Judgement on Idolatry and Immorality

Sermon on “Crumbling Walls of Spiritual Jericho”
by the Rev Jeffrey Khoo at the Sunset Gospel Hour,
Calvary Pandan BPC, 31 July 2011

 

Our God is a God who is Judge. He will not let the sinful and the wicked go unpunished. The day of judgement is coming. All who have broken His commandments will stand before His Great White Throne. And those who are not found in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:11-15).

God Judged the Canaanites

The fact that God is Judge is seen in the judgement of the Canaanite cities in times past. Why were the Canaanite cities judged by God? The answer is given to us in Deuteronomy 9:4b, “for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.” The Canaanites were very idolatrous and worshiped pagan gods. They were very wicked to sacrifice their children to these false gods, “for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.” (Deut 12:31). What were these abominations? Deuteronomy 18:10-12 tells us, “any one that … useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”

Jericho was such a city. In Joshua 6:17-18, the Lord warned the Israelites against the “accursed thing”, “And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.”

God Judged the Israelites

Now, know that God is no respecter of persons. When the Israelites sinned in the same way and fell into idolatry and immorality, He also judged them and drove them out of the land. This happened to the Northern Kingdom in 721 BC when the Assyrians destroyed Samaria, and to the Southern Kingdom in 586 BC when the Lord used the Babylonians to punish the Jews and destroy the temple.

Know that the Lord will judge this sin cursed world one day. There is no doubt that the world today is becoming more and more like Babylon, like Sodom and Gomorrah, increasingly idolatrous and immoral.

The Lord will also judge the Church too. If we do not want the Lord to judge us just like He judged the Israelites, then we better judge ourselves first. Know that if the Church becomes a spiritual Jericho—idolatrous and immoral—the Lord will also judge the Church in the same way. The walls of Jericho had fallen, the walls of spiritual Jericho will also fall.

Warning to Churches

So when we build the Church, make sure the walls we build are not crumbling walls which God will demolish. What are these crumbling walls? These were the crumbling walls of idolatry and immorality.

The commandments of God are a very clear warning against idolatry. The first two commandments of the Decalogue state, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (Exod 20:2-5).

As Christians the Lord has saved us from this sin-cursed world. We had once upon a time been enslaved by Satan, by sin, and by the evil influences of this world. The Lord had delivered us from darkness and now we are found in His marvelous light—the Lord Jesus Christ—the Light of the world. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12).

How does the Church become idolatrous? The Church becomes idolatrous when she replaces God from His rightful place of worship, and makes someone or something else more important than Him. For instance, in the days of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) had indeed become idolatrous. Instead of worshipping the Triune God and Him alone, they added the Virgin Mary and made her co-equal with God, and in fact higher or greater than the Lord Jesus Christ. Mary is called Queen of Heaven, Co-Mediatrix, Mother of God. The worship of Mary was introduced into the RCC in about AD 600, and later in 1950, Pope Pius XII introduced the doctrine of Mary’s Assumption (ie, Mary ascended to heaven bodily shortly after her death). In the year 786, the RCC introduced the worship of the Crucifix (cross with a dead Christ hanging on it), the worship of statues, images and relics of Christ or any of the dead Apostles and saints. In 1220, Pope Honorius III decreed that the wafer (Holy Communion biscuit) once it becomes the actual body/flesh of Christ when the Mass is performed is to be
adored/worshipped.

God had to reform His Church, and He did so in the 16th century Protestant Reformation when the true Church separated from the false. Thank God for the Reformers—Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox and a host of others who called on all true believers to return to Christ and His Word—Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus!

The Roman Catholic Church today is no different from yesterday. It is still as idolatrous as before, and not just idolatrous but also immoral. It is no secret that the Roman Catholic Church today is filled with homosexuals. Read The Changing Face of the Priesthood (IVP) by Donald Cozzens—a Roman Catholic priest himself and former Rector of a Roman Catholic seminary—who estimated that at least 50% of Roman Catholic priests are homosexuals or have homosexual inclinations. The RCC though plagued by homosexuality does not endorse it, but the Church of England today sanctions gay marriages and gay ordinations. There is a sharp and bitter division in the 80-million Anglican Communion today over this whole matter. Thankfully, the Anglican Church in Singapore is morally conservative and opposed to homosexuality.

Evangelical and fundamental churches too are becoming idolatrous, and the Bible-Presbyterian denomination is not spared from this either. New and modern pastors today say the good old faith and the good old ways are no longer good enough, no longer relevant and edifying because they no longer draw the crowds, they no longer appeal to the young people or the younger generation. They want to replace the good old Book and the good old Faith with new versions and new methods. They want to make the Church “user-friendly”—” make the Church entertaining and fun”, “make the Church comfy and cozy”, “make the Church practical, not doctrinal”.“Let’s learn from multinationals how to market the church, and make it attractive to people.” This is idolatry, is it not? God takes a backseat; man, his likes and dislikes come first; “I don’t care what God wants, just give me what I want.” Let us hear what the Lord has to say, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” (Jer 6:16).

Theological schools become idolatrous when they adopt humanistic and rationalistic, man-made theories and methods in the study and interpretation of Scripture (eg, Historical Criticism, Source Criticism, Form Criticism, Redaction Criticism, Textual Criticism and other so-called “scientific” methods). The Bible in many a Christian university and theological seminary today is treated like any other ordinary book, and not the Word of God. It is easy for a Bible professor to say he believes the Bible, its inspiration, preservation, infallibility, inerrancy etc, but realise that what he says may not be necessarily what he means. What he teaches in the classroom can be quite different from what he professes to believe. Bible students today have to be very discerning. Be like the noble Bereans (Acts 17:11). Search the Scriptures to make sure the things taught are true.

Please God to Escape Judgement

What is it that pleases God? It is faith: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb 11:6). But today, if you say you go by way of faith, you will be laughed at, you will be ridiculed as foolish and stupid, mindless and unreasonable. What should you do? The temptation to compromise is great. Will you kowtow to worldly pressure, pleasure and popularity? The Lord has made it very clear in His Word—to do God’s work, you must do it God’s way, not man’s, not the world’s, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zech 4:6). There is no compromise with the world. Jesus said, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matt 6:24). It is 100% God or not at all.

Let us make sure we build our faith upon good and right foundations. What are they? They are Christ and His Word! Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter (Petros), and upon this rock (Petra) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The Lord Jesus Christ is that Rock (Petra, 1 Cor 10:4), and the Church which is built upon the infallible foundation of the Apostles and Prophets with Christ as the Chief Corner (Eph 2:20) can never be demolished or destroyed.

Let us not build God’s house with crumbling walls of wood, hay and stubble, but with gold, silver and precious stones, grounded on the sure, safe, and solid foundation of His forever infallible and inerrant Words. There is no other way, but only this way—His way—the strait and narrow way that leads to life (Matt 7:14).