As I said earlier in Acts chapter
14, we have Paul's sermon, as it were, a plea to this pagan
crowd of people. One of the things that should
be the easiest message to ever get across to the people of this
world is the fact of the depravity of man. And that depravity expressed
in the fact that wherever man can possibly, can possibly have
a freedom, he will just create idols. We are, we have hearts
that are just idol factories. And it's very easy, isn't it?
And it's of great danger to look upon these people in Lystra and
the blindness and the response of that blindness in wanting
to attribute the things that Paul had so evidently and so
clearly manifested as being the works of the Lord Jesus, to attribute
them to demons. It is just evident, isn't it? It's evident from the Scriptures,
but it's evident from the reality that we live in, that in every
in every situation that the creature has ever been put in, he has
turned and he's corrupted it. Just imagine what it must have
been for the angels to have been created by God. created to see
God, created to see God's sacrifice in His Son, created what it must
have been like for that host of angels to be in heaven. And
yet, and yet, one of those angels was found to be proud, and he
infected all of our race. You might recall the words of
Satan, In Isaiah chapter 14, it says, how art thou fallen
from heaven? He was in heaven, brothers and
sisters. I don't know what that heaven
looked like. All we can do is be in awe and
wonder that what God created was remarkable. was remarkable,
and the angels are here today and they are bearing witness
to the fact that it was remarkable. But how art thou fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down
to the ground, which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said
in thine heart, and listen to Satan, listen to the words of
Satan, and they are repeated throughout time and they are
repeated in the hearts of all unregenerate people in this world. What evidence was laid before
Satan of the glory of God? He said in his heart, I will
ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. God created him. And he fell,
but in his falling he said, I will, I will, I will, I will. God created Adam and Eve and
put them in a garden, a garden paradise. A garden paradise where
they walked with God and talked with God and felt no shame. And yet the poison of Satan's
high wills deceived Eve and Adam, fell knowingly and willingly
into sin, and brought his whole race down into the depths of
depravity. Noah had the world to himself,
he and eight souls in total. And yet Noah, with all of the
privileges, all of the privileges of being rescued out of that
catastrophe of God's judgment, of wrath upon the wickedness
of men, whose imaginations or the thoughts of their hearts
were only evil continually, they were continually saying, I will,
I will, I will. And now what? Noah had the privilege
of being put in the ark, an ark of God's design, and God shut
him in and shut his family in. And no sooner does Noah come
out of the ark than we find him in a drunken stupor and one of
his sons is cursed. Again and again, brothers and
sisters, in the places of the most remarkable privilege, man
has always always fallen into depravity. And yet here we are,
thousands of years after all of those events, and the hardest
thing that is for any preacher to get across, and it's the impossible
thing and God alone can do it, is to show people that that's
what they are. We read the stories of these
people in Lystra and we're horrified and think, dear oh dear, I wouldn't
have done that. and in your very admission you
reveal the depths from which you need to be saved. We would
have done it, brothers and sisters, we would have done it. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
You may well know the story of Nadab and Abihu. Nadab and Abihu
were the sons of Aaron. They had been in Egypt and saw
God's judgment on the Egyptians and his rescue and blessing of
the nation Israel. They had walked through the Red
Sea with a wall of water on either side. They had been to Mount
Sinai and up onto Mount Sinai in the very presence of God.
And in Leviticus chapter nine, they are dressed in all these
remarkable clothes, the clothes of the priesthood. And they witnessed
in Leviticus nine, they witnessed the fire came down out of heaven
before the Lord. The Lord lit the altar and consumed
upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which all the people
saw and they shouted and they fell on their faces. Nadab and
Abihu were there, dressed in priestly garments. And the very
next thing that they do in Leviticus chapter 10, and Nadab and Abihu,
the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer and put fire
therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before
the Lord, which he commanded them not. and there went out
fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the
Lord." The wonder of the Gospel is that
salvation is a mighty operation of God. It's a miracle of His
grace. It's a miracle of His grace.
Not only that He rescues us out of all of that, and you can read
the rest of the scriptures and all you find is that men put
in the most remarkable positions fall in the most spectacular
way. The best of our race in terms
of intelligence was Solomon. And yet, his wives turned his
heart from God. It should be, with any glance
at the newspapers, any glance at the news on television, it
should be an easy, easy thing to point out to people the utter
depravity of the hearts of men. And that depravity reaches in
all sorts of ways, doesn't it? It reaches in religious ways,
it reaches in the ways of corrupting the truth. And sadly, the captivation
of this idolatry that we see before us with these people is
a captivation which has, for thousands of years, kept millions
and billions of people in captivity. These man-made gods of man's
creation are useless. Useless gods. But it is fascinating as we read
this account. These people in Lystra had seen
a miracle. Their gods couldn't have performed this miracle.
Their gods hadn't performed this miracle. This was a miracle that
was bearing testimony as we've seen to in previous messages,
it's bearing testament to the veracity, the truthfulness of
the declaration of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. All the miracles
of the apostles in the New Testament, all the miracles of the Lord
Jesus Christ are pictures of salvation and they are demonstrations
that the word which was preached is honoured and owned and magnified
by God. So there was this crowd, they'd
heard Paul preach, they'd seen this miracle, and then immediately,
we read, don't we, and then when the people saw what Paul had
done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia,
the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. It is interesting, isn't it,
that in all of idolatry there are shadows of reality. Paul had just been preaching
to them that the God, the God, the living God of this universe
had come down to us in the form of a man. And yet these people
heard that and saw what Paul had done, and then they wanted
to attribute this to the work of their idols. The gods have
come down to us in the likeness of men. It is interesting, isn't
it? Noah will no doubt encounter
it many times, and I encounter the question. I dealt with it
on several occasions. When I was in America, and when
you travel you meet with it so often, people want to talk about
how God has revealed himself to people. and how often they want to talk
about how similar the religions of this world are in various
ways to the religion of God. and how there are, in all of
these religions there is sacrifice and there is offering and there
is a God to be appeased. There is a sense of, there is
some sense in most of them of the sense that the gods are incensed
at them and you must do something about it. And people say, well
there you are, all these religions are made by man and invented
by man. The reality is that we ought
to expect that the religions of men will have echoes of the
of the true and living God. A terribly distorted echo, but
an echo nonetheless. You think of all of humanity,
you think of human history in light of the scriptures, all
men descended from Adam, all men came from that garden. We
are the remarkable recipients of the providence of God in keeping
our lineage alive. You're only here today because
your parents were alive. And their parents were alive.
And their parents were alive. Billions had perished, but yours
were alive. And yours were alive out of the
garden. Yours were alive when they came
off Noah's Ark. And so when man came off Noah's
Ark, what did all of humanity understand? They understood that
there's a God. A God who is able to exercise
wrath and a God who is able to exercise mercy to people. They knew about a sacrifice.
Noah had the sacrifices on the ark. We should expect that the
religions of this world, wherever they are, as pagan as they are,
as idolatrous and evil and as blasphemous as they are, they
have some echo of this. Just as these gods here, I don't
want to go into the whole business about Jupiter, you can read about
them. They have, these are, Jupiter and Zeus and all of these gods
are just similar, they're all different names for the same
god. and they're as common in this
world today as they were 2,000 years ago. People are worshipping
all this idolatrous stuff. I met someone on a plane and
he was the first Christian that had actually lied to me in my
conversations with me, and he wanted to establish what I thought
and what I believed and who I was associated with, pretending that
he wasn't a believer. And then it turns out later on
that he is a believer and that he knows all about Bible colleges
and he's a passionate member of a church, but he despises
the God of sovereign election and grace. And he has created
an idol God in his heart. And the remarkable thing is that
he was meeting me and one of the things he wanted to tell
me about was his new girlfriend. He'd left his wife and he had
a new girlfriend. And the new girlfriend is heavily
into Buddhism and astrology. And he thinks it's absolutely
wonderful that he can go to church. But she actually lives out in
this wonderful way her astrological beliefs. Man is capable of distorting
the things of God all the time. The gods have come down to us
in the likeness of men, in the likeness of men. But so distorted are these creatures. At the gate of this city in Lyconia,
in Lystra, at the gate of this city they had this temple of
Jupiter. And these temples were scenes of grotesque idolatry,
homosexuality and prostitution and all sorts of other things.
And it was the guardian, they thought it was the guardian of
their city. So in verse 12 it says, they
called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the
chief speaker. It just shows you how captivating
and how deceiving false religion is, isn't it? They had just heard
about the God, the God who performs miracles, the God who came in
the form of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God who fulfilled all of
the Old Testament Scriptures. They'd just heard Him proclaim
before them. They'd just seen this, and yet
they want to attribute to their gods the activities that they
see before them, activities that their gods had never done. Verse
13, and the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city,
brought oxen and garlands under the gates, and would have done
sacrifice with the people. He came to do sacrifice. He came
to do sacrifice. So here are Paul and Barnabas
in the midst of this pagan town, and they perform one miracle,
and they want to call them gods. They want to call them gods.
The Lord Jesus Christ performed miracle after miracle after miracle
for three whole years. And all the Jews wanted to do
with him is make him into a sacrifice. And here we have the response
of the apostles. and it's the response of all
of God's people to anything that wants to highlight man in any
way as the agent of anything that happens in this world, which
when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of, they rent their
clothes and ran in among the people crying out. See, the heathen emperors sought
the title of God, didn't they? One of them had coins minted,
didn't it? God, Lord and Saviour, or God
and Saviour. Christ's ministers. refuse such
honours. They rent their clothes. They
did everything they possibly could to show these people that
what they were involved in was nothing other than pagan idolatry.
When they were vilified by these crowds, they didn't rent their
clothes then, but when they had men put honours upon them, they
rent their clothes. They tore their clothes to say
that we are not worthy of this. See, they had honour enough.
God's children have honour enough by being called into Christ's
kingdom and service. And all of the honours of men
are but vanity. And they ran into the crowds. As soon as Paul and Barnabas
knew what was going on, they ran into the crowds. They gave
them no opportunity. They wanted to stop this lie.
They wanted to stop this charade as quickly as they possibly could. God's servants despise the thought
of them being honoured above others. God's servants delight
in being servants, and they acknowledge in a heartbeat that they are
but unprofitable servants. Just men. Sirs, why do you do
these things? We are men of like passions with
you. We are men just as you are men. All men are subject to the same
Adam nature. But Paul and Barnabas want to
establish with this pagan crowd, and establish to the believers
that might have followed that crowd in some way, that we are
just men. God's people despise men being
elevated above other men. This notion of clergy laity is
a despicable notion. The idea of men getting dressed
up in priestly garb and elevating themselves by their education
and by their status and by the esteem of others, elevating themselves
above other men, is just so abhorrent to the child of God who's been
made to see that he's nothing but sin. It is no harm for God's
people to esteem others better than themselves, because you
look a whole lot better than I do when I look inside myself,
brothers and sisters. It's easy for God's servants
to esteem others higher than themselves. That's why Even Elijah. Even Elijah, the greatest of
the prophets. Even Elijah. James says, Elijah
was a man subject to like passions as we are. We're just men. We're just sinful, frail, suffering
men. And the lower we can get, and
the more elevated the Lord Jesus Christ is, the better off we
are. All the time. All the time. And if the Lord has to knock
us down and to humble us, then it's a good thing. But these
men want to elevate men. They ran into the crowds. We are men of like passions with
you, and we preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities
to the living God. You've heard us preach of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to preach to you
again. So this is the first sermon directed at an openly pagan audience
in the scriptures. And Paul's sermon is very instructive,
isn't it? He starts by saying that he's
just a man. He starts by lowering himself
as low as possible. He says to them, these are vanities. Vanities. That means empty, useless
and worthless. It's hard for me to think of
this message and think about the circumstances of it without
being reminded of the idolatry that you lived in in India. And
I think others can bear witness to it. I've spoken to others
who felt the same, that the more time you spent there surrounded
by these demonic creatures, Pictured in every way, you could hardly
turn in the towns of India and not see evil-looking idols staring
at you. You couldn't go into a shop without
them being there. You couldn't be in a taxi or
a rickshaw without them being there. You couldn't look up to
the hills or to the streets without seeing them there. And the longer you were there,
And the more you realised what evil they were and what evil
they allowed into the hearts of people, the more despairing
of them you became. Even your driver's licence in
India had on it a picture of the biggest temple in our state. So you couldn't even have your
driver's licence out without having to look at these pagan
things. But the worst of it was, of course, the terrible, terrible
captivity of people to all of that evil. They were bound in
the most appalling chains by all of that. the evil, the evil
of pagan religion that captivates people made in the image of God. And as we see from these people
here, now as soon as they see a miracle and they're attributing
this to the work of Paul and Barnabas, you can see how quickly,
no wonder India has 33 million gods, they made two gods in a
heartbeat these people, didn't they? All of a sudden Paul and
Barnabas are gods. They make them in a heartbeat
and then they are captive to them. They are captive to the
creation of their own imaginations. Men carve these idols out of
a deceived imagination. Paul says they're useless gods.
They can't speak, they can't move, they can't create, they
can't heal, they can do nothing. And the scriptures are just full,
aren't they? Full of pictures of the evil
of all of the idolatry that was around. As I said earlier, these
are all, all these idols and all these demons, are similar
throughout that world. It wasn't as if the Bible was
written in a vacuum, it was written in the midst of these things.
You might recall the capture of the Ark by by Dagon, by the
Philistines, and they took the Ark of God into the temple of
Dagon. It's in 1 Samuel chapter 5. And the Philistines took the
Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. And when the Philistines took
the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and
they set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod rose
early in the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face
to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. So what do you do when
Dagon's fallen? knew exactly what these people
did. So they took Dagon and they set him up again in his place.
And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon
was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the
Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were
cut off. All that Dagon might be able
to do with his hands, all that Dagon might be able to do with
his head, is broken and gone. only the stump of Dagon was left
to him. The remarkable thing is that
you'd think that they'd question whether Dagon was really the
true and living God, wouldn't you, or God worthy of that. But
therefore, they created another superstitious, idolatrous behaviour
out of this, didn't they? So captivating are these works
of men's imaginations. Therefore neither the priest
of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold
of Dagon in Ashton." When you walk into the place, you step
over the doorway because that's where Dagon met this fall. So instead of it being something
that turns people to ponder these things, all of the activities,
even the activities that bring them down, are used by deceived
men to entrench and to deepen it. You can see how captivating
it is. In India, it was just awful to
see people so captured and trapped. And they would give all of their
life savings because they needed to appease these gods. And you look at them, and they're
evil and horrible. He says, Paul in our passage
starts preaching to these people. We are men of light passion,
so we are nothing, and we preach to you that you should turn from
these vanities, turn from this empty, useless, worthless religion
unto the living God. Isn't it wonderful that there
is a command going out to the pagan world that you turn from
these vanities? You might remember that in Acts
chapter 17 is a longer passage on on Paul preaching to a pagan
nation. And he says in verse 30 of chapter
17, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, or God overlooked,
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. The one word from
God, the one word to be preached to these things is that people
turn from them. turn from them. What a wonderful
word from God, that there is a turning from them. And the
child of God will cry out, as the scriptures say, turn me and
I'll be turned. Heal me and I'll be healed. Save
me and I'll be saved. You turn me. You turn me, God,
and I'll be turned. The command comes with power
to the children of God. You turn, turn from vanities
unto the living God. It's a lovely description of
our God, isn't it? He's the living God. So much,
so often, in unbelief, So often when we look in despair over
the things that are happening in this world, we dethrone our
God, but we also declare Him to be not living. A living God
is an active God. He says that He's working all
things for the good of those who loved Him or are called according
to His purpose. He's living and active. He has
a purpose. He has a will. He does his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
Paul's commission is to preach this gospel, isn't it? He says
he's going to send Paul to the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus Christ
has sent him to these Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn
them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto
God. So the power of the evil that
entraps 800 million people in India and entraps countless millions
around the world is actually by God attributed to Satan. The power of Hinduism is in the
reality of the satanic beings there. So it's a real entrapment. to turn them, to open their eyes,
to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan
unto God, that they may receive, this is Acts 26.18, they may
receive the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is something
you don't earn. Forgiveness of sins is received. because it's a gift from God.
And he makes sure his people receive it. Receive the forgiveness
of sins and inheritance. So you don't earn an inheritance.
Inheritance is something you get because of your birth. Among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. The faith that sanctifies, the
faith that makes people holy before a holy God, the faith
is in Him. I love the fact that it's in
Him. It's His faithfulness. God looks on His faithfulness,
and this living God looks on His faithfulness and finds all
of His people perfectly faithful too. That's the gospel, brothers
and sisters. It's good news for sinners. It's
good news for those who have been in darkness. Turn from these
vanities. Be converted. Return. Turn from
these empty, useless things to the living God. There was this
man, this picture of salvation, this crippled man in their very
midst, leaping and walking around, and he'd never walked before. The living God had done it. Then
he goes on to describe this living God. He says it is living, under
the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all
things that are therein. This God created everything,
this God controls everything, this God rules everything. Therefore
your gods don't. So one of the great things about
our God is, and I love that word, the name he gave to Moses at
the burning bush, he says, I am that I am. It's the name of Jehovah
is in that name. He says, I save in the way in
which I save, but also if he is, then everything else in this
creation only derives its existence from him, everything. He is,
therefore everything else that is comes from Him, the living
God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that
are therein. Your vain gods, your empty, worthless,
useless gods create nothing and they control nothing. Then he
describes the character of our God. He describes him as creator. He wants them to see with no
doubt whatsoever that our God, the living God, is the creator
of the universe. He created them. He rules and
controls all things. It's to him they owe allegiance,
not to these other demons, who in times past suffered all nations
to walk in their own ways. There was a time But that time
has passed when he's suffered all nations to walk in their
own ways. In Acts 17.30 we read that he
winked at that, he just overlooked it. There was a time when the
Lord suffered the idolatry of this world. It was, this world owes its existence
to his patience with them, but also it owes its existence to
his promises to his people. He says, the Most High, verse
8, divided the nations, their inheritance. He set the boundaries.
When He divided the nations at the Tower of Babel and He said,
you will go to these places, and they did. The Most High divided
the nations, their inheritance. When He separated the sons of
Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number
of the children of Israel. So why, why has he suffered them
all this time? He suffered them all this time
because out of those idolatrous nations were going to be born
his children. Why did he suffer Moab to treat
Israel with such terrible, terrible wickedness? Because Ruth was
it, Moab. Why does he suffer Australia
to blaspheme him, to treat his son and his sacrifice and his
church with utter contempt and disdain? Why? Because he has his people here.
He'll have a Ben from Bega come and worship him, which is why
he hasn't destroyed Bega yet. And while we live, brothers and
sisters, While we live, we have reason. We have reason to believe
that the Lord still has his people out there. It's the only reason
this world continues. He suffered those nations because,
as Revelation 5 says, the song they're singing in heaven is
a song saying, thou art worthy. Lord Jesus Christ, you are worthy,
no one else is worthy, you take the book, you take the book of
the eternal covenant, you take the book, the Lamb's book of
life, you take the book in which all the names of your bride is
written, all those given to you by your Father, you take the
book and you open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain. thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred, tongue, and people, and nation." God has his people
out there, brothers and sisters. Why did he allow the pagan, idolatrous
worship of Jupiter in that city? Because he had his people there.
He had his people there. We'll read about it in the following
message, Lord willing. But this gospel age has come.
This gospel age has now come. And now with the declaration
of the gospel, that time has passed, our text says. That time
has passed when God winks at things. The time has passed. And time's passed. Now, in this
gospel age, there is no excuse. Now there is a command from God
that you turn from these vanities. Now man is more responsible than
ever he was before, because this gospel has gone out to all the
world. People think as we move from the cross of the Lord Jesus
in time, people become less responsible. The reality is, as time goes
on and God clarifies his word by the confirmation of all of
his promises, that people become more responsible now. People
in religion, all sorts of religion, are more responsible now than
they were thousands of years ago, because we have witnessed
more and we have seen more. We've seen the damage of will
worship. We have no excuse. When people meet God, they will
have no excuse. And verse 17 tells us why. Nevertheless, he has not left
himself without witness. He's not left himself without
witness, our God. All through that time, he's witnessed,
he's borne witness to his goodness, in that he did good and gave
us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons. He did good. He's proof of his claim. To be worthy of honour is the goodness
of God. It's remarkable, isn't it? He
is. the Creator. But Paul refers
these people to the things that are lying before them on a moment
by moment and day by day basis. The very water they drink is
the gift of God. The very food they eat is the
gift of God. The very clothes they wear is
the gift of God. The very shelter they shelter
in from the storm is the gift of God. And God reminds it to
people over and over again. In droughts and storms and other
things, he reminds them, doesn't he, that he is the sustainer
and the provider. He did good. He gave us rain
from heaven, and he gave us fruitful seasons, and he's filling our
hearts with food and gladness. People worry about climate change,
don't they? They think that the planet's getting warmer and maybe
it is and maybe it's not. And they worry about what's going
to happen and they think, oh, it's all catastrophic and chaos. God has promised in Genesis 8,
hasn't he? while the earth remaineth, Genesis
8.22. Whenever someone wants to tell
you that despair is coming, while earth remaineth, seed time and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall
not cease. There's not coming a time, brothers
and sisters, where seed time and harvest won't be there. Doesn't
matter what the scientist says, God says it. God says it. He gave us rain from season and
fruitful seasons, rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and he's
filled the hearts of people with food and gladness. Isn't that remarkable? He's filled
the hearts of people with food and gladness. And here they are
attributing all of this to Jupiter, attributing all of this to Satan. So the sacrifices that pagans
make to their idolatrous notions of God are sacrifices to demons. They are sacrifices to devils.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10.20, he said, but I say, the things
which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and
not to God. It's just devil worship which
is going on throughout this world and Paul doesn't want his people
to have fellowship with devils. That's why he ran into this crowd
and he rent his clothes and he cried out this. message that
we're reading here. We're reading it in quietness.
Paul was anxious and agonizing in his delivery of this message,
wasn't he? You turn from these vanities, you turn to the living
God, the God who is the creator of all things. He's let you get
away with this in the past, but now there's a time and he's not
left himself without witness. No doubt we'll have the discussion
like all of us have had at times where people say, well, what
about the person who was born in the jungle somewhere and has
never heard the gospel? Have you heard that? You'll hear
it. People say, what about that person? And always, always, they're
actually not talking about the person, they're talking about
themselves, and always what they're doing is elevating that person
to someone who's the sweetest, nicest person you could possibly
imagine them to be. They elevate that person to the
idol of what they think they would like to be. They never
tell you what about the person who is a wicked, adulterous murderer
and killer of children and brutal in every possible way and deceitful
and callous. They don't, do they? They say,
what about the really nice person? What about the really, really
nice person out there? The nice one. Often, when I'm asked that question,
I refuse to answer it. Because they say, I'm talking
to you right now, and you're not that person. And every time
the Lord Jesus dealt with a speculative question in the scriptures, he
made it personal immediately. He said, this is about you. You're
not that person. But this is one of those passages,
Acts 17. and others remind us that God
is not without witness. There is the witness of your
conscience. There is the witness of creation. There is, according to our text,
the witness of the goodness of God. So there are two things
that are essential for anyone who asks those questions. One
is that they're not ignorant, because God has borne witness
of these things. They're not ignorant and they're
not innocent. They're not ignorant and they're
not innocent. So let's start talking about
real things. Nevertheless, he's not left himself
without witness in that he did good, filling our hearts with
food and gladness. And with these sayings, scarce
restrained they the people that they had not done sacrifice unto
them. Paul, was successful, wasn't
he? He managed to stop idolatry. He managed to stop, for a little
while, he managed to stop himself being joined in with the idolatrous,
blasphemous, demonic activities. We, says Paul, are going to worship
the only true and living God. the God of grace, the God of
salvation, the God who is the creator and the sustainer of
all things. We worship the living God. See, men make idols, don't they?
And when you sing closing, we need to think that it's all very
well for us to look at these pagan people worshipping Jupiter
and Mercurius and a whole host of other things. But men today
are just as busy making idols as those people were. They're
just as busy building the temples and they're just as busy creating
these things which they think, as these people did, that they're
the guardians of their city. Every Roman is making idols,
isn't it? All the time, that Roman Catholic Church is just
an idol factory. It's never stopped being an idol
factory. It started as an idolatrous factory and it's going. It makes
idols of Mary and rosaries and crucifixes and all sorts of rubbish.
The Jews make idols, don't they? They make idols of laws and ceremonies
and traditions. The Protestants are making idols
of creeds and confessions. and their godly forebears. I
remember someone saying, how dare you think that these godly
forebears of ours could possibly have been wrong? Well, if they're
not saying what this book says, brothers and sisters, who cares
what they said? Who cares? I've been with St. Baptists in India and they made
idols, didn't they? They made idols of water and
history. unless you were baptised and
part of their historic faith, you were living in disobedience
to God. Islam is an idolatrous, blasphemous
notion. It is. It is. something which we ought to hold
with deep, deep gratitude to our God. But our God is known. He is known by revelation of
himself. He reveals himself. to his people. I often quote that wonderful
conversation that the Lord Jesus had with the woman at the well,
but it contains a promise, which is lovely. The Lord Jesus said,
the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. And then he says, for the Father
seeketh such to worship him. When the Father seeks them, he
finds them. When the Father seeks them, He
makes them. God is spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. I just
want to finish by reminding us that in Colossians it talks about
will-worshippers, men who are worshipping their will. Men today
in religion, we can look at the idolatry of these people worshipping
Jupiter. We need to remember that the
worst idolatry that this world ever has, and the most captivating
and the most deceiving one, is the one that's closest to the
truth. The one that declares that our
God is impotent before the will of men, that he wants to save
everyone, that he sent his son to die for everyone, and the
Holy Spirit wishes to save everyone, but he's stumped, that God, because
he comes up against something which is unbelievably powerful,
and too powerful for him, the will of man. The most pathetic
thing in all of creation is elevated above our God. The true and living
God, he seeks in his finds. I just wanted to close with five
contrasts. Someone wrote these out a long
time ago and I think they're worthy of consideration as we
finish our time together. The Lord our God, the true God,
makes his worshippers. He creates the fruit of lips,
doesn't he? The worshippers of idols make
their gods. These people in Lystra had just
made a couple of gods called Paul and Barnabas. The true God
is known only by self-revelation of truth and grace in Christ. God shines in our hearts to give
us the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. All idols are dependent
upon teachers of lies. Our God creates and he prompts
the work of all of his saints. He inspires worship. He sends
these witnesses out. Paul and Barnabas were there
because the Lord Jesus had gone there. Paul and Barnabas were
there because the Holy Spirit had sent them out from the church
in Antioch. He sends his witnesses out and
he gives pastors after his own heart. All the idols must be
prompted by their worshippers. All the idols have to be carried
around by their worshippers. In India they used to get their
little gods out of their temples. This little golden god. And they'd
stick this golden god on this huge chariot with enormous wheels. Some of the ones I saw had wheels
higher than this room that we're in. Enormous wheels. And thousands
of people would grab ropes and pull these idols and they had
to take them around the streets because these idols can't speak
and they can't walk. And God mocks them in his word
in Isaiah 46. He says, Bell boweth down and
Nebo stoopeth. Their idols were upon the beasts
and upon the cattle. Your carriages were heavy-loaden,
and they were a burden to the weary beast. They stoop and bow
down together. They could not deliver the burden,
but they themselves are gone into captivity. And then God
contrasts that, doesn't he? He says, Harken unto me, listen
to me, O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
which are born, which are carried by me from the belly, and which
are carried from the womb. And even to your old age, I am
he. He's got a word for grey-headed
people here. And even to your hoar hairs, will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear,
even I will carry and deliver you. The idols have to be prompted
by their worshippers. The true God commands his position
by his own power and grace. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Idols are manipulated by the
hands of men. woe unto him that says to the
wood, Awake, and to the dumb stone, Arise, and it shall teach."
We've just read of Dagon. True worshippers, the true God
performs His own mighty deeds and commands His worshippers
to be still. He performs His own mighty deeds
and He commands His worshippers to be still. as they were at
the Red Sea, you stand still, you stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. The idols of men are still while
their worshippers busy themselves with their religious commotion. That religious commotion happened
in Lystra 2000 years ago. That religious commotion is happening
in churches throughout this world today. But our God commands his
people to be still. commands his people to rest,
commands his people to look to a work that's finished. The work of salvation in the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ is finished, and God is at peace,
and he brings his people to rest where he finds himself satisfied. He loves the work of his Son.
It's complete and perfect. and all he needs and all we ever
need. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do pray that you would cause us to be humble as we consider
the idolatry that we read in your word and the idolatry that
we see around us. Please remind us, Heavenly Father,
that it's just purely by your sovereign grace by your electing
love in all eternity that you set your people apart from these
things. And it's only by an omnipotent
sovereign hand that transfers your people out of the kingdom
of darkness into the light of your dear and precious Son. Father,
we pray that as we contemplate his death on Calvary's tree and
his broken body and his shed blood, that you might cause us
to look to Him in love and gratitude for who He is and what He's done. And may He be living, Heavenly
Father, living and active in our lives. We pray You bless
Your Word to our hearts, Heavenly Father, for Jesus' sake. Amen.