept
the law of God. And he calls his people by the
preaching of the gospel to worship him. He creates the worship of
his people because he makes himself to be worth-ship, to be so worthy
that worship flows naturally to a child of God. You gaze upon
him and you'll worship him if you are made by God to see him. And all of this is by the almighty,
irresistible operation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is God Almighty. He has no problem in achieving
His purposes, just as the Father and the Son had no problem. It's the glorious work that's
finished that makes us accepted in the Beloved. No condemnation,
no separation ever. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would cause us again and again to have our
eyes taken from this world and all of what might seem attractive
and powerful, and you would take us back to your dear and precious
Son. You'd cause us to ponder, Heavenly
Father, the eternity that lays before us. It might find us rejoicing
in the fact that we are accepted in the Beloved. that on that
cross, when that body, that precious body was broken, and that blood
was shed, our glorious Redeemer could cry to you, our Father,
it is finished. And you saw the travail of his
soul, and you were satisfied. Therefore your righteous servant
justifies the many. Oh, our Father, cause us to remember
Him, that we might worship Him, that we might rejoice in who
He is, rejoice in what He's done, rejoice in what He's doing, rejoice
in our meeting with Him, rejoice in being with Him forever, our
Father. Make His blood precious to us. Make his life to be life for
us, our Father. Cause us to delight in being
built, and grant us the grace of worshipping in spirit and
in truth, your precious Son. We pray for the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Father, who now, according to your promise,
stands in heaven interceding for us. Hear his prayers and bless us
for his sake, our Father. Amen.