But let's read this text from
Paul as he counsels the Corinthian church on the matter and the
danger and the essence of idolatry. 2 Corinthians 6, 14 through verse
18. Be not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you,
and ye shall be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
And with that, we have those other two verses. Little children,
keep yourself from idols. Flee from idolatry, saith the
Apostle Paul. Now, on our subject today, I
would like to add a few more texts of scripture that might
put our mind upon the subject that is before us today. That there is such a thing that
is discussed in the scripture and that also is condemned in
the scripture that falls under the heading of what we're justified
in calling spiritual adultery. spiritual harlotry, spiritual
whoredom, spiritual fornication. Now here's some text found in
Revelation chapter 17 concerning what the author calls Mystery
Babylon. Hear these verses. Revelation
17 verse 1 speaks of the great whore or harlot that sits upon
many waters then in the second verse With whom the kings of
the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with a wine of her fornication then in verse
3 in verse 4 John saw a woman and dressed in purple and scarlet,
full of names of blasphemy, with a golden cup full of abominations
and filthiness of her fornications. And then in verse five, and upon
her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the
mother of harlots and abominations in the earth. Now, let us lift
out the strong expressions that we have found here of immorality
and of spiritual adultery of this one mystery Babylon portrayed
under the image of an unclean and harlotous woman. In verse
1, notice again, the great whore. Her fornication in the second
verse. full of names of blasphemy in
the third verse. And then in verse four, there
are three words, abominations, filthiness, and fornication. All of them, by the way, spiritual
in nature. Yay, we read here of the mother
of harlots and of abomination. Thus, in scripture, we read of
a literal Babylon and of a mystery Babylon. Just as we read of the
Jerusalem that now is, or earthly, and the Jerusalem which is above
in Galatians 4, 25 and 26. Now, spiritual adultery, what
is it? What do we mean when we talk
about spiritual adultery? and when God made all of those
charges against his people in and under the old economy. Well, spiritual adultery is the
veneration, that is, it is having some kind or degree of reverential
respect or worshiping false gods and idols. giving them respect
which they have no right and title to at all, so that we say
that any and all veneration or worship or homage or honor unto
any false gods and idols is a committing of spiritual adultery or fornication. going after any other God except
Jehovah God, the God of heaven and the God of the Bible, is
spiritual adultery, especially to one who claims to be a Christian
or a child of God. Now, in any extensive study of
this subject, it will be so that the matter of Babylon of old
might come before us. And while I prepared one study,
It probably should have been three, and so we are condensing
more than usual. Now, why Babylon? What does it
signify? What is the significance of it
in Scripture? For the way that it is mentioned
in the word of God, Babylon, and for the nature and the character
of Babylon in the Old Testament and of old times. John Owen,
one of my most trusted writers, wrote that Babylon or Babylon,
marked the beginning of idolatry in the world. Think about that.
And he called it, quote, the original apostasy from natural
worship in the world onto idolatry. That's the end of the quote.
But Owen also wrote something else that really jogged my memory
and made an impression. He said that while there was
great wickedness in the world from the fall unto the time of
the flood, there is no mention of idolatry before the great
deluge, before the flood. Now that took me aback. I guess
I had not thought of that before or had not noticed closely enough
as we read and studied. That idolatry came in with the
establishment of Babel or Babylon and with Nimrod. And once idolatry
was birthed, Once it was given being, once it came into being,
then the degenerate brains of the natural man, it diversified
and it mutated. That is, this idolatry that entered
into the world. What I mean by that, some began
to worship the sun, some began to worship the star, some began
to worship the moon, some began to worship the ox and creeping
things and all manner of things like four-footed beasts that
God had created upon the world until there came to be many gods,
that is, in the mind and the profession of many, as Paul said
in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 5. God's many and Lord's
many, but to us there is but one God. What are called gods? Some in heaven, some in the earth,
But as expositors note, scripture indicates that the majority of
idolatry and such like in Babylon was by the use of graven images
and statute and such like, causing God to say that he would take
vengeance upon and against graven images, that he was angered by
them and would cause judgment and vengeance, and that he would
bring Babylon down to an absolute ruin. And then to condemn mystery
Babylon that we read about here in the scripture, again called
the mother of Harlots, and I think that's significant. Here is the
mother, the progenitor of spiritual harloty, and this one would seduce
Christendom and the kings of the earth and many would commit
fornication with her, anyway, for Babylon. To the text here
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, though it may be peculiar, and
I think it is, to the situation then in Corinth, and the attitude
and the climate that was there in that time, and yet it has
relevance unto us even down unto our day, who name the name of
Christ, march under and worship under the banner of Christianity. For though the idolatry in our
day may be in a different form, yet it is idolatry still and
nonetheless. I mean, we're not setting up
some dumb idol and rubbing his belly, maybe, but there is idolatry,
and it is idolatry still. Now, concerning Corinth, I mean,
the city of Corinth, at the time that Paul visited, preached the
gospel, and wrote unto them. Beside all the common degradation
that was in that city, for it was a very wicked city, a large
city, and filled of people. And it was full of immorality
and a fornication of the fleshly sort. Debauchery of every kind
could be found to be practiced there. And there, there were
an idol's temple, where sacrifices were made unto heathen deity,
made by the heathen priest, that is, by the Gentile priest. And
some of them in the Corinthian church did eat of that meat. which had been sacrificed to
idol and then sold in the marketplace. And others of them would even
go into the idol temple and sit down with them at their feast
and partake of their sacrifices. And this they did under the pretense
of liberty and of knowledge. They said, we know that an idol
is nothing in the world. We know that there is but one
God and that we have freedom in Christ. And so they went into
the idol temple and they ate. So Paul writes to them and he
counsels them against joining with the unbelieving Gentile
in their acts of idolatry and heathenism, or anything that
might be criminal or immoral that they came in contact with. Now, he had reasoned with them
in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and if you want to turn there,
I'm going to turn there, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 16 through
verse 21. And there he contrasts for their
profit the significance of the Lord's Supper with the Gentiles
and their sacrifices and association and partakers thereunto. Having said, in 1 Corinthians
chapter 10 and verse 14, wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from
idolatry. Now, let's read that passage
that I was talking about in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 16 and following. Here's how Paul reasons with
them about the question of having fellowship or partaking with
an idol sacrifice or feast. 16, the cup of blessing which
we bless. I have no doubt he's talking
about the Lord's Supper, the communion cup. The cup of blessing
which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? Now that's important.
Hold on to that. For we being many are one bread
and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Then another example, verse 18.
Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the
sacrifices partakers of the altar? Now, he's made his premises.
Watch verse 19. What shall I say then? What say I then? That the idol
is anything? Or that that which is offered
in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice They sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that you should
have the fellowship with devil. You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the
Lord's table and of the table of devil. Now, what is Paul saying
here? the line of his reasoning. Just
this, he said unto them, when we partake of the cup and of
the bread of communion, it is not just to eat. It is not a
common, ordinary meal. It is not just to have something
to eat. And it is not to feed the appetite of thirst or of
hunger that we take the supper of the Lord. And it's not an
empty, meaningless ritual when we take the cup and the bread. But the taking of the supper,
the bread and the cup, is a spiritual act. It is done to remember and
to honor God. It is a spiritual act to show
forth his death. As the Lord said, this cup is
my blood of the new covenant. This bread is my body, which
is broken for you. And Paul uses the word communion
there, at least in the King James Version. The word meaning to
have in common or to share or to participate, to have a common
fellowship one with another and this comes with a warning not
to take of the Lord's Supper unworthily 1st Corinthians 11
27 through verse 29 Now let's look at verse 18 again 1st Corinthians
10 and 18. Here's another example That the one who ate the sacrifices
which were slain burned on the Jewish altar. The one who ate
of the Jewish sacrifices on those Jewish altars as did the priest
and some of the offerers. And here's the verses for that.
Leviticus 7.15 and 8.31. Deuteronomy chapter 12 and verse
18. That the priest ate of those
sacrifices And sometimes the offerer ate of the sacrifices
that they had brought when it had been sheared upon the altar. Now, in doing so, Paul said unto
them, They are partaking of the altar. He that ate of them did
so as being such. And Gil said, should show themselves
to be of the Jewish religion and to be a professed worshiper
of the God of Israel who partook of that meat on that altar. Now see the wisdom of Paul in
giving his reasoning unto them in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 19
and 20. if we might look at it again.
Here's what Paul is saying. I'm not saying that an idol or
that an idol sacrifice is anything. I'm not saying that. But what
I do say, says the apostle, is the sacrifices made by the Gentiles,
they sacrifice to devils and not unto God. Now the word devils
here in King James, plural, as you might notice, is the word
most often and correctly translated demons in the New Testament. And the sin is in that it is
that it is not made to the true God. That sacrifice that you
partake of in the heathen temple is not a sacrifice unto God. It is not to his honor. It is
not that it might take away sin. And Paul is not just fixed upon
the idol and the sacrifice, but as Calvin wrote, quote, he is
thinking about the frame of mind of those who sacrifice unto demons,
unquote. That is, idols and imaginary
gods they sacrifice unto. So, the object, therefore, of
their sacrifice was not God, but was devilish or demon. What they sacrificed, and there's
two things about it here. Number one, they sacrificed them
unto demons. And number two, they sacrifice
them not to God. It is not before God or unto
God or to God that they make their idol sacrifices. And see the end of verse 20.
I do not want you to become sharers with demons. I do not want you
to enter into any shared feelings or sentiment with the idolater,
because that is a connection intended in the act of partaking
of the sacrifices and of eating and of drinking, to give reverence
to. and to have communion, to worship,
and to draw near, and such like. Then hear what Paul tells them
next. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 21, in that particular
place, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partaker of the
Lord's table and of the table of devils or of demons. You cannot
partake of both of them at one and the same time. You cannot
have communion with one while also having communion with the
other. Now we must understand something
that physically and literally and externally it can be done. For some of those did go into
the idol temple and they ate and they drank. But it ought
not to be done by those who worship God. Spiritually, truly, It cannot
be done, as no man can serve two masters, neither can he serve
two gods, especially if one of them is Jehovah. And he tells
us why. He is a jealous God. And let me put some scripture
with that. Exodus 20 and verse 5, I the Lord thy God am a jealous
God. Don't do it. Exodus 34 and verse
14, Joshua 24 and verse 19, put away the gods of your fathers
from the other side of the flood. God is a jealous God. And this is not a sinful jealousy. It is a holy jealousy. as when such as pretend that
they want to worship God, and then they turn their eyes upon
idols and images and pictures and graven things and carved
statues and such like, or a replica of of any created thing, whatever
it might be. They're all excluded by the command
in Exodus chapter 20. Isaiah 42 in verse 8, God said,
My glory will I not give to another? Neither my praise to graven images."
Oh, God will not share His glory. He is jealous of that glory and
of that holiness and of that uniqueness. When Israel built
the Golden Cag, remember in Exodus chapter 32, and they began to
dance around it, and they began to ascribe their deliverance
from Egypt under that dead material object that they had made. And
they danced about it, and they praised it. And yet, God visited
them, and he brought severe judgment upon them that day. And we read
that 3,000 men out of the camp of Israel perished in that one
day and incident. Now, going to the second commandment,
And what it forbids is the making of any image for use in religious
worship. I don't think there's anything
wrong with having George Washington or Jeff Davis, and I'm kind of
mad that they came down south and took down all of our statues,
but be that as it may. But he said in the business of
worship, thou shalt not make any braven image, any of any
kind, and look upon it in reverence or give it any religious credence
at all. Any resemblance, any shape, any
likeness, even if it be called a help and an aid in the worship
of the one true God. God will not have it. It is not only unlawful to do
so, but it is absurd and irrational to make some visible image as
a representation of God. And here is why. Number one,
God is Spirit. John 4, 24. What's God's essence? What's God's nature? God exists
as a pure, holy, uncreated Spirit. God is Spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. See also Philippians 3 and verse
3, Romans 1 and verse 9. God's essence is pure uncreated
spirit. There is nothing that can be
made to portray this quality in God. It is impossible to make
anything to portray this quality in God. And as Ryle put it, an
immaterial being cannot represent the God of heaven because he
is invisible. Because he is spirits, excuse
me. He is not corporal. Secondly, God is invisible. I let the cat out of the bag.
1 Timothy 1, 17. God is both immortal, think the
word there, is incorruptible. He is free from corruption as
well as invisible. So there is no way under heaven
to make anything visible depicting God who is spirit and who is
invisible. How are you going to make a likeness
of that which is invisible? What is there that can represent
the invisible? There is nothing. Remember, if
you might, and I'm going to Deuteronomy chapter 4, if you care to turn
there, and verse 12 through verse 19, rather lengthy passage, but
I'd like to read it. Deuteronomy chapter 4, 12-19,
Moses is therefore exhorting and instructing the people. And
he said in verse 12, And the Lord spake unto you out of the
midst of fire. You heard the voice of the words,
but saw no similitude, only a voice. And he declared unto you his
covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments. And he wrote them upon two tables
of stone. And the Lord commanded me at
that time to teach you statute and judgment, that you might
do them in the land whither you go to possess it. Take ye therefore
good heed unto yourself, for you saw no manner of similitude
on the day that the Lord God spake unto you in Horeb out of
the midst of fire. Lest you corrupt yourself and
make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the
likeness of male or of female, the likeness of any beast that
is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flyeth
in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground,
the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth,
unless thou lift up thine eyes unto the heaven. And when thou
seest the sun and the moon and the stars and all the hosts Now
twice Moses tells them, verse 12 and in verse 19 of 15
and you saw no similitude at the mount at Horeb at Sinai you
did see fire and you saw smoke and you saw clouds and thick
darkness they heard a voice in verse 12 for God spoke unto them
verse 15 but they saw no similitude and the word means something
portion You saw nothing portioned out. You saw nothing that was
fashioned. You saw no outline. You saw no
image, no likeness, no embodiment, no shape at all did you see of
God at Horeb. This they saw not, and that God's
design purpose it was. It was deliberate that nothing
that they could replicate, no idol that they could make, could
satisfactorily represent God because, as Matthew Henry wrote,
Moses warned them, quote, because of the peril of idolatry. Example. God did not trust Israel
to be given custody of the body of Moses when he died. But God
took him to a secret place and there buried him which no man
knew of. Why do you think that's so? Think
they're right who think that Israel would have made a shrine
or a relic out of the body of Moses We remember how they kept
the brazen serpent Remember how God made that and used it and
even began with time to burn Incense under that brazen serpent
that Moses had made in numbers chapter 21 after a time came
a good king upon the throne, and he broke that serpent of
brass or copper, if you will, all under pieces, the Nahash
serpent. They eventually made an idol
out of it, or they reverenced it beyond measure. And in 2 Kings
chapter 18 and verse 1 through 4, the king removed the high
places, broke the images, that is, he broke the pieces of the
statues or the pillows and There he went, and he cut down the
groves that they had erected and broke in pieces the brazen
serpent which Moses had made. And Moses made that by a command
from God, and yet they had over-venerated it. It was idolatry when Moses
made them, when Aaron made them a golden calf in Exodus chapter
32. It is, let me tell you, and we've
just seen it, it is idolatry when people flock from all over
the world just to see a pope, a man, and call him the Holy
Father and the head of the church. Only Christ is the head of the
church. It is idolatry when people flock
to see a so-called image Jesus or of Mary or of an angel in
a window screen or a brick wall or on the bark of a tree and
they begin to burn candles under that stupid thing and begin to
say prayers and touch it and weep and seek healing from it
and pray before it and unto it. Yes, it is idolatry when a church
building is filled with statutes of supposed Jesus or Mary or
of angel. It is idolatry when people feel
good in the presence of idols and they spurn hearing the word
of our God. King Hezekiah called the brazen
serpent nothing but a piece of copper. At one time, it was appointed
by God for the healing of the fiery serpent's bite. But then
it became nothing but a piece of copper, even though once used
by the Lord. And the king smashed it to pieces,
for Israel had been burning incense unto it. And take the temple.
The temple where once God put his present, his typical present,
became a deserted, empty house. when Christ died upon the cross,
and then God brought it down. It became just stone and wood,
and then a pile of rubble when God brought it to the ground.
We're going to look at that in the near future. So the idols
of the Gentiles, they're just silver and gold, or perhaps copper
and brass, maybe even wood, concrete, or whatever. But in Psalm 115,
And verse 1 through 8, it says, they are the work of men's hand. And though they are given features,
they are given ears, and noses, and mouth, and eyes, even though
they are given features, yet they can't hear, they can't see,
and they can't speak, and they can't walk, and they can't help
people. And the psalmist concludes, and
they that make them are like unto them. Habakkuk chapter 2
verse 18 through 20. I would like to read those three
verses. What profit the graven image,
that the maker thereof hath graven it, the molten image and a teacher
of lies, that the maker of his work trusted therein to make
dumb idols? Warn to him that saith to the
wood, Awake! to the dumb stone, Arise! it shall teach. Behold, it is
laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all
in the midst of it. But the Lord is in his holy temple,
that all of the earth keep silence before him. And then do you say,
but that was old paganism. And we have nothing of that sort
in Christendom in our day and in our time. Well, let's remember
something. It is that the teaching of Rome
that such things as images and statues and pictures are good
and profitable to put one in mind and help him or her to worship
God. Thomas Manton, Watson, I'm sorry,
in the 16th century wrote this. One of the Pope's counsels affirmed
that we might learn more from an image than by a long study
of the scripture," unquote, a Catholic declaration. This Habakkuk denies
and contradicts, calling the manufactured images a teacher
of lies that can't be aroused up to teach, or to cause us to
know anything, having no breath in it at all, that is, no life
to do us any good, and then calling them dumb idols, dumb idols,
as Paul tells the Gentiles in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 2,
carried away with these dumb idols. Now at the beginning,
we commence the subject of spiritual adultery, which may be summed
up in a few words. Number one, it is the outright
devotion to false gods and idols and practices, some form of paganism,
Whether of old world paganism or modern world humanism or secularism,
it is still an idol before and instead of God. And number two,
the pretense, and this is horrible, the pretense of worshiping God
by making use of illegitimate material objects, which amounts
to to attempting to mingle paganism with monotheism. And it is the
utmost offense and the highest insult against the eternal and
invisible God. Now in calling it spiritual adultery,
we see the language that is used in scripture to describe it. that that language runs parallel
to the marriage union and physical adultery, and the consequences
of transgressing that union. Now there are two sorts of adultery
condemned in the scripture. Number one, of course, sensual
physical, when one married is unfaithful and breaks the one
flesh union, giving in or over to their lust, takes the spouse
of another, because the seventh commandment said, thou shalt
not commit adultery. And this forbids, and it includes,
several aberrations of what is commanded by that commandment. In Leviticus chapter 18, very
interesting, if you ever want to turn there, at another time
and find all of the ways that that commandment can be broken. incest, prostitution, homosexuality,
lesbianism, adultery, bestiality, and sexual adultery, therefore,
is twofold. A, it is mental, as our Lord
said in Matthew 28, to look upon another burning in lust. But then it is also physical. the very act as it is called
in John chapter 8 and verse 4. But then my point is there is
spiritual adultery. And the collection of words used
to define or describe it, especially when we were in Ezekiel chapter
16 listen played the harlot commit fornication commit whoredom multiplied
fornication as a wife that commits adultery all of those to describe
Israel in their spiritual adultery Israel is likened to a wife and
who is unfaithful in Ezekiel 16. Verse 36, thy whoredoms with
lovers. Verse 37, all thy lovers. Verse 38, as women that break
wedlock. Thus the scripture uses the sexual
image to portray the evil of that spiritual adultery, which
is the commission of idolatry, which is a worshiping of some
one other than the God of heaven, or worshiping God falsely under
the pretended use of idol statues and such like. That's like a
man who has a wife keeping a mistress on the side. When the Lord called
the Pharisees an evil and adulterous generation, Matthew 12, 39. Wicked and adulterous in Matthew
16 and 4. Did our Lord speak physical or
spiritual or perhaps both of them? What the leading essence
of the covenant of God made with Israel was, thou shall have no
other gods before me, Exodus 20 and 3. Again, Deuteronomy
6 and 14, you shall not go after other gods of the gods of the
people which are round about you, unquote. They were bound
to Jehovah. and only bound to him and to
forsake all other so-called gods and cleave unto Jehovah and his
covenant. Now, let's close. The New Testament
warns Christians against idols and idolatry. And we acknowledge
again that the first application is in its historical setting,
and that was to the people of God in that day and in that time. For apart from the Jew, all of
the whole world lay in heathenism and in paganism. The Gentile
world had been left to their own way to walk after their idols
and their God without a revelation of God. Ephesians 2, 11 and 12. Acts 14, 16, suffer them to walk
in their own way. Acts 17 and 30, left them under
their ignorance and that ignorance God winked at. Now, I hope you
don't misconstrue what I'm about to say. But Christianity and
its gospel more, quote, civilized, unquote, more civilized the world
than it had been before as the gospel began to be spread and
to be preached. And then a more subtle form of
idolatry appeared, not just material, not just celestial, not created
creatures necessarily, but what we might call religious idolatry,
that even as Israel did frequently patronize the gods of the people
around about them, So Christianity has been in a large measure,
and let me use this word, idolatrized in our day and in history recently
past. It has many antichrists in it
and many false prophets in this day. Now, we read it. John closes
that epistle, his first epistle, with this exhortation. 1 John
5, 21. Little children, keep yourself
from idle. Now, let me say this by way of
application. The idle virus is very easily
contracted and spread, if I may use medical vernacular. And by
the fall, since man fell and his understanding is darkened,
the resistance is very low. And there can only be built up
immunity to idolatry by the grace of faith and by the word of God. All are susceptible to idolatry
who desire to make some visible representation of God or of Christ. Superstition breeds idolatry. And Calvin said, the least occasion
will infect it with this contagion, unquote. Easily brought in all
worship. Not Christian in nature and practice
is Idolatry and I want us to get this Christianity is exclusive
It is the only true religion in the world, for it is established
by the only true God in existence. And Christianity will not mix
with Islam. It will not mix with Judaism
or Hinduism. And so-called Christians who
reach out for common ground to some of these pagan religions
are espousing a false god. I think Gil was right when he
said that Romanism is nothing but baptized paganism. Owen was right, I think, to call
free will that stout idol. Samuel Pierce was right to call
the Arian and the Sassanians idolaters for denying the deity
of Jesus Christ and that he is nothing more than a man. Some
churches, I guess, make idols of their buildings. as the Jews
did of their temple. But remember this, idolatry invites
the judgment of God, for he is jealous of his glory, and our
land has been invaded by idolaters with their strange gods. And the least smidgen of idolatry
clouds the gospel. which is corrupted when any likeness
is made to represent God and used in worship and called the
worship of God as if it were a spiritual aid unto that worship. So spiritual adultery is a real
thing and is a real threat.