Keep sharing good news without ads.
Pastor David Mitchell
Good to see everybody here. We are studying idolatry here lately because we ask the question, why did Mordecai not bow down to a man? Why did he not bow down and worship Haman? And we've talked about quite a few things that the Bible teaches about this.
And the last couple of times we talked about the error of both making gods and having gods. And we talked about the process that people go through where they first turn from the true God and then they take hold of another god and then they worship the other gods and then before long they're serving the other gods and then before long they are slaves and then they become overwhelmed.
And the Bible says that therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil. He turns them over to their own minds and then all of a sudden they are in the midst of their own lust and their own thoughts rather than their thoughts being led by the Lord and they go into captivity at that point.
And we're going to see here in a moment, we're going to turn to Psalm 97. You can go ahead and be turning there. We're going to see the last little stage of this where they become confounded. And in the midst of that we saw last time in Psalm 81, we saw that on the other hand if they had turned to God and followed Him they would have had freedom.
They would have had power over the enemy, the world, the flesh, and the devil. They would have been a strong witness and they would have had prosperity. But they gave all that up to follow other gods.
Now today we're going to find out some interesting things that the New Testament reveals to us about these other gods that you don't see a lot of this information in the Old Testament but it is an amazing revelation.
So we'll see that in a few moments. But first let's go into this passage here in Psalm 97. The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. Now that's a great thing to rejoice over is the fact that God is sovereign.
Most churches today don't want to talk about it. If you go back and you read messages written 100 years or more ago they always talked about it. Spurgeon is called the Prince of Preachers among the Baptists and yet they hate his doctrines now because he talked about the sovereignty of God.
He talked about the elect. He talked about election. He talked about God's grace. An awful lot. And in his older age he was actually cast out of his denomination because of his strong Bible teaching and preaching.
So the world has never liked this doctrine but Psalm 97 begins with it. The Lord reigneth. And look what the result of that is, rejoicing. Why would we rejoice if we thought man reigned? Why would we rejoice if we thought we ourselves were in control?
Now I know we plan. We're supposed to plan. We're supposed to use reasoning. The Lord said, come let us reason together. We can use logic. The problem is it's fallen logic and so we can get in trouble with it if we're not careful.
We don't want to ever let our logic take us away from being scriptural or a better way to put that we never want to let our theology make us unscriptural. But we can plan. And the thing is if you've lived very long you notice that not one single one of your plans worked out exactly like you laid it out.
Because what God does rather than speaking to us in an audible voice like he did in sundry times in days before the cross now he speaks to you with slamming a door in your face. Not necessarily slamming but closing the door.
And you bump against it and you can't move through it even though it was part of your plan. You just can't move through it. So you turn to the right or to the left and walk through a door that he has opened.
And he just revealed his will to you one more step. And when you get out there a little ways and you look back you see that that plan is perfect. It's different than your plan was but it's perfect because it's God's plan.
He is sovereign. Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. If there's any place in the Bible that ever talks about the United States of America there's one place where it says the isles.
It just meant in their mind it meant the places off across away from the known Roman world of that day across the seas. We are one of those isles from their vantage point. So if you ever want to try to find the United States in the Bible look up the word isle and try to find everything that's said about it.
Because other than that it's hard to find her. It's hard to find her spoken about in the end times. Makes one wonder where she is or if she is. Clouds and darkness are round about him. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.
A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about. Now it's interesting when you think about the psalm that we talked about last week. In Psalm 81 where it said that if you walk with the Lord it says I should soon have subdued their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries.
That's verse 14. If it's true that as God moves forth fire goes before him and it burns up his enemies round about. Did you know that your enemies are none other than his enemies. You don't really have any enemies.
We lift ourselves up way too high when we talk about the enemies we have. They're just his enemies. And Satan hates him. He hates you only because you're attached to him. It's the only reason he even pays any attention to you and me at all.
He hates Jesus Christ. I want you to picture something this morning. You may have never thought about this. Picture before time for a minute. Before there is any time or any place. And all there is is God.
And he is. And he's pure spirit. Whatever that is. As the theologians call it the simplicity of spirit. Doesn't have any parts. It's just a whole and it's everything. And it's everywhere. And that's God.
And then picture Jesus who says that he proceeded forth and came out from God. And then there is this thing that that Bill talked about in Sunday school this morning. The great council. Where it was determined that Jesus would be crucified.
He was crucified before the foundation of the world. The great council. All of a sudden that's where time and space began. Because when Jesus came forth out from the father. There was space for him to be in and time.
And the council took place in time. And what I want you to picture is shortly after that. Now all you had was you had God. In the other place. It wasn't a place. Where there's no time. The great I am.
You have him. But then you have Jesus. Who is in a place. That has been newly formed for him. Perhaps that was the third heaven. Not sure where. Perhaps it was even on the earth. But probably not. I think this was in the third heaven.
And there's nothing there except the place. The space he's in. And time is moving along. And you have the Holy Spirit. But he's invisible. And so all you have is Jesus. And Jesus speaks with the power of his word.
And he says angels. And at that moment. We don't know how many thousands upon ten thousands. Of hundreds of thousands of angels. Appeared into being as real physical. Spiritual slash physical entities.
I say they are spirits. But they also are physical. In the sense that they're in space and time. And. Lucifer was one of them. And Jesus created Lucifer. And placed him right. In front of his face. Closest to Jesus.
In fact his job. His name was the son of the morning. His job was to protect the holiness of God. He was created with musical instruments in his hand. At the moment of his creation. Of his appearance.
He had pipes. He had drums. And he had stringed instruments. And he was created to worship God. Jesus Christ. And yet from his vantage point. As he opened his eyes. In existence for the first moment. All he saw was the face of Jesus Christ.
Because all the other angels were behind him. And he was looking at Jesus. Out of the darkness. He opened his eyes. There was light. There was Jesus. He looks around and there's. A gazillion angels. That's my favorite number.
He looks back at Jesus. And he thinks. That Jesus came into existence at the same time he did. Jesus is just one of. All of the. Created beings that just appeared. Jesus is just like me. And yet Jesus looked at Lucifer and spoke to him and he said.
I am. You're going to serve me. And Lucifer did not like that. Because from Lucifer's viewpoint. Jesus was just like him. When he opened his eyes. Everything started in his viewpoint. In fact, Jesus began when he opened his eyes.
Why? Because Lucifer is the greatest humanist that there ever was. He thinks the whole universe. That he's the center of it and it's all around him. And Jesus was just part of his universe. Jesus said to him.
I am. I am God. I created you and everything that you see. Lucifer didn't believe him. Why should he? Lucifer said. I will be like the most high God. And then about a third of the angels made the wrong decision.
Because when they opened their eyes into existence. All they saw was. Jesus was there. Everybody was there. We all got here at the same time. That's what they thought. And they liked Lucifer better. So they followed him.
At that point. The other two thirds of the angels. Who follow Jesus's command. Kicked him out of heaven. Somewhere in there. The earth was without form and void. Maybe because of their presence. Once they got kicked down there.
And. The rest is history. Now you can see why Lucifer doesn't believe. Because he's trusting his sight. And all he saw was. We all got here at the same time. He had no way to know. Jesus was already there.
He had no way to know that Jesus. Came forth. Out from. A place Lucifer cannot even conceive of. A place that's not a place. A place where there's no time. No limitations. No thinking. No planning. It just all is.
Jesus is the only one who has seen the father. No man has seen the father. And this is who our savior is. And so. What the scripture says is if you will walk with that one. Then because fire goes before him and burns up his enemies.
Your enemies will be burned up because your enemies are his enemies. So if you try to walk in the flesh and face these same energies. Enemies. You will be reduced. You will be. Scorched. Damaged. You will go down in battle actually.
So you don't want to do that. You want to be hand in hand with the Lord Jesus all the time. Every moment. Because when we are. Then all of a sudden we see that he subdues the enemies and turns his hand against them.
And as he moves forward and you're moving forward with him hand in hand. He simply burns up the enemies that are roundabout. His lightnings enlightened the world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord.
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. This is none other than Jesus. Jehovah. I love what you said in Sunday school that the acrostic. On the cross when it said I think the king of the Jews.
The first letter of every Hebrew word if you put them together spells Yahweh. And the Jews looking up there saying that they hated that. They hated it. They couldn't do a thing about it. And then the veil in the temple was rent from the top to the bottom.
And. It's an amazing thing to think about. But the very hills melt. In the presence of Jesus Christ. The heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory. Now look at this verse seven.
This is the last stage in the process of the person who chooses to worship other things other than this one. Confounded be all day that serve graven images that boast themselves of idols. Worship him all ye gods.
Now notice that God is with a little G. And we're going to discuss that from the New Testament viewpoint in just a moment. Why does the scripture say that all these little G gods should worship Yahweh.
Should worship Jehovah. Jesus. God seeing God with us. Why should they worship him. They don't believe in him. But they ought to worship him. The word says. And they shall. They shall. Those demons. And when Jesus was on the earth for a season.
Those demons trembled when he came into their presence. They trembled. They said man. Don't send us down there ahead of our time. Could we go live in those swine. That would be better. And he said go.
And. They tremble in his presence but they won't serve him yet. They don't want to serve him. They don't believe in him. I mean they believe he exists. But they just don't trust him. They don't trust that he is who he claimed to be the first day they saw him.
Think about that. And that's strange to think of it that way. When their eyes were open they looked he was just there. They just assumed he appeared at the same time they did. They're self-deceived about that.
And they will not worship him until they have to. And Zion heard and was glad. And the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of his judgments. The judgments of the Lord. But I want you to notice this word confounded.
They were confounded. Now we saw when we look at this the other day. We saw several. Aspects of this. When they began to make their own gods. We saw that the first thing was is they became overwhelmed.
Because what happened was the Bible said that. When they took upon themselves other gods and have worshipped them and serve them. It says therefore hath the Lord brought upon them evil. So they were overwhelmed.
And they didn't realize maybe that they brought it on themselves. But they did because they turned from God to other gods with a little G. And then we saw after that. That they were given over to lust.
And the thoughts of their own minds rather than being led by wise the wisdom of God. And then now we see that the last phase of this is now. That they are confounded. For thou Lord art high above all the earth.
Thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. Now look at this beautiful verse. Here's an eternal security verse right in the middle of this. He preserveth the souls of his saints.
He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous. And gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord ye righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Now we discussed that word in Sunday school didn't we? What is holiness? And I thought we had a very good answer in class. And what was that answer? Do we have anyone who knows the answer to that? Say it.
Say it louder I'm old. Okay. Most people think holy means pure and clean. It can carry that connotation but the true meaning of the word is set apart. Different. Set apart. With respect to us it means we are set apart from the world unto God.
With respect to God it means he is set apart from everything and he's in a place where there is not a place and no time. He's the I am. If he came here it would destroy everything. So he comes here through his son Jesus and through his Holy Spirit.
And it's interesting isn't it? Light is sown. He is the light. But rejoice when we remember the Father's holiness. Now think about that for a minute. You think about the fact that the Father is untouched by sin.
He never comes into the presence of sin. He is higher than everything that is. And we should rejoice in that. Turn with me if you would to Acts chapter 7 verse 41. And then we're going to go into 1 Corinthians a couple of different places here in a minute.
But Acts chapter 7 verse 41. Let's see if we can get some understanding about these things that the Old Testament is talking about. Okay Acts 7 41. And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the work of their own hands.
Now that is what an idol is and that's one of the commandments. One of the Ten Commandments says don't make other gods. And then there's another commandment that says don't have other gods. But this one has to do with making and so they began to rejoice in the work of their own hands.
And that tells us from a New Testament viewpoint it kind of broadens the meaning of idolatry and takes it into some spiritual realms that are different than just bowing down to a rock or a tree or an object.
It brings it to the place where there are many things that could be an idol at this point. Many things in some cases that we build with our own hands. You know that could be a hobby, that could be a business, that could be relationships, that could be a lot of things.
That could be churches, religions, it could be many many things. It could even, you know take it this far, it could even be our doctrinal box that we built. It could be a lot of things. And then we began to love that more than the God who created everything.
And that was the big mistake of the Israelites wasn't it? And we have to be careful. We are warned that we as human beings can run into that same temptation. So then God turned and watch this. He gave them up then to worship other gods.
These are the gods that they have rather than the ones they made. Now these are worse. Look at this. After they made something with their own hands and worshipped it, then all of a sudden God himself turned them over to worship the host of heaven.
As it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrificed by the space of forty years in the wilderness? The implied answer is no. They stopped serving God like they should have.
And what they did in return, they filled this void with what's spoken of here in verse 43. Yea, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch. Now Moloch was a God where you had to worship your children and give them as sacrifices to Moloch.
An evil, evil false God. And they began to worship him later after they had worshipped the gods they made. Like the golden calf seemed sort of innocuous. But that led to this other which was horrifying.
And it mentions other gods. The star of your God, Rimfan. Figures which you made to worship them. And then he says I will carry you away beyond Babylon. He says you will go into captivity because of this practice.
This practice of idolatry. You will go into captivity. If that's true of them, it's true of us today. If we go into idolatry, we start by worshipping the work of our own hands. Because that seems unsinful.
That seems okay. Then as we focus on that rather than the love we should have for God. God begins to turn people over to that. And then they even go after other things that are worse. They can get into far worse trouble and worse evil.
And eventually they become a slave to the world. Babylon. Pictures the world system. You become a slave to the world, the flesh and the devil. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness.
As he had appointed speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus. Now that's talking about Joshua.
Unto the possession of the Gentiles whom God drove out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David. Who found favor before God and desired to have a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built that house.
Now how be it the most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Now it was a nice gesture that David had. To build a house for God. But the true God cannot dwell in a temple made with hands. Heaven is my throne he says.
And earth is my footstool. What house will you build me saith the Lord. Or what is the place of my rest. Hath not my hand made all things. He stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You do always resist the Holy Ghost.
As your fathers did so do you. Now there's a great key to understanding idolatry right there. As they did so do you. Now look we don't go out and worship golden calves do we. We don't go worship Moloch do we.
But as they did so do we. What was the thing that the precursor of all of this idolatry that they did that we do also. It says it right here. You get stiff necked. Uncircumcised in heart. That's talking about unholiness.
You're not different. You're like the world all of a sudden. Did you hear what I just said. You are not different. You're like the world all of a sudden. And all of a sudden your ears don't hear right.
You're prideful is what stiff necked means. And then you begin to resist the Holy Ghost. And that is the beginning of idolatry. So listen. Idolatry is the opposite of being spirit filled. Spirit filled means you are not resisting the Holy Ghost.
You rather are yielding and holding your hand out and saying take my hand today. Let's walk together. But it's not really for today. It's for this moment. It's for now. God is I am. He's in the now. And your hand is in his hand in the moment.
It can't be there in the future. It doesn't matter about what you say how wonderful your spiritual life was when you first got saved in the past. That's not now. He walks with you now. And then into the next now and the next now and the next now.
And it's going to be that way. Ladies and gentlemen. Age unto age. Time does not stop. When we go to heaven. There's time there. It's just different than this time. Time here and when we walked out of the garden.
Time began to hurt you. Time began to cause everything to move towards disorder. That's not natural. But that's what happened because of the courage part of the curse. When that is changed when you're with him in the other after this life.
There will still be time. There will be age into age. You will still have to walk with him in the now. It's just that your nails are going to make you better. Your nails are not going to make you wear out that shoulders not going to hurt brother Raymond.
That shoulder will get better every moment into age unto age and we will walk with him. I'm going to tell you something. We were talking about this the other day that you you are if you're going to learn about God.
Walking with Jesus age into age. And I might have been bitter Matt that said something like well, we'll have to we'll have to learn kind of slowly. You know, and I know what the thinking was like, but you don't want to learn everything about God all at once.
And I said no, wait a minute. I said think about this God is so big. I mean you call his infinite. That we can learn as fast as we can learn for an eternity of ages and still be learning because we are finite.
We will always be learning things about God. Age unto age unto age and we're moving into that. And now the nice thing is that in time right now in this life during the moments that you choose to hold his hand.
You're connected to that. You're literally seated in the right hand of heaven now. And you can look around a little bit and smell the air and get away from this world system. And you can learn of him now and you can learn of him the next moment in the next moment.
And that's really the opposite of idolatry. Idolatry is when we let go of the hand and we pull into that stiff neckness and we pull into that uncircumcised heart. Who is that? That's the old man. See he's not saved yet your brain.
That's your brain. It is not saved yet. It's a magnificent thing, but it can take you down the wrong road. And that mind will not hear the things of God. That mind will not want to even hear the Holy Spirit.
And so that is the mind right there which will resist the Holy Spirit in your life right now today right here in this room. You have not escaped that yet. He will resist the Holy Spirit every single time.
Your flesh cannot be fixed. It cannot be made better. Character won't help it. It will resist the Holy Spirit every time. So it's your job to really use a new man to tell him you're not going to make the decisions in this moment.
You don't get to run this body. I am going to run this body. And this body is going to serve God. This body is the temple of the living God. It's made for him. It's going to serve him. It will do that forever, but it's going to do it now.
At least right now in this moment it's going to do it. And you know what? When you're in that mode you cannot sin. It's not that you will not. You cannot. That is power. That is freedom. It doesn't get better than that in this life.
That is total power over every enemy you have. I'm telling you could be in the midst of a battle and you take that position and nothing can defeat you. Nothing can defeat you. But you let go of that hand for one moment of time and your own body, your own brain will resist the Holy Spirit.
And you will begin to serve other things such as yourself, your own wisdom, whatever you think it is. You'll begin to serve it. There's a great lesson right there in Acts chapter 7. And you know what?
I think we're out of time. Let's just leave that at that and we'll go into 1 Corinthians next Sunday. And we're going to show you exactly who these little g-gods really are. Yes, they do exist. But they're not who you think they are.
So let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for your word. The power of it. How it lifts us into a whole other arena in the heavenlies. And thank you that we can walk hand in hand with you and be protected from your enemies which become our enemies.
And Lord, we know that the battle is won already because of the cross of Christ, because of the resurrection. Because you've ascended into heaven and you stand as our advocate before the Father. We ask you to bless our fellowship time together, our afternoon service today for Jesus' sake.
And we ask it in his name. Amen.