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00:01 Good morning everyone. I want to uh do a bit of advertising.
00:07 I'm speaking this week and next week. Uh we have a great opportunity next week.
00:14 Next week we're talking about sunship. And by the way, sunship in the Bible is
00:19 a universal term referring also to women. It's not just to do sons also daughters.
00:27 But in particular, when the Bible talks about sunship, it talks in light of adoption. It is is a fantastic uh topic.
00:35 So what we're going to do next week is we're going to run an interview with the Carter family and in particular
00:42 um their latest addition to their family and you can see their little Kiara.
00:47 Carara um was an orphan
00:52 from a unmarried mother and Scott rescued her and Scott gave her equal
01:01 rights as the rest of our children and in the same way God rescued us, adopted
01:07 us and gave made us as. It will be a great message. So next week we do it a bit different. We are going to be
01:14 interviewing the Scott Carter family. a bit of uh uh advertising. I just hope
01:19 you turn up next week. Um before we continue, a general notice,
01:27 nothing to do with the message. You know nowadays when we come to the Bible, you can read the Bible anyway. Your
01:33 smartphone can have the Bible. Your iPad can have the Bible. Your iPad can link,
01:39 do translations, cross reference, swap versions. Those of you who are not tech
01:45 friendly, you can have study Bibles in concordances. The pastor can have the iPad in front
01:51 and you can come to a nice air con hall with PowerPoint presentation, fold your
01:57 hands and just let it digest. Not saying that's wrong. Do you know how the first
02:04 century Christians had to go through their Bible studies? Do you know how the
02:09 first century Christians will listen to a message? They only had this, you know,
02:14 they had scraps of paper because during that time there was no printing press.
02:20 They were copy laborously and and and Bishop Polyup tells how once you copied
02:26 a text like an epistle, you would then pass it around to a city and then it's
02:33 like what you do library, they borrow it. And I've been reading a lot of early Christian writers and when they got it,
02:39 they were so happy was so hard to find. And the church service will be everybody
02:44 gathered around and they will read together. Why am I telling you that?
02:49 Because we should be thankful. We should be grateful. Our first century
02:57 brothers had nothing we had and they devoured the word. Today we have
03:02 everything at our fingertips and then we take it for granted. So
03:08 before we go to the word, can I just ask that we come before God in prayer
03:13 sacramentally? This is the word of God. The word of God transforms and you have
03:18 the whole word here. Let us come thankfully before God in prayer. Lord, we just come before you now this Sunday
03:26 morning as you think of our forefathers. And Lord, so often we are ungrateful
03:32 people. We have so much at our fingertips we can just open the word
03:40 and still Lord when we sit in the pulpit we take it for granted or when we preach
03:47 oh Lord we are tempted to edify ourselves. So Allah today this morning
03:53 your word go out with power. Your word will not come back not for me Lord I
03:59 pray that I will not say words that will offend anyone. I pray that I will teach the word as you, the Holy Spirit, want
04:06 me to teach. Grant me wisdom. Grant me discernment. Teach me to approach this
04:12 throne with reverence and all, with utter humility, not false humility. And
04:18 may we as a community of believers eat your word that we may be spiritually
04:25 nourished. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen. Today we look at a topic which I think
04:32 is very relevant for um an Asian society. But what is more interesting is
04:39 to look at where we get that from the text. So let's break it down a bit. It
04:44 says in verse 8, formerly when you did not know God, and what that means is
04:50 that you're looking at a gentile congregation quite quite probably Greeks. You were slaves to those who by
04:57 nature are not gods. And Paul was saying before you became Christians, you were
05:03 in probably the temple of Diana, the temple of Apollo, whatever temple it
05:10 was. But now that you know God and quite interestingly, he turns it around rather
05:15 unknown by God. God God picked you up. God God predestined you. How is it then
05:22 you're turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Now once you tie verse 9 to verse 8, it's a shocking
05:29 thing he's telling them. He's telling them you're now going back to idolatry.
05:36 Now that's quite shocking, you know, because there's nothing in the book of Galatians so far that tells us they are
05:44 going back to worship at the temple. So I'll break it down for you. The charge
05:50 the Galatians are reverting back to worshiping idols. But what it means is
05:56 that you don't need to go to a temple to worship an idol.
06:02 I'm brought up in a in a in a you family, you know, we we are tawist.
06:09 So when you pray, you go and you go to to to the goddess of mercy to pray
06:15 and you have a certain prayer you do. I did it for many years. I used to clean
06:20 the grave at Ching Ming. did a lot of those things. What he's trying to tell you to to to say is that
06:28 you don't need to hold a jawstick. You're still an idoltor. That's shocking.
06:34 Number two, where's the evidence of it? The evidence is they observing Jewish
06:41 religious calendar festivities. And where do we get that? We find that in verse 10. You're observing special days
06:48 and months and seasons and years. And these are the Jewish festivities on they have a calendar. The Passover is one
06:55 festival of weeks a lot of them. And here is the verse which you really need to understand especially if you're going
07:02 through gamma because it's a term very very semining
07:14 back to those weak and miserable principles. We need to understand what it means by weak and miserable
07:22 principles. But first thing we must to get ourselves in is this. An idol doesn't have to be
07:30 something at home where you literally go and pray. It's important point to pick
07:35 up. Let's look at the definition. In the Old Testament, the idolatry definition
07:42 is found in the second commandment. You shall not make for yourself an idol.
07:49 And to the Judaizers, they say what Paul is saying is is a is a is a sacrilegious
07:55 insult. We are not doing that. We're not breaking the second commandment. I'm
07:60 going to go into that a bit more detail. But how about the New Testament? How would Paul define idolatry? And he will
08:07 put it this way. Whatever leads one away from sole reliance on Christ,
08:15 the moment it is Jesus plus something else is idolatry. In fact, that's really
08:21 what the book of Galatians is about. Anything you add to Jesus to supplement
08:28 to Jesus is idolatry. So let me give you three points. Point
08:35 one, we can be worshiping idols without realizing it. Point two, distorted
08:42 worship leads to idolatry. That's really important. And point three, idolatry produces
08:50 bondage. Sunship produces freedom. And we'll connect that to next week. Let's
08:56 break down a bit of what idolatry is. There's a famous uh comic book writer
09:03 called Ellen Moore. very very famous considered an icon in in comics if any of you read comics and the strange thing
09:10 about Ellen Moore is that he worships this god called glyon
09:15 and the strange thing with Ellen Moore he tells you I worship glycon but I know glyon doesn't exist so people ask him
09:22 why he he made a very interesting comment which you can get from wikipedia he says ancient cultures did not worship
09:28 idols it's fascinating their god statues represent ideas states when meditated
09:36 constantly upon one might aspire to. Thought is real and the domain of
09:43 thought is the one place where gods inly exist wielding tremendous power. And he
09:50 gives two examples. If Aphrodite, a Roman god, were a myth and love only a
09:56 concept because Aphrodite is about actually love in the most physical sense. Would that negate the crimes and
10:03 kindness done in love's name? And here's the more interesting thing. If Christ were only fiction, would this invalidate
10:10 the social change inspired by that idea of human betterment, less real, less
10:16 sacred? He's actually giving you liberal theology. And he's not a Christian. You know what he's telling you? He's telling
10:22 you you will become what you worship. That's what he's
10:28 saying you know or what you worship whether is tangibly an object or not
10:34 represents what you aspire. It's important point.
10:40 For example, if you're in a you're you're a Hindu and I know some of us may come from Hindu backgrounds and you
10:46 aspire certain things on fertility, you go to a god of fertility.
10:53 If you're career orientated, you go to a goddess, a goddess who who aspires that
10:60 that God is a projection of your desire. This is what a non-Christian Elmore is
11:07 saying and this is what Paul is aspiring to. Let me give you example. We use the word American idol meaning teen idol.
11:14 Everyone worships you because you're a great singer. But that's not really what it means. You know, you know what the
11:20 real idol is? The idol isn't the fact that someone is saying, "Wow, you're a
11:25 great singer." Here's a very important point. Idolatry gives you identity. That
11:33 is totally totally important. Idolatry gives you identity. Meaning in this
11:41 case, who am I? I am a singer.
11:46 I have talent. And my singing talent is appreciated.
11:53 That's my identity. My identity is not as a child of God. My identity is as a
12:01 person of talent. What is your idol? Your idol is the God of talent.
12:10 That is what they're saying. I want to break down three idols which I think are really important. Idols in our hearts
12:18 they are not physical. Secondly, uh this is important. Idols in our church in FBC
12:26 in every church in KL in America and idols most importantly from good
12:33 intentions. You know why it's important? Because the text does not tell you the
12:39 Galatians went into idolatry for wrong selfish reasons. We are told in chapter
12:46 three they have been bewitched. They have been conned.
12:52 Nothing in the text suggests they went into idolatry for wrong reasons. And
12:58 quite likely they went into it with good intentions and they were conn. Let's
13:03 look at the first one. There's a book out there called Gods at War which is
13:09 quite interesting. And and the the author Kai Idomman says what you are searching for and chasing
13:16 after reveals the God that's winning the war in your hearts. There's a movie out
13:22 there which is banned in Malaysia is based on the book of Exodus by Ripley Scott and you know the first movie was
13:28 called the Ten Commandments. This one has an interesting title. It says Exodus gods and kings not god gods you know
13:37 because in the movie the challenge is there are two gods there is the real god
13:42 and pharaoh who thinks he is god and you are stuck in the middle Moses in the
13:48 case and you have a tension who do you follow and we have that every day I give
13:54 you a very stupid example but it's a tension we have in our mind I run a small consultancy practice is my cleaner
14:02 decided to go back to India abruptly. So no one to clean the toilet, no one to
14:09 clean the floor. So I used to borrow my sister's mate. Then she went back to Philippines.
14:14 So who else to clean toilet? I have to clean. So yesterday I went back to clean the toilet. As I went inside the my
14:21 office, open the door. I'm s I'm the boss, you know. How can I be cleaning
14:27 the toilet? You see that first idol so degrading I'm the boss got to clean the
14:34 toilet. So now I start to clean it up, wash, wash. As I start to wash the toilet, I say, "Wow, look at me. I'm the
14:41 boss, you know. I'm a preacher, you know. Wash toilet. If only the church could see me." You
14:48 see that? You see that? What's the next idol? Pride.
14:53 The need to show everyone that I'm humble. You see the war? There's a
14:58 tension going on. And we all have this kind of tensions. And Iman is right. It will wage a war in
15:05 your mind and the first thing you need to do is to identify it. Now let me give
15:11 you a simple quiz. You know the New Testament tells you of these idols of the heart. But there's one particular
15:19 idol the New Testament highlights above every other idol of the heart. You want
15:24 to throw a guess what it is? Come on anyone? Someone here throw. See as you
15:29 show very quiet. Sorry. Yeah, he's right.
15:35 It's money. It's interesting, isn't it? It's money, you know, greed.
15:43 Why? Especially for you Chinese, this is our most popular god. Let me I
15:49 break it down to you in a way for you to understand. You see, the Indians have a god called Laxmi. Laxshmi is the god of
15:55 prosperity. Uh and then for Chinese, we have the laughing Buddha. My slides have
16:02 disappeared. Oh, down here has disappeared. Never mind. I'll use that. If someone can get this fixed now when
16:08 we see this as church goers will start to say, "Wow, you know this idolattors,
16:14 we don't do this kind of things." You know, thanks. Thanks. We don't go to the temple and then we make degrading,
16:20 insulting remarks on our Buddhist and Hindu friends. Now, let me break it down a bit more sophisticated. Look at this
16:26 funray package. Power your career with fun. And look at this book heal and
16:31 prosper and it's a lot of pseudo science in it you know and you can use your paqua to works out it's it's quasi
16:36 science or whatever you call it how to heal your mind and soul and attain abundance of love healthy relationships
16:43 success and money but it's all a fusion of of of Buddhism toism funu and
16:48 metaphysics now how different is this to this
16:54 let me tell you you take away the word you look at creo dollar's book you know How to make money, live comfortably, and
17:02 build an inheritance for future generation. Look at the previous book, How to Heal Your Mind and Soul and
17:08 Attract abundance of love. You notice the the packaging is identical. Do you know who is the real God? The real God
17:16 isn't Laxmi or the laughing Buddha. The real God is this.
17:22 The form may be different. The intention is the same. So here's the danger. I am
17:29 a struggling businessman. I used to go to the temple and pray. I
17:34 give money. I hope to earn married business kaput. I come to church. The
17:41 church tells me you stay here and you give. God will open blessings to you. He
17:48 will be a Christian tomorrow. But he's not worshiping God. He's
17:53 worshiping this. It's a very subtle shift. Now let me break it down. In
17:60 evangelical circles, we like to taro all our prosperity friends. Oh, you know these people teach you about money. They
18:05 teach you greed. No, FBC not like that. We a good church. You know,
18:13 let me teach you the other extreme. If there is such a thing as a gospel of prosperity, there is such a thing as a
18:20 gospel of poverty. Although no one will use those words. meaning this you know and I tell you if
18:27 every person here gives up all the money to their Nepali gives and leads very poor life we become the first real
18:34 communist state with God in it we become a Christian communist state give everything away it's great it's
18:41 fantastic but it's also dangerous because you have just replaced the god of prosperity with
18:50 a worse god you know what's the name of the god is called pride
18:55 You think you're better because you live a simple life. You think you're
19:00 spiritually more holier because you don't drive a big Mercedes-Benz and have
19:06 a nice house. That's idolatry. See how sle it goes? You see, idolatry
19:15 can be anything. I'm not asking you tomorrow to go and throw away your iPhones and iPads and
19:21 everything. Yeah, you you see you must look at the intention. Why do so many people spend time on social media? It's
19:29 not that they going to put a social media up there going social media. That's not it. It's a representation of
19:37 the desire behind that. The need to communicate. You have a God, the God of
19:45 friendship and relationship. That's what you have.
19:51 These are hidden idols. They're idols in the heart. Let me give you three idols
19:56 in the church. And Timothy Keller gave a separate sermon on this which is really interesting. And he proposes three idols
20:03 every church has. The first is the god of experience. You see in our worship
20:09 here we have guitars and things and some
20:16 people here obviously a lot of people here love it. There will be always a minority who
20:22 thinks it's a rock concert. They don't like this kind is noise to them. Especially if you're broad and
20:28 older generation. Then you have the others who like a sacramental kind of worship.
20:34 And I've been reading a lot of Catholic blocks lately, you know, and Orthodox blocks and they tell you how the incense
20:40 and the smell brings you closer to God. You know what the danger is? The danger is that the experience is more important
20:48 than the word. Let me give you a simple example. At the end of this service, we
20:53 will do an alter call. I'm not going to be apologetic on it. We will do it.
20:59 What is my God? My idol. My idol is if I do it for the wrong intentions.
21:05 They mean I like to see people come in front. What's your idol? There's two. One, you come in front to get high. Oh,
21:12 pray for me. Oh, shock shock. Yeah. How come don't do everywhere? Everywhere
21:17 come shock. Lay hands. How come don't fall? Push harder.
21:23 That that that actually is is heresy. You know, we guard against it. Here's
21:28 the second one. It is very pushy. Ask us to come in front. She should stop this out call things. No. Where does the
21:34 Bible teach you about call? No. The Bible doesn't tell you about call. You don't need to come in front.
21:40 But ask yourself, is there pride? You don't want to be prayed over. You see,
21:46 our motives important. These are just functions. And some of us hunger for the experience
21:53 so much. That supernatural experience, it goes beyond God. Here's another one.
22:01 The idol of doctrine. Now, this one, reformed evangelical churches are number one
22:08 because we think we are right. Everybody else is wrong. I give you I saw this a manga comic.
22:15 Let's say I do this to you tomorrow. Three fingers in the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit. If I did that
22:23 over my lunch table, you'll go honor.
22:30 But here's my question. What's wrong with doing it? The first thing a reformed evangelical will say
22:37 the Bible doesn't say you should do it. How about looking the other way around? Where does the Bible say you cannot do
22:43 it? Are you going to judge a person just because he does that? You see where we
22:48 go with this? We are very quick to throw stones you know. Now the question is not whether he does
22:55 that sign ah he must be a traditional Catholic. The question is what does that symbol mean to him? If that symbol
23:02 reminds him of the cross and the cross where Jesus died for our sins, I say go
23:08 brother, I will never do it but go in peace. The problem with us because the god of
23:16 pride is so much in us. We have hijacked what we call as Protestant reformed
23:22 theology which are really theories you know and hijacked that into the church
23:28 and made it doctrine. And then we get very arrogant about it and then we split into camp. Then you're
23:34 Calvinist and Armenians and premillionists and a millionist and dispensationalist. And you don't understand what I say is even better for
23:40 you because it means nothing. Then we tell people imputed righteousness, positional righteousness and uh is is a
23:47 propation for sin and expial sin. Can you imagine telling that to Orurang Ashley in the village?
23:55 There is a place for this. But dogma is dogma. You know I I managed to get a sermon out. No, this is the first
24:02 recorded sermon uh archaeology AD 125.
24:07 First recorded sermon. I don't read it to you. Look at how the message goes.
24:13 Second Clement. Brothers, we ought to think of Jesus Christ as we do of God, as judge of the
24:18 living and dead. For he has given us the light. As a father, he has called us sons. He saved us when we're perishing.
24:25 What praise then should we give him? What repayment in return for what we receive? Our minds were blinded. We
24:32 worship stones and wood and gold and silver and brass, idolatry. But he had mercy on us. He saved us when no hope of
24:39 salvation. How do we acknowledge him? By doing what he says and not disobeying
24:44 his commandments, honoring him not with our lips, but we are whole heart, whole
24:50 mind. And then he goes on to tell us, you know, it is no credit to you. You love those who love you. It is a credit
24:56 to you. Do you love your enemies and those who hate you? Do not let it trouble your mind when you see the
25:02 unrighteous possessing wealth. While the servants of God experience hardship, let
25:07 us have faith. Brothers and sisters, we are competing in the contest of a living God and being trained by the present
25:14 life in order we may be crowned in a life to come. 125 years after the death of Jesus, if I
25:21 break this down, what do we call exodically? You know what he's telling you? God saved you. Be grateful. Turn
25:28 from idols and worship God with your heart. Keep the commandment in your
25:34 heart. Learn to live simple. Love your enemies and don't care. People make more
25:40 money than you. 125 years after Jesus died, no
25:46 concordance, no iPad, no library.
25:51 And yet with this the word of God, you know there's the old saying, keep it
25:57 simple and stupid. That's my dogma nowadays. Leave the theology behind. There's a
26:03 place for it. But be careful. The God of doctrine doesn't bog you down. But
26:08 here's the most common god in the church is called the God of self needs.
26:14 You know, I have a trouble when people say it's a family church. What do you mean when you say a family church? They
26:19 will tell you theologically we mean everybody. But a picture tells a thousand words. You know, they tell you
26:25 family means spiritual family. But when I put it up on my website and I show mom, dad, and the kid, what am I telling
26:32 you? I'm telling you my church is mainly only for people with children.
26:37 And then what it tells you that you know if you you're you're not married you know you you don't have kids you're a
26:43 you're a international student you're you're a Nepali you're a African you come but not really we don't want to
26:50 tell you cannot say politically wrong but this is a family church you know you know the danger with this kind of things
26:56 the danger with this kind of things is that you shop for a church for yourself needs and why do you think so many
27:04 people move from one church to another church to another church they have a checklist. I will come to FBC and check
27:11 it out. See whether my kids can fit in the Sunday school. Then I come and listen to sermon. If the sermon not too
27:19 heavy, I also maybe consider staying. Then I go out there and see whether the people are my kind of people. After that
27:26 I stay. Correct or not? It is the God of self needs. It's not that you don't want
27:32 to honor God. It's just that honoring God is secondary to your needs.
27:38 And here the most dangerous idol of all the idols of good intention. You know
27:44 when I was a younger man I used to be very involved in church work. I was in a creative ministry team which we were
27:51 going to states and we went to Australia. Later on I joined the largest Christian NGO. I was on the board.
27:59 I was serving I was in I wasn't in FBC then and I used to tell myself see I
28:05 give so much to the church you know pride let me give you another one loving
28:12 others you know loving others is great right
28:17 but what happens when you love someone more than you love God
28:22 it means when that person is taken away you will quite likely hate God.
28:30 You see, idols can come from anything. I've seen Christians where their church
28:35 ministry, it almost look like is their idol. They are that ministry.
28:41 My danger of idol is preaching because I've been doing it for so many years. Yours could be worship team. You could
28:49 be boys brigade. You could be social ministry. You could be anything. And I'm
28:55 sorry offend anyone here but guard your idols because idols give us identity and
29:04 they give us wrong kind of identity. Let me break it down. Mark Drisco says
29:11 idols tend to be good things that become god things and they then become bad
29:16 things. I thought that was a great illustration. So here the question. Do
29:22 we recognize our idols in our lives? And I learned something about myself. Since
29:27 pride is the biggest idol, I can choose not to see it. It takes a lot of courage
29:33 to sit down and reflect and say this are my idols. I say I honor God. But like
29:42 what Clement said, you know, we only honor him with our lips, not with our
29:48 whole heart, nor our whole mind. Now, how do you know when he's an idol? Now, it's a simple test. Number one, what do
29:57 you think about most of the time? Number two, where does your money go to? Number
30:03 three, what are you prepared to sacrifice? And here's a sub danger. You
30:08 can say you're doing it for church, for God. Actually, you're doing it for your
30:14 own self. Here's the danger. And I want to this morning challenge all of us. We
30:20 all have idols. I have idols. You have idols. The first step this morning,
30:26 recognize them. Second one, distorted worship leads to idolatry. Now, the word
30:33 here principles in verse 9b. How is it you're turning back to those wicked, miserable principles is also found in
30:40 verse three. And there in a in a comparison between a son and a slave and
30:47 he uses that to talk about those under grace and those under law. We'll do it next week more. He says, "So that when
30:52 you were children, we were slavery under the basic principles of the world." And and next week we'll look at it, but very
30:59 obviously it refers to going back to the law. So basic principles has the
31:04 understanding of law here. But the Greek word is quite interesting. It has two distinct meanings. I'll give you the
31:11 first. The first it means rudimentary teachings. Now what it means is that
31:16 you're going back to rudimentary teachings of the law and you're actually distorting it. Now how they important?
31:22 Now bear with me. The most famous passage on idolatry in the New Testament
31:28 is found in the book of Romans. And Romans says this, for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God
31:36 nor gave thanks to him. Now that's important. You know, it means we are all
31:41 meant to know God, glorify God, give thanks to God. It's important. What
31:48 happens when you don't do that? It says this, your thinking becomes futile. Your
31:53 hearts become darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
31:59 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men, birds, animals, and reptiles, idol,
32:07 idols. So what is the text telling us? It means if you refuse to acknowledge
32:12 God, glorify God, thank God, you will then go into idolatry. Now, what's
32:19 interesting when you read the rest of the chapter, it doesn't stop there. The
32:24 moment you set up an idol, it leads to a behavioral change.
32:29 And then that behavioral change in the rest of Romans is complete from sexual sins to dishonoring your parents. Then
32:36 after that, you set up a system of beliefs where you approve it and tell other people it's okay. Now bear with me
32:43 a bit. This is how Romans 1 breaks down. There are two points. You don't honor
32:49 glorify God to idolatry. Compare this to the first two commandments.
32:56 There's the first one is you shall have no other gods. And what does it mean? We
33:02 have no other gods. You must honor God. Thank God. Glorify God. Second
33:08 commandment. You shall not make for yourself an idol. That's Romans 2, isn't it? Now compare the rest of the text.
33:16 You will then see the flow. It is identical. Martin Luther said the
33:23 first commandment is called the shea commandment, the great commandment. The moment you break the first and second
33:31 commandment, you break everything else. There are actually not 10 commandments. You know, in reality, there's only one
33:38 commandment. Love God with all your heart, your mind,
33:44 and your soul. Now, how do we know that? I give you example. Okay. You shall not
33:49 steal. Why do people steal? Because they worship the god of money.
33:56 Why do people commit adultery? Because they worship the god of lust. Why do
34:02 people murder? Because they worship the god of hate. You see, here is where by wrong
34:10 principles, what he call principles, we distort the law. You ask anyone out there, what are the ten commandments?
34:16 You know what they tell you? I follow the ten commandments, I get right with God. That's what the rich young ruler did.
34:23 Then Jesus tells, "Okay, sell everything." Notice he doesn't tell everyone else to sell, you know, only
34:28 tells him, you know, we'll find out in the book of Acts that rich people who just give one piece of land. But to this
34:33 guy, you sell everything. Why? Because the rich young ruler had one idol, the idol of money.
34:41 Now, this is very important. I I'm going to break this down to you to see how it works in our life. You see, we don't
34:47 glorify God. You will substitute true worship with distorted worship. You
34:53 still come to church. You still do your Bible study. You still sing your songs. You still do some stuff. But your
34:60 worship is distorted. Once that happens, you will worship your
35:05 own version of God. You say the is the God of the Bible, but actually it's not. You have just docked the God of the
35:12 Bible to fit your own mind. Once you do that, you follow your own set of rituals.
35:18 You you tell yourself, I better come for church. Either that I won't get saved. I better do I better do some service to
35:25 the to to church. You like most people, I better follow some commandments. You know, other that you know, it won't go right. In reality,
35:34 you have become God. God is at the side. Once this happen,
35:40 welcome to idolatry. And when things go wrong, you will hate
35:45 God. I give you a simple example. Timothy Keller gives it in his book, The Reason for God.
35:51 Say, say you are divorced and you have two
35:57 kids and they mean the world to you. See how I'm going with this? They are the
36:02 most important thing to you. You come to church, you're happy, they accept your
36:07 kids. You see it's important to you. You see where the idol is going. Your kids are your life. You see, it's something
36:13 we all relate to. You come to church, you fit in, you serve. But you know why you're serving? You are serving because
36:20 you're saying, "God, I come to this church. I serve. Make sure nothing happens to my kids." You have just
36:26 distorted God. You have put a God in there that says nothing can go wrong my kids. You just
36:33 created your own laws that I'm going to serve in church so that nothing happens to my kids. Guess what happens when your
36:40 kid gets sick, very ill, say cancer.
36:45 Guess what happens when your boy does badly at exams? You will then say, "God,
36:51 why did this happen? I served you in church and you still let this happen."
36:56 And then you'll hate God and you'll hate the church. Now, when you put in those terms, doesn't it relate to all of us?
37:04 We all struggle with this. Idolatry is the biggest sin in the New Testament,
37:11 the most subtle. And the key to it is worship. Unless you
37:17 love God with all your heart and all your mind, all your soul. What what Piper says, unless you desire God,
37:26 you will do end up worshiping idols. commit to worshiping God wholeheartedly
37:31 or you will end up worshiping idols. Let me end with the third point. I'll break it in two parts. In verse 9b, the second
37:40 part he said, do you want to be enslaved by them all over again? And what Paul is
37:45 saying is that before you became a Christian, you in bondage to idols. Now you're returning to it. Now here's the
37:52 other version of the word uh stoia. It means spirits you know demons. Now
38:00 there's a lot of support for this. Many scholars uh John thought including all support this and the clue is given in
38:06 chapter 3 because he says in verse one you foolish Galatians who has bewitched
38:13 you. The word bewitch is cast a spell meaning underlining idolatry
38:21 is this supernatural thing that's happening. If you believe in God, we believe in the devil. If we believe in
38:27 angels, you must believe in demons. And these things operate. In fact, he tells you how the the law came by angels. Now,
38:35 how do we break this down? This is what he telling the Galatian church. When you were a a idol worshipper,
38:43 you followed the Greek zodiac with all his pagan festivities. Temple
38:48 of Diana certain festival God of whatever festival. Now you have
38:55 simply hijacked that with a Jewish feast calendar. Same like what I said the form
39:02 is different. The intention is the same. If you think going to a to a feast or
39:07 ritual saves you, you you're an idol idol worshiper. It's like saying I'm going I'm going to Easter. I'm going to
39:12 Christmas. That's going to save me. Now why is this important our Asian society? Because us Chinese in particular
39:20 have this problem. You see to the Greek zodiac you divide
39:25 people up according to months solar calendar. To Chinese is luna.
39:32 Now you'll be surprised how this has an impact on us. If I break this down
39:41 correct isn't it? I know a deacon you know
39:47 now became elder who changed the number of his house because
39:53 say I I wouldn't even mind if he did it because he wanted to sell it and flip it but he was staying in it. How many of
40:01 you would like to have this kind of number plate in your cars? I know a Christian couple you know Jalan 2ut22
40:08 there's a cemetery you know they will never go past that cemetery road
40:13 I when I was a younger man I used to do bungalows and one one house owner thought I was very religious so one day
40:20 I came to site hey how come the door was tilted like that one and they were church worshippers no
40:28 they say the contractor why tell me he say very religious.
40:37 Here's the thing. There's one particular god uh
40:42 Chinese in particular worship. No, we just don't admit it. Is the god of fear.
40:52 God of fear. You look at all these rich business people net worth couple billion dollars. You go for their functions. No.
40:59 You ask what you ask the fun come. I uh believe
41:04 don't believe never mind I play safe husters do correct or not what do you think all these rich people will still
41:11 have all these taqua going around and doing this you see deep down inside us
41:16 especially us Chinese we are superstitious you know and let me tell you idolatry leads to bondage
41:25 all kinds of it and for us Asians in particular it leads to superstition
41:32 but scripture tells us if you believe in God, you are a son and that son produces
41:39 freedom. Freedom from fear. The earlier verse before verse 8, he says you're no
41:44 longer a slave. You're not in bondage. You're a son. If you're a son, you're a heir. You're a heir. You have
41:51 incorporated appropriated all the power of the Holy Spirit. And Paul is going to go today in chapter five about what the
41:58 Holy Spirit does to you. You see, here's the other thing how we distort the ten commandments. We look at
42:04 the ten commandments like if I do this, I'll be right with God and we just explain the ten commandments begins with
42:10 you honoring God. But do you know what is the preamble to the ten commandments is this verse. I am the Lord your God
42:17 who brought you out of Egypt, out of land of slavery, out of bondage.
42:25 And in today he will tell you I'm the Lord God who sacrificed my son on the
42:32 cross to free you from the bondage of sin and idols.
42:39 This is how we read the ten commandments today. That's the trajectory of the ten commandments. You see when we always
42:46 talk about gospel we think of the gospel in this way. Can I humbly suggest to you
42:52 is a distortion. It is true but partially true. The
42:58 gospel actually is this. You cannot preach the cross without the
43:03 empty tomb because the issue is I'm safe. But
43:09 that's not the full question. The question is I'm safe for what?
43:15 And Paul is telling us and we'll do this next week. I'm safe to be a son of God.
43:22 to call him aba father and I have all the rights of the son and the power to
43:28 defeat idols in my life so now I will live a victorious life amen very poor
43:38 now I don't want you to be a charismatic chair everyone go but but really is something we appropriate
43:45 idols let me end this and entice us by giving us identity but in Christ we
43:51 reminded of who we really are born again as sons of God. I want to give you a
43:57 example as we close. Sometime recently uh you will hear the
44:03 story of the Bali nine and the two of the ring leaders Andrew Chan and Nurans
44:10 um the Indian man the left and the first two pictures left were executed. Let me
44:16 just run this story now. 10 years ago they were arrested in Bali airport and
44:21 if you follow the stories and and and they say a picture paints a thousand words. You just look at the expression
44:27 of face is a picture of people who are lost completely broken
44:32 devastated. 10 years ago this is what happened. And Andrew Chan gave this testimony. He said
44:40 this when uh when he wrote it and this was uh very recent. He said I grew up in a Buddhist family. He was an idol
44:46 worshipper. So didn't know much about Christianity. On the day I was arrested at Bali airport on 17th April 205, I was
44:54 taken from the plane. After search and initial interrogation the airport, I was taken to the police station. They threw
45:01 me into a cell my own and was shouting at me. I thought they were going to kill me as I didn't want to be tortured. I
45:09 decided to commit suicide and end my life. I won't read you the whole testimony, but it shows how he he paused
45:17 and he didn't because he remembered the Sunday school teaching about God and heaven and hell and he and after that he
45:24 asked for a Bible and the letter is quite quite interesting and he tells you how along the way he became to know the
45:30 Lord. Now here's how the story goes in in that 10 years there he became a model
45:35 prisoner. So in his appeal even the warden went before the court to say this
45:42 man changed his life and changed the life of many people in prison. Now
45:48 here's where it gets interesting. If you follow the story it was very obvious he was hoping because he was a changed man
45:56 that he will be set free or get a pardon or get it commuted to life sentence. It's very obvious and you read the blogs
46:03 people get cynical. Ah yeah this guy go to prison of course suddenly everyone's a Christian in prison because all want to die. So how genuine he is. He's like
46:11 like what you say basic principles. He's just joing putting on a show so he
46:17 doesn't get shot. Now this is what happens in the end. He says
46:22 at the last letter the Lord was showing me all things are possible and all I had to do was believe in him without wavering and that's what I decided to
46:29 do. This is interesting at the appeal before the trial. I begin praying and telling the Lord if you get me out of
46:34 this and set me free I will serve you forever. this point he's very dangerously close to an idol. The idol
46:41 is God you got to set me free. It's an idol of fear.
46:46 Then what happened when when the judge announced the death penalty, I was in shock.
46:52 And then the last part left was really really for me very encouraging. He said I then understood I was free. He's no
46:59 longer in bondage. He's free. I might be in prison but in my heart I was free. I
47:06 found a real salvation through Jesus Christ in prison. And the message of
47:11 salvation in my life that share with everyone can never be contained by the walls of the prison. You see brothers
47:18 and sisters, idolatry leads to bondage. The real bondage is not a prison cell.
47:23 It's really in your mind, your hearts, you know. And here's a guy although in prison, convicted to die,
47:32 was set free. set free from idolatry, the idol of fear
47:37 and every other idol. He was going to die. Nothing you could do about it. So what
47:43 does Andrew Chan do before he dies? He gets married.
47:49 He gets married. Going to die. Get married.
47:55 And then what happens? What happens when he's led out to be shot?
48:01 And every newspaper carries this story. You all know it, right? He number one
48:07 refuses a blindfold. And then he sings Amazing Grace. Every
48:14 newspaper carries it. And and witnesses there, there's a transcript online. As
48:21 they were going out to be shot, he tells everybody, "Guys, sing louder."
48:28 And then he goes home. I mean, wow.
48:33 And so at this funeral, people turn up in droves. They turn up to heal songs.
48:43 Why? Because this is a man free from idolatry.
48:49 This is a man who knows what it is to be a son of God. But the best picture I
48:58 got, the most telling picture I got was not just of this. You know, you see at
49:04 his funeral, most people's funeral, people are sad, people cry.
49:10 You know, if you know this story, Australia was very indignant. They record their ambassador. It became major
49:16 news. Do you know what they call this service? This is a funeral. No, they called it a celebration service.
49:24 celebration. If that doesn't do something to you, I
49:31 don't know what it does. Let me end and ask the worship team to come up. I want to end again.
49:38 Number one, identify your idols because we are all worshiping idols
49:44 unknowingly. Number two, commit to worshiping God.
49:49 And we're going to do that in a while because distorted worship leads to
49:54 idolatry. Number three, you are a son of God, born again, resurrected.
50:03 The gates of hell are not meant to prevail against us. Amen. Amen.
