Scripture Reading: Romans 1:16–32
Return back in your Bibles to Romans chapter one. This morning, we looked at idolatry and its effects. Tonight, we're going to make several or rather a few applications with reference to this morning's sermon. Romans chapter one, I'll read beginning in verse sixteen to verse thirty two.
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation. for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Father, thank you again for the word. We pray now for the Spirit to guide us. We ask that you would bless our time together, that you would encourage our hearts, that you would cause us to be on guard and to beware of idolatry in our own lives. Help us, Father, to resist temptation and help us, Father, to continually fly to you for protection and for grace and for help each and every day.
God, we just praise you and thank you for your word and for how it does instruct us in all matters of faith and practice. We ask that you would bless our time together now in Jesus' holy name. Amen.
Introduction: Review of Romans 1:18–32
Well, this morning we noticed several things with reference to verses 18 to 32. We noticed the revelation of God's wrath. Remember, John Murray says that wrath is the holy revulsion of God, God's being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness. So Paul, after stating his thesis in verses 16 and 17, highlighting that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, he then goes on. to declare or to demonstrate the guiltiness of man through the revelation of God's wrath.
God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. We've seen that there is a specific order. Ungodliness precedes unrighteousness. What we think concerning God, if we embrace Him, if we worship Him, if we honor Him, then hopefully holiness will follow.
But if we reject him and despise him and we seek out those things which are not God, then all manner of corrupt practices flow. So what a man thinks concerning God will affect the way he lives in light of that thought. We notice the particular offense that these sinners, us, are guilty of, suppressing truth in unrighteousness. Because, according to verse 19, what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
So sinners, by virtue of the fact that they are created in the image of God, see general revelation all around them, and they understand at least three things concerning God. His eternal power, His Godhead or deity, and the fact that it is righteous with Him to judge sinners, according to verse 32. And then we saw specifically His response to that revelation. Verse 21, Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." You see, we reject God.
We cast Him out of our minds. In suppressing that truth and unrighteousness, we have said in our heart, there is no God. And as a result, idolatry then follows, according to verse 23. And they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
So we embrace idols and then all manner of wickedness flows, as we've already had cause to observe. The people exchange the truth of God for idols. God hands them over. The people exchange the truth of God for a lie.
God hands them over. The people exchange the truth of God for unnatural things. God hands them over. So the judicial abandonment by God is his response to man and sin apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So a pretty bleak picture in terms of what this passage demonstrates concerning man. But as we have seen, Paul is laying the foundation, laying the groundwork for his presentation of the gospel. Remember, he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. We need that power because our plight is so desperate.
We need that power because our sin is so flagrant. We need that power because apart from the power of God, we will die in our sin. We will go off into hell forever and ever.
Three Lines of Application
I want to look at three lines of application this evening.
Idolatry's Effect on Society
First, the effect of idolatry upon the individual and society. the effect of idolatry upon the individual and society. We really need go no further than what we find here in Romans chapter 1. When men exchange the truth of God for the lie, when men exchange the truth of God for idols, when men exchange the truth of God for those things which are unnatural, God gives them up. In fact, when we read Romans chapter 1, it sort of feels like we're reading CNN.
Or, it sort of feels like we're reading Fox News, or Rents, or we're reading some website where it describes for us the particularities of man's sin. It is a gross and wicked and horrible picture. And why it is this way is because man has departed or defected from the true and living God. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
They then go out and act corruptly. What we believe concerning God affects the way that we live. That's why we say oftentimes that theology matters. Good theology promotes holiness and righteousness and godliness and Christ likeness.
Bad theology promotes or produces the sorts of things that we find in this particular passage. We see sexual immorality. Vis-a-vis, specifically, homosexuality is indicated in verses 24 to 27. There is that rejection of the natural use for that which is unnatural.
God, therefore, gives them up. It's not an alternate lifestyle. It's not another way of sort of doing what you want to do.
Homosexuality as Sign of Judgment
Greg Bonson makes this point. He says, therefore, homosexuality that is publicly accepted is symptomatic of a society under judgment, inwardly corrupted to the point of impending collapse. Paul the Apostle regarded it as the most overt evidence of that degeneracy to which God in his wrath gave over the nations. You see, we can oftentimes forget that fact.
We can oftentimes forget that reality. But what we find here is an application or conduct flowing from a pre-commitment to idolatry. But he doesn't stop here at sexual immorality. You follow the train of thought.
You see that rejection of the true and living God in verse 28. Of course, idolatry goes hand in hand with that. When we worship the idol, when we bow down to something that is not the triune God, we assume that posture of verse 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
As if we have the right and the prerogative and the privilege to say, you know, I just don't want to think about God. I just want to get him out of my mind. I want to get him out of my heart. This is an offense against the thrice holy God.
And then Paul highlights various vices. Again, thinking in terms of Romans chapter one, as you look out at the world around you, as you look at the turmoil in your own families, as you look at the various issues and the sins that are connected to us as individuals, we see that what we believe concerning God affects the way that we live. He says they are filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedience, appearance, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.
It's a terrible picture. It's a horrific indictment upon man in sin, and it certainly looks like societies today who have given over or have rejected, rather, the worship of the triune God and have embraced idols. I mentioned this morning an excellent book by Greg Beal called What We Worship or We Become What We Worship. He makes this statement as sort of an overarching thesis.
What you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or restoration. What you revere, you resemble, either for ruin, if it's an idol, or restoration, if it's God most high.
Old Testament Examples of Idolatry
Let's look at just a few examples of this in Israel's history. Go back to Exodus chapter 32 for just a moment. A passage you should all know very well. It's the golden calf.
When they worship the calf instead of the living God, they exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image, specifically, of a golden calf. Notice in chapter 32 at verse 7, and the Lord said to Moses, go get down for your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf and worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.
The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation. And they take on the characteristic of the calf itself. Calfs are stiff-necked.
They're recalcitrant. They're rebellious. You need to put a yoke on them so that you can control them and bring them into service. Well, the children of Israel, in worshipping this calf, have become like the very object of their worship in this whole idea of being stiff-necked.
Psalm 106, we highlighted that this morning, it very much fits in, or it's very much background material to what the apostle is doing in Romans chapter 1. Psalm 106, verse 19, they made a calf in Horeb and worshiped the molded image. Thus they changed their glory into the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done things in Egypt.
Looking back on this golden calf incident. Psalm 115, since you're already very close to that. Psalm 115, verse 8. Those who make them speaking about idols are like them.
So is everyone who trusts in them. You see, Beale's thesis statement is right. What you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or restoration. You worship an idol, you take on the characteristics of the idol.
You worship a calf, you're a stiff-necked man. When you worship those things which cannot see, those things which cannot hear, those things which cannot perceive, you become like the idol, so that when God speaks to you, seeing you don't see, hearing you don't hear. And that's what Isaiah the prophet brings up in chapter 6 of his particular message. You may turn there as well.
Isaiah chapter 6. You remember the pomp and the glory of this particular display. The prophet is rehearsing his call to the prophetic ministry. He says in chapter six, verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above it stood Seraphim. Each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.
And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said, woe is me, for I am undone. Let's just stop there for a moment. Woe be to any man or any woman who says they saw God and didn't fall down like a dead man at his feet.
There's a particular pastor in Southern California several years ago rehearses in a situation where he was shaving and Jesus appeared to him. Pastor John MacArthur said, what happened? Did you fall down at his feet? You're going to continue to shave while Jesus is in your presence?
I mean, the claim that Jesus appeared to him is just, you know, charismatic weirdness. But if, in fact, Jesus appeared to you, you don't keep shaving. When you trace out Theophany or Christophany in the Bible, when men are confronted with the thrice holy God, they fall as dead men at his feet. They don't continue shaving.
He says, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go and tell this people.
Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Sounds just like the description of idols in Psalm 115. Here it's turned upon them as judgment.
You're going to worship idols. You're going to follow Baal. You're going to follow Molo. Well, then God is going to dispatch his prophet and say, this is judicial heartening.
This is abandonment. This is God handing you over. When you reject him, you reap judgment. Verse 10, make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.
Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, but yet a tent will be in it and will return and be for consuming as a tarabim tree or as an oak. whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the Holy Seat shall be its stump. So you see, the prophet Isaiah rehearsing his call to the ministry highlights the reality that Yahweh would send him against an idolatrous people to condemn them and to highlight the reality that they have become like the idols that they worship.
Hosea chapter four. Hosea, chapter four. Again, these are just a few specimen passages developed by Beal in that book on on idolatry. I really commend that work to you.
Again, it's we become what we worship. Hosea, chapter four, verse let's go at verse 15, though you Israel play the harlot, let not Judah offend. Do not come up to Gilgal, nor go up to Beth Avon. nor swear an oath, saying, As the Lord lives. For Israel is stubborn like a stubborn calf.
Now the Lord will let them forage like a lamb in an open country. Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone. Their drink is rebellion.
They commit harlotry continually. Her rulers dearly love dishonor. The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. Israel is stubborn like a stubborn calf.
Why does God use that imagery? Because they've become like that which they worship. They take on the characteristics of that object of worship, and thus what they revere, they resemble in this instance for ruin. As Christians, as believers, as those freed by God's sovereign grace, we are to resemble Him.
We are to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ for our restoration. This is God's grand purpose. Romans 8, for whom he foreknew these he predestined, the ones he predestined to be conformed to the image of his firstborn son. So that's the first line of application, the effect of idolatry upon the individual in society.
I alluded this morning as well. When Israel was in sin, when Israel was in idolatry, it was then that social injustice, that murder, that crime, that wickedness was just magnified throughout the nation. Not to say that when people worship God, they always live perfectly and consistently. They do not.
But they are being conformed to the image of Christ. They are being sanctified. When we depart from God, When we embrace the idol, we have plunged ourselves into all manner of sin and evil. So the first, the effect of idolatry.
The Believer's Response to Idolatry
Secondly, what are some responses by the believer when it comes to a study like this? The first response ought to be one of caution.
First Response: Caution
Turn over to 1 John 5 for a moment. I mentioned this this morning. We'll develop it a bit more now. 1 John chapter 5. Caution is a good response by the believer in light of a study called idolatry and its effects. 1 John 5.18, we know that whoever is born of God does not sin.
The idea there is practice is sin. We could show that if we had more time, but suffice to say does not mean sinless perfectionism. John was not Wesleyan. John was, if I could be so crass, Calvinistic.
He understood total depravity and remaining corruption. The point is they don't practice sin. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
We know that the son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true. It is on Jesus Christ. This is the true God in eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Amen. Kind of an abrupt ending for a wonderful epistle. It doesn't say grace and mercy and peace to you. I hope everybody's well.
I hope you're happy. I hope everything's good for you. He says, little children, keep yourselves from idols. What is the implication that Christians, believers, those in Jesus, are prone to wander, are prone to leave the God they love.
There is that tendency, that inclination to descend back into idolatry. We are either for Christ or we are against Christ. If we are not actively pursuing Jesus, We are not reading our Bibles, we're not praying, we're not in the church, we're not using the means that God has ordained for our good. When we separate ourselves from those means, then we have the tendency to fall prey to idolatry.
Idols Threatening Believers
There are several idols that present themselves in the lives of the believer. The first idol is the idol of false religion. It's interesting, verse 20, we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true. In his Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life.
John is writing to caution the people that he's writing to against embracing the Antichrist. Now, the Antichrist, for John the Apostle, was not some looming figure in his future, wasn't some looming figure in our future. Rather, Antichrist was a heresy, a Christological heresy that plagued the early church. There's three statements that John gives in 1 John and 2 John about the Antichrist.
One, the Antichrist heresy denied that Jesus is the Christ. Two, they denied the Father and the Son, and they thirdly denied that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. That's all that the Bible says concerning the Antichrist in terms of belief. John also relates that there are many Antichrists, that there were Antichrists present at the time that he was writing.
So John is speaking in terms of the learning to his readership about the reality of a departure from biblical Christology. And he wants them to embrace the truth, not to go astray, not to wander. And if there is an idol that we as believers are susceptible to in the Christian life, it is heresy. It is false doctrine.
It is that which is perverse in terms of God's written word. That's why we put a premium on exposition of the scripture, why we put a premium on studying doctrine. The first and foremost, uniquest thing about Christianity is what we believe, not how we act. Our act and our conduct should follow the way we believe, but what separates Christianity from every other religion and every other philosophy is the truth we believe.
You see, it's very easy to go astray. In Galatia, you remember what they started to tamper with or what they started to play with. Yes, it's good to believe the gospel, but you must also be circumcised according to the law of Moses so that you may then be wholly accepted by God. Paul does not entertain that as some yet nice little addition or some sort of a non harmful thing within the lives of the churches.
He says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. This is Galatians 1 8. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
Read between the lines. Paul is saying, let him be damned to hell. Let him suffer eternal condemnation. Let him be separated from God forever in the lake of fire.
That's what Paul sees in terms of a departure from the Christian message. He says in verse nine, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be a curse. You see, false religion is an idol that we need to guard our hearts again. false religion, a departure from the truth of the gospel, a shaving off the edges, a tailor fitting it to our own liking. That is damnable.
And we need to resist that temptation to idolatry.
The Idol of Mammon
There is the idol of Mammon. We'll see this in a couple of weeks when we pick up Matthew, chapter six, verse twenty four. No one can serve two masters for either. He will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and Mammon. He says no one can serve two masters. You might have a job and then moonlight somewhere else. Or you might have the type of job where you work for several different men.
You might be a subcontractor. So in a sense, we can serve two masters. But the Greek word used there is slave. You can't be a slave to two masters.
You see, slavery involves ownership. So Paul, what Jesus is saying is you cannot be, or you cannot be the slave of two masters. You are the slave of one master. It's either God or it's Mammon.
Just like Elijah said, if Baal is God, worship him. If Yahweh is God, worship him. Don't halt between two opinions. You can't play games with the living and true God.
You don't have a little God in the parlor, as Spurgeon says, and then have Satan in the basement. You don't have God and Mammon, or else you have neither. Well, actually, you still have Mammon. God is jealous in that regard.
And then Mark 8, 34 to 38, another place where Jesus indicts men for that commitment to Mammon. We need to be very mindful of this. We live in an affluent society, right? No, what do you mean?
We have more wealth and more riches than kings in the past have. The most humble abode represented in this church, in terms of the families of this church, far exceeds king's palaces. We have running water. Some people had air conditioning.
We have fans. We get a little warm up here. I just nod to our dear deacon and point, and he goes and turns on the fan and circulates. It's beautiful.
It's a wonderful thing. It's very easy to get caught up in these things. I mean, who doesn't like nice stuff? If you say, I hate brutality, or I hate good things.
I've got to have it miserable. Really? Really? Come on.
It's us. Let's not play games. We like some. We like comfort.
I mean, given the choice of an indoor bathroom or an outhouse, who here is going to pick the outhouse? If you do, speak with Deacon Steve. He's going to analyze you for mental competency after the service. You see, the point is, is that in an affluent society, we must be on guard.
We must be careful. No one can be the slave of two masters. We just read in the Proverbs where diligence is enjoined upon the people of the earth. Diligence is good.
Work hard. If you work hard, you'll probably be rewarded for your work. You'll probably get money. You'll probably get raises.
That's not wicked. It's not evil. The Bible does not frown upon that. The Bible frowns upon laziness.
The Bible frowns upon not working and then still expecting to eat. But there's that delicate interplay, that delicate tension and balance that we have to be on guard. that we don't end up like being in the beach or in the ocean when you get sucked out by the undercurrent. We have to be mindful of the reality that the temptations that Mammon presents are oftentimes enticing.
The Idol of Self
And then, of course, there is the idol of self. Believe this is the most pernicious and most dangerous of all the idols. Began in the garden. Remember the tempter's words, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.
What do you think Eve was thinking there and Adam was thinking that I want to be like God. Turn over to Second Timothy, chapter three, for a moment. We're still working with those, or we're still under the assumption of these are idols. These are things that believers or professing believers can fall prey to.
Notice in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 describes the character of the last day. The last days in the scripture is the time frame between the first and the second coming of the Lord Jesus. We live in the last days. But so did Paul and Timothy, or else Paul could not tell Timothy to avoid such characters like these.
But notice this in 2 Timothy 3 gives specific attention to what men will love in the last days. Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Those three things that we are lovers of, lovers of ourselves, we call that today secular humanism.
Men love and value and prize themselves. They love money. What's that? Materialistic idolatry.
Paul says in Ephesians 5.5 and Colossians 3.5 that covetousness is idolatry. And then that last thing that we love, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. That's the philosophical system called hedonism. Hedonism means I want my pleasure and I want as much of my pleasure as I can possibly have.
And it's very pernicious here because they're lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Now note the next clause. I've often thought in my mind that this is the Romans 1 of the church. It sounds just like Romans 1, doesn't it?
I mean, disobedience to parents is there again. All these sorts of vices and sins and the wickedness that we see in Romans 1. Notice that final clause or verse 5, having a form of godliness, but denying its power. He's not dealing with the heathen here.
He's not dealing with the Gentile. He's not dealing with the Bush man out in the middle of nowhere, worshiping his totem pole or his stones or his rocks or whatever it is he worships. They have a form of godliness. They profess religion.
They say the right things from time to time. They go to the right places, but they deny its power. You see, little children are my little children. Keep yourselves from idols.
These things infest and infect local churches. And the apostle is highlighting this to Timothy. And he says very specifically at the end of verse five and from such people turn away. So, man, in terms of idolatry, oftentimes looks to himself. as his chief idol.
I just want to read a couple of quotes from that book, We Become What We Worship. This is actually Beal quoting a couple of other men. But he's quoting a man by the name of David Wells from his book, Loving Our Virtue, about this whole idea of self-worship. Self-worship.
Now, self-worship doesn't look like we might imagine it would. You know, you get the mare out, you bow to yourself. I just love you. You're so awesome.
Now, self-worship is seen in the manner in which one approaches life. The manner in which one conducts him or herself. In the manner in which he or she is oriented. What matters most.
You're not bowing down to a mirror. and worshiping and adoring yourself, singing hymns of praise to yourself, all hail the power of Jimmy's name. That's not what you're doing. Here's what Wells says in terms of self-worship. He says, what is uppermost on their minds is not the moral fabric of life. but how to cope with their wayward personalities, self-doubt, the stages of life, marital stress, as well as calamities like job losses and the soaring cost of college tuition.
These are the things that are intensely real to them and that drain their psychological energy. However, while these are not inconsequential matters, they are not burning moral issues with which the Bible is concerned. What is central to the Bible is the true and the right, sin and grace, God's wrath and Christ's death. What is central to so many people today is simply what offers internal relief.
Many of the church today, especially that part of which is evangelical, is in captivity to this idolatry of the self. This is a form of corruption far more profound than the list of infractions that typically pop into our minds when we hear the word sin. We are trying to hold at bay the gnats of small sins while swallowing the camel of self. It is idolatry as pervasive and as spiritually debilitating as were many of the entanglements with pagan religions recounted for us in the Old Testament.
That this devotion to the self seems not to be like that older devotion to a pagan god blinds the church to its own unfaithfulness. The end result, however, is no less devastating, because the self is no less demanding. It is as powerful an organizing center as any god or goddess on the market. The contemporary church is whoring after this god as assiduously as the Israelites in their darker days.
It is baptizing as faith, the pride that leads us to think so much about ourselves and much of ourselves. Wow. I just read the blog, you see the promotion. What's most important in some churches, it's you.
I'm sorry, brother, I don't want to offend you, but you're not the most important thing at Free Grace Baptist Church. You shouldn't want to be. God's the most important, the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He then goes on to quote a man by the name of Eugene Peterson.
Yes, of the message Bible fame, but this is spot on. It's from an article in Christianity Today. He says, Do we realize how almost exactly the Baal culture, Baal, B-A-A-L, the idol in Canaan, do we realize how almost exactly the Baal culture of Canaan is reproduced in American church culture? Baal, we could add Canadian here, I think.
You'll allow that, because oftentimes what happens in America comes over that 49th parallel. Isn't that what it is, the 49th parallel and Canadians imbibe the same sorts of things. I think this is applicable here as well. He says, Bale, religion is about what makes you feel good.
Baal worship is a total immersion in what I can get out of it. And of course, it was incredibly successful. The Baal priests could gather crowds that outnumbered followers of Yahweh 20 to one. There was sex.
There was excitement. There was music. There was ecstasy. There was dance.
We got girls over here, friends. We got statues, girls and festivals. This was great stuff. And what did the Hebrews have to offer in response?
The word. What's the word? Well, Hebrews had festivals at least. It is the biggest word we have.
Salvation being saved. We are saved from a way of life in which there was no resurrection and we're being saved from ourselves. One way to define spiritual life is getting so tired and fed up with yourself. You go on to something better, which is following Jesus.
But the minute we start advertising the faith in terms of benefits, we're just exacerbating the problem. With Christ, you're better, stronger, more likable. You enjoy some ecstasy, but it's just more self. Instead, we want to get people bored with themselves so they can start looking at Jesus.
We've all met a certain type of spiritual person. She's a wonderful, wonderful person. She loves the Lord. She prays and reads the Bible all the time.
But all she thinks about is herself. He's right on. At least the blogs I read, it's all about what they do. Or how we can make you feel better.
She's not a selfish person, but she's always at the center of everything she's doing. How can I witness better? How can I do this better? How can I take care of this person's problem better?
It's me, me, me, disguised in a way that is difficult to see because her spiritual talk disarms us. My little children, keep yourselves from idols. Watch out for yourself. You're not the most important thing in the universe.
God is. God Almighty is. The sooner you reckon with that, the better off you're going to be. It's not all about you.
So caution with reference to a study like this.
Second Response: Concern for Others
Concern for others. Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." Isaiah saw him connected to a larger whole. Israel, as a people, had gone a-whoring from God. Douglas Moon, his commentary on Romans 1, says, every person is without excuse, because every person, whether a first-century pagan or a twentieth-century materialist, has been given a knowledge of God and has spurned that knowledge in favor of idolatry in all its varied manifestations.
All, therefore, stand under the awful reality of the wrath of God, and all are in desperate need of the justifying power of the gospel of Christ. We will never come to grips with the importance of the gospel or be motivated as we should to proclaim it until this sad truth has been fully integrated into our worldview. Everybody is affected by this position in Ada. Every man rejecting God embraces the idol and turns away from the truth.
We need to realize that. It's interesting. I hope you were following the reading at the outset of worship in Acts chapter 17 and verse 16. What's Paul doing when he's in Athens?
He's sampling the local fair. He's snacking at the street vendors. I don't think that would be necessarily sinful. Is he hanging out?
Is he being missional? Is he being cultural? Is he being relevant? What does Acts 17, 16 tell us?
Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. It was provoked within him. That's why he went into the agora, or the marketplace, and he reasoned day by day. That's why when the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers said, we want to hear what this babbler has to say, he goes up to the Areopagus and he declares the triune God.
God made this world. God governs this world. God calls you to repent and forsake your sins. His spirit was provoked within him.
He understood what idolatry meant. He understood where this city was in terms of God's wrath and revulsion against sin, and he was upset to see God dishonored in such a way. So he took the initiative and he preached the gospel. Concern for others ought to be flowing from a study in Romans one.
Third Response: Worship and Thankfulness
And then thirdly, in terms of the response by the believer, worship and thankfulness on the part of the believer. Remember how the idolater is described in Romans 121? He neither glorifies God as God nor is he thankful. What should Christians do?
We should glorify God as God and be thankful. They've been called out of darkness into marvelous light. We have been saved by the blood. We have been washed.
We've been justified. We've been sanctified. We have been purified. We have been blessed immensely.
If what is characteristic of the man in sin, if what is characteristic of the rebel sinner is that he does not glorify God as God, nor is his heart thankful, then what should the saint look like? A worshipful, thankful person. Remember how Jesus described that woman, which was a sinner. Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.
But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. We have been blessed immensely and immeasurably. We ought to respond to God in worship and in thanksgiving for his amazing grace and his amazing power. As I mentioned this morning, we can find ourselves somewhere in Romans chapter one.
We can find ourselves somewhere. We may not have been a homosexual. We may not have been a murderer. But I guarantee you beyond a shadow of a doubt, we were all proud.
We are all still proud. And nevertheless, God set forth his son as a propitiation to wash us in his blood so that God could demonstrate his righteousness and show that he is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. How can we not but respond in worship and in thanksgiving? We ought to sing amazing grace when we come to the end of Romans chapter one.
And as we continue on and see God's great grace and God's great mercy displayed to us through his son and the best antidote to idolatry, we've already seen it. Romans one seventeen, Romans three thirty one. But just turn finally to Second Corinthians five. See a design of the cross in Second Corinthians chapter five, verse twelve.
For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died.
And he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves. but for him who died for them and rose again. The best death to idolatry of the self is the cross. Christ emancipates us. Christ frees us.
Christ cuts us off from that self-love, that self-devotion, that self-adoration, that self-worship and self-idolatry. May God indeed cause us to appreciate the cross through whom the world has been crucified to us and we to the world. And let us, by God's grace, keep ourselves from idols. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for your word and thank you so very much for the consistency from Genesis to Revelation. Thank you, God, for the grace that you have poured out upon us. And may we respond with worship and with thankfulness if the unbeliever is characterized By not honoring you as God and not being thankful, then may you forgive us, Lord, for sometimes imitating him. Help us to always be mindful of you, God.
Help us to always be seeking to glorify you and to be a genuinely thankful people. We ask that you would go with us now, watch over us as a local church, and we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.